Pittsfield Website Committee
March 24, 2009

The Pittsfield Website Committee was called to order @ 7:10 pm.
Members present:
Clayton Wood, Chair
Bob Legg
Bill Provencal
Matt Goodwin
Jen Elliot
Harry Vogt, Secretary

1. Minutes of Jan 20, 2009 were approved.

2. Website/Channel 24 Report

a. Website is being updated to reflect new committee members and elected officials.
b. Clayton has been working with the Town Crier to coordinate news posted on the website.
c. Website’s comment section has been removed to limit junk e-mail received.

3. Minutes Update: Harry presented a numerical summary of minutes posted on the Town website. Clayton will share this information with the town administrator in an effort to encourage committees/boards to post minutes of their meetings on a regular basis.

4. Sub-webs: New sub-webs have been developed for the Library (library.mypittsfield.com) and Police (Police.mypittsfield.com). Clayton discussed using a WordPress insert on the sub-webs rather than training sub-web users in the use of HTML.

5. Relocation of Domains & Documentation of Costs: The Committee discussed shifting all domains over to Matt’s server. To-date costs associated with the Town website have largely been donated. To help make the Town aware of costs associated with maintaining the website, the Committee asked Matt to summit a summary/bill of costs. Matt suggested that the costs be presented in the format of an invoice with costs cancelled out as a donation. In an effort to raise awareness of costs, Clayton will share summary of costs with the Selectman.

6. Town Calendar: The library and school district are posting information to a Google calendar which automatically shares posted information with the Town calendar.

7. Economic Development Committee: The EDC has expressed interest in having the website committee develop a portal page for the town Wi-Fi site. If a portal is developed the EDC hopes to sell advertising on it.

8. Cable Access: The Board of Selectman are interested in having their meetings, as well as other board and committee meetings, aired on Channel 24. Metrocast requires a separate channel for playback of video. Additionally, Metrocast will not allow dead air time on the channel so additional video content would have to be developed to fill the time.

9. Metrocast Contract: The Board of Selectman would like to see someone from the website committee involved with renegotiations of the Town’s contract with Metrocast.

10. Historical Society Photos: The Committee discussed placing the historical society’s scanned photographs on the website. Bill Provencal noted that some photos are visually more interesting than others and suggested being selective in which are displayed. Bill also noted that captions haven’t been developed for the photos. The Committee discussed working with the town historian to identify the photos or use ones already identified such as those that have been used on past calendars.

11. Old Home Day: The Committee agreed to work with the Old Home Day Committee in the posting of photographs from Old Day Weekend events on the website.

12. Next Meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19, 2009.

Meeting Adjourned @ 8:10 pm

Minutes submitted by Harry Vogt, Secretary.