LC2000 PARTNERSHIP BOARD

December 1, 1997

District 108 Board Conference Room

3:30 PM

MEETING SUMMARY

 

Topic

Summary
Public Access The subcommittee makes two recommendations

1) Create a public access site at Dirksen Center and/or the Library.

a) Use the Winbook laptops located in the District 108 Tech Center.

b) Library and Dirksen Center staff should discuss how a public access site might be implemented and return with ideas in January.

2) Circulate applications for local organizations to become public access sites.

a) Miller Center will likely be a start-up site.

b) Committee will bring back a modified proposal specifying:

i) Organizational match

ii) Finished application

iii) Year one and two commitments
Organizational Structure The subcommittee has examined a set of by-laws, but has not finalized a proposal.

 
Sustainability The subcommittee has not met since the November Partner board meeting.
Civics Curriculum The task force will create a CongressLink-style site dealing with issues important to Pekin city government. This promises curriculum for all grades, clearly meets the grant requirements, and will create an expandable model. At the next meeting on December 11, members will finalize the vision of PekinGovLink, brainstorm topics, and correlate them to the PACCC curricula.
Training and Skills The task force has drafted tentative recommendations:

1) Offer free Community Classes

a) The task force will return with a specific proposal

2) Open Labs for Community Use at Washington and Edison Schools

3) Provide a Larger Group of Trainers

4) Create a M Mechanism for Partners to Offer Low-Cost Classes to the Community

a) Board members expressed interest in LC2000 offering these classes, rather than contracting them outside groups.

b) PCHS will develop a proposal to address the working of this recommendation
Learning Community (Content) The task force consists of small groups addressing specific content issues. Following a process developed and tested by other community networks, each group works semi-independently to develop ways to use network communications to address their issues. Existing groups: 1) Health Access, 2) Community Services and 3) Agriculture.
Infrastructure The task force has not met since the November Partner Board meeting.
Computer Buy Program Issues District 108 brought this issue to the board because of a lack of clarity in LC2000 policy and because of the costs involved.

The issues.

  1. LC2000 partnership allows partners to equip staff members with direct network hookups at work.
  2. GC2000 provided limited dial-up access for partners’ staff, but the Partner Board has never set policy regarding dial-up access.
  3. The work of District 108 teachers, administrators, and many support staff requires access to e-mail, District software, and the Internet, and will receive direct network hookups at work.
  4. Educators are expected to do much of their preparatory work when students are not at school—traditionally, during evenings and weekends. District 108 employee workstations are based upon laptop computers that can be taken home to do prep work. This will eventually exceed 350 staff needing dial-up access.
  5. Eventually, this will overtax the existing lines, modems and the e-mail server. The District has identified upgrades and will pay for the costs.
  6. Recently the District offered to its staff a computer buy program that included access to pekin.net and the Internet.
  7. Other partners have expressed interest in offering similar programs to their employees.

Discussion. The following points were raised:

  1. There is disagreement among partners about the extent of services guaranteed by the partnership agreement.
  2. LC2000 has no policy or bylaw to control dial-up accounts.
  3. LC2000 Task Forces’ research recommends against becoming an ISP.
  4. Providing employees with "free" home Internet access reduces the potential client base for ISPs who do not have tax breaks, non-profit status, etc., to compete.

Agreements. The Partner Board agreed generally with the following points.

  1. There should be no new offerings of pekin.net dial-up accounts through partners’ computer buy programs. (City of Pekin disagreed.)
  2. District 108 should explore ways to reduce its exposure to providing pekin.net dial-up accounts through computer buy programs.
Partner Issues The partners raised the following:
  1. Pat has not been able to sign on to e-mail the last few days. He will check his caps lock key and then call Kieth/Lisa with specifics.
  2. Bill knows how to fix wininet problems and would be delighted to help anyone who finds a need for this skill.