Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.
HIPNet September 21st 2005 Meeting Notes
The rollout for CA Branding was on Friday September 23rd. Branding FAQs (http://www.usaid.gov/branding/marking_faq.html) were distributed at the meeting.
Since the deadline for compliance is January 3rd 2006, CAs are required to include in their workplans proposals for a Branding Strategy and Marking Plan that will outline how you intend to co-brand your corporate identity with USAID's on specific products and web sites. The Branding guide should be done by that time.
If you are already in the publication planning process, plans for incorporating the new guidelines may be seen as an act of good faith. For publications/projects with multiple donors, publication layout--as outlined in the new guidelines--may not apply.
Regarding Repositioning: The Repositioning Family Planning Group at USAID has developed a one-year workplan which includes plans to develop language to use in advocacy of family planning, especially to bridge the gap between the disconnected USAID language and CA language on the topic. The group is also planning a meeting with CAs, WHO-Afro, IPPF and faith-based organizations. USAID wants to stress the continued importance of collaboration and elimination of duplication in publications. They request that each CA ask themselves these questions before publishing: Who uses this publication? Is the publication relevant or are you just publishing under the old Publish or Perish perspective? Does it cover any sensitive issues? Does this publication implement the new USAID Marking and Branding strategy?
Questions: Someone asked about the RFA that was released, withdrawn and re-released with much changed language intended to make the RFA more attainable by a faith-based organization. The article in question can be found here: Baltimore Sun Article
The M&E group reported on their activities and progress. So far they have developed an online compendium of existing M&E resources contributed by HIPNet members. They have also been working on developing indicators for health information products and services. They will develop a generic guide (without RH language to make it relevant beyond population CAs) for these products which will be reviewed by several M&E experts and made available for all CAs to use (hopefully in the next 6 months). - Reviewers include: Sean Curtis (Measure Evaluation), Allison Ellis and Linda Fogerty. The group will also be developing a definition of "health information products and services."
The primary Indicators the group is considering:
Reach: primary use and secondary uses
Usefulness and quality
Use - how products and services are used
Jude Griffin of MSH gave a presentation on Lidernet - an online community of practice developed by MSH for people who participated in their leadership training. On Lidernet, discussions are held simultaneously in English, Spanish and French. Approximately 450 people have participated in these discussions.
The interface has a very spare design, intuitive navigation. MSH facilitated discussion by giving daily summaries and questions to move discussions forward. There were also some reading assignments (translated ahead of time) with discussion on the forum. Participants added and edited posts themselves, without facilitation thereby transferring ownership to the group, with the hope that participants will eventually lead discussions.
All the threads were in all three languages. Three coordinators took shifts over a 24-hour period, and when a post came in, contacted one of eight on-call translators. The aim was to have translations up within 3 hours of posting.
As in most forums, one third of the forum membership was active and two thirds lurked.
Automatic reminder emails were also sent out prompting participants to check on the forum online, since they do not receive postings by e-mail.
People could also opt to receive a notice by email when people responded to their postings.
On the topic of length of forum, Jude said that it really depended on the facilitators, and what they believed to be the optimal length of time to cover their specific topic.
Lessons Learned/Observations:
At first, on the front page, the threads listed the author of the post along with the title of the thread. But MSH found that people would just start their own threads instead of responding to original thread postings in order to see their own names on the front page. So now the threads list the last poster to the thread not the author.
In terms of 2-way resource sharing, solicitations for materials were sent, but there was no response.
After the forum home page, the page with the most hits was the member directory page.
Internet access was not always reliable for some forum members, so other members would allow multiple people to post under their name. Therefore data on posters was not always reliable. MSH is exploring the use of different information pathways for future forums to make it easier to participate - including text messaging, phones, faxes, etc.
French and Spanish mailings are slated for the end of October 2005. So far 95 emails from Spanish language libraries and 35 from French language libraries have been received. It is estimated that we will be sending materials out to a maximum of 200 libraries for French and Spanish. The cost of the mailing is $3/pound for airmail and $1 for surface mail. We may be doing separate mailings for paper products and CDs to avoid whole shipments being stopped because of CDs.
If you wish to participate, please contact Peggy D'Adamo or Heather Johnson (mdadamo@jhuccp.org or hjohnson@jhuccp.org) ASAP with a description of the items you would like to include (preferably in French and Spanish), your contact information, and where you would like the bill to be sent. You may include fliers as well as publications. Plan to mail your materials to CCP in mid October. As with the English mailing, we will have the distribution company bill each organization separately based on the weight of their materials.
