A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Web Site Committee was held on Jan 12, 2004 at Borough Hall.  In attendance were Jud Breslin, Clive Knowles, Mark Watrous, Emily Wolfe, Chairman Andy Bulfer, and Council Liaison Ralph Loveys.

New Memebers of the Web Committee

New members of the committee, Jud Breslin and Clive Knowles, and new Council Liaison, Ralph Loveys, were introduced.

Activities Since Last Meeting

• Andy Bulfer and Mark Watrous have been working on the migration.  They encountered several problems discussed below.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer updated the Borough Council page to reflect the changes since Jan 1: updated Steve Shaw's bio, removed Jud Breslin, added Charles Gormally whose bio he received.  A picture of Gormally is still needed.
  
  
• Emily Wolfe added a new picture on the front page.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer updated the Community Calendar with all the known dates through the end of 2005.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer pruned outdated announcements from the What's New section and added a New Year greeting.
  
  

Migration to the New Server at GTI

The work on the migration to the new server has encountered problems and has slowed.  As discussed last time, our hosting company, GTI of Morristown, wants to move us to a new server.  They insist the old one is obsolete, unreliable, difficult to maintain, and insecure.  The new server is already in place beside the old one.  While the work is being done, the old server will continue to operate. 

Andy Bulfer and Mark Watrous have performed many of the early tasks of the migration but several features of the new server are not working as advertised or to our satisfaction.  These include:

• Lack of a single login that has control of the entire site;
• A directory structure that will require more extensive editing and testing than previously thought;
• Inaccessible log files which precludes sending weekly and monthly e-mail traffic reports;
• Lack of mailing lists;
• Sub-domains not working;
• cgi-bin scripts not working.

New Discussion Items

• The Committee has been asked to prepare Objectives for 2005.  After some discussion, it was tentativly decided to draft objectives around the following:
  1. Migration to the New Server;
  2. Bulletin Board Announcements on the Web;
  3. Sales of Beach/Tennis Tags via the Web;
  4. Add a DPW section and update the Police section;
  5. Document the Web site.
  
  Jud Breslin will prepare a draft of written objectives and forward it to the rest of the Committee for review.
  
  
• It was proposed that an "Organizational" person be added to the committee.  This would not necessarily be a technical person but someone similar to former Committee member Sally Santiago who knows what is going on throughout town.
  
  
• There was a dicussion of the Business Section, This was originally intended to be a service to businesses located in town or that serve the town and to residents looking for a product or service.  These were noble objectives but the Business Section has fallen out of date and the means originally planned for keeping it accurate haven't worked.  It was proposed that the Business Section be discarded.
  
  
• The Web Site Committee section needs updating.  Also, Clive Knowles needs a login and the Committee mailing list webcomm, needs the new members added.  Andy Bulfer will handle.
  
  
• The Community Church site needs updating.  Jud Breslin will check what they wish to do.  One of the members of the Committee said they would do it for a nominal fee.
  
  

Review of Past Items

• A project to display in the "What’s New" section the material on the Bulletin Board (the physical one on the corner) was discussed.  Unfortunately, this project has been around for over a year and we haven't been successful at getting it done.  Andy Bulfer made a proposal on how it could be done which was discussed.  The Committee liked the idea and Jud Breslin was appointed to socialize it with the Trustees of the Bulletin Board.  Clive Knowles will support him by preparing a mock-up.
  
  
• Andy Bulfer presented a rough conceptual proposal for using the Web to order beach & tennis tags.  The objective would be to make the process more convenient for residents by allowing 24x7 ordering from the comfort of their home or office.  There was quite a bit of discussion.  Although the idea is attractive, its cost and other issues are potential problems.  It was decided that Ralph Lovey's will discuss the idea with Gary Webb.
  
  
• The Dept. of Public Works is a major area that is not yet represented.  They are responsible for water, roads, sewers, recycling, leaves, and trash.  They touch all of our lives.  The committee would like to have a section about them including who they are, how they are organized, what their day-to-day activities are, how to contact them, their equipment, a group picture, etc.  No decision was made. Emily Wolfe will undertake this project.
  
  
• The Police section needs updating.  Emily Wolfe will handle.
  
  

  Date for Next Meeting

  The next regular meeting will be on Wed Feb 9, 2005 at Borough Hall. For planning purposes, assume the meetings after that will be on Mar 9 and Apr 20.

  Andy Bulfer,
  Chairman