November 29, 2005
CORE Application Team Meeting

Attendance: Kelley Conrad (Team Leader), Patti D’Avignon, Stacey DeBrot, Beda DuBois, Peggy Jacobks, Terri Jourden, Kathy Krentz, Brenda Mitcheltree, Darlene Peklar, Jean Roberts

Training: Kelley distributed Datatel’s “Agenda for Planning For and Using Core Workshop” and a training notebook to all team members. Other Datatel training information will be provided next week. Team members introduced themselves and their department responsibilities. Kelley confirmed the details for next week’s training sessions:

December 5-7 (Mon.-Wed.) 8:30am – 4:30pm (hour lunch) Room 1300 Participants should plan to be “unavailable” in their offices for the duration of the training. Additional CORE consulting dates are: Jan. 31-Feb. 1 (on site), March 13 and April 17 (remotes). Objective: Members of the CORE Team were selected based on their level of knowledge, longevity and campus-wide experience. The purpose of this group will be to set parameters, coding standards, institutional hierarchy, data accessibility and maintenance. The CORE Team will be a critical decision-making body regarding initial data and application processing, as well as information maintenance responsibilities. Kelley asked participants what their ultimate “wish list” was for the new system. The main consensus was “SIMPLIFY…..SIMPLIFY…..SIMPLIFY”. Discussion identifying some of the needs to meet this goal included: 

• the need for one database 
• easier (on-line) access/reporting 
• reviewing/refining and possibly eliminating processes 
• do away with “manual” forms and processing 
• facilitate better, more efficient customer/student service 
• accommodate “secondary admit” functionality 
• review/adjust pre-reqs and testing requirements (minimum scores and on-line vs. manual) 
• view project considering data and customer service needs for the entire campus 
• eliminate shadow systems, yet allow for “information sharing” (CE, Athletics, professional association membership, prospective students, etc.)

Jean and Kelley noted that Datatel will have recommendations and benchmarking data for us to review, but ultimately, the decisions will be up to us (MCC). Other consultants may also introduce relevant suggestions. Some of us are currently working on conversion projects: Admissions (Darlene) is investigating and eliminating duplicate records, Academic Affairs (Kathy) is working on reviewing course pre-reqs and placement testing requirements. It was also noted that much of the data conversion will probably have to be somewhat manual, possibly transferring data from current systems to Excel spreadsheets in a different format for upload.
Kelley suggested team members review the training manual before next week’s sessions. We should also receive further direction at that time regarding planning for the conversion and transition to the new system.