TIPS Bi – Weekly Meeting Minutes
February 16, 2006
Tele – conference Call
Participants
TOPIC: Live Meeting Introduction – [Evans]
DISCUSSION: Karyn Evans gave a brief demonstration of the Live Meeting Service. Live Meeting is a hosted web conference service. TIPS is currently piloting the use of this service for OSM. The service allows anyone with a computer, internet connection, and a telephone line to meet, share applications, and collaborate via the internet. Karyn used the live meeting service to show the team how to reserve the TIPS conference call number and where the training room calendars are located. The service was also used to show a PowerPoint presentation, share an Excel spreadsheet, and several PDF documents. It was requested that a calendar be developed similar to the training room calendars that would show all OSM/State related events (IMCC, NTTT, etc.) It was noted by MCR that if the meeting is scheduled for 1 hour, and the internet connection goes down while the meeting is still going on, but more than an hour from the start, you cannot get back in to Live Meeting. MCR suggests that all TIPS Team Telecons be scheduled in live meeting for 1.5 hours to avoid this in the future.
DECISION: N/A
TOPIC: Lou & Karen visit to MCR and AR next week – [Hamm]
DISCUSSION: Lou and Karen will be visiting MCR and AR next week. Their main theme during these visits will focus on working more effectively as a team. What is going right, what is going wrong, what needs improvement, etc. Lou will be meeting with management in each region on what is happening and how we can improve TIPS. A copy of the slide show that Lou presented during the telecon and will be using during his visits has been posted to the TIPS SharePoint site.
DECISION: N/A
TOPIC: Customer Surveys – [Morlock/Hamm]
DISCUSSION: New survey forms for Technical Assistance, Software Use, State Equipment Wish List, and EGIM are being developed with the help of Greg Morlock. The forms will be fillable *.pdf documents with the capability to mail themselves back to Greg for data tabulation. These forms will all be available from the TIPS SharePoint site forms. If you have any questions or would like to have another form developed, contact Greg Morlock. It was requested that the person who provided the assistance be sent a copy of the finished form. There was a brief discussion on how we can lessen the load of surveys being sent to States and Tribes from OSM. One suggestion was to have the surveys come from the Steering Committee, NSMGC, etc, rather than from TIPS.
DECISION: Service Managers need to be aware that several forms are being sent out in the near future. Notify your state contacts so that they know these surveys are coming, and can plan accordingly.
TOPIC: Software Distribution – When & How [Hamm]
DISCUSSION: IT staff has finished testing the hard drives. Each hard drive will be loaded with the entire TIPS software suite. In addition, Daniel Lewis has developed a menu system that will allow users to simply click on a link to install each software package. There are still problems with Autodesk Map and GMS that are being worked out. There were also problems loading Earthvision (error: failed to load dll:NTUIN), SurvCad (Error 5006:0X80070003) and ArcGIS Workstation (Error 1308 –source file not found). After these issues are resolved, the hard drives will go to IT to be copied en masse. Rock Works and AMDtreat v4 may be ready to go and need to be added to HDD. Software managers are responsible for providing updates, etc to IT for testing and licensing. An IT point of contact and a process for providing updates will be developed.
DECISION: Service Managers should contact their customers to explore feasibility of downloading software through an authenticated FTP site. Software managers need to identify any software that may be out with updates in the near future. This should be done ASAP, and the updates need to be given to IT (point of contact and procedure to follow soon).
TOPIC: New TIPS Website rollout [Eskova – Live Meeting Viewing]
DISCUSSION: Veronika Eskova provided a demonstration of the updated website. A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section has been added to each software page. Software Managers are responsible with providing updates on content and any FAQ’s to Veronika on a regular basis. The need for a schedule for updating/reviewing website information was discussed. Should this be done monthly, quarterly, semi-annually?
DECISION: Software managers provide Veronika with any FAQ information ASAP. Also, Software Managers should be reviewing their software pages regularly and providing Veronika with updates as needed.
TOPIC: TIPS National Team meeting Update – [Winters]
DISCUSSION: Mr. Winters was not in attendance. We were reminded that the meeting will be held in July in either Portland, OR or Boise, ID. Please advise Mr. Winters if you have any preference. Also please review the proposed agenda, and send any additions, suggestions or comments to Mr. Winters.
DECISION: N/A
TOPIC: Steering Committee Meeting – [Uranowski]
DISCUSSION: A contract has been signed with the Residence Inn in Baltimore, MD. The meeting will be held May 9-11, 2006. Mr. Clark will be sending out a notice to the Steering Committee Members. Please send any agenda items to Lois Uranowski.
DECISION: Please send Lois any agenda items that you might have.
TOPIC: Equipment Survey status (Customer Wish List) [POSTPONED - Welsh]
DISCUSSION: This survey will be coming out soon. We are currently waiting for the last of the FY 2005 mobile computing equipment to be distributed. Once that happens, the FY 2006 survey will follow shortly.
DECISION: N/A
TOPIC: Training Program – [Evans]
DISCUSSION: The DNS is operational for doing online evaluations . The TIPS information for the NTTP survey is being sent to NTTP on 2/16. Live Meeting is available for use in training. If anyone would like to use Live Meeting, contact Karyn Evans. Effective this training year, any open seats in classes are available on a first come first served basis. A student does not have to be on the wait list to get a seat in a class. Open seats will remain available until 30 days prior to the start of the class. Karyn will work with Veronika to get a listing of open seats on the TIPS website
.
DECISION: Karyn has sent out a list of open seats. If anyone knows of students who would like to fill the seats, contact Karyn Evans.
TOPIC: PA-Wilkes University Project-Status Report – [Uranowski]
DISCUSSION: The principle investigator is out of the country, so nothing much has happened. This topic will be removed from the agenda until there is something available to report.
DECISION: Remove this item from future agendas.
TOPIC: Team Member Reports [All]
DISCUSSION: This topic was tabled due to time constraints. Any Team Member reports should be emailed to Kevin Garnett if you would like them included in these minutes.
DECISION: Email any reports to Garnett for inclusion.
Next Meeting: Thursday, March 2, 2006