Uniting the Unisys Community
2010 May 22 & 27 Board Minutes

APPROVED
Board of Directors Meeting
Annual Technology Conference
Baltimore, Maryland
May 22, 2010

Present
Guy Bonney, Vice Chair & Secretary/Treasurer (via telephone)
Catherine Murphy, Director
Greg Schweizer, Director
Jim Shelton, Chair
Kenn LeFever, Conference Planning Vice Chair
Ed Phillips, Unisys Liaison
Mary Lou Regan, Chief Operating Officer 

Absent
Marian Ritland, Director

Guests
Ray Colaianni, Unisys Corporation
Mike Stroeing, Unisys Corporation

Chair Shelton called the Board of Directors Meeting to order at 3:07 PM p.m. ET on May 22, 2010 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel. 

Old Business

Jim Shelton reported on behalf of Marian Ritland that the Focus Group meeting is scheduled on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 at 12:00 noon in the Boardroom. The Board agreed to set a maximum of ten participants. To date, nine people agreed to participate. Jim said Marian will notify the Board should another attendee come forward. He and Marian will report on the results of the meeting at the May 27, 2010 Board of Directors Meeting. 

Ed Phillips informed the Board he was unsuccessful in obtaining Unisys “Expert on Demand” certificates for prize drawings.

Guy Bonney reported the late request by a presenter for internet access for his lab session on Wednesday was arranged. Guy said internet connectivity for all lab workstations will be evaluated for the 2011 Conference during the planning and budgeting process.

Chair Shelton called for additional new business.

New Business

Ed Phillips informed the Board due to a job reassignment he would no longer serve as the Unisys UNITE Board Liaison. Effective immediately Ray Colaianni will function in that capacity.

Greg Schweizer moved the Board approve the membership list dated May 22, 2010 as submitted by the Chief Operating Officer for those members designated as renew or new. Seconded by Catherine Murphy. The motion passed unanimously. Mary Lou Regan will publish the membership list on the UNITE website.

Chair Shelton suggested any inquires about the location and dates for the 2011 Conference be addressed by saying a search for the 2011 Conference will begin immediately following the close of the 2010 Baltimore Conference. The Board agreed.

Catherine Murphy reported on a last minute change from Unisys regarding the scheduling of the MCP and OS 2200 hardware/software update sessions on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. Ed Phillips and Mike Stroeing explained the reasons behind the request. The Board agreed to rearrange the schedule.

Jim Shelton informed the Board he is working with Unisphere 5 Minute Briefing to schedule a conference call for a UNITE post-conference article. He will keep the Board informed.

The Board then reviewed the schedule of events for the Opening and Closing General Sessions.

Chair Shelton recessed the meeting at 3:47 p.m.

Chair Shelton reconvened the meeting at 9:12 a.m. on May 27, 2010.

Present
Guy Bonney, Vice Chair & Secretary/Treasurer
Catherine Murphy, Director
Marian Ritland, Director
Greg Schweizer, Director
Jim Shelton, Chair
Kenn LeFever, Conference Planning Vice Chair
Ray Colaianni, Unisys Liaison
Mary Lou Regan, Chief Operating Officer 

Guests
Mike Stroeing, Unisys Corporation
Tom Renolds, Phoenix Police Department
Lynn Lovelace, UNITE Business Office

The Board of Directors reviewed the Minutes of the May 6, 2010 Board of Directors Meeting. Greg Schweizer moved to approve the Minutes of the May 6, 2010 Board of Directors Meeting as submitted. Seconded by Guy Bonney. The motion passed unanimously. 

Old Business

There were no old business items to address.

Chair Shelton called for additional new business.

