September 10, 2009 Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
1)Roll call – Troy Brown (IL), Heather Dray (Lyrasis), Jim Duncan (CO), Darci Hanning (OR), Deborah Littrell (TX), Sheryl Mase (MI), Bev Obert (IL), Jim Scheppke (OR), Ann Yurcaba (Lyrasis) minutes by Justine Shaffner (Collaborative Coordinator)
Yurcaba mentioned that Heather Dray will be replacing her on the Steering Committee. Welcome Heather and thanks for your service Ann!
2)Approve 7/2 Plinkit Steering Committee minutes – Duncan asked if anyone had changes, no one did, so he asked for a motion to accept the minutes. Scheppke moved to approve the minutes, Obert seconded, and everyone checked that they agreed, so the minutes are approved.
3)Report on latest financial statements - Duncan reported a balance of $38,812.44 and asked if anyone had questions. Scheppke asked why it was so much less. Duncan said the invoices from Enfold drew it down a lot and he’ll ask Shaffner to check with BCR accounting re which members have paid their fees for this fiscal year and report back to the Steering list serv on that. Shaffner mentioned that Plone Boot camp costs could have drawn down the balance too. Duncan will do a summary of the major expenses over the past few months and send it out via email. Obert said this would be helpful for the new people on the committee to see and she bets lots of people haven’t paid their fees due to the current vagaries of the economy. Duncan said he’d seen four $8000 payments of the annual fee.
4)Brief reports from the states and organizations –
IL – Obert said they’d had no change since the last meeting. She and Brown have been working with the PC/Tech Group getting Plinkit 2.0 ready to go and she’s been doing link checking and Brown’s been doing migration testing and they have had some budget issues to work on.
CO - Duncan said they have a few new clients, including a consortium and a small institutional library (a hybrid juvenile detention/school facility) and the Colorado Supreme Court library. He has finished his business case on serving other types of libraries so he’ll be sending that soon. Re Plinkit 2.0 Gregory, Hanning and others have been heavily involved in working with Enfold on this – he had to get involved recently due to communications breakdowns. Though the project is a little behind, we are back on track and things are looking good.
Lyrasis – Yurcaba said they’ve made some progress. They have a proposal in front of the Pennsylvania State Library and hope to finalize that agreement soon. They’ve also had some conversations with potential new members which she’ll discuss under agenda item 6. And she’s been bringing Dray up to speed on all things Plinkit.
MI – Mase said Norris has five pilot libraries meeting on 9/29, then again in early October so they can make some decisions that will effect them all. Duncan asked how they are handling the hosting situation. Mase said MI pays $600/month to Enfold on a contract for hosting the software (a subcontractor does the actual hosting). Norris and Mase will keep both groups posted on how it’s working out with Enfold.
TX – Littrell said Stokes has been doing some additional training of libraries and they are working with their state data center on migrating sites. They have a contract with Enfold for additional server work. They are exploring the possibility of having their sites hosted outside of TX.
OR – Hanning said most of her time has been spent on Plinkit 2.0. We’re in the last stages – mainly confirming and fixing bugs and getting a quote for improving recurring events. She has two libraries interested in sites but she’s been holding off until things are calmer, and she’s also working on getting all the OR sites updated with the new database authentication scheme. Littrell asked when the extra work will be done. Hanning said we’ll get the estimate early next week for recurring events and will then have a better idea on timing.
Virginia, the Nebraska Library Commission and INCOLSA were not able to attend so no reports from them.
5)Project Coordinators/Tech Group progress report – Obert said they’ve all been busy with work on Plinkit 2.0. She expects the recurring events work to be done in a month or so. Hanning is working on getting a quote for updating the user documentation. Obert has got a meeting scheduled for the Plinkit Advisory Group (they’ll discuss what they like about Plinkit, what they’d tell another library to encourage them to use Plinkit, what they have questions on, what new features they’d like to see…). The Advisory Group members are:
OR
Barbara Fischer Waldport Public Library
Luke Kralik Tillamook County Library
CO
Jane Besel from Carnegie Public Library in Trinidad
Kristina Lindsey from Penrose Community Library District
IL
Renee Henry of the Newman Regional Library
Lacey Wright of the Barclay Public Library District Warrensburg
TX
Connie Walker
Sharon Long Newton Library?
