Memorandum of Understanding between

State Library Agencies or Other Library Organizations

concerning Collaboration in the Plinkit Initiative

WHEREAS, the undersigned state library agencies and other library organizations seek to pool our resources for the purpose of developing the Plinkit content management system to meet the needs of libraries in our states. Plinkit is an open source content management system that enables public libraries to provide their communities with quality library websites.

We THEREFORE, agree to the following:

Governance of the Plinkit Initiative

The governance of the Plinkit initiative is made up of three hierarchical levels: 1) a Steering Committee, 2) a Project Coordinators Com­mittee and a Technical Group, both of whom report to the Steering Committee, but which work closely together, and 3) a User Advisory Group which is convened by the Project Coordinators Committee. The roles and responsibilities of each group are outlined below.

1)      Steering Committee. This group includes one voting representative from each state library agency or other organization involved. In order to be a voting member of the Steering Committee, a state library agency or other organization must meet the following criteria: 1) contribute the specified annual participation fee to the central fund for the project, 2) be actively implementing Plinkit in their state or among their membership, and 3) assist with marketing the initiative to other state library agencies or organizations as needed. A representative of the fiscal agent, Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR), is an ex-officio, non-voting member of the Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee is charged with providing overall guidance and direction for the Plinkit initiative, setting policy, gathering input from the Project Coordinators Committee and the Technical Group, approving major expenditures, setting annual participation fees for participating organizations, and managing the finances for the initiative.

The Steering Committee designates a Chair, who has the following responsibilities:

a.       Calls Steering Committee meetings at least twice a year or more frequently as needed.

b.      Monitors finances.

c.       Authorizes expenditures.

2)      Project Coordinators Committee. This group is comprised of one representative from each state library agency or other organization involved in the Plinkit initiative. The representatives are the individuals charged with promoting the use of Plinkit among members of their constituency and training library staff to use Plinkit. This Committee reports to the Steering Committee.

The Project Coordinators Committee is charged with: 1) exchanging information about the use of Plinkit by their constituents, 2) sharing any materials created to support Plinkit that might be useful to other organizations, 3) working with the User Advisory Group to gather suggestions for further developing the Plinkit software and to get feedback, 4) gathering additional suggestions from the broader Plinkit user community using surveys and other means, and 5) prioritizing work on the software. In fulfilling these responsibilities, the Project Coordinators Committee works closely with the Technical Group.

The Project Coordinators Committee designates a Chair, who has the following responsibilities:

a.       Calls Project Coordinators Committee meetings at least quarterly, or more frequently as needed.

b.      Serves as the official communications liaison to the Technical Group and the User Advisory Group.

c.       Serves as the convener of the User Advisory Group.

d.      Summarizes recommendations of the Project Coordinators Committee and communicates them to the Steering Committee.

3)      Technical Group. This group is comprised of one representative from each state library agency or other organization involved in the Plinkit initiative. The representatives are the individuals who run the day-to-day technical operation of the Plinkit software for their constituency and are responsible for any software updates and hardware maintenance.

The Technical Group is charged with 1) exchanging information about Plinkit technical operations of Plinkit at their location and 2) making recommendations to the Project Coordinators Committee about software enhancements that improve the efficiency of the software itself or its management. In fulfilling these responsibilities, the Technical Group works closely with the Project Coordinators Committee.

The Technical Group designates a Chair, who has the following responsibilities:

a.       Calls Technical Group meetings at least quarterly, or more frequently as needed.

b.      Serves as the official communications liaison to the Project Coordinators Committee.

c.       Summarizes recommendations of the Technical Group and communicates them to the Project Coordinators Committee.

4)      User Advisory Group. This group is comprised of individuals representing libraries or other organizations that are using Plinkit to create websites for their organizations. The group includes two representatives from each member state or other organization, and meets irregularly as needed but not less than once a year. Meetings may be held via conference call and/or using Web conferencing software.

The User Advisory Group is charged with advising the Project Managers Committee on any needed bug fixes and suggestions for enhancing Plinkit in ways that better serve the organizations actually using it to create websites.

Budget for the Plinkit Initiative

1)      Fiscal Agent. BCR serves as the fiscal agent for the initiative, holds funds for the project, contracts for services on behalf of the Steering Committee, writes checks, and provides regular financial statements to Steering Committee members.   BCR works with the Steering Committee to set service fees as needed to recover costs.  Details of the agreement between BCR and the Plinkit Steering Committee are outlined in a separate agreement.

2)      Annual Fees.   The Steering Committee agrees upon each agency’s fees on an annual basis, set no later than May 1 prior to the start of the upcoming fiscal year (July 1).  Please see Addendum A for the current fee structure and expected use of funds.

3)      Appropriate Use of Funds. The Steering Committee may authorize expenditures from the project account for the following purposes:

a)      Hiring contract technical writers to create and maintain operations and end user documentation and training materials that can be used by all participating organizations.

b)      Hiring contract programmers to fix any reported bugs to the software and/or to enhance Plinkit according to specifications determined by the Steering Committee.

c)      Creating Plinkit marketing materials that can be used by all participating organizations.

d)      Project related travel.

e)      Hiring a long term project manager if needed.

f)        Hiring additional contract staff as needed.

g)      Paying service fees to BCR.

4)      Unexpended Funds. The Steering Committee may authorize BCR to carry over unexpended funds from year to year, for the same project purposes. The Steering Committee may also refund unexpended funds to the participating organizations.

5)      Participation withdrawal.   Should a participating organization withdraw from the project during the period of this agreement, none of the participation fees will be returned.   Should a participating organization withdraw from the project at the end of this agreement, its prorated share of unexpended participation fees will be returned within 60 days.

The undersigned state library agencies or other organizations furthermore agree:

This memorandum of understanding will be in effect upon signature by all parties to the agreement and is automatically renewed on an annual basis unless the library agency or other organization notifies the Steering Committee of their intent to withdraw from the agreement 30 (thirty) days prior to the start of the new fiscal year (July 1).