New Business

2010 Conference Review

  • Conference Planning – Catherine Murphy reported she was very pleased with the conference session planning and scheduling. Any issues that arose throughout the conference were dealt with immediately. The UNITE attendees were pleased with the property and the conference offerings.
  • GE – Catherine Murphy reported on behalf of the GE Track. The GE sessions have become more technical in nature and some of the MCP and OS delegates did not realize there may have been sessions within the GE track that would have been of interest to them. The GE Chair and Conference Planning will evaluate which sessions should be scheduled in the track and the number of session slots allocated for the 2011 Conference. The track conducted 19 sessions (3 delegate, 11 Unisys, and 5 vendor). Total attendance was 155 with an average attendance per session of 8.2. Attendees’ evaluation cards rated the sessions as excellent (45.8%) and very good (36.8%).
  • MCP – Marian Ritland reported on behalf of the MCP Track. The track scheduled 27 sessions (7 delegate, 7 vendor, and 13 Unisys). The total attendance for the MCP sessions was 764 with an average attendance of 28.3 per session. Attendees’ evaluation cards rated the sessions as excellent (39.4%), very good (42.9%) average (6.15%), and fair (0.03%). The Sunday sessions were well attended. One session had 36 attendees. The new MCP Clinic format was well received by the attendees and they would like to see it continued. The winner of the MCP Best of Conference Presentation received an overwhelming rating of 83% by the delegates.
  • OS 2200 – Greg Schweizer reported on behalf of the OS 2200 Track. The track scheduled 18 sessions one of which was a two-hour session (1 delegate, 1 vendor and 16 Unisys). One change – OS 3059 was merged with an MCP session on Sunday evening. The total attendance for the OS sessions was 313 with an average attendance of 17.4 per session. Attendees’ evaluation cards rated the sessions as excellent (23.3%) and very good (33.5%). There were no complaints about the hotel or conference facilities reported except the temperature on Sunday evening which was corrected on Monday. The OS officials were concerned about the low number of 2200 site delegates attending the last two conferences. The red badge holder background color made it difficult to easily identify Unisys employees because the badge holder and Unisys stripe were both red.
  • EAE – Guy Bonney reported the EAE lab sessions were very successful. Tom Renolds reported the track conducted 17 sessions (2 delegate, 1 vendor, and 14 Unisys). Seven hours consisted of lab sessions (1 one-hour lab and 3 two-hour labs). Approximately 63% of attendees rated the sessions as excellent or very good, 16% as average, and 4% as fair or poor. There were several delegates attending that had not been to UNITE in the last few years. The switch to a spring timeframe was well received.  The labs continued to be a popular draw. The attendees liked the hotel – service, location, cost, and proximity to restaurants. Minor irritants reported by the EAE attendees included room layouts and small screens in the labs.  Other problems, mostly related to room temperature and the number of tables/chairs, were dealt with by the hotel staff quickly. In the Birds-of-a-Feather session, social media and forums were discussed.  Most of the delegates were not excited about either one.  Many of the delegates were not aware of the Unisys eCommunity – they were given instructions on how to register. The winner of the EAE Best of Conference Presentation received a rating of 75% by the delegates with the next closest rating being 59%. Tom continued by saying the sessions drew several people from the MCP track and several comments were made to include more “client success" story sessions.
  • BIS – Greg Schweizer reported on behalf of the BIS Track.  He said the track did as well as expected. Total sessions offered were 15 (2.5 delegate, 9.5 Unisys, and 3 vendor). Total attendance was 164 with an average attendance of 10.9 per session. Attendees’ evaluations cards rated the sessions as excellent (23.2%) and very good (48.2%).
  • User Advocacy/RCC – Jim Shelton reported on the User Advocacy/RCC meeting. He said a Requirement about notification releases arose which appears to be an issue at least in the MCP world. He is not sure if it is only an MCP issue or a generalized software issue. He will follow up accordingly. Jim continued by saying it is very clear UNITE does not have the hot issues with Unisys as in the past. He believes a session devoted to User Advocacy/RCC may no longer be necessary. Jim said he would think about it and report back to the Board.
  • Expo Hall – Marian Ritland reported overall the vendors were pleased. Attendance at the Opening and Closing Vendor Meetings were well attended. The vendors as well as the Focus Group participants suggested the primary track be published on the attendee list posted at the conference and sent to the conference attendees and vendors following the conference. Mary Lou Regan will advise Lynn Lovelace to do so. It was requested, if possible, not to have box lunches at the conference – it was a bit cumbersome to handle. One of the vendors suggested UNITE look at ways to attract European users to the conference. An issue arose as to how many items an exhibitor is allowed to store under their tables. Marian said she would follow up on these and the other suggestions made by the vendors. The vendors talked about the conference sponsorship program and pricing structure.
  • Marketing – Greg Schweizer reported weekly e-mail blasts were sent highlighting certain aspects of the conference offerings. UNITE and Unisys had a joint effort that resulted in a “leave behind” flyer the Unisys sales people could leave with their customers.  The Board talked about publishing a preliminary conference schedule and program agenda for the 2011 Conference on the UNITE website as soon as possible.
  • Unisys – Ray Colaianni said he was pleased that Unisys provided an incentive program for the Unisys sales force to drive new people to attend the UNITE Conference. Unisys created several flyers promoting the conference which were sent to the entire sales force for distribution to their clients. Unisys hosted weekly attendance calls focusing on increasing attendance. Ira Kirsch called a special webinar meeting a few months before the conference with the entire sales force to promote the conference. Chair Shelton said he attended the webinar in which he promoted the conference. Unisys also sent out weekly messages to the sales teams to promote and drive attendance. Jim Shelton said the challenge UNITE has is the people in the UNITE database are those who already come to UNITE. What UNITE does not have are the names of the clients who have never attended a conference and this where UNITE has to heavily rely on Unisys to get the word out.
  • Business Office – Mary Lou Regan reported on the registration numbers. From an office perspective, the conference ran relatively smoothly. Any issues or problems that arose were dealt with immediately by the hotel staff.

