HomeMy WebLinkAboutRMAB Minutes 2009-01-01TOWN OF ITHACA
Records Management Advisory Board
Karen Billings, Town Clerk and RMAB Chair • Herb Engman, Town Supervisor • Pat Leary, Town Board Member • Dan Walker,
Town Engineer • Laura W. Johnson-Kelly, Town Historian • Gail Kroll, Public Works • Lisa Carrier-Titti, Network Technician
MEETING AGENDA
Meeting Date: March 19, 2009
Meeting Place: Tioga Room, Town Hall
We met to discuss e-mail archiving. We discussed packaged solutions and in-house, interim,
solutions that we can utilize to collect e-mails that should be saved for the purpose of FOIL. We
also discussed the Local Government Records Management Grant application that was submitted
by the Town Clerk for a Business Process Analysis earlier this year, and decided to hold off on
making any major decisions or purchases until we know whether or not our grant application is
successful (June 2009).
After lengthy discussion of the pros and cons of various methods of archiving, what is FOIL
able, categorization, etc., we came to the conclusion that much of what we are asking staff to do
is complicated and it may be a good idea to test an in-house, simple solution between Monday,
March 23rd and our next RMAB meeting on April 16th. We agreed to do the following:
Starting Monday, March 23, 2009 and running though April 16th, when we meet again,
we will test a new system. We will begin saving our FOIL able e-mails as HTML
documents in the “R” drive. Lisa will provide all of background mapping on the server
and on our PC’s in order to make this happen by Monday. Karen will send out a
reminder e-mail to the RMAB Monday morning.
In conjunction with saving these e-mails we will keep a simple diary of our experiences
of saving these e-mails. In our diary, we will try to note all of the pitfalls, complexities,
cautions, highs and lows of this method of e-mail saving. We want to capture as much as
we can of our emotional responses so that we can more fully teach Town Hall staff later
on. Additionally, the pitfalls you encounter may have an easy solution; your sharing of
this experience will allow for a better exchange and some learning at the end. As you
encounter particular problems at the beginning of this TEST period, you may reach a
solution later on; please note this experience along the way, too.
When we meet again, on Thursday, April 16th at 1:00 p.m. in the Tioga Room, we will be able to
discuss the process and outline methods for teaching the staff, along with designating a training
session for staff.
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen M. Billings
March 19, 2009
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April 20, 2009 Page 1 of 4
TOWN OF ITHACA
Records Management Advisory Board
Karen Billings, Town Clerk and RMAB Chair • Herb Engman, Town Supervisor • Tee-Ann Hunter, Town Board Member
• Dan Walker, Town Engineer • Laura W. Johnson-Kelly, Town Historian • Gail Kroll, Public Works • Lisa Carrier-Titti,
Network Technician
MEETING AGENDA
Meeting Date: April 16, 2009
Meeting Place: Tioga Room, Town Hall
1. Discuss the process of archiving e-mails to the “R” drive;
2. Outline methods for teaching the staff e-mail archiving and work on
designating a training session for staff;
3. Establish a training session.
MEETING NOTES:
Attendees: Herb Engman; Tee-Ann Hunter; Lisa Carrier-Titti; Dan Walker; Gail
Kroll; Karen Billings
Absent: Laura W. Johnson-Kelly
1. Process of archiving e-mails to the “R” Drive:
RMAB Members discussed the procedure we used during the past month for saving
'records' to the "R" drive
Herb, Lisa and Gail said that remembering to place the record into the "R" drive was the
biggest obstacle;
Dan said that he saved his project specific files in the project file, rather than the "R"
drive. He also commented about the two different formats (text and HTML).
Discussion of attachments ensued, where it was discovered that we are only saving the e-
mail and not the attachment. [Lisa demonstrated: In order to save the attachment, it
needs to be saved separately (select "File"; "save attachments"; name the attachment and
save it. This process is repeated for each attachment that is to be saved.)]
Gail was not sure what she needed to save; thus she did not save very much.
Karen was operating under the (incorrect) perception that we were to save Records in the
"R" drive to not only have all records in one place for retrieval by the RM Officer, but to
clean up our own drive and cut down on redundancy. She also mentioned the process of
saving to the "R" drive and wondered if a macro could be written to make that process
more automated. Lisa clarified that there is no need to worry about space; explaining that
there is plenty of space on the server. She recommends saving items in dual drives, and
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April 20, 2009 Page 2 of 4
believes that it will be much easier training staff if they know that the records can also
remain in their Outlook Mailbox.
