AAUW NV Convention

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I’ll be attending the AAUW NV convention as a member of the AAUW Leadership Corps. They are looking at creating a virtual branch, and I’ll be talking about the Tar Heel branch experience, contrasting that with CA Online, and helping them address the questions of

  • What would a virtual branch be expected to accomplish?
  • Who would need to be involved in the project?
  • What best practices have emerged that Nevada can pick up?

[I've heard that the AAUW Membership committee is working on that last question -- or something similar -- but I haven't had any direct contact with them.]

I’m also looking forward to attending the AAUW Action Fund training for Nevada as an impact grant state.

AAUW NC Annual Meeting

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I’ll be attending the AAUW NC annual meeting as the past-president of AAUW NC, president of the Tar Heel branch, AAUW NC web manager, general communications consultant, and a member of the Leadership Corps.? I’ll be giving a workshop on using technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness, an update of a session I’ve given a few times before. I’m planning to talk about

  • Member services database
  • Membership payment program
  • Site resources for branch web sites
  • How branches can start using social media to expand their communications

I’ll also be participating in the branch presidents council meeting and the full annual meeting to help pass a resolution against the amendment in “defense of marriage” (and attack on families) that will be on the NC primary ballots on May 8.

The meeting is March 30 and 31 in Burlington, NC.

Leadership Corps

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Hi, all. I’ve been recently appointed to the AAUW Leadership Corps for 2011-2013. I haven’t been through the orientation/training yet, and this is a new AAUW structure (formed in 2009) so it’s possible what I hope to accomplish and the way the corps works won’t match. But for now I expect my focus to be:

  1. Help spread the word about the success of the AAUW Tar Heel (NC) Branch. I discussed this at the AAUW Convention Workshop on Alternate Leadership Structures (see the workshop handout which includes two pages on the THB). I believe that each state would benefit from starting such a branch (or, perhaps, reconfiguring an existing “online branch” to more closely match the THB model) to support those members who live far from all geographically-based branches or for whom the nearby branches aren’t a good “fit”.
  2. Continue my 15-year effort to improve adoption of technology to advance the mission of AAUW. In 2001-2003, as a member of the AAUW Program Development Committee, I’d hoped to initiate publication of a “Technology ToolKit”. The world has changed a lot since then, but there is still a possibility of AAUW providing a framework to help members scale technology challenges for the benefit of AAUW and other aspects of their lives. This has been a multi-faceted journey, and I hope, in particular, to learn more about the new Site Resources program that AAUW is launching to support branch/state web sites and how I can support the members taking advantage of this.

I look forward to talking to many of you over the biennium.

Distraction Free Writing on WordPress.com

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As you may know, I support some sites on WordPress.com, e.g. the AAUW Tar Heel Branch. (And I just threw out a Facebook comment that maybe it’s time to start an AAUW Facebook group of volunteers devoted to supporting the branch/state sites that are using WordPress, whether WordPress.org or WordPress.com.)

I don’t usually comment on WordPress upgrades here, but the latest upgrade on WordPress.com is of particular interest — and I just got back from WordCamp Raleigh, so such issues are, perhaps, more top of mind than usual. (The upgrade is a preview of what’s coming in WordPress 3.2 for WordPress.org users.)

The WordPress team has done a fabulous job, as usual, but there’s one feature I’d like to write about – partly to help me understand it better.

This version of the software has changed the “full screen edit” mode to one that supports “distraction free writing” (again, see either the WordPress.com or WordPress.org discussion of the upgrade).

Well, I can see the point for blogs, and I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually. But since I’m always distracted when writing — and posts are often short enough that often I don’t bother to open the full-screen editor, the new environment seems a bit too stripped down for me. In particular – what happened to the toolbar?  Who decided to delete most of the buttons and go to keyboard shortcut based formatting? Yes, if you click the “Help” icon you get an actually helpful table of keyboard shortcuts, e.g.

Alt+Shift+

Letter

 Action
n Check Spelling
j Justify Text
d Strikethrough
u • List
o 1. List
q Quote
g Full Screen
p Insert Page Break tag
e Switch to HTML mode

How many people expect real help to be behind such an icon? How does this change my elevator speech, “If you can send an email message with an attachment you can write a blog post since the edit screen looks so familiar.”  Of course, some people will never find the full-screen edit button and others may welcome the keyboard shortcuts. Is this a subtle push to keep the style sheet in control of the formatting? That may very well be a good thing (as you see, I’m writing to come to an understanding), but it’s still an odd cultural shift.

And, yes, the full screen editing for HTML mode is fabulous! (For me, anyway — for my users, not such a big deal.)

Side note:

There was a question in the final session today about WordPress as a CMS vs. a Blogging Platform. The answer was, as I recall, the equivalent of “yes.” Of course WordPress is very flexible and it’s both, but the “blogging” roots and mindset are pretty deeply embedded. It’s still the best for my applications, and I’m willing to fight through some oddities and annoyances even if I’ve got more complicated information architecture and access control issues than a typical “blog”. Just hoping I can bring along my friends.