McHenry County Blog

Ersel Schuster

Tina Hill

The first person on the County Board that I heard talking about the possibility of livestreaming meetings was Tina Hill. That was back when she headed the Management Services Committee.

Now the County Board is scheduled to approve a contract with with Carahsoft Technology Corporation of Reston, Virginia for the IQM2 MinuteTraq and MediaTraq Software at a cost of $1,900/month or $22,800 annually with a CPI escalator up to a maximum of 5% for future years.

“We’ve been looking at this for three years,” said Ersel Schuster, current head of the Management Services Committee.

“We’re planning to implement an agenda management system, as well as the web casting, even for County Board committee meetings, if the members agree.”

Included in the package will be audio recording of committee meetings that people will be able to access from the County’s web site.

“Every thing will be recorded and there’s a component for webcasting of the County Board meeting at an additional charges,” she said.

The TribLocal's article on McHenry County College's live streaming of volleyball.

I was exciting to read Lawerence Synett’s article about the live streaming of volleyball by McHenry County College.

If that was possible, then there must be enough band width to broadcast Board of Trustee meetings.

Lack of band width was the excuse the Board used when asked last time.

Considering what the Board wanted to hike–let’s remember

• the baseball stadium that we taxpayers would be left to pay for after the minor league team went under and
• the broadcast tower that would blight Crystal Lake’s skyline–

one can see why the board members then would have preferred to limit it audience to the few outsiders who showed up in person.

I wondered if current Board meetings are being made available to people at home, so I called the President’s Office.

Vicky Smith

It was 4:30 this afternoon and guess who answered?

You’re right.

The President herself.

She told me that the Board meetings were not being live streamed. I told her that the band width reason seemed not to still be relevant and asked her why volleyball games and not Board meetings.

Her answer:

“It has not come up.”

Well, now it has.

It would be a step toward needed transparency.

= = = = =
There’s a meeting tonight starting with a budget hearing at 6:30 and the regular monthly Board meeting immediately thereafter.

Want to hear what’s going on at the McHenry County Fair this afternoon?

Dick Kaman and some others will be streaming live at noon, three and six with WebScore.

Hit this link to get to the County Fair web site.

Then, click on the time of day.

That will let you be able to feel like you are right in the middle of the action.

= = = = =

In other Fair news, McHenry County Democrats are up to $200.76 in their Penny Presidential Poll fund raiser.

(I can’t wait to see how this is reported to the Illinois State Board of Elections. I hope it will use the words “Penny Poll,” rather than “Mass collection.”)

Still in the lead is Bill Richardson, now with 7,556 votes

In second place is Barack Obama with 6,798.

Hillary Clinton ranks third with 2,990.

The minor candidates have the following:

Biden- 870
Edwards- 761
Gravel- 546 + one Chucky Cheese token
Kucinich- 357
Dodd- 196

I wonder if the Republicans will even send McHenry County Blog a press release.

Want to hear what’s going on at the McHenry County Fair this afternoon?

Dick Kaman and some others will be streaming live at noon, three and six with WebScore.

Hit this link to get to the County Fair web site.

Then, click on the time of day.

That will let you be able to feel like you are right in the middle of the action.

= = = = =

In other Fair news, McHenry County Democrats are up to $200.76 in their Penny Presidential Poll fund raiser.

(I can’t wait to see how this is reported to the Illinois State Board of Elections. I hope it will use the words “Penny Poll,” rather than “Mass collection.”)

Still in the lead is Bill Richardson, now with 7,556 votes

In second place is Barack Obama with 6,798.

Hillary Clinton ranks third with 2,990.

The minor candidates have the following:

Biden- 870
Edwards- 761
Gravel- 546 + one Chucky Cheese token
Kucinich- 357
Dodd- 196

I wonder if the Republicans will even send McHenry County Blog a press release.

McHenry County Board member Tina Hill (R-Woodstock) may lead her colleagues to the most accessible public meetings in McHenry County.

All local governments must meet the minimum standards set by the Open Meetings Act.

Some, like McHenry County College are a bit challenged in even doing that.

