A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Web Site Committee was held on Mar 14, 2007 at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were Chairman Andy Bulfer, Clive Knowles, Mark Watrous, Nilesh Shringarpure and Borough Council Liaison Steve Shaw.

Activities Since Last Time The Committee Reviewed Them

• Andy Bulfer changed dog/cat license application form to reflect new dates and prices as requested by Robin.  A details link was added from the Notice Board.
• Mark Watrous monitored usage and error logs on a weekly basis.  He mentioned particularly that the Shade Tree pages have many broken links.  Andy Bulfer will check them.  Also the business yellow pages don't appear to work properly for one particular older browser.  Andy Bulfer will check that as well.
• Andy Bulfer requested new committee listings from Christina Whitaker.  When they were received, Clive Knowles put them on.
• Nilesh Shringarpure put on some of the track changes requested by Michael Palazzi.  However he could not do all of the them because the information was missing.  He said Palazzi is sending the corrections.
• Andy Bulfer wrote an article on Howard and Martha Wenk based on information provided by Mayor Jackson and photos provided by the Wenks' relatives.
• Mark Watrous added links to new finance/tax software from Dana Merville.
• Andy Bulfer and Clive Knowles put invasives material on the Woodlands Management page for Jerry Uhrig.
• Nilesh Shringarpure did some follow-up work, investigating other vendors, for the broadcast e-mail proposal.
• Andy Bulfer wrote an article on the Ships Chain based on a 1953 newspaper clicking provided by Pat Rusak.
• Clive Knowles has been adding 55 Plus data and keeping it current.
• Andy Bulfer wrote article on How the Tourne was Saved but it’s still in review so is not visible yet.
• Clive Knowles reconfigured the Notice Board when the previous reviewer resigned.
• Andy Bulfer added material to library page about netlibrary and other new databases provided by the Library.
• Clive Knowles worked on the League of Women Voters Web site at the request of LWV president Jeana Macleod.
• Andy Bulfer put on Ellen Emr's photo and bio.
• Clive Knowles removed articles on Flu program
• Andy Bulfer put Chili Cookoff on information on the Recreation page for Denise Brennan.
• Andy Bulfer put on H&SA Bulletins for Jan. Feb. and March.
• Clive Knowles updated the pictures on the Garden Club pages.
• Andy Bulfer put on a Notice Board notice for the concert at Scribbles for Claudia B. Lemmerz.
• Andy Bulfer updated Steve Shaw’s biography as requested.
• Andy Bulfer formatted and put on several Oral Histories in the 'Voices of the Past' section at the request of HPC member Margarethe Laurenzi.  These included: Marian Rohrer, Mildred Williams, Josie Pitcher, David Higgins.
• Andy Bulfer updated the lifeguard application for DeeDee Conlan.
• Andy Bulfer put on the 2006 Lakes Management Report at the request of Gary Web.
• Andy Bulfer changed date for Chili Cookoff as requested by Denise Brennan.
• Andy Bulfer added a press release about the bear seminar and linked to it from Notice Board.
• Andy Bulfer added a Summer Recreation Employment Form 2007.
• Andy Bulfer updated the marriage license page to make it reflect civil union partnerships as well as marriages at the request of Christina Whitaker.
• Andy Bulfer added the recreation dates for the next few months on Recreation page
• Andy Bulfer replaced the H&SA Bulletin Submission Guidelines in their entirety with new content from Diane Burch.
• Andy Bulfer fixed a bad link on Woodlands invasives page.
• Andy Bulfer put information about the elections polling place returning to the MLHS.
• Andy Bulfer put on a Junior Field hockey registration form.  He requested more information about program from Cathy Mitchell so that we would have more than just the form.  He has received the information about not yet put it on.
• Andy Bulfer wrote a description of the Web site to give to a The Citizen reporter who told him she had heard his name at Borough Council meetings and would like to interview him.  However, the reporter never called.
• Andy Bulfer wrote a program that gathers statistics on files on the site and found some interesting tidbits:

  Numbers of Files

  Total number of html pages:	1119
  Total number of images:	1515
  Total number of pdf files:	79
  Total number of files of all types:	2813

  Historic Photos

  Streets	32
  Houses	268
  House photos	507
  Non-house photos	95
  Total photos	602

  Voices from the Past

  Oral Histories	15
  E-mail and Informal	47
  All Voices/Past	62

Public Comments

None.

