Beaver Lake Association

Beaver Lake Association

Information Management Steering Group

Regular Meeting

/ 01/04/2007
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Beaver Lake Clubhouse
Facilitator: / Terry Dietz / Type of meeting: / Information Management Steering Group Regular Meeting
Note Taker: / Terry Dietz
Attendees:
Bob Gloodt / Rick Croasdale / X / Tom Egelston / X / Don Tex
Ron Byrd / X / Connie Soukup / X / Terry Dietz / X / Marilee Mullin
Next Meeting / Jan 11, 2007; 6:00 PM at BLA Clubhouse – Regular Meeting

Minutes

Agenda item: / Update on Status of Phase II Web Site / Presenter: / Terry Dietz
Discussion:
Phase II Web Site should be ready for proofing by next week. Currently working on the Handbook section now. Terry will send a note to the group when the site is ready to begin proofing. The group will need to assist with proofing of the new pages and send any corrections via email or bring them to the next meeting.
Content sections that are missing won’t be linked in yet and will be grayed out in the updated Information Road Map. Terry has updated the Information Road Map based on the previous meeting’s discussion and will send it out to the group for review.
The Technical Sub-group will provide a plan for the publishing and cut over to the new site within the next two weeks.
Conclusions:
Terry will send a note to the group with the link when the new site is ready for proofing
Action items / Person responsible / Deadline
ü  Send email when site ready for proofing / Terry / 1/11/2007
ü  Send Updated Information Road Map to IM Steering Group / Terry / 1/11/2007
ü  Plan for publishing and cut over to the new site / Terry / 1/18/2007
ü 
Agenda item: / Maintenance Activities on Web Site / Presenter: / Terry Dietz
Discussion:
The original web site was designed in such a manner that the Office Staff could keep the web site content up-to-date. However, even when we had three full time office personnel, the Office Staff didn’t have the capacity to maintain the information on the web site. Until the Office Staff has more time available to dedicate to training and keeping the web site current, this Steering Task Force will need to continue posting updates to the site. This places an ongoing responsibility on the Task Force to put proper controls in place to make sure that only approved changes are published.
This assumes that the Office Staff will be able to manage the Advertising portion of the Web Site. If the Office is willing to manage the Business portion of the site, it was agreed that the IM Steering Group could continue updates to the site.
The group designed a basic configuration management process to start with and will continue to update it with Process Improvements as we move forward. (See conclusion section below for process)
Additional discussion was heard regarding the recommendation of making the Beaver Lake Information Management Steering Group (also known as the Web Site Steering Task Force) a more permanent committee with formal responsibility of keeping the Web Site up-to-date. Rick will discuss this more with Bob offline since Bob wasn’t able to attend this session.
Conclusions:
Proposed Configuration Management Process:
Any of the Board Members, Managers or Committee Chairs can forward a Web Site DCF for approval.
The Web Site DCF’s are sent to the Information Management Steering Group with a copy sent to the mailbox as the official record of the Change Request.
The Information Management Steering Group Members with publishing rights will review the change request, making suggestions back to the authors if needed.

