Christy Confetti Higgins, Co-chair of the SLA Virtual Worlds Council prepared the following report for the board.
B O A R D D O C U M E N T Global Headquarters 331 South Patrick Street Alexandria, VA 22314 USA 1-703-647-4900 Fax: 1-703-647-4901 www.sla.org TO: FROM: DATE: RE: BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The SLA Virtual Worlds Council was created in March 2009. President Gloria Zamora appointed the council with the following direction: Six members appointed for overlapping terms of two years each. The Advisory Council shall: 1. Recommend short and long-term direction for SLA’s presence as an association in virtual worlds. 2. Oversee SLA’s presence in virtual worlds.
3. Interface with other SLA units, including the Innovation Lab Task Force, ClickU and the
Professional Development, Public Relations and Student Academic Affairs Advisory Councils, to: a. consolidate and coordinate efforts to bring member benefits closer to members b. develop and promote opportunities for members to participate and build virtual world skills.
4. Investigate and estimate the cost of creating, maintaining and promoting virtual world
activities and recommend funding sources and report findings to the CEO. The council members changed in January 2011 and are now (listed on the SLA in VW wiki
• Pat Alderman (SL: Biblio Latte) -- Co-Chair: Term 2011-2012
•Christy Confetti Higgins (SL: Violet Portola) -- Co-Chair: Term 2011-2012
•Jacob Westerndorp -- Term: 2010-2011
•Aileen Maren Marshall -- Term: 2011-2012
•Jessica Cerny -- Term: 2011-2012
•Martha Heyman -- Term: 2011-2012
•Donna Goda -- Term: 2011-2012
•Cindy Romain -- SLA President
•Jill Hurst-Wahl -- Board Liaison
•Kristin Foldvik -- Staff Liaison
•Honary member: Cindy Hill (SL: Sydney Delphin) -- Chair, Term: 2009-2010
I would like to thank the new Council members for their time and energy thus far and welcome them to the Council.
Accomplishments: place in February 2011. I would like to thank Pat Alderman for her continued energy and the information sharing she does with the SLA in VW Twitter and Blog! Here are a few specific highlights for the Council since February 2011. Virtual U 2011 Conference SLA will host the second virtual conference in conjunction with the physical conference in June 2011.
Council Updates:
• The new Council met as a team for the first time in May 2011. Lots of ideas and good energy!
•We heard from Cindy Romaine about her vision for the Council and how the efforts fit into the
•We discussed the future of the Second Life space (SLA just re-funded the space).
•Lots of ideas about what to focus on for this year including a webinar series for members with
•The Council is also looking at the future of the Library Buzz session in Second Life. Possibly
•We are exploring more opportunities for meetings, sharing events, learning in the Virtual U
•We are talking with Headquarters about the ability to leverage the new SLA wiki/blog
platform, WordPress, for the Council – hope to do so in 2012 when it's available to us. It willmake a more integrated space for members to learn about and participate in VWs.
•The Council will be moving the Council email group to the SLA discussion list vs. the current
·Wiki: http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLASECONDLIFE/Home
We look forward to the new energy of the Council and the great ideas generated so far! The next 6 months are going to be exciting and our hope is to bring that engergy to the Council – connecting with members virtually, learning about virtual environments, and engaging with Chapters, Divisions,and members through virtual worlds.
Christy Confetti Higgins and Pat Alderman, Co-Chairs SLA Virtual Worlds Councilhe Council members are supporting Headquarters with communicating the availability of this option to allow members that are not able to attend in person, to be involved, participate, and attend virtually. Last year over 100 SLA members registered for the virtual conference and while the majority of the participants were from North America, there was representation from Italy, the UK,Australia and other countries. We look forward to the global representation this year and will report on this in our next report.
·Blog: http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/sla_in_second_life/
The Council has blogged about the 2011 Annual conference virtual component on the SLA in Virtual Worlds blog and tweeted it on our
·Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/slavw