Town Technology Committee Meeting Minutes, March 29, 2011

Rhinebeck Technology Committee Meeting Minutes

 

March 29^th, 2011

 

 

In attendance

 

Mike Collins

Joe Ely

Mark Fuerst

Joe Gelb

Dave Kliphon

Joe Kupiec

Paul Niedercorn

 

 

Agenda items, as addressed:

 

 

1. Password Policy Status

 

Summary:

• The Password Policy was presented to the Town Board in February
• The policy is on hold while Joe Gelb gets acquainted with committee efforts

 

Actions:

• No policy actions at this time; goal discussions first

 

 

The committee’s Password Policy was presented at the February 14^th Town Board meeting.  Approval was halted by Joe Gelb so that better understanding could be gained.  Joe agreed to attend the next (this) committee meeting.

 

It was made clear that the Password was one step in the committee’s plan to move the town forward through policy, infrastructure and control measures, steps including the IT Policy, Password Policy, town email adoption and mail capture and archiving.  Focus at the meeting was given to the mail issues.

 

 

 

2. Town Email, Hosting

 

Summary:

• The team agreed upon the risks of not properly controlling town email
• It was agreed that the current webmail system is poor
• A path to get a proposal before the Town Board was discussed

 

Actions:

• Joe E. will draft a white paper describing committee recommendations
• Dave will get a discussion topic on the April 11^th Town Board meeting
• Dave will look into Google Apps Premium support details and look for new webmail
• Dave will notify the village that improved spam filtering will need to wait

 

 

Joe Gelb explained his firm’s capabilities to capture and archive email.  The possibility of self-management of town email was proposed, but it was made clear that the town must have control over the ability to access its email at any time.  The team agreed that incoming and outgoing email should be captured and archived, and that the town is at risk of a FOIL request.

 

The goal of getting representatives to use their town email addresses was discussed.  Several reasons for bypassing this step were presented, most focusing on the poor quality of the existing webmail application, SquirrelMail.  The dynamics of mail and webmail clients and their advantages and disadvantages were deliberated.  Despite the anticipated resistance by representatives to using a second, non-personal email address, it was clearly agreed upon that this would be an ineffective argument, and that all businesses communicate using their own mailboxes.  The need and legitimacy of separating personal and town business email applies in this circumstance as well.

 

It was clear that the best goal for the committee at this time would be to present a proposal to the board, ultimately requiring the board to make a decision between a recommended infrastructure improvement and insurance from non-compliant risks, or to go another year with the possibility of a FOIL request and increased legal risks.  The committee would take one major action: put together a white paper outlining the requirements, benefits and costs of using Google Apps Premier and Gmail as the mail hosting and client solutions.  A second, earlier, step would be to highlight the current hosting shortcomings and the team’s goal of presenting a white paper to the board.  The awareness step would occur at the April 11^th meeting, and the white paper presentation would occur at the May 15^th meeting.  Joe Ely agreed to draft the white paper, outlining Google Apps Premier features and costs, and Dave will ask to get a discussion topic added to the next meeting.  Dave will be on vacation, so Joe E and Mike will represent the committee at the April meeting.  A critical goal is to educate the board and get a decision on the Google Apps solution prior to the completion of the budget cycle.

 

Finally, an issue regarding undesired email in the Village was given brief attention.  Since spam strength on the mail host is at its greatest, and the webmail client is poor, the only action that can be taken at this point is to wait until infrastructure improvements.  Dave will communicate this to the village.

 

 

 

3. Email Group

 

Summary:

• The team is completely switched over to Google Groups

 

Actions:

• Dave will document the acceptance guidelines

 

 

The committee is completely switched over to Google Groups as its group email system.  Those not accepting requests to join were purged, and the old Yahoo group will fade.  Reasons to defend using a group email address instead of a town email address for committee purposes were presented.  Joe Ely identified the possibility that a “reflector” could be used to absorb correspondence into the town mail host.

 

A brief review of group guidelines was discussed.  Once again Dave will attempt to document the email group acceptance guidelines.

 

 

 

4. Cloud Computing

 

Summary:

• The committee Google Apps site is working fine; no immediate improvements needed

 

Actions:

• No further actions while the email and hosting topics move forward

 

 

Google Apps is working fine and continues to exist for both as an example of cloud computing capabilities and as a working collaborative environment for the team.  It was agreed that no further attention is needed in this area until the email topic is addressed by the team.  Mike is confident that the cloud computing solution would be welcomed by town representatives, particularly if email hosting moves to Google Apps Premium.

