MINUTES
High Tech Center Training Unit Advisory Committee Meeting
Friday, March 7, 2003
Carl Brown HTCTU, De Anza HTCTU Director present
Myra Lerch Butte College Region 1 present
Thad Selmants Sierra College Region 2 teleconference
Carolyn Fiori College of San Mateo Region 3 present
Kathleen Allen Chabot College Region 4 present
Laura Ingram Merced College Region 5 present
Laurie Vasquez Santa Barbara City College Region 6 teleconference
Lyn Clemons El Camino College Region 7 present
Mike Bistany Irvine Valley College Region 8 resigned
Brian Brautigam Victor Valley College Region 9 present
Carl Fielden Grossmont College Region 10 present
Peggy Tate Chancellor’s Office present
Scott Hamilton Chancellor’s Office present
Bob Martinengo ATPC present
Peggy Tate of the Chancellor’s Office reviewed with the committee processes and updates on the grant renewal of the High Tech Center Training Unit. The RFA was a two-step process including solicitation of interest and completion of a solicitation of interest form. Porterville College and Foothill - De Anza community college district submitted forms and were given an RFA. Porterville College did not submit an application. De Anza College submitted a comprehensive RFA. Five grant readers were assembled to review the application, one of which was from the Chancellor’s Office. They were giving a scoring sheet, an evaluation instruction, and the name of the review team leader for technical inquiries in the application. Unanimously, the grant was awarded to De Anza College. A recommendation will be sent to the Board of Governors for approval of Foothill – De Anza College District as the recipient of the grant funds during the Board meeting on March 10 and 11.
Budget cuts were discussed including funding for the HTCTU and the ATPC. Peggy clarified that the amount of grant funding reduction would not be known for certain until at least July 1, 2003. The current value of the grant for HTCTU is $999,084.00 which will most likely be returned to base funding of $943,000.00. Carl Brown, HTCTU Director, stated that such a reduction, while having an impact on the program, would not dramatically impact program operations. All HTCTU trainers have received March 15 notices, until such time as the Board of Governors approves continuation of the grant.
HTCTU Program Review
Peggy Tate reported that the High Tech Center Training Unit has undergone program review twice during its 20 years of operations. During a program review, the Chancellor’s Office seeks to determine that there is a prudent expenditure of the DSP&S funds and that all the responsibilities and activities are appropriate and within the scope of the program area. PADS (Program Accountability and Development Service grant) grant funds are used to conduct a program review. The Galvin Group came to the HTCTU to conduct the review. Information was gathered from interviews with HTCTU staff, people who attended trainings, those who are familiar with program operations as well as information from the field survey. The HTCTU will respond to the Chancellor’s office concerning all recommendations and suggestions within the review not later than April 21, 2003.
Carl Brown shared with the committee how useful and beneficial the program review was to the HTCTU. He said the Galvin Group staff were incredibly thorough, looked very closely at both programmatic and fiscal issues. The Galvin Group found HTCTU an outstanding program that is innovative, progressive and effective. Carl also announced to the committee the changes that will take place in the HTCTU website based on the suggestions and recommendations of the review. At the recommendation of the Galvin Group, training lab furniture will soon be updated for better accessibility.
Distributed Scanning
Network (DSN)
The HTCTU has identified available funding with which to expand the distributed scanning network. Eight additional sites were chosen, six from southern California colleges. Each college will be provided with a Canon 5080C high-speed scanner, Dell computer, CD disc duplicators and software. Training will begin in early April and all sites should be operational by May. Carl also announced that the AMX database is growing dramatically. All distributed scanning network sites will now be equipped with OmniPage 12 software and Adobe Acrobat. Distributed scanning network sites can be found on the HTCTU website. As far as coverage is concerned, 90 percent of the colleges are covered under the Distributed Scanning Network. About 50 California community colleges also own Canon 5080C scanners. Carl also clarified that the DSN is a resource for books that aren't needed urgently. There is a two to three-week cycle from the time of request to completion.
Carl Brown considered BookShare a great resource with a large book collection. There are community college issues concerning BookShare in terms of fees, a $25 (sign-up fee) and $50/year per person usage fee as well as some uncertainties about legality on the part of the Chancellor’s Office. BookShare has the ability to download directly to BrailleNote systems and is negotiating with other providers about the possibility of having KESI format files as well as PDF documents.
Folsom Prison
Project
The High Tech Center Training Unit along with Peggy Tate and Scott Hamilton of the Chancellor’s Office have been working with Folsom Prison to find creative and interesting ways for using the resources of the prison to benefit students in the community college system. Captioning equipment is in place, four time based correctors were recently installed to improve the quality of the captioning projects. Gaeir Dietrich is now managing the captioning project at Folsom Prison. Colleges without urgent captioning needs can use this free resource. Video captioning will require approximately three weeks. Colleges are encouraged to contact Gaeir Dietrich to make the necessary arrangements.
