NCCB IT Management Group Reports

NCCB IT Management Group Report to February 12 2022 NCCB Board Meeting.

NCCB IT Management Group Report to February 12 2022 NCCB Board Meeting

The NCCB IT Management Group (ITMG) was formed in late 2021 by President Lacey to increase our use of communication & productivity tools. The current members of the group are Lawrence Carter, Tim Snyder, Shannon Garner and Bill Graham – Chair. Our WebMaster, Patrick Rooney, is a Technical Advisor to the group.

The first tasks addressed by the ITMG were the renewal of our website’s, nccbinfo.org, domain name and ISP hosting plan.  The ITMG is also implementing Groups.io email list to facilitate emails.  Finally, the ITMG is reviewing our website, mnccbinfo.org, to insure current information is available to our members.

Website, mnccbinfo.org, Domain & ISP Hosting renewal

Our approach is to evaluate the annual cost for comparable ISPs.  Most service providers offer 1, 3 & up to 9 years contracts for some services.  

  • NCCBinfo.org website Domain Name, Hosting site renewal and maintenance
    • NCCBINFO.org Domain Name: The domain expires May 1, 2022.
      We believe we  will have a long term need for the domain name.  As long as we keep the renewal current, the name belongs to the NCCB. Many organizations provide domain naming services and we might be able to save money by renewing for a longer period and/or with a different provider.  Domain name renewal is not very expensive. The cost will be up to $21.17 per year. The potential savings is low, perhaps up to $6.00 per year.
      Recommendation:  The NCCB Budget Committee include $21.17 in the NCCB budget.  If the NCCB elects to move our website, nccbinfo.org, we may move the service that renews our Domain Name, but it will be at or lower than $21.17.
    • GoDaddy hosting of the NCCBINFO.org website: The hosting plan  expires July 19, 2022.
      Most Internet Service Providers (ISP) give a very attractive price for the initial term of service and then raise he price upon renewal.  For example, the BVC website’s was 3 years at $4.00 a month, paid in advance. The renewal for the same length of time will be $9.00 per month.  While it is a doubling of the cost, $9.00 per month is a very reasonable price for an entry level website, industry wide.

      The ITMG does not recommend moving  our website every three to five years to get the lowest 1st time entry rate.  However, it is prudent at this time to make sure we have a good longe range ISP hosting company. We are in discussion with our WebMaster, GoDaddy, and another ISP hosting company, A2, to determine the best plan and options.  We also have to determine what features of the current plan we are using.  The information from these discussions will determine which plan we need.  The NCCB IT Management Group recommends the use of productivity & feature tools such as C-Panel.
      Recommendation: The ITMG recommendation is that the NCCB IT Management Group select the best website  with  the appropriate product plan that provides the best cost/benefit – See discussion on SSL’s  below.  The cost will be between $431.64 to $626.61 for 3 year period.  A budget item of $626.61 should be placed in the budget to cover our website ISP Hosting for the next 3 years.  We may be able to get a significant new customer discount, under the $431.64, if we move to a new ISP Host, but this will not be the deciding factor.
    • Secure Sockets Layer/Secure Site  Certificate (SSL): This ensures that all data passed between the web server and browser remain private.  The website URL will begin with HTTPS and there will be a lock symbol next to the address. Using Safari with Voiceover, the lock reads Secure Site Certificate button.  Other screen readers may identify the lock symbol slightly different.  Many users will not visit/use sites without an SSL.  Search engines may give them less priority and they protect the users and the site.  Our Current nccbinfo.org pays for a SSL.  There are three levels of SSSL.  We currently use the Domain level, which is the lowest level of security.  This is sufficient for our site.
      Recommendation: Any NCCB website must have a SSL Certificate.  The price of a five year SSL Certificate for our website will be between, zero dollars, if we can get a plan with an embedded SSL Certificate, or $199.98 for two years, max allowed,  if we have to purchase a SSL Certificate separately.
    • Maintenance of the NCCBinfo.org website.
      Recommendation: The NCCB should have a written Memorandum with our WebMaster outlining items such as responsibilities, compensation, advance notice of termination, etc.
    • Backup training for NCCB members on website maintenance.  It is important that some NCCB Members be knowledgeable in the area of maintenance of our website. This will allow for maintenance in highly unusual situations and the NCCB will be in a better position to evaluate options.
      Recommendation:  $500.00 be allocated for a training budget.  Board approval would be required for use of this training budget and it is anticipated that the funds would be for training materials only, and not for travel, lodging or meals.  A budget item of $500.00 should be placed in the budget.
  • NCCB Groups.io email lists.
    Background
    • One way we can improve communications is to make sure all NCCB emails are available for future office holders; this includes Officers, Board Members and Committee Chairs.  If these people are only using their personal email, these communications are available only to themselves. There will be occasions where private NCCB communications are appropriate for personal email use.
    • One way to accomplish retaining NCCB messages is for every office holder to have an “Official” NCCB email address such as nccbmailbox@gmail.com or nccb.publicity@gmail.com.
    • The use of Groups.io will also accomplish this because it archives all messages sent by Groups.io.  This has the additional feature of having an email list so you only have to type in one email address.  An additional benefit is personal email addresses are not listed which reduces the risk of Spam emails.
  • Implementation – Tim Snyder is team lead on this project.
    • Groups.io is a widely used product and is used by the ACB
    • We wanted to use a free product, so we chose the free version of Groups.io.  This does not have some functionality such as sub-groups.
    • We created a “main” Groups.io account for each area.
    • We have held one formal training session on Groups.io and plan on holding additional training sessions.
  • NCCB IT Policy Issues that need to be addressed
    • Recovery email addresses for NCCB emails (I.e NCCB.Publicity@gmail.com)
    • Policy on non-NCCB content on NCCB website, and other NCCB social media sites:  Further definition:  Where should we post non NCCB articles from NCCB members)