Office of the Information Technology Committee Chair

• Services
• Coordinators
  • House Computer Coordinator
• Submission guidelines
• Required Financial Arrangements for some services
  • Email aliases (@kvrs.org)
  • 340-KVRS voice mailboxes with real-time pager notification

Services

The KVRS Information Technology Committee provides the following services to KVRS:

KVRS.ORG	Contractual and technical maintenance of the following squad assets: Domain name (KVRS.ORG) Web site:  WWW.KVRS.ORG (see Detailed Usage Statistics) Email aliases (alias@kvrs.org) for any full squad member or role (see Required Financial Arrangements).
eGroups	Maintenance of the squad's online collaboration groups http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/kvrs http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/kvrs-bod http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/kvrs-fundraisers
Voicemail	Contractual and technical maintenance of the squad's official voice messaging solution (340-KVRS), which provides voice mailboxes with real-time pager or phone notification for any full squad member or role (see Required Financial Arrangements).
Fax services	Contractual and technical maintenance of the squad's virtual fax messaging solution (via eFax.com).
House computers	Administrative maintenance and execution of the squad's Configuration & Restoration of Office Computer Policy
Wireless LAN	Technical maintenance of the squad's closed wireless local area networks.
QuickBooks	Contractual assistance and technical support for squad books (kept at QBOE.com).
Digital Repository	Technical maintenance of the squad's official CVS repository on SourceForge.
Digital security	Technical maintenance of the squad's corporate PGP key.

Coordinators

House Computer Coordinator

The House Computer Coordinator is charged by the Information Technology Committee Chair with maintaining, upgrading, and reinstalling the hardware and software that make up the squad's in-house computer systems.  This coordinator is the primary point of contact for executing the squad's Configuration & Restoration of Office Computer Policy.

Submission guidelines

The committee strongly encourages squad members -- especially officers, chairs, and coordinators -- to submit material for inclusion on the site.  Submitters should keep in mind the following:

• The squad operates the web site as part of its charitable programs.
• The web site is not free.  The squad pays for the site by the megabyte.  Submitters should choose the representation of their data that is:
  • most space-efficient;
  • least maintenance-intensive.
• Submissions should be sufficiently specific to KVRS or, in some cases, VBDEMS.  Material that is not specific to the squad or department belongs on some other web site.  Once non-squad-specific material is published on an appropriate external site, the committee can certainly provide a link to that site from kvrs.org.  Links are cheap.  Actual data storage is expensive.
• The committee prefers material that can be viewed with common, standard software.  If you cannot provide your material in HTML or Adobe PDF formats, the committee can probably perform the conversion for you.
• The approved image format for all new photo submissions is JPEG, compression factor 75%.  No more than 384 kilopixels per image.  The committee can perform some image conversions for you.

Required Financial Arrangements for some services

Neither KVRS nor this committee are actually in the business of directly providing information technology services.  We are in the business of providing emergency medical and rescue services.  KVRS is a large, complex agency whose cohesiveness depends on a comprehensive, robust set of information technology tools, not on the efforts of "information technology heroes" within its own ranks.  Consequently, the committee pays for some of the services it provides, and must collect fees from those served.

Email aliases (alias@kvrs.org)

Kvrs.org email aliases are available to full squad members for $1 per month.  No actual e-mailbox is provided.  An alias simply forwards incoming email to a personal email address that you must establish for yourself.  This arrangement allows you to have an @kvrs.org address that can follow you around no matter how often you switch personal email addresses.

For aliases that use a member's name (ie, yourname@kvrs.org),  the member must pay the fee to the KVRS Information Technology Committee up front.  For aliases that use a role name (ie, title@kvrs.org), an internal squad fund transfer from the role's fund to the InfoTechCC fund is permissible.

For more information, contact <infotech@kvrs.org>.

Voice mailboxes with real-time pager or phone notification

Voice mailboxes attached to 340-KVRS are available to full squad members for $5-$10 per month.  No notification device (pager, phone) or associated service is provided.  A voice mailbox stores incoming messages and immediately notifies a pager or phone number that you must establish for yourself.  This arrangement allows you to have a 340-KVRS voice mailbox  that can follow you around no matter how often you switch personal pager or phone services.

For voice mailboxes that are associated with a member's name (ie, "For Johnny Gage, press 1"),  the member must pay the fee to the KVRS Information Technology Committee up front.  For voice mailboxes that are associated with a role (ie, "For the Rescue Sergeant, press 2"), an internal squad fund transfer from the role's fund to the InfoTechCC fund is permissible.

For more information, see the 340-KVRS page or contact <infotech@kvrs.org>.