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<p>Thanks for your vision, Jonathan. I share it! :)<br>
</p>
<p>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:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Share discussion amongst more people (not just one-to-many
(Newsletter) or few-to-few)</li>
<li>Capture more information for later reference</li>
</ul>
Maybe if we start with just a single question:<br>
<ul>
<li>Does the PTA see any issues in supporting a public, archived,
email discussion list, for use by school parents?</li>
</ul>
<p>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?<br>
</p>
<p>Jonathan, you suggested forming a mini-committee. Is not that
what we are already (<a
href="http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo/sagamore.online">in
the mailing list</a>)? Does Lara want on board (added to the
list)?<br>
</p>
<br>
On 03/11/2013 11:38 AM, Jonathan Baldwin wrote:
<blockquote
cite="mid:CACn54d-fS0v2LB90WZnLWUDmuJRkN0iPBmWh0fOrYTDApMkAjA@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<meta http-equiv="Context-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div>Hey Dave,
<div>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as much because there'd be that historical content within the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. </div>
<div>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. </div>
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>Thanks,</div>
<div>Jonathan</div>
</div>
<div><br>
<br>
<div>On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Dave Allen Barker Jr <span><<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="mailto:dave@1.0ne.org">dave@1.0ne.org</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote>
<div>
<p>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
<a moz-do-not-send="true" title="sagamore.online Info
Page"
href="http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo/sagamore.online">join</a>
or <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="The sagamore.online
Archives"
href="http://list.9.0ne.org/archive/sagamore.online/">follow
along</a>.<br>
</p>
<p>Short version of what I'd like to do:<br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Buy the domain name "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sagamoreparents.org">sagamoreparents.org</a>"
($10/y) through the PTA's existing Dreamhost account<br>
</li>
<li>Establish email discussion lists @<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://groups.sagamoreparents.org">groups.sagamoreparents.org</a>
for things like general Sagamore and per-grade
discussion amongst parents </li>
<li>Promote the mailing through the PTA (newsletter)</li>
<li>New website (first at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://dev.sagamoreparents.org">dev.sagamoreparents.org</a>)
where we work on a new reference website for all
Sagamore parent static information needs</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Should I/we do it?</strong><br>
</p>
<p>And now… a lot of words.<br>
</p>
<h2>Archived Mailing Lists<br>
</h2>
<p>Short version: synergies of information distribution,
parent involvement, volunteer knowledge transfer, and
school promotion, can be ours by simply <strong>routing
all email exchange through archived mailing </strong><strong>(discussion)
</strong><strong>lists</strong>.<br>
</p>
<h3>Scenarios</h3>
<ul>
<li>A parent wonders about the state of the pond beside
the school<br>
</li>
<dl>
<dt><em>Without</em> archived mailing lists</dt>
<dd>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.</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><em>With</em> archived mailing list</dt>
<dd>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.</dd>
</dl>
<li>Organizers put on Science Night</li>
<dl>
<dt><em>Without</em> archived mailing lists</dt>
<dd>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.</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><em>With</em> archived mailing lists</dt>
<dd>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.</dd>
</dl>
<li>PTA records a meeting's minutes<br>
</li>
<dl>
<dt><em>Without</em> archived mailing lists</dt>
<dd>A single meeting minutes document is generated,
and nothing more comes of it.<br>
</dd>
</dl>
<dl>
<dt><em>With</em> archived mailing lists</dt>
<dd>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.</dd>
</dl>
</ul>
<h3>Implementation</h3>
<p>A couple mailing list systems come to my mind, of
course there are others that could be considered too.<br>
</p>
<p>One option is <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager"
href="https://gnu.org/software/mailman/">Mailman</a>,
software that can run on any hosting service (like <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Sagamore Hills PTA
Dreamhost account - Parents"
href="http://www.9.0ne.org/mw/index.php?title=Sagamore_Hills_PTA_Dreamhost_account&oldid=548">Dreamhost
we have now</a>). It allows users and admins to
manage subscriptions through both email and the web, and
generates web accessible archives. It's what powers <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="sagamore.online Info
Page"
