2010-05-26 Technology Steering committee call

Committee: 
Technology
Date: 
Wed, 05/26/2010 - 19:00 to Wed, 05/26/2010 - 20:00
Location: 
Agenda: 
  1. Quick introductions (new team member: Kevin Melchionne)
  2. Review revised strategic framework (see attached file below)
  3. Review Executive Director's quarterly report (see attached files below)
  4. Review committee charge (see 2010 Technology Committee-Rev1.ppt attachment in http://www.nynjtc.org/meeting/20100315-technology-steering-committee-meeting
  5. Review our 2009-2010 goals and plan (see FY2010 Technology Committee Plan 12-08.doc attachment in http://www.nynjtc.org/meeting/20100315-technology-steering-committee-meeting
  6. Discuss needs for 2010-11 plan and budget
    1. CRM database project
  7. Set date for next quarterly meeting (June or July?)

Attendees: 
John Kolp, Walt Daniels, Ann Gruhn (Steve Marano called with last minute regrets; Josh Howard and Kevin Melchionne were no-shows)
Minutes: 

1. Quick introductions (new team member: Kevin Melchionne) -- NOT DONE

2. Review revised strategic framework (see attached file below) -- NOT DONE

-- This and items 3, 4, 5 were intended to set the stage for a discussion of operational needs and technology solutions that might be appropriate. Since Josh and Kevin were absent, we skipped over this and went to a general discussion of possible projects and priorities for 2010-11.

3. Review Executive Director's quarterly report (see attached files below) -- Used this as start point for our general discussion.

4. Review committee charge (see 2010 Technology Committee-Rev1.ppt attachment in http://www.nynjtc.org/meeting/20100315-technology-steering-committee-mee... -- NOT DONE

5. Review our 2009-2010 goals and plan (see FY2010 Technology Committee Plan 12-08.doc attachment in http://www.nynjtc.org/meeting/20100315-technology-steering-committee-mee... -- NOT DONE

6. Discuss needs for 2010-11 plan and budget

What's in current budget? TIS, sw licenses, a2hosting, $12K for web programming

1. CRM database project
What do interested parties want out of the project?
Technology committee provides what staff needs. (Our impression is that the staff is not interested in integration at present.) Perhaps this project should be deferred or given lower priority.

What does ATC do? As we do, they have something that works. It is not integrated; the external world doesn't see it. Their store has same problems as ours.

Candidates: CIviCRM, SalesForce, Convio Common Ground

The technology vision is to evolve to an integrated system with data flowing from Web to CRM database to accounting system without manual re-entry of data or copying and pasting.

It would be difficult to interface to our current accounting system. (Josh didn't want to upgrade to QuickBooks Enterprise version. Staff comfortable with eBase.)

Move email to gmail and have Google host it. ( It would be helpful to do cost-benefit analysis to see if significant savings are possible.)

What about downloadable maps (with trail description). Ed not willing to do without having a staff person to oversee. John suggests some kind of market research/ survey to see what people want?

John would like to know if actual costs of technology can be calculated ... Walt indicated Josh has not been able to provide that to us in the past. Some individual costs can be extracted from the budget.

Exchange server (vs. Gmail server)
TIS support
Licenses
% of staff time
a2hosting
new hardware (buried in capital expenses)

What would be top priorities for next year?
The top contenders are the Donation process and store.


7. Set date for next quarterly meeting (June or July?)
June 23 at 7 PM in the Trail Conference office.