Carl also reviewed with the committee a technology newly acquired by HTCTU, the Philips video-DVD recorder. This transfers a captioned video directly to DVD format preserving the captioning. There are copyright issues. According to Carl Brown, under the Digital Millennium Act, it is a violation to transfer video to DVD without permission or unless the college has directly produced the video. HTCTU is considering providing Folsom Prison with the equipment. Retail price of the Philips DVD burner is $600.
Folsom Prison and ATPC. Bob Martinengo, ATPC supervisor, reported there is currently only one full time Nemeth transcriber at the prison. Bob noted that slow turnaround times for this type of braille production are still an issue. Peggy Tate recommended that the ATPC and Folsom continue working together in order to identify production areas that are appropriate.
New email address:
Carl Brown announced that the High Tech Center Training Unit has a new and less cumbersome e-mail address. New email addresses: (same name)@htctu.net.
sogami@htctu.net
skeegan@htctu.net
dkan@htctu.net
bdeparine@htctu.net
mfosnaugh @htctu.net
AMX database is still growing with more than a thousand of book titles to date. Some large universities have also shown interest in the AMX. Since this database functions on the notion of reciprocity, they would also have to contribute. University of Oregon will have an estimated 400 titles to share.
ATPC Status Report
Bob Martinengo of the ATPC announced a growing order volume for the last 3 semesters as well as for the upcoming spring semester. The average response from the publishers is still 3 weeks but the ATPC is now closely identifying those publishers who respond promptly and those which do not in order to determine whether or not they are a reliable source. Resolving the timeliness of delivery issue is still a challenge. Peggy Tate suggested that publicity identifying uncooperative publishers would not necessarily make them more cooperative. She suggested developing a more collaborative relationship with publishers. She suggested encouraging individuals to solicit comments and ideas on how to develop a procedure for this to work and having a more structured process on how to correct flaws. Another recommendation made was for the ATPC to work with the bookstore association in order to get a heads up on what orders were being placed in advance and get information upfront.
Both E-text and Braille
productions, according to Bob, are going strong with high demands. The
coordination and sequencing of Braille jobs is a job in itself. Doing business with a Canadian company has
challenged the districts fiscal mechanisms added Bob. Also a big challenge for
the ATPC is getting ready for the program review happening on May 7 & 8,
2003. This program review, he said, would be a good way for the ATPC to
document where and what their status is and provide a summary of their
accomplishments and move forward. In addition, Bob also quickly mentioned the
State of Nevada’s interest in forming a coalition with California with regards
to the their legislation similar to the AB422.
Budget Impact
Carl Brown shared his concerns with the committee regarding the recent budget reductions and recognizes that the field is facing possible reductions in positions that provide access support to the campuses. The HTCTU program would reconfigure trainings to address the core needs of the field. Another contingency plan is to deliver many more trainings at off-site locations. If the budget reductions are proportional and the HTCTU funds do not fall below $943,000, no significant change would be necessary. The HTCTU plans to continue moving ahead and providing the same level of support, training and service it has been doing for the last 12 years.
New Technology
PDFaloud
PDFaloud, a program from the textHelp company in Ireland, integrates itself with the free version of Adobe Acrobat and provides a low-cost tool for reading PDF documents. An entire campus can acquire a site license for every computer they own for $2400. The desktop solution was recommended for student use. The HTCTU is working with textHELP to resolve a few small bugs remaining in the software.
Term Limits/New Members
One of the outcomes of the program review was a suggestion that the High Tech Center Training Unit advisory committee develop a rotating two-year term limit to encourage greater participation by a broader range of the college faculty and staff. The advisory committee agreed with the suggestion. Beginning in August 2004, Region 2,4,6,8,10 will elect new members who would serve for 2 years.. In 2005, Regions 1,3,5,7,9 will elect new members.
Mike Bistany of Region 8 resigned from the advisory committee.
Summary and Recommendations
· PDFaloud testing and study
· Send videos to Folsom via HTCTU
· Term limit of 2 years
· Modifying the permission letter for captioning to include the possibility of DVD conversion
· 3 new BrailleNote with GPS systems will soon be sent out to colleges
· A collaborative method for influencing publishers to be cooperative
· ATPC will work with the Chancellor’s Office in any proposed modification to the AB422
· Review and update the access to alternate media guideline
Handouts Provided
· Minutes, HTCTU Advisory Meeting October 4,2003
· Resignation letter from Mike Bistany
· Program Review Summary of the Results
· DSP&S Program Review
· Timeline for the HTCTU grant
Next Meeting: June 6, 2003, Friday