Communications Committee

Communications Committee Meeting Notes
Tuesday, Sept 19   10:45 AM (Scott’s Office)
Attendees, Scott Cole, David Woolley, Endel Kallas, Debra Pelinski,:
Action Items:
1.      Deb to contact Barb Clarity about doing Snippets assembly this year. Scott to contact Theresa about recruiting a Sr. class parent.
2.      Endel to draft Communications Committee Data Sheet/Workplan
3.      Endel to set up Comm Comm and other committee groups in SIPS.
4.      David/Endel to establish Comm Comm blog ( Also blogs for Silent Auction and CC)
5.      Endel to load State Standars on SIPS as local standards by 09/29  (viability of this approach was confirmed with cmERDC )
6.      Endel to track on report of  loading of syllabi and assignments for a progress report at  9/29 in-service
7.      Endel to compile Parent Volunteer submissions and propose a means for communications (SIPS/Blog etc).
8.      Endel to set up access to School Directory Query on SIPS for class sponsors and provide instructions so that they can obtain up to date parent contact information on demand.
9.      Deb to contact Connie (and Pam?) to start development of questions related to the assessment of student learning characteristics abd styles  (see data driven decision making below)
10.   Endel to draft initial cut of phone tree and distribute to clas sponsors
11.  Endel to draft meeting notes, distribute them and post final draft on the communications committee group home page and/or blog. 
Next scheduled meeting: Thursday Sept 28 2:30  PM in  Scott’s Office
Notes
Committee Activities Communication/Tracking
Scott has initiated a master accountability/tracking tool (using Excel). to monitor committee initiatives/work in progress. All committees are to complete initial Committee Data Sheets for compilation into master spreadsheet. Endel to address Communications Committee Data Sheet. Communication of committee information is yet to be determined. Initial communication of progress tracking will be “manual”.  David suggested posting it on the website. Scott requested that initial access and distribution be limited. until things are running smoothly.. Initial audience is the leadership circle which includes all committee conveners, the faculty chairs, the board chairs, and the CC chairs. David suggested “security by obscurity” i.e. establishing a web page but not publicizing the URL.  Endel suggests SIPS as a more secure option but access is limited to to faculty/staff user accounts. SIPS is also a logical place to organized committee minutes, calendars etc.
Note: Subsequent to this meeting it was agreed to set up committee groups on SIPS as well as investigate a committee blog starting with the Comm Comm.
 .
Snippets
A parent volunteer is still needed to assemble materials by Fridays for Scott to edit and produce by following Monday. Mary Newby-Elder declined this role  but will serve as a Senior Class rep. . Deb will contact Barbara Clarity to see if she will possibly reconsider helping out in this role. Scott is planning to ask Theresa to try and  recruit a senior parent
State Standards on SIPS
Deb reconfirmed her interest in advancing the tracking of state standards possibly using the SIPS facility for this. Given that the State Standard import is not working properly and only the grade 9-12 standards are needed Endel agreed to load the 9-12 standards as local standards.
Note: this was confirmed as a viable approach with cmERDC, our SIPS support people. The use tracking of graduation requirements was also discussed as a needed initiative and should be pursued as well.  Implementation of standards/requirements tracking is target for in-service on the 29th.
Comm Comm Schedule
Alternating weekly committee meetings between content and infrastructure was discussed. We agreed to proceed on this basis with a joint meeting in the afternoon on the last Thursday of the month.
Data Driven Decision Making
Deb spoke on the value of gathering data on the level curriculum and instruction from students and parents. The objective is to help evaluate what aspects of the curriculum are working and to enhance instructional strategies by obtaining input from the students. Topics to explore include:

• Which  methods and techniques etc do and do not works for different types of students and different leaning styles?
• What are student attention spans?
• How much chaos in the room courses disruption and loss of focus?
• How many students need visual information? How many visual learners? What are the other learning styles? (e.g. Auditory, visual, kinesthetic)
• How often do students need a stretch or break of some sort?

This information would be used to direct more conversation and faculty work around teaching and instruction. It would be nice to have a profile of our student body and match different needs with different teaching approaches. It would be used to start (plant the seeds) for  the process of self awareness and assessment.
We have several tools available to deliver questions and surveys once the content is determined. Synergies with initiatives involving Connie Grestcsh and Pam Lien were also noted. Endel is planning to work with Connie and providing students with simple training on the use of SIPS course management features.
Volunteers List/.Want Ads etc. - Understanding and matching new Tools to content communications needs
Now that we are hosted on Bluehost, we need to better understand a greatly expanded technological tool set and match potential solutions     to our inventory content communications needs. Tools for developing and posting Phone trees, maillists, volunteer listing, wand ads, and organizing and communicating among “communities of interest” such as the Silent Auction organizers are needed immediately. David pointed out the list of tools we can ultimately consider is not limited to the listing on the BlueHost web site and could include any free, open-source software. In addition to hosting our our Web Site (moved as is) , we are currently set up with WordPress (a tools for quickly and easily setting up individual blogs), and Lyceum which is an administrative tool for managing multiple blogs under the same umbrella. Technical support is a forte of BlueHost.
Progress on blog design was explored. The Snippets blog was explored. Endel requested blogs for the silent auction, communications committee, and community council.  David is continuing to work on our ‘Themes”  which will control the “look and feel” of our blogs and provide the constant/universally visible set of links.
Next Meeting
As discussed, the next meeting will be the monthly combined content/infrastructure session on Thursday 9/28 a t2:30 PM in Scott’s Office