How do we communicate – part 3

Once upon a time an AAUW branch was a group of women who’d meet once a month, socialize, hear a speaker, plan the  branch projects and schedule other meetings (committee meetings, board meetings, lunch, or other social times). The branch would publish a “yearbook” with a list of the “important” meetings, everyone’s address, phone, number and e-mail and other information about the branch.

We’re not that branch! (Halloo to the guys!)  Much of the “yearbook” will be found here on the web site, and, in particular, the branch directory  is available (only to branch members) at www.aauw.org. Go to the  Member Center > Member Services Database (register if you haven’t and login) and then click the “branch roster”.

On the other hand, without meetings, it’s hard to “get to know” one another — so that we can deliver on the AAUW “value promise” of a community.

• If you’ d like to explore a new way to connect with your fellow members, you might try Facebook. Several of us are “there” and there is a “Facebook for AAUW” document that explains why some AAUW members are finding it a good platform for sharing AAUW information (and information about each other). [For instance, it's where Birgit and Nancy -- two of your board members -- first met.]
• If you’re more interested in professional networking, you may already have a profile on LinkedIn. If so, do join the AAUW group there to connect with other members from across the country.

While the new tools may seem like more work at first, you may find (as others have) that they help build richer conversations but without the information overload that would quickly set in if those conversations were held in e-mail.

If you’ve other thoughts on how the branch can adapt to new ways of networking, please post a comment.

How do we communicate – part 2

Not many of you responded to the poll earlier in the month about where we asked “How will we communicate?“. That really wasn’t unexpected — after all, the branch is not supposed to put too many things on your todo list.

But to maintain our community, we will need a way to send you periodic e-mail communications. Your communications committee (Birgit Pauli-Haack and Nancy Shoemaker) have chosen a Google Group as the simplest way to implement an e-mail list. It will have some standard features:

• With one e-mail address you can reach all the members in the branch
• Messages will be tagged with the subject line [aauw thb] so you can recognize them easily
• By default your reply will go to the sender – but if you “reply all” it will go to the entire list.

Additional features that aren’t supported (or aren’t widely used) on other AAUW NC lists:

• You can choose whether to get each message when it’s posted or to get a bundle of messages or a summary about once a day.
• You can skip e-mail delivery entirely and read and respond to messages in a web interface
• New members will be able to review earlier postings by using the web interface
• We can post files and other information on the group (rather than send information in e-mail attachments) if we think that’s useful.

So, watch for the message that will confirm that you’ve subscribed to the list.

If you already use Google Groups, you can find the branch group at http://groups.google.com/group/aauw-tar-heel-branch-members

If you’re new to the Google suite of web-based applications (including iGoogle home page, Google docs, and more) you can find a quick intro that describes setting up an account for your e-mail address  (you can use your current e-mail — no need to switch to gmail) at wiki.bbvx.org “Getting Started with Google Docs”. But you do NOT need to go through this to get the branch messages in e-mail.