DCWW Steering Committee Meeting
November 8, 2001

1. President
   Alycia discussed the DCWW Retreat on November 8, 2001. She noted that the retreat will allow new volunteers to meet more experienced SC members and include team building and goal setting activities.
   
   Alycia reported that plans are to go ahead with the purchase of lapel pins. Sonia Jones, who was not in attendance, has agreed to take on the project of obtaining DCWW lapel pins. Alycia suggested that due to turnover, that the pins should be sold outright for a flat fee, rather than being tied to meetings, events, etc.
   
   
2. Treasurer
   Allison Denny conveyed an e-mail from April reporting our current account balance and new post office box address.
   
   Paypal worked out well during its trial run on September 19. 11 transactions were made. Katherine Spivey noted that most people did bring their receipts with them, which had been a concern. Plans are to start using it early next year. No word yet from Ruth as to whether we will use it for workshops as well.
   
   
3. Membership Education
   Allison Denny reported that Ruth has established 3 new relationships in progress (EEI, Art Institute of Washington, and a 3rd TBA). Ruth is working on a 6 month calendar of workshops.
   
   
4. Membership
   Suzanne Hough noted that she is waiting for the Executive Board to discuss formalizing membership. Alycia asked her to recreate some of the materials and resubmit the request to the Board.
   
   Suzanne also suggested that DCWW make sure that at every meeting there is at least 1 Steering Committee or Executive Board member attending to put a face on DCWW and provide someone to answer questions.
   
   Lastly, Suzanne suggested holding face to face orientations or open houses, perhaps something simple somewhere where people can sit around and have drinks, quarterly or biannually so that new members can talk face to face to DCWW leadership and find out more about the organization and how they can get involved. An orientation might include information about volunteer opportunities, DCWW history, networking, and success stories.
   
   Alycia inquired about the announcement list, which has not been used. Also the Volunteer list has not been used fully, with only 2 posts in the archives. The question of whether the announcement list is needed was raised.
   
   
5. Programming
   Angel Venerable and Katherine Spivey confirmed that Figleaf is offering the Steering Committee "permanent" meeting space in either their 1st or 7th floor offices, depending on availability.
   
   A Calendar of Events was handed out.
   
   The Holiday Party is less than one month away. Angel & Katherine are looking into sponsors. Mindshift, a potential sponsor, has floated around an offer, but nothing has been confirmed. Angel & Katherine will also look into costs and price out potential costs to DCWW if sponsorship does not fully come through. Currently, they are considering a $5 entry fee, as we've done in the past. An offer, by a member, of a magician to perform at the party was discussed. They will look into it.
   
   This month's cancelled event was discussed. Since interest was high, new avenues for planning are being discussed.
   
   Katherine, in her other role as content editor, noted that she, Jill, and Rachel would be fleshing out her job description and would report back later.
   
   She is looking for a new editor for the Index.
   
   Katherine discussed the HotShot and LegalEase columns. One HotShot column is lined up and she is working out a coding problem with it. LegalEase has been infrequent and suggestions of moving to multiple authors was discussed. Lastly, Kathleen has one article written, but which cannot go live until the author signs our copyright release form.
   
   
6. Technology
   Jill Caras and Rachel Dubois reported that they have finished their work with an Information Architecture class and have a notebook of results. They have a meeting next week with the instructors to discuss the next steps in the process.
   
   Jill is updating the FAQs and working on a "Are you new to DCWW" page. Alycia offered to look over the organizational FAQ.
   
   Jill requested that Steering Committee members be sure to submit biographies. She also noted that she needs for Steering Committee members to be vigilant about providing new information to insure that the web site is accurate and current.
   
   Jill agreed to post a message to the list for a new SIG administrator.
   
   Lastly, Jill promised to report out on traffic to the web site at our next meeting.
   
   
7. Outreach/PR
   Many potential members were in attendance and expressed interest in volunteering!
   
   Chrissy Rey agreed to serve as co-chair with Eve Simon on Outreach, including GROW.
   
   Janire Hopkins offered to serve as a Media Chair, helping to increase publicity for DCWW thorough profiles in the media, etc. Janire agreed to answer the pr@dcwebwomen.org & press@dcwebwomen.org e-mail accounts.
   
   Celenie Singley agreed to work on the media kit. SC noted that DCWW is open to any sort of structure for Outreach and PR, including committees and/or multiple chairs.