Brentwood’s Conservation Commission discussed Jan. 14 a plan to centralize commission documents using a town-managed admin email and Microsoft SharePoint/OneDrive to improve record retention and access.

Speaker 9 walked through a demonstration of a proposed admin account (referred to during the meeting as the ‘conservation commission admin’ email) and showed how commissioners could upload monitoring reports, maps and meeting materials into a shared OneDrive/SharePoint repository. He said the admin account would allow multiple editors and provide a centralized location instead of storing materials on personal laptops.

"We can get on to SharePoint," Speaker 9 said during the demonstration, describing creating folders for monitoring reports and the ability for up to five users to edit files simultaneously. Commissioners expressed support for having town-managed email addresses for volunteers who regularly handle commission business to avoid commingling town records with personal accounts.

Members also raised questions about how nonpublic materials should be handled. Speaker 1 asked whether nonpublic packets can be uploaded in advance to a shared drive; Speaker 9 and others said they would follow up with Julie (town staff) and the commission’s IT contractor to confirm best practices and access controls. The group agreed Speaker 9 would follow up on cost, access permissions and how frequently the cloud would sync with local servers.

A related administrative item: commissioners noted a prior effort to digitize baseline easement files about 15 years ago. Speaker 9 said he would check with Becky for a thumb drive of scanned records and work to migrate what exists into the central repository so records are preserved and easier to find.

What happens next: Speaker 9 will follow up with town IT (and Julie) about cost and policy for town email addresses and nonpublic record handling, locate the thumb drive of prior scans, and circulate a how-to guide for logging in and uploading materials.