Minutes of 06/17/09

Approved 07/15/09

Kevin Ash, Bill Tappan and  Lucy Edwards, and IT Contractor Pete Jones were present. Selectman Holden, Bob Young and Ken Curley were out of town.

The meeting convened at 7 pm.

The minutes of the May meeting were approved.

The first item of business was a discussion of the town website.  Kevin Ash had taken this on and presented some ideas for discussion.  The main issues were: what do we think the town website should do; and where would the resources to accomplish these goals, if they were approved by the selectmen, come from.  It was agreed that we needed to have the complete committee in attendance and we will try to do that at the next meeting. 

The next discussion was on the limits to bandwidth with the current provider, Metrocast.   (See IT report #2 below.)  The alternative providers would be Comcast and Fairpoint.  The cable TV contract expires in 2011 when changes might be made.  Fairpoint did not seem like a very promising idea currently.  This ties in with the discussion of merging the town and school networks.  Since Mr. Holden was not in attendance, we don’t know if the selectmen have discussed this. 

Pete Jones submitted his IT report by e-mail:

1. Data reorganization underway, my rough estimate would be that it's 30% complete. Directory access restrictions reviewed and in place.
   
2. Offsite backup testing in progress, will implement Ken Curley's suggestion for database/large file backups over weekends. Other data backed up offsite every night.
   
3. Google Talk (instant messaging) being used in town hall, going to be rolled out to PD and FD. Frequent users report that this is faster and easier than email or telephone for interoffice communications.
   
4. New copier, with PC to FAX ability, installed.
   
5. Public computer in mail room reorganized, more space for user, new (donated) public computer now in basement conference room.
   
6. Town Administrator and I are applying to be affiliated with the State of NH's Microsoft Select Agreement. The Town will then be able to buy Microsoft software licenses at the State's price, which, in the case of Microsoft Office 2007 Standard, is a $50 savings compared to retail (~$300 retail, $250 per seat through the Select Agreement).
   
7. Meetings of BoS and PB now being recorded and transcribed digitally.

The next meeting will be July 15th.

Bill Tappan will check with everyone to see if we can get a full committee to discuss the website.

The meeting adjourned at 8:15.

Respectfully Submitted,
 Lucy Edwards