Education, Outreach and Training (EOT) Forum

EOT Forum Minutes
August 2, 2006
Initial Format and Goals
July 13, 2006

NEESinc is establishing the NEES EOT Coordinators' Working Group, also known as the EOT Forum, for the purpose of improving communication and coordination among the 15 NEES Equipment Sites, NEESinc, and NEESit. The expected participants will be the EOT personnel at those NEES facilities, and it is expected that the group will meet via monthly teleconferences and/or WebEx meetings hosted by NEESinc. The primary goal of the EOT Forum is to promote better communication among EOT personnel throughout the NEES network.

EOT Forum Goals
The EOT Forum seeks to:
  1. Improve the flow of EOT-related information between NEESinc/NEESit and the Equipment Sites (ES) in order ensure that these groups are kept current with respect to EOT news and activities throughout NEES.
  2. Provide EOT personnel at NEES Equipment Sites with an opportunity to provide input to--or in some cases actively participate in--the planning of EOT activities.
  3. Promote collaboration among the NEES facilities' EOT personnel, particularly for Sites with common activities or goals.
  4. Create a support network of EOT personnel who are able to provide help (informational or other) in response to EOT-related issues, questions, or other matters raised by other EOT Forum participants.
  5. Support the proliferation of EOT tools, practices, and information throughout NEES.
  6. Collect input on collaborative initiatives spearheaded by NEESinc or other EOT Forum partners.
Partners
In order to keep the size of this group manageable and avoid unproductive teleconferences with 30+ people, we propose to invite the following participants:
  1. NEESinc EOT staff
  2. NEESit EOT staff
  3. EOT personnel at 15 NEES Equipment Sites
Proposed Format
We plan to hold EOT Forum meetings monthly, but it is possible that there will be occasions where more than one monthly meeting will be needed. The meetings will generally be held via teleconferences and/or WebEx, except when in-person meetings are feasible, such as during the NEES Annual Meeting.
Initial Topics/Issues
Initial topics for discussion include:
  1. EOT Forum Structure & Goals
  2. NEESret and other collaborative proposals
  3. Assessment/Evaluation Toolkit
  4. 4NEESreu update
  5. NEES.org website Phase 2 redesign
  6. Branding deployment
  7. Using NEES Activity Monitor for EOT activities
  8. NEES master training schedule
First Meeting
The first meeting of the EOT Forum is being planned for either the last week of July or first week of August 2006.