IT Supporters’ Group

Committee meeting 12/05/08

Present:

AdjMesselles, Typography

Anthony Worrall, SSE

Claire Bowler, ITS

Jo Hillier, Education

Mark Stephens, ITS

Rick Hobson, Chemistry

Steve Gough, ITS

  1. Notes of last meeting
  1. Publishing notes of meetings
    They are published on the web once the committee has chance to comment (usually a week after the meeting). Claire currently does this however volunteers for someone else to take notes would be gratefully received (ITS do not want to bias these).

Notes accepted.

  1. Membership
  1. Voting at the Conference for members & chair?
    This was not highly successful with Chaz being the only volunteer (other than someone from ITS). The other committee members said that they would be happy to continue to participate but no new members came forward. The idea of inviting people on an informal basis to meetings was again put forward rather than them having to sign up for a set term on the committee. It was thought that it would be good to have a brainstorming session about this at a meeting next term.
  1. Events
  1. Feedback on Conference
    Half-hour slots were good. People commented that it was a long day, perhaps an earlier finish would be more appropriate next time. Balance the talks so that people stay all day. It would be good to get two external speakers again if possible and include workshops as per year before last.

A sheet was handed out with comments from the Conference Evaluation forms which had already been circulated via e-mail.

  1. Remaining events for the summer

It was suggested that the event on 9/6 should be cancelled and that the other two sessions should be as follows and these suggestions were all agreed. 19/5/08 MS Windows Server 2008 & Licencing, 2/6/08 Dell, Virtual Desktop. Anyone requiring help with digital signage can contact ITS-Help.

  1. Autumn seminar suggestions
    Apple talk – Claire from Apple

Thin client update

Opensource

Identity management

CMS/Branding update

Effective use of Outlook/Exchange – Delegation, room bookings, calendars

Best practice/Information Security

Virtual tour of ITS

Janet talk

Committee discussion (combine with above)

Communication tools/Web 2.0

Use of BlackBoard for IT Supporters’ – perhaps Spring

Vista update

  1. Plans for increased support for IT support staff
  1. Remedy
    Would like to increase the numbers of IT Supporters’ using. It might be useful to have feedback later in the year when more people are on it.
  2. Training – Need to investigate the costs for Vista training.
  1. IT Supporters Forum
    Update after summer.
  1. AOB
    Some IT Supporters’ never attend any of the events. We need to encourage their participation. Perhaps the Heads of Schools could be approached.
  2. Date of next meeting
    Prefer a Tuesday to allow catching up after the weekend.Meet early Sept to finalise programme for Autumn and November to plan Spring term. Dates & venue TBC.