Present:

Jim Scheppke (Oregon), Deborah Littrell (Texas), Darci Hanning (Oregon), Lisa Holmberg (BCR), Bev Obert (Illinois), Jim Duncan(Colorado), Sharon Morris (Colorado)

1. Approval of August meeting notes
   Approved as drafted.
   
   
2. Report on latest financial statement
   Total balance as of 10/31/2007: $131,539.38
   Illinois has submitted their payment; all members are paid up.
   
   
3. Report on LITA Conference presentation
   Saturday session: Darci provided technical background; Sharon did the intro; Tine  provided information on the Collaborative; Kristy Lindsey, Penrose Community Library Director provided information from the point of view of a Plinkit library/user.
   
   Interest from: Michigan Consortium, PALINET
   
   
4. Brief reports from the states
   Oregon: Libraries are signing up at a rate of about one per week; training sessions scheduled through January 2008. Oregon is working with a graphics designer to developer web- and print-ready logos/banners for use on Plinkit sites, letterhead, etc. Designer works directly with library director and the first library/banner has been completed with excellent results. Three more banners are in process; contract is for eight banners total.
   
   Colorado:  Five new sites in the last month that have gone live (12 total now) and seven more in progress. New approach to design and customize sites to individual libraries (e.g. the cantaloupe theme for a library in a cantaloupe region).
   
   Texas: picking up steam, with Tine doing a lot of training and plenty of interest.
   
   Illinois: signed second (last) year of grant funding. First meeting of trainers and coordinators; looked at needed documentation. Illinois Plinkit (information) site is in the works. Current goal is 120 libraries by the end June 2008 (45 now, 75 upcoming). Moving hosting from commercial vendor to Shawnee Library site. Talking about sustainability beyond grant period.
   
   
5. Progress report from the Project Coordinators
   
   Tine is new Chair with Darci assisting. Coordinators met face-to-face in Denver during the LITA conference and would like to meet face-to-face annually.
   
   Progress continues on Plinkit 2.0 / Plinkit Setup tool; a more complete status update will be sent out Friday afternoon.
   
   Toni has agreed to create the next version of the Administrator’s Manual based on Plinkit 2.0, Plinkit Setup Tool, and upgrade processes. Darci and Toni will compose the final contract once software is completed and scope of Toni’s work is fully defined.
   
   The technical group met and elected Holly Gordon (TX) as chair. Brought everyone up to speed and discussed: Plinkit 2.0 deployment planning, testing recurring events code (received for free), and having existing free Plone skins developed in additional color schemes.
   
   

a.      Question: are there other projects that the Collaborative could be funding?

·         New skins from scratch

·         Start gathering feature requests from library staff

·         Having online/asynchronous/screencast training materials developed (e.g. refresher courses, advanced features, etc)

b.      Suggestion: have usability testing performed before adopting or designing more skins.

6. Discussion: Potential for PALINET to join the Collaborative
   
   Request for information from PALINET, Michigan Consortium and Library of Virginia.
   
   Time to start thinking about new members? New membership fee?
   
   In particular, PALINET (a five state consortium) wants to explore alternative funding/fee options.
   
   
1. Idea: first year fee, higher; subsequent years, lower fee.
   
   
2. Question: do we have like a pre-joining/pre-planning guide? Not currently. Task: Sharon and Darci will work on this.
   
   

Next meeting: have discussion regarding fee structure, budget, and new members.

7. Decision: Allowing non-participants to download Plinkit template
   
   Periodically the Collaborative receives inquiries from individual libraries and potential (state level) members to download Plinkit to try it out. The issue is that once Plinkit is download (with Plone), there is nothing preventing the downloader from using/replicating, etc short of a legal/formal process (e.g. signing an agreement not to distribute, re-use, etc).
   
   Question: how do we currently handle these requests? Darci points them to information at http://www.plinkit.org and http://demo.plinkit.org and recommends that Plone 2.5 be downloaded.
   
   Recommendations:
   
   
1. Make available an online demo account
2. Quick and easy list of benefits of being a  member
3. Encourage people to download Plone 2.5 to experience end user’s view
   
   

Decision: Coordinator’s to bring a policy statement to the next meeting along with resources/process for disseminating information about Plinkit.

8. Decision: Adapting Plinkit template for non-public libraries
   
   Decision: It is fine for Collaborative members to use/adapt for other library types. Members are strongly encouraged to share new templates via the Collaborative website for use by other members.
   
   
9. Other
   
   
1. Apply for ASCLA: nominate Cooperative Consulting Multitype…

·         Deadline is 12/15/2007

·         Nomination form is available.

·         For a person/persons, or Project; preference for a project

2. Sharon will provide more information; possibly for this year or next.