I have been spending a bit of time lately writing the Communications section for the HEUG Annual Report (due to be posted around the time of the Alliance Conference). It has been a good opportunity to take a look back over the year and think about what we have accomplished and where we are headed. It is also a good time to ask you for your thoughts on what we’ve done well and where we can improve.
Steve Grantham wrote last year about HEUG Communication--Past, Present and Future. That post serves as a blueprint for our initiatives, challenges, and successes. I served on the Communication Committee in the 2008-09 HEUG year under Steve. We started several of our successful projects under his leadership. Those include significant enhancements to HEUG Online (thanks to Socious!), enabling RSS feeds for ease of push communication, launching My Page functionality, and including HEUG on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
This year (the 2009-10 HEUG year) we were able to continue making good progress on the Communication Committee. Among our successes this year were to establish a regular monthly news cycle with a newsletter sent to over 20,000 people a month, an increased awareness of HEUG “branding” efforts to create a consistent look and feel for HEUG communications, and a coordinated communication strategy for our Advisory Groups.
We worked hard this year on communications supporting the roll out of the new HEUG Business Model, including translations into several languages. We have an initiative underway to build our executive community, with over 100 institutions identifying “executive sponsors.” We have also worked on developing and communicating the HEUG value proposition.
All of this was done by a dedicated group of volunteers who serve on the Communication Committee. They should all be given a round of applause for their hard work this year. I hope they will all come back next year to continue doing great work! Here is your 2009-2010 Communication Committee:
Bill Daley, University of Texas Arlington
Fred Damiano, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Carol Damron, DePaul University, HEUG Board Member
Steve Grantham, Boise State University, HEUG Board Member
Mick Holsclaw, Los Rios Community College District
Victoria Janowiak, Grand Rapids Community College, HEUG Board Member
Wendy Love, James Madison University
Jennifer Moesker, ROC van Twente, HEUG Board Member
Chris Pondish, City University of New York
Normandy Roden, University of Colorado
Traci Sickinger, Palomar College, HEUG Board Member
Tina Thorstenson, Arizona State University, HEUG Board Member
Jaap van Reijendam, Brandeis University
Lew Conner, HEUG Executive Director
Scott Balthazor, Socious
Margaret Howe, Socious
George Mulloy, Socious
Looking forward to the 2010-11 HEUG year, what else should we be doing? Please take a few minutes to consider that and include your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks to everyone for a great year!
Ted