Future Search Technology Committee

Minutes of March 20, 2001

Present: Linda Myers in E. Lansing Office; Janice Gayan & Tom Taylor in Escanaba Office; Jeanne O’Callaghan & Al Beamish in Sault Ste. Marie; Steve Markel & Steve Hussey in Muskegon Heights; and Kathie Sluiter, Harriet Poch & Chuck Herring in Petoskey.

Teleconference meeting called to order at 4:35 p.m. by Chair Chuck Herring.

Minutes of February 6, 2001 meeting were approved.

Old Business Item: Chuck announced his office had mailed letters to the six Coordinating Council Chairs who had not responded to the first request of the $100.00 website start-up contribution. To date no responses have been received.

I. Web Page:

Links to be added to Coordinating Council Sites – Chuck suggested Councils show the web page at their next meeting to review and discuss other links they might want added.

NMEA – would like to have their newsletter posted.

Legislative Report Card – Linda Myers indicated the Legislative Report Card is on the MEA Intranet right now. However, Linda would like our site to list active bills and how each Northern Zone legislator voted on each bill so members can see for themselves the voting record. Linda indicated that things will start moving after Easter and she would like to see this site updated about three times a week once it’s up and running. Much discussion followed. It was decided a conference call between Linda, Chuck and Jim Neff needs to take place to discuss the setup of this link. Chuck will make arrangements.

Costs:

Rate – As things are added to the page, there is going to be a dollar amount attached to it very soon at $20.00 per hour billing.

Form for billing – There is going to have to be a form sent out to people who are interested in adding items to this web page. We will need an initial investment procedure and form to come to the committee or the zone office for approval. Much discussion followed regarding what should be included and what should be billed to the individual council or Northern Zone. Tom asked if we have a breakdown of time estimates that the web master is submitting. Chuck will get information from the Jim Neff, our Web Master.

Process to implement – when we determine what is it exactly that has to be done, we will create some sort of document for people to contribute; tell them the process and procedure to be followed.

Tom suggested establishing a budget, run it by the web master—we want an estimate that should cover the fees of the site for 12 months.

Database – Since neither Arch Lewis nor Jim Neff was at this meeting, this item was essentially tabled once again. Tom noted we cannot do anything further until we have more information on MEA’s database. Much discussion followed. Chuck asked if there were any objections to inviting Mark Criss, the IT Director, and Sue Kelly, Finance Director, to next meeting of this committee. None were given. Steve Hussey suggested we come up with a strategy to work with MEA prior to the next meeting. How long before the MEA database will be ready? Jeanne indicated fall of 2001. It will be important to have Arch, Tom and Sue at the next meeting. Steve Hussey suggested we make a list of the fields we want included in the Northern Zone Database prior to the next meeting so we can compare our list with theirs. He thinks Arch already has a list. Chuck asked Steve to contact Arch and asked him to email the list to this committee. This is a better direction to establish a database. Have our ducks in a row rather than going back in after MEA has created a database. Linda seemed to think there is a pilot program running in several offices at this time and that Muskegon Heights might be one of the offices. Steve Hussey will check it out and get back to this committee.

Al Beamish listed the items we have to address prior to the next meeting. (1) Talk with Jim Neff, Web Master, and get things sorted out; (2) Steve Hussey will have Arch get list of fields to this committee.

Motion to adjourn made by Jeanne O’Callahan, seconded by Al Beamish. Carried. Meeting adjourned at 5:25 p.m., with reminder to shut off equipment immediately as an outside vendor was being utilized for this teleconference.

Respectfully submitted,

Harriet Poch