The meeting was convened by Chair Susan Reed in the large meeting room at Warwick Public Library at 9:50 AM.  In attendance were:

Dan Austin, PRO; Deborah Barchi, BAR; Peter Bennett, PRO and CLAN; Patience Bliss, CLAN; Becky Boragine, LIN; Carol Brouwer, NSM and Vice Chair; Sheila Carlson, OLIS; Elaine Clark, CLAN; Laura Dixon, WWA; Frances Farrell-Bergeron, WWA; Sharon Fredette, WAR; Christie Getches, SKI, Mary Ellen Hardiman, NPR; De Johnson, RILA; Connie Lachowicz, SKI; Chris LaRoux, GVL; David Macksam, CRA; Leslie McDonough, SCI and Treasurer; Ginny Moses, CLAN; Barbara Neri, NPR; Elsie Oltedale, WGR; Anne, Parent, OLIS; Rick Payette, CLAN; Doug Pearce, WAR and Regional Rep; Joan Prescott, BRI; Pat Redfearn, WRR; Susan Reed, PAW and Chair; Amy Skolnik, FOS and TYL; Regina Slezak, NPT and Regional Rep; Eileen Socha, EPL; Hsianghui Spencer, CLAN; Karen Taylor, EGR and Secretary; Kathryn Taylor, WES; Ulla Virks, CHA.

The previous minutes were unanimously passed as written on a motion by Carol Brouwer, Second by Doug Pearce.

Executive Director Ginny Moses reported:

LORI has asked CLAN to contribute financially to the Library Futures Conference.  CLAN can afford $500 according to Ginny.  
***Motion by Leslie to recommend to the membership that CLAN contribute $500 to the Library Futures Conference
***Second by Carol
***Unanimously passed

Representative is needed for Library Legislative Day in Washington, D.C. on May 2-4, 2004.  The decision needs to be made on who will attend by March 31, so please contact Ginny or Susan by March 25.  Interested individuals are asked to submit a paragraph on why they are interested and would represent CLAN well.  Anne Parent suggested Ginny make reservations at the Holiday Inn on the Hill immediately since they fill up fast.

OLIS has asked CLAN to act as fiscal agent for a $7,000 Gates training grant.  
***Motion by Leslie to recommend to the membership that it be approved
***Second by Regina
***Unanimously passed

Ginny is arranging to have a speaker come from DYNIX to talk about how to view Horizon as different than DYNIX.  
Debbie requested it not be a marketing person.

Peter, Rick, Susan and Ginny are meeting with Champlin on March 5 to clarify some questions about grant requests.
Ginny has posted information on the Director's site about getting help from Horizon through WebEx training on work flow issues.

Tech Support Specialist Rick Payette reported:

There's a new mechanism on the Support site for reporting problems to DP.  Use the drop down menu under "membership."  Pleas always supply email address and phone number so we can get back to you.
Cindy:  triage occurs as we see problems come in.  If you have a critical problem, please CALL DP directly.

Fran:  what about CLAN.message?  It's a good way to share similar problems.
Rick:  Cindy is reporting weekly on that.
Fran suggested a subject index to resolutions of Horizon problems.
Rick will look into it.

4/16 is the deadline for placing pc orders.  Begin placing orders after 4/1.

Systems and Network Administrator Peter Bennett reported:

Thanks for the get well card and gift certificate to Barnes and Noble.

He's working on our problems.  Holds speed is much faster.  He places a number of holds every day as different libraries and still sees need for improvement but it is much better.

We are making good progress on some issues and not so good progress on others.

There has been a problem with Websense since the firewall fix.  The password override is gone.  We'll go back and fix it (about 3 hours per library)

Fran asked if someone couldn't be delegated to do such work.  Peter says he will delegate as much as possible.  He is enthusiastic about the idea of going out to libraries on a regular basis to do troubleshooting.  We'll start with BAR.  Ken from Atrion will be included if possible.

The migration exposed every flaw in the network, and PB didn't expect that.

Whatever CLAN wants to do about Horizon, PB is supportive of the decision.  He says he "has to believe it is going to work."  Basically, it can work for us.  HIP was the unexpected issue.
Our move to Horizon was based on the HIP we were running, but then DYNIX made a major architectural change and it caused serious problems, then the correction was even worse.
PB is confident we can get where we need to be.
He is not enthusiastic about the direction HIP is going.

