[BoulderCouncilHotline] Novus

[Morzel, Lisa]

Dear Jane,

Thanks to Lynnette for setting up the Novus training Thursday and to Logan for attempting the training.  Logan and I spent close to 1.5 hours trying to get novus to work in a manner paralleling iAnnotate's capability. Logan was great in trying multiple possible paths with no to little success (we did log me on). The program has limited capabilities. 

After about 1.5 hours, Logan and my conclusion is that without a lot more work by Novus in improving functionality, this program scores a zero in terms of it being a program that allows me to function as a council member. Below is a summary of the problems followed by a request to resume our former practices:

1.  Secondary bookmarks are essential to finding my way functionally through the packet.  Novus does not do this and recognizes this is a problem which it is trying to a

2.  In any form, on my iPad or pc, Novus does not allow for much annotation and then, only for the cover page, definitely not the attachments. That does not work. 

3. Compared to the robust program, iAnnotate, Novus does not compare at all.  In iAnnotate, I am able to highlight, make comments, underline, strike, circle and in many colors. iAnnotate also allows full searches, provides searched items and lists as annotations, comments, underlines etc

4.  I am able to download individual agenda items from the Novus site or wherever the PDFs are kept as individual PDFs, bring them into iAnnotate, but that is cumbersome and unacceptably burdensome.  Even with those individual agenda item PDFs, having no secondary bookmarks severely limits functionality. Additionally trying to keep track of all the agenda items in my iAnnotate library creates a nightmare for access and is ridiculous and unnecessary. 

5. On our one drive area, now we and the public have 2 packets for each meeting which have identical names (very confusing to anyone) but the top listed file is our "final" agenda which we receive Thursday and the bottom listed file has x hundred pages attached which is created on the Tuesday of our meeting and has now added to it all the presentation materials. This has many problems including:

A) if a cc member prepares before tuesday afternoon, the second packet will not contain any of the notes, highlights etc and thus requires cc members to use the first top listed PDF to refer to her notes in the meeting and to use an unnecessarily large PDF (so now creating a capacity issue in iAnnotate) that contains the final staff presentations. This does not work. 

B) listing two "identically named" PDFs with very different page numbers ( for example, the oct. 17th packet had about 578 pages in the top listed PDF and about 850 pages in the second PDF with the presentations. 

All of this limits council's agility to easily move around our packet so we can function while on the dais. 

C). This will be/ is very confusing to the public, especially with differing page numbers and content. 

6.  The presentations need to be sent out or posted separate from the packet. 

 I request the following:

1. Get rid of Novus until they can improve their product and its functionality (which I sincerely doubt). 

2. In the interim (if we don't junk this product), I ask that someone on staff continue to insert the secondary bookmarks and send packet materials to cc mbrs as a PDF.

3.  Continue the past practice of sending the individual presentations to cc members on Tuesdays as Dianne has in past.

In summary, Novus is not the program council members to navigate their packets.  It does NOT work or allow us to function well and is a very-less-than robust program. My advice: take this bill of goods the city has been sold and try and get our money back. 

I am asking you, Jane, if it is possible if I and others interested can receive our packets as pdfs with primary and secondary bookmarks and receive the presentations in a separate mailing or posting until several identified problems at novus can be worked out. 

This issue needs to be resolved ASAP. In the interim, I ask that we return to our previous state of functionality prior to Novus going in.

Thank you,

Lisa

Lisa Morzel,
Member of Boulder City Council

303-815-6723

"We interact with one another as individuals responding to a complex haze of factors: professional responsibilities, personal likes and dislikes, ambition, jealousy, self-interest, and, in at least some instances, genuine altruism.  Living in the here and now, we are awash with sensations of the present, memories of the past, and expectations and fears for the future. Our actions are not determined by any one cause; they are the fulfillment of who we are at that particular moment.  After that moment passes, we continue to evolve, to change, and our memories of that moment inevitably change with us as we live with the consequences of our past actions, consequences we were unaware of at the time." The Last Stand, Nathaniel Philbrick