ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE (ECC) ASHRAE Winter Conference / Chicago, IL Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018 11:00 AM 3:00 PM Palmer House Hilton Clark 1 MINUTES 1. Call meeting to order Ms. Schopplein called the meeting to order at 11:00 AM CT. 2. ASHRAE Code of Ethics Commitment In this and all other ASHRAE meetings, we will act with honesty, fairness, courtesy, competence, integrity and respect for others, and we shall avoid all real or perceived conflicts of interests. (See full Code of Ethics: https://www.ashrae.org/aboutashrae/ashrae-code-of-ethics.) 3. Roll Call of members, staff, and guests MEMBERS PRESENT: Heather Schopplein Megan Tosh Gerardo Alfonso Pam Duffy Mark Hydeman Karine Leblanc Jessica Mangler Richie Mittal
MEMBERS ABSENT: BOD EX-OFFICIO PRESENT: COORD. OFFICER ABSENT: GUESTS / STAFF PRESENT: Cindy Callaway Ken Cooper Ben Skelton Edward Tsui Tom Pollard Randy Reed Richard Kimball Nikos Giannitsanos Tim Dwyer Russell Lavitt Arthur Hallstrom Kay Thrasher Don Brandt Julia Keen Rupert Schutz (ASHRAE staff) Joslyn Ratcliff (ASHRAE staff / ECC liaison) 4. Quorum Check Quorum was established with seven members in the meeting. 5. Review of agenda The agenda was reviewed and not changes were made. 6. Approval of Conference Call #3 Minutes Ms. Tosh moved to approve the draft minutes from ECC Conference Call #3. Mr. Alfonso seconded. The minutes were approved with no discussion. 5-0-1, CNV 7. Overview Reports a. Chair s Report Ms. Schopplein noted that there were quite a few items to discuss further down the agenda and that she is pleased with the attendance at the subcommittee meetings. b. Vice Chair s Report Ms. Tosh echoed Ms. Schopplein s comments and thanked her for scheduling the subcommittee meetings so far in advance. c. BOD Ex-Officio s Report Mr. Skelton provided the Ex-O report, which is posted on ECC s Basecamp site. d. Coordinating Officer s Report (Edward Tsui) no report given.
e. Staff Liaison Report Ms. Ratcliff provided a report on the ASHRAE Website Redesign, and reminded attendees to download the app and submit travel reimbursement forms, if applicable. f. Staff Report Mr. Schutz provided a report on that ASHRAE s social media engagement continues to be strong. Monthly social media reports are posted to ECC s Basecamp site. 8. Subcommittee Reports a. ECC Strategic Planning Subcommittee Ms. Schopplein reported that the subcommittee has been meeting before each full committee meeting and there is no new update at this time. Discussion took place surrounding the document ECC was asked to create to provide guidelines for the development and use of Apps by ASHRAE Groups. Ms. Duffy proposed that ECC separate its existing guidance / the documents for which it has responsibility into 2 buckets: guidelines and policies for clarity, consolidation, and to prevent overlap that currently exists. Ms. Leblanc suggested perhaps the commute could combine the documents and include a table of contents and bookmarks. Ms. Duffy suggested a hybrid of both options, including a page at the beginning that overviews everything. Ms. Mangler suggested the documents should be something that a reader can understand in a short amount of time,15 minutes or less, and that it will be important for the format to be able to readily encompass technology as it changes, and as the technology changes. For example, a document produced years ago wouldn t need to include anything on Snapchat. Ms. Tosh offered an approach aimed at making the document more sustainable that there could be individual breakouts on channel / technology as appendices from an overarching document. For example, the main document would be the policy that encompasses everything and the appendices are within that document that get into the details of everything. To the points of regency and sustainability of the guidance / policy documentation, Ms. Duffy suggested that perhaps ECC should review its policies every year. It was noted that ECC often gets CRC motions for various social media channels /
