In the near future I foresee over 1,000 WAOE members from about 50
countries. It will be very soon if we allow charter members to pledge
services instead of dues. In any case we would have to empower the
not-yet-elected voting Executive officers with decisions like that, so
shall we go ahead and make it free at first, leaving the question of
possible dues for later? (It's possible that grants could preclude the
need for dues even in the future, if we are THE definitive .org of
online educators and our leadership in the field is recognized).
One way to see that a large number of active and new members are
productively channeled is to have all sorts of committees waiting
for them, and the minimum commitment would be to join a committee.
Membership planners particularly take note that the committees would be
listed on the membership application form, and it would be helpful if
the Website also included a way to subscribe to waoe-news at the same
time, such as via a mailto: Majordomo@uidaho.edu.
I propose two types of committees, and new members would have
to join at least one of the second type, with the first type optional:
1) Administrative Committees (general/organizational)
E.g., Affiliate Liaison Committee
2) Online Course and Resource Evaluation (OCRE) Committees
(specific educational fields or levels)
E.g., Social Sciences OCRE Committee
I propose the following titles for committee chairs, committees,
and appointed posts within those committees as a start, and then
all of you can refine these and suggest additions or deletions. In
principle, the committees should overlap only a little like links
in a chain, and the specific areas in 2) should be neither too broad
nor too narrow so the members can work together in the long run.
With enough disciplinary and geographical representation, the
organization could be a microcosm of the worldwide community
of scholars involved with online education, and each committee
in principle could develop its own Web pages and communication
systems, provided they are congruent with WAOE's overall goals,
and that every member belongs to the announcement list WAOE-NEWS and is
registered in the membership database. The Web Design Committee, for
instance, could develop graphics and other features for WAOE Web pages
on various servers to share. These could include a logo with the full
name of WAOE and a logo for each OCRE Committee to offer to sites in its
area that merit WAOE's stamp of approval.
The following titles are suggested for
a) the elected committee chair
b) the committee, and
c) appointed officers
NOTE: Non-voting (at the Executive level) appointed officers would
be owners/managers of WAOE communication/information systems, technical
advisors, and other such volunteers of expertise.
1) Administrative Committees (10):
a) Membership Committee Chair
b) Membership Committee
c) Membership Database Manager, etc.
a) Treasurer
b) Finance Committee
c) to be recommended by b)
a) Dissemination Committee Chair
b) Dissemination Committee
(covering Electronic and Print/Broadcast Media)
c) WAOE-NEWS Listowner, etc.
a) Executive Secretary
b) Records Committee
c) Archivist
a) Web Design Committee Chair
b) Web Design Committee
c) [Technical Advisors for Multimedia, etc.]
a) Online Educator Development Committee Chair
b) Online Educator Development Committee
(covering online educational consultation, teacher training
and in-service development; employment and job status;
certification and accreditation issues; equivalency of
online and f2f courses, etc.; recommending policies and
matching expertise in WAOE with specific needs in society)
c) as determined by b)
a) Affiliate Liaison Committee Chair
b) Affiliate Liaison Committee
c) __________ WAOE Liaison (WAOE members
officially representing approved organizations)
a) _WWW Journal of Online Education_ Editor
b) Research and Publications Committee
c) _WWW Journal of Online Education_ [key staff]
a) Online Academic Conference Committee Chair
b) Online Academic Conference Committee
c) [Representative in WAOE of Online Conference Venue]
a) Cyber-Parliamentarian
b) Online Parliamentary Procedures Committee
c) Ombudsperson
2) Online Course and Resource Evaluation (OCRE) Committees (10+)
CMC and Pedagogical Issues OCRE Committee
Synchronous Communication Systems OCRE Committee
Educational Software and Courseware OCRE Committee
K-12 and Non-Traditional Learning OCRE Committee
Social Sciences OCRE Committee
Humanities and Core Requirements OCRE Committee
Scientific and Technical OCRE Committee
Computer Literacy and Staff Support OCRE Committee
Non-Native English OCRE Committee
(for ESL/EFL teachers and non-native users of English)
Multilingualism and World Cultures OCRE Committee
(could be divided into world geographical regions and languages)
and you name it!
More soon,
Collegially,
Steve McCarty
Professor, Kagawa Junior College, Japan
<steve_mc@ws0.kagawa-jc.ac.jp>
<http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcon98/keynote/mccarty.html>.
<http://leahi.kcc.hawaii.edu/org/tcon98/keynote/mccarty.bio.html>