First, I want to address the elephant in the room. We’ve had a hard time getting into the YouMedia Community of Practice Discussion Forum to communicate with each other. The switch over was hard on some of us. Amelia and I were hoping to have more online Meet-ups to help us connect with each other, yet, there has to be other ways for us to stay in communication. Any other suggestions you all have to keep us connected are great. There are no bad ideas. If you are still having a hard time getting into the Community of Practice Discussion page, feel free to email me directly at desirew@multcolib.org and I can provide some tips and tricks.
We had a pretty awesome Online Meet-up in April, what time was that again? I do apologize again for screwing up time zones, ummm twice. Bonus, I did get to use the “email all members” feature on the network page. Some people had never received an email from YouMedia and were happy to have received one. Maybe do to the repeated contact, the turnout was great. Also, the feedback was surprisingly positive. Here’s a quote from Hillary Kolos from the DreamYard in the Bronx. “I honestly almost teared up seeing everyone's faces when I first logged on. Such a great mix of new and old folks. And then when I ended up in the breakout room with old friends it was even awesomer.” It was a great chance for people to connect and reconnect. Let’s do it again. Do you have an idea for the next online meet up?
Conversations that have captured our attention:
If you haven’t had a chance to look at this yet. It’s completely worthwhile. I plan on trying this out in our makerspace soon.
Thank you all for letting me be human.
Desiree Wolcott-Cushman
Rockwood Library Makerspace in Portland, OR