Dan asked about e-mail with attachments and the link between them. He wanted to know
how to keep the linkage, and Lisa explained that it is lost through this process but an e-
mail archiver program would not lose the linkage.
Dan then asked about the "Auto Archive" function in Outlook. Lisa explained that it is
an entirely different function, and it does not have anything to do with this conversation.
Karen mentioned that because it exists in Outlook, the question may be asked by staff and
we need to address it, in anticipation of those inquiries.
Herb asked about [file] titles, and wanted to know how important titles are; Lisa
explained that there are a couple of ways to do a search, one is just by title and the other
is by title and contents. Lisa went on to explain how the file is named - It takes its name
from the Subject Title of the e-mail. The filer can change the name of the file.
Tee-Ann asked about hard copies of records (e-mails) and asked how it is being done.
Because the Town has not updated its policy, all official records are hard copies; we do
not have a system in place for saving electronic records.
2. Outline methods for teaching the staff e-mail archiving and work on designating a
training session for staff
After discussing the difficulties we encountered with saving e-mail records to the “R”
drive, we deduced that if we are having difficulty figuring out what is a record, we will
have a tough time translating this to staff. Tee-Ann clarified that we are not just saving
FOIL records, but that we are saving all "RECORDS" and the Records Management
Officer is responsible for determining what is to be retrieved in response to a FOIL
request. More discussion ensued over Records and FOILable Records, pursuant to
discretion of individuals. Tee-Ann clarified that permanent records, such as legal
opinions, are Records and should be in the possession of the Records Management
Officer. Discussion about setting up another drive, for example a Legal or Confidential
drive ensued. Karen explained her role as Records Management Officer, state mandates,
et al., and explained that all records of the Town, whether they are in her possession or
not, are her responsibility. Tee-Ann volunteered that the RMO's responsibility centers
around access, freedom of information and open government; that control of records is
not under the discretion of others, outside of the RMO. Herb was concerned about legal
negotiations, et al., saying that he does not want those kinds of records "out there". Herb
said, "They end up in contracts, which indicate what the final record is, but I'm not sure if
all the discussions before, between an attorney and me, for example, would be ever
released. There's no reason for them to be released.” Herb explained that much of the
legal correspondence he receives is sent to him electronically because the cost of face-to-
face meetings is prohibitively high. Herb equated e-mails to a telephone conversation,
stating that a means for saving them is necessary when they have to be saved. Tee-Ann
said that e-mails are considered to be a letter by the state; Herb said that some records are
not FOILable. Tee-Ann clarified the difference between Record and FOIL and said that
everything is about retention and disposition.
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April 20, 2009 Page 3 of 4
Insofar as teaching the staff, Karen said that we as a group are encountering enough
difficulty that we cannot even begin to teach the staff these aspects of archiving. Dan
said that since the record is already in electronic form, we should retain it in that fashion.
He and his staff maintain an e-file cabinet; official documentation is saved as a paper
copy. The actual, signed, documents are only in paper form. Dan added that there are
many draft documents, within his archives, that need to be cleaned up.
Gail spoke about diskettes and the inability to read them, years later. Lisa explained that
MicroSoft documents are available for years - legacy.
Tee-Ann spoke about microfiche and its value to archiving. Dan agreed that records
cannot be altered when they are saved in this format.
Karen cautioned being a forerunner with archiving at the municipal level, as there are
many bugs to be ironed out. Herb stated that we need to focus on what records we should
be keeping; then which records are FOILable, as a subset of Records. He said that it is
very confusing when discussion entails Records and FOIL.
Karen explained that all records fall under FOIL, unless they are considered confidential
(based on the guideline established by the state). Herb said that it needs to be separated
out, because not all records are FOILable. He said that we need to figure out 'what is a
record" and should be kept; then figure out 'which of those records are FOILable' and
identified as such, or conversely, Confidential. Discussion about marking an e-mail as
Confidential ensued. Karen suggested placing it in another drive, called Confidential.
Everyone agreed that this would be a good outcome. Questions arose over how everyone
would drop msgs. in this drive, if they do not have access to the drive itself. Karen said
that it should be sent to the RMO and the RMO can drop it in there.
Summary Decisions
It was decided that a separate drive would be established for the RMO to drop messages
into. Lisa will set up that drive and the RMAB members will start utilizing it, starting
April 27th .
The RMAB was unclear about the process for informing staff. Karen said that we have
much more to do, in order to more fully understand. She said that she will be attending
the Town Clerk's Association meetings and training sessions in a couple of weeks and
will ask these questions. Herb asked that she speak with similar size townships.
