﻿ MOREnet Council Meeting Minutes - Feb. 4, 2011 | MOREnet
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MOREnet Council Meeting Minutes - Feb. 4, 2011

TIME: 1:00 – 4:00 pm, Friday, Feb. 4, 2011
PLACE: TelePresence, Videoconference and Audio

Members present: Margaret Conroy, Chair, Gary Allen, Russ Brock, John Gillispie, Leigh Ann Grant-Engle, Rita Gulstad, Debbie Hughes, Craig Klimczak, Waller McGuire, Rusty Monhollon (for Tim Gallimore), Doug Young

Alternates present: Margaret Cline, Mark Mabe, Barbara Reading, Deb Sutton, Cindy Youngblood

MOREnet staff present: Natasha Angell, Sherry Loyd, Hank Niederhelm, Greg Silvey

Chair Margaret Conroy called the MOREnet Council meeting to order. Those who were in attendance are listed above.

ACTION ITEMS/INFORMATION ITEMS

Minutes of the December 14, 2010 MOREnet Council Meetings – Approval

Chair Conroy asked for a motion to approve the meeting minutes. Craig Klimczak moved to approve the December 14, 2010 minutes as distributed. Rita Gulstad seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

Revised MOREnet Council MOU – Endorsement

Chair Conroy reviewed the recommended changes to the MOU. There was some discussion about 2.2.6 indicating that Council members must attend a minimum of 50% of scheduled Council meetings. The Council agreed to have official delegates who can attend on a member’s behalf, when needed. MOREnet staff will share suggested verbiage with the Council next week for their approval.

Klimczak moved to endorse the MOU with the inclusion of delegate verbiage. Gulstad seconded and it passed unanimously.

FY11 Reprojected Budget – Endorsement

Greg Silvey reported that there is an overall net increase in revenues over expenses of $1,705,000 resulting from a net increase in revenues of $571,000 and a net decrease in expenses of $1,134,000. This is mostly due to the fact that MOREnet has only lost 3% of their members due to fee increases, not 20% as originally anticipated.

Klimczak thanked MOREnet staff for the quality of work they provide and for lowering costs for members.

Klimczak moved to endorse the FY11 reprojected budget. Russ Brock seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

DISCUSSION/INFORMATION ITEMS

FY12 Appropriations – Discussion

State Library – HB12 Requests - Chair Conroy reported that the Governor didn’t make any cuts to the Secretary of State’s recommendation for full funding for the REAL program. If the appropriation makes it through the legislative session and the Governor’s final signature on the budget, the REAL program will once again be able to support public library connectivity and online databases for all MOREnet members.

DESE – HB2 Requests – Leigh Ann Grant-Engle indicated there was nothing to report.

CBHE – HB3 Requests - Rusty Monhollon reported that there were no specific requests for MOREnet and that Paul Wagner doesn’t expect there to be any in the foreseeable future. The Governor’s recommendation was to cut the higher education institutions’ budgets by 7% and the legislature hasn’t acted on that recommendation yet.

Chair Conroy reported that the Missouri Library Associations’ Legislative Day is next Tuesday. The library community is fairly vocal in supporting MOREnet and she expects them to ask the legislators on Tuesday to put funds back in the HB3 line.

Gary Allen reported that at the Board of Curator’s meeting on January 27th there was a planned tuition request agenda item. Curator Wayne Goode, of the St. Louis area, requested a summary of the impact MOREnet’s cut had on end-users, connections, and cost increases that were passed along. Allen provided that summary to him the next morning. Curator Goode was going to use it in talking with those who had been asking about MOREnet.

Member Reports – Information

DESE – Leigh Ann Grant-Engle reported that the department is continuing to move forward with a request for proposal for a statewide student information system which will hopefully be cause for more conversations within the schools and address bandwidth issues in the schools going forward. Deb Sutton added that staff is starting to plan the new five year State Ed-Tech plan and due to current staffing issues, the plan oversight will be outsourced this year. Anything in the plan will rely heavily on bandwidth availability for the schools.

DHE – Rusty Monhollon reported that the BTOP grant that DHE is administering is moving forward. The effort is in the beginning stages at this time.

Barbara Reading reported that the online resources bid process panel has met with vendors and completed the voting. MOREnet staff are now compiling the results of the panel evaluation and conducting final contacts with the vendors. MOSL hopes to receive the final recommendation soon.

Doug Young reported that OA continues to move forward with broadband implementation in the state. To date, Ralls County is the only county that has received federal funding. They have 300 miles of fiber in the air right now.

Membership Update – Information

Natasha Angell reported that there have been no additional membership changes for FY11 since the last update to the Council on December 14th. She reviewed the materials provided and shared that ongoing communications with those members who have expressed their intent to leave MOREnet are continuing as the member goes through that process. Staff are hopeful to learn what other options are available to each member and will assist the member as much as possible.

FY12 membership options were shared with the membership in November and shortly afterward, staff distributed the FY12 membership planning survey. To date, 50% of members have responded with 96% planning to keep their circuit and the majority preferring Full-Service Membership over Basic Membership.

Last week a letter was mailed to each member notifying them of upcoming important dates. The letter included an extension for the date by which they must submit a written revocation of their organization’s Letter of Agency, for those who are E-Rate eligible, should they not want MOREnet to apply for E-rate reimbursement on their behalf.

MOREnet’s Move – Information

Silvey reported that soon after arriving at MOREnet, John Gillispie challenged the directors to see what other facility options were available to house MOREnet staff. The current space is very inefficient due to the way the building is designed and there is excess space due to MOBIUS and MLA leaving. There are also parking issues and high utility costs which add to the problem.

MOREnet currently has 35,000 sq. feet and will have about 15,000 after the move. Staff expects the move to occur in May. Two locations have been identified as possible solutions. One is at Woodrail Centre and the other is at The Shoppes at Stadium. Gillispie added that the employees voted overwhelming for the Shoppes at Stadium. This location will be easily accessible for members and has a variety of hotels and restaurants nearby.

Internal Audit Report – Information

Silvey reported that MOREnet requested that a risk audit be conducted. UM finished the audit in late December and is waiting on the final report to be issued. There were three main areas identified: Reserves and Cash Management, Invoicing of Members, and Competitor Intelligence.

Auditors feel that there is an excess of reserves and that those funds could be better used for the overall benefit of the consortium. It is recommended that they be reduced and this topic will most likely be discussed at the next MOREnet Council meeting.

In the past, some members’ circuit costs were paid by HB3; with the loss of funding that is no longer the case. This being new, staff didn’t invoice some members as quickly as they should have and the auditors would like to separate the circuit billings and proceed to invoice for the membership fees and for-fee services in a more timely fashion.

They recommend MOREnet do more in the way of competitor intelligence and track competitor pricing before going to market. Angell added that Tino Mamatas, MOREnet’s Marketing Analyst/Facilitator, will be helping to gather competitor information and that will help address the audit finding.

Meeting Schedule

  • March 15, 2011 – if the revised MOU is executed by then, there will be no need to meet
  • April 22, 2011

Chair Conroy would like to request that at least one meeting before July 1st be conducted face-to-face and that the first meeting after July 1st also be face-to-face.

Chair Conroy adjourned the meeting at 2:06 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted by Sherry Loyd
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