Head of Data Processing Cindy St. Amour reported:
She agrees with Peter. We are in a state of flux and transition.

Telecirc issues are being resolved.  The pickup location problem is solved.

CLAN.message questions are answered after questions sent directly to Cindy.
Rick:  people are helping each other out on CLAN.message.

Christie requested that regarding holds pickup location she would like to see a phone # added.
Cindy will check into it if there is a consensus.
Peter wants to get some Systems Administrator training from DYNIX.  What they had was insufficient.  There's a 5-day course on WebEx, but it is costly.

It was decided that email and phone numbers will be added to the information for "Whom to Call" on the Support site.
In response to Pat R. Rick said there is access to all riclan.org email addresses on CLAN.message.

Amy:  is the phone # on overdue notices?
Cindy:  no.

At Anne Parent's request names and contact info for Steering Committee members will be on the Support site.

Susan Reed mentioned the $90K maintenance from DYNIX we are holding.  A discussion ensued concerning legal issues of withholding payment pending a reduction from DYNIX.  

***Motion by Leslie:  In view of the dissatisfaction with Horizon functionality and slow resolution of difficulties, the Steering Committee recommends to the membership that it charge the Executive Director to begin negotiations with DYNIX regarding financial compensation.
***Second by Doug

***Discussion:  PB says we are not the only unhappy customer.
Kathryn says many vendors at PLA were aware of it, too.
Some feel we should be nasty, others say we need to start out gently and see what happens.  Let's see what happens by April 1.  We should let DYNIX know we are exploring alternatives.

***Unanimously passed.

LORI Committee suggests we keep an eye on the Future Conference website

RILA:  De says the password to the membership directory changed on 3/1.  You'll find your new username and password on the back of your membership cards.  Be sure you don't use capital letters.
RILA contributed $1000 to the Library Futures Conference
There is an anti- Patriot Act petition going around and RILA recommends you sign it.

Anne Parent reported for OLIS:

Thanks to CLAN for helping with the Gates training grant.

Susan suggested CLAN form a "CLAN Organizational Study."  Shall we wait for Horizon to straighten out or start now?

PB wants to start now.  He and Ginny want more direction.  Our authority is vague and nebulous.  We realize we can't please everyone no matter what we do.  We want not only direction but also support.  CLAN is bigger now and does more for its members.  There's more interconnection of functions.

Susan Reed says the Steering Committee will study the structure of CLAN.

Laura reported for the Systems Options Committee:

They are collecting RFP's for software options
Recommend inviting CIO Tom Collins to address a CLAN meeting
Set a deadline for Horizon to correct problems
Cindy will email spreadsheets with problems and solutions but will not post them on the site
Ginny can contact Mr. Collins for advice about negotiating with DYNIX.
Peter:  Bob Aspri of HELIN can provide information on III.

Peter:  It isn't realistic to set certain deadlines for DYNIX.  There are fixes in future releases.  We must be clear we need to see progress, but let's not draw a line in the sand at this point.
Anne:  we need to set certain deadline so we have legal s=standing.
Peter et al will prepare deadlines for the next meeting.

Nominating Committee:
Karen says we need candidates for Chair and Secretary by the next CLAN meeting.

Other:

Leslie:  I object to the so-called director's meeting of 2/26 at CRA.  It was not properly convened and should have no standing to make recommendations to CLAN.  
"For the record, the people at that meeting do not represent me.  Who wasn't supposed to come, that it was kept so secret and not posted on the usual CLAN message boards?"
Peter restated that DYNIX is making a good faith effort to correct our Horizon/HIP problems and the end of March is a good target date.

Live troubleshooting will begin March 17 at BAR.  It's a good idea to keep the group small.  (Note:  since the meeting it was decided that only the staff at each library to be visited should be present to facilitate the depth of training and individual attention to be provided.)

A chart from 1998 prepared by Ginny and Peter and approved by the membership was distributed.  The Steering Committee can use it for their study of the organization of CLAN.
Steering will also study the structure of CLAN meetings.

OLIS has cancelled its Directors' meeting set for 4/1 since CLAN has so many meetings coming up.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:48 AM on a motion by Leslie, Second by Doug.