Re: website (& invitations)
Patrick Sweeney
Sorry for the confusing email. Let me clarify...
You are correct, institutions, not individuals, will be members. Yes,
the initial group of institutions that are being invited to
participate are those in the IH list. I did not mean to imply
otherwise in my email - my use of the word "individual" referred to
individuals representing an institution.
Providing an "invite" or "join" the network functionality on the web
site could serve two purposes:
1) it would direct individuals representing invited institutions (from
the IH list) to the web site where the membership criteria are clearly
stated and where other information about the network is provided. If
we had an application form it would provide an opportunity for
invitees to update their information for our data base (and to provide
names of other individuals at their institution who may want to
participate in activities - last paragraph below).
2) there could be other institutions that meet the membership criteria
that are not in IH list, and a web site join function could provide
one channel for these institutions to request to join the group. A
web form in this case would give us the information we need to
evaluate their membership and to populate our data base.
Now, we could simply have the individuals representing the invited
institutions reply to the invite email (which could have a form
attached) - without going through the site. I'm really indifferent on
which way it goes. However, I think it would still be useful to have
a "invite/join" page or link on the site for institutions that were
not invited. I thought it might be helpful to have some kind of "join
the node" invitation, but perhaps nothing major is needed and a simple
sentence or two would suffice.
Regarding the idea to send the invite to only one individual from an
institution, that seems logical to me. However, I see no reason why
several members of an institution cannot participate in network
activities, with hopefully some coordination on the institutions end.
This raises some questions: Do we ask institutions to designate an
official representative for the institution? How do we keep multiple
individuals from a single institution abreast of node activities? Do
we let the single official representative serve as a gatekeeper for
their institution? What if multiple individuals from an institution
want to participate in the CNH web site discussion groups (which will
require a log in)? If the invitation is sent to one individual of an
institution, do we ask that that individual provide the names/emails
of other people within the institution so that they will receive
emails and be able to participate in discussions? I'd like to get
your thoughts on these questions. It seems that it would be good to
have some of these questions sorted out before the invites go out.
Cheers,
Patrick
________________________________
Patrick Sweeney, Ph.D.
Collections Manager, Division of Botany
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University, P.O. Box 208118
New Haven, CT 06520-8118
http://www.peabody.yale.edu/collections/bot
SHIPPING ADDRESS:
Yale University Herbarium
Peabody Museum of Natural History
Yale University
170-210 Whitney Avenue
New Haven, CT 06511
email: patrick...@yale.edu
phone: 203.432.3537
FAX: 203.432.7907
On Jul 9, 2008, at 12:05 PM, Alina Freire-Fierro wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I am a little confused. Since I understand it was decided that we
> will have
> institutions and not people as members (then I understand it will
> have to be
> ONE person per institution). And also, I understood that the
> institutions
> were going to be the herbaria listed in the IH; then do we really
> need to
> have in the website an option for requests for joining the group?
>
>> From the logic above, we will need to send the invitations only to
>> those
> people listed on the IH? And in fact, then maybe we should send only
> ONE
> invitation per institution?
>
> I think it will be great if we have this matter clarified before we
> send the
> invitation.
>
> Many thanks and best,
>
> Alina.
> ******
> Alina Freire-Fierro
> Collection Manager
> PH Herbarium, Botany Department
> Academy of Natural Sciences
> Philadelphia, PA 19103-1151
> U.S.A.
> *
> freire...@ansp.org
> Tel: 1-215-299-1157; Fax: 1-215-299-1028
> http://www.ansp.org/research/biodiv/botany/index.php
> http://www.mbgpress.info/index.php?task=id&id=90148
> http://espanol.groups.yahoo.com/group/Anunciosbotanicos/
>
>
>
>> From: Patrick Sweeney <patrick...@yale.edu>
>> Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 09:04:12 -0400
>> To: "Kathie T. Hodge" <kh...@cornell.edu>
>> Cc: <alin...@gmail.com>, <freire...@ansp.org>, <jdo...@mus-nature.ca
>> >,
>> <julie....@mail.mcgill.ca>, <julie....@uvm.edu>
>> Subject: Re: website (& invitations)
>>
>> Hello CNH membership and web working group members,
>>
>> About the suggestion to place an invitation to join CNH on the web
>> site, I've posted something about this to the Google group. It is a
>> good idea. This could be placed on the "Membership" page or on its
>> own page. When the email invitiations are sent, a link to the web
>> invite could be provided. This directs individuals to the web site
>> and thus will provide some orientation. The email invite would
>> consist mostly of a summary of and rational for our activities.
