Meeting Notes from July 27, 2006, Reston, Virginia

On the call:  Leo House, Alan Ward (OED), Mike Nolan, Dave Pollock, Jan Thompson, Donna Schiffer, Virginia DeLima, Bob Hainly

TEL Program

Alan gave a report on the presentation to the Water Senior Staff on July 20, 2006 on the TEL program.  Alan, TJ Lane, Jim Kolva (OSW), and Donna (by phone) participated in the presentation

• Senior staff approved $25K for the annual maintenance agreement on Macromedia Breeze software and licenses. 
• TJ Lane is doing a good job ‘policing’ the licenses and freeing up licenses from individuals who are not currently making use of them (so they are available to others).
• Jim Kolva’s ADAPS class (editing unit values in ADAPS) will be out in the next few weeks.
• Jim’s presentation of an example from his course was well received.
• Senior staff was receptive to the idea of funding a 0.5 FTE for technical support of Subject Matter Experts for course development using Breeze.

OED is hoping to get the GIO to also agree to fund 0.5 FTE for Breeze technical support (for develoing GIS courses for them) so that would result in one full time person to work with TJ.

• Should web-based courses be available to the public? 
• Public will be able to access some courses but there are some philosophical questions to be addressed. We could be able to control access to courses (Alan).
• DOILearn will eventually have credit card access and so through e-commerce, outside customers may be able to access courses in this manner.

TEL Action items:

• Still need a ‘position paper’ on charging for courses, to be presented to Water senior staff.
• Assessing the time required for conversion of a course already on CD to a TEL course:  TJ Lane has a CD for this purpose from Mike Nolan on discharge wading measurements but he is updating the information. (Mike noted that he actually prefers web-based delivery of courses to the CD version because course content can be kept current.)

Advanced Scientific Education (ASE) Program

• Donna will set up a Webex session so the sub-team can work on the application and instructions forms on line.
• Considerations for ASE program:
• Crossing fiscal years, funding across years
• Would require Working Capital Fund

Face-to-Face STED meeting:

• November 16-17, Denver Federal Center
• Alan Ward will send room information and hotel info.
1. Reviewed Action items from April face-to-face meeting.
2. Donna will update these so they are current and provide a copy to TJ Lane for posting to the web site.
3. Donna reminded those on the call that she will be rotating from the Chair position in January 2007 and is looking for a volunteer for that position.

Next conference call scheduled for September 28th, will be moved to October 5th,