Town Web Site Committee Meeting Minutes 09-19-08

Town of Rhinebeck

Web Site Committee Meeting Minutes

September 19, 2008

PRESENT

Kerri Karvetski

Andy Schulkind

Bruce Washburn

Kevin Rheden

Kathy Kinsella

Matt Rosenberg

Andrea Pyros

Dave Kliphon

TRAINING UPDATE

The Committee is looking to get all clerks up to speed on basic Webmastering duties, especially posting and editing content. Kerri created three initial screencasts -- like a video capture of a computer screen accompanied by audio -- and sent them to the town and village clerks for trial. Joan and Gail reported that they were able to view the screencast tutorials and that they were helpful in learning how to administer the site.

Regarding who should receive training and have access as administrators, the Committee agreed that both town and village governments need to commit more resources to handle the ongoing work required with maintaining the site. For the town, Bruce suggested that we outline a part-time Web master position including duties and hourly rate for consideration in the upcoming budget talks. Kevin indicated that the village an assistant clerk position is already in the works, and that we might want to think about having the assistant clerk assist with the Web site.

Though we discussed the possibility of training committee and department heads having access to their own pages, we recommend that the majority of updating be centralized through a town and/or village Webmaster or clerk position. This will limit the number of people who have to be trained and ensure more consistent presentation of the content. However, the committee also agree that if there is a department representative who is interested and capable of updating their respective department page, we should consider the possibility of adding that person as an administrator.

Bruce and Kevin both suggested that we two levels of training -- one for the administrators which would be more technical in nature, and a second training for departments which would be more procedural -- what can you post on the site, how do things get posted, who posts, etc.

TO DO

• Kerri and Andy to research job description and rates and forward to Bruce and Kevin
• Matt to research potential print training manuals that we can use
• Kerri to continue making screencast tutorials

NAVIGATION IMPROVEMENTS

In response to our July discussion on streamlining and improving the home page and site navigation, Kerri presented a draft version of new navigation -- essentially reorganized for easier access. Kathy reiterated her suggestion for a home page welcome vs. the current model where the user immediately jumps into the news stream. With a few tweaks the committee agreed on reorganized navigation.

A new section -- Forms & Applications -- was suggested. Bruce and Kevin said that they would gather their respective municipality's forms so that they could be posted on the Web site in this new section.

TO DO

• Kerri to implement new navigation and connect with Alex 2 regarding regarding home page changes.
• Bruce and Kevin to begin collection forms and applications for the respective municipalities

PUBLIC INPUT FOR THE WEB SITE

Dave and Bruce noted that in the recent Technology Committee meeting it was suggested that the public be engaged in planning site improvements. The committee agreed that a survey would be a good tool to gather opinions. Andrea volunteered to coordinate.

TO DO

• Andrea to lead the survey question drafting process. Any suggestions for the survey should be sent to her. 

INTEGRATION WITH TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEE

Bruce brought up the possibility of merging the Web Site Committee with the Technology Committee. Both Andy and Dave stated that the committee serve different functions and should remain separate.

Respectfully submitted, 

Kerri Karvetski