2003 E-Government Conference

Projected Attendance:  100-200 town officers from Vermont.  State agency
staff are another possible audience if the topics covered are
applicable.

Funding:  CRS has $30,000 in a USDA grant reserved for this conference.
We will need to submit a budget to have access to the money.

Date:  The conference is planned for sometime in 2003 with a possible
extension into 2004 if there are any scheduling conflicts.  We also want
ample time for a good publicity campaign that begins a dialogue on the
key issues that the conference will address.  Jill stated that VLCT has
a busy year coming up, and there will be a wider range of dates open for
this conference if another party (UVM Extension or Continuing Ed)
performs the registration.  We also must be sure that the conference
doesn’t conflict with other events like the TOEC’s, MOMS, VLCT Town
Fair, VMCTA gatherings, etc.

Location and Venue:  Right now we are discussing a one-day,
single-location conference, rather than an event held at simultaneous
sites.  A central location in Vermont is preferable.  The Capital Plaza
Hotel and the Statehouse in Montpelier and the Howard Dean Education
Center in Springfield were some of the suggestions.  We will probably
need an ample number of computers and labs for the hands on sessions.
Dan said that CE will have a 12-person portable computer lab soon, and
there are others throughout the state that we could use, opening up our
venue options a bit.

Topics:  Surveys and email were mentioned as good methods for acquiring
town officer opinions on key issues and topics or the conference.  The
Muni-Net email list will also be used.  Dan also mentioned the
possibility of an online survey tool called “Perseus.”  Efforts should
also be made to contact town officers who may not be email-savvy.
Feedback from May’s E-Government Mini-Conference will be useful.
Preliminary numbers from the evaluation forms were positive, especially
for the hands-on computer software sessions.  Open-ended answers for
future conference topics were not available, but Jill said that she
would try to get them.  She also mentioned the possibility of some
computer training related questions on another VLCT survey that will go
out later this year.

Conference topics and activities that we discussed included information
security and disaster management, planning and budgeting for I.T.
implementation, the public vs. publishable information debate,
digitizing land records, and hands-on computer software sessions.  The
conference could also be a venue for any other e-government efforts that
are currently underway.  There was discussion on using the opening
speaker to address overarching issues (like security) and saving the
hands-on sessions for last.  That would be a good way to maintain
attendance throughout the day.  Making sure to schedule most of the
concurrent hands-on sessions at the same time would also prevent them
from pulling attendees from the issue-related sessions (this happened at
the Mini-Conference).

Deb Markowitz and Mich Kabay were two opening speaker possibilities that
we discussed.  We also considered getting someone with a national
following.  Dan suggested the mayor of a big city.  We all agreed that
it is very important for the speaker to be able to address issues at a
municipal Vermont level.  We thought that any surveying efforts should
ask town officers about their speaker preferences as well.

Groups Involved as of Yet:  The MIT committee or a subcommittee will
make programming decisions for the conference, as well as the time and
place of the event.  CRS will be the primary funding party.
Registration can be performed by VLCT, UVM CE, or Extension.  VLCT might
be able to pick up other conference logistics as well.  CRS hopes to
hire a staff-member who will be the go-to person for any programming or
logistics duties that need to be done.

Recruitment

Attendance at this meeting was very low.  Jill stated that Mike Gilbar
was unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances.  We agreed that
recruitment was a top concern.  A representative group will be necessary
to plan this conference and the future activities of the group.  I
agreed to contact Larry Melen (Weathersfield Town Manager), Dean Pierce
(Shelburne Town Planner), and someone from the Vermont Municipal Clerks
and Treasurers Assoc.  Jill will contact a Lister named Peter Rimsa
(sp?) and said that Mike Gilbar plans to contact Carl Rogers from Barre
Town.  I will also make contact with Peter Brownell, who organized an
e-government conference a couple years back.

Subcommittee Initiatives

We did not address this agenda item, due to low attendance.

Committee Leadership

It was agreed that I should continue on as Committee Chair.  There are
no other committee positions at this time.

Other Business

Dan mentioned new software that would allow the MIT group to meet
interactively online.  This could be useful as we continue efforts to
fill the group with people from all over the state.  Phone conferencing
is also a possibility.

Jill mentioned that VLCT had entered a deal with Symquest for discounted
town officer software training.  See the VLCT newsletter for more info.

Also, VLCT is working to fill a new I.T. Technician position, if MIT
members know anyone who may be interested.

Next Meeting

The next MIT Committee meeting is set for 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August
27 at UVM Continuing Education in the Montpelier City Center.  We will
be contacting new members to join us at this meeting.  Anyone who was
not able to attend this meeting should also feel free to invite new
members to join us.  I would appreciate if you just let me know via
email at wsawyer@zoo.uvm.edu

The meeting ended around 3:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,