MERC

March 25 , 2004, Institutional Representatives Meeting Notes

In Attendance

• John Heard – A. T. Still University of Health Sciences
• Rita Gulstad – Central Methodist College
• Jim Graham - Central Missouri State University
• Dennis Kennett – East Central College
• Jim Klinger – Harris Stowe State College
• Tracy James – Jefferson College
• Theresa Luebbering – Lincoln University
• Rick Mihalevich – Linn State Technical College
• Dave Imler – Logan College of Chiropractic
• Rick Kubb – Maryville University
• Don Doucette – Metropolitan Community Colleges
• Steve Earney – Missouri Southern State University
• Mark Mabe – Missouri Western State College
• Jon Rickman – Northwest Missouri State University
• Joel Lareau – Ozarks Technical Community College
• Bob McGlasson – Southwest Baptist University
• Greg Burris – Southwest Missouri State University
• Greg Wirth – St. Charles Community College
• Chad Shepherd – St. Louis College of Pharmacy
• Craig Klimczak – St. Louis Community College
• Joe Rozman – Three Rivers Community College
• Tim Warren – Truman State University
• Mary Fowler – University of Missouri – St. Louis
• Gary Allen – University of Missouri – Columbia
  (for Ed Mahon)

Welcome and Introductions

Greg Burris, Chair of the MERC Board of Directors, welcomed everyone to the meeting and reviewed the vision and statement of purpose of MERC. He then introduced the current Board members and asked everyone in the room to introduce themselves.

Reports

SB1082 Update – Burris asked that Bill Mitchell provide an overview of SB1082. Mitchell explained that the bill was proposed to establish a commission that would oversee all IT investments for the State of Missouri. This commission would be appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate. All state IT funding requests would need approval from this commission. The second meeting of the commission moved it from a permanent standing commission to an interim commission.

Senator Childers cited two reasons for proposing this commission, first responder communications and Homeland Defense funding. There are groups at the state, local and county level that address interoperability in the radio arena and ones that address this in the network arena. There is a need to have a cooperative effort in communications in all areas for all levels of government to allow for communications in an emergency situation.

Current status is that the proposed legislation is to create an interim commission to do its work over the summer and report back with draft legislation for a permanent commission structure.

Burris shared with the group, a draft response to Childers and requested feedback. A discussion ensued regarding possible changes to the draft and the importance of everyone sharing this information with the presidents of their respective institutions. Burris will refine, sign and send the letter to Senator Childers. He will also email the letter to everyone so they can distribute and prepare on their campuses. Craig Klimczak moved that MERC support the sending of the letter to Senator Childers. Don Doucette second and all were in favor.

MERC Security Task Force Update – Joel Lareau reported that approximately two-thirds of MERC’s security officers were contacted for the survey and that the largest survey response group, 33%, indicate that more services from MOREnet are not needed. Other response groups indicate an interest in packet filtering (30%) and training (10-15%).

Research shows that no one has the funding for training and that time may even be a more critical resource. Most feel that a regional event (1- 1½ day) would be good use of their time, especially in identifying their regional resources.

At the May Board meeting the task force will share a formal presentation and a recommendation.

Lareau shared that there have been great comments on the current MOREnet initiative, the Good Neighbor policy for setting up the site routers, just about across the board. Seventy-three percent of the officers think it is a good idea for MOREnet to block virus propagation vectors at the routers.

MERC Bandwidth Management Task Force Update – Jim Graham shared copies of the survey and the results with the group. The largest issues deal with those campuses that have residence halls as spam and file sharing are consuming their bandwidth. The task force had met the day prior to the meeting and gathered input as to where they are and where they need to be going. They will be meeting again in the next 2 weeks.

Department of Higher Education (DHE) Update – No representative in attendance.

MERC Budget Update – Nancy Piringer provided the update. Piringer also shared that billing for next year will start in August. Occasionally, there are misdirected bills and Piringer asked that everyone verify their MOREnet billing contact so bills can be sent to the appropriate person. The FY05 budget will be adopted at the May Board meeting.

Burris asked for feedback regarding the future of the HELIX/Spring Technical Conference. Does MERC want to push for this conference to be the preeminent conference in the state for information technology? How can we get the attendance up? Are we covering the right kinds of topics? Do we have a perception problem (i.e. strictly a technical conference)? Where do we want to go?

MOREnet Update – Bill Mitchell, Executive Director of MOREnet, gave the MOREnet update.