A second English mailing may be considered for next year. Before that HIPNet will organize a short follow-up survey for the libraries who received the mailings.
HIPNet members can also request copies of the mailing lists for their own use (after Oct 31 for French and Spanish).
Success story: AGI almost joined the collaborative mailing group, but at the last minute their old vendor came back to them with lower prices. In that sense, this was a success since our goal is to get the best price for HIPnet members. INFO is now working with a new vendor, CAC Direct Marketing Services. Their rates and services are similar to what INFO was getting from its old vendor, but INFO felt that this company was bigger and could provide additional services. If you would like more information about this vendor and their prices, contact Heather Johnson at INFO (hjohnson@jhuccp.org).
Peggy distributed the most recent INFO Gender Guide for Publications draft at the meeting. A copy is also attached. This guide is written for writers, editors and illustrators of publications. HIPNet members were asked to read through and comment. HIPNet will also look into organizing a Gender Awareness for Publications workshop using the INFO Gender Guide as a workshop tool. The workshop may be facilitated by Gary Barker from Instituto Promundo. More information on this later.
The HIPNet Wiki was developed as an experiment in collaborative web updating. A Wiki is a free-content space on the internet that anyone can edit. All you do is visit the page, click on the "edit" tab, make your changes using a few simple codes, and click "save." You can find the HIPNet Wiki at http://www.hipnet.org (click on "HIPNet wiki" at the bottom of the home page).
As an experiment, HIPNet is moving the HIPNet Members page to the Wiki, so that HIPNet members can update their own contact information. There are some simple instructions on how to edit on the Members page. Now if any contact information changes, members can simply make the changes online themselves. So please take a look and update your organization's information. [Note: the members' page was moved back to t he regular web site in 2007 due to high levels of spam on the Wiki)]
JOB LISTINGS on the HIPNet WIKI:
The HIPNet wiki also has a page for CA and USAID job openings. HIPNet members are encouraged to alert their HR divisions about this new recruiting avenue. If you do post a job, please include the date of the posting, and try to remember to remove the posting when the position has been filled. Periodic reminders will be sent alerting members to new job postings. You can also circulate job openings on the HIPNet listserv. Just send them to hipnet@rhgateway.org.
The Wiki idea sparked a lively discussion about how it might be used to facilitate sharing information about publications planned for next year before, during and after the November 16 meeting. Members suggested that the wiki be used to facilitate the publications planning for next year's workplans. Details will be sent out shortly.
The next meeting will be held on November 16 at Futures, focusing on the work-planning process for the following year.
A separate branding meeting (possiby on November 16) may also be organized so that cooperating agencies can meet with Sandra Jordan for an in-depth discussion of branding and marking.
Lori Ashford, PRB, lashford@prb.org
Renuka Bery, AED, rbery@.aed.org
Rachel Fey, ARHP, rfey@ahrp.org
Peggy D'Adamo, CCP/INFO, mdadamo@jhuccp.org
Willow Gerber, Consultant, willowgerber@hotmail.com
Leslie Gianelli, JHPIEGO, lgianelli@jhpiego.net
Stephen Goldstein, JHU/CCP, sgoldste@jhuccp.org
Sandra Jordan, USAID, sjordan@usaid.gov
Michael Klitsch, EngenderHealth, mklitsch@engenderhealth.org
Alison Lee, Horizons/PC, alee@pcdc.org
Dana Lewison, JHPIEGO, dlewison@jhpiego.net
Madeline McCaul, Deliver/JSI, mmccaul@jsi.com
Suzanne Rainey PSP-ONE/Forum One, srainey@forumone.com
Laura Rainey, PopCouncil, lraney@pdcd.org
Lori Rosman, JHU/CCP, lrosman@jhuccp.org
Anjali Sanghvi, JHU/CCP/INFO, asanghvi@jhuccp.org
Stephen Settimi, USAID/GH, ssettimi@usaid.gov
Molly Strachan, POLICY, mstrachan@futuresgroup.com
Neha Suchak, PSP-One, nehasuchak@gmail.com
Barbara Timmons, MSH, btimmons@msh.org
Trinity Zan, IRH, tz25@georgetown.edu
Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development or the U.S. Government.