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Projects Updates for place: MSTE

  1. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - January 26, 2026

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    Discussion

    • Removing inactive users
    • Metric graphs

    TODOs

    • Fix Quinn's permissions for People page
    • Test out Power BI for visualization

  2. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - January 9, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    Discussion

    • Metric review
      • [Quinn] New metric types: pie chart and stacked bar chart
      • [Sarthak] New metric display type: line chart
      • [Quinn] New metric grouping idea: display related metrics on a map w/links to each metric
        • Pedestrian/Bike counts
        • Solar, EV charging stations
        • [Michael] this could be part of a planned expansion of metric displays - pull data from multiple other metrics into a combined display (e.g. points on map, stacked bar chart, multiple lines on line chart, summation of data with matching locations on x-axis)
      • [Quinn] Some metrics already have visualizations elsewhere (e.g. pollinator areas, energy dashboard project) - just link to them instead?
        • [Michael] Broader question: should we consider using a different system for creating the visualizations (e.g. PowerBI, Tableau) and just embed them like we do videos?
        • Worth investigating - Michael will look into price/licensing, entry methods, display methods
      • [Quinn] Delete/Archive old metrics
        • Delete: recommend doing this before migration
        • Archive: save the data, decide later how to display it (e.g. CSV file linked from We've Got Data page), then delete metric
      • [Miriam] There is a lot of data that needs to be collected and shared out in other places, e.g. AASHE STARS reports, the SIMAP greenhouse gas inventory, etc. I would recommend we avoid duplicating data points on the portal as much as possible, except maybe for key data points that are very important to highlight. We can point users to other places data is tracked on the “We’ve Got Data” page.
        • Group generally agreed on reducing duplication of data entry
      • [Miriam] All metrics need to have a clear definition that explains how they are measured and sourced. We should also have consistent and clear naming practices. 
        • Important for continuity
        • Metric naming - prioritize for Objectives
      • [Miriam] Distinguishing between metrics that are true metrics in the sense that they provide measures of success toward specific goals, versus other data we want to make available but are not performance measures (like the bike counts at specific locations).
        • Consider what to do with defunct metrics for past objectives
        • Display metrics by associated category, e.g. iCAP plans, bike plan, etc.

  3. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - December 12, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Migration question: are revisions important?
    • Remaining duplicate locations to merge (see 2024-12-11 - List of doubled projects in iCAP Portal.docx)
    • (Continue discussion) Discuss metric naming convention - follow-up from Miriam & Morgan's discussion
    • (Continue discussion) New iCAP Team
    • Question from Miriam: creating accessible meeting notes - templates, resources, etc.?

    Discussion

    • Migration question: are revisions important?
      • Ok to eschew revisions in migration
    • Remaining duplicate locations to merge
    • Discuss metric naming convention
      • Review and remove old, unused metrics
      • Review titles of remaining metrics for consistency (different naming conventions for past iCAP eras)
      • Michael will export CSV of all metrics
      • Quinn will review over the break and bring suggestions for changes
    • New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal
      • Wait for official 2026 iCAP to be released to create new group in iCAP Portal
    • Creating accessible meeting notes:
      • Check out learning resources on the Digital Accessibility site:
      • Check out CITL's Accessibility Training Opportunities – you can attend workshops to learn about document accessibility and/or watch videos from past workshops
      • Check out Accessibility Resources by role (e.g. developer, designer, content creator) for checklists and guidelines
      • Try to avoid PDFs when possible, but when necessary, making your document accessible will mean your PDF will start out mostly accessible with only minor tweaks needed (or none, for simple documents)

  4. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - November 14, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    Discussion

    • Christina shared the iCAP Portal mockup in Figma she's been working on
    • Accessibility:
    • Discuss 2025 Objectives dashboard (add in September, start displaying in October) - see "Adding Key Objectives" private file under Sustainability iCAP Portal project
      • Timeline moved back to spring 2025 to allow time for complete review. Hoping for Earth Day reveal.
    • [Moved to next meeting] Migration question: are revisions important?
    • [Moved to next meeting] Remaining duplicate locations to merge
    • [Moved to next meeting] Discuss metric naming convention
    • [Moved to next meeting] New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal

  5. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - October 17, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    Discussion

    • Next steps from strategic discussion
      • We'll review what Christina sent and circle back next week
    • Discuss sending message to current iCAP Portal users informing them to avoid posting emails on the iCAP Portal
      • Summarizing email communications is ok, but don't copy-and-paste and don't include email addresses
      • Define "current users" - e.g. accounts created in past few months + anyone who's made an iCAP Portal addition or edit since the beginning of the calendar year?
        • This is part of a larger user permissions review
      • Send email through website or manually?
        • Send emails manually to various groups (e.g. iCAP Clerks, iCAP Working Groups)
    • Discuss metric naming convention (see Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025)
      • Morgan has asked Avni to remove objective numbers from beginning of Metric names
      • Still need to come up with naming protocol - Miriam and Morgan to discuss
    • Research programs restructuring/archiving completed!
    • Michael shared some accessibility resources:
    • [Moved to next meeting] Discuss 2025 Objectives dashboard (add in September, start displaying in October) - see "Adding Key Objectives" private file under Sustainability iCAP Portal project
    • [Moved to next meeting] (Continue discussion) New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal

    TODOs

    • TBD

  7. iCAP Portal Migration discussion - September 23, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Attendees: Quinn Connolly, Sarthak Prasad, Miriam Keep, Morgan White, Christina Tran, Michael McKelvey

    Discussion

    • Discussed card sorting activity
      • Mainly figuring out the structure of the site
      • Granularity - not at the level of Project page layout, more site navigation structure
      • What to keep / not keep - what shows publicly and how do we vet that? What milestones do we post/publish?
    • Discussed migration process
      • May wish to auto-hide everything by default, then go through and review items for public display (Projects, Project Updates)
      • Make sure embed code URLs don't change!
      • Will try to keep URLs the same as much as possible to avoid dead links
      • Transition from old site to new site should be seamless - will forward old domain to new domain once ready to go live

  8. iCAP Portal Strategic discussion - September 16, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Attendees: Tiffany Jolley, Elizabeth Murphy, Miriam Keep, Morgan White, Christina Tran, Michael McKelvey

    Discussion

    • Discuss strategic plan for iCAP Portal content (as opposed to day-to-day discussions)
    • How do we move forward into new branding?
    • Discussed public vs. private information.
    • Discussed iSEE and F&S roles
    • Discussed Christina's power user card sorting activity - scheduled a meeting for a card sorting activity
    • Discussed Google Analytics - Michael added Tiffany to iCAP Portal's Google Analytics

  9. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - September 16, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Discuss webform roles
    • Discuss sending message to current iCAP Portal users
    • Discuss Christina's navigation menu options
    • Discuss items remaining from last meeting

    Discussion

    • Discuss webform roles (e.g. Suggestions)
      • Roles which should have edit access: (iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, iCAP Reviewers, iCAP Clerks?)
      • Roles which should have delete access: (iCAP Admins, iCAP Moderators, iCAP Reviewers, iCAP Clerks?)
    • Discuss sending message to current iCAP Portal users informing them to avoid posting emails on the iCAP Portal
      • Define "current users" - e.g. accounts created in past few months + anyone who's made an iCAP Portal addition or edit since the beginning of the calendar year?
      • Send email through website or manually?
    • Navigation menu options Christina shared via email:
      • Content Audit: With this method, I will take inventory of all of iCAP's content types, map how they are currently being used, and suggest a navigation structure based off of my findings. Then, we can review my suggestions as a group!
      • Power User Card-Sorting Workshop: I will set up an online workspace with a list of cards and facilitate a 30-60 minute session for this group to collaboratively organize these cards into categories. The cards will list out all of the iCAP portal's content, but the during the session we can also create new cards if we want to merge or redefine content types/categories.
      • Public User Card-Sorting: I will set up a number of online card-sorting workspaces with instructions to send out to public users. Each public user will organize the cards in a way that makes the most sense to them. Then, I will review their feedback and present a recommended navigation structure based on the public's input.
      • Review Quinn's Recommended Navigation: Since Quinn is already a power user, her ideas are a great starting point! I can review her recommended navigation structure and see if I have any further suggestions based on usability guidelines. I can also facilitate a discussion for this group to review Quinn's ideas, make suggestions, incorporate feedback, and go from there.
    • Discuss metric naming convention (see Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025)
    • Discuss 2025 Objectives dashboard (add in September, start displaying in October) - see "Adding Key Objectives" private file under Sustainability iCAP Portal project
    • (Continue discussion) New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal

    TODOs

    • TBD

  10. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - August 8, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Discuss items remaining from last meeting

    Discussion

    • Discuss metric naming convention (see Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025)
      • Discuss at a future meeting
    • Finalize plans for removing national research programs from Projects listing
      • Not being kept up-to-date in the way we'd originally hoped
      • Who (if anyone) should we talk to before removing the national research programs?
      • Don't need to prioritize removing them before the site migration
    • Discuss 2025 Objectives dashboard (add in September, start displaying in October) - see "Adding Key Objectives" private file under Sustainability iCAP Portal project
      • Discuss at a future meeting
    • New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal
      • Miriam votes for making Sustainable Buildings a theme; Sarthak agrees
      • Didn't finish discussion - morphed into discussion of navigation menu options in new Illinois theme
    • New website main nav menu
      • Objectives, Projects, Metrics, About, SSC Projects?

    TODOs

    • Keep graph updates on todo list
    • At next meeting, discuss new site:
      • Main navigation menu
      • Information structure
      • Section naming
      • Content editing
    • Michael will set up a new sandbox for the group to test out the new system

  11. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - July 11, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Michael's updates
      • Stripped out HTML from ALL project update teasers (homepage, Project pages, Theme pages, Place pages, Collection pages, Key Objective pages)
      • Added expand/collapse to Recommendations listing on Project pages for listings with 4+ items
      • Here are a couple options for differentiating subject lines for iCAP Portal suggestions:
        • Use submission ID, e.g. "iCAP Portal Suggestion (ID #181)" <-- Decided to use ID
        • Use Subject / Project Name field, e.g. "iCAP Portal Suggestion: Campus-wide Solar Panel Installation"

    Discussion

    • [Quinn] Project pages for directing users to the many available data sources on the iCAP portal (e.g. Public Data for Independent Research)
      • Discussed pros & cons of Basic Page vs. Project vs. another approach
      • This could be part of a larger Getting Started section to provide guidance to new visitors
      • Decided to leave this page as a Project for now; may revisit in the future
    • For next meeting:
      • Discuss metric naming convention (see Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025)
      • Finalize plans for removing national research programs from Projects listing
      • Discuss 2025 Objectives dashboard (add in September, start displaying in October) - see "Adding Key Objectives" private file under Sustainability iCAP Portal project
      • New iCAP Team (Sustainable Buildings) being formed - discuss what that looks like on the iCAP Portal

    TODOs

    • ✅ Replace map link on homepage with link to "Resources for Independent Research" or "We've got data!"
    • ✅ Update suggestion email subject line
    • ✅ Find out if we can add administrative field to mark who responded to a Suggestion

  13. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - June 13, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Celebrations
    • Michael's updates
      • Recommendation pages: changed sort order for Recommendation Updates
        • Old sort order: Applicable Date (descending), Created Date (descending)
        • New sort order:Applicable Date (descending), Status (by its order in the dropdown listing, descending)
      • Project pages: column widths issue
        • When project update contains an element with a fixed width larger than the column, it was causing the left sidebar to expand to fill as much space as possible. Fixed by setting maximum column widths.
        • Follow-up question: should we strip formatting from project update teasers? Since they're often copy-and-pasted from elsewhere, they tend to bring in their own formatting, which can sometimes look strange.
    • National Research Programs analytics
    • Discussion about Recommendations - May 19, 2025
      • See notes for updates
    • Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025
      • See notes for updates
      • Discuss metric naming convention

