MERC

Nov. 8 , 2006, Institutional Representatives Meeting Notes

Stoney Creek Inn, Columbia, Mo., 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Welcome – Dr. Russell Helm, CIO, University of Central Missouri and Chair, MERC Board of Directors 

Dr. Helm welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked that attendees stand up and introduce themselves around the room.

Next Generation Network Update – Chip Byers, New Initiatives Director, MOREnet

Byers began by telling the attendees that the goal of the project is to put long-haul fiber between the existing hub sites. MOREnet has metro rings in Kansas City and St. Louis so that MOREnet can acquire Internet access without having to pay local loop charges. Another goal is to connect to Internet2 in Kansas City. Byers reported that the NGN project is necessary for several reasons, one being that total tail circuit growth for the 2006 fiscal year (FY06) was 36% and that FY07 is growing at an even faster rate. He reported that in response to network growth MOREnet was able to increase the public higher education institutions supported bandwidth from 45Mg to 75Mg. As members use more bandwidth, an interim step is needed to increase the backbone from the current capacity of 622Mg to one Gigabit (Gb). MOREnet is able to this for about the same price they are paying now in terms of ongoing costs. Total capacity will be increased by about two-thirds.

Byers went on to report that MOREnet is working with CENIC (Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California), who support a membership similar to MOREnet. CENIC will assist MOREnet with advice and design issues in relation to the NGN project.

Byers last topic was the SURA (Southeastern Universities Research Association) Grid Fiber Award. SURA entered into an agreement with AT&T and several other companies, and as a result, about 16,000 strand miles of next generation fiber was available to the university community. MOREnet requested and was awarded one pair between Kansas City and St. Louis.

Byers reported that the anticipated schedule leads to production being phased in through 2008.

CALEA Update – Ben Colley, Strategic Technologies Director, MOREnet

CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act) has applied to telephone communications since 1994 but was recently amended to include voice over IP technology. Colley recommended that the membership contact their local legal counsel to discuss their organization’s need to be compliant and those requirements for compliance. If an organization needs to become compliant, they will be required to complete a report documenting how the organization will comply. The due date for this report is not firm but currently is set for no sooner than February of 2007. The current due date for compliancy is set at May 14, 2007.
  
Colley continued and stated that it is the opinion that higher education institutions in general will be considered private networks and that individual institutions will not be required to become compliant, however it is the opinion that state networks will need to be compliant at the gateway points to the internet. Colley stressed that these are opinions only, and that MOREnet continues to work on sorting through the requirements. He again stressed that local legal counsel should be engaged.

Keynote Presentation – “A Business Model for Continuity Planning”, Bill Rider, Manager for Data Security and Disaster Recovery, Johns Hopkins Hospital & University in Baltimore, MD

Colleges and universities have become increasingly aware of their dependence on their information storage, communication and processing systems. Disasters such as hurricane Katrina vividly demonstrated the potential for damage, and greatly increased the awareness of risk among university administrators who once considered their environments safe.

Bill Rider presented a session that developed a set of working definitions for components of emergency planning and elaborated on each of those components as they related to an overall continuity of operations program. These components included discussions on:

• Emergency Response Planning
• Disaster Recovery Planning
• Business Continuity Planning
• Crisis Management Planning

MOBIUS Roadmap - Gary L. Harris, Assistant Director, MOBIUS Library Systems

Harris began by giving a short history of MOBIUS, including its beginnings as a research sharing program in late 1996 and the 1998 legislation that authorized funds for MOBIUS. Today, the MOBIUS Consortium has 158 subscriptions to 13 databases. Harris reported that the MOBIUS membership consists of 62 institutional members and 2 cooperating partners.

Harris shared with the attendees that Beth Fisher assumed the responsibilities of MOBIUS Executive Director in August of 2006. Fisher was previously the Associate Director of the IT Acquisitions Department at Virginia Technical College. Fisher has implemented a review of current practices and procedures of the MOBIUS Consortium Office. Harris also informed the attendees that additional current projects include hardware replacement, a statewide cooperative book purchasing plan, and a new statewide delivery service.