>>
>> ALINA, JENNIFER, and JULIE, would it be possible for you to draft
>> something for the web site invitation? This does not need to be very
>> detailed. When you are ready for feedback, post it to the google
>> group.
>>
>> Regarding an email invitation, I have written a draft that I sent to
>> Bob Capers yesterday to review. After he makes suggestions, I'll
>> send
>> it on the membership group for their input and then we can post it to
>> the google group for feedback.
>>
>> KATHY, as for how potential members will initiate requests to "join"
>> when on the website, do you think an email link is a good idea (I
>> notice that SERNEC does this)? Is is possible to set up a form that
>> when submitted would fire off a completed application form as an
>> email
>> attachment? Do you have any other ideas?
>>
>> I suppose one of the membership working group could have their email
>> as the link or we could create a "CNH membership" list serve (with
>> membership working group members as participants). In most cases I
>> think, membership decisions will be easy. If there is some question,
>> membership working group members could email the steering committee
>> for help. I think it makes sense to have just a few individuals in
>> charge of dealing with membership requests and the membership data
>> base.
>>
>> ALINA, JENNIFER, and JULIE, how do you feel about being the conduit
>> (via email or listserv) for new membership requests? Also, are you
>> comfortable with maintaining the membership data base? Alina, I
>> guess
>> in effect you have been doing this already.
>>
>> As for the timing, I suppose that we can begin the invite process
>> before the discussion groups, etc. are set up on the web site. I
>> think the email invitation could be ready next week (week of July
>> 14th).
>>
>> ALINA, JENNIFER, and JULIE, do you think the membership list that you
>> have been working on will be ready by next week or early the week
>> after (week July 21st)? Can the web site invitation be ready soon?
>>
>> Do you have any questions or suggestions for me?
>>
>> I look forward to your input.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Patrick
>>
>> ________________________________
>> Patrick Sweeney, Ph.D.
>> Collections Manager, Division of Botany
>>
>> Peabody Museum of Natural History
>> Yale University, P.O. Box 208118
>> New Haven, CT 06520-8118
>> http://www.peabody.yale.edu/collections/bot
>>
>> SHIPPING ADDRESS:
>> Yale University Herbarium
>> Peabody Museum of Natural History
>> Yale University
>> 170-210 Whitney Avenue
>> New Haven, CT 06511
>>
>> email: patrick...@yale.edu
>> phone: 203.432.3537
>> FAX: 203.432.7907
>>
>> On Jul 9, 2008, at 6:25 AM, Kathie T. Hodge wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks for the thoughtful feedback Patrick, I'll chip away at
>>> things. An improved banner image would be welcome.
>>>
>>> What do you think about posting an invitation for others to join the
>>> group? Is it time yet? I'd suggest we ask the membership folks to
>>> come up with something.
>>>
>>> Kathie
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Kathie,
>>>>
>>>> I like the content edits that you made to the site since you first
>>>> sent me the link. You beat me to many of the suggestions I had.
>>>>
>>>> I have a few specific design comments that I'll submit to you here.
>>>> Later I'll be posting some more general comments about content to
>>>> the group.
>>>>
>>>> Regarding over the overall theme:
>>>>
>>>> Is is possible to left justify the page titles and reduce their
>>>> font size a bit? Also, I wonder what it would look like to have a
>>>> 1pt line between the page title and body.
>>>>
>>>> I notice that the banner is a little fuzzy. I'll send you a new one
>>>> that matches the size of the one you are using now.
>>>>
>>>> Above the random image window, I assume the word random will be
>>>> removed/replaced (not sure what to replace it with).
>>>>
>>>> I will probably have more later...
>>>>
>>>> I've attached a folder of plant images that are my own, so there
>>>> are no copyright issues. I've placed copyright info in the
>>>> metadata.
>>>>
>>>> Let me know if you receive this message, I'm a bit worried about
>>>> the email being kicked back by your server.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Attachment converted: alkahest:sweeney_images.zip (pZIP/«IC»)
>>>> (0087BE13)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________
>>>> Patrick Sweeney, Ph.D.
>>>> Collections Manager, Division of Botany
>>>>
>>>> Peabody Museum of Natural History
>>>> Yale University, P.O. Box 208118
>>>> New Haven, CT 06520-8118
>>>> http://www.peabody.yale.edu/collections/bot
>>>>
>>>> SHIPPING ADDRESS:
>>>> Yale University Herbarium
>>>> Peabody Museum of Natural History
>>>> Yale University
>>>> 170-210 Whitney Avenue
>>>> New Haven, CT 06511
>>>>
>>>> email: patrick...@yale.edu
>>>> phone: 203.432.3537
>>>> FAX: 203.432.7907
>>
>