How many computers are too many?

That's a pretty heavy load for one person. I could see spliting it in half, hardware and software. The training would naturally be under the software.

By hiring the IT person to manage the network and consider alternatives for the training element. One way that I could see them going would be to find out if there are technical SMEs in the congregation who would be willing to teach a class a week.

Teaching is, by itself, a full time job. But I understand that a small Church/School has very different kinds of challenges. Seeking volunteer help allows the Church/School to implement some of their desires while including the parish itself.

Hi guys,

The training has not been a big thing in the past, but having a full time IT person might give them more options and thus create more demand on the position.

This was the first year for C++ and they had 4 students sign up. The "Computer Applications" class (read: MS Office) had about 10. This 2nd class was not too much of a problem, as a current teacher knows it well enough to teach it to the grade 9 & 10 students effectively.

The question about network support is one I was asked to find out about more. I manage a small network of 8 workstations and 3 servers at my current position. The computer system is only one part of my job description and I have several other non-computer related responsibilities. That is the extent of my experience. And I'm basically self taught.

I know nothing about larger systems. What is required to cover a 75 computer system as I described earlier? Is one person with formal training enough? What kind of training is needed? What should the personnel committee look for in an applicant?

Thanks for your help.

We have several locations with about the same number of machines you are talking about. Some of those locations have a single admin running the whole show, with other people filling in when the admin is on vacation or otherwise absent. At other locations we have a staff of anywhere from two to five people for a location that size. In general, the sites with only one person do just fine. It is the sites with multiple admins on staff which waste more time and energy on allocating tasks and responsibilities than they do on useful work.

With a reasonably competent person who has what it takes to take responsibility for the site, you will do fine with one person. Personal attributes are far more important in this search. Avoid getting someone who has been in a huge shop with a staff of micro-managed specialists. Find a generalist who is moving up from a smaller shop with one or two people, and they will do just fine.

I retired about four years ago. Used to manage IT and systems for a manufacturing facility. I would say our OS mix was similar to yours. We had one guy (computer engineer) who was able to take care of 6 standalone servers -- one running MS Exchange for e-mail -- along with about 100 PCs (not including those used in the actual manufacturing process) His activities included performing daily backups on the servers, installing new PCs, minor printer maintenance and general user support. Based on my experience there, I believe your capability to provide training and software applications support would be rather limited. It sounds to me the school needs someone dedicated to formal training. I feel you may need one guy just for PCs/printers and LAN support and one for applications/training support.