Revised MERC Fee Structure – Russell Helm and Jennifer Doll

Doll reminded the attendees that bandwidth fees began in 2005 due to a budget shortfall in the state appropriation. For the last two years MERC member fees have been a combination of a fee based on student FTE data and a bandwidth fee based on circuit capacity. Doll reported that the goal is that by 2011 all MERC members will pay the same base fee (instead of a fee based on student FTE). The membership fee will most likely be around $5,500 - $6,000 per year. The new fee schedule will be phased in over a three year period and will be reached in 2011. Allowing the fee schedule to be phased in over a three year period will prevent institutions from seeing a substantial increase or decrease in any given year.  The bandwidth fee is still in place to support the shortfall resulting from a decrease in MOREnet’s state appropriation. The bandwidth fee will be set as a dollar amount per Mg in circuit capacity and will be based upon a census date of December 31st each year. This will allow institutions to estimate their MOREnet fees for the upcoming year and should help in the development of budgets.

Doll moved on to a presentation of the projected membership fees and bandwidth fees for future fiscal years beginning with  2008 (FY08). FY08 membership fees will still be based upon student FTE data, but the tier distribution differs from previous years. The estimated per Mb charge (bandwidth fee) for capacity in place or on order by December 31st 2007 is $597.00.

Projected FY2008

Per Mb charge for capacity in place or on order by December 31st 2007 is $597.00

Projected FY2009

Per Mb charge for capacity in place or on order by December 31st 2008 is to be determined.

Projected FY2010

Per Mb charge for capacity in place or on order by December 31st 2009 is to be determined.

Doll reminded the attendees that these projected fees are contingent upon final appropriations funding and member tail circuit capacity at the census date.

MERC Financial Report – Jennifer Doll, Director of Fiscal and Contractual Services, MOREnet

Doll informed the attendees that the MERC Board approved the FY07 budget at the August 9, 2006 meeting. Doll reported that at the end of first quarter FY07 most MERC members had been billed, with the remaining few being billed at the beginning of the second quarter. The annual transfer of funds to support the shared network has not yet occurred and will not be done until billing is complete. Doll reported that revenues have been fairly consistent with the budget expectations. Personnel expenses are as expected and on track with the budget, as are other expenses such as member meetings and training.

Doll went on to explain the Fiscal Exigency Reserve (FER) line of the financial report. The FER is a reserve that the MOREnet Council has created to aid in the shut-down of MOREnet should such an event occur. The main possible cause of this would be a loss of state appropriations that would be significant enough  to cease MOREnet’s operations. The FER was created by the MOREnet Council after the review of an internal audit report conducted by the University of Missouri. The total amount needed for a shut-down was determined to be around 3 million dollars. Each MOREnet membership group has contributed what they determined was possible and MERC’s portion has been determined to be $90,000. The reserve exists only on paper now, however the funds have been earmarked for such a situation and cannot be used elsewhere.

MOREnet Research Update – Ben Colley, Strategic Technologies Director, MOREnet

Colley began the research update by stating that one of MOREnet’s organizational goals of the year is to keep the membership better informed about what types of research activities MOREnet is conducting. MOREnet would also like to know what research members are conducting and would like to move towards aligning that research. Colley reported that current MOREnet research projects include CALEA discovery and communication, best practices for podcasting, course management systems/hosted service feasibility, and high definition video conferencing. Colley urged the attendees to contact him with ideas on future research and questions about current research.

MOREnet Services Update – Natasha Angell, Member Services Director, MOREnet

Angell began by informing the attendees that MOREnet will be rolling out the RightAnswers Knowledgebase in the spring of 2007. Angell went on to speak about the CENTRA e-conferencing service offered by MOREnet. Currently, the CENTRA tool is being reviewed as MOREnet has seen use decline over the past several years. Angell assured the attendees that members would be given sufficient notice regarding any changes to the service, and added that nothing would change with the service any earlier than January 1st of 2008.

