Chapel Hill Technology Advisory Committee

["Gregg Gerdau" <ggerdau AT intelor.com>]

Title: Message

Terri,

As we previously discussed, I believe your idea has some merit and deserves the opportunity to be thoroughly vetted with the TC before any action is taken on behalf of the TC.  If you would like to add it to the agenda for tomorrow's meeting, we could try.  As several people have now pointed out: if, after these discussions, a petition to Council is in order, there should be sufficient time to present it as a Committee action for their 6/27 meeting, either via agenda or from the floor.

I say "try" because this is not a one step process.  It has to fit into an overall plan for how the TC approaches the achievement of its purposes.  Step #1 is "building cooperative interaction with Council and staff by establishing an atmosphere of compromise and give-and-take that works consistently".  We'll make a good "jump start" on that with the Mayor and Manager tomorrow. 

Step #2 is realignment of old subcommittees and establishing new subcommittees. This should be no surprise, as it is the basis on which I offered my candidacy to Chair the committee: "I believe in teams. They can be far more powerful than the sum of their individual contributors.".  That can lead to getting many good things done without having too much discussion that leads to inaction.  I'd like to propose two right away  - open source (pilot) initiatives and community networking (wireless) initiatives.  Although included in the Infrastructure Subcommittee's strategic plan, these areas are growing in activity and interest.  We could also consider having a subcommittee for PR/communications.

We have new members who will need a subcommittee to team with, retiring members whose subcommittee slots are vacant, and a new chair and vice chair who may not be leading or permanently part of the individual subcommittees.    We need to discuss with who leads and serves on each one.  Looking forward, I would hope the subcommittees would work toward goals and report progress monthly. Frankly, I'm not sure I have a good record of what the existing assignments are beyond the Infrastructure Subcommittee.

Interaction with the DEDC might be a separate subcommittee, if that's what the TC decides, but I would start by proposing that it fits in with the community networking subcommittee.

 

With Best Regards,

 

Gregg

Gregg Gerdau
Chair
Chapel Hill Technology Committee
cell     919-593-0037
office  650-302-3500
efax    650-618-1578