platforms, and revision of the documents in this way could help with these types of requests, because the committee could simply point to the appropriate appendix / bookmark / table of contents item and reference the overarching document as guidance. ACTION ITEM 1: Each subcommittee chair to review the policies that are applicable to their subcommittees as to how they could be revised. At the next strategic planning meeting, findings will be discussed as a group with the goal of having a document available for review by the full committee in June 2018. ACTION ITEM 2: For now, the App Guidance Document will be posted to the ashrae.org website. The committee will hold on making recommendations to the MCO until the consolidated document discussed is available. b. Electronic Collaboration Tools Subcommittee i. Mr. Hydeman provided an update in Ms. Callaway s absence. The ability to cast votes in Basecamp was discussed. Ms. Ratcliff to check on whether or not this feature exists and if not request it. (ACTION ITEM 3). ii. Mr. Skelton advised the committee that chapters and regions want more best practices guides of how to use Basecamp. Specifically, for the Spring CRCs they d like a best practices presentation to help train chapters to be used at the CRC training. A few PowerPoint slides would fulfill the need for the workshops. Mr. Hydeman suggested that such a training could be spin from the existing Standards and Guidelines training, but that he could put the slides together, and have two separate documents. Ms. Tosh suggested that such a presentation might be appropriate to be put into the slides from the visiting BOD / staff in their presentation, so that it s shown to all alternates and delegates at the CRCs. Best practices could be covered such as making sure to be mindful of confidentiality, copyrights, etc. when posting items to Basecamp. Mr. Skelton stated that the desire is to have something for the ECC and Chapter Operations workshops. Ms. Duffy suggested that it could be presented for every general group, and offered that she can share the Best Practices documentation that
Region VIII has. Mr. Hydeman offered that for standards and guidelines, individuals must be very careful to maintain the ANSI process and offered to set up guidance. For example, drafts and rosters need to be protected. ACTION ITEM 4 Create a discussion board for all the Basecamp information. Ms. Schopplein will put recap together and will ask for feedback from chapter ECC and RECCs. Ms. Schopplein reminded the committee to share items with the Client when they are to be seen by RECCs because they don t have access to items unless they are shared. ACTION ITEM 5 Ms. Ratcliff to make a feature request to Basecamp for the ability to change titles per Basecamp you are in. c. Social Media Subcommittee Ms. Duffy noted that the subcommittee has two MBOs that support society s goals. She reminded the committee of a very easy way to share posts to Society from ASHRAE members just tag @ASHRAEupdates and Society will see it and will be able to share it as appropriate. The subcommittee has finished the ECC Training CRC Presentation. It s complete and has been sent out via Basecamp. Ms. Duffy also reported that Ms. Mangler provided an informative note on Snapchat as requested, but her work is now obsolete due to earlier discussions in the meeting. Ms. Duffy reviewed the existing policies for which the subcommittee is responsible and noted the following: YouTube Policy needs some changes because it doesn t include all video sites. For example, it currently doesn t include any guidance on live streaming: periscope, FB live not covered. The subcommittee offered to help the College of Fellows with guidance on their new Facebook page after they were requested to do so, but it turned out COF didn t need the assistance. The subcommittee is happy to help if ever needed.
