APPROVED

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MINUTES
March 21, 2000 – 10:00 am

IHETS Conference Room

PRESENT:
Byron Bond, Indiana State University
John Huie, Purdue University
Dennis Kramer, Ball State University
T.K. Olson, Independent Colleges of Indiana
Martha Roblee, Indiana State Library
Dick Tully, Ivy Tech State College
Phyllis Usher, Indiana Department of Education
Brian Voss, Indiana University

IHETS STAFF:
Virginia Beyer, Tim Fisher, Dave King, Nancy Millichap, Jennifer Ping, Tim Ping, Mark Rottler, Susan Scott, Ed Tully, Julie Wheeler

 

Huie called the meeting to order at 10:00 and the minutes of the January 18 and January 27, 2000 meetings were accepted as distributed.

Report from IHETS Independence Committee

Olson reported that following a complete review of the cost analysis and financial implications of IHETS becoming a separate legal entity, the committee will recommend to the Board of Directors that no change be made at this time.  The committee agreed that the issue be revisited in two years.

Performance Appraisal Process

Huie recommended that a subgroup from the Management Committee be appointed to review the Executive Director and overall management of the organization.  Huie will call on the members of the selection committee to conduct the review (Dowden, Jensen, McRobbie and Huie).

Important Pending Issues

Circuit Support Level for FY00/01- King reported that IHETS has $1.1M available to defray circuit costs.  However, funds needed to continue supporting member circuit acquisition cannot keep pace with the extraordinarily rapid growth in bandwidth needs. Last year, IHETS was forced to raise the institutional share from $7,500 to $9,000. In order to balance the next budget, IHETS will need either (1) to increase the amount to $11,000 (including a dollar cap per campus) and be able to fund some 40 new circuits in the next year or (2) simply not support any new circuits after the end of this fiscal year (that is, institutions would need to pay the full $16,5000 for each new T1 circuit).  King added that the long-term goal is to reduce circuit costs for the Access Indiana State Network, at which point institutions might be able to pay the full cost and IHETS could shift funds to applications testing and advanced services.

Members of the Integrated Technologies Committee have recommended that we proceed with Option #2.   Following discussion, Tully moved that we adopt Option #2 at $11K/T1 and $5K/56k.  Kramer seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.

FY00/01 Operating Budget

King provided background regarding the proposed budget for the next fiscal year noting that the budget reflects a 2.8% increase of 1999-00.  King added that the ability to reallocate funds has been exhausted such that IHETS will not be able to add another satellite channel without cost sharing by the users.  Following review and discussion, Kramer moved adoption of the budget proposal for 2000-01.  Voss seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved.

2001-03 Strategic Directions Proposal

King reviewed the 2001-2003 Strategic Direction and outlined the basic parts to the proposal: enhanced learner resource development, network access improvement, Internet 2 access and application development and continued development and operation of IHETS networks.  He reviewed the budget implications for these key areas with a total proposed request over and above a typical 3% incremental increase.  Recurring costs would be $3.75M per year to base each year of the biennium for a total of $7.5M and one-time costs at $1.5M each year of the biennium for a total of $3.0M.

King underscored that this is a different approach to budget requests and asked if there is institutional support for the request.  Huie asked the group to consider if there are parts of the proposal that would better be left to the institutions rather than IHETS.  He encouraged the group to discuss  the proposal with others at their institutions and be ready to make recommendations at a March 30 or 31 conference call.  Discussions will also take place at ITC and Working Group meetings over the next few weeks. 

Draft Agenda for Board of Directors

Agenda items for the Board of Directors meeting will include the 2000-2001 Operating Budget, 2001-2003 Strategic Direction, and a report by the Independence committee.

Learning Center Development Statewide

Huie reported on recent Lilly Endowment grants to 22 community foundations for assessing local education needs.  He stated that Purdue has asked Linda Chezem to work with institutional representatives and IHETS staff to link these community initiatives with the colleges and universities beginning with a one-day conference.  A jointly sponsored, mid-May workshop is planned.  Huie asked the group to contact Susan with ideas for keynote speakers, interest in providing exhibits, and willingness to help plan and staff the event.  In addition, he encouraged the group to visit the newly redesigned Learning Center information on the IHETS web site.

The meeting adjourned at 12:15pm.