    Discussion

    • Project Update teasers
      • Let's strip out HTML from project update teasers
      • How does it impact embedding project updates?
        • Won't impact them - their Project Update descriptions are defined separately
    • Recommendations on Project pages
      • Decided to make each Recommendation's title a link
      • Decided to remove the table of Recommendation Updates for now
      • Will consider whether to display the Recommendation titles & statuses in a table - current list is clean, but table would be good for quickly identifying the statuses of the various projects
    • Discuss metric naming convention [deferred to next meeting]

    TODOs

    • ✅ Strip out HTML from ALL project update teasers
    • ✅ Add expand/collapse to Recommendations listing on Project pages

  15. Discussion about Metrics - May 19, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Sarthak Prasad, Michael McKelvey, Morgan White, Quinn Connolly, Miriam Keep, and Tiffany Jolley met to discuss iCAP Metrics improvements - specifically, displaying metrics with large numbers of tracking records and combining multiple metrics on a single graph.

    Discussion/Decisions

    TODOs:

    • Michael to investigate Highcharts as a replacement for Google Charts
      • Maintain tabs showing individual targets
      • Allow selection of graph type (bar, line)
    • Michael to investigate calculated/combined metrics:
      • Show multiple metrics on single chart
      • Stretch goal: automatically calculate percentage against a baseline metric (e.g. Solar Farm 1 and Solar Farm 2 as percentages of Total Energy Use)
    • ✅ Michael will add theme maps embed code to theme pages
    • Remove objective numbers from beginning of metric names (see Objectives Dashboard)
    • Discuss metric naming convention in next iCAP Portal group meeting

  16. Discussion about Recommendations - May 19, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Morgan White, Miriam Keep, Elizabeth Murphy, Tiffany Jolley, Quinn Connolly, Sarthak Prasad, and Michael McKelvey met to discuss how best to cross reference iCAP Projects and Recommendations.

    Discussion/Decisions

    • Rec's link to
      • a Team,
      • Associated Project(s),
      • Objective(s), and
      • Future Updates project
    • What to include on the team pages?
      • example logged in and logged out
      • For now: decided to hide the sidebar listing of associated Recommendations and show the list of recommendations w/recommendation updates in main section
      • Discuss how to display the recommendations (and recommendation updates?) in next large group meeting
    • What to include on the iWG page? and the Sustainability Council page?
    • How to get to recommendations from the Home page?
      • Through link to iWG - decided not including a direct link to Recommendations page
    • Could these be based on theme instead of team? What to show on a theme page?
      • Decided not to show list of recommendations on Theme pages; get to recommendations through iCAP Team linked in description
    • Which projects should be associated? should it just be by objective and future updates..?
      • Associated Project(s): Don't include iWG and Team projects; just a minimal list of associated project(s)
      • Further Updates Will be Posted To...: 1 new project spawned by recommendation (if applicable)
    • How to remove the summary pages?

    TODOs:

    • Show associated recommendations on projects linked via "Further Updates Will be Posted To..." field
    • Add time-based filter on Recommendations listing page (e.g. last 5 years)

  17. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - May 9, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    • Michael's updates
      • Recommendation page: added a Files column which shows any files associated with each Recommendation Update (e.g. ECONS004 Green Labs Coordinator)
      • SSC Projects:
        • Added column click sorting to SSC Projects table
        • Added ability to add/edit description to SSC Projects listing page
      • Metrics fixes:
        • Metric: Bicycle Registration in Project 529 system: Karina Jang had tried to restore a past Metric revision, which didn't work well and clobbered a few records. We reviewed the data and restored the broken/missing records. I have disabled restoring revisions for now. iCAP Admins and Moderators can view revisions, but cannot restore them. While it may typically work for basic content like text fields, it doesn't seem to work well for connected content like tracking records.
        • Metric: Total Purchased Clean Power: Somehow 2 empty records were created when Zach Bromberg updated this metric. I have made the Value and Date fields required, which should help avoid that in the future.
      • Showing Recommendations & Recommendation Updates on Project pages:
        • Initial version of how this could work available on live site (only visible when logged in):
          • Added Associated Recommendation(s) section in main column
          • List each associated recommendation w/its current status
          • Under each recommendation, show table of its related recommendation updates
        • You can find Project pages with associated Recommendations by visiting a Recommendation (All Recommendations) and clicking on its associated Projects.
        • Example pages:
        • Thoughts? For projects with a lot of recommendation updates, it gets a bit busy...
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics (see notes from Sarthak & Michael's discussion)

