MassCivicAction Conference Call Notes

Yesterday we had a conference call to discuss the future of this website. There were a few people who couldn't make the call but were interested in staying involved, and a request to post the call minutes to the site. Here are my notes, including a list of participants.

Participants:

Mike Sances
John Ballantine
Jordan Jones
Andrew Gibson
David Crowley
Robert V. Gallant
Molly Hurt
Mary Gunn

Mike Sances reviewed the origin of the website as a planning and
follow-up tool that grew out of the Civic Engagement Summit. Noted
that usage had decreased in the weeks following the summit.

Jordan Jones suggested the holidays could be a reason for the drop off
in traffic.

David Crowley spoke to the need for having a consistent communication
(like a weekly e-mail) to encourage site users to check out the site.

David explains the searchable database of civic engagement projects
and how that was intended as the main feature of the site. Several
people on the call noted how they had posted their projects but had
not gone back to the site since. There was discussion about how to
make the project database more useful to people.

Mary Gunn mentioned the idea of a civic engagement thermometer to
feature on the site, showing how well MA is doing reaching the goal of
increasing civic engagement. Also mentioned the idea of having a
rotating civic engagement "tip of the week" or "action item of the
week" as had been discussed at the post-Summit planning committee
meeting. This would also be a portable badge that other organizations
could put on their own websites. Asked whether there was another
subgroup of people working on marketing the website and the effort to
increase civic engagement in MA.

John Ballantine said he has been meeting with Ron Bell re: collecting
data on social capital and civic engagement in the state, in order to
evaluate how well we're doing. Also discussing further business
partnerships and civic engagement in MA.

Someone asked whether the Governor's office is still collecting
stories of civic engagement? David replied that they were doing this
at first but decided it wasn't feasible. If those stories are still
available it could be good to mix them in with the "tip of the week"
idea.

David asked whether users have the ability to sign up for custom
e-mail updates on the site, e.g. an e-mail alert whenever there is a
new blog post. Mike said this is already a feature and thanks to Molly
Hurt's helpful suggestions for the help page he has now included it in
the FAQ.

Mike asked whether the idea of the project database was to have a way
for the public to become involved—like adding links to volunteer or
sign up for updates. This might be one way to make it more useful for
people.

Robert Gallant talked about the benefits of implementing a wiki on the
site, in order to increase collaboration and distribute the tasks of
updating the site. Andrew Gibson said it is possible to add a wiki.

Mary mentioned that it might be necessary to have a part-time staff or
volunteer dedicated to this project going forward, possible an
AmeriCorps*VISTA. Mike agreed that the human side of managing content
and promoting the website was more time-consuming than the technical
side of things.

In terms of outreach, David mentioned there is a list of 6,000 people
who were invited to the Civic Engagement Summit. Then there are 4-500
addresses from people who registered for the Summit, then 85 users on
the website. David said that it wouldn't seem appropriate to contact
the list of 6,000 , but might be good to send a one-time e-mail to the
4-500 group inviting them to sign up for the site and stay involved.

Mary asked whether our audience is wholesale, that is the general
public or people who want to volunteer, versus people who already are
involved and feel strongly about the important of volunteering and
want to move civic engagement forward in MA. Mike said that from the
people who have signed up for the site so far, it's the second group.

Mike said the site could be used to help highlight what is being done
to move civic engagement forward in MA, such as putting links to the
regional summits as they occur.

David suggested it might be worthwhile to have a monthly "editorial
board" meeting for the website.

Mary committed to calling the Corporation for National and Community
Service to inquire about a VISTA to help coordinate the website and
the planning for the next Civic Engagement Summit. Also spoke to the
need for an "advisory board" to help advise any staff or volunteer
that does help—probably the same group as the "editorial board" for
the website. Also said she would e-mail the planning committee to
request more "action items" to include as weekly feature on the site.

Mary said it would be important to get Ron Bell involved in this
advisory board if it does happen.

David said SCI will get the action steps onto the website soon.