Charge for the Communications Committee for 2008 – 09

Audrey Novak, the President of the New Haven Rowing Club, has asked all the committee chairs to post a charge for 2008-09: the purpose is to explain what we do -- both to ourselves and to the membership at large; to set goals; and to let the membership know who they can turn to when an issue needs to be addressed. This charge was written by the Communications Committee

Maintain the Yahoo News Groups. This is something that John is primarily responsible for maintaining. John makes sure all member email addresses are registered with the newsgroup, and that all members can access it, but the members themselves are responsible for formulating their own emails and disseminating them via the newsgroup. We strongly encourage them to do so, rather than send emails to John to put on the newsgroup. Items that will be sent out this way are time-sensitive materials; materials that contain members’ private information (email addresses, phone numbers, addresses); club documents that ought not to be widely circulated (minutes, agendas, reports); messages letting members know that The Catch has been updated; and complex documents (PDF’s and Excel files primarily: the cleaning schedule, volunteer rosters for regattas, updated club directories.)

Maintain the club blog, The Catch. The Catch will be monitored, edited, updated and partly written by both John and Claire, the blog managers/editors. Each of us will take primary responsibility for half the month: Claire for the first two weeks and John for the second two weeks. Maintenance will include updating the template and widgets as necessary to respond to club needs and to make full use of the potential of a blog as a democratic sphere for discussion among the membership. The Club Secretary will post documents on the blog that the whole club needs to have access to. Club officers and committee chairs are invited (and strongly encouraged) to write postings. Ideally, they would post their own items, but until they get used to that, completed items can be emailed to the managers and posted by them. Members who want to contribute may also write to the blog, save posts, and then ask either John or Claire to review and publish them. The Secretary, in particular, is encouraged to make regular use of the blog in disseminating (non-sensitive) information regarding club activities, events, and dates.

John and Claire urge any member of the club who wishes to write for The Catch to do so: the blog is particularly useful for starting discussion topics, as the comment function enables all members to have an exchange. Members are encouraged to engage in active, constructive discussions. We also know from experience that many club members are good writers, and we urge members to submit items, reports on regattas, pictures, announcements, and whatever else they have.

What is to be achieved in 2008-09. Introducing these new technologies has been a big step forward in our view, but it has happened through a significant time commitment on the part of the committee that needs to be reduced. We propose to:

a. Reduce redundancy between the Yahoo Newsgroups and The Catch. There are very few items that need to be published both places, and doing so increases the time commitment to this committee. We also want to encourage club members to learn to publish on their own, rather than sending information and expecting the managers to write the story. In particular, the managers’ primary responsibilities are to keep the publishing infrastructure going, and provide editorial review of submitted material. Managers will frequently submit their own material (subject to cross-review by the managers themselves), but are not expected to directly write material on the behalf of members who wish to contribute.

b. There seems to be uneven technology skills across the club, although most members seem to have adapted to Yahoo newsgroups and The Catch blog. Nevertheless, some members appear to need more help than we can give them through email. Therefore, John and Claire will run a couple hands-on sessions after Saturday breakfast to show people how to post to the blog, how to access it independent of a link, how to use browsers and book marking functions. We could also show members how to set up their own RSS feed, so they would automatically be notified when new items are posted to The Catch.

c. We propose that The Catch regularize its publishing schedule, trying to post 2-3 times a week minimum. This will make it a more lively and useful vehicle, and one that promotes a healthy club atmosphere, but also will train club members to check it independently of an email prompt.

d. What we need is another member of our committee,* or an outside consultant, who is skilled at managing the club webpage. We propose that such a person be recruited/hired in the next sixty days. A club volunteer is preferable, since we would require no budget, and because a more informal relationship would probably be more efficient and flexible for the other members of the committee. Complex documents cannot be stored on the blog – they can only be linked to the blog – and as of now, we cannot establish those links unless documents can be easily uploaded to the club’s web domain.

John Poole and Claire Potter; Claire Potter, Board Liaison

*applications are currently being accepted by John Poole, as Claire is on vacation until June 5.