EADISC Working Group Meeting
7^th March 2004 Amsterdam, 9:00 – 17:00
Participants

Minutes from last meeting

o Review of assigned tasks from Leipzig meeting - See Appendix 1

IADISC

o EADISC requires active involvement of its members with each participant seeking to progress and promote the ZIMS initiative with all potential users holders with whom they come into contact. All should act as ambassadors and be ready to volunteer to help whenever possible, particularly in the coming months during the data standard and JAD sessions. Volunteers from EADISC will be needed to fill positions to be defined and finalized at the upcoming IADISC meeting.

o Update on role and near future activities – PowerPoint presentation from the chairs:

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

Slide 4

Slide 5

Of major significance over the next phase of the ZIMS project is the development of data standards. The following diagram indicates the route which has been devised by the ZIMS core team to ensure that this is achieved efficiently and with all necessary parties involved.

An explanation for the chart follows on the page after, please review these two together.

The next chart shows how the regional ADISC’s (process from AZA) might operate to contribute towards the data standards initiative. (Aimed at standardising the way in which we record data to facilitate sharing within our community).

It was proposed by the co-chairs that we adopt a simplified version of this for EADISC and this was agreed by those present. Action FC/DB

· Recruitment of SME’s, there will be much work to carry out over the coming months and the user community will need to provide much detailed information for the software developers. Work on expanding and extending the SME list from the European region is necessary to facilitate this.

· Action: All to review current list and feed back to FC /DB providing details of any additional potential SME’s.

· Selection of SME’s for Vet Workshop in April will be based upon the SME list with two likely key persons being the main targets for this session. Time limitations make it difficult to ensure that the correct SME’s are able to attend meetings due to short notice. This has impacted the vet workshop which is now to take place on April 16/17 & 18 in San Diego.

· Action: FC/DB to ensure that EAZA vet SME’s are contacted and understand the importance of this meeting. (Sandra Silinski, Salzburg, participated as one of only two non-north American participants).

Data Standards Development

o Tech Working Group workshop held mid February. Work flows produced along with functional requirements and use cases

o Template for data standards presently out for review by IADISC

o Complete data standards that could influence design - Ongoing

Workshops

o ~ 20 Joint Application Design workshops and Data Standards workshops planned for 2004/ 2005

o First sessions in Lisbon late March and San Diego early April

o April is the deadline for setting workshops dates and locations for the next year.

ZIMS Phase I (As at time of meeting, should be seen as flexible until final software developer selection completed. Current timeline is estimated that first testing could be within 18 months to 2 years, depending on final vendor selection and negotiations)

o Database Design, July 2004

o Detail Development Plan, June 2004

o User Acceptance Test Plan, August 2004

o Data Migration Plan, September 2004 (Data Quality Campaign has created 37.000 new links in ISIS – Transaction Link Rate over 70% for the first time)

o RFP for ZIMS Deployment (subject to vendor negotiations in February-April), November 2004

o RFP for ZIMS hosting (subject to vendor negotiations in February-April), November 2004

Communication and Staff

o Positions

§ New positions both ISIS staff and volunteers for ZIMS Core Team, IADISC and ADISC are being filled

o Communication

§ ZIMS

· Weekly Phone Conferences (VoIP services for Off-shore team members/Web Conferences/ISIS Intranet/ZIMS Communication Manager

§ IADISC

· Listserve/Phone Conferences

§ EAZA

· EADISC Listserve/Phone meetings/ZIMS regional Communications Facilitator/EARKG Listserve

Fundraising

o 113 Zoos and Aquaria have pledged 4.1 mio. US$ - i.e goal for "family campaign" have been reached but continues

o Corporate, Foundation and Government campaign started

Software developer selection Conference, Washington DC, National Zoo 8-10 December 2003

o Finalists selected by ZIMS Evaluation Committee

o FC & DB participated as representatives of EAZA region

Final Software developer Selection

o Contract negotiations ongoing – negotiation team selected by ISIS ZIMS PSG

o Objective: identify vendor best suited for efficient, cost-effective, long-term ability to provide services proposed for ZIMS

o Final Software developer selection and formalized contract between ISIS and Software Development Partner, Arpil-May 2004

§ Last info from vendors this weekend, then final choice to PSG for approval.

o Drafting Statement of Work (SoW)

o SoW will be verified by IADISC by mid March (distributed during next week)

o Negotiations and Statement of Work

§ Action Review Statement of Work Paper to be reviewed by FC as part of IADISC activities (this has been completed soon after the meeting).