Once the Change Request has been reviewed, the IM Steering Group publishers will obtain Board Approval via email to post the change to the BLA web site.
Once approval has been obtained, the site will be updated as quickly as possible.
Once the site has been updated, another member of the IM Steering Group will verify the accuracy of the update. If the update has been accurately made, the Web Site DCF will be closed by the verifying IM Steering Group Member.
Action items / Person responsible / Deadline
ü  Rick will discuss the IM Steering Group’s role with Bob Gloodt / Rick / 1/18/2007
ü 
Agenda item: / Electronic Version of Handbook Updates / Presenter: / Terry Dietz
Discussion:
Group Discussion on the updating of the Handbook on-line once DCF’s are approved by the Board.
Option 1: Update the electronic version of the Handbook as the DCF’s are approved. The electronic version will be called something like “Updated Handbook” and put a disclaimer that the officially published version approved by the Board, including the approved DCFs since it was approved, takes precedence over the electronic version.
Pros:
¨  Process of publishing a new Handbook would be streamlined since the DCF’s are incorporated quickly after they are approved.
¨  Residents wouldn’t have to work their way through all the DCF’s to see if the section of the Handbook that they are interested in has been modified since the electronic Handbook would always be up-to-date with the latest approved DCF’s
Cons:
¨  More frequent updating will be needed. The office staff doesn’t have the time to incorporate the DCF’s into the Handbook frequently with their current workload. This could be mitigated by having a publishing member of the Web Site Steering Task Force incorporate the DCF into the electronic version and have a second member of the Task Force
Option 2: Publish the current version of the Handbook with DCF’s listed in separate section; such as at the end of the Handbook or a linked page. Update the electronic Handbook with the DCF’s quarterly. The electronic version will be called something like “Updated Handbook” and put a disclaimer that the officially published version approved by the Board, including the approved DCFs since it was approved, takes precedence over the electronic version.
Pros:
¨  Process of publishing a new Handbook would be slightly streamlined since the DCF’s are incorporated on a more frequent basis.
Cons:
¨  Focused work would still need to be scheduled on a more regular basis to keep the Handbook up to date
¨  Members would have to remember to check for DCF’s on the section that they are interested in. This would be slight mitigated by having less outstanding DCF’s to look through for applicability
Option 3: Publish only the current Handbook and wait until the DCF’s are incorporated into the bound version of the Handbook before integrating the DCF’s on the electronic version
Pros:
¨  Maintains the current process
Cons:
¨  Handbook isn’t updated frequently
¨  Members must understand that the Handbook isn’t current and remember to read through all of the DCF’s. (This could be mitigated somewhat in the electronic version by placing a link to the DCF modifying the section.)
Conclusions:
Members present recommend the approval of Option 1 since it provides the most current information.
Action items / Person responsible / Deadline
ü  Review recommendation and Options with Bob Gloodt / Tom Egelston / 1/31/2007
ü 
Agenda item: / Phase III Web Site Planning / Presenter: / Terry Dietz
Discussion:
Discussion touched upon the different Content Management Systems for Phase III. Terry will resend link to Joomla test site and member usernames/passwords for the site. Terry will also resend the Technical sub-group the link to the XAMPP site. Rick has his local XAMPP running and the BLA site running locally. Once XAMPP was installed, it only took about 10 minutes to configure the BLA site on his development machine.
Conclusions:
Phase III Planning will continue after the publication of the Phase II Web Site.
Action items / Person responsible / Deadline
ü  Send Joomla test site link to IM Steering Group members / Terry / 1/11/2006
ü  Send usernames/passwords for Joomla site to Tech sub-group / Terry / 1/11/2006
ü  Send XAMPP link to Tech sub-group / Terry / 1/11/2006
ü 
Agenda item: / “Ask Abby” Type Column / Presenter: / Terry Dietz
Discussion:
This was a continuation of an early idea of the group to have a less formal but “Official” electronic publication where members could submit questions. The idea centered around having a “down home” feel to the publication but still have the answers be verified and accurate with the current Covenants and Operating Procedures of the Association.
To recap the original idea, the main ideas are restated here.
¨  The Column Coordinator would receive the questions and review them
¨  Questions that are felt of high-interest to the entire community and/or able to be answered at the time would be selected from those submitted. (Not every question would need to be answered on the site.)
¨  The Column coordinator would work with Board Members, Managers and Committee Chairs to obtain the answers and craft a response in the style and tone desired.
¨  Once written, the request for publication would follow the same Configuration Management Process as any other Web Site DCF to make sure proper review and approval was obtained prior to publication on the BLA Site.
¨  No questions would be answered directly as the entire idea was to build the useful information available to the members on the BLA web site in such a manner that it also builds the sense of community within the Association.
One of the issues that caused this group to drop the original idea was the lack of availability of the Office Staff, Managers and current IM Steering Group members to author the Column. The idea was presented that perhaps we could ask Patti Hunt to be the Column Coordinator. Her existing News Letter has the feeling of a close-knit community newsletter already – perhaps she would enjoy writing for the BLA website.
Additionally, as a member of the Board, she is well-respected, responsible and dedicated to the community. Would it be worthwhile to see if she would be interested in being the Column Coordinator if we can work out the rest of the details?
Conclusions:
We will ask Patti if she would be interested in being the Column Coordinator for the “Ask Abby” type column
Action items / Person responsible / Deadline
ü  Connie will contact Patti to see if she would be interested. / Connie / 1/11/2006
ü 

Other Information

Special notes:
Web Site Phases:
Phase I: Original site publication. Custom coding needed to keep updates simple to the site. Only News and Phone book sections are easily updated.
Phase II: Updated Organization and Navigation. Content reorganized more clearly and additional functionality added to enhance current News publishing. Custom programming still required for maintenance to the site.
Phase III: Movement to a Content Management Framework that eliminates the need for continuously custom programming to enhance the functionality of the site. Several Open Source Frameworks are freely available and are being evaluated for use. (Joomla, Mamba, Xoops, ModX, etc.)