Goals and Plan of Action
Quickly after Spring Break, the group met to further discuss our goals for the project. While devising our plan of action and outlining our priorities, we also drafted our plan to send to Brad. Once we had completed the draft, which provided our plan for the Center’s lab, what we needed the Center to provide for us, and the possibility of acquiring a printer for the site, the group agreed to send it on 29 March 2007. The group never received a response from Brad.
E-mail Sent
Hello, Brad! After a much-needed Spring Break, it’s time to work again. We have considered the computers presently at the Lessie Bates Center, as well as those that we can offer. Given the resources available, this is what we plan to do.
We plan to provide the following for the Lessie Bates Center:
-> 8 tower computers with Pentium III processors and Windows 98 operating systems
-> All computers will have CD-ROM drives and 4 will have DVD-ROM drives
-> Software will include OpenOffice and a few different web browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, etc.); we will look for some free educational software that will suit your needs, but we don’t want to make any promises we can’t keep (rest assured, we will do our best to track down some free educational programs)
-> New keyboards and mice for all computers
-> Cabling for 4 new Internet connections (we will bring extra cabling and an extra switch in case we run into problems)
-> We will replace 4 of your computers (2 with older Pentium II processors and 2 that just did not work at all); this will leave Lessie Bates with a total of 14 computers in the lab
-> We will perform some routine maintenance on the computers you currently have, such as defragmenting the hard drives and cleaning out temporary file folders
To help us out, we ask that the Lessie Bates Center please provide the following:
-> 2 additional tables (like the ones currently used)
-> 2 additional power strips/surge protectors
-> Finally, the outlet near the small staircase on the exterior wall was not working when we visited; this outlet will need to be fixed so we can safely plug in all the computers
Also, you expressed some interest in a new printer. We will check with Martin to see if he can tap any resources at his church, as he suggested. To aid us in selection, could you please provide us with some desired specifications for a new printer? If Martin cannot procure a printer, Lessie Bates would have to cover the expense of a new printer. If you do decide to provide your own printer, it would be ideal if you could ship it to us here at the U of I. That way, we can work out any networking problems before we bring it down.
Please let us know at your earliest convenience if this plan sounds like it agrees with what we discussed and what Lessie Bates is looking for. As you mentioned during our meeting, you may want to speak with Andre about securing the resources Lessie Bates will need to provide.
Thanks very much, Brad! We really look forward to seeing you folks the second time around. In the meantime, enjoy the spring weather!