Cary Cox The Colony?
Obert’s also been doing link checks. And the Tech Group came up with a preliminary recommendation on Plone Boot Camp which should come to Steering by the November meeting.
6) Expansion of the Plinkit Collaborative?
a)SEMLS – Shaffner reported that she spoke to them on 9/2 and they’ve been talking to Norris re Enfold being their hosting vendor and they’ve got prices from Enfold, but might do an RFP to make sure they have the best price. She’ll call them 11/2 if she hasn’t heard from them by then.
b) Washington – Shaffner reported that Gary Bortel has spoken to Sharon Morris (CO) at ALA and she mentioned our lowered annual fee so he called to ask about it and about configuring Plinkit for unique domains, and we answered his questions.
c) Georgia – Hanning, Duncan and Yurcaba had a teleconference with the Georgia people. They answered a number of general and a few technical questions. Duncan thinks they were trying to get an overview on what they’d need to do to be involved in Plinkit. Georgia is a Lyrasis state which is why Yurcaba was there. Next week Dray will try to schedule a follow-up conversation with them. Duncan couldn’t gauge how heated the interest from them was. Hanning felt they were in a “gathering information” mode. She’s doing a demo for them next week and will report back if anything further comes out of that. Dray asked Hanning if she could go to the demo. Hanning will let Dray know when it is.
d) SC Medical Collaborative – Yurcaba said she’s had email exchanges with them and they have delayed it a bit due to other commitments and they’ll get back to Lyrasis when they have time to explore further.
Duncan mentioned he thought we’d get more interest from potential members when we send out press releases re getting the DGAA award. He reminded everyone that we’ll develop two press releases, one for the collaborative and one for individual members to send. He’s still having email issues, but list serv messages are being routed to his gmail account so he shouldn’t be missing anything.
7)NELINET merger – Anything on this yet? (states they’ll cover?) – Yurcaba said she didn’t have any new news. They are just waiting for the effective date which should be on or about 10/1/2009. When it officially happens, she’ll send a note to the listserv. Lyrasis membership will then include the six New England states (MA, VT, NH, ME, CT, RI) and they’ll situate an office there. We agreed that the Contact page will direct MA libraries to contact Lyrasis or their state library as SEMLS knows they can join Plinkit by themselves.
8)Strategic Plan – Obert has done some work on this and Shaffner will send out Obert’s document after the meeting so we can all review and comment on it. Duncan said the goal for the document is to give us a plan for the next year.
9)Action item status
a) Business case on serving multi-type libraries – Duncan will send this out before the next meeting.
b) Plinkit name trademarking – Shaffner mentioned she had some questions for Duncan to answer before she can proceed.
c) About membership statement – Shaffner said she and Fipps, Yurcaba, Scheppke have sent their final document (which will replace two pages, Overview and FAQ, both under About Us) to the PC/Tech Group for comment by 9/13 as they want to make sure they aren’t misstating anything technical. Shaffner asked that Hanning look it over by 9/13.
d) By-laws – Obert, Mase and Adams worked on this and Obert has made all the suggested adjustments, and it was sent to Steering yesterday for everyone’s comments so hopefully we can incorporate comments and approve them at the 11/09 mtg.
e) Carol access/procedures to Plinkit finances at BCR – Duncan wants language in the by-laws to tackle the fiscal responsibility issue. Obert said she doesn’t think that’s in the by-laws, but it can be added. She’d like some input on elections and financial oversight. Obert will flesh out an addendum to the by-laws re fiscal responsibility and send it out for review. Scheppke asked what we need to do with the by-laws and Obert said we should all review and comment back to the whole committee.
