Subject: ITTF Minutes -- December 18, 1997

Present: Deborah Schenk, Martha Cafferkey, Geetha Ramanathan, Keith Kennedy, Rebecca Martin, David Punia, Roger Lawson

Recording: Roger (supposedly)

The meeting centered around next steps in our planning/writing process. Since there are to be no meetings planned for over the holidays, our next scheduled meeting will be on January 8, 1998. Since Geoffrey Gamble arrives the following week, this gives us very little time to prepare a final draft for him to read when he arrives. Our original deadline was January 15th.

Concern was expressed that both the "teaching and learning" sections and the "leveraging information systems (AKA "admin systems") are a bit too upbeat, making things sound better than they really are ("overstates the excellence" someone said). Rebecca volunteered to revise the teaching and learning section for subsequent review by the task force.

The administrative section requires similar revisions. For example, not everyone agreed with the statement that "Current administrative info systems at UVM are reasonably modern, reliable, and well supported." Martha, Keith, Geetha, Deborah and David agreed to get together to work on an updated draft between meetings.

Role of CLIO -- Many of our recommendations are closely tied to the creation of a CLIO position. Even if our recommendations are accepted, it is likely that it will take some time to define, fund and recruit an IT executive. Given that there is a pressing need to begin some of our recommendations prior to the hiring of the CLIO, we decided that some of our recommendations could proceed under the authority of the new Provost.

Web Team formation -- This was discussed at some length. The difficulty, as with other areas, is coming up with a recommendation that would be acceptable given our understanding that there is a strong reluctance to add new positions. We decided that our recommendations would say that although ultimately a Web Management Team would require new positions, that it could be formed using "volunteers" with the requisite skills under the leadership of the Provost.

FAHC collaboration -- The importance of collaboration with Fletcher Allen was discussed at length. We decided that we need a recommendation to explore jointly opportunities for collaboration and common technology selection. Roger volunteered to draft a piece for the report to share with the FAHC subcommittee.

Administrative Section -- Specific recommendations for this section were discussed. Areas that were discussed include: the "data warehouse" and common reporting tools recommendation; the need for a policy recommendation regarding "shadow systems"; year 2000 recommendations.

The IT "Floor" -- We agreed that we should recommend a "pilot" project to provide "Green & Gold" computers (50?) to 2 departments (1 academic, 1 administrative) bundled with professional development specific to the standard configuration. These would be offered on a 3-year lease basis. The configuration of this "standard" configuration would include a browser, word-processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, calendar/schedule client and a terminal emulator. The selection of the standard configuration would be developed with the input of technology consumers and support staff.

Quite likely, I have missed some important details of the meeting, and possibly embellished others. If so, please let me know and I will correct.

See you this Thursday at 1:30PM in Memorial Lounge.

Happy New Year!