Steering Committee Meeting Minutes

Present:  Jim Scheppke and Darci Hanning from OR, Jim, Gene Hainer, and Sharon Morris from CO; Holly, Chris, and Deborah Littrell from TX, Tom Peters from IL, and Ellen Fox from BCR. 

Tom agreed to take and distribute meeting notes. 

Report on latest financial statement:

$96,811.36 is our balance as of 12/31/06.  Since then we have approved payment to the $9,706.25, leaving a little under $90,000 as our balance.  We have approx. $75,000 in uncommitted funds through the end of June 2007.  Everyone has paid up for the year. 

Brief reports from the states:

• TX has experienced some staff turnover.  First pilot site should go live next week.  13 more to be trained at the end of March.  Working through the regional systems.  Working on state template. 
• CO continues to move forward.  Training sessions have been scheduled throughout the state. 
• IL had a good train the trainers session in Dec.  They hope to have a trial Plinkit instance live later this week.  Then they will launch a Plinkit site for the Illinois Plinkit Project.
• OR has been working on the Collaborative website (www.plinkit.org).  There will be a news and announcement message on the front page.  Plus a separate blog and password-protected resource section, issue tracker, tips and tricks section.  Also working on the OR state Plinkit project website, esp. the kids and teens section.  Ten live sites in OR so far, with more in the queue.   
  
  

Recommendations from the 11/29/06

    Project Coordinators Meeting

Decide on standard acknowledgement for LSTA, etc.:  IMLS has some suggested language, logo, and tag line to use to show their funding support.  IMLS does not provide specific language for websites, but it does for printed documentation.  Should this appear on all Plinkit instances?  Yes, we need to acknowledge the IMLS LSTA funds and local state resources that made their state Plinkit project possible.  This footer should appear on each webpage.  It can be in a small font.

• Decision:  Everyone agreed with this language. “This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services [include logo].”  Then each state can add state-specific language after that.  The logo will link back to the IMLS website.    The Project Coordinators will implement it. 
  

Note:  No cost estimates are available yet for the next four agenda items, which were discussed as a group of topics.

Fund development of Plone skins:  Skins are the basic look and feel of a template.  We could offer libraries 3-5 skins to choose from when they are designing their sites.  Some free skins are available, but the quality varies.  Darci mentioned that this may not be a high priority, because most patrons will visit only one site, and will not notice that we are all using the same skin. 

Fund development of scripts to automate upgrades/duplication:  Scripts help automate functions and individual updates of each Plinkit instance.  Script writing should be fairly straightforward.  Darci mention that this should take no more than four weeks of full-time development. 

Fund development of "recurring events" functionality on calendar:  Plone does not handle recurring events well now; each event needs to input singly.  Some existing code could be used, but we would need to test it.  The Plone development team does not have a concrete plan for implementing this functionality.   Developing a recurring events functionality should be a little more challenging for the team.  This may be the highest cost item of the four. 

Fund technical writer to update Master Training Manual:  TX already has collected some corrections and potential enhancements to the training manual.  A technical writer could be hired to update the master training manual.   

• Decision:  We agree to empower the Coordinators to move forward on these prioritized items within a budget of $75,000.  The Coordinators will work with the Technical Group to issue RFPs and select the vendors. 
  

1. Manual
2. Scripts
3. Recurring Events

We can make vendor selection as formal or as informal as we want.  Darci will distribute the RFPs to the Plone community.  At the minimum, we will want a contractual agreement.  Programming and scripting are a little different than writing manuals.  Problems and cost overruns are more likely to occur.  The contract with the vendor can deal with cost overruns, timelines for deliverables, etc.  We want to have an RFP that is semi-formal.   

Request from Texas to send staff to Plone Bootcamp

Deborah reported that, with the staff turnover and state IT consolidation and realignment, TX has lost its two people who have attended Plone bootcamp.  Out-of-state travel is severely limited in TX this fiscal year.  Darci said that learning Plone is one of life’s challenges.  Darci attended the bookcamp in July 2006 and found it very useful.  It is a weeklong bootcamp. 

• Decision:  We authorized TX and IL to send up to two people to Plone bootcamp before the end of June.  The course registration is $400 plus travel and lodging.  Tom will ask the IL team about sending up to two people to Plone bootcamp.  
  

Preliminary discussion:
Inviting more states to join the Collaborative

Oklahoma has shown some interest; Darci has been in contact with them.  WA also has asked for information.  Several states are gathering information about costs and benefits of Plinkit.  Jim has heard from OH and NE.  Should we increase or decrease annual membership dues (currently $25,000)?  If we expand, we should look at technical, programmatic, and governance issues of expanding the role of the collaborative.  The group agreed to look at this issue at our next meeting. 

• Decision:  The group decided to make known the opportunity to COSLA via email, and specify that we are looking to adding 2-4 states next year.These new states would join the Collaborative at the beginning of the next fiscal year.  The target could be 2-4 new states next year, depending on the size of the states.   

Other

Administrator’s manual is moving forward.  Intellectual property issues have arisen. 

Next meeting

Thursday, Feb. 22 beginning at 2 PST, 3 MST, and 4 CST.