Comets Steering Committee Meeting

May 18, 2009, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm, Room 117 in 445 Henry Mall/Old Genetics

Present: Mike Pitterle, Sarah McDaniel, Paul Oliphant, Alan Wolf, Ron Cramer, Lisa Jansen, Meagan Rothschild, John Thomson, Eric Alborn, Catherine Stephens

Welcome

Reports

Admin Subcommittee

• Jean vacancy, Alan stepping down (question about numbers for steering committee members). John Thomson replaces Alan.
• subcommittee mtg 5/13/09: proposed policy for elections and rotation of officers. 2 meetings before 6 months before six month marks, changeovers can happen on six month mark.
• Need to work on calander - cleared out old meetings, added this one.
• Watch the demo of the new website, we can submit questions after that.
• ACTION: a group was created for the admin subcommittee to add notes. Group needs to be populated.

Campus Relations Subcommittee

• Prepared to Teach dialogue - should there be a virtual version of a facility for it? There are interested representatives for small groups, ComETS can add to this group.
• IT strategic planning status and next steps - we had requested a follow up meeting with Ron. Individuals will be in charge of convening groups, campus representatives will be leads including both faculty and tech support/leadership persons. There have been some breakdowns in communications with new information and roles for team leads. There are four team leads in the room right now. The biggest changes in the latest iterations of the strategic plan development is that there has been recategorization of themes in the plan. The group is also considering who would be strong additions to each team.
• TEL- update on what’s happening here: Doing Moodle updates event on May 28th. Will be sending out information next Monday.
• Teaching Academy: summer institute again this year? Kept Chris Lupton, Mike, and perhaps John as representatives. Lisa brought up perhaps being a part of the Taste of Madison. There are resources to try to help people who come to the booth - ask what they're thinking about with Technology in their courses, help connect them to appropriate resources. This year will be first week in June (1st through 4th?). A number of members of the steering committee are interested in attending and connecting.
• eLearning Roadmap status of the re-org to be a campus group - the group is meeting today, first discussion of what the roadmap really is and will be. Is it time that we as ComETS take a new look at this? Eric said to take a quick look today would really be helpful. ComETS representation on that body would be important.

Events Subcommittee

• The group did not meet this month. The steering committee needs to consider questions about what it means to have a "ComETS sponsored event" as opposed to one brought about by a member.
• There is a survey that will go out after the symposium at the end of the month so hopefully people will have their head in a place where they're thinking about what they might like to get involved in.
• Recent Events:
  • Repository,
  • Assessment Tools,
  • Web Accessibility
• Upcoming Events:
  • Learning Symposium,
  • Moodle TEL event,
  • events survey,
  • Dist Learning Conf.

Membership Subcommittee

• SIG updates- there have been reports back from the groups.This information is posted on the website.
  
  • OpenSIG - DrupalCampWI,
  • Clickers,
  • new Learning Spaces SIG has been proposed.
• website – the rollout seems to be going well.

Subcommittee Business

Admin Subcommittee

• Acting on the proposed election and change over policy - for this one, positions will stay the same, since the timeline is so short. We are trying to establish policy for the future. June 29th is the next meeting. Since there is only one decision to make at this point (new chair-elect), we can probably make the next nominations virtually. Nominations are open, they'll be closed by the next admin meeting. The request has been made that if you're going to nominate that person, you check with that person first to make sure they're willing and able.
• Filling vacacies and the number of members on steering committee - nominations are open for up to three new members of the steering committee. Nominations are due by the next admin meeting (a week before the next steering committee meeting). Discussed niche nominations - looking for library, natural sciences, education as possible open targets.
• review and plan meeting calendar for the next six months and getting them into WiscCAL - Meagan to post an initial schedule on the website. Subcommittees can discuss dates and give feedback to modify accordingly. June 29 is the next meeting.

Events Subcommittee

• Possible John Krogman summer event. He also was wondering if ComETS could present to the managers committees. Ron will touch base with him and find out about M-team and giving the members of ComETS a chance to interact a bit more with DoIT.
• Events Survey: comments and discussion. Ron didn't get any feedback on the questions, so he's figuring that everyting is fine and ready to move forward.

Membership Subcommittee

• Website: comments and discussion
  • policies for working groups
  • other/external groups using the site: TEL users, Assessment group, Moodle Council

Relations Subcommittee

• Elearning Roadmap Team - there may be a lot of overlap with ComETS. If this campus group can get sponsorship from CIO, ComETS could be one of the many types of advisory groups on campus from which the roadmap groups could draw on the myriad issues coming up. Perhaps the steering committee has something more specific we'd like to contribute. Information needs to go both ways between the team and ComETS. Could this possibly be a special SIG that might have more governance, so it could be more of an advising voice? ComETS is designed to be more grassroots than the roadmap team is. ComETS is perceived by the "outside" as being more powerful than ComETS feels they are on the "inside". The steering committe is interested in persuing a more active relationship with the roadmap team. The advantage would be bringing more information back from the roadmap team to the ComETS membership.
• Moodle Council: prepared statement- Moodle council has been invited to consider a stronger alignment with ComETS, in part to use the ComETS website; council has been active in the past year, have materials they would like to distribute via a website; background/activity; currently a "ComETS partner" and have made a decision to remain separate from ComETS; pros/cons of aligning more closely w/ ComETS (pro: economy of effort, need for collaboratie space / con: reservations about joining comets, questions of authority, questions of a governance role); important distinction is the role of the Moodle group in making policy recommendations; need for a website (ok to create a workgroup), only obligation is to tell us what the group is up to occasionally; benefits for members to see Moodle group materials;

Review New Action Items

Work on calendar (John, Meagan), announce steering committee openings (Paul O, Meagan)

For each action item:

1. Clearly define (what)
2. Assign (who)
3. Schedule date to complete and report back (when)

Review next meeting

June 29th, 11-1pm