SOAR Committee Minutes – 29 July 2008 Casper Convention
Member present: Nick Bretz, Marge Benson, Dennis Zitterkopf, Lauren Brantner, Al Hart, Jim Weibert, Ken Leffler, Ron Greenwald
Guests: Larry Bohlender (CIC), Rob Robinson (CIC) and Connie Kevorkian (CIC)
Excused: Roger Rutz
Minutes for March 2008 were accepted as written
The presentation prepared by CIC discussing the present manual process for obituaries and a proposed automated (with an auto-OCR) step was discussed by the committee. Larry Bohlender, CIC President, said any and all software needed to implement this automatic process would be provided by CIC for no fee to AHSGR. Implementing the new method would speed up the time to complete obituary processing, reduce the effort by the indexing volunteers, and reduce the CIC effort to support the present system. CIC has been expending more effort than our yearly contract pays for so they have a vested interest in this implementation. While the automated system will reduce the support time and cost, the funds AHSGR would normally pay CIC for the support will then be available to continue to add and expand the SOAR project with new databases or additions (means AHSGR will not see a significant change in the yearly fees we now send CIC each year. The net result is quicker (and easier) obituary processing. The committee was unanimously in favor of the proposed automated process. A motion was made by Ken Leffler, seconded by Marge Benson, to present to the full board for authorization to proceed. Jerry Siebert is to send a message (Dennis will draft it) to CIC/Bohlender requesting implementation of the process. (the Board approved the motion).
Dennis has an electronic copy of the presentation if any committee member wants a copy. It expands to about a 5MB attachment when sent by e-mail.
The Committee discussed the latest on-line statistics records available. The site statistics were discussed and the SOAR Business Plan and Financial Analysis presentation was also reviewed. Marge reported there 297,700 records in the on-line database with 271,000 of these being obituaries and 46,050 of the obituaries are in German.
The Membership Plus subscription program was launched 30 May 08. 65 persons have subscribed as of 29 July. The committee agreed we should continue to accept paper checks for MS+ subscriptions although it requires time and support from Diane and Kathy – this is NOT the preferred method we want members to use.
CIC will be asked for an estimate to simplify manual activation of MS+ accounts when the member sends a paper check and it is deposited in Lincoln.
CIC will be asked to prepare an estimate to process the latest Lower Volga Village Project obituaries (for the last year). Dennis is to send a CD copy to Ron Greenwald who will deliver the files to CIC.
Problems and complaints from SOAR users were discussed. A growing problem is the incompatibility between SOAR and the Vista operating system (unless User Access Control – UAC) is disabled. Many users don’t know how or are concerned about making the settings changes to their new computers. The problem is due to the manner Vista handles Java code and CIC has said short of a complete rewrite of the site, they know of no simple solution to this problem.
Almost all of the open problem log topics from the June 2007 period have now been resolved. The utility to allow us to “polish the apple” and add dates for items that have been automatically processed has not yet been provided.
A Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) addition to the SOAR site will be sent to the committee via e-mail for polishing. When finished, CIC will be asked for an estimate to implement the addition.
Changes/text improvements to several of the messages presented to users on the SOAR site will be sent to the committee via e-mail for polishing. When finished, CIC will be asked for an estimate to implement the addition.
The Marketing Plan was reviewed with changes in the projected yearly subscriptions and recognition that AHSGR staff do have some involvement with MS+ because of the paper check processing. Notices about the new Membership Plus subscription have been sent to the various mail lists we’ve previously sent information to about SOAR. Jim Weibert will send an article to be included in the Chapter Leader Newsletter and also to the Newsletter Editors about Membership Plus.
Lauren Brantner and Ron Greenwald described what they (and Henry Schmick)are currently doing to capture electronic copies of obituaries from various newspapers and areas. They agreed to prepare a draft process/procedure for review by the committee to formalize this method.
Committee discussed a proposed reduction in the cost for surname chart downloads. Now that the surname chart portion of SOAR has been significantly improved (reduced time to view a chart and the inclusion of the village name and name of the family the chart was prepared for) this will be revisited in March 09 when we determine if any increased surname chart has occurred.
Budget requests for 2009 include renewal of the two remaining CIC contracts for SOAR (one is for $2110 - the project work on the SOAR CIC Greeley server and the other is (about) $11000+ for the continuation of the on-line project. The CIC bill (for both activities) is due in the January-February 2009 time period and is paid from the SOAR restricted account. This will be forwarded to Al Hart.
The committee is in favor of using web conferencing for meetings at Lincoln (not at remote convention sites). Audio support and the ability to convey computer or handout presentations to remote members is desired.
The 07-08 Work Plan will be modified to delete the existing item 6 about MS+ implementation and replace it with the intent to implement the automated obituary processing method.
Dennis Zitterkopf