    Discussion

    • Recommendations on project pages
      • Will have a side channel meeting to discuss how best to cross reference iCAP Projects and Recommendations
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics
      • Need better way to display metrics with large numbers of tracking records
        • Michael will return to investigating switching charting systems
      • Need to be able to combine multiple metrics on a single graph
        • Michael had previously started work on this; can resurrect and continue it
        • Will have a side channel meeting to discuss needs in more depth

    TODOs

    • Various follow-up side channel meetings between monthly meetings.

  18. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - April 11, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    Discussion

    • Morgan went through full list of projects to find ones to archive
      • Need to have a larger conversation about what archiving does at some point
    • Morgan's intern Zach is doing a couple things:
      • Filling in recent years of campus water data
      • Looking for duplicate metrics
      • Will mark duplicate metrics as duplicate, then work with Michael on deleting them
    • Linking SSC Projects to iCAP Portal projects
      • Quinn and Helen working on making sure all connections between SSC Projects and iCAP Portal projects are included
      • What to do about SSC Projects without an existing iCAP Portal project?
      • Quinn: 70-80% of SSC Projects have a direct or indirect connection to an iCAP Portal project; a few are really hard to find a connection
      • Morgan: every SSC Project should be connected to an iCAP Portal project. Quinn will keep working on connections, then this summer we can figure out what to do about the outliers
      • Would be helpful to add column sorting to SSC Projects table
      • SSC Projects listing goes back to 2008; aren't there projects from earlier than 2008?
        • That's all Helen had access to in SSC's master spreadsheet
        • Didn't include cancelled projects
        • Morgan will look for info about projects before 2008
        • Sheri may also have info about those projects
        • Some info about older SSC projects may be available in Project Updates (e.g. Projects Updates for Wind Turbine Generator(s) on South Farms)
    • Recommendations:
      • Morgan will have a student work on adding Recommendations
      • Once they're complete, we should remove the manually maintained recommendation links in Projects
      • Next step: show Recommendations & Recommendation Updates on Project pages; Michael will work on a draft version to share
    • Going through project hierarchy: adding/updating information to descriptions for Header projects
    • Google Analytics numbers drop
    • Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics

    TODOs

    • ✅ SSC Projects:
      • ✅ Add column click sorting to SSC Projects table
      • ✅ Add ability to add/edit description to SSC Projects listing page
    • ✅ Show Recommendations & Recommendation Updates on Project pages
    • Investigate Google Analytics for April 3 - large spike in visits/users
    • Investigate how to hide Project Status from certain projects which aren't actually projects - they're meant to act as parents for other projects (remaining from last meeting)
      • e.g. add a "Header" Project Status which hides the status

  20. iCAP Portal Admin Meeting - March 14, 2025

    Associated Project(s): 
    Sustainability iCAP Portal

    Agenda

    Discussion

    • [DEFER TO NEXT TIME] Google Analytics numbers drop
    • [DEFER TO NEXT TIME] Discussion of how to handle projects with large numbers of metrics

    TODOs

    • Investigate how to hide Project Status from certain projects which aren't actually projects - they're meant to act as parents for other projects
      • e.g. add a "Header" Project Status which hides the status
      • Remove Project Status from hierarchical listing on theme pages and full project hierarchy listing
    • Archived projects:
      • Add link to Archived Projects on Projects page
      • Hide archived projects from Theme page hierarchical listings
      • Leave archived projects from Project Family sidebar section, for now - may revisit that decision in the future

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