Old Business

• Broadcast E-mail System -- The Committee discussed next steps for the broadcast e-mail proposal by Nilesh Shringarpure from the January meeting.  It was decided that the issues are not with the technology.  If the Borough wishes to have the system, the Web Committee could easily set it up.  The issues are who would operate the system and for what purposes.  Before going ahead, the Borough should identify a list of uses that would be made of the system, how often messages would be sent, the cost savings that could be achieved, and who would actually compose, authorize, and send the messages.  For example, would a monthly newsletter be written and distributed by e-mail, replacing the Borough pages in the H&SA Bulletin?  If so, who would do it?  Steve Shaw will pursue these questions with the Borough Council.
• Home and School Association -- As planned, Mark Watrous has developed a draft layout and navigation based on material provided by H&SA president LaVonne Feigeles.  The draft has been reviewed by both the Web Committee and Feigeles and other representatives of the H&SA.  However, the next phase, the graphical design of the pages appears to have stalled.  Andy Bulfer will contact Emily Wolfe to find out the status.
• FAQs -- Steve Shaw is reviewing and updating the FAQs page.  Shaw reported he has not made much progress so far.

No Progress

• Search Engine -- The Committee would still like a Search Engine on the front page.  We had one with the previous server.  One of the things that makes it difficult is a self-imposed requirement that the schools site (mtlakes.org) be included in the search results. 
• Monthly Traffic Report -- Each Committee member currently receives a daily e-mail report on traffic handled by the Web site on the previous day.  However, we would like the daily statistics rolled up into a monthly traffic report that could be distributed to a wider audience.

New Business

• Reverting files -- It has been noticed that files that have been updated by a Committee member, occasionally later revert back to their previous content.  There was discussion and the probable explanation was FTP errors by members working on the site.  The Committee decided to take no action other than exhorting each other to be more careful.
• Passwords -- It was decided there is no need to change passwords for now.
• Ideas for Notice Board Improvements -- The Committee discussed a list of possible improvements for the Notice Board software.  The following is the list with the committee's decision in parenthesis.
  1. Add an explanation of review process.  (Approved)
  2. Add a link to policy statement.  (Approved)
  3. Remove character set limitations.  (No decision)
  4. Translate entity references.  (No decision)
  5. Allow editor to put in html.  (No decision)
  6. E-mail back to submitter upon 1) approval, 2) disapproval, 3) expiration.  (Approved.  Andy Bulfer will provide requirements.)
  7. E-mail upon approval to Borough Hall for printing and insertion into BB tray.  (No decision)
  8. Add a 'headline field' limited to say five words that would be in bold at the beginning of a notice.  (Approved.  For now, the field will be on the approval or edit page, not the submission page.  The data will be entered manually be the editors.)
  9. Automatically add events to Community Calendar.  (Rejected.  A separate calendar submission page will be developed, linked to the notice board submission page.)
  10. Add function for Library to put on closing notice.  (Deferred)
  11. Change sort order from order by expiration date to order by submission date.  This would put the most recently submitted items at the top so they can be more easily found.  (Rejected)
  12. Write RSS file.  (Deferred)
• Community Calendar improvements -- In addition to the Community Calendar item above, this would entail developing a calendar submission form for Borough Hall use. 

Date for Next Meeting

The next regular meeting will be on Wed April 25, 2007 at Borough Hall.

Andy Bulfer,
Chairman