Good news for UT travelers - Starting November 8, our travel reimbursements will be made using direct deposit. Here's a memo that explains it.



IPS Annual Conference - Years ago I suggested that IPS rotate the responsibility for the annual conference among the agencies. Well, guess what, the rotation starts in 2007 and it starts with MTAS!! I volunteered on behalf of Izetta and the training team, and for that matter, all of us. So, it will be a great conference in 2007.

www.mtas.tennessee.edu - Frances and Lisa are working on what will be a continuing series of improvements to our web site. Here's a list of the changes so far, but please remember there are more to come.

The navigator has been reworked to be more streamlined and to have fewer "utility-like" links. The "Home" button is now at the top of the navigator. Links have been pulled out from under "Links" listed separately on the left. Look for the navigator to continue to trim down over the next month or two.

"Contact Us" area has been reworked:

Now includes "Find Your Consultant"
http://www.mtas.tennessee.edu/public/web.nsf/search/CitiesFindConsultant?Opendocument

"What is MTAS?" replaces "About Us" which was pulled from the navigator bar

"Problems and Questions?" was also pulled from the navigator bar and added to the "Contact Us" area

Main headings on the front page have been changed: "New Training Opportunities" is now "Upcoming Training" ; "New MTAS Publications" is now "Recent Publications"; "New Resources for Municipal Officials" is now "Selected Resources"

These changes were made to reduce the clutter on the front page in response to requests made by consultants at our retreat discussion in May. Also to reduce clutter, the number of links in the center column of the front page has been greatly reduced. The page is shorter and should not require as much scrolling on smaller monitors.

There are many more changes in store over the next three months as we implement the templates introduced by the University as part of the new branding campaign. Some of the other big changes that we have planned include being able to search Knowledgebase individually, simplified access to publications (The goal is to allow someone to click on the publication title and go straight to the PDF file. ), and some aesthetic improvements to the look of the website. Also in the plans are conducting usability studies with selected city officials in the near future.

Many of the changes being made are based MTAS staff and consultant suggestions from the retreat discussions in May 2006. Take a look and see what you think.

Front Desk - Doni McCarty transferred to MTAS from IPS to work at our front desk in Knoxville. After working here a week, she accepted another position outside of the University. So, for the time being when you call you will talk to either of our two students (Joanna Muscatello or Jennifer Horner) or Kristy Brooks who is helping us from the University temporary help pool.