Angell also reminded the attendees of training opportunities available through MOREnet provided at no additional cost to members. Angell also reminded the attendees that the MOREnet Security Symposium is scheduled for November 28th and 29th in Columbia.

Ivan Moore, MOREnet Video Services Manager, spoke about the H.239 video service enhancement. Moore reported that H.239 allows multiple channels of video while still supporting existing video standards such as H.323. Before H.239, presenters would have to switch between camera inputs to present both themselves and their presentation materials. With H.239, users will be able to view both video streams at once. Moore informed the attendees that MOREnet would be posting an official announcement about the availability of H.239 in the near future.

HELIX 2007 Update – Nancy Piringer, Higher Education Program Manager

Piringer informed the audience that HELIX 2007 will be held March 29-30 (Thursday & Friday), 2007 at Tan-Tar-A. The theme will be “Advancing Technology: Pushing Boundaries”. Call for presentations is open and will remain open until December 6. There will be four tracks for the conference

• Leadership, Management, and Collaboration
• Security and Technical Infrastructure
• Teaching and Learning with Technology
• Web Design and Development

Piringer added that the Keynote Speaker would be Dr. Larry Johnson, Chief Executive Officer, New Media Consortium. Each year, the New Media Consortium co-sponsors the Horizon Report with EDUCAUSE. The Horizon report looks ahead at technologies that are coming down the road within the next five years. The next Horizon Report will be published in January of 2007. Piringer encouraged the everyone to attend and urged them to spread the word within their institutions.

Meeting adjourned at 3:00 PM.

Attendees

• John Heard, A.T. Still University of Health Sciences
• Paul Bookmeyer, Avila University
• Gary Garten, Avila University
• Chad Gaines, Central Methodist University
• Rita Gulstad, Central Methodist University
• Gary Stanowski, Columbia College
• Gerard Bohlmann, Concordia Seminary
• Richard Hiers, Covenant Seminary
• Robert Athearn, East Central College
• Scott Hartwig, Harris-Stowe State University
• Bill Rider, Johns Hopkins & University of Baltimore, MD
• Joe Serrone, KC University of Medicine & Biosciences
• Rick Mihalevich, Linn State Technical College
• Lloyd Marchant, Moberly Area Community College
• Donny Meador, Moberly Area Community College
• Rick Kubb, Maryville University
• Wesley Wingfield, Metropolitan Community College
• Mark Mabe, Missouri Western State University
• Gary Harris, MOBIUS
• Natasha Angell, MOREnet
• Megan Barney, MOREnet
• Ben Colley, MOREnet
• Jennifer Doll, MOREnet
• Bill Giddings, MOREnet
• Bill Mitchell, MOREnet
• Sandra Monnig, MOREnet
• Nancy  Piringer, MOREnet
• Randy Raw, MOREnet
• Ryan Halstead, Missouri Southern State University
• Robert Walker, Missouri Southern State University
• Joel LaReau, Ozarks Technical Community College
• Mark Haverly, State Fair Community College
• Robert Paulson, State Fair Community College
• Kevin Ballard, Saint Louis University
• Ron Boettcher, Saint Louis University
• Renee Canavan, Saint Louis University
• Jarrod Car, Saint Louis University
• Mike Moore, Saint Louis University
• Anthony Petralia, Saint Louis University
• Tracy Piedmont, Saint Louis University
• Robert Rossi, Saint Louis University
• Ginny Schorle, St Louis Community College
• Greg Wirth, St. Charles Community College
• Chad Shepherd, St. Louis College of Pharmacy
• Craig Klimczak, St. Louis Community College
• Kevin Kelley, Southwest Baptist University
• Bob McGlasson, Southwest Baptist University
• George Beshears, Truman State University
• George Rickerson, University of Missouri System
• Dan Uetrecht, University of Missouri - Rolla
• Gary Allen, University of Missouri - Columbia
• Russell Helm, University of Central Missouri
• Garry Truman, Urshan Graduate School of Theology
• Larry Haffner, Webster University
• Scott Lowe, Westminster College
• David Stock, Westminster College