10)Other business – Shaffner said we submitted a nomination for ALA’s Office of Information Technology Policy award. ALA isn’t sure when the winners will be announced. It could be at Midwinter.
a)How does everyone like the webconference method? Use for future conferences? - Brown said IL won’t be renewing their contract for WIMBA so this method won’t be accessible anymore. Shaffner thought we’d have access to Go To meeting via Nebraska. Mase said MI will also have Go To Meeting that the committee can use. Scheppke asked if GTM requires using a phone and computer – Hanning said she’s pretty sure there’s a voice over option on Go To.
Scheppke said he didn’t think it was any more valuable than a phone conference, but maybe if we were working on documents together it would become more valuable. Shaffner said cost was the big factor in using another meeting method as each meeting costs between $25-$50. Obert said we can definitely use other features, but there’s a learning curve. Dray said Lyrasis uses Centra e-meeting which has all the Wimba functionality and more and it can be recorded so everyone has a record of it and she wouldn’t charge us for it, but that Lyrasis uses it for training so it’s not always available. Duncan agreed Shaffner should work with Dray on using Lyrasis’ service and use MI or NE’s GTM as a fallback when Lyrasis isn’t available.
Next Meeting Thursday 11/12/09 3-4:30pm ET, 2-3:30pm CT, 1-2:30pm MT and noon-1:30pm PT
Action Items as of 9/10/09
Who What
Duncan Send your business case on serving multi-type libraries and cost recovery to the listserv. At 4/29 SMERLS teleconference Duncan said he hadn’t had a chance to do this yet. At 7/2 meeting Duncan said he is finalizing a white paper for this and will send it to the Steering Committee soon. 9/10 Jim will send before November meeting.
Shaffner/Duncan/Adams
Shaffner start Plinkit name trademarking process. 5/5 Shaffner sent to Hanning and Duncan for review (and for answers to her questions) before submission. 7/2 Shaffner sent to Adams and nudged Duncan about it.
Tech Group At August Tech Group only meeting discuss timing and attendance at Plone Boot Camp then come up with a final recommendation for Steering at the September PC/Tech group meeting.
Shaffner Chair the group looking into an About Membership statement (under the “About Us” link, but now called “Overview” and “FAQ”). Other members are Scheppke, Dray and Fipps. Try to have this to the Steering Committee for their approval by fall. Be sure to look at all we currently have at website about membership, consider the question re systems should be checking with their state libraries before joining and include details on the Collaborative’s expectations of members. Post statement at the website and delete all obsolete information. 9/3 Group is done, but we sent it to PC/TG for input by 9/13 and will then send to Steering for approval.
Steering Work on creating by-laws, especially chair terms and vice-chair (or chair-elect) and past chair positions. Also consider if expansion and soliciting for new members should be addressed here. And consider if the chair should be serving as treasurer or would it be better for fiscal control to have a separate person for the treasurer position. 5/21 Obert’s tentative bylaws emailed to Adams and Mase and Obert said there won’t be a past chair position so it will just be a two year commitment. 9/9 Shaffner forwarded to Steering for comment and review, then approval at 11/09 meeting. Send comments to the entire listserv.
Duncan Contact BCR re Adams access to and approval of Plinkit’s finances and let Adams know procedures when done. 9/10 he’s waiting for by-laws language on this before doing.
Shaffner When NELINET merges with LYRASIS in the fall, add all the NELINET states (inc. MA as SEMLS can still join on their own) to the Contact Form at http://www.plinkit.org/contact-info telling them to contact LYRASIS or their state library if interested in becoming a Plinkit site.
Shaffner Check with BCR re which members have paid their fees for this fiscal year and report back to Steering listserv.
Duncan Do a summary of the major expenses over the past few months and send it out to the listserv.
Hanning Let Dray know how to connect to the Plinkit demo for Georgia.
Shaffner/Steering Committee
Send Obert/Duncan’s strategic plan document to the listserv after the meeting so we can all review and comment on it. Send comments to the entire listserv.
Shaffner/Dray Set up future meetings using Lyrasis’ service and use MI or NE’s Go To Meeting technology as a fallback when the Lyrasis service isn’t available.
Obert Flesh out an addendum to the by-laws re fiscal responsibility and send it out for review.
Duncan Answer Shaffner’s questions re the trademark application.
