05-28-2008 Project status

We had our meeting with Kevin Zumwalt and the UMFRTI IT Staff. We viewed their set up and watched as they gave a short pseudo presentation over their teleconferencing equipment. I learned a lot and we started to piece together the basis for our system design. We then had lunch with the Tandberg reps and discussed possible design features. We have a meeting scheduled for June 6th at 2pm at SCFD Station # 2 - At that meeting we are going to lay down the exact requirements for the system design and offically begin the design process. (Out of research and into system design.) This is a good thing. Once we have our first design I will present this to the Chief's Association, St. Charles City IT Committee and the Local Emergency Managers group. With their input - we make changes if necessary - once we have their blessingwe and the final system design in hand we will also have our Total project cost. With the money figure in hand we are going to develope the funding picture. How much do we need to come up with localy - what is the amount the end user can come up with in the way of an in - kind controbution. Who are our possible finding sources ect. ect. ect.. And the hunt is on....

Update 05-08-2008

Update:

We had a meeting at SCFD Station # 2 today with the Factory reps from Tandberg. We gave them our presentation and told them that we were going to use their products to implement our solution. They agreed to assist with the system design. This will save us a lot of time and money. If you get a chance check out their site.

http://www.tandberg.com/

We also have made arrangements with Kevin Zumwalt at the University of Missouri to tour their virtual class room in Columbia. The Univ of MO IT staff will be on hand to explain how they are doing their distance learning projects and provide input and suggestions on how we should design our system. The meeting is May 22nd at 09:30 at the UMFRTI Hienkel Building.

In addition I plan to visit the main Tandberg learning facility just outside of Washington DC on May 30th. They are making the arrangements now. I am coordinating this trip with my attendance at the National Fire Service Higher Education Conference May 30-June 2 at the National Fire Academy. After these research trips and with the design assistance from Tandberg I hope to have a working design by the end of June. With a working design and budgetary numbers I hope to make my proposal to the St. Charles County Emergency Services Association at the July meeting. With their approval we should be off to the races for grant opportunities. We move ever closer.

Let me know if you want to attend the Univ of MO trip...

Thanks
Robb