Minutes07Mar28

Meeting of the Communications Subcommittee March 28th 2007**
 * EDC

Minutes

3-4 p.m. EDT by teleconference Chair: Trevor Holmes, EDC Vice-Chair (Communications)

Present: Trevor Holmes (UG and Chair), Jennifer Jasper (UBC), Eric Kristensen (Ottawa), Jeanette McDonald (WLU), Gillian Siddall (Lakehead).

Agenda

1. Adoption of the Agenda: Agenda was adopted with no changes… 2. Terms of Reference from Executive: it would appear that we have FIVE tasks to complete or begin by June meeting, at which time you are all off the hook unless you want to keep going under new leadership. J a) Designing and implementing the EDC webspace so that it is a truly "resourceful place" for the membership including: a) i. Up to date and easily accessed information about the Caucus and its officers. ii. Key procedural documents such as the bylaws so that the membership has clear access to this information Q: should minutes be private or public? iii. A place for the conference website to connect in to in a consistent manner. What does this mean? Permanent document home for results of an event? iv. A permanent home for the resources Jennifer is generating. PRIVATE or PUBLIC? Incentive for membership renewal? v. Helping new members who want to sign up (and motivating them to do so) vi. Reinforcing a sense of collegial community and a philosophy of sharing of resources within that community. b) Thinking about how the EDC website connects into the website of the STLHE in general. How should the two connect and how do they help each others goals? c) Making recommendations to Executive regarding policy as to which aspects of the site might need to be private and which could be for general access? Determining ways that security and privacy are protected whilst still allowing easy (no fuss) access for our Caucus members. In this regard, we ask that you please design for the average user. Access is of greater importance to our general members that being on the cutting edge of technology. In particular, we hope you would rationalize the best aspects of the ED profiler with the other parts of the website so that everyone who needs to can use it easily. d. Establishing a process, in consultation with Sylvia, by which new material can be added to the site easily and in a timely fashion. CONTROL over space – top level or second level e. Documenting your deliberations and actions so as to facilitate the transition for whoever is elected to serve as the new VC Communications.

3. Current sources of Information and Background

http://www.mcmaster.ca/stlhe/affiliations/edc.html Our space on STLHE's website (English version). All official things ought to be there like by-laws and pd plan etc. but they are not.

http://www.mcmaster.ca/stlhe/groupes.affilies/divers.html French version -- but it points back to the English. Everything French seems to have been lost when switchover to McMaster took place?

http://www.uoguelph.ca/ltci/edop or http://www.tss.uoguelph.ca/edop Our "Educational Development Office Profiler" from which our behind-closed-doors webCT community site is accessible (must be changed by end of April after which time 4.0 can't be used again at Guelph -- we upgraded last year to 6 and we're not sure we can automatically port over from Profiler but will try if you think it is the right site to work with).

http://www.tss.uoguelph.ca/edc Our recent Conference website on which are now housed some important biz docs like the Grants docs and PD docs. This is something I can change instantly, unlike McMaster's site. Thanks to Sylvia though we do have this site flagged in the STLHE pages under EDC as EDC Conference

https://lists.carleton.ca/read/ Our listserv archives -- Patrick Lyons told me how to get to this -- it isn't clear from anywhere on the Carleton site. Security is low in that you only need your email address to sign in (I think). WHERE SHOULD THIS BE HOSTED?

http://edcaucus.wikispaces.com/ I set this up recently to test out the feasibility of making a wiki our primary place to go. The different levels of security are a small issue because on some sites one needs to pay a monthly or annual fee to get the level of privacy we need for SOME of our work. Let me know if you think we can do some of our Subcommittee work on this site or some other better wiki site, and if we should think about migrating to a neutral but relatively non-commercial site for the main EDC communications work!

http://edcaucus.wordpress.com This one's easy to manage but has a limit of 35 free people as members and not a whole heckuvalot of space for documents (best for projects and I suppose could have public sections)

http://www.meetingwizard.com/ The site Jennifer recommended for meeting invites.

The old site we used for Caucus exec biz before there was a caucus and only a working group was http://www.communityzero.com

But it was rejected ultimately as too commercial and too difficult for regular users to use.

Please keep in mind that a survey was undertaken in 2006. We might try another survey but it isn't necessarily the thing to do.

Jennifer asks: DO WE HAVE A BUDGET – ACTION: Trevor to find out if subcom / comm. portfolio generally might have a budget.

Jeanette suggests common domain name can point to different things

4. Project timeline, future meetings, possible division of labour Getting control of website, recommend future synergies, one-stop shop, Wet Paint suggestion – Jennifer…Action: Trevor to liaise with Sylvia on best options for controlling our area of website from top or second-from-top level. All of us to review resources with an eye to redundancies/private-public divide/ best arrangements of info. Trevor to determine a sharing platform that is easy but also private and free. Options: wetpaint, WebCT, wikispaces, wordpress.

Any other business NONE; Meeting adjourned 4 pm EDT