October 16, 2002 ADEPT Minutes

Agenda

1. Updates
2. Proposed Publications Timeline
3. Annual Report strategies
4. Summary of ADEPT liong-term vision
5. Developing a CTC Calendar of events
6. Other items

Updates

1. Steve updated everyone about the definition of what "research-based" means in terms of education according to the Department of Education. Click here to read the posting made to another section of this weblog to which he was referring. Amy asked Colleen if she could get ADEPT a working definition of what the difference is between experimental v. quasi-experimental research. This is important because it explains some of the standards published by the Department of Education. It would be helpful if we had someone analyze the No Child Left Behind policy so that we could understand exactly what CTC needed to do in order to be positioned for continues federal support.
2. Emelda downloaded information about Lipman-Hearne for everyone to read. She explained that they specialize in working for non-profits to help them with marketing, publishing annual reports, and organizing effective PR. They work with organizations big and small, so they will understand how places like CTC work. The most important thing is that they could provide an outside perspective to the work we do so we can:
   • see where our strengths and weaknesses are as an educational non-profit
   • place our organization within the context of non-profits as a whole
3. Dan recently observed that we need to collect and monitor the evaluations and reports that go out of CTC on a regular basis. These could be the raw material for articles that could be easily tweaked for publishable articles. He was especially pointing to the recent Young Adult Literacy Conference evaluation that came out. The documents that we need to collect should focus on the relatively recent, as opposed to digging too far into the past, because they are the most relevant in terms of publications and development.

Discussion:

1. The publications that we see as being important to the healthy functioning of CTC fall into three broad categories: internal, external, and internal-external. The specifics of the items brainstormed to be under each category can be viewed here. The most important in terms of pressing deadlines are the Annual Report and the materials for the 25th Anniversary Celebration because they require so much advance planning.
2. In terms of the evolving communications plan initially discussed at this meeting, the problems that immediately arise are: 1) the systems that connect the items listed are not clear, and 2) the format of all the publications are not uniform. For instance, we know that reports and evaluations can be easily tweaked into publishable articles, but there is no easy way right now to collect them and the transforms them. Developing a system to connect the important publications to each other should be the first priority in developing a communications plan. As for the format problem, that will hopefully be solved by the work ADEPT will do on the website (via Pat Stephens and her design skills). Right now, the situation is dreadfully chaotic, with all the various groups at CTC publishing their materials in their own style, making it difficult to see any cohesion in what CTC does.
3. As far as Annual Report strategies are concerned, we unanimously decided that if the Leadership Team will allow it, ADEPT will take on the burden of seeing the first Annual Report gets published by January, 2003. We need to get the outside consultant problem solved fast, however, if we want to finish the report by that deadline, because we need to begin collecting materials and deciding what we want the content of the AR to be. We will need the consultant to help see the larger picture of all our materials and pull out the "message" that will be conveyed in final document. From that, a marketing plan could evolve.

Next Steps:

1. Have the Leadership Team identify the people that should comprise the teams in charge of the Annual Report and the 25th Anniversary Celebration.
2. Hire the external consultant for the Annual report by October 31, 2002.
3. Dan and Emelda will work on a system to collect evaluations, reports, pictures, and brochures in a centralized manner.
4. Amy will as around for information regarding upcoming events and news clippings that need to be sent to the NEIU marketing and PR people.
5. Colleen will write a brief describing the difference between experimental and quasi-experimental research in order for CTC to better differentiate "good" research from "bad."
6. Pat will work on redesigning and updating the brochures for our folder. She will create a design that will be consistent with our look on the website. She will have this done by November 15, 2002.
7. Steve will make an attempt at writing a vision and mission for ADEPT so that we can formalize ourselves. This will be brought back to the group for approval.

Agenda for next meeting (October 30 @ 10:30)

1. Continue to work on proposed publications time-line
2. Relate publications time-line to the development mind-map
3. Discuss in greater detail who we need to include in ADEPT to make it function better as a group
4. Annual Report strategies
5. Discuss how an Intranet might be set up
6. Developing a CTC Calendar of events
7. Other items