6.1. ERMUSR 02-15-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Resource newsletters for MMUA members in 2010, 30 Connector newsletters for members to send to their cus- tomers, as well as 12 Capitol Tattler electronic legisla- tive updates. MMUA also produced the 2010 MMUA Directory, posi- tion paper books for the APPA Washington Rally and the MMUA Legislative Meeting, the Minnesota Legislative Directory and the annual Legislative Report, as well as brochures for MMUA's training programs and meetings. Advertising for MMUA publications was solicited and administered. A new MMUA brochure and a new general brochure on municipal utilities were developed, as welt as various maps and PowerPoint presentations. Downer played a number of other roles, including: • Presentations before city councils, utilities commis- sions, community colleges, etc., on a variety of topics relating to municipal utilities and their operation. • Maintained the MMUA website (along with Charles Anderson) and developed and posted online registration forms for meetings. • Conducted eight on-line surveys to gather information for members. • Administered committees and the MMUA Tom Bovitz Memorial Scholarship Award and the MMUA Drug and Alcohol Testing Consortium. • Kept an eye on low-income and telecom issues while serving as chair of the Salvation Army HeatShare advi- soryboard and as a member of the Blandin Foundation's Broadband Strategy Board. Other Activities Surveys Like any business, a municipal utility needs to know how it stacks up against its peers. Survey data is one of the best ways to obtain this important business intelli- gence. MMUA conducts a variety of surveys on a regular basis and distributes the results to the membership. In 2010 MMUA's Rita Kelly conducted the annual rate and salary surveys. An employee benefit survey is scheduled For 2011. Information Technology With 28 employees, more than half of whom do their work for members scattered across the entire state and beyond, communications is a big issue for MMUA. Making sure those links are up and running is MMUA Information Technology Manager Charles (Charlie) An- derson. He is a familiar face to those attending MMUA meet- ings, where he makes sure our audio and video is work- ingproperly. Anderson was busy in 2010 with local and wireless networking issues, including email, Blackberry and Blackberry Enterprise Server work. He also maintains the office phone, messaging and critical battery backup systems. Anderson is a Windows Server Administrator and makes sure everybody's antivirus protection is updated and running. When something goes wrong, Anderson figures out what happened and how to fix it. If MMUA buys a new computer it first passes through Anderson's hands. He handles software installa- tion and setup, schedules warranty repair work for computers, servers and printers, troubleshoots, rebuilds computers and projectors when necessary and reviews and tracks hardware for repair or replacement. Anderson also is involved with updating the MMUA web page and controls the member profile and passwords for the MMUA website. Association Software Projeet ' In 2010 MMUA embarked on a joint project with the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities and the Munici- pal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin to develop custom- ized software designed to automate and facilitate many typical functions of a municipal utility association. By working together and sharing costs, each organization will realize significant savings. The contractor for the project is SFA Solutions of Plymouth. There are three primary components to the project: • "OnContact" customer relations management software will be customized to simplify event management and registration, training recordkeeping,and other typical association functions. • Anew and more robust SQL Server database will be developed for each organization. • Each organization will receive a completely rebuilt web site that is optimized to facilitate event registration and provide member access to member data. We anticipate that the first two components of the proj- ect will be installed and operational in early March. The new web site should be operational by April or May. 2010 Year In Review -15 MMUA Information Technology Manager Charles Anderson.