A meeting of the Mountain Lakes Web Site Committee was held on Apr 25, 2007 at the Mountain Lakes Borough Hall.  In attendance were Chairman Andy Bulfer, Clive Knowles, Nilesh Shringarpure, and Borough Council Liaison Steve Shaw. Absent was Mark Watrous.

Activities Since Last Time

• Andy Bulfer put on a Field Hockey registration form and program description provided by Cathy Mitchell.
• Mark Watrous did not attend the meeting but sent a report prior to the meeting.  Since the last meeting, he has continued to maintain the Troop 41 section.
• Clive Knowles did the SMAC test article on Health page for Robin Steele.
• Nilesh Shringarpure made many changes on the track pages. 
• Andy Bulfer replaced dog/cat license application forms.
• Mark Watrous monitored broken links on the web site.  His approach has been to look at the error log file from the server to see where our customers are having problems.  He reported he has probably fixed a dozen links In the last 6 weeks.
• Clive Knowles updated 3-4 pages for the League of Women Voters including making their consensus pages consistent in format. 
• Andy Bulfer made a minor change to track page for Mike Palazzi
• Mark Watrous instructed the Traffic and Safety committee on how to upload meeting minutes.
• Clive Knowles updated the 55 Plus pages for their May programs.
• Andy Bulfer changed the time for trout derby after it was listed incorrectly on the Web site and in the HSA Bulletin.
• Mark Watrous researched differences between "Save as Web Page" and "Save as Web Page, Filtered" in MS Word.
• Clive Knowles received material from Tom Caine, a new representative from the Shade Tree Committee.  Knowles is continuing to work with them to organize their material for the Web.
• Andy Bulfer updated the on-line volunteer form to send the material to the new mayor, George Jackson, instead of to Steve Shaw.  He also clarified the instructions and added JavaScript to prevent clicking "Submit" if the required fields are not filled out.
• Andy Bulfer obtained a link checker and identified over 300 bad links on the Web site.  Most were a type that is invisible to Web site users but about 50 impacted visitors.  Andy Bulfer fixed most of them or arranged with others to fix them.  There are about 33 left, most with little or no impact.
• Andy Bulfer put voting notice on the Notice Board for Christina Whitaker
• Andy Bulfer changed prices on Solid Waste page.  He added a details link on Trash Day notice.
• Andy Bulfer replaced the earthworm page for Jerry Uhrig.
• Andy Bulfer fixed an uploading mistake in the Planning Board meeting minutes.
• Andy Bulfer added Gary Webb’s notice about increased dog/cat fees.
• Andy Bulfer put on the April HSA Bulletin.
• Andy Bulfer fixed Karen Barrett’s e-mail address on the HSA Bulletin Submission Guidelines page.
• Andy Bulfer added a link to Ice Hockey on the Recreation page for Sharon Wendler.
• Andy Bulfer received and installed the May HSA Bulletin.
• Andy Bulfer put an AAUW Book Sale notice on the Notice Board for Alison Wood.

Public Comments

None.

Old Business

• Home and School Association -- The HSA has assigned Bernadette McKinney responsibility to complete the development of their Web site based on draft layout and navigation done by Mark Watrous.  However, we have not heard from McKinney since then.  Andy Bulfer is following up with her.
• LWV -- Clive Knowles has updated most of their pages.
• FAQs -- Steve Shaw reported he has not made much progress so far.
• Passwords -- It was decided that the main site password will be changed so that only active committee members will have it.

No Progress

• Ideas for Notice Board Improvements -- Last time, the Committee discussed a list of possible improvements for the Notice Board software.  However, no progress has been made so far.
• 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.
• Community Calendar improvements -- In addition to the Community Calendar item above, this would entail developing a calendar submission form for Borough Hall use. 

New Business

• Broadcast E-mail System -- The Committee discussed a presentation to the Borough Council.  It was decided to propose that it be on June 11.  It will be approximately 10 min long.  Nilesh Shringarpure will speak first on technology, operations, and costs.  Andy Bulfer will follow on potential applications and policy issues.  It was decided not to use slides.  A handout will be distributed prior to the meeting.

  There was a discussion of potential applications (for Bulfer's talk.) The following were identified:

  1. Monthly on-line newsletter;
  2. Borough Hall Announcements;
  3. Emergency notifications to the community;
  4. Emergency messages to Borough staff and emergency workers;
  5. Messages to Borough committee members and/or chairmen (came up after the meeting).
• Town Club and MAC -- The person who has been maintaining these "personal" Web pages (URL with a tilde) is moving out of town.  It was decided to contact the two organizations and ask them to either appoint a replacement or appoint someone to work the Web Committee so that the Committee can maintain their content.  Clive Knowles will contact Town Club.  Steve Shaw is the Borough Council liaison for MAC and will bring it up with them.  Nilesh Shringarpure will be responsible if MAC chooses to have the Web Committee to maintain their site.
• Leech Web Sites -- Another new Web site has emerged that scrapes content from the Mountain Lakes Web site and uses it on their own for-profit site.  The Mountain Lakes Web site has carried a copyright notice on the front page since its earliest days.  These parasitic Web sites do not have permission to use Mountain Lakes' content.  They make money off our content, we have no control over their accuracy, and there is danger if the search engines sense duplicative content.  It was decided to draft a memo to the Borough Council explaining the issue and our concerns.  Andy Bulfer will prepare a draft and distribute it to the Committee for review.

Date for Next Meeting

The next regular meeting will be on Wed May 9, 2007 at Borough Hall.

Andy Bulfer,
Chairman