Community Services Director Joyce Rupp delivered her report to the Council via a video conferencing system
Wednesday, Feb 17 2010 - San Juan County Community Services Manager Joyce Rupp was “the Guinea pig” for the County Council’s first attempt at live inter-island video conferencing.
Rupp presented the County Senior Services Annual report to the Council Tuesday via an inexpensive subscription video conferencing system called “WebEx.”
During the presentation to the Council, Rupp’s image was placed side-by-side on a projection screen with documents that highlighted the financial and performance details of her verbal report.
The video of her speaking trailed the audio by more than a second and the picture was considerably lower in quality than the video from the cameras in the Council’s hearing room; but both the Council and Rupp concluded that the overall result was far preferable to having her spend most of the day traveling between Orcas Island and Friday Harbor to make her 15 minute presentation.
Rupp’s report showed a dramatic drop-off in many types of services provided in 2009 compared to the period between 2006 and 2008. That, she said, was a direct result of budget cuts which reduced both staff and the number of days per week that services were provided.
“The levy lid-lift has been a big help this year,” she said. $211,000 in revenue from the levy increase was earmarked to restore some of the cuts made in the County’s programs for seniors. Rupp said that prior to the levy election in November, the fear of even more cutbacks had created a great deal tension for workers and for the seniors the programs serve.
At the conclusion of her report, Information Services Manager George Johnson fielded questions and took the Council’s comments about the video conference. Generally the Council was pleased at the amount of County Employee time saved, but hoped the quality of the two-way video and audio connection could be improved.
Johnson noted that the WebEx service costs $56 per month, as opposed to the $20,000 to $40,000 capital cost of setting up a high quality system capable of connecting with other, existing video conferencing locations. After today’s meeting he said he expects WebEx will continue to be used while the County seeks grants and other sources of funds to finance a full system.
The Orcas Public Library, the Skagit Community College campus in Friday Harbor and OPALCO offices already have video conferencing facilities in operation and the Lopez Library is expected to set one up in the near future.
The County Council has declared video conferencing a top priority in each of the past two years, but because of budget constraints the project has not been funded.