 

The current workshop schedule is given in the table below, though this is draft only with much to be confirmed once the software developer is appointed.

o +

Below is a draft process proposed from IADISC for the selection of workshop participants, though it is recognized that each ADISC will need to work in an appropriate way for its region.

§

o Several EAZA members have pledged funds for the development of ZIMS through the activities of the fund raising committee. The question was raised whether institutions which have generously pledged could expect reduced subscriptions in the future. This issue will be taken up with ISIS by Eric Ruivo and Ross Snipp.

o

o Intense focus of effort is needed during the period leading up to data conversion into the new system

ISIS Update: EAZA Data Quality Campaign

Transaction Link Rate

ISIS Average is currently at 70%. When campaign started ISIS average was at 48%. This is an overall increase of 22% since 2002.

Europe – Current average is 59% (05 March 2004). Europe showed a 10% increase during 2003 (47.72& - 57.73%).

8 European collections are in the top 5% (n=34) of all ISIS members.

18 European collections are in the top 5% (n=34) of most improved ISIS members 2003.

2. Parental Validation Report

ISIS average is currently 95%. This has remained fairly steady since release in 2002.

Europe – Current average is 96% (05 March 2004)

13 European collections are in top 5% (n=34) of all ISIS members

13 European Collections are in top 5% (n=34) of most improved 2003

New for 2003 – Studbook/Institution Reconciliation Rate

ISIS Average is currently 67%. European average is 69%

13 European collections are in top 5% of all ISIS members

 

Institution Mnemonic	SB %
BRNO	89.47
STOCKHOLM	84.57
ASSON	78.33
WOBURNLTD	73.28
NIKOLAEV	71.43
OSTRAVA	68.71
KATOWICE	64.74
BERLIN TP	63.58
PLZEN	62.16
SCHWERIN	61.24
ROSTOCK	58.56
KRAKOW	57.36
GDANSK	55.98

There will be about 1050 studbooks in this years' library, including 201 from EAZA (plus 89 intl studbooks held by people in Europe).

On average, EAZA studbooks are current to May 2002.

Please remind people that as they update their studbook data, to SEND ISIS A BACKUP, as often as they like.

1. Institution name validation tool

The next update to CMS ISIS will include an institution name validation tool, to help with the cleanup of unconfirmed institutions, unknown mnemonics and synonyms.

The validation tool is divided into three parts, each of which lists institution mnemonics within your data that require verification or updating.

i) Unconfirmed mnemonics

ii) Synonyms

iii) Unknown mnemonics

So far 18 institutions have been contacted re: TLR (since Jan 2004).

4 have replied (22% response rate). Initial institutions targeted have been those with TLR scores under 50%.

50% of those contacted have shown an increase in TLR (1-10%), 44.4% (n=8) have shown no increase and 5.5% (n=1) have shown a decrease.

o

EARKG update – Rob Belterman

§ Started July 2003. There are now 84 members on the listserve across Europe. We still need to encourage membership and to promote the group more effectively. To avoid duplicate of effort it was agreed to merge the efforts of the UK registrars group and EARKG (action OW & RB) and to fully integrate the activities of Ross Snipp into the EARKG (RS role changing to include European data quality campaign, including training, cleanup workshops). Ross asked if the group was restricted to EAZA members or ISIS members and there was consensus that it should be as inclusive as possible and thus be for all European ISIS members and all EAZA members. RS to use EARKG to disseminate information. BH suggested that bites of information are more effective than larger tomes. FC request RS to provide data on the link rates process outlining which areas have most impact on institutional link rates.

o OW – studbook data cleanups, paper to be distributed after EPMAG meeting tomorrow. Action OW

o Recognition of institutional and SB keeper progress?

