May 20, 2004
Please feel free to invite some of your colleagues from your or another city/county if you think it would benefit them to be a part of our group.
Location: MARC, Kansas City
(Meetings alternate monthly between MARC in Kansas
City and the City of Overland Park, KS.)
Attendance
City of Belton , MO. ................ Dot Watkins
City of Gardner , KS : ..............
Susan Schultz
City of Gladstone , MO : .......... Kelli Behr
City of Kansas City , MO
: ....... Rich Lovett
City of Mission Hills, KS: ....... Julie Wittman
City of Olathe , KS ..................
Chris Holdman
City of Overland Park , KS : ..... Chris Audano, Randy Ellis,
and Susan Waters
City of Shawnee , KS : ............ Roman Madrigal
Clay County ..........................
Leslie Ensign
Clay County .......................... Cutz Mueller
Jackson County , MO..............
Daniel Davis
Johnson County , KS : ............ Karen Lynne Sorensen
Johnson County Library..........
Sonia Smith
Johnson County Museum ....... Mary Dwyer
Johnson County Sheriff...........
Tom Erickson
Chris Audano, Chair, welcomed all attendees. The April minutes were approved with one exception. Susan Schultz from the City of Gardner was listed as present, but she wasn’t.
Non-agenda Item
Rich Lovett gave a brief summary and handed out notes he took
while attending the Public Technology, Inc., conference April 27-28 in San
Antonio, TX.
Presentation: Photoshop Tricks & Tips
Presented by Rich Lovett (Rich_Lovett@kcmo.org) and
Kelli Behr (kellib@gladstone.mo.us)
There are several ways to achieve an end, at least in the powerful imaging software, PhotoShop 7.0 The goal, of course, is to efficiently and effectively produce the highest quality images with the smallest size for fastest loading.
Rich began the presentation and shared his tips, learned mostly from trial and practice. Kelli concentrated on tips acquired from various classes.
The majority of their tips and tricks can be obtained in their step-by-step handouts. These summaries were geared toward tasks most likely to be used by local government Web page producers. Their handouts are posted here. Topics and handouts included:
By Rich Lovett:
- Resizing a photo
- How to crop several photos to the same size
- How to optimize a photo for the Web
- Changing brightness, color balance & sharpness
By Kelli Behr:
- Using the Extract Filter
- “Glamour Shots” Image Correction
- Creating a Web Gallery of Images (Compiled by Barbara Hensley, MARC)
- Quickest Way to Straighten a Crooked Image (Compiled by Barbara Hensley, MARC)
Please remember:
First, always save an original of your file. Second, adjust the color and contrast of your image before proceeding to another step.
The goal on a Web page is for all images to total about 50kb.
Easy shortcuts can be accomplished by taking the time to become familiar with new upgrades in a software’s interface.
A couple of additional tips from attendees:
- A paint program that can accomplish the techniques illustrated today is Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8. (The newest version is available at amazon.com. With rebates, you can get it for a mere $52.99! – Roman Madrigal, Shawnee Police Department
- The Canon Rebel is a digital camera that can use regular 35mm Canon lenses to create more traditional photography effects as the picture is being taken.-Tom Erickson, JoCo Sheriff’s Department
Old Business
2004 Government Webmasters Conference Update
September 23-24, 2004, “Conference
2004”
Roman Madrigal provided a quick update (since Sonia wasn’t present). About 25 people have registered. The number is not a concern; the event is many months away. All speakers are set up. Fourteen vendors are close to final confirmation. The conference will be another good event to attend.
The fee is $125.00 if it is submitted by August 2; $150.00 by August 10 (continental breakfasts and lunches included).
In addition:
The topic, “Accessibility” has been modified to focus on making Web sites “senior friendly.”
Roman and Rich Lovett continue to post information on the MAGWeb site as the conference planning progresses.
New Business
ListServ Comments Addressed
Chris Audano asked for the group’s consensus on two issues: a time to meet, and memberships. The following were determined:
1) To continue meeting every month.
a. If there is a speaker from outside the group, please make a special effort to either attend or contact Chris and state you can’t attend and suggest a better date.
b. To stay informed of events, please check/and or join our listserv, email list, and web site.
c. If you need to update your membership information, please contact Rich Lovett.
2) More research is needed in regards to memberships
a. Generally, the group favors membership that is informal and affiliated with government on any level, local, state and federal. Members need to feel secure discussing issues, not stifled. Therefore, the group is not in favor of overt sales solicitations or vendors as members.
b. Chris, Dan Davis ( Jackson County) and Susan offered to research models similar to ours and obtain policy statements regarding memberships. A definition is needed.
Other handouts shared during the meeting:
By Rich Lovett:
Notes from PTI webmaster conference April 27-28, 2004 San
Antonio, TX
By Chris Audano:
How to design to avoid spam (reproduced from elementkjournals.com)
By the Howells:
A complimentary issue of their new publication. Impressive!
Open Discussion
For counters on a Web site, check www.dynamicsdrive or consider
a Google search -- keywords “website” and “counter.”
Upcoming Meeting Topics
Kurt Loudon, the chair of another local web group,
Heartland Users Group (HUG) Special Interest Group (SIG) http://66.136.157.99/webmaster/default.htm,
will direct his presentation towards Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
and the Web. Kurt is a software engineer/GIS specialist for Burns & McDonnell.
Kurt is proficient using the following tools and languages: MS Access, MS VB,
ASP, ColdFusion, HTML, MS SQL Server, Oracle9i, Adobe Acrobat and ESRI ArcSDE.
Kurt has developed websites, enterprise and Web applications for "Burns & Mac" corporate
clients.
Next Meeting
June 17, 2004, City of Overland Park, KS.
Meeting minutes: Karen Lynne Sorensen, Johnson County Wastewater.