Technology

WCDP
Technology Committee Meeting Minutes

November
10, 2005

Open/Introductions

Attending: Barbara Weeks, Yinon Bentor, Ouida Myers,
Ed Ridpath,

Bruce Harris, Anne Lowry

Previous Minutes October 13, 2005

approved
Sub-team meetings (Web, Training,
VAN, GIS, Media) status

see action items
Old Business/Action items

Web Upgrade
Dec 10 - Anne, Ouida, Ed, and anyone else interested

Yinon expressed interest

Location: 805 Rand Road, Garner 27529

Start Time: 8:30 am

2006 Budget
Request

HQ PC
Backup Device

Ed has a DVD writer to donate to WCDP HQ; it is still in
progress

Status Reports

Web Site(s)
Status - Ed Ridpath

Web upgrade 12/10/05

VAN Status
- Stephen Beck/Yinon Bentor

Overall, VAN worked well with this most recent
election. There were some problems, as
VAN doesn’t include municipality data and WCDP did a work around for that
municipality information to be included.
Information collected during canvassing / phone banking will be dealt
with if the VAN id was preserved. The
main difficulty with VAN seems to be that it has not been updated since April
2005. There’s a long chain of
communication that has to take place for each update (us to state party to Van
people…); we’re not sure where the delay is, but the timing and regularity of
updates does need to be investigated more fully

There is still a question of VAN being the right program for
us. Yinon will talk with Orange and Durham counties, both of whom use
something different than VAN

Training
Status - Ouida Myers

She’s coordinated training for Faith and Values. She’ll be talking with John Baker about
training on the WCDP website. The idea
of computer literacy for precinct chairs was brought up…Ouida will look into that
as well

GIS/Mapping
Status - Elizabeth Harris

Elizabeth did beautiful maps, but each it was
very time consuming to create

each map; too time intensive to be
practical at this point.

Since Streets and Trips can import VAN data, there is a very
quick turnaround

time for map creation

One of the main ideas is to come up
with a map creation procedure

Volunteer
Database – OPEN

Barbara Weeks in interested.
She’ll set up a time soon to talk with Julia to find out what Julia
wants

Cable
TV/Radio - Bruce Harris

Currently in the dead file

New Business

Voting
Machines

The State Board of Elections has approved 5 vendors who will
demonstrate their machines in early December.
WCDP will pay for 1 tech person to attend, if anyone is interested. If so, please email Julia and Ed as soon as
possible

December
Tech Committee Meeting

Canceled. Please hold
subteam meetings , posting to the Tech Committee Yahoo Group.

2006
Meeting Schedule

Next meeting tentatively scheduled for Thursday, Jan 12 from
6 – 7 pm

However, with the new year, we can look at changing the
meeting date from the second Thursday if that would be better for more
people. If you would prefer another
regular date for meeting, please email
Ed soon

Open/Introductions - meeting needs to end by 7PM for Candidate Support meeting

Previous Minutes October 13, 2005
Sub-team meetings (Web, Training, VAN, GIS, Media) status
Old Business/Action items

1. Web Upgrade Dec 10 - Anne, Ouida, Ed, and anyone else interested
2. 2006 Budget Request
3. HQ PC Backup Device

Status Reports

1. Web Site(s) Status - Ed Ridpath
2. VAN Status - Stephen Beck/Yinon Bentor
3. Training Status - Ouida Myers
4. GIS/Mapping Status - Elizabeth Harris
5. Volunteer Database - OPEN
6. Cable TV/Radio - Bruce Harris

New Business

Tech committee meeting 2005 1013

Attending

* Ed Ridpath eridpath@nc.rr.com
* Ouida Myers omyers@bellsouth.net 637-7882
* Bruce Harris bharris321@nc.rr.com 662-0103
* Anne Lowry alowry@nc.rr.com 662-0103
* Jeremy Ames James16@nc.rr.com 851-2335

Previous Minutes

No changes

Continuing Business / Status Reports

Most groups held subteam meetings in September

Training – Ouida

Still offering support, training as needed to clubs. Ouida trained the

Democratic Men. She also helped the Greendogs clean up their website

Web – Ed, Ouida, Anne

Upgrade scheduled for Dec 3 at 805 Rand Rd, Garner

Ouida said that it is easier to cut and paste text if you disable richtext first

Anne cuts and pastes from notepad

VAN - Ed, Stephen

Trained Julia in VAN

GIS – Elizabeth

Did maps with specialty software. Maps had each registered Democrat pinpointed. However, last canvass cycle, it became rather convoluted.
Elizabeth provided some of the maps, VAN provided walk lists, and the canvassing people ended up using Mappoint.

Idea is to come up with a standardized format for creating maps, even if that means creating different types of maps for different needs (precinct organization , canvassing, etc.

There is a “baby” version of the specialty software Elizabeth is using: ArcExplorer. It is available at the Wake GIS site

Candidate Web Sites – Ed

Up and running. Some candidates are taking more advantage than others.

Media Resource Files – Bruce

Still in progress

CATV / Radio - Bruce Dead for right now

Volunteer Mgmt and Research – Chris

From word of mouth, Chris is having some health problems currently and will not be working in this area until further notice

We are trying to come up with a user friendly, comprehensive way of managing volunteers. Some people are using excel spreadsheets, others index cards. Julia uses proprietary software: Campaign Manager.

Idea is to talk to Julia and Pat Hawkins (Volunteer chair), after the election and recovery to see what they want / need.

Ed running for office in 2006 - need new Chair and Web lead. Ed thinks he can still chair tech until June 2006. However, if his campaign needs him earlier, he will step down at that time

Web Lead

Ouida will be taking over web lead, but Ed will still act as emergency backup

New Business:

Website Upgrade

Date: Dec. 3, 2005

Time: 9 am

Location: 805 Rand Road, Garner

2006 WCDP Budget Process

We’re looking at continuing items from last budget. Any new requests, get to Ed ASAP.

Requests from the last budget (minutes May 12, 2005)

1. Voter Activation Network(VAN) ID's for Precinct Organization - 15 IDs @ $100 = Total $1500

* 1 for Precinct Organization Chair
* 2 for the precincts in each of the 7 Districts
2. GIS Mapping software (walk-list routes) - 8 @ $40 = Total $320

* 1 for Precinct Organization Chair
* 1 for the precincts in each of the 7 Districts
3. Bar Code Readers for Precinct Organization - 15 @ $50 = Total $750
4. Digital Projector for training and presentations - $1500
5. HQ PC Monitor replacement - $300
6. HQ 2-line telephone replacement - 2 @ $65 = Total $130

Next meeting:

Thursday, November 10th 6pm, Goodwin House

Open/Introductions - meeting needs to end by 7PM for Candidate Support meeting

Previous Minutes August 11, 2005
Sub-team meetings (Web, Training, VAN, GIS, Media) status
Old Business/Action items

1. Club and Committee Training - Ouida
2. Volunteer Management Research - Chris
3. Precinct Maps - Elizabeth
4. Candidate web sites - Ed
5. Media Resource File - Bruce
6. Ed running for office in 2006 - need new Chair and Web lead

Status Reports

1. Candidate and GOTV support for election
2. Web Site(s) Status - Ed Ridpath
3. VAN Status - Stephen Beck/Yinon Bentor
4. Training Status - Ouida Myers
5. GIS/Mapping Status - Elizabeth Harris
6. Cable TV/Radio - Bruce Harris

New Business

1. Upgrade of website - week of Thanksgiving?
2. 2006 WCDP budget Process
3. Larger Backup device for HQ PC