Present: Chris Norris, Dana Gianforte, Mike Roy, Terry Simpkins, Carol Peddie and Doreen Bernier

Greetings – after a temporary hiatus in meetings due to vacations, illnesses, conferences, low Nielsen ratings, and various other sundry adventures, we’re back.

Chris presented an overview of a new research database available to us from Gartner, aimed at IT professionals.  A representative from Gartner will be here on April 28th and will join the AD meeting and give an overview of their research database. Access for the campus portal will be announced to the campus at the end of May. Chris showed the registration process, accessed the Gartner site and reviewed site features. The license with Gartner will give access to the research databases for the entire campus, and we will be inviting other folks (e.g., liaisons, other Middlebury IT leaders) to the demonstration on the 28th.

Chris also presented an update on recent Disaster Recovery (DR) activities, which are part of the larger Mission Continuity Planning (MCP) umbrella known as the Phoenix Project. The Phoenix Project’s milestones and timeline have been updated to reflect our current approach, the DR budget for FY12 has been approved, Disaster Recovery Questionnaires (DRQs) have been completed by LIS staff members for all identified critical systems, and a project website has been created containing the timeline, scope, updates and related documents. In addition, an interim DR plan has been created that will help inform the development of the formalized DR plan this fall. This spring, we will confirm recovery priorities with senior administrators and continue taking actions to better protect the continuity of our technology-dependent academic and business operations.

Finally, the ADs agreed that workgroups undergoing assessment should include a an assessment goal in their strategic planning. The idea is simply to formalize the activity of assessing the workgroups, and including it as a goal will help ensure that it is actually carried out.

Thanks for reading,

Terry & Doreen