href="http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo/sagamore.online">this
list</a> and <a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="list.9.0ne.org Mailing Lists"
href="http://list.9.0ne.org/list/listinfo">others</a>.<br>
</p>
<p>Another option is <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://groups.google.com/">Google Groups</a>,
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 (@<a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://googlegroups.com">googlegroups.com</a>)
for free. Our own domain could be used with Google
Groups by using <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://apps.google.com/">Google Apps</a>, which
is <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="Google Apps for
Nonprofits - Google Apps Help"
href="http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=29190&ctx=topic&answer=2858465">free
for non-profits</a> (is the PTA a non-profit?) and <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Google Apps for
Education - Google Apps Help"
href="http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2856827&topic=29190&ctx=topic">education</a>
(would have to be associated with the school), or <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Pricing – Google Apps
for Business | United States"
href="http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html">$50
per year (per user</a>, but I think we'd need only one
user to create groups (mailing lists)).<br>
</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<h2>Website for Parents</h2>
<p><strong>Mostly, we just need to put time in curating
the content of the site.</strong> But I'd like to
talk a bit about platform.<br>
</p>
<p>Currently we (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http:///sagamorepta.org/">sagamorepta.org</a>)
uses <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="WordPress › Blog
Tool, Publishing Platform, and CMS"
href="https://wordpress.org/">Wordpress</a> with a
customized <a moz-do-not-send="true" title="zeeSynergie
| ThemeZee.com"
href="http://themezee.com/zeesynergie/">theme</a>. To
refresh the look, I think we should use Wordpress's
current default theme (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
title="WordPress › Twenty Twelve « Free WordPress
Themes"
href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/twentytwelve">twenty-twelve</a>)
(well tested, supported, and featureful) and create a <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Child Themes « WordPress
Codex" href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Child_Themes">child
theme</a> with some of John's recent "Be more." design
(ala Sagamore's district hosted site). I've made <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Sagamore Hills PTA
website - Parents"
href="http://www.9.0ne.org/w/Sagamore_Hills_PTA_website">a
place where we can document other ideas</a>.<br>
</p>
<p>I'm also enamored by the idea of the site being a wiki
so anyone can "scratch their itch" to the benefit of
others. <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.9.0ne.org/w/Main_Page">I've been
experimenting.</a><br>
</p>
<p><a moz-do-not-send="true" title="Learn more about
Google Sites"
href="http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html">Google
Sites</a> might be neat. Similar to Google Groups
mentioned earlier in how it can optionally (via Google
Apps) be under our own domain name.<br>
</p>
<h2>Going Google</h2>
<p>Google got my attention last year when I was helping <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.ogycs.org/">Oak
Grove Young Children's School</a> establish their own
web presence (prior <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://ogumc.org/ycs/">they were hanging off Oak
Grove United Methodist Church</a>). I took <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="Google Apps Test 2012-01
- Internal OGYCS"
href="http://internal.ogycs.org/projects/website-2011/google-apps-test-2012-01">notes
while I tested a Google Apps account for them</a>,
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.<br>
</p>
<p>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 <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.google.com/intl/en_US/drive/start/index.html">Google
Drive</a> being useful).<br>
</p>
<h2>Domain Name</h2>
<p>It's been suggested we should have a new domain name,
leaving "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sagamorehillspta.org">sagamorehillspta.org</a>"
to speak more directly to the PTA.<br>
</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>I was thinking "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sagamorehillses.org">sagamorehillses.org</a>"
at first, but now think "<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sagamoreparents.org">sagamoreparents.org</a>"
is better. That's really the audience I'd like to
reach.<br>
</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>There's more I could blab about, but I'll stop for
now. Thoughts? Thanks.<br>
</p>
</div>
<br>
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</blockquote>
</div>
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</blockquote>
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