Some go farther.

Crystal Lake and some other municipalities who cut good deals with their local cable systems record their meetings and have them broadcast on cable TV. Crystal Lake even has someone operating camera controls at its meetings. They make DVD’s available for purchase.

Others, like Huntley’s School District 158, have record their meetings with stationary cameras and make DVD’s available for purchase. (Huntley is still working out the bugs. On May 17th, for instance, the recording device ran out of space and stopped at 10:44 PM, before a lot of important decisions were made. The image also jerked twice a second for extended periods of time. And, the seven board members, plus superintendent, look like little dots on the screen because the camera is so far away.)

Carpentersville District 300 and Huntley’s school district post reports to be considered in their meetings on the internet ahead of time. Those interested can actually see what their pubic officials will consider a their board meetings.

So does the McHenry County Board.

If only the super-secretive McHenry County College would let the public know what it was up to ahead of time.

But, even with the county board’s major step forward, it can’t seem to keep from tripping over itself. Think of the board’s attempt to ban my taking flash photographs or forcing me and other photographers to the back corners of the room.

Whatever good will the posting of agenda reports and having a screen on which to project county board reports might have won was squandered in the resulting bad publicity.

Now Tina Hill, touting her League of Woman Voter membership, is positioning the county board to take a giant leap forward.

She is promoting approval of a Granicus, Inc., system for the internet broadcasting of county board meetings. It’s called live streaming. And the camera is voice activating, pointing itself toward whomever is talking. It will record the meetings and allow county web site users to see specific parts of each meeting.

That is one big “WOW!”

I wonder if she will expand that to include committee meetings.

Not only that, Hill wants to allow those at county board meetings to hook into the internet during meetings.

In Central Illinois this is all the rage among bloggers. Champaign County and Peoria bloggers (that means more than one) sit in the audience typing away as their local officials conduct their meetings.

Of course, with live streaming, who would need live blogging?

McHenry County Board member Tina Hill (R-Woodstock) may lead her colleagues to the most accessible public meetings in McHenry County.

All local governments must meet the minimum standards set by the Open Meetings Act.

Some, like McHenry County College are a bit challenged in even doing that.

Some go farther.

Crystal Lake and some other municipalities who cut good deals with their local cable systems record their meetings and have them broadcast on cable TV. Crystal Lake even has someone operating camera controls at its meetings. They make DVD’s available for purchase.

Others, like Huntley’s School District 158, have record their meetings with stationary cameras and make DVD’s available for purchase. (Huntley is still working out the bugs. On May 17th, for instance, the recording device ran out of space and stopped at 10:44 PM, before a lot of important decisions were made. The image also jerked twice a second for extended periods of time. And, the seven board members, plus superintendent, look like little dots on the screen because the camera is so far away.)

Carpentersville District 300 and Huntley’s school district post reports to be considered in their meetings on the internet ahead of time. Those interested can actually see what their pubic officials will consider a their board meetings.

So does the McHenry County Board.

If only the super-secretive McHenry County College would let the public know what it was up to ahead of time.

But, even with the county board’s major step forward, it can’t seem to keep from tripping over itself. Think of the board’s attempt to ban my taking flash photographs or forcing me and other photographers to the back corners of the room.

Whatever good will the posting of agenda reports and having a screen on which to project county board reports might have won was squandered in the resulting bad publicity.

Now Tina Hill, touting her League of Woman Voter membership, is positioning the county board to take a giant leap forward.

She is promoting approval of a Granicus, Inc., system for the internet broadcasting of county board meetings. It’s called live streaming. And the camera is voice activating, pointing itself toward whomever is talking. It will record the meetings and allow county web site users to see specific parts of each meeting.

That is one big “WOW!”

I wonder if she will expand that to include committee meetings.

Not only that, Hill wants to allow those at county board meetings to hook into the internet during meetings.

In Central Illinois this is all the rage among bloggers. Champaign County and Peoria bloggers (that means more than one) sit in the audience typing away as their local officials conduct their meetings.

Of course, with live streaming, who would need live blogging?