December Minutes

Due to work schedules, Gloria McNeill, Sondra Chaffee, Shannon Tufts and Frieda Artis could not attend the meeting.

The meeting began at 9:05 a.m.

Lib Wanner welcomed everyone to the meeting and ensured that all members received the proper documents and presentation to accompany the meeting. Lib stated that it would be in the best interest of the committee to wait to elect the vice chair until later in the meeting and move directly to the Overview of IS Customer Feedback Sessions with Departments.

Overview of IS Customer Feedback Sessions with Departments
Lib began the presentation by having the members open the PowerPoint presentation entitled "Overview of IS Customer Feedback Sessions with Departments." Lib said the presentation was used in each of her meetings with Department Heads and their key staff in November and December. Lib reviewed progress made on Strategic and Tactical Planning with key areas in Productivity, Infrastructure, Mobility, Messaging and Collaboration. She used the target charts to explain the progress made and why each project was in such status. The ITAC Committee looked over the target charts and commented on how well they are designed and that a few members may use the application in their workforce, as well.

On the sixth slide, Lib described other areas that IS has worked on improving, such as the Technology Roadmap and Project Portfolio and Tracking System. Lib explained that the Technology Roadmap was to be updated every six months to show what plans the department has in implementing, maintaining, and retiring certain applications. Lib explained that the Project Portfolio was broken down into a department level as oppose to IS Team level in order to have each department quickly find what projects were applicable to them and assist in the discussion on the prioritization of projects from their viewpoint.

Lib then discussed on the ninth slide the dealing of other issues regarding individual departments and IS. Such areas covered were Policies and Procedures, Security, and Technology Project Approval. Lib then pointed out with the lean times that IS will work more on providing basic infrastructure services and partner with departments on applications that leverage tools the County already owns like Office 2007, Notes, SharePoint and possibly explore free or cheap alternatives such as Dot Net Nuke, Joomla, and Gmail.

With a reduction in operating funds, Lib explained how work would slow down in technology projects and that older equipment may be in use. With less work on new projects, existing staff will likely be reassigned to strengthen areas such as Applied Technologies to Web, User Training, Quality Assurance, and Records Management.

Lib conversed with the committee over the readiness of the organization for technology noting that it will vary by department and work group that interest in and use of new technologies such as blogs, wiki’s, and twitter will vary. Lib explained how these are the Web 2.0 technologies that have become expected parts of any organization and provided examples such as the Chicago Police, The Seattle Channel, and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, who are all using Web 2.0 technologies. Lib then asked the committee their thoughts on using Web 2.0 technologies, and the committee decided that while it is beneficial to use the emerging technologies there is always room for vulnerability and to be cautious. Robert Michuad suggested coming up with a policy to guide the use of Web 2.0 technologies and all agreed. Vass suggested going slowly.