COMMUNITY COUNCIL
of the
NEBRASKA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY COMMISSION
Thursday, April 8, 1999
Teleconference Sites:
Scottsbluff, Nebraska: Panhandle Station, High Plains Room, 4502 Avenue I
Norfolk, Nebraska: Northeast Community College, Maclay Building, Room 122, 801 Benjamin
Kearney, Nebraska: Public Library, Media Center Room, 2nd Floor, 2020 1st Avenue
Lincoln, Nebraska: Executive Building, 1st Floor Conference Room, 521 South 14th Street
APPROVED MINUTES
MEMBERS PRESENT |
|
| Scottsbluff Site: Gerry Kluch, Kaystar Seed | |
| Norfolk Site: Lance Hedquist, League of Municipalities and Mike Nolan, City of Norfolk | |
| Kearney Site: Donna Hammack, Good Samaritan Foundation; Russ Pankonin, Wauneta Breeze; and Jeanne Saathoff, Nebraska Library Assoc. | |
| Lincoln Site: Rod Armstrong, AIM Institute and Gary Kiel, PKS Integrated Systems | |
MEMBERS ABSENT |
|
| Jim Beatty, NCS International | Jim Lowe, Midwest Microsystems |
| Anne Boyle, Public Service Commission | Judi Morgan, Indian Affairs |
| Tyler French, Inacom | Greg Robinson, City of Kimball |
| Jeff Grimes, Fasse Valves | Craig Schroeder, Nebraska Rural Development |
| Dave Hunter, City of Holdrege | Gary Warren, Hamilton Telecommunications |
| Tim Loewenstein, NACO | |
CALL TO ORDER AND MINUTES
The meeting was called to order by Co-Chair, Donna Hammack at 1:35 p.m. Seven of nineteen members were present - no quorum was available to conduct official business or vote on action items. Approval of minutes will be done at the next meeting.
PUBLIC COMMENT - There were no public comments.
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES FOR PREPARING A STATEWIDE TECHNOLOGY PLAN - Steve Schafer and Tom Rolfes
Steve Schafer, Acting State Chief Information Officer, shared a brief history on the document and provided an overview of its contents to the council members. Following is a list of persons involved in the completion of the plan, along with staff:
Part I Goals - NITC Commissioners
Part II Sector Priorities and Action Plans - Joint Planning Subcommittee and the councils
Part III Technical Infrastructure Plan - Technical Panel
Part IV Process and Procedures - Technical Panel
Part V Implementation Plan - Joint Planning Subcommittee
Tom Rolfes, Education Information Technology Manager, explained the steps to be followed for Part II Sector Priorities and Action Plans (document distributed to members). The Joint Planning Subcommittee will be meeting sometime after the NITC April 14th meeting to begin work on Step 1, Needs Assessment Task A - to conduct a perceived needs assessment. This would be a cross sectional perspective of the most important problems and opportunities that require the use of information technology. Step 1, Tasks B and C, will be done by the council at their May meeting. The input cross section perspective will be brought back to each of the councils for input, suggestions and prioritization. The June meeting will be spent on Step 2 Casual Analysis, Tasks A, B and C - to describe present conditions, desired outcomes and causes of identified needs. The Joint Planning Subcommittee will then come together again to consolidate the input from the councils.
Mr. Hedquist suggested working with the League of Municipalities to acquire more feedback on needs.
COMMUNITY COUNCIL CHARTER
Mr. Rolfes pointed out the section regarding membership which expanded the representation of the health and libraries sectors. There were no objections from the members. It was by group consensus and accepted by the members present to expand the membership. Mr. Winkle offered to contact the members who were absent for their feedback.
COMMUNITY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGER POSITION UPDATE
A preliminary report of the Appropriations Committee budget included authority for the Community Information Technology Manager position. Funding would be made available through the reallocation of monies from the Community Technology Fund for FY1999-00 and FY 2000-01.
OTHER
LB731 Rural Technology Development Act amendments have been worked out with Senator Wehrbein. Copies of the April 7, 1999 Legislative Journal were distributed to the members for review of Sections 3 and 4. Mr. Winkle reported that the NITC commissioners suggested at their last meeting that the Community Council may want to form a Rural Development Subcommittee to be involved in the technology planning process of this bill. Mr. Kiel would like to be part of this group and emphasized that representation is important. It was by group consensus for staff to proceed with the formation of this subcommittee if the bill is approved. Mr. Winkle informed the group that council members will be contacted for recommendations.
Website. Mr. Rolfes announced that staff have been working on a new design for the NITC website that would bring all the councils together in an easier format with a combined calendar of events. Rick Becker, Government Information Technology Manager, was thanked for his leadership on this project. The new changes will occur within the next week.
CTF First Round Reports. Mr. Rolfes reported that letters and initial report forms were sent out to the first round recipients. Projects must submit their reports by May 1st to receive the balance of their award monies.
LB559. Ms. Hammack announced that the bill has advanced and thanked everyone who made contacts to their senators. Several other senators have signed on to the bill.
Workshops. An email was sent by Craig Schroeder requesting that dates for the "Economic Development in the Information Age" Workshops being held between May 5th-20th be posted to the web. A portion of the workshop was funded by a Community Technology Fund grant. These dates will be posted on the NITC website.
Jeff Grimes sent an email concerning a public forum that is being organized by KASCIP (Kearney Area Society of Computer and Information Professionals) and the Kearney Area Chamber of Commerce for mid-Nebraska small businesses. The content will include affordable and usable technologies. The forum will be in September in Kearney. Date to be determined.
NEXT MEETING DATE, TIME AND LOCATION
It was emphasized by Mr. Winkle that the next two meetings will be working sessions on the Sector Priorities and Action Plans section of Policies and Procedure for Preparing a Statewide Technology Plan and that it is important to have all council members in attendance. Meetings have been scheduled for 1:30-4:30 p.m. on May 27th and June 10th in Lincoln. Locations to be announced.
The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m. by the co-chair, Lance Hedquist.
Minutes were taken by Lori Lopez Urdiales then reviewed by Tom Rolfes and Rick Becker, Office of the Chief Information Officer/NITC.
Meeting Minutes