“We came up with our wish list a couple of weeks ago. We sent out a tentative list to the entire group last week, which you then ranked by importance. Later this week, we have a meeting scheduled with Imital and the system administrators who’ll write the programming. As you know, we’re not really programmers, we’re just the end users who deal with the not so fun quirks of the system. Imital and the system admin group will tell us if this stuff can even be done, then how many programming hours, etc. Imital will then have to take our requests to the Psycept program administrators as the changes will affect Psycept users on all the conservatorships, not just us. We’ll have more info after Thursday’s meeting with Imital.”
“Thanks, Libby. If you’re not aware, most PCSS employees, which includes the IT department and programmers, are located here in Albuquerque. So, if Imital gets approval for the changes, she’ll also be the one to implement them and will work closely with system admin to prioritize and code everything. One of the reasons we’re not as far with this initiative as our other groups is to allow Imital time to work on establishing her support groups and to put together a PCSS database programming team. Next up, ethics. What do you have for us, Tiko?”
Tiko, aka Brother Bone, is the eldest MacGillivray sibling but still younger than me. They’re all tall, blond-haired and blue-eyed, like Greek gods or something, it’s ridiculous. The Sisters Wyrd and Brother Bone are my oldest friends in PsyTown, we arrived together in a small group over fifteen years ago. We were in the first Psycept group to arrive in SWACon, so we bore the brunt of the period of adjustment. That time forged a bond between us, though I have closer friends in PsyTown, the MacGillivrays will always be important to me.
“If anyone wants to debate ethics and philosophy, please join our group. Or, don’t, since some of us want to get things done,” Tiko says accompanied by a few chuckles from his group of almost twenty-five. “Really, we have fun. Anyway, like Gray said, we sent out the survey last week and it will close in ten days. The survey link is included in the material being presented to the new police Psycept residents next Saturday, but I’m sure it will take a few days for them to respond. We all still remember what it was like to arrive here in a daze. We’ll have an update after we review the results. Next step is to write a draft of our Code of Ethics, then present it at a PAPPA meeting for feedback. After we incorporate that, it will work its way up to the Psycept Council for general feedback. The code is intended for all Psycepts and I think the plan is then to go to the other Psycept communities but that’s for the Council to deal with. All of that’s in the future, for now, we’re just waiting.”
“Thank you, Tiko. We’ve all heard our entire groups’ progress, so good job, everyone. Vic handles meetings for training, Libby is over databases, and Tiko is point person for ethics. They’ve all sent out the invites and materials they’ll cover in the subgroup meetings. The next meeting of our entire group will be in two weeks, here at the library, in the Turquoise meeting room downstairs at one o’clock. I’ll send out information for that in the upcoming week. See everyone then.”
With that, we disperse. The MacGillivrays and I stack up the chairs from our area. Echo has been wonderful during the entire meeting, he stayed beside Tiko when I was in the middle of the room, then with me during our smaller get together. But now, it’s time for him to stretch his legs and get a little outside air, which occurs as we walk to our next destination. The final meeting for today is at the PsyTown Civic Center down the street. I pull the loop handle of Echo’s leash up to the crook of my arm and begin to walk my bike with the pet trailer attached down the street. Echo is doing very well with staying close beside me and I don’t get tangled in the leash, which I appreciate. We’ll have fifteen minutes for him to dash around and expel some energy before I need to be in the PsyCouncil meeting room.
When we arrive, I grab a small case strapped to the carrier on my bike, call Echo to the Center’s dog area, then let him loose. My case is filled with my tablet and detachable keyboard, a wireless stylus pen, a folder with a few documents printed out, and a couple of writing pens. My tablet accompanies me to the PAPPA and PsyCouncil meetings even though it’s only a few inches smaller than my laptop. Since my folders and documents are stored on a file sharing site and both the tablet and laptop have the same programs and ability to flip the keyboard to lay the screen flat for note taking, price is the determining factor. I prefer to use the tablet at these meetings as it’s just as quick and easy to use as my laptop, but it’s less expensive in case anything happens in transit. In fact, my laptop normally stays home as I have a desktop computer at work.
As for the paper, as much as I use the tablet to take notes and read electronic documents, I still like to have some printed documents for me to jot on. Quirk of being on the older end of millennial, I