Marian Ritland informed the Board ten attendees agreed to participate in the Focus Group. Nine people participated. One person did not show. Jim Shelton moderated the session and Marian took notes. Marian then highlighted some of the items discussed and asked the Board to review the report she e-mailed to them for later discussion and action. The Board agreed due to the success of the last two Focus Groups one will be scheduled at the 2011 Conference.

Greg Schweizer moved the Board approve the membership list dated May 26, 2010 as submitted by the Chief Operating Officer for those members designated as renew or new. Seconded by Catherine Murphy. The motion passed unanimously.

The Board agreed to postpone the June 3, 2010 Board of Directors Meeting to June 17, 2010.

Greg Schweizer updated the Board on the Source Code Repository (SCR) meeting that was held during the conference. The first session held on Sunday had 14 attendees. Six of those stayed for the SCR Birds-of-a-Feather session. It was suggested someone from UNITE or its designee be identified as an administrator to 1) provide a general oversight of the information posted on (http://unitelist.sourceforge.net) the UNITE SCR site in the event there are complications determined to be contrary to UNITE’s mission, 2) deal with abandoned projects, and 3) maintain an archive of published information. Greg said Paul Kimpel recommended a general purpose disclaimer be published on the site. Guy Bonney informed the Board he spoke with Joyce D'Alesio (formerly Joyce Gregory). Joyce agreed to donate the Gregory utilities to UNITE giving UNITE the rights to make them publicly available at no cost through the UNITE repository. Guy said he and Paul Kimpel will work out the details of a rational licensing arrangement. Greg Schweizer said it was proposed that people send UNITE a list of what they are still using. Greg suggested an e-mail blast be sent to the UNITE members requesting the information. The Board agreed. Chair Shelton appointed Greg Schweizer as the Board Liaison to SCR and Paul Kimpel, assuming he agrees, to be the administrator for the UNITE SCR. Action items resulting from the discussion were 1) Jim Shelton contact Paul Kimpel about serving as the UNITE SCR administrator and investigate disclaimer issue;  2) Guy Bonney follow up with Joyce D'Alesio and Paul Kimpel regarding the Gregory utilities and licensing agreement; and 3) Greg Schweizer work with Paul Kimpel to investigate a backup system to archive the data and other related issues and prepare an e-mail blast to the UNITE members regarding what they are using.

Marian Ritland recommended the Board consider attaching a fee to each contracted 10x10 booth to cover the cost of the conference lunches for all exhibitor personnel staffing booths. This would allow them access to the group luncheons without purchasing individual meal tickets. In addition to the exhibitors there are other people such as guests and daily speakers who do not pay a conference fee but are free to visit the expo hall during the luncheon period. Chair Shelton appointed Marian Ritland, Mary Lou Regan, and Lynn Lovelace as a committee to investigate the pricing structure of the booths, luncheons, and sponsorship program. They will report back at the September 2, 2010 Board of Directors Meeting.

The Board then talked in detail about potential sites for the 2011 UNITE Conference. The Board identified four locations in the April/May timeframe. Chair Shelton authorized Mary Lou Regan to work with Conference Planning Resources to begin the site search. Mary Lou will forward a status report to the Board for discussion at the June 17, 2010 Board of Directors Meeting.

Greg Schweizer suggested the Board review the tracks in the Conference Planning structure. Greg moved the Board approve the MCP and OS tracks be renamed to ClearPath with MCP and OS as sub-tracks. There was no second. The motion did not pass. Catherine Murphy said the Conference Planning Committee would work with the individual track officials to address the number of allocated sessions, session content, and cross listings. She will also ensure the General Session (GE) content is truly general interest and not platform specific.

Catherine Murphy moved to go into Executive Session to discuss personnel issues. Seconded by Guy Bonney. The motion passed unanimously.

Catherine Murphy moved to close the Executive Session. Seconded by Greg Schweizer. The motion passed unanimously. Notification regarding the part-time work schedule for the business office resulted as an action item. Chair Shelton will draft an e‑mail for the Board’s review and concurrence.

Chair Shelton called for Good of the Order.

Guy Bonney moved to close the Board of Directors Meeting. Seconded by Marian Ritland. The motion passed unanimously. There being no further business, Chair Shelton adjourned the Board of Directors Meeting at 4:27 p.m. ET.

Respectfully submitted by,
Mary Lou Regan
Chief Operating Officer 

Attested by,
Guy Bonney
Secretary/Treasurer