MOREnet Council – Mitchell reported that the Council has had its first meeting and plans to meet again on April 8th. Agenda items will include the FY06 appropriation request, FY05 budgets and goals for the next year. The Council consists of representation from each sponsoring agency, two external representatives from each agency, Vice President of Information Technology – University of Missouri-System, MOREnet Executive Director (ex-officio), and State Chief Information Officer (ex-officio).

MOREnet Backbone/Internet Upgrades – OC12 backbone service was implemented throughout the state. This has quadrupled the capacity and reduced costs. At this point in time, LightCore (formerly PTI) is the vendor. See Upgrade 2004 on the MOREnet webpage for network updates.

The Internet circuit upgrade consists of 4 OC12 tiered circuits coming in for I1 access. Three are up and running with St. Louis scheduled to be up soon.

MOREnet e-Conferencing Service – Centra has been announced and is available for signing up. The MOREnet Council approved using MOREnet reserves to pay the acquisition cost for the universal software license which includes Centra Symposium, Centra Conference and Centra eMeeting for live virtual classrooms, Web seminars and online meetings. e-Conferencing is an Internet-based tool suite that allows people to communicate and create virtual learning and meeting environments over the Internet. Audio conferencing, live one-way video, application sharing and collaborative Web conferencing are all components.

MOREnet offers instructor-led training sessions for people involved in creating and managing e-Conferencing events. This training will be delivered via the Centra tool. Asynchronous training tools and materials also are available. MOREnet Technical Support staff will work with local Event Managers to train them to create, modify and manage events, manage user accounts and to set up the site's default Centra domain.

This service is sold in packs of 10. Each 10-pack is priced at $3,000. For each 10-pack of licenses, a maximum of ten participants can attend MOREnet e-Conferencing events simultaneously. The $3,000 per 10-pack price is good for March 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005. After July 1, 2004, renewals will be on a 12-month basis.

MOREnet Remote Vulnerability Assessment Service – The MOREnet Remote Vulnerability Assessment Service, a study of an organization's publicly visible Internet presence, is now available. The assessment, performed over the Internet, looks for signs of vulnerabilities that could pose a risk if not addressed. Essentially, MOREnet's Security staff provides a "hacker's" view of your public network, allowing you to exercise due diligence in planning and to secure it against current threats.

MOREnet has begun accepting orders for the RVA service and the pricing for this service has been announced and posted on the MOREnet web site. MOREnet has had discussions with the State Library about the possibility of a pilot project in FY05 that would provide an RVA for a select number of public libraries. MOREnet has their first order for an RVA and is fielding inquiries from many other organizations.

• One-time assessment $750.00 per *Class C Network
• Quarterly Assessment $1,300.00 per *Class C Network
• Monthly Audit/Annual Subscription $2,800.00 per *Class C Network

*MOREnet Remote Vulnerability Assessment Service Pricing is per Class C Network (256 IP addresses). Pricing for assessment requests for eight Class C Networks or more will be quoted on an individual case-by-case basis.

External Performance Measures Project – MOREnet is working on a formal External Performance Measures Project regarding the influences and impact of MOREnet on higher education – both at the system and institutional level. One of the challenges that MOREnet faces is developing a methodology to systematically assess both the quantitative and qualitative measures over time, not just what is easy and readily obtainable. MOREnet will be working collectively on this project with several other state networks. MOREnet hopes to start a pilot assessment process this fall and report results to Commissioner Wilson in January 2005.

MERC Reserve – Burris led a discussion on spending down a portion of the MERC budget reserve. Alternatives mentioned included using those funds to provide remote vulnerability assessment services for MERC sites; for funding e-Conferencing licenses and/or for providing temporary rebates/discounts on MERC member dues.

The group felt that the most equitable solution was to go with the option to provide temporary rebates/discounts on MERC member dues, keeping the current MERC fee structure the same. Organizations would then be able to choose for themselves how they would spend those savings. The group also felt that it would be appropriate to use a portion of those funds to enhance the HELIX conference and to possibly bring in a name keynote speaker next year.

The MERC Board will meet soon to decide the amount of the reduction and will report that decision back to the Institutional Representatives.

MERC Board Elections and Nominations of Candidates for FY05 Slate

• Chair Elect
  • Bruce Vieweg, Saint Louis University (all three groups nominated Bruce for this position)
• 2-Year Public and Technical Colleges
  • Director-at-Large (2-year term): Greg Wirth, St. Charles Community College
• Independent and Proprietary Institutions
  • Director-at-Large (2-year term): Rita Gulstad, Central Methodist College

Dave Imler will fill out the second year of Bruce Vieweg’s 2 year term as Director-at-Large for the Independent and Proprietary Institutions if Bruce Vieweg accepts the nomination for MERC Chair-Elect.