Minutes of the IT Steering Committee (ITSC) Meeting

February 4, 2005 - 10:00 a.m. – 12 noon

PRESENT: Mr. Tahir Amlani,Dr. Bill Baylis, Ms. Diane Dupuis, Ms. Gwen Ebbett, Prof. Richard Householder, Mr. Mayank Kajaria, Mr. Badar Khuhro, Ms. Anna Kirby, Mr. Roger Lauzon,Prof. Marlene LeBrun, Prof. Brian Mazer (Chair),and Dr. Todd Sands

GUESTS: Mr. Guy Allen, Mrs. Purita Bristow, Mr.Ed Drouillard, Mr. Sean Moriarty and Mr. Philip Smith

ABSENT WITH REGRETS: Dr. Ron Barron,Ms. Lea Janisse, Mr. Steve Karamatos, Dr. Mike Salter, Dr. Clayton Smith and Dr. Keith Taylor

Prof. Mazer relayed to the committee that the SMG has approved the IT Strategic Plan. He has met with Professor Gold who endorsed the plan for membership transition. Mr. Lauzon relayed to the committee that Dr. Ron Barron has resigned from participation on this committee due to other commitments at this time. He will relay the committee’s thanks for Dr. Barron’s assistance since 2003.

  1. Approval of the Agenda

MOTION: That the Agenda be approved, as amended

Baylis/Houselolder

CARRIED

  1. Approval of January 14thMeeting Minutes

MOTION: That the committee approve the minutes of January 14th as circulated

Ebbett/Householder

CARRIED

  1. Business Arising from the minutes

3.1Please Hold Canada

Dr. Sands outlined the status of the investigation of this system. Telus was consulted and is having a traffic study of our telephone switch done at a cost of $600. These results are forthcoming. A cost of $25K was estimated by the Nortel Engineer for equipment to connect this system to the campus switch. A request was made that they research this further and get back to us with more reasonable figures.

3.2The New Finance System

Ms. Ebbett indicated that the FIS (Financial Information System) does not integrate with the Library Management System. Mr. Lauzon will follow-up on this.

3.3 The New Firewall

The new firewalls wereinstalled before the end of January and are working well. Reports on network usage are needed to substantiate budget requests. Videoconferencing is working well in areas covered by these firewalls.

3.4Update on Blackberry Project

Mr. Moriarty reviewed the taskforce process to date. The taskforce is recommending Telus as the service provider for this product.

MOTION: That the Committee accept the recommendation of the Blackberry Taskforce.

Lauzon/Baylis

CARRIED with 2 abstentions

  1. Report from IT Steering Executive Committee

Prof. Mazer and Mr. Lauzon outlined the membership requirements from the IT Strategic Plan for this committee. The fourex-officio members are: Mr. Roger Lauzon,the Director of IT Services, as Chair of the Executive Committee, Prof. Brian Mazer as ITSC Chair, Prof. Marlene LeBrun as the Assistant Provost Teaching and Learning and Director of the Centre for Flexible Learning , and Ms. Gwen Ebbett as University Librarian. Dr. Bill Baylis and Mr. Tahir Amlani were nominated as the faculty member and student representative respectively. Student membership is to the end of the academic year. The structure of this Committee will be looked at after one year.

MOTION: That nominations be closed and that Dr. Baylis and Mr. Amlani be acclaimed as Faculty and student representatives, respectively, on the Executive committee for the remainder of the current year.

Lauzon/Ebbett

CARRIED

Membership on the Executive Committee will be revised for next year when the transition to the new membership structure is complete. Existing members are asked to remain until the end of this academic year. Prof. Mazer will move forward with membership additions. This Executive Committee will meet approx. one ortwo weeks before each ITSC meeting.

  1. IT Budget Subcommittee Recommendations

Budget submissions are due on Friday, February 11th. In this year’s submission the University Budget committee is looking at multi-year budgeting. Mr. Lauzon reviewed the prioritized budget recommendations from the ITSC submission pointing out the AMI (Approved Multi-Year Implementation), and MIR (Multi-Year Implementation Request) priorities.

A small number of changes to the priorities were discussed and approved by concensus. The Budget Subcommittee was asked to incorporate the changes into the final draft of the document.

Note: LMS (Learning Management System) currently has no cost figures but is listed as an essential priority. These numbers will be available for the June Submission.

  1. IT Leader Program Update

Mr. Allen reviewed the initial set up of the IT Leader Program and the responsibilities of these individuals. There were 24 participants in the pilot. This is a volunteer program. The IT Leaders will continue to have a monthly information session. A survey was distributed in November to the IT Leaders and their Supervisors. The feedback received showed this program as a very worthwhile communication and networking tool. IT Services recommends that the IT Leader program be rolled out to the entire campus.

MOTION: That the Committee approve the recommendation that ITS proceed with the rollout of the IT Leader Program.

Lauzon/Khuhro

CARRIED

It was suggested that these leaders should have a mechanism in place to track how much actual time is spent on this project. Discussion ensued regarding Human Resources’ function regarding addition of these services to a person’s job description.

  1. Network Update: Performance, Usage and Wireless

Mr. Drouillard and Mr. Smith will update the committee on the network topology and traffic statistics at the next meeting.

  1. Adjournment:

The meeting adjourned at noon.

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