Executive News
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08/01/1995
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Staff Update ~~ August 1, 1995
Embarrassment - Im embarrassed both for myself and for MTAS. Weve done some things that have upset me before, but never quite like this. The deadline for the IPS awards has passed and NO ONE from MTAS nominated anyone! Now we have a lot of excuses: we didnt nominate any support staff because Ann and Armintha won the last two years; we ran out of time; we started a couple of nominations but didnt finish; not all our nominations have won in the past; we were too busy; we dont usually coordinate nominations so not everyone knows who is working on what; and we were on vacation. My excuse is I stopped doing nominations four years ago because we had plenty coming from the staff and I think it is more meaningful to be nominated by a co-worker. Im afraid the excuses, mine included, just wont cut it. Collectively, we goofed. We will make sure we do better next year, but this year dont expect to see anyone from MTAS win an award at the IPS conference. You cant win if you ignore the starters gun.
City Officials - Carol reports that we were asked for a current figure for the total number of elected municipal officials in Tennessee. According to our database there are 342 mayors and 1,673 councilmembers, aldermen, and city commissioners for a total of 2,015 elected TN municipal officials. We probably missed a couple of elected city recorders since there are a few of those, but that figure should be accurate. Please let Carol know if you think she missed anyone.
Hardware - Our fund balance finished a little better than we expected this year. We are going to hold some of this in reserve for later this year or even next year. Some of it we are going to add to the funds we already budgeted for computer purchases this year. We are working on a list of possible additional purchases.
Software - We started using the Notes Project Reporting program last week. I will be in touch with each consultant later this week to review your progress.
Purchasing Notes and all other Lotus products should be easier in the future. The UT office of administrative computing recently signed a contract with Lotus that gives all UT departments access to the equivalent of a site license for all Lotus products. Notes, whch started out costing us $495 per user, then $100, may now cost us $3.00 for each additional user! It also means that as soon as the paperwork is complete, we will be able to upgrade to 123 version 5.
Orgware - Costis Toregas of Public Technology Inc. says that in addition to software and hardware you have to be aware of orgware, that is, the organizational changes necessary to make a system work. As we continue to move into the Notes environment and use it for more and more, there will be more adjustments we will need to make in our procedures. One of the goals of our Notes Committee has been to keep these adjustments to a minimum and so far, we have succeeded. Still, as we start to use Notes for current issues, staff updates (this is the last one youll get on E-mail; next time it will go straight to Notes), annual leave, travel schedules, and library requests, well each have to make some adjustments to our orgware.
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