NewBCamp - find out about blogging, podcasting, Twitter, etc.

It's been almost one year since the inaugural NewBCamp took place and there's another one coming up in Providence.

What is NewBCamp?
It is a gathering of people interesting in learning and sharing about the new social media tools; blogs, podcasts, video blogs, Twitter, etc.

What is in it for me?
If you are interested in learning about these tools, then this is the place for you. The focus is on the new user (i.e. newbie or NewB). You won't feel lost, you will be amongst those who are learning from those who are willing to share.

What does it cost?
It is very reasonably priced at only $10. Less than a movie!

What are the details?

When:

February 8, 2009 - 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Where:

Johnson & Wales

Pepsi Forum
8 Abbott Park Place
Providence, RI 02903

There's also a brand new website http://www.newbcamp.com . Explore the site, add comments and pages to the wiki, and sign up to give presentations!

NewBCamp is brought to you by two organizations - Free Geek Providence and SofT ICE at Johnson & Wales.

If you would like additional information, please feel free to contact me. I will be there at the Welcome/Registration Desk.

Patrick J. Carney

Patrick J. Carney, 22 of Franklin died January 15 in Brigham & Women’s Hospital Boston after a six month battle with cancer. He was the son of Joseph and Kim (Wilcke) Carney of Franklin.

Read the full set of information on the Xaverian Brothers web site here

Chicago - "Share My Inauguration"

Since I started following the students at Worcester Academy and their effort to cover the inauguration, I have also found that there is a group from Chicago:

FOLLOW THEIR JOURNEY
Twenty-four Chicago inner-city 5th and 6th graders will witness Barack Obama’s historic inauguration. Dubbed the DC 24, the students from Frazier Preparatory Academy, a pre-K through 6th grade elementary school, will also tour area universities and monuments during their four-day adventure.

Along the way, they’ll chronicle their journey and share their impressions through a series of blogs and vlogs. Traveling with the students is Tara Settembre, one of LA’s best known bloggers, who will coach the DC 24 on blogging and vlogging.

You can view the DC 24 web site here.

"It finally hit me how much we are dependent upon the state"

By Joyce Kelly/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Jan 16, 2009 @ 12:27 AM

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FRANKLIN —

With the economy plunging even further into a recession, the town's long-range fiscal planning committee that had been prepping for a financial windstorm is now bracing for a hurricane.

"When we started in August, we were $2 million short. We're praying now it's only going to be $2 million short," said group member Rebecca Cameron, a Finance Committee member.

The council-appointed group, charged with preparing a long-range financial plan, anxiously awaits Gov. Deval Patrick's news, expected in two weeks, enumerating what state aid he will cut.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

You can also review my "live reporting" notes from the meeting here

Financial Planning Comm 01/15/09

The live reporting posts covering the Financial Planning Committee meeting of Thursday 1/15/09 can be found here:

• Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee (con...
• Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee

Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee (cont'd)

6 - Financial planning (Roche)
handout from Jim, includes listing from S&P listing the ten things for public finance that are characteristics of good planning. Franklin does in fact do all these ten things.

Top 10 List

1. An established rainy day/budget stabilization reserve
2. Regular economic and revenue reviews to identify shortfalls early
3. Prioritized spending plans and established contingency plans for operating budgets
4. A formalized capital improvement plan in order to assess future infrastructure requirements
5. Long-term planning for all liabilities of a government, including pension obligations, other post employment benefits and other contingent obligations would be optimal and allow for comprehensive assessment of future budgetary risks
6. A debt affordability model in place to evaluate future debt profile
7. A pay-as-you-go financing strategy as part of the operating and capital budget.
8. A multi-year financial plan in place that considers the affordability of actions or plans before they are part of the annual budget.
9. Effective management and information systems
10. A well-defined and coordinated economic development strategy

The source for this listing is the S&P article found here

add vital signs and trends, i.e. stabilization fund in 2003 vs 2010 stark difference.

7 - FAQ (Kelly)
summarizing from over all the sources, the questions that have been raised.

trying to provide a quality of life for all members of the community

is a student with and IEP considered a SPED student? or are they categorized separately

8 - Financial Terms (Nutting)
if the state would allow we would do these things
the capital budget
the debt and narrative
the FAQ draft should also be answered from the town figures

discussion on setting up the focus group to review the draft of the report

what is the date for the deliverable? then set the date for the focus group

Feb 5th to internally review the draft
Formalize the draft by the 29th
Focus group on March 5th

half the group gets the report before hand, half gets it upon the entry
will get feedback on presentation simplicity

Live reporting - Financial Planning Committee

Attending: Roche, Bartlett, Cameron, Hardesty, Nutting, Wilschek, Kelly, Ogden, Trahan, Zollo
Absent: Whalen

Meeting opens

Working listing of action items to pull the presentation together (numbered listing that follows)

add self-help items - average person working in lieu of taxes provides about 8000 hours of labor to help the DPW, library, etc.

Report Category
1 - Assumptions (Cameron)
wrote out from the budget draft that Jeff had put together earlier

Outline format to tell the story so those who won't be able to read and understand the table of numbers will get the gist of what is occurring.

Rationalization will be key, a range of 3-5% on one number may not have the same effect on the budget that another number could have a range of 2 - 2.5% and have a significant effect.

Justification for the numbers, i.e. what is the driving factor, health insurance, or lane changes per contract.

Formatting is not important at this time, it is more important to get the content section down.

2 - Benchmarking component (Whalen)
comparison of Franklin to other towns, comparison of Franklin within, i.e. trends
looking to identify the appropriate peer group for Franklin
explain why some towns that some would think would be comparable are not in the report
need good rational for what is included and what is excluded

simply need to demonstrate that the town is responsible, that there is no obvious low hanging fruit

3 - Financial Model/Sensitivity Analysis (Hardesty)
doesn't want to re-do the numbers just yet as the numbers are so much influx at this time, the approach will be the same, will just update with the actual numbers when they become available.

How to enhance revenue or reduce costs with things that can be done easily
For the gap beyond that, this would then list out the choices
taking a layered approach, baseline (level 1) plus (level 2) listing the assumptions that drive the changes

4 - HR Matters (Trahan)
Done with Wayne and Jeff, handout provided with summary
85-90% of the town employees are unionized
the unions have been cooperative in negotiations, the raises have been very reasonable

include the post retirement underfunded liability as an assumption and foot note, unless legislation changing this, it is reportable but would not effect the planning for our time line

5 - Revenue/Expense Enhancements (Zollo)
Will have something formal for the committee next time, a top ten list or a growing total and show the growth over the past and going forward. How far back do we want to go? For credibility, go back at least as far as Jeff. Current management is striving to be efficient. Proposed to go back as afar as 2001. Maybe not the full ten or fifteen, show at least the significant ones.

Appendix listing can show them all, but the top list would cover the 80/20 rule. Factor in the inflation and show what it could have been versus what it is today.

There are two kinds of savings, cuts and efficiencies. Trying to color each to show how they contributed.