 

 

 

5. Change Management Policy

 

Summary:

• No progress has been made on the policy for months

 

Actions:

• Mike, assisted by Mark, will attempt to make progress on the policy
• Dave will open the document up to editing on the shared site

 

 

The purpose of the Change Management Policy was reviewed.  Many months have gone by without any improvements to the policy.  Mike volunteered to look into making progress on the policy creation; Mark volunteered to assist.  Dave will open the document up to team editing on the Google Docs site.

 

 

 

6. Time Warner Switch

 

Summary:

• The town is in the process of switching to digital phone service

 

Actions:

• Joe K. will email the Supervisor and ask for documentation and details

 

 

It was noted that the town had nearly completed switching phone service to Time Warner digital.  Although the committee was not consulted during the evaluation period, it did decide to gather information on the change in order to better understand its impact to the network.

 

After discussion trying to decide who to contact for further information it was decided that it would be best to go to Supervisor Tom Traudt for details or a contact.  Joe Kupiec volunteered to email Tom for general information and/or documentation regarding the Time Warner switch.  Paul felt that Time Warner should come in for training, and expressed interest in being involved in any related communications between the company and municipality.

 

It was also noted that Time Warner would be coming in shortly for a site survey, and that the town will preserve the 3203 line as a land line.  Should power go out, Time Warner says that the digital lines could be transferred over to the land line.  The change should also bring an increase in network speed.

 

 

 

7. IT Staff Member Opportunities

 

Summary:

• A part- or full-time IT staff member would benefit the town
• Initial IT consultant expense estimates are lower than expected

 

Actions:

• Mike will check with the town to get a confirmation of IT consultant expenses

 

 

The possibility of a dedicated or shared IT staff member continues to be considered.  Dave believes that consultant IT spending for the past year has been between $5000 and $5500, which is less than expected.  If true, the cost of a full- or part-time individual may be excessive in comparison.

 

Mike volunteered to check with the town to get a confirmation of IT consultant expenses.

 

 

8. Wireless Router Status

 

Summary:

• At some point in past months the network was significantly reconfigured
• The committee’s role in network management is now unclear
• Paul provided an updated network diagram

 

Actions:

• Dave will email Gina to being a dialogue and ask who now “owns” the network

 

 

The town network was reworked at some point in the past, and the Tech Committee was never notified.  For several months the wireless network has not been public, and several users have expressed confusion as to whether the wireless network was available.  A 16-port switch was added to the network and by doing so network-independent departments joined.  Concern about security was raised by the committee, and the need to get information on the changes and intent confirmed.

 

Since the committee was involved in the implementation of the prior network, and therefore responsible for its integrity, a change in the network architecture directly impacts the committee.  Dave will send an email will be sent to the committee liaison asking who now is in charge of the network. 

 

Paul provided a valuable update to his earlier network diagram that helped the team understand the architectural changes.  Note that physical changes were made to the network hardware in the locked closet.

 

 

 

9. Acrobat Forms for Website

 

Summary:

• Editable Acrobat forms could be used to submit applications online

 

Actions:

• Mike will check to see if the town owns a full copy of Acrobat

 

 

Mike explained the advantages to using online, editable application forms that could be immediately submitted to the town inspector.  The team discussed the process of creating and using Adobe Forms as best as possible, and noted that the full Abode product is needed to generate editable forms.

 

In discussion it was realized that filling in and submitting an application form online would not satisfy the requirement of having a signature, but the benefits of getting the process going while deferring the signature until a later date were considered worthwhile.  Mike will check with the town to see if it owns a full copy of Acrobat.

 

 

 

10. Miscellaneous

 

Summary:

• The FTP of IT Audit is no longer needed
• The committee is not certain where .gov site DNS settings are managed

 

Actions:

• The RFP for IT Audit item will be removed from the agenda
• Dave will check to see if he has information on the .gov registrar

 

 

It was questioned whether the RFP for IT Audit topic needs to be on the agenda.  It will be removed by the next meeting.

 

The Website Committee asked if the Tech Committee had any information on where DNS settings for .gov websites are managed.  Although there was uncertainty, Dave realized that he may recorded information on the .gov registrar site, and will look for this information.