COMMUNITY COUNCIL

Nebraska Information Technology Commission
Thursday, June 10, 1999, 1:30 p.m.
University of Nebraska East Campus Union

Approved Minutes

Members Present
Linda Aerni (alternate for Michael Nolan)	Rick Nolan, Children's Hospital
Donna Hammack, Good Samaritan Foundation	Russ Pankonin, Imperial Republican
Gene Hand (for Anne Boyle, PSC)	Jeanne Saathoff, Nebraska Library Assoc.
Lance Hedquist, League of Municipalities	Craig Schroeder, Nebraska Rural Development
Ron Heezen, Omaha Public Library	Bob Sweeney, (for Rod Armstrong, AIM Institute)
Gary Kiel, PKS System Integrated	Ted Schultz, Nebraska Association of Hospitals
Gerry Kluch, Kaystar Seed	Ann Stephens, Keene Memorial Library
Jim Lowe, Midwest Microsystems	Gary Warren, Hamilton Telecommunications
Members Absent
Jim Beatty, NCS International	Judi Morgan, Indian Affairs
Tyler French, Inacom	Greg Robinson, Government
Dave Hunter, Municipal Government	Jeff Grimes, Fasse Valves
Tim Lowenstein, NACO

CALL TO ORDER:

The meeting was called to order by Co-Chair Lance Hedquist at 1:35. Council members and guests introduced themselves. Ms. Hammack asked for corrections and/or additions to the May 27th minutes. Mr. Klugh motioned to approve the minutes. The motion was seconded by Mr. Heezen. All were in favor. Motion was carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT: Guests were given the opportunity for public comment. None was given.

CHARTER: The charter was added to the agenda as an action item. Charters will be reviewed by the NITC at their June 29th meeting. Special attention was given to the section on sector representation. The charter was approved by group consensus.

REVIEW AND REVISE GOAL STATEMENTS:

Paul Ladehoff and Laura Anderson, Lincoln-Lancaster Mediation Center, facilitated the meeting. Anne Byers, Community Information Technology Manager, condensed input provided by the council members at the May meeting into seven common themes for discussion. After review, the council agreed on the following goal statements:

Nebraska will cultivate a political, regulatory and economic environment that is conducive to I.T. development and innovation by:

1. Ensuring access to public and private services for all citizens of the State of Nebraska (regardless of impediments such as location or socio-economic status) through the appropriate and efficient use of information technologies.
2. Promoting the development of an infrastructure (including sufficient bandwidth) that is secure, affordable, reliable, and responds to the specific needs of various sectors. Efforts should be made to ensure that systems established across the state are compatible.
3. Developing a workforce knowledgeable of and fluent in the use and application of information technology. Efforts should be made to promote the recruitment and retention of I.T. professionals within the state.
4. Facilitating I.T. development and innovation by raising awareness, encouraging collaboration and developing partnerships among and between public and private entities. In the private sector, facilitating interactions among firms and establishing synergistic clusters should be encouraged.

The Council agreed that the goals are equal in importance and should not be prioritized.

BARRIERS: Due to time constraints, members were asked to provide information on barriers electronically to Anne Byers for compilation.

ROLE OF THE COUNCIL (How should the council move forward?)

The following were suggestions submitted by the council members:

Make specific proposals (ie. Brain Gain Legislation) - and specific recommendations for assets such as NOL, Creighton's E-Commerce Masters Program	Bring together sufficient volume to make I.T. development economically feasible and attractive
Make sure that other sectors (Government and Education) are aware of the impact of their actions on the community sector	Communicate the unique circumstances of the Community Council relative to the other councils (volunteers for example)
Study issues and build consensus on how to address them	Develop a process to take action by identifying, solutions and opportunities to barriers
Ensure that CC plays a role and that redundancies are minimized	Collect information (data warehouse) - process awareness and I.T. activities for the state
Define a process to identify problems and solutions	Provide a forum to communicate I.T. opportunities
List resources to approach and apply to address barriers and opportunities	Explore needs by sub-sectors (ie. Telehealth) - what do they need/want?
Point out ways to aggregate demand and promote efficient use of current infrastructure	Push and advocate and use staff resources to affect change, ie. Legislation
Identify barriers, opportunities, and ideas to address	Provide guidance for the State of Nebraska by acting as the voice of communities
Build the business case	Promote best practices
Identify other entities	Communicate with other councils
Communicate the benefit of I.T.	Encourage compatibility
Make people aware of training opportunities	Identify ways to involve the "have nots" in I.T.
Showcase successes	Foster synergies and promote collaboration
Provide a vision beyond what is available today

NEXT MEETING DATE AND TIME:

The next meeting will be Thursday, July 29th. Staff will check on a meeting site. Staff was requested to explore and report at the next meeting the council's role and/or limitations in legislative matters such as drafting a bill. The meeting was adjourned by co-chair Donna Hammack at 4:30 p.m.

Minutes taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales, CIO/NITC Administrative Assistant and reviewed by Anne Byers, Community I.T. Manager, CIO/NITC.

Meeting Minutes