Committee Definition
The Information Technology Committee is a Permanent Committee of the Board. Its terms of reference are
- Consists of up to 13 members of the Society, plus one liaison from the Board.
- Committee can appoint positions that become vacant or were not filled by Board.
- Duties include: managing and day-to-day operation of the society's Internet presence, including the domains (rasc.ca and srac.ca), national websites, e-mail addresses and lists; providing technical support and advice in support of IT activities and new initiatives at the Society office; other duties as determined by the Board.
Contact Information
To reach the committee you may e-mail
the Information Technology Committee Chair.
Terms of Reference (as of the 2019 Policy Manual)
Purpose
The Information Technology Committee advises the Board and staff on current and future information-technology related issues. It assists the Board in governing and overseeing the RASC’s information-technology-related matters.
Accountability
The committee is accountable to the Board. The committee will supply copies of its plans, minutes, reports, and other documents to the Board upon request. The committee will provide an annual report to the National Council.
Authority
The committee has the authority to:
- review and measure information-technology performance to determine present and future requirements and resources;
- align information technology with the RASC’s strategic marketing plans and administrative and financial needs, identifying innovative solutions to overcome barriers to effective and accelerated adoption;
- alignment of information technology with all committee objectives; and
- deliver value by information technology through service, efficiency, and organizational performance:
- assessing information technology needs and resources;
- identifying, evaluating, and managing relevant risk areas including: disaster recovery and planning; data security; financial risk; reputational risk; compliance with privacy laws and standards; and
- implement project/system tracking of budgets, timelines, and other procedures and products.
Staff Support
Staff provides support to the committee through full professional and administrative services at the discretion of the Executive Director.
Committee Membership
The committee will consist of at least one Director, and up to twelve additional Society members with IT skills and experience, plus the Society President ex officio.
Chair
The chairperson shall be appointed annually by the Board.
Term of Appointment
Members will be appointed annually by the Board.
Frequency of Meetings
At the call of the chair, or at least four times per year.
Committee Members - Effective May 2023
| Name | Centre | Title/Responsibility |
|---|---|---|
| Walter MacDonald | Kingston | Webmaster |
| Ryan May | Yukon | Journal Subscriber Maintenance |
| Mark Kaye | Hamilton | Moderator |
| James Edgar | Regina | Content Editor |
| Tasha Clowater | Halifax | New |
| Michael Wilson | Ottawa | New |
| Scott Sorell | Calgary | New |
| * Michael Watson | National | President (ex officio) |
| * Jenna Hinds | National | Executive Director (ex officio) |
* = non-voting
Technology Services
Web/DNS Site Redirection
The ITC offers Centres website redirection based on the format of:
http://www.rasc.ca/yourcentername
This is a permanently available service that allows Centres to publish their website address in a permanent and easy-to-remember way. All links to Centre sites on the National website follow this format. A "flash screen" is provided to link to your Centre. Please keep the Web Team informed of any site moves so this service can be kept up to date.
DNS Name
Centres are eligible for a permanent internet DNS name in the format
http://www.yourcentrename.rasc.ca/
(e.g. http://victoria.rasc.ca/). This service is free and allows you to save on domain registration costs. Contact the Web Team if you are interested.
Web Space
We cannot offer Web space on the national website for Centre use, mainly as the site is not hosted on our server, but on one donated by the Department of Astronomy and Physics at Saint Mary's University, with bandwidth, security, and management limitations.
Email Redirects
We can provide email forwards to addresses of your choice, either in the main rasc.ca domain or in a Centre's sub-domain. Examples might include: montreal@rasc.ca or president@regina.rasc.ca. This gives Centres permanent addresses that would follow the addresses of the individuals that read this mail.
RASC Email Lists
We can provide Internet mailing lists to Centres. These lists could be used, for example, for discussion between Centre members or between the council of the Centre. The IT committee reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of a new list.
The RASC currently supports the "mailman" software (see www.list.org/). In order to have a list created, the Centre needs to provide at least one member to handle all list activity, including all inter-activity with list members (subscriptions, unsubscriptions, resolving problems, moderation, etc.) after the list has been initially setup. Lists are configured and managed remotely using a Web browser interface.
Newsletter Archives
Centre newsletters are stored in PDF format and indexed via Centre and publication date. Centre Newsletters are made available in the Publications section of the website.
RASC Graphics
The RASC has three national symbols that may be used by Centres:
- RASC Seal - The Seal of the Society, featuring the muse of astronomy Urania and the motto "Quo ducit Urania." This is available in a bilingual National format along with Centre variants in both colour and monochrome versions.
- RASC Logo - A simplified version of the National Seal intended for low-resolution and less-formal applications. This has the initials "RASC" and "SRAC."
- National Wordmark - The National Wordmark is based on the use of the Garamond font (smallcaps) and is used when the full name of the Society is used or the name of its Centres.
Full information on the use of RASC Graphics and downloadable copies is available in the Members' section.
Icon Files for Centre websites
Below is information and icon files provided by Larry McNish (Calgary Centre) for use with Centre websites. The favicon.ico file is a mini version of the RASC logo for use if you need a favicon for your site. The ten Apple icons are all the resolutions needed for iOS devices (some Android 2.x or higher devices will use them too) and may simply be unzipped and uploaded to the root folder of your website (no code required!).
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Apple and Android web site icons.doc | 54.5 KB |
 apple-website-icons.zip | 90.39 KB |
| favicon.zip | 2.82 KB |
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| RW4Changes.docx (2018) | 5.21 MB |