Lisa will follow up with Greg Potter, the “IT guy” at the County.
Karen offered to speak with the city of Ithaca, City Clerk’s office re. Records and FOIL;
methodologies for storage and retrival.
Herb wanted to know about our responsibility with Bolton Point records, because the
Town is the Fiscal Manager, among other things. Dan explained that Bolton Point keeps
records. Lisa said that we have no connection to them; they are a totally separate entity.
Herb said that it is not independent, it is an organization run by representative from the
town and villages; therefore the responsibility kicks back to the municipality and he
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April 20, 2009 Page 4 of 4
wants to know who is responsible for their records. Herb wants the question posed to the
Association of Towns. Herb wants some clarity about the Town's responsibilities
concerning Bolton Point.
In closing the meeting, Karen said that she will work on obtaining answers to the
questions posed; Lisa will speak with Greg and investigate creating a macro so that
processes can be more automated.
Finally, the test that we were working on throughout the past month (saving to the “R”
drive) was deemed ineffective, primarily because attachments get lost from the host e-
mail. As a solution, Lisa said that she can set up an Outlook public records folder that
everyone can move files to; she said it will be searchable, within Outlook. Karen was
concerned about creating one more place to look for records. After more discussion, Lisa
suggested creating a public folder in Outlook, called “Records”, where we can drop
Records in to. Lisa will have this public folder available for us on April 27th. We will
be able to drop our messages in to it and the message will maintain all of the attachments
and be searchable. Lisa will send a reminder e-mail out to members of the RMAB on the
27th.
Meeting Ended at approximately 2:00 p.m.
Next meeting: Thursday, May 21, 2009, 1:00 p.m. in the Tioga Room
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen M. Billings
Records Management Officer
TOWN OF ITHACA
Records Management Advisory Board
Karen Billings, Town Clerk and RMAB Chair • Herb Engman, Town Supervisor • Tee-Ann Hunter, Town Board Member
• Dan Walker, Town Engineer • Laura W. Johnson-Kelly, Town Historian • Gail Kroll, Public Works • Lisa Carrier-Titti,
Network Technician
MEETING AGENDA
Meeting Date: Thursday, May 21, 2009
Meeting Place: Tioga Room, Town Hall
1. Discuss Projects and Research conducted since the last meeting
a. Town’s responsibility with Bolton Pt with respect to records mgt
(Karen)
b. Lisa’s discussion with Greg, regarding creation of a macro for
automating recurring actions, the “IT guy” at the county;
c. Karen’s discussion with the city clerk’s office regarding FOIL,
methodologies for storage and retrieval, etc.;
d. Outcome of saving to the newly created Outlook, “Records” public
folder
2. E-mail Archiver discussion
3. Lisa – discussion about personal equipment being plugged in to TOI service
4. Discuss agenda items for next RMAB meeting – Thursday, June 18th
Karen opened the meeting at 1:10 p.m.
1. Discuss Projects and Research:
Karen reviewed the background and answers to questions that came up at the
previous meeting. Each of the questions was outlined in the attachments e-mailed to
members prior to the meeting as well as printed and handed out at the meeting.
1d. required input from members of the Board. Karen introduced this item and asked
for input:
Supervisor Engman said the system is working fine for him. He found that he wanted
to save certain files on his own PC; he asked Lisa to instruct him in the method for
copying a file. He explained other personal program difficulties he has run in to,
none of which were insurmountable; just a little onerous for the present.
Dan said that the system is working out fine for him. There are a couple of additional
steps that he has to do, but overall the system is working fine. He saves a number of
files in the specific project file, as this is a system that has been in place for awhile
and it works nicely for his department. The system is somewhat cumbersome, but the
work is initially loaded in, thereby saving time when projects are researched.
Gail said that she doesn’t have documents that need to be saved in the archiver.
Supervisor Engman asked about copies; who is the saver; also how to save the
threads. Karen said the final thread should be saved and it is the initiator that should
be the saver, unless the initiator is not part of this test, then we save it.
Tee-Ann remarked that the archiver will take care of saving the proper message.
Saving sent e-mails is just as important.
Herb suggested an article for the newsletter, based on his experience of receiving
letters and notes from town residents stating the letter is “personal and confidential.”
He asked Karen if she would write an article for the newsletter about that topic and
other topics informing the public that when someone writes a letter to a town official,
it is not personal and confidential. Karen said that she will do an article that is light
and informative citing this and other important aspects of communication. The
column will be entitled: Did you know?... She thought such a column could be a
regular column in the Newsletter, and all agreed that this was a good idea.
