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Sonoma County Transit Telecommute Center at Sonoma State University

This center, which opened in December 1994, is located in a secured, temporary building on the California State University - Sonoma campus. It offers four cubicle workstations, each equipped with a personal computer, modem, telephone, and answering machine. Also available for users are a shared laser printer, a facsimile machine, and a photocopier.

The site is operated by Sonoma County Transit, which offers bus service to the Sonoma State campus seven days a week and provides a free bus pass to telecommuters. Other services available on campus include a cafeteria, Federal Express service, a daycare, a library, and a bookstore. In the immediate vicinity are several restaurants and small shopping centers.

Marketing activities have been varied, and include radio and television news reports, press releases to newspapers in Marin and Sonoma Counties, newspaper advertisements, and articles in local business journals and the California State Automobile Association members' magazine Motorland.

Telecommuters can use the center up to two days per week for no fee. The center was funded through June 30, 1995, by a $20,000 grant from the Federal Transit Administration and matching funds from Sonoma County Transit. Sonoma County Transit is funding the center for at least the next year with no charges passed on to users.

Because no administrator is on site, people interested in using this telecenter are asked to contact Bryan Albee, the Telecommute Coordinator for Sonoma County Transit, to obtain information about the center and arrange a tour of the facilities. At the time each telecommuter registers to use the center, he/she is assigned a personal code that allows access to and tracks use of the building and telephone system. The code can also be used to reserve a workstation at the facility through an electronic bulletin board system.

Twenty people are currently registered to use the telecenter, and five of those use it on a regular basis. One or two people are in the center each day.

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