CWAC/POS SACWIS Advisory Committee
May 2, 2000 Meeting Minutes
Members in Attendance
Ken Dee, CHASI Sam Traylor, DCFS SACWIS
Kevin Singletary, CSS � Peoria Steve Bradshaw, DCFS/POS Liaison
Priscilla Parker, LCFS Dennis Egolf, SACWIS
Jim Erickson, New Life Social Services Foster Centola, DCFS
Sue Grady, Youth Svc. Bureau, IL Valley Don Vacca, DCFS
George Thibeault, Catholic Charities Kevin Velten, DCFS
Darlene Sweeney, Allendale John House, DCFS
Lory Sandberg, LSSI Keith Morgan, Spectrum
Jan Schoening, CCA Pat Monaghan, Spectrum
Rommel Sangalang, CCA Pat Colacicco, AMS
Zack Schrantz, Uhlich MaryEllen St. John, AMS
Members Absent
Richard Calica, Juvenile Protection Assoc. Frances Barnes, VOA
Bishop Aaron Holmes, Reaching the Mark Steven Minter, DCFS
Carol Winn, Ada S. McKinley Valerie Riley, Center for Hew Horizons Rebecca Cook, IARF Greg Kurth, Central Baptist
Deverrick Crawford, Lakeside Comm. Cmt
Jan Schoening convened the meeting at approximately 10:50 a.m.
Minutes of April 4, 2000 meeting were mailed out, however, were not discussed at today�s meeting.
Introductions Staffs from AMS (the SACWIS application vendor) and Spectrum were in attendance. Introductions were made.
Pat Colacicco noted that AMS has been engaged to build the Illinois SACWIS. AMS has previously built SACWIS systems in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Mexico. They are currently implementing the system in Wisconsin. AMS recognizes the unique environment present in Illinois child welfare. They will have office space in the National City Bank building, 4th floor. Pat noted that SACWIS Phase I continues to be projected at 18 months from their start date.
Best Practices Initiative Don reintroduced John House. John is one of the co-leaders, along with Connie Flower, of the Best Practices/SACWIS teams. They are continuing work on the investigation piece, refining and working with the Expert Panel. DCFS staff working on the permanency part of the project will join the project during May. How and when the POS staff will join the project has yet to be determined.
Update on SACWIS Project
 | Application Development and Implementation RFP � Sam has been working closely with CMS to finalize the AMS contract. It is hoped the contract can be signed on May 8th. Once AMS is under contract he will ask them to demonstrate the New Mexico SACWIS. |
| QA RFP � On March 9th, a recommendation was made to CMS for the QA vendor. Sam continues to work with CMS to award this contract. He hopes the award will be made this week. After negotiation with the vendor, the state has prior approval from ACF on the QA contract; the vendor can start with concurrent approval by the ACF instead of the normal 2-month approval process. |
| Web site and Templates � Sam reported that he and Kevin Velten have been appointed to a committee to review Internet and Intranet content. This committee will hold its first meeting on May 22nd. The committee will develop a set of protocols to be used by the Department in its Internet/Intranet sites. The DCFS Intranet site implementation date is not yet known. The DCFS Internet site is the second most hit site in Illinois government. |
Staffing � Additional Discussion As mentioned previously, there is nothing to report on the POS representatives to the SACWIS project. Sam noted that the Assistant Liaison position has been discussed with the Director and Carolyn and filling this position doesn�t "seem to be an issue." Sam has another meeting with the Director next week and hopes to include this on the agenda. SACWIS Advisory Committee members noted that this position should be technically oriented to assist private agencies in compliance with the network requirements for SACWIS and assist with the integration strategy for SACWIS and POS systems.
SACWIS/POS Equipment � Report from POS/DCFS Work Group
The POS/DCFS Work Group met twice, April 13th and April 30th. A PowerPoint presentation was prepared by Spectrum on the results of the meetings. After introductory remarks by Sam, Keith Morgan, Director, MAXIMUS Advanced Technology Center, made the presentation. The presentation is attached to and part of these minutes.
The joint work group recommended to DCFS that it adopt one, or both, of the following approaches: Terminal Server (thin client) and/or Web-Based Application. After the presentation, Keith Morgan further recommended to the full SACWIS Advisory Committee to adopt the Terminal Server environment.
The members asked Sam about funding options for the equipment. Sam responded that there would probably be a rate increase. DCFS would provide data lines and routers, everything else on the private agency side of the router would be included in the rate increase. All servers would be located at the IOC and the office automation and SACWIS application software would reside on the servers. Each private agency would need a hub or switch to connect to the router. Other questions were answered: there can be more than one terminal server session running on the same desktop; Citrix under NT 4.0 will probably work but will require special configuration; printers will IP addressable and will need to have the capability of two NIC cards if an agency wants to connect that printer to both the SACWIS and the private agency network; and, the use of a VPN (virtual private network) using the Internet would not be possible because of the CMS policy restricting Internet connections.
After a short private caucus, the private agency members unanimously agreed that the Terminal Server solution is an acceptable strategy for POS desktop integration, with the understanding that POS and DCFS work together to develop funding to support the strategy. This was agreed to by Sam Traylor, with the understanding that he must obtain approval to collaborate on the funding issues.
The members further stated that they seek collaboration on not only the funding, but also the timing of the funding. The smallest, least equipped private agency needs adequate funding to be able to procure the needed equipment and services to be fully functional under the SACWIS environment. The group also agreed to include the needed site survey as part of the collaborative effort.
Meeting Schedules � The next meeting is scheduled for June 7th in River Forest. Note that this is a change from the previously established June meeting date.
Meeting dates and locations were set for the remainder of calendar year 2000 as follows:
| July 11 Springfield |
| Aug 1 LCFS, River Forest |
| Sept 12 Springfield |
| Oct 3 LCFS, River Forest |
| Nov 14 Springfield |
| Dec 5 LCFS, River Forest |
Adjournment � With no further business to discuss, the meeting adjourned.