2. E-mail Archiver discussion
Tee-Ann commented about the Town Board member’s concerns about the potential
for release of records that should not be released, explaining that we should remain
mindful of this concern and address it throughout our research and discussions.
Herb opened up the discussion about confidence in whether or not something would
be released; Karen explained the process she goes through and the importance of
doing the job from her aspect, as well as her statutory responsibility to uphold town
and state laws. She said that she handles all FOIL requests with the utmost
consideration of all legal aspects.
Tee-Ann commented about the checks and balances in responding to a FOIL request.
She said that a report should be made of all e-mails that are being requested and all
parties should be involved. Karen said that the system that is in place currently will
continue to be utilized, insofar and Town Board member notification of a FOIL
request. Herb said that he would like the RMO to do a monthly report, filed with the
Town Clerk’s report, of FOIL requests received. Simply listing the number of
FOIL’s responded to as a matter of listing monthly workload, similar to the dog
licenses report.
Some discussion took place about Information Requests and FOIL. Members
expressed concern about confusing FOIL with simple Information Request. It was
stressed that we/staff should not be making it difficult for people to get information.
If it’s complex, it falls under FOIL.
3. Judy explained what Lisa is looking for insofar as this item. She said that Lisa
would like to add a one liner to the Town’s IT Policy – no outside, non TOI
equipment should be plugged in to the system.
Judy explained that a jump drive differs from a blue tooth, personal laptop or
other plug in hardware that someone may bring in. There is a hazard in having
someone plug in their own PC to the town’s Ethernet cable.
Judy said that Lisa and she will draft something and have it ready for our June
18th meeting.
4. June Agenda:
• Discussion about the use of TOI e-mail for business solicitation (Judy +
guest(s);
• Discussion about outside hardware/equipment being plugged in to the TOI
server (Lisa);
• Continued discussion of e-mail archivers. Karen said that she would send
off the comparison of e-mail archivers to the board members, so that we
can do some comparisons at our next meeting, and she will ask Lisa if she
can take some time at our next meeting to explain the reason for her
preference in the Barracuda archiver. Also, if Lisa could explain the e-
mail server, bringing it in-house, when this will happen and how it will
improve things. RMAB members are looking for as much education in
this aspect as possible
July and August meetings suspended – unless something precludes this.
Next meeting, June 18th at 1 p.m. in the Tioga Room
Encls: Comparison chart of e-mail archiver programs
TOWN OF ITHACA
Records Management Advisory Board
Karen Billings, Town Clerk and RMAB Chair • Herb Engman, Town Supervisor • Tee-Ann Hunter, Town Board Member • Dan
Walker, Town Engineer • Laura W. Johnson-Kelly, Town Historian • Gail Kroll, Public Works • Lisa Carrier-Titti, Network
Technician
MEETING AGENDA
Meeting Date: Thursday, June 18, 2009 - 1 p.m.
Meeting Place: Tioga Room, Town Hall
1. Discussion about the use of TOI e-mail for business solicitation (Judy + guest(s);
2. Discussion about outside hardware/equipment being plugged in to the TOI server
(Lisa);
3. Continued discussion of e-mail archivers.
July and August meetings suspended – unless something precludes this.
Next Meeting – September 17, 2009
MEETING NOTES:
Board members present: Herb Engman; Tee-Ann Hunter; Lisa Carrier-Titti; Gail Kroll;
Laura W. Johnson-Kelly; Karen Billings.
Absent: Dan Walker
Others Present: Bruce Bates; Judy Drake; Christine Balestra; Paulette Terwilliger.
Discussion Item Disposition
1. Judy Drake, as HR Director and
Paulette Terwilliger, as ERC rep.,
asked for an interpretation from the
Board regarding, TOI Information
Technology Policy, Item No. 8a.
“ITS may not be used for private
business solicitations or private
commercial business ventures.”
If business is not-for-profit related, it is
OK to send a blanket e-mail to staff simply
stating: “I have x items for sale, please
contact me if you are interested.” An
example would be, “Hi, I have Girl Scout
cookies for sale; if you are interested please
contact me.”
Question 1 led to questions about
Town Policy listed in TOI
Information Technology Policy,
Item No. 1, and specifically, what
can the TOI e-mail be used for
during non-work hours or work
hours
TOI e-mail is just like stationary. Nothing
should be sent out via TOI e-mail that
would not be sent out on TOI letterhead.
2. Judy Drake and Lisa Carrier-
Titti asked for an addition to the
TOI Information Technology
Policy, Item No. 2. “Installation or
use of software, program
downloads and other programs shall
be preauthorized by the Network
Administrator,” in order to prevent
and apply the overall Policy to
users (inside and outside) plugging
hardware into the Town’s server.
