July 18, 2008 Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
- Roll Call – Jim Duncan, Steve Gregory, Darci Hanning, Deb Littrell, Bev Obert, Jim Scheppke, Justine Shaffner attending
- Jim added an agenda item – a round of applause to Darci and Jim Scheppke for all their efforts over the past two years getting things going with Plinkit and the collaborative!
- Approve 5/30 Plinkit Steering Committee minutes – Deb moved to accept, Jim S. seconded, all agreed, and the minutes are approved.
- Report on latest financial statements – Jim doesn’t have it yet, but Jim S. mailed to him and thinks he remembers we have a big balance - $157,000 or so. When Jim D. gets it he’ll report to the Steering listserv. Jim D. mentioned we will be reimbursing Tine and Darci for ALA and Steve and Troy for Plone bootcamp.
- Brief reports from states –
- OR – Not too much going on, Darci is focusing on collaborative work but will get two more libraries running by the end of the summer, Darci thinks she’ll be presenting on Plinkit at the Government Open Source conference. When she’s sure she’s doing this she’ll let us know so we can post something on the News section of the website.
- TX – They have had a round of training. They are still short some tech people but will be interviewing.
- IL – By the end of the month they will have 88-89 libraries live. They are working on sustainability and their MOU and will be looking at their template to make sure it’s what they want in anticipation of moving to Plone 3.0 and they will start a listserv for all their Plinkit libraries.
- CO – Sharon is doing some training now, they’re just adding their 21st library and just got approval to hire Sharon’s replacement. They are sending Steve to Plone boot camp and they finalized the ROI calculator (if you want to see one in use, visit: http://penrose.colibraries.org/what-is-my-library-worth.html). Another benefit of Plinkit is that small libraries that weren’t using databases are now interested in the statewide database package and Jim thinks this is because they now have an entry point (the website) to offer it to online customers.
- Project Coordinators’ progress report – Bev – They’ve been doing a lot of work on the request for quotes which they’ll be sending to the Plone community to bid on. People have volunteered to take responsibility for specific aspects of the work like the Admin Manual. The PC’s resolved to put a post on the blog once a month. They set a regular monthly date for joint meetings between the Tech Group and the PC’s. Deb asked about the timetable for development work. Darci said it should be out next week so the Plinkit PC can send it. She won’t expect responses until the end of August-beginning of September. They aren’t setting a start and end date as Plone contractors are so busy that might stop them from bidding on it. Jim D. asked - when we sign the agreement will it have specific dates? and Darci said an agreed upon timeline is part of what the contractors need to submit for the contract. Bev mentioned we had a great time at the ASCLA awards ceremony and a nice lunch and meeting afterwards.
- Trademarks – Michael – Michael is not here, but he just went through trademark issues with another project so thought we should consider it now (we’ve talked about it in the past). Justine will look into what’s involved and report back to the committee. Darci mentioned they have a Plinkit logo graphic which isn’t great and wondered if we should improve it or do a new graphic. Jim S. thought we should do a new one if the cost wasn’t too much. Others agreed. Deb said she has some graphic designers on staff and will have them generate some suggestions and see if they can do it for low or no cost and let us know. Darci thought it would be helpful for future marketing efforts. Bev asked if you could add your state name to the logo, and Darci said it’d be best if everyone used the same logo. She said it’d be nice to have it on the individual libraries’ websites –Powered by Plinkit.
- Approve Plinkit Project Coordinator’s work plan - Bev – Bev moved that we approve the work plan for Justine, Jim S. seconded, all agreed, the work plan is approved. Jim D. thanked all involved in putting this together.
- Request from Project Coordinators Group to amend the bylaws to refer to “Advisory Group” rather that “User Group” – Darci said “bylaws” should be “Memorandum” here. Jim D. thought we should just revisit the full MOU in the next couple of months after soliciting feedback from all, rather than amending it now (it’s two years old).
- Strategic goals for the Plinkit Collaborative – discussion – Jim D. asked if we have any specific strategic goals for the collaborative that would direct our activities for the coming year, and said if nothing is written down, would people like to have this? Jim S. the addendum to the MOU is the nearest thing to a strategic plan that we have (the part on expected use of funds – which are really objectives of what to accomplish), but lots of that has been removed, so this is something we lack. Jim S. asked if this is something the PC’s could take on. Darci said that the PC’s could probably do about 75% of it but they’d need the Steering Committee’s input on some of it like a new cost model… Jim S. though this would be a good agenda item for a future meeting. Jim D. thought he could work with Bev to set up a process for this. Darci thought the process would be a good idea as it would focus us in advance.
- Other Business – Jim D. brought up a potential partnership w/ VA. Darci met up with Andy Stein (w/ City of Newport News who does hosting for Plone Gov, the city web site) who’s using another website product. She’s trying to set up a call with him, the VA State Librarian (who is interested), the Secretary of Technology… It’s more of an informational meeting and will probably happen towards the end of the summer. Darci, Jim D. and Andy and maybe someone from the VA State Library will come up with the agenda. Jim S. said maybe we should involve PALINET too. Darci said Jim D. could send a note to John Hauser of PALINET about this.
- Jim S. would like to talk some more with INCOLSA and PALINET re the plan they are sending. Where are they at with it and where are they heading? Jim Duncan will follow-up with Michael Piper to see where INCOLSA in the membership process, what kind of changes the MOU may need and if there's a timeline to move forward.
We set meeting dates for the rest of the Fiscal Year: January 16, 2009 (Note: may be re-scheduled to coincide with Mid-winter in Denver) March 20, 2009 and May 15, 2009 same time.
So all the meetings will be at noon Eastern Time, 11am Central Time, 10 am Mountain Time and 9 am Pacific Time. The dates are;
September 19, 2008
November 21, 2008
January 16, 2009
March 20, 2009
May 15, 2009
Minutes by Justine Shaffner