d. Websites Subcommittee Mr. Alfonso provided a thorough and detailed presentation on the grading criteria and current scores given to the Region websites in order to help develop guidance for the Region Websites. This presentation and related materials are all available in Basecamp. ECC was to continue discussion from its November 02, 2018 conference call regarding Motion #02 11022017. Various tools and templates that are used by Region webmasters were discussed, and Mr. Pollard suggested that the slides in Mr. Alfonso s presentation on content could be used as a guide, and from there webmasters could choose the platform / template of their choosing. From Region I, Mr. Kimball noted that many seem to be using WordPress templates. He likes the idea of a template for Region websites, but a concern would be if a lot of effort was put into developing templates, would there be security changes in the future that would make it hard to implement changes in the future. Mr. Skelton noted that with WordPress, such changes should be fine. Ms. Leblanc thinks a standardized template would be a good idea because it would make the job easier, however, the resulting websites could lack personality. She feels that webmasters can choose the tools to use- and everyone uses different things and ECC can provide guidance and best practices to make the use of the chosen tools easier. Mr. Lavitt offered that no one used templates 20 years ago for the same reason, so suggests that ECC provide guidelines and give webmasters freedom to lay out their sites as they wish. After this discussion in the meeting the motion was rescinded. Ms. Duffy rescinds the motion for the Region Websites. Mr. Alfonso seconded and the motion was rescinded without further discussion. 7-0-0, CNV
9. Action Items were reviewed and noted as all currently complete, although there will be new action items after this meeting. (Attachment A) 10. 2017-2018 MBOs were discussed, and the committee is on track to hit its goals. (Attachment B) 11. Motion 4E, referred to ECC from Members Council, was discussed in order to report back to PEC: Original Motion: That ASHRAE Society provide a software program for all Chapters to streamline Chapter Operations (process meeting/event registrations, process transactions, meeting/event check-in, program ratings) and Chapter Administrative tasks (mailing lists, newsletter distribution, website materials) to directly address ASHRAE Strategic Plan, Initiative 1B and 2A. (Region VII, Tennessee Valley Chapter 2016 Fall CRC) ECC s Response to Tennessee Valley Chapter Motion 4e (10/14/2016): January 20, 2018 A survey by ECC indicates that there is no one-size fits all solution for chapter needs, but that the chapters with solutions in place are generally happy with and would recommend the solutions they are using. ASHRAE s electronic collaboration tools subcommittee created and posted to the ECC page of ashrae.org a document based on the survey results intended to provide information to chapters about what tools are currently in use as a basis to decide which tools might be best to consider for their use. This document can be reviewed by Chapters to see what various tools are available for use. After discussion ECC researched estimated cost if Star Chapter was to be provided by Society for use across all chapters and estimates the cost to be $147,256.20 set up and $196,560.00 annually. 12. New Business a. ECC was asked if there is, or should be a Society level ECC award. The general consensus is that this is something that could be done, but there would need to be a grading process completely created before such an award was put forth, and it complicates things that ECC is not grassroots. Mr. Pollard offered that there is a historian award through Historical Committee that can be awarded to webmasters, and has been in the past in Region II. Ms. Leblanc feels that it s important to have a Society-level award, and that the
award be presented at the Plenary. A problem is that there are currently so many awards at the Plenary they are hard to all fit in. Mrs. Thrasher suggested to make it a Regional award and use it as a way to get the regions involved. After reading the discussion posted to Basecamp, Mr. Kimball noted that the person for which the award was being inquired about is in Region I, so could contact the interested individuals directly. Ms. Ratcliff will put them in contact. ECC can put together a list of the ECC type awards available, post the list on the ECC page, and let the RECCs know. (ACTION ITEM 6). ii. ECC was asked to discuss guidance on online archiving / historical file retention on the ashrae.org website. After discussion, ECC recommends that the ASHRAE archive any documents (excluding publications) over 10 years old. These documents shall be maintained by ASHRAE, so that they can be requested by members, if not shown on the website. 13. Once around the room/open floor for information from those in the meeting Mr. Pollard inquired about the PAOE policy for when the points are given? Specifically, society is supposed to update those, but when can he begin looking for the ECC updates? Ms. Duffy suggested that perhaps ECC can review terminology used on CIQ for clarity, including the order of the drop downs. For example, the first drop-down option should only be required people and the person entering the data could add on from there. Mr. Schutz provided an update on GDPR, and stated that ASHRAE is good to go on all the key aspects, system can find all points of data to delete and that a current focus is looking at what we are limited to in terms of marketing. ASHRAE s IT group is in charge of this project and is working with a consultant. Next steps are that ASHRE is working to obtain consent from everyone to use their data we already have implied consent form members, and is currently working on a process to obtain and store consent. Once that is complete ASHRAE will begin campaigns to ask for the consent. ASHRAE is gathering a list of all third parties that handle data for ASHRAE to ensure they are compliant and sign the required documents. Mr. Schutz also reminded the committee to be sure to use #MyASHRAE when posting
items to any social channel. 14. Next Meeting The next meetings will take place as follows: Conference Call #3, Thursday, March 1 st 11:00 AM ET ECC Strategic Planning Call #3, Thursday, March 1 st 10 AM ET ET and Websites will meet February 1 st. Social media will handle their meeting via Basecamp. 15. Adjourn