If it’s 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, you will find me at the Weekly Web Meeting with MENC’s awesome “Web guys,” Web Specialist PF and Web Assistant DP. We meet every week to review our (sometimes frighteningly) long list of Web projects. We invite any MENC staff members who want to consult about forthcoming projects; sometimes we have one of MENC’s talented graphic designers join us if a project calls for their help.
We have dozens of internal MENC projects at any one time, and we have to look at their time sensitivity, complexity, and relative importance to determine what to work on by when and in what order, so that they all get done as close to requested deadlines as possible. We also need to be on top of what’s happening when to make sure projects are promoted “synergistically.” For instance, if an item in next month’s MENC journal news directs readers to “go to the Web site for more information,” we have to have that information posted by the date members receive their journal. (And that means we have to be aware of what the news is going to say each month!) Conversely, when projects are completed, we want to publicize them, so looking at the queue also means planning promotion on the front page of the site, in the weekly member e-mail update, in a news story or ad, etc.
Contrary to rumors, we do not decide what Web projects will be completed first based on whom we like best or least in the office that particular week. (At least not very often. Just kidding! Mostly.) Seriously, we try to serve all our “customers” -- our internal staff customers, our leaders and members working on MENC-related projects, and the visitors to our Web site, who often contact us with technical and content questions. We use the Weekly Web Meeting to make sure we are all on the same page with our goals and priorities.
I admit we sometimes do veer off topic. Recent subjects of conversation have been walking cats on leashes, Battlestar Gallactica, the nutritional merits of applesauce, Bolero, what is a griefer, unconventional uses for duct tape, open track race days. (In fact, I have to say I actually look forward to the Weekly Web Meeting, unlike most meetings.) But mostly we take our jobs as masters of the MENC Web site very seriously. We know a lot of people are depending on us for good information – last week, we averaged more than 31,000 page hits each day! – and we want them to find what they seek on the MENC site.
Here’s something new to check out in April -- From the Top Comes to TV! From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall premieres in April on PBS with 13 half-hour episodes! And don’t forget it’s Jazz Appreciation Month and MENC Centennial Month!
