Committee Notes: March 24, 2006

We met in Intermedia Arts on Friday. There was lots on the agenda, and we had an interesting time of it. Gina, the new CTEP member at Intermedia Arts sat in on our meeting as she is interested in joining our committee.

So, for starters, Lindsey gave Gina a rundown of our committee's focus and what we have accomplished so far, in addition to our future plans. This took 10 minutes, at least 'cuz we've been doing a lot. Our committee ROCKS!

Fundraisning and the CTCnet Conference
Second topic was about fundraising rules for CTEPs. Unfortunately, our plans for presenting at the CTCnet conference have been foiled (fouled?). Up until a week ago it was certain that at least one committee member was going to CTCnet to present (if our proposal is accepted). Ken has been working VERY hard to find additional resources for the rest of us to go. The idea was that we would point to successfully securing the resources for one of us to go as leverage for fundraising, so all of us to go. It's up in the air now whether any of us will go.

Jeff will check with state headquarters to verify if we can fundraise as a committee for the CTCnet conference. There is still a chance that we can raise enough for one of us to go. He will get back to Lindsey on Monday on this, and Lindsey will continue to hammer out the 500 word description for our session proposal and will submit it Monday. If we can in fact fundraise, then we'll have to spend precious time doing that instead of all our time working on our toolkit and presentation, so this situation is a REAL BUMMER.

One strategy is to use our committee's project manager (from Project Management Institute) to help us balance fundraising and content development & packaging so we can get this done.

Promotional Issues
Jeff has concerns about our committee creating a video that promotes CTEP to show off to a national audience at CTCnet. Such a video should involve Catherine so that the message is accurate and the video is professional. We talked this through and decided to explore the possibiltiy of collaborating with the Media Committee to put together a PSA that reflects best practices for reaching low income and new immigrant communities highlighting the Lexington Library, Intermedia Arts, Project for Pride in Living (PPL) and Waite House. The message being, "Technology is for everyone ..." and showing how we have overcome access barriers at these sites. We'll also tap Roxanne's overarching knowledge of the Corps experiences 'cuz Rox is everywhere and nowhere ... she's the committee queen.

Introduction to Media Lab
We then moved into the media lab and shifted our thoughts to our next project which is creating PSAs about our fact sheet topics.

Ken gave the committee an overview of the tools available in the media lab. All the computers are running Windows XP and are updated with Service Pack 2.
Video editing software:

• Basic - Movie Maker
• Intermediate - ULead Video Studio 8
• Advanced - Pinnacle Studio 8
• Advanced Audio - Acid Pro

Our committee will sign up for the lab when we have a script and storyboard outlined.

Fact Sheets in PSA Format
We brainstormed about the topic of our first PSA and decided to start with disabilities in employment, which then evolved into accessibility/public accommodations in CTCs. We still need to work on our idea, so far it looks like this:

• Audience - CTC staff, coordinators, volunteers (anyone who works at a CTC)
• Message - how to make your CTC more accessible, 'Is your CTC accessible?'
  
• Length - 1 minute

We will continue our brainstorming next meeting. After we solidify our idea, we'll create a script and storyboard and talk about the approach (voice, technique, style, imagery, etc.). A great resource to learn about creating video is at: http://www.current.tv
Roxanne sent us storyboard documents to get started (thanks Rox & Gina for all your good questions during our brainstorm).

MiniTrainings
April 21 training - we're pushing to have the first PSA completed (enough) to incorporate into Lindsey's presentation about disabilities and employment.

Original plans for the May 19th MiniTraining was to focus on learning styles and learning disabilities, with the possibly of incorporating audio and video examples. We discussed changing this training's focus to a final review of what our committee has accomplished, our CTCnet presentation efforts, and our plans for hand-off to the next year's AU members.

Next Meeting
Friday March 31, 11:00 at the CTEP office. Possible piggy-back meeting with the Media Committee after lunch to discuss collaboration on a CTEP PSA. AU committee members remember to bring your own lunch (I'm not sharing mine--I know it sounds stingy but I don't even like someone looking at my food).