Town Technology Committee Meeting Minutes, June 4, 2008
Posted on: 6/06/2008
Date of Minutes:
06/04/2008
June 4, 2008
We met at Town Hall between 8:00 – 9:30 pm.
In attendance:
Mike Collins
Paul Niedercorn
Henry Young
Agenda items, as addressed:
- Technical Inventory
Summary:
- The list of inventory categories was approved.
- A review of current consultant estimates was conducted.
- More bids may be requested; options will be discussed later.
Actions:
- Consultants will be asked to clarify which departments they service.
- Bruce will be contacted and asked how potential budget can be covered.
- Dave will collect and organize committee documents (Paul’s technical docs and others).
Dave summarized of the inventory initiative so far. Mike stated that he liked the idea of physically being present to conduct the inventory, and would offer time should members contribute to the process.
The team agreed that the collectively generated list of inventory categories is appropriate.
A review of the consultant bids to this point was conducted. Further bidding may be conducted to round out the options. No RFP would be necessary.
If consultant estimates are considered too high, members will consider conducting inventories themselves.
A clarification of the departments that consultants service will be requested.
A discussion on budgeting for the inventory ensued. Bruce will be petitioned for budget coverage if necessary.
All agreed that an update to inventory would be worthwhile and beneficial, particularly since it would be a necessity when advising on departmental technology requests.
From last month: Joe declares that updated inventory and network documents should be created, bound and defined as a information systems administration plan. Paul’s inventory documents, along with appropriate use policy and other documents will stand as the current admin plan and be updated as they are upgraded.
- Town/Village Email
Summary:
- Research from the past two months has not identified definitive services yet.
- Previous leads will be resurrected.
- The group will conduct its own research.
- Deterrents will be critical to preventing personal use of government mailboxes.
- Email policy may be incorporated into the Acceptable Use Policy.
Actions:
- Dave will contact Dod again to follow up on his lead.
- Dave will contact the Jeffries to see if their research has turned up any ideas.
- Group will research possibilities on the Internet.
- Henry, Mike and Dave will cold call municipalities.
- Paul will get an email policy.
- Joe will be asked to participate in the research.
Mail Service Options
Dave reviewed the goal to employ a mail service for better archiving and indexing all incoming and outgoing mail. The topic is repeating from the past month because no definitive answers were found,
Bruce asked the Association of Towns for advice, but they said to ask other municipalities for their choices of service.
Dave had initially emailed Dod and started a thread, but fell off. Dod will be asked again to see if his lead could be contacted.
The Jeffreys had initially offered to research the topic, so they will be contacted again to see if they have found any services.
The group discussed cold calling other municipalities to get their advice. Henry, Mike and Dave volunteered to call specific municipalities. Joe, not in attendance, will be asked to participate in the research.
Email Policy
The group also reconvened on email policy, a topic that was discussed in the past months.
Bruce asked the Association of Towns for advice, but they said to ask other municipalities for their email policies.
It was made clear that the Town Attorney stated that it is important to have a strong policy.
A minor discussion regarding the “teeth” required in an email policy, specifically the enforcement of a penalty for misuse of government email mailboxes. Paul noted, and team agreed, that governments require stronger policies than corporations.
Paul will obtain an email policy for reference. Joe will be asked to continue developing an email policy by using the reference.
It was posed that forcing users to sign an Acceptable Use Policy will be a deterrent to using Town/Village email accounts for personal business. Presenting the fact that the mail is being captured and archived and could possibly be FOIL-ed would also be a deterrent. The use of a webmail client may also help.
The email policy may be incorporated into the Acceptable Use Policy.
- Committee Budget
Summary:
- The budget estimate is required in August, not in June as first thought.
- It was made clear that the committee is not budgeting for departmental equipment.
- A preliminary list of budget categories was assembled.
Actions:
- The list of budget categories will be emailed to the full committee for review and additions.
- The list will later be sent to Bruce Washburn for review.
The team tried to determine when the committee budget proposal was due. Dave recalled that June was targeting in previous months, but Paul believed it was really first needed in August.
[Bruce Washburn was approached following the meeting; he concurred that August was the month that budget proposals would be required].
The committee scope was restated to be an advisory committee, and as such it was not the responsibility of the committee to budget for departmental technical equipment.
The team agreed that defining the categories that would potentially require funding would be the best way to start the budget estimation process.
Several categories were identified, and a list will be passed around to the full group via email in order to fill it out. The first items identified were:
- Technical inventory
- Central routes, switches.
- Time Warner, Road Runner
- Domain names, etc…
- Consulting
- Screen in big room for all and court.
Once the categories are established, the list will be sent to Bruce to review. After that, the estimation process will begin.
- Assorted
Summary:
- Online registration is available for single event use and will be accepted by the Board as needed.
- An invitation for new members announcement was ineffectively placed on the website.
- Minimum web editor requirements will be reviewed and ideas supplied to the Web Committee.
Actions:
- Paul will identify a familiar online Birth and Death Certificate service that could potentially partner with the Town and Village.
- The invitation announcement will be reused for the next month and highlighted on the website home page shortly before the next meeting.
- The team will review the list of tools needed by the website administrator, and offer ideas.
Online Registration Acceptance
Bruce was aware that the online registration system was ready for single event use, and the Board approval would be requested should the system be called into use.
Paul brought up the topic of birth and death certificates. He was familiar with a third-party online service that works with the municipality to provide this capability online. Fees are accepted online, making this issue appropriate to the discussion.
Paul will identify the online service and the team will review at the next meeting.
Invitation to Members
An announcement was created on the website during the past month, then made available on the home page two days before the meeting.
Unfortunately the announcement was not recent enough to appear at the top of the home page topics.
The announcement will be re-created next month and given a more visible position at appropriate times.
Minimum Web Editor Requirements
The Web Committee had asked the Tech Committee review categories of software tools needed for the web administrator to make updates. Text editing, simple image editing, PDF creation and other categories were on the list.
The team agreed to assist in identifying tools that would suit the categories, but would not declare the tools as minimum requirements on user computers.
The list of categories and initial thoughts, taken from the Web wiki, will be emailed to the group for additions and discussion.
Data Collection Survey
Bob was not available to present a status on the topic.
Next Meeting:
Wednesday, July 9th, 8:00 pm at Town Hall