Meeting 2/2001 of the Administrative Heads Group was held at 8.30am on Thursday, 26 April 2001 in the Council Room, 1^st Floor, University Offices Building 3a, Clayton campus.

Ms A Crook, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Resources), chaired the meeting on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor D Robinson.

Apologies were received from Professor D A Robinson, Professor P LeP Darvall, Professor A W Lindsay, Mr M Watson, Ms P Herman, Mr R Burnet, Mr P Marshall, Mr S Davey, Mr P Siggins, Mr J Du Ve, Mr K Hobbs, Ms E Wilson and Mr R Palin.

Mr M Gray, Director, ITS Planning and Quality Assurance, was in attendance for the presentation under item 4.4.1. Ms M Mannays, Campus Manager, Clayton and Berwick, attended as an observer.

The minutes of meeting 1/2001 were confirmed.

The draft overview of the University-wide Information Technology (IT) Strategic Plan, dated March 2001, was circulated.

Mr Alan McMeekin, Executive Director, Information Technology Services Division, and Mr Mel Gray, Director of ITS Planning and Quality Assurance, provided an overview of the draft IT Strategic Plan, including detail about aims, planning considerations, consultation and the structure of the Plan. Members noted Mr McMeekin’s advice regarding the vision for IT to support a connected Monash (e-Monash). Within the context of the university’s strategic directions, ITS aimed to meet the requirements of an increasingly flexible environment and provide integrated electronic services across the broad range of the university’s IT assisted operations. Information about future initiatives was also noted.

Mr McMeekin advised that planning was underway for the appropriate establishment of IT decision structures, including programme and project steering committees that, together with faculty IT steering committees, would report via the IT Executive Steering Committee to the Vice-Chancellor’s Group. The Chair thanked Mr McMeekin and Mr Gray for their informative presentation and advised that the draft IT Strategic Plan would proceed to Council for its meeting on 7 May 2001.

Ms Alison Crook, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources), outlined the principles behind the new approach to financial management. Members noted that implementation issues in relation to strategic cost management, a major new financial planning approach that would support the university’s strategic plans, would be dealt with as they arose.

Mr John Levine, Divisional Director, Financial Resources Management, informed members that implementation and first round discussions were progressing as planned and that responses to date had been positive. Members noted that input from faculties and central support areas was required.

Brief discussion occurred about related issues and implications. With regard to the provision of Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Ms Crook highlighted the need to determine the cost of central support services and informed members that initial discussions with relevant areas about the preparation of SLAs would occur shortly.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Resources) provided advice about significant building developments on Monash campuses. Members also noted information about relevant matters from Mr Vladimir Prpich, Director, Monash Residential Services, Professor Brian Mackenzie, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Monash Gippsland and Mr Anthony Pollock, Executive Director, International. Members noted the following advice:

The next scheduled meeting of the Administrative Heads Group will be held at 8.30am on Thursday, 28 June 2001 in the Council Room, Administration Building 3A, Clayton.