12/16/1997

New reporters - The members of the management team (MikeP, Sharon, JimL, MikeT, Steve, Carol, and Sally) have agreed to send me items for the staff update. Our goal is to use the staff update to communicate better.

Notes Mail is Coming!! - You have already seen this from Lisa, but it bears repeating. There is a change coming our way!!! We (MTAS, IPS, CTAS, CGT, EMS) will be converting our E-mail system from GroupWise mail to Notes Mail. If the hardware deliveries are on time, we will change next month. We will have training for all users but since we have all been using Notes some of it will look very familiar. IMPORTANT : We will only convert 100 of the most current messages from your in box & out box. Messages within folders and anything over 100 will not be converted. Please start cleaning up those messages now.

One overwhelming advantage of converting is that we will use some of the mail features in our databases. The next time we create a database we won't give you hints on where you might find it. We'll put an icon into the E-mail. When you click on the icon, the new database will load automatically.

Interagency cooperation - Sharon and Lewis Bumpus of CTAS were invited to a CIS staff meeting on 12/15/97. Lewis and Sharon met in break-out session with CIS' environmental consultants to bring them up to speed on CTAS and MTAS environmental efforts and to explore ways CIS and MTAS and CTAS consultants could work co-operatively on environmental projects.

Gallatin - Gallatin has a new mayor - Don Wright, author and former State Senator. He defeated Robert Lankford, long-time Gallatin city recorder and mayor by about 200 votes.

Annexation - Hendersonville is taking advantage of the defeat of the tiny town law and Gallatin's recent mayoral turnover to proceed with annexation. Purportedly, Gallatin has agreed to not protest if Hendersonville annexes the Cages Bend area (Between Hendersonville and Gallatin).

Government Mailing List - You may have heard it before, but working with the government mailing list (GML) is not all it's cracked up to be. For some time we have been thinking about creating a GML support group to provide support and therapy for anyone who has had anything to do with it. The GML is not perfect yet, but we do have a working system. And the only reason it works is because of the persistence of Heather and Sally in staying behind the programmer and Heather and Roman in keying and verifying all the data. They deserve our thanks and support.

Now that we have that done (or close to it) we are going to make it more complicated. We have installed a program, “Notes Pump”, to allow us to access the GML and its server through Notes. By January, we plan to have a Notes database available to give everyone access to all the data contained in the GML.

Library Catalog - The library staff (mainly Beth) is researching the various software to replace our current online catalog. We plan to purchase a new system in February. Our goal is to have a windows compatible system that will give all of us direct access to the catalog.

Vision Project - Please remember to review the Vision database and to complete the survey. We will have focus group sessions early in January.

MTAS Retreat 1998 - Our annual retreat will be April 1, 2, and 3 (We may meet a little early for Ed Archer's retirement party, but that is still being planned). Please give me your suggestions for program ideas. I've set up a category in our MTAS Staff Discussion database under "MTAS Retreat 1998". Thanks.

IPS Conference - Please remember that the IPS conference for 1998 is scheduled for September 23 & 24 in Chattanooga. We'll probably have an MTAS meeting for a half day before the conference, but we'll decide that later.

Finally - Merry Christmas
and a Happy New Year!!