Professional Committee Work

The Wiki Way

You are Appointed Chair of an Awards CommitteeYour major responsibilities:• Coordinate all committee members located in

several institutions in several states• Call for reviewing and judging applications and

nominations • Update committee members on committee

tasks • Update committee manual as needed

How do You go about doing those things?

• Set up conference calls for Committee members?

• Send out numerous emails with documents attached?

• Send out emails with comments on documents back and forth?

Typical ProcedureCommittee Chair uses email to:• Form the committee• Send out committee roster for members to

verify their contact information• Inform committee members what they need to

do in their appointed period• Send documents to committee members as

attachments• Seek input and suggestions from committee

member on issues and concerns about committee work

Typical Committee Communications

• Mostly via emails• Everyone knows a little bit about the

committee work as a whole• Not everyone knows about everything

and be able to see the whole picture of the committee work progress

• Committee work timeline is not accessible and visible to everyone

My Solution:

Created a Wiki using Google Sites

Why Wiki?• Web-based and secure log in• Collaboration in one location• Visible edits and comments• All documents viewable and downloadable from one

location• Less emails and attachments• Committee work visible to all members• Ability to link to documents, pages, and websites• Date and time stamp• Archived and backup and searchable

Wiki is not 100% Good

• Some learning curve

• Forgot how to access the Wiki

• Forgot login and password

What did Committee Members Comment about the Wiki?

• Excellent job!

• Thanks for your outstanding leadership

• Convenient access to documents I need

• Great example applying Web 2.0 tools

I can do it and you can, too. Create your own Wiki to make

it work for you!

Questions and Discussions are welcome!

lin.wu5@gmail.com