It was an interesting experience to see real people behind the strange name of the organization. They all are very energetic ladies in their 60-70s. I didn't have a chance talk to them a lot, but it looks they are doing a very interesting work around the world in many fields, like human trafficking, for example. Some of them are definitely more advanced in Internet usage then we thought (three of 15 or 17 even had their laptops and were upset when they couldn't hook up to Internet at the conference room).
They don't have a set vision about the web site they want, but were eagerly engaged in a discussion about the future site. They had some good ideas (see the list below). Jessica handed our questioner asking to fill it out right there, but they asked for more time to think about the answers, because they hadn't answers right away and wanted to think more. They will give them to Catherine tomorrow before the end of the Board meeting.
Catherine is a very nice lady with bright eyes. She can meet with us any time next week. I've suggested her Tuesday and she is fine with that. I've to follow up on that after hearing from the team about the best time for us to meet. She will bring questionnaires to the meeting.
Here are some ideas from Anima ladies:
- To have a member section with the password access.
- They would like to have 4 languages.
- To have news feed on the front page.
- To use Flash Dreamweaver
- One of the Congregations from Kansas has a Wiki page for one of their programs for the secondary school teachers. It would be good to have a link to their Wiki that other UNANIMA communities could participate and to contribute.
- To measure effectiveness of the web site and each page (for example to use Google analytic).
- To think about the new logo and the visual concept for UNANIMA.
- To have a weekly mailing to Board members.
My impression, that UNANIMA will greatly benefit if we will come up with the communication plan which will allow them to make their network communication more efficient. I'd like to talk with Catherine to find out about their communication mechanisms and operational procedures to understand better how their Network functions. That will help us to come up with recommendations how to use web 2.0 tools.
Was there any particular reason why they would like to use Flash/Dreamweaver? Given that they have members all over the world, I wonder if the easiest solution might be to build a site in WordPress? People of all ages seem to manage the WordPress interface pretty well. But since I'm not the tech person, I should defer to Ravi on this... Perhaps he can touch on tech possibilities in this week's class.
ReplyDeleteGreat job getting out there and attending your organization's meeting. It's a major advantage to have the ability to meet locally with the people you are working with. Sometimes, phone calls and emails don't always translate the little things between people.
ReplyDeleteOur dot org is based in Oregon, so we've been making calls and emails to gather information, but they are coming to New Jersey for a conference in May, so we're doing all we can to meet with them in person when they're in the area.