VASWCD IT Committee
Annual Meeting Update
Dec 05, 2012
Some important insights
• When the President calls…
– Maybe enthusiastic yes
– No, sorry too busy sure, no problem
• Instructions not included
• Trust the people on your committee
• You can’t do it all, but you can do it together
What is IT?
The Matrix
Districts Customers DCR NRCS Localities VASWCD Public
BMPs
Trackingprogram–Cost-shareandvoluntary
practices
X X
Conservationplanning X X X X
Engineeringandtools X X X X
GISandmapmaking X X X
Nutrientmanagement
planningX X X
Soilsinformation X X
TMDLallocationsandstrategies
X X X
ResourceManagement
Planning(future)X X X
NRCSreporting–PRS X
Grazingplandevelopment X X X
Soillosscalculation X X
AssessmenttoolsforBMP
complianceorequivalentX X X X
Administration
Financialmanagementandreporting
X X X X
Accounting X X
Payroll X
AttachmentsE&FforDCR X X
GrantreportsandattachmentBforDCR
X X
ReportsforBoard X
Districts Customers DCR NRCS Localities VASWCD Public
Reportsforlocal
governmentsX X
1099taxformsforproducers
X X X
StateandFederalpayrolltax
X X
Salestax X
VEC X
VRS X
Countyaccountingsystems
(whenused)X X
Outreach
Communityoutreach/Publicinformation/
marketing
X X X X X
Registration X X X X
Sharing X X
Presentation X X X X
Emailbroadcastsystems/
e-notificationX X X X
Websites X X X X X
Socialmedia X X X
Other
Computervirusprotection X X X X X X X
Generalcommunication X X X X X X X
E-mail X X X X X X X
Survey observations
• Districts have many personalities
– Urban, Rural, Mixed
– Co-located with USDA, Co-located with County, Separate
– Agriculture focused, Animal Intensive, Homeowner support
– Tech savvy: some districts like to experiment
• Districts are resilient
– Understand changes that are happening and preparing
– Make due with what they have
• VASWCD has many skilled professionals spread across
districts and directors
“Man is a tool-using Animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all.”
Thomas Carlyle
Survey Overview
• 37 districts responded
• Average $2,918 spent per district on IT (Range $100 - $14,950)
5%
38% 57%
Urban/Suburban
Mixed Urban-Rural
Rural
“One comprehensive database linked to GIS, for ALL work that Districts do,
with flexibility for creating our own queries based on local reporting needs”
“Our IT is doing just fine right now.”
“My main need is technical support”
“The tracking program as it is now, really is NOT what we wanted”
Some specific requests:
IT for Conservation
• Many conservation practices require IT capabilities
• Large variation in IT maturity across conservation apps – Not all have kept up with the latest advances, such as web based,
field ready, and data sharing
– Lots of different styles / technologies: • NRCS era client/server—entrenched and getting expensive
• Internet apps—are preferred and allow independence from NRCS
– Maintaining and upgrading apps needs more focus
• Large dependency on NRCS co-location – 22 of 37 Districts (60%) are co-located with NRCS
– 9 of 22 Districts co-located with NRCS (41%) expect to move to a location that will not allow a direct connection to NRCS servers
– It is possible to use NRCS tools without being on the NRCS network but inefficient to use the Toolkit program
– A reference toolkit hosted by VASWCD would be useful
Conservation applications
• Cost Share & Vol. Practices BMP Tracking program
• Conservation Planning 78% Toolkit
• Engineering & Tools
• GIS and Map Making 72% Esri ArcGIS
• Nutrient Management 60% NutMan
• Soils Info 76% USDA Web Soil Survey
• TMDL Allocation Strategies 57% None, 29% VAST
• NRCS Reporting Toolkit 38% None, 32% PRS
• Grazing Plan Development 41% cGraz, 32% Other, 27% None
• Soil Loss Calculation 89% RUSLE2
• BMP Assessment or Compliance 49% None
Practice Area Typical Application(s)
Business and Outreach Applications
• Financial Management and Accounting – QuickBooks used for
financial management (93%) and accounting (97%)
• Note: QuickBooks cannot be used on NRCS computers
– QuickBooks is updated continuously; an advantage of commercial software
• Payroll is done mostly via QuickBooks (57%) – 30% of Districts use an
outside provider for payroll
– One district used Excel for payroll
• Outreach—many options and avenues
• Website creation and maintenance is more challenging and Districts can use help
30%
70%
Do not use/no answer
Have Websites / Variety of Software
Districts with Websites
Technology
• Data suggests a need for security best practices document at the VASWCD level
• Networking is critical to district operations – Technical expertise varies
across Districts
• IT costs range dramatically – Primarily depends on
whether District pays or if NRCS or a County provides resources
Computer Operating Systems Bad news: XP is from 2002 and is outdated
Those XP computers will either need to be
replaced or have a major upgrade
45%
39%
2% 5%
3% 3% 3%
Windows XP
Windows 7
Windows XP + Vista
Windows 7 + XP
Windows
other
Do not use/no answer
Service and support
Note: concern when support depends on district staff
Suggest proactive policy to setup third party agreement
36%
3% 12%
41%
8% District Staff
District Director
County
Third Party
Other
What do we do next?
IT Committee Recommendations
Actions
Expand website
Districts on the web
Share experiences
with software
Pricing options
Open source options
Technology Pilot
Programs
Strategy
Realistic Funding--
$1750/staff
Future architecture
Web based tools
IT Principles
A. Districts are autonomous and report to the citizens. District work is driven at the local
level and judged by the citizens in the District. Each District makes independent
decisions and tries to provide the best value to their local community. The VASWCD
helps Districts but does not have any authority over their decisions.
B. Openness and sharing of tools, techniques, and process. A central tenant of a
District is to educate the public on the best practices for conservation. We want to
share all of the IT technology so that individuals can leverage that expertise to
improve their conservation knowledge. This includes the actual applications, training
on how to use them, and essential data to drive applications.
C. Privacy of individual plans with secure online access to plans. While the practice of
conservation is open, the delivery to specific parcels is private between the District
and the landowner. Over time we expect all plans to become digital and there needs
to be a secure way to protect the landowner’s privacy.
D. Data must be available for partners to access and to analyze, especially as related to
larger conservation initiatives. In the near future, this will be required to understand
the effect of conservation practices on the Chesapeake Bay TMDL.
Strategic Plan
a) Maintain a realistic IT funding profile.
Projected total yearly cost for District IT funding needs is
$350,000 / year (~$1750 / staff)
Projected total yearly cost for shared resources for 47
Districts is $500,000 / year.
b) Provide a robust, flexible architecture for the
future
c) Web-based conservation planning tools should
be available to Districts and the general public,
possibly as cloud tools
Projections
• Projected district IT funding needs
– Projected staff (estimated at) 200
– Projected yearly IT cost per staff member $1,750
– Projected total yearly cost for districts category $350k
• Common (shared) resource needs
– Architecture development $100k
– Software development/modification $300k / yr
– Web/data base hosting $50k / yr
– Project & data management $150k /yr
– Projected total yearly cost for shared $600k / year
“Give us the tools, and we will finish the job.” Churchill, Winston