November 2007

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Our Parish,

Due to the ever changing world of Computer Science, we at St. Bernard's have developed this policy on accepting donated equipment.  

Our policy is that we DO NOT accept any used computer equipment, software or related peripheral equipment.

Please don't misunderstand.  It's not that we are ungrateful or that we have everything that we need.  We are extremely grateful to you and we certainly are a far cry from having everything that we need.

We have found that by accepting used equipment:

• In some cases the equipment is truly junk and cannot be used.  As most of you are aware, there are now extremely stringent rules around computer related equipment being placed in our land fills.  It is now up to the original manufacturer to dispose of the equipment.  That means that the current owner must contact the original equipment manufacturer and work out a method of returning the equipment to the manufacturer and having them dispose of it, in keeping with all Federal and State Regulations.   By dropping off equipment that is on its last leg or already 'gone' does nothing for St. Bernard's other then to add additional costs to already tight budgets.

We also want to convey to you in the absolute strongest sense, that St. Bernard's Parish takes the law very seriously!  Dealing with computer related equipment can generate an entire host of opportunities to 'run up against the law'.  At all times we need to be certain that we are NOT in any violation of any of the current Federal and/or State Laws.

• In order to use the equipment, we must be able to prove that we have ownership of the software that is present on said equipment.  Many times with donated equipment, the original paperwork proving ownership of loaded software has become lost and does not come to us with the equipment.  In order for us to legally use the equipment without having received the proper licensing documentation requires us to:
  • strip the computer of all software, including the operating system.
  • purchase a replacement operating system (Currently Vista®, Microsoft's most current operating system runs $399.99) 
  • To that we must add the cost of the time that it takes to have the original software removed, the new put on the machine, along with all of the other programs that we use, and then the time required to get the machine to 'communicate' with our network.  In many cases, it can take around 16 man hours from start to finish in removing/replacing/networking the equipment.

• Unfortunately, when Microsoft developed Vista®, it was not developed with the ability to communicate with older network software.  Our current network utilizes Windows NT® which can not communicate with Vista®.  Currently all of our computers are running on the Windows XP, XP Pro software and we plan to remain with that platform until we absolutely can't any longer.

• All of the software that we use in our computer lab which is used for instructional purposes, requires a sound card and properly sized hard drives and sufficient memory.  Not having any one of those things again costs us monies we currently don't have budgeted so the equipment has to sit idle until we can come up with the necessary funding.

So, as you can see, there really is a lot that needs to go on behind the scenes in accepting donated equipment and being able to use it somewhere in the Parish.

Please note that in the next few weeks, the Computer Science Department at St. Bernard's will be developing a 'Wish List' of items that we need and the list will be posted on this site.  A monetary donation in any amount toward any of the items listed on the 'Wish List' would be most graciously appreciated!

Sincerely,

John Heiden, Technology Support