Town Technology Committee Meeting Minutes, January 20, 2011

Posted on: 1/23/2011
Date of Minutes: 
01/20/2011

Rhinebeck Technology Committee Meeting Minutes

 

January 20th, 2010

 

 

This meeting was a Town Board workshop and joint session with the Town Web Committee.

 

 

In attendance

 

Mike Collins

Joe Ely

Mark Fuerst

Dave Kliphon

Paul Niedercorn

 

 

Also attending

 

Tom Traudt, Town Supervisor

Gina Fox, Town Board

Joe Gelb, Town Board

Bruce Washburn, Town Board

Andy Schulkind, Chair, Town Website Committee

Kathy Kinsella, Town Website Commitee

Andrea Pyros, Town Website Committee

Joan Winne, Planning Board Secretay, Town Website Committee

Barbara Cunningham, Town Clerk

 

 

Rhinebeck Town Technology Committee agenda items, as addressed:

 

 

  1. Password Policy

 

Summary:

    • With passage of the IT Policy, the proposed Password Policy should now be reviewed
    • Password collection, and the potential collector, are topics for discussion

 

Actions:

    • The policy will be sent to Gina, who will distribute it and put it on the Town Board agenda

 

 

The Electronics Acceptable Usage Policy (IT Policy) was approved by the Town Board at the December 28th meeting.  The next Committee goal is to introduce a Password Policy for discussion and adoption. 

 

The features of the policy were summarized to the meeting group.  A debate regarding whether passwords should be collected by a Town representative ensued.  The person who should collect passwords (clerk, bookkeeper or other) was also discussed.

 

A proposed policy will be sent to Gina.  She will distribute it and integrate into the board's discussion and agenda.

 

 

 

  1. Email Usage

 

Summary:

    • All Town representatives should use their Rhinebeck-ny.gov email address

 

Actions:

    • Dave will contact the Village to see if there is interest in participating

 

 

It was made clear to meeting attendees that the Committee does not believe that Town representatives are using their assigned email addresses.  It is the opinion of the Tech Committee that all Town representatives should use their rhinebeck-ny.gov mailboxes for all government email business.

 

Joe Gelb requested the integration of his town address with work mail.  The committee will need to research the possibility of mail integration, but will first focus on working with the town to get users onto their assigned addresses.

 

Kathy Kinsella asked whether the Village had been engaged regarding Tech Committee activities.  Dave will reach out to the Village to see if they see benefit in Committee activities.

 

 

 

  1. Email Hosting

 

Summary:

    • Google Apps Premier was recommended as a service for archiving email
    • The cost would be $83 / mailbox / year

 

Actions:

    • Committee will continue to advance topic

 

 

It was explained to the meeting attendees that email hosts, or "post offices", typically do not save mail.  Although the Town host is current set to collect incoming email, outgoing messages do not necessarily get captured or even go through the host.

 

The Committee recommended that Google Apps Premier, with Postini, be used to capture, archive and search (e-discovery) Town email.  The cost would be $83 / mailbox / year,  Being able to capture and archive all incoming and outgoing email is key to preparing the Town for FOIL requests.

 

 

 

  1. Cloud Computing

 

Summary:

    • The Town should consider using Google Docs for document management
    • The Committee using Google Apps as a proof-of-concept

 

Actions:

    • Committee will continue to utilize Google Apps

 

 

The possibility of storing Town documents "in the cloud" should be considered.  Benefits include access from anywhere, lower costs, offloaded support, upgrades, backups, etc... 

 

A brief demonstration of the Committee’s usage of Google Apps for document management was conducted.

 

The four topics above were deliberately itemized and prioritized as key issues that the Committee wishes to address with the Town Board.

 

 

 


  1. Additional

 

Summary:

    • There is significant need to an internal IT person to assist the Town
    • A Technical Inventory should be conducted as part of a Town self-audit
    • A Change Management Policy continues to be developed
    • The Committee has a Five Year Plan in place for future topics

 

Actions:

    • RFP for IT Audit will remain on future agendas
    • Committee will continue to collaborate on the Change Management Policy

 

 

It was made clear to all at the meeting that the Tech Committee believes that an internal IT person is needed to assist the town with technical challenges.

 

The Committee has considered possible ways to conduct a technical inventory of town systems.  The Committee recommends that an inventory be part of a self-audit requested by the Town. 

 

The team has been developing a Change Management Policy, which is meant to be followed by consultants when making technical changes in the Town offices.  The goal is to minimize the possibility of fixes creating other problems.  The Committee will continue collaborating on this policy by using  its Google Docs site.

 

It was explained that the Tech Committee has a Five Year Plan that is used to assist in guiding the team with current and future topic goals.

 

 

Next Meeting

 

TBD, Winter 2011 at 7:00 pm.