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conversion, will come inevitable glitches and also benefits. Most of the department's time is spent on maintenance and network needs. There simply aren't enough resources for him to take a proactive role in creating more efficient internal systems and addressing departmental requests that are not urgent. Staff survey responses reflect a great deal of respect for Mr. Ennis and understanding of his situation. But they also express frustration over this never-ending situation (of only getting needs met when they become urgent or are tied directly to funding requests). Finding a remedy for this situation should be the highest priority for DSFRC. We recommend that a large percentage of each request for funding be for IT services and that the cost of IT be built into each department's financial picture, rather than treating it as a separate department. We believe that Dawn Valadez is already doing this (per Mr. Ennis). Any additional monies collected should be used to hire additional experienced staff who are capable of being immediately productive. The goal should be to free Mr. Ennis up to write documentation for the intake system, manage his staff in their projects, to become available for proactive departmental and agency support, and provide his department with an effective back-up plan should he become unavailable. In the meantime, and not as a substitute for requesting funding or hiring experienced staff, Mr. Ennis has two ideas, which might help his department's situation. 1) He suggests that DSFRC try to create relationships with schools so that they can hire interns to help out in his department. This would only be helpful if there is a great deal of work needing to be done which a less experienced person could do without much supervision (in other words, there is a need for more hands). Perhaps the new Volunteer Coordinator could explore this option. 2) Mr. Ennis also has some ideas he thinks are commercially viable. He would like to partner with DSFRC in creating products that could then be used to generate revenues for the agency. However, this path is a complicated one legally, in part because intellectual property rights issues must be explored, patents applied for, etc. Other than the intellectual rights issues, other legal questions, along with market issues, might be more easily addressed if a strategic partnership were created with a company that already has a support structure in place to take the product to market (perhaps Microsoft, according to Mr. Ennis). This is an intriguing possible solution for many reasons, but primarily because it could generate revenues for DSFRC ongoingly. Mr. Ennis has presented this idea to management. It would not be a quick or short-term solution, but if management sees potential in it, we suggest that they begin to explore it more fully in order to ascertain its validity. Sustainability Study' Davis Street Family Resource Center- 4/08 Page 48 of 96