[Sagamore Online] Near Term Plans
Dave Allen Barker Jr
dave at 1.0ne.org
Mon Mar 11 16:56:47 EDT 2013
Thanks for your vision, Jonathan. I share it! :)
I'd like to make clear to others that, at this point, more than
suggesting particular pieces of software or website configurations,
we're looking for confirmation of our effort to:
* Share discussion amongst more people (not just one-to-many
(Newsletter) or few-to-few)
* Capture more information for later reference
Maybe if we start with just a single question:
* Does the PTA see any issues in supporting a public, archived, email
discussion list, for use by school parents?
That the answer might be, "no", is the only reason I (and it seems you
(Jonathan)) threw out the idea that maybe these efforts should be
independent of the PTA. But we'd rather the PTA be a direct supporter
if it can, right?
Jonathan, you suggested forming a mini-committee. Is not that what we
are already (in the mailing list
<http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo/sagamore.online>)? Does Lara want
on board (added to the list)?
On 03/11/2013 11:38 AM, Jonathan Baldwin wrote:
> Hey Dave,
> I love the idea and the intent. It would be a tremendous resource for
> parents to have a site to go to not only to get valuable information,
> but also to contribute and send feedback. And, volunteers wouldn't
> have to recreate the wheel as much because there'd be that historical
> content within the site. I think so much of what we learn about the
> programs and events comes from just talking to other parents at the
> school. That's great, but I do feel like that communication method
> leaves out a decent percentage of parents. So, if we could digitize
> that word-of-mouth type of content and build an interactive site
> around it, I think it'd be great. The challenge is going to be
> promoting it and getting parents to adopt it as a go-to resource. We
> don't want to create all of this structure for a site that only a
> handful of parents will visit. So, I'm not sure what the next step
> would be. Do we build it, hoping people will come or do we build a
> case for it and present it to the school administration, PTA? I do not
> know how to navigate all of the different parties involved. Is it a
> foundation? I'm not sure what we call it.
> But, I'm in. Maybe we form a mini committee around it and just take
> some initial steps. You'd obviously be the technology expert - we
> could have other committee members that have specific roles.
>
> Thanks,
> Jonathan
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Dave Allen Barker Jr <dave at 1.0ne.org
> <mailto:dave at 1.0ne.org>> wrote:
>
> 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
> <http://sagamoreparents.org>" ($10/y) through the PTA's
> existing Dreamhost account
> * Establish email discussion lists @groups.sagamoreparents.org
> <http://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
> <http://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>).
> 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 <http://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 <http://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 <http://sagamorehillses.org>"
> at first, but now think "sagamoreparents.org
> <http://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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