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ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES
JESS McDONALD, DIRECTOR
CWAC/POS SACWIS Advisory Committee
November 2, 1999 Meeting Minutes

Members in Attendance
Ken Dee, CHASI
Jeff Buhrmann, DCFS SACWIS
Kevin Singletary, CSS � Peoria
Foster Centola, DCFS SACWIS
Priscilla Parker, LCFS
Steve Bradshaw, DCFS/POS Liaison
Jim Erickson, New Life Social Services
Tom Teague, DCFS SACWIS
Sue Grady, Youth Svc. Bureau, IL Valley
Steven Minter, DCFS, (11:30)
George Thibeault, Catholic Charities
Jan Schoening, CCA
Zack Schrantz, Uhlich
Rommel Sangalang, CCA
Valerie Riley, Center for Hew Horizons (11:25)
Dennis Egolf, DCFS SACWIS (by telephone) (12:10)

Members Absent
Richard Calica, Juvenile Protection Assoc.
Frances Barnes, VOA
Bishop Aaron Holmes, Reaching the Mark
Darlene Sweeney, Allendale
Deverrick Crawford, Lakeside Comm. Cmt
Carol Winn, Ada S. McKinley
Rebecca Cook, IARF

The meeting convened at approximately 10:45 a.m.

Minutes of October 5, 1999 meeting - upon a motion by Ken Dee and a second by Kevin Singletary, the minutes were unanimously approved.

Update on SACWIS Project (Jeff Buhrmann)

	Application Development and Implementation RFP � Negotiations have progressed slower than desired and are now focused on a few major issues. The next negotiation sessions are scheduled for November 12th and 15th.
	QA RFP � Progress on the quality assurance vendor is indirectly linked to the application vendor negotiations. It has been determined to proceed to the Best and Final Offer (BAFO) phase of this procurement. The goal remains to have the QA vendor start work on or about 2/1/00.
	Web Site and Templates � Tom Teague reported the posting of templates to the SACWIS web site has been slowed by the need to convert existing forms to the Word format. The Office of Family Policy is working on this project. The request for dated templates was clarified; The Committee clarified that it is requesting that the form's "revision date" be included on the web site posting. Tom and Jeff reported that Jeff Kuhlman will soon be joining the SACWIS team and will, in part, be providing support for the web site updates.
	Best Practices Initiative � Jeff reported on the Department's Best Practices Initiative and spoke briefly on the importance to the SACWIS project. The four major work groups of the initiative (assessment & planning, intake & investigation, intact family services, and permanency) are preparing their final drafts for the Director. There has not been POS involvement in the initiative to date; however, chairperson Don Vacca will be discussing this issue with the Director.

Federal Issues Paper Update
Jeff reported that the Director asked him to consult with other states about the issues concerning POS involvement in implementing a SACWIS. Using the ACF "list serve", Jeff requested that any SACWIS program interested in participating in a conference call should respond to Jeff by this Friday, 11/5/99; so far, several states have expressed an interest in participating, including but not limited to California, New York, Florida, Alaska, and Wayne County (Detroit) Michigan. Jeff invited members of the Steering Committee to join him on this conference call (when scheduled).

SACWIS Presentations to POS Agencies
All scheduled sessions have been completed. Stephen Bradshaw distributed a report on the agencies in attendance at the various presentations; the report will be modified to include the region targeted by each presentation and re-distributed.
An additional presentation has been requested and scheduled for 9:30 a.m., November 18, 1999 for the Cook County independent living providers. This presentation will be held at the 1911 South Indiana, Chicago location, 10th floor conference room. Zack Schrantz and Steve Bradshaw will present the POS part of the presentation.

Financing POS Equipment, Software, and Other Costs � Further Discussion
Planning and Procurement Document: Version 11/01/99 of the Hardware/Software Procurement Plan document was distributed. Steve Bradshaw explained some of the differences in this version from the previous one including submittal and "drop-dead" dates, the requirement to use enterprise level equipment for workstations and laptops, the addition of equipment estimation rules and the lowering of required specifications for server rooms and electrical closets. The committee members were asked to review and comment to Steve on the narrative portion of the document, pages 1-4.
After discussion, it was decided that Ken Dee would chair a small group (composed of committee members or their designees) to review the hardware/software specifications. The group will develop issues in two areas: 1) specifications that seem to be either too high or stringent, e.g. Microsoft Intellimouse vs. a standard mouse, and, 2) questions regarding particular aspects of the specifications, e.g. hard drive requirements of the workstations vs. the laptops. After completing their work, this group will meet with Jeff Buhrmann, Steve Bradshaw and members of the SACWIS technical staff to discuss the issues.
Some discussion was held on the ratio of licensing staff to caseload. While this function varies among agencies, a ratio of about 50:1 was estimated. In other discussion, Valerie Riley requested the "version" number of required software be added to the specifications.
Rate Increase: Jan Schoening told Jeff that the committee is in the process of developing a cost proposal for discussion at a joint meeting of representatives of the SACWIS Advisory Committee and the Finance and Administration Committee to be held on 11/16/99. Following this meeting, a final document will be prepared and forwarded to Jeff Buhrmann for consideration.

POS Data Group � Status Report (Priscilla Parker)
The group has met three times and is changing its focus in response to new information:

	The "Data Layer" report is not the final product
	CANTS/CYCIS/MARS data will be converted to SACWIS (as much as possible
	Data fields from forms will be incorporated
	Data creep is a high risk factor in projects such as SACWIS, it will increase staff costs (for collecting and entering the data) as well as SACWIS development costs

The group has decided to focus on raising concerns about how SACWIS will manage specific processes and meet specific needs. The next meeting is scheduled for 11/9/99 at LCFS.

Other Issues
Jeff Buhrmann and Jan Schoening announced that two new members have been approved to join the committee, Greg Kurth from Central Baptist, and Lori Sandberg from LSSI. Steve Bradshaw will be producing an updated list of committee members.

A draft of the job description for the Assistant Private Agency Liaison was distributed. Members are asked to review and send comments to Jan Schoening on or before Monday morning, 11/8/99.

Calendar Year 2000 Meeting Schedule
The schedule for January through June was set as listed below. The remainder of the year will be set at a later date.

January 11	Springfield
February 2	Chicago Area
March 3	Springfield
April 4	Chicago Area
May 5	Springfield
June 6	Chicago Area

Next Meeting
Scheduled for Tuesday, December 7, 1999 at LCFS in River Forrest, IL.

Adjournment
The formal meeting adjourned at approximately 1:00 p.m. Following adjournment, the members toured the new DCFS IOC/CSD (help desk) facility.

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