§ See above re ISIS measures, ISIS will contact all ISIS members re their performance in 2003. Some misgivings in the room regarding this in terms of witch hunt scenario. Emphasize that the feedback must be positive, but may help to get some institutional support for the registrar / records keeper. General education of zoo directors is also important, no point giving them a figure and not explaining the significance. Linking to annual subscription and TLR attained may be an incentive.

o BH – Suggested a full session at upcoming EAZA meeting on ZIMS / ISIS / EADISC structured with 3 - 5 presentations, preferably lead by EADISC and with complementary input from Syed Hassan from ISIS. BH to put his thoughts out to the EADISC e-group.

EAZA representation in ISIS SAC and TAC

o KL has been proposed as an EAZA member of SAC. We have yet to identify a member for TAC.

Group Projects

o Update ZSL project – Paul Pearce Kelly gave a presentation updating the group on the ZSL group genetic management project. The PowerPoint presentation will be available on the EADISC yahoo web site and also on the EAZA web site. (Action DB / FC / EAZA office). Letter of support for this initiative was received from the EAZA office.

o The timescale is about 3 months work, so latter half of this year will see this first element complete. Then about 1 year will be needed to bring in the other nuances (extending the practicalities to other taxa).

o TRACKS software, Update from Baltimore, USA

Tracks Group Implementation Overview

Purpose

• Tracking inventory data for day-to-day management and reporting.

• Tracking history of exposure and medical data for future diagnosis and prevention.

• Tracking demographic and genetic data for research analysis.

Assumptions

• All specimens in a group have the same taxonomy and exist in the same enclosure.

• Within a group, specimens can be at various life stages. (This may or may not be tracked.)

• Within a group, specimens can be of various sexes. (This may or may not be tracked.)

• Multiple groups may share the same Accession Number.1

• Although one Accession Number or group taxonomy may be distributed over several enclosures, data will be recorded that is

• specific to the portion of the group that is in one enclosure.

• Not all groups will be managed to the same level of detail. The software will not force the use of the greatest level of detail.

Level of Detail

Based on the group management levels taken from the ZSL 98 Population Group Management Workshop, we will support

levels 3 through 6. Level Three is: Individuals can be classified into age or stage groups and counted at least at the breeding

and non-breeding stages.

How do Groups work in the software?

Accession Numbers:

Any time a new group is created, by move or acquisition, it will be assigned a Accession Number by the user. In the case of a

split, there is also the option to maintain the Accession Number of the group from which these specimens were taken.

Searching for a group:

Searching will work as it does now. However if a group Accession Number is shared the same ID could appear several times

in the search results. To facilitate selection, the current enclosure for each group will be displayed.

Summary:

Of our three purpose statements, the one we have not completely met is the third: Tracking demographic and genetic data for research analysis. We are collecting data, but there have been no attempts yet to mine this data for analysis.

Nate Flesness provided the following statement on TRACKS:

There is a formal proposal from National Aquarium, Baltimore, offering full sharing of information and experience gained doing TRACKS

§

o There is a link with this and the ZSL work, Bob Lacey has been invoved with both elements. The two projects are complementary and we simply need to ensure good communication between the two projects to ensure no effort is duplicated. Discussion between Hans Keller and PPK should ensure this.

ISIS-ZIMS – Areas of responsibility & project positions

o Regional facilitators needed in key areas for the ZIMS project.

EAZA regional communications facilitator role – UR has accepted the role of EAZA communications facilitator.

Next meetings

o September 2004, Kolmarden during EAZA conference

o March 2005, Lisbon (to be confirmed)

AOB

BH mentions the need for presentations at sub-regional meetings, and sub-regional representation in EADISC– we are missing some sub-regions. Action All to seek new participants / members and spread the word at national meetings.

A new Power Point presentation will be available soon. BH suggests that someone from EADISC should attend the regional zoo association meetings. Also 1 page of information / update to send round the regions. BH suggests working through national associations, BH to provide contact details for regional associations. Action BH. ER suggests a campaign at the next EAZA conference, targeting countries which we are missing. Max needs a 1 page update for Saturday / Sunday . Done, this is logged on the EADISC list serve.

Appendix 1