[Sagamore Online] Near Term Plans

[Dave Allen Barker Jr]

Kim Speece (PTA co-president) and I got a chance to talk on Friday about 
online and general communication efforts in service of the Sagamore 
Hills ES community.  So, I'll describe my ideas, and I hope to hear 
feedback, or ideas of your own, from y'all.  Participating in this 
discussion so far are: myself, Kim, Monica, Heather, Vera, John, 
Jonathan, and Sally—and anyone is welcome to join 
<http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo/sagamore.online> or follow along 
<http://list.9.0ne.org/archive/sagamore.online/>.

Short version of what I'd like to do:

  * Buy the domain name "sagamoreparents.org" ($10/y) through the PTA's
    existing Dreamhost account
  * Establish email discussion lists @groups.sagamoreparents.org for
    things like general Sagamore and per-grade discussion amongst parents
  * Promote the mailing through the PTA (newsletter)
  * New website (first at dev.sagamoreparents.org) where we work on a
    new reference website for all Sagamore parent static information needs

*Should I/we do it?*

And now… a lot of words.


    Archived Mailing Lists

Short version: synergies of information distribution, parent 
involvement, volunteer knowledge transfer, and school promotion, can be 
ours by simply *routing all email exchange through archived mailing 
**(discussion) **lists*.


      Scenarios

  * A parent wonders about the state of the pond beside the school

    /Without/ archived mailing lists
        The parent chats with their nearest neighbor or emails the PTA. 
        Information sources are limited and the answer finds a limited
        audience and is lost to the future.

    /With/ archived mailing list
        A message to the school-wide, general-interest mailing list
        allows the PTA to respond, as well as any other random parent
        who can add some information.  Other parents on the list learn
        something they would not have otherwise, and the discussion can
        be pointed to (in the archive) when the question inevitably
        comes up again.

  * Organizers put on Science Night

    /Without/ archived mailing lists
        A handful of organizers begin work via email.  They solicit
        volunteers through the weekly PTA newsletter.  Volunteers are
        addressed individually by the organizers, often with repetition
        of information.  Many ideas are passed around, and the best are
        utilized for that year's event.  The experience of the effort
        are lost to personal email boxes.

    /With/ archived mailing lists
        A handful of organizers begin work via a mailing list.  They
        solicit volunteers through the weekly PTA newsletter, and those
        with extra interest can get up to speed with the organizers'
        work by reviewing the mailing list archive.  Volunteers are
        addressed on the mailing list as well, where answers to
        individual volunteer questions can benefit others.  More
        enthusiasm and resources come to the project as volunteers get
        each other excited.  When next year rolls around, the
        experiences of the prior year can be reviewed through the
        mailing list archive.

  * PTA records a meeting's minutes

    /Without/ archived mailing lists
        A single meeting minutes document is generated, and nothing more
        comes of it.

    /With/ archived mailing lists
        A single meeting minutes document is generated and posted to the
        mailing list.  Parents on the list can stay informed, and the
        list can host related discussion.  The PTA can participate as
        much or little as they'd like in resulting discussion—even just
        having access to other parent sentiment is useful to the PTA.


      Implementation

A couple mailing list systems come to my mind, of course there are 
others that could be considered too.

One option is Mailman <https://gnu.org/software/mailman/>, software that 
can run on any hosting service (like Dreamhost we have now 
<http://www.9.0ne.org/mw/index.php?title=Sagamore_Hills_PTA_Dreamhost_account&oldid=548>)<https://gnu.org/software/mailman/>.  
It allows users and admins to manage subscriptions through both email 
and the web, and generates web accessible archives.  It's what powers 
this list <http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo/sagamore.online> and 
others <http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo>.

Another option is Google Groups <https://groups.google.com/>, which, in 
addition to what Mailman does, allows posting to the list through the 
web (not just email).  Lists would be under Google's domain 
(@googlegroups.com) for free.  Our own domain could be used with Google 
Groups by using Google Apps <http://apps.google.com/>, which is free for 
non-profits 
<http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=29190&ctx=topic&answer=2858465> 
(is the PTA a non-profit?) and education 
<http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2856827&topic=29190&ctx=topic> 
(would have to be associated with the school), or $50 per year (per user 
<http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html>, but I 
think we'd need only one user to create groups (mailing lists)).

I think I'm leaning towards Mailman, for the control and simplicity 
(once setup (which I can do)), but there's an appeal to Google doing the 
hosting, and we may decide to lean on other of their service offerings 
anyway.  We can always switch either way, without much pain, if setup right.


    Website for Parents

*Mostly, we just need to put time in curating the content of the site.*  
But I'd like to talk a bit about platform.

Currently we (sagamorepta.org <http:///sagamorepta.org/>) uses Wordpress 
<https://wordpress.org/> with a customized theme 
<http://themezee.com/zeesynergie/>.  To refresh the look, I think we 
should use Wordpress's current default theme (twenty-twelve 
<http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/twentytwelve>) (well tested, 
supported, and featureful) and create a child theme 
<http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes> with some of John's recent "Be 
more." design (ala Sagamore's district hosted site).  I've made a place 
where we can document other ideas 
<http://www.9.0ne.org/w/Sagamore_Hills_PTA_website>.

I'm also enamored by the idea of the site being a wiki so anyone can 
"scratch their itch" to the benefit of others. I've been experimenting. 
<http://www.9.0ne.org/w/Main_Page>

Google Sites <http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html> 
might be neat.  Similar to Google Groups mentioned earlier in how it can 
optionally (via Google Apps) be under our own domain name.


    Going Google

Google got my attention last year when I was helping Oak Grove Young 
Children's School <http://www.ogycs.org/> establish their own web 
presence (prior they were hanging off Oak Grove United Methodist Church 
<http://ogumc.org/ycs/>).  I took notes while I tested a Google Apps 
account for them 
<http://internal.ogycs.org/projects/website-2011/google-apps-test-2012-01>, 
playing with Groups, website (Sites), Calendar(ing), document sharing 
(now Drive), and more.  It was way more solution than they needed, but 
that might not be the case for us.

I'm conflicted on "going Google".  I'm excited to roll with a major 
innovator, and leveraging new ways of working.  I'm weary of relying on 
a single vendor, and we still have untapped potential in the tools we 
use now.  Plus, we can always selectively test out individual Google 
product offerings (I can imagine Google Drive 
<https://www.google.com/intl/en_US/drive/start/index.html> being useful).


    Domain Name

It's been suggested we should have a new domain name, leaving 
"sagamorehillspta.org" to speak more directly to the PTA.

As I think about shaking things up a bit, and getting parents more 
involved and communicating, I wonder if doing that somewhat distanced 
from the school and the PTA is indeed the right answer.  I would hate to 
see discussion stifled on mailing lists because the PTA didn't feel 
comfortable hosting particular discussion through their domain.

I was thinking "sagamorehillses.org" at first, but now think 
"sagamoreparents.org" is better.  That's really the audience I'd like to 
reach.


    Conclusion

There's more I could blab about, but I'll stop for now.  Thoughts?  Thanks.

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