I originally seconded the organization name; now considering the
comments about the acronym, I would suggest that we change the name
slightly (unless this causes some problem with the acronym in other
languages than English) to "International Association of Online
Educators" or IAOE.
I do not think we need a constitution until we complete our discussions
of the shape and purpose of the organization and reach some consensus.
However, there are some steps we should take immediately.
1) Set up a listproc (I can do this if no one else wants to) unless
Hawaii wants to support the one we are on for this year. I haven't heard
anything definite about whether they can continue our discussion list or
not. Once the list is established, we could send a message saying
everyone on it is a member of IAOE (WOEA) unless they wish to quit, and
we could send out a mailing to conference participants not on the
KEYONE-L now that they may join in. These would be our charter members
from whom the initial financing and shape of the organization would
come.
2) Select two temporary officers who will volunteer to deal with details
such as archiving early discussions, answering email, and acting as
treasurer. We should call for nominations, discuss them, and vote from
our charter membership discussion list.
3) Set up an account in the name of the organization at an online- and
international- friendly bank or credit union requiring both officers'
signatures or passwords to remove funds but not requiring their physical
presence so that officers may be selected from anywhere in the world.
Ideally, the financial institution would be equipped to handle credit
card or ATM card transactions. This account would receive donations and
any other funds we come by (perhaps voluntary yearly dues of say $10 to
start).
4) Set up an IAOE (WOEA) Web Site at Steve's college in Japan, (which
again, I volunteer to design if no one else wants to. I could have
something Steve could put up by June. ) I see it at this point as
including resource links and potentially many of the papers from this
conference, should the owners of the copyrights agree to link from our
site or post at our site.
5) We should check our own resources to see if our institutions would
volunteer server space to mirror the IAOE (WOEA) Web Site in as many
places in the world as possible, to create a net that will reduce costs
of using this resource for those having to pay long distance now.
Again, I see this as temporary until the organization establishes a
financial base that might allow purchasing a server or contracting for
server space on our own.
6) Having this much of a beginning, we could discuss the details of
where to go from there on our discussion list, and eventually create a
constitution and elect some more permanent officers.
What do you think?
Jenna Seehafer, English Department
California State University, Sacramento, USA