Conference Call Agenda and Notes
Thursday July 29, 2010 (1:00-3:00 pm Eastern Time)

Notes recorded by Lynn Taylor

Dial-in Logistics   Purpose    Agenda    Attendees    Discussion Notes

Dial-In Logistics

Purpose

Attendees List: Introductions and Roll Call - 1300 - 1305

Invited - Alan Ward, Barbara Kerans, David Pollock, Dianne Jefferies, Franceska Wilde Harry Jenter, Joyce Williamson, Mike Nolan, Lynn Taylor, Steve Blanchard, Steve Anthony Steve Lipscomb, Theresa Lane, Bill Hazel, Mike Ierardi

Attended -Alan Ward, Harry Jenter, Steve Blanchard, Joyce Williamson, Bill Hazel, Mike Ierardi, Steve Lipscomb, Steve Anthony, Barbara Kerans,

Agenda And Discussion Notes

• 1300-1310 Agenda Review Bill


Committee Business Items
• 1310-1315 Review minutes of May 2010 meeting       Bill
• 1315-1325 External communication reports


Priority Action Items
• 1325-1345 STED Web pages       Mike Ieradi, Mike Nolan, Barb, Lynn
• 1345-1355 QW Principles Course      Franceska
• 1355-1405 SW Policy and Procedures Course      Mike Nolan
• 1405-1415 Essential and Recommended Technical Courses      Franceska
• 1415-1425 Regional Co-op Status Bill, Joyce      Dave, Mike,


Discussion Items
• 1425-1430 Face-to-face meeting this year?      Bill
• 1430-1435 Report to Senior Staff? Bill


Wrap-up
Review assignments, establish next meeting date
• 1435-1445 (09/30/2010?)

Committee Business Items:

• Review minutes of last meeting, May 2010      - Bill -
• 1310-1315 - Nothing needs to be added or changed.
• External communication reports - 1315-1325

Priority Action Items

STED Web pages - Mike Ieradi
http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/STED/

Steve B. and Barbara K. provided feedback.

1. Made the color more uniform
2. One problem, there are a lot of "STED" web pages. Ideally pages should have all the files and links in one location.
3. Committee formed within STED - AI - STED - WORK (Webpage Organization Refinement Kommittee),
4. Team needs to consolidate and provide consolidated information to Mike I.
5. Nothing on the page is more than 2 clicks away from the main STED page.
6. Would like to make the page more dynamic regarding new training to make things easier for the individual maintaining the site.

1. All of Mike N. videos are being served off a dedicated TEL server in Denver. Russel Smith and TJ Lane maintain this server.
2. Do we want these vidoe files moved to NatWeb were there will be reduntant backup?
3. Alan W. shop provides tracking of the training. Would like to talk about how we should do this. Alan's thought is the best thing is to have links of the WRD server and keep the course on the DOI site.
4. Alan - Does STED want a list of courses/calendar of courses on the STED page?
5. Alan - The National Training Center (NTC) has such a list so STED could link to NTC site to provide the list of sites.
6. Alan - There may be other courses that NTC does not list that need to be listed on the STED page.
7. Bill - Yes, the goal of the STED page is to provide a comprehensive list of trainging available to WRD employees.
   Bill - provide information about DOI Learn and how to sign up for a course on the STED page but leave all registration and tracking on DOI Learn.
8. Mike I - There is a link currently, to the Development Course Catalog to the NTC page that lists the courses available.
   This page is maintained by NTC personel, these are not all WRD courses.
9. Mike I - What is, Hydro Tech Toolbox, that he included at the top of the STED page? And does STED want this link.
   STED answer - Yes.
10. Need to provide appropriate links from this site and clean up the broken links.
11. Alan - Need to update Mike N. site, Hydro Tech Toolbox, and utilize the NTC, Development Course Catalog as much as possible so that STED does not have to maintain course information.
12. Steve L - Where would information that is not currently anywhere else be kept, example: a short video about a specific field technique? Alan - The NTC could keep these courses as a simple list the tracking and other overhead of formal courses in DOI Learn.
13. AI - STED - Decide on a threshold for what is informal and what needs to be a formal course in DOI Learn.
14. AI - STED - Decide where to keep the presentations and serve them.
15. AI - STED - Figure out if this is feasible, based on cost and time, to maintain this kind of web page. Who will maintain this page?
    Is money needed, if so where will it come from?
    Steve B. - Feels we can get some funding from headquarters for this.
16. Mike I. - Talked to his supervisor about the time and scope of this effort. Has three days into it so far.
17. Mike I. - Doesn't know where some information should be linked so there are some links not provided.
    This gets back to the AIs above and information needed from STED.
18. Mike I. - NTC and DOI Learn have some kind of database behind them, so that scripts can be written for the STED page that will dynamically update the STED page with changes to NTC and DOI Learn pages. Does the STED page need this or do we just need to provide the links to the other sites?

QW Principles Course

• Franceska is unavailable

SW Policy and Procedures Course

• Mike N is unavailable.
• From Steve - the course is out for review.

Essential and Recommended Technical Courses

Dave, Mike and Franceska not available.

Regional Co-op Status

1. Joyce is helping with this.
2. Got good feedback at the meeting in Omaha.
3. Bill would like suggestions for an acronym for this group.

Discussion Items

1. There are a lot of outstanding questions about the web page. Steve B. - One route is to create a subcommittee rather than have the whole group talk about it.
2. The group that started the page is Barbara K, Lynn T., Mike Nolan and Mike I., should probably add Alan. This will be the subcommittee and Baraba will coordinate. The subcommittee will present the page to the full STED.
3. Joyce - are there any national meetings that would get many STED members together. WRD GIS conference in November. National Surface Water meeting in Tampa, FL, next March.
4. AI - Bill will put together a proposal about the meeting and provide STED with options before the next meeting.

Please provide Bill any thoughts you have.

• Bill - Is Senior Staff expecting a report from STED?
• Steve B. - No they are not. Nobody feels there is a need to report to Senior Staff this year
• From Alan - Training needs analysis
• Steve B. - suggested putting this out when the supervisory reviews are done. Alan agreed and is looking for an actual date and the length of time people should be given to complete.
• STED recommendation - Send out the middle of October and ask for turn around with in three weeks.
• Send a reminder to the supervisors with the percentage completed when there is a week left.

Wrap-

• AI - Barabara will get WORK started with an email.
• Need to consolitdate and provide consolidated information to Mike I. Make recommendations about where to keep the list of "adhoc" courses and their content. Make recommendations about informal vs formal courses.
• AI - Bill will get the Regional Co-op group working outside of STED.
• The surface water policy and procedures is out for review

Next conference call:
The next scheduled call is for September 30, 2010.
Scheduled for 1:00-3:00 Eastern Time.
Reston phone bridge 703-648-4848 and code is 93971#

STED Committee Activities – 2010

1. Continue to develop, populate, maintain, and promote the STED web page as the primary source of STED communication to WRD personnel.
2. Continue to promote Technology Enabled Learning and establish an electronic learning repository for WRD personnel featuring links to a wide variety of instructional and informational material.
3. Promote the development of "Essential and Recommended" training programs for all disciplines, including Information Technology, for use by all scientific and technical WRD employees.

1. Investigate opportunities for a WRD advanced scientific education program to meet USGS mission goals and encourage career development.
2. Consider the advantages of a regionally based cooperative education program with selected colleges and universities as a means to promote training of potential future scientific and technical WRD employees.