December 7, 2005, 10:00 AM

In attendance: Richard Crane [RC] (chair), David Braze [DB], Alice Faber [AF], Donald Hailey [DH], Yvonne Manning-Jones [YMJ], Gerald McRoberts [GMR], Philip Rubin [PR], Joe Cardone [JC], Mike Dangelo [MD], and Samuel Nuakoh [SN].

• Building issues

  Maintenance and janitorial services, after Phil Chagnon's retirement as of December 31st, were discussed. JC and DH have both had conversations with him regarding his current duties, and will coordinate delegating them to other Haskins staff, Winstanley building staff, and our cleaning service as appropriate. Temporary help will be hired as needed for non-routine work.

  The programming of an emergency number, either 911 or the building security staff pager, into all telephone sets was considered. After some discussion, a consensus was reached that the chance of false alarms and the likelihood of overlooking the programmed button in an emergency both weighed against its usefulness.

  GMR noted that many lights are left on in empty rooms. He suggested replacing burnt out incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents wherever possible. JC raised the issue of timers and/or motion sensors in some rooms. PR pointed out that these were not initially installed as a cost-saving measure during construction, and that we should encourage all staff to turn off lights in unused areas in the evenings.

  GMR mentioned running into inordinate delays using Haskins access fobs to enter the side door on the ground floor, nights and weekends; RC will pass this on to building management for a reply.

• Videoconferencing

  It has been determined that there is a problem with videoconferencing from laboratory locations that pass through the network address translation scheme that we use. An interim solution has been found: four locations in the lab will be connected directly to the Yale network, using a different range of network addresses. Testing so far shows that that does work well. RC will distribute a setup procedure.

• Laboratory / Sound studios

  There is a meeting with involved Haskins people scheduled for December 7, 2005 to go over project status.

• Databases

  There was a discussion of issues surrounding the current mass mailing being prepared. Printing envelopes successfully on some printers has been a problem: the HP 5500 seems to be the best so far and will be used to get this job finished. DH will check with our copier/printer supplier to see if any of their units should be able to do a better job than we can currently get; if not, he will look into a dedicated printer.

  The database is being substantially revised as it is being used, so future mailings should be much easier.

  In the process of installing the database on the FileMaker 7 server, we ran into failures of some clients to able to see the server and its shared databases; RC and MD are troubleshooting.

• Other Business

  JC suggested a new procedure for staff absence notification: a dedicated voice mailbox will be created for staff to call in and leave a message regarding their absence. The receptionists will check this regularly in the mornings, and notify the staff memberÕs supervisor. DB suggested an email address as well. PR noted the difficulty of checking email in a timely fashion. RC pointed out that the alias receptionist@haskins.yale.edu already exists, and goes to both staff that work on the front desk, and can be used for these notices. PR will send a reminder memo in January.

  JC asked that access card/key fob issuing to new staff be turned over to the technical staff. PR recommended adjusting the New Employee Orientation Checklist to reflect that.

• Network

  The new web site is scheduled to go live in January 2006. Final content and formatting is being completed.