As Lisa explained, external
hardware exposes the Town to
viruses and other problems that can
be carried over from a ‘foreign’
computer into the Town’s server.
The following was added to Item No. 2 of
the TOI Information Technology Policy,
Item No. 2: “Use of hardware, other than
employer owned, physically connected to
the network, is prohibited.
***per 7/1/09 SAC meeting, the Town
attorney suggested adding the phrase,
“including but not limited to laptops”***
3. Lisa discussed having the TOI
host e-mail. The TOI currently
contracts with Time Warner for e-
mail hosting. Lisa explained the
benefits of having the town host the
e-mail and provided attachments.
One of the biggest improvements in
having the TOI host the e-mail
would be in gaining access to
mailboxes, calendars and tasks in
Outlook, remotely. Bruce
concurred. Lisa explained that she
already budgeted for this server in
her IT budget and the server has
already been purchased.
Lisa also said that she anticipates a
slight learning curve on her part,
with (maybe) some down time at
town hall, but Sherpa Technologies
is available to provide support
quickly, in fact more quickly than
support is available through Time
Warner, and she does not anticipate
any serious problems.
Based on the plusses of having the mail
server in house vs. using Time Warner’s
server, Lisa was encouraged to pursue this
avenue.
E-mail archiving falls under a different
topic and discussion.
Respectfully Submitted,
Karen M. Billings
TOWN OF ITHACA
Records Management Advisory Board
MEETING AGENDA
Meeting Date: Thursday, November 19th - 1 p.m.
Meeting Place: Tioga Room, Town Hall
1. Discussion about award of 2009-2010 NYS Archives BPA Grant
2. Review notes from 11/6/09 meeting with grant consultant.(see below)
3. Other topic to be addressed.
MEETING NOTES:
Board members present: Lisa Carrier-Titti, Deb DeAugistine, Laura Johnson-Kelly, Gail
Kroll, Tee-Ann Hunter, Dan Walker
Absent: Herb Engman,
Others Present: Judy Drake
DISCUSSION:
Tee Ann thought it would be better for Steve Goodfellow to work with staff rather than
Dept Heads. Staff has the time, the responsibility and it will afford them an opportunity
to create the system. She likes the idea of “touching the record once” like when the
county gets a piece of paper, its scanned, then filed in a box downstairs.
She also stated it’s important to have Public Works involved in this process.
Tee-Ann also commented about the self standing databases, ie: Planning’s Dev Rev
database, Town Clerk database. We are outgrowing them; they are clunky and can’t do
advanced searches. We no longer have in-house knowledge of how to edit or maintain
these databases. Tee Ann wants to make sure that each department that Steve meets with
demonstrate their own databases so that this can be addressed in the BPA.
Dan and Laura agreed that “if staff fell off the face of the earth tomorrow”, we don’t have
documentation of how things get done or where paperwork gets filed. There should be
something like a “site map” found on websites. This should also be addressed in the
BPA.
Dan asked if we could confer with Steve Goodfellow if a facsimile of a signature would
hold up in court. Dan is concerned with reproducing digital records for legal cases in
stead of producing the original document.
Deb asked what is the final product that we get from the consultant. The group read the
deliverable portion of Steve Goodfellow’s initial proposal that was included with the
grant. The group asked about how he should get paid, the status of the money from the
grant and a town contract with Steve.
ACTIONS:
It was decided that until we hear from NYS about when we will receive the first monies
from the grant, we should not have Steve do any further work. It was recently discovered
that there wasn’t any money included in the 2009 or 2010 Records Management line,
A1460.110, so we can’t cover any costs until we get the grant money. There is also a
strong indication NYS will decide not to cover the full amount of the grant. The Town
did not set any monies aside in 2010 for this grant.
Judy suggested and Gail agreed to have the SASS group, (Debby Kelley, Connie Clark,
Sandy Polce, Paulette Terwilliger, Betty Poole and Linda Fetherbay) meet to prime them
about this grant and what Steve Goodfellow will asking of them.
Tee-Ann, Deb DeAugistine and Lisa will also attend.
Judy and Dan have experience using the Town approved contract form and agreed to
work together to design a contract for the consultant. Deb and Tee-Ann agreed to contact
the state to see when we will receive the first monies from the grant. Lisa will follow up
with Al to set up an account for this grant. The group agreed that we will not have the
consultant come down again until we receive a check.
Next Meeting: January 21, 2010 1pm