Those participating in the call

Oregon-Jim Scheppke & Darci Hanning;
BCR-Lisa Holmes; Texas-Deborah Littrell;
Colorado-Gene Hainer, Sharon Morris, Jim Duncan;
Illinois Tom Peters, Bev Obert, Doris McKay, Lori Bell.

1. Election of Steering Committee Chair (see paragraph (1) of MOU).

The Steering committee is composed of Jim Scheppke (OR), Deborah Littrell (TX), Jim Duncan (CO), and Tom Peters (IL).  Jim Scheppke will serve as Chair of the committee for the coming year.

2. Request for volunteer note taker.

Bev Obert volunteered to take notes with the assistance of Doris McKay.

3. Review purpose and responsibilities of Steering Committee (see paragraph (1) of MOU).

This was done.

4. Reports from states on Plinkit progress.

Oregon, Darci

Nine Public Libraries have been trained on Plinkit.  One county has 5 libraries and all but 2 of them have live sites.

County Law libraries are requesting sites and they are working on a template for them.

Washington County has offered to be the Plinkit administrator for that county.

Darci did a presentation at the Plone Conference and there was also a discussion about how they can work together on projects.  Link to the presentation http://www.plinkit.org/news-folder/plinkit-presentation-materials-available.html

Texas, Deborah

They are working through the 10 regionals.  They have adapted the user manual and have finalized a Texas template.  Once the administrators manual is done they will set up a training session on this topic.

There have been inquiries from small academics to use Plinkit.

Texas has a dedicated server hosting the Plinkit pages.

Colorado, Jim

Their pages are loaded on a Window Server with Apache.

They are looking at design and content.

The first web site is a county library with 4 libraries, South Park that went live on Nov. 1.

They have also adapted the user manual and have trained a second library with 2 buildings.  A total of 5 systems are up.

They have created marketing materials found at http://www.colibraries.org/marketing

Tom asked is others of us could access and use them, the answer, Yes.

Illinois, Tom

Illinois is funding the Plinkit through an LSTA Grant  4 of the 9 multi-type systems are involved this year. 

A communications structure is in place.

IL will be out sourcing the hosting of Plinkit with a company Infobahn Outfitters Inc.

The training team is being pulled together.

The target goal is for 15 libraries from each of the 4 systems be trained and online by June 30.

5. Report on financial statement from BCR (Jim has a copy).

Jim had a report from BCR that as of Sept. 30, 2006 the balance of the account was $74,925.03.  There had been one bill for registering a domain name.

Bev asked about a bill from BCR to RPLS for Plinkit and it should be coming, Lisa will check.

There was a question from Colorado about paying for some Plone training from the Travel line ($2000).  All agreed that this was ok.

Darcy will email information about the Plone training given by Joel Burton cost $425 / training and they are held around the country.

6. Plan for expenditures in FY 06-07 (see Addendum A of the MOU).

Expected Use of Funds during FY06-07

The expected revenue for year 1 of the project is $75,000. Anticipated costs include:

a)  Contract technical writer to create operations documentation. Estimated maximum of 240 hours @ $50 per hour, or $12,000.

This amount seemed ok.  Tom asked how will manuals be updated and fine tuned.  Darci said people are taking the current user manual and updating them.

   Recommendation from Darci that the Project Coordinators Committee should look at how to manage updates to “master” manuals while taking into account that each state will localize the content of the manuals for their own use.

b) Contract programmer for miscellaneous fixes and/or enhancements to software. Estimated maximum of 200 hours @ $100 per hour, or $20,000.

Recommendation from Jim that the top three needs for a programmer be brought forth by the Project Coordinators Committee.  Two possible needs, creating a script for Plone upgrades and an automated script to clone the template site when creating new library sites.

c) Contract graphic designer for marketing materials. Estimated maximum of 40 hours @ $50 per hour, or $2,000.

Discussion centered around the need for graphic assistance in the design of library logo’s for the web sites.  A graphic artist will need an understanding of Plone.  It was noted that there are Plone skinning companies that may be used in this area.  Sharon suggested that we broaden the scope of this item and add money.  The issue of logos and specifications for them is being referred to the project coordinators committee for study.

d) Printing of marketing materials at $3,000.

Gene suggested that each state take care of their own marketing, print or online.  Bev noted that their grant contained printing.  It states need assistance in the printing they can charge back the cost to BCR.

e) Project related travel at $10,000.

f) Services fees to BCR estimated @ 5% of $75,000 or $3,750.

g) Any residual funds may be expended for appropriate use upon the recommendation of the Steering Committee, may be retained for use during FY07-08, or may be refunded to participating organizations if recommended by the Steering Committee.

7. Proposal from Toni Mantych for Plinkit Administrator's Manual.

Texas feels this is a good proposal.  The content is good and the fee is in line with estimates based on what they had looked at.

Sharon said it was a great proposal but asked if the technical document could be cross platform because they are on a windows server.

Darci stated this is only an issue when loading software, etc.

If we ask Toni to do that she would need access to a windows server.  Sharon will check into this.

Deborah, This would be useful for current partners but as we expand will this cover us for other platforms?

Discussion on the review process, Deborah suggested 1 per state for review.  Sharon suggested referring the review process to the Technical and Project Coordinators groups.

Gene suggested the logistics of the review process be worked out later.

Deborah stated it was more important to accept the proposal in order the get the time frame going.

It was decided to accept the proposal with the addition of including the windows platform and a statement that we are working on the logistics for document review.

All Steering Committee members voted yes.

BCR will enter into a contract with Toni

8. Plans for Project Coordinators Committee, Technical Group, and User Advisory Group (See MOU).

The Project Coordinators Committee will be made up of Tom Peters, Illinois, Texas by Eduardo, Colorado by Sharon Morris, and Oregon by Darci. Project coordinators will meet in the next 3-4 weeks.

Technical Committee Illinois some one from Infobahn Outfitters, Colorado Steve Walker, Texas an IRT person yet to be determined, Oregon to be named.

Oregon will create multi-state email list for communication links.

9. Other issues for the Steering Committee.

States have been approached by school, special, and academic libraries that would like to use the Plone software for creating their web pages.  It was decided that the cooperative would work with Public libraries and that each state would work out how they would work with other library types.  They could just give them the Instance and Plone basic and tell them they are on their own.

Plinkit.org will be the website of the collaborative and each state will have their own web site linked to and from this general site.

Two other states, Ohio and Nebraska besides British Columbia are asking about this cooperative.  The steering committee will look at that issue before July 1, 2007

10. Plans for next Steering Committee meeting.

The next meeting of the Steering committee will be held January 11, 2007, with the with the 2pm PST, 3pm MST, and 4 pm SCT times.

Action Items.

BCR

• BCR will enter into a contract with Toni [the technical document could be cross platform because they are on a windows server]

Darci

• Darci will email information about the Plone training given by Joel Burton cost $425 / training and they are held around the country.

Oregon

• Oregon will create multi-state email list for communication links.

Project Coordinators Committee (PCC)

• PCC will investigate the issue of logos and specifications for them in relationship to the Plone software and the need for a graphic artist.
• PCC will meet in the next 3-4 weeks.

Project Coordinators Committee and Technical Group (TG)

• PPC and TG will define the logistics for the review of the Administrators Manual.
• Project Coordinators Committee should look at how to manage updates to "master" manuals while taking into account that each state will localize the content of the manuals for their own use.
• The top three needs for a programmer are to be brought forth by the Project Coordinators Committee and/or the Technical Group.  Two possible needs, creating a script for Plone upgrades and an automated script to clone the template site when creating new library sites.