Kick off meeting - 1998-May-07 - 6:05 pm - 7:30 pm ITS south conference room; CU Marine Street Computing Center;
Attendance - 11 volunteers including 2 board members (Steve O and Jim Waterman) and 1 staff member (Brenda Ruth).
Jim Waterman (JRW) convened the meeting at 6:05 pm. The meeting was moved to the South Conference room as dictated by turnout. Regrettably, Neal McBurnett's remote attendance could not be supported by the available technology; the committee resolved to insure speaker phone facilities will be available at future forums.
Each attendee introduced themselves and their current BCN activities. The pivotal role of volunteers was acknowledged and those present were thanked for both their general contributions and their willingness to join yet more activities. The need to support BCN fund raising activities was identified as a key activity for this group as with all BCN working groups. Brenda Ruth encouraged volunteers to purchase BCN sweatshirts and T shirts and wear them proudly.
The general mandate of the tech advisory group was introduced. In particular the critical function of supporting the BCN staff and board with specific information gathering and technology recommendations was outlined. The additional duties of supporting volunteers, information contributors and special projects was acknowledged.
General committee meeting procedures were proposed and discussed. A general agenda format was proposed as follows:
JRW proposed minimizing meeting time by conducting as much business as possible through email and WWW sites and through the activates of select subcommittees.
A tentative regular monthly meeting time of 6:00 pm on the 2nd Thursday of each month was established. The next meeting is scheduled for June 11, 1998. It was agreed to try to post a proposed agenda one week before the meeting.
The bcn-tech-advisory email list was introduced and procedures for subscribing and posting to the list were outlined. Steve Olshansky volunteered to handle maintenance of the list (subsequently it was determined that Mary Virnoche is the current owner and may remain in that role).
The concept of a tech advisory WWW site was introduced and Bob Echelmeier agreed to explore expanding his existing tools pages to fulfill this role.
The advisability of taking and posting minutes was identified as a potential tool for minimizing repetition and keeping absent members current. Unfortunately the call for a volunteer secretary for the committee was unanswered. The tech committee continues to seek a secretary.
Additional volunteers will be sought for selective subcommittee research activities. Current research activities include email list management software and online discussion forum software. Volunteers are currently being sought to work on these issues.
JRW introduced the first two technical issues brought to the committee;
The final agenda item was to identify impending issues the committee needs to begin addressing. Currently those items include:
The meeting was adjourned about 7:30.
The next meeting will convene at 6:00 pm on June 11th, 1998 in the south conference room at the CU Marine Street computing center. Please forward and agenda additions to Jim Waterman or this list.