TIGblogs - Reggie

Cultural Diversity - Internal report

Initiation
Early February a meeting was held which was focusing on improving membership engagement and developing volunteer response, and getting them more active in their roles. Hence through the activity members will be able to contribute meaningfully to the country sites.

Concerns with volunteer system
- Exclusivity amongst volunteers from the rest of the members (getting updates)
- Lack of resources to be able to fully coordinate volunteers
- Who would be accountable of the efforts and keep communication on going
- Why should members apply to participate on the site?

Resolutions proposed
- Instead of applying for volunteer positions members check list on their interests and instantly added to the database for future updates
- Transferring volunteer list to members contribution list
- Writing up a newslettere-mail every mid-month to inform members about up coming events and activities
- Coordination of the various membership activity teams so that participation and strategies are synthesized e.g. Zine team, Global Gallery team, youth reps and Local team.
- Featuring a theme each month selected according to interest and/or major world issue that month.

Monthly themes Strategy (www.takingitglobal.org/themes)
There are a variety of reasons behind why this strategy was initiated and critical to membership engagement:
- It keeps the TakingITGlobal.org site current (featured themes current world events youths major interests) and updated with new content.
- Gives members the opportunity to share ideas and perspective on the same issue but from different perspectives and sights. Showcasing the diversity within the community yet giving opportunity for members to be able to express their opinions on major issues concerning the world today.
- Gives members a reason for coming back to the site on an ongoing basis and encourages on going discussions, updates and interaction amongst members
- Provides partners and sponsors a reason to support a short-term project that attracts users, viewers, interest and involvement in a particular issue
- Provides a solid foundation of content that can later be leveraged for topical sites (eg. Health Promotion -> AIDS topical site)
- Allows TIG to focus on a theme without feeling forced to develop and launch a separate topical site in a way that is pre-mature and under-resourced
- This strategy integrates all of the separate ¡¥member-engagement¡¦ initiatives such as the volunteer program, which is currently unsustainable and under-resourced.
- Members who want to get actively involved with TIG in a way that is more meaningful and focused have a greater opportunity to do so
- Members will be exposed to a diverse array of perspectives, issues and topics which allows people to gain a deeper sense of awareness because they may learn things that they wouldn¡¦t otherwise be interested in.
- Members who are ¡¥experts¡¦ or ¡¥enthusiasts¡¦ in particular subject-matters will have an opportunity to be showcased and will also be able to share their skills in a way that is less cluttered and overwhelming
- The experience of TIG tends to be ¡¥overwhelming¡¦ for people. Having monthly areas of focus will allow members to ¡¥grow¡¦ into the TIG experience

Cultural Diversity
Theme selection
To launch the monthly themes, we selected the theme Cultural Diversity because of the following reasons:
- The need to identify and showcase the diversity within the TIG community
- Need to present and show that the themes are a way to get members to share the different issues affecting them within the local community
- The topics selected for the theme where preparation of upcoming theme in a more broad perspective that members could be able to contribute
- The need to select a theme that members can begin working and contributing to without prior experience, research or qualification
- An exciting and interactive theme that will easily engage members
- Cross cultural understanding needs to be promoted in order for respect of opinions to be given in the up coming themes especially in discussions. (You understand the background and perspective from which members are coming from hence able to respond to questions which a much clearer view of your audience)
- Country sites have added content on relevant issues, hence promoting and encouraging more participation from local members to further share their culture and experiences

Offline Preparation
- Interviews were conducted to get feedback and quotes from members, on their thoughts of the theme.
- Questionnaires where handed out before the launch of the theme at the conferences that attended by Reggie.
- Research on the different discussions posted by members, and articles submitted to understand what members are interested in contributing
- Reggie took photographs to encourage members and give them guidance on the

Online Preparation
- Engaging members to begin participating and contributing to the theme before the launch proved to be more challenging than expected
- First newsletter introducing the monthly themes as well as the global gallery contest
- Overview page introducing the theme cultural diversity and the ways to get involved (Took me some time to get the grasp of an overview page and its purpose)
- Flash Intro for the theme was developed by Ben for the overview page (Quotations where used for the flash from members)
- E-mails where sent to selected members before the newsletter to talk about the monthly themes. The criteria used to select the members were activity as well as interest in current TakingITGlobal strategies. Other members involved in the preparation where Youth Reps and volunteers.
- Specific members who had shown interest in the volunteer positions where given the opportunity to begin submitting their work before

Contest
- During the staff meetings and discussions and more brain storming, plus from personal experiences the following came up:
„X Members need recognition for their work in order to be motivated to continue
„X The need for incentives shows that TIG is not only a place to dump your content but a space where opportunities arise
„X Members usually want to contribute but are not sure where to start
„X The need for exciting activities and contests is paramount for the growth of TIG with member¡¦s activity involved
„X There is need to show actual proof of talents that our members have and show how issues affect members within the different communities
„X Need to improve quality of submissions and encourage members to submit work fu
- Previously there was lack of consistency in contests and interactive activities. The timing of the activities and the engagement of these to our members was not coordinated in a way that would keep members needing an update.
- Having been inspired by Ezekiel¡¦s contest on ¡¥Life as I know it¡¦ and Nancy¡¦s contest on ¡¥Promoting a culture of peace¡¦. We realized that part of the monthly themes strategy would be contests and incentives. Hence the Global gallery would be hosting a contest each month.
- The contests should showcase the diversity of the community, the culture of the people and be able to give members the opportunity to share their personal ideas and
- It was decided to title the contest ¡¥Life as I know it¡¦, as the previous contest and possibly continue with the same theme and goal as before.
- To get the contest going and to give members a better understanding of what the contest would require. I posted photographs from the conferences I attended namely Multicultural week at York University, World Affairs Conference and High School conference in York University.
- I wrote to members that showed interest in cultures and encouraged those that had traveled to submit their photos to the global gallery.
- Candace Rose-Taylor a volunteer came into the office to learn more about TIG and how she could contribute. Amongst the areas mentioned that she could work was the global gallery, having traveled and worked in Madagascar this was the best opportunity for her to post photos of her travels to the contest page. One of her submissions became the winning submissions.
- We had a total of 72 entries shown in the exhibit for the theme.
- Determining criteria for voting was challenging and was later decided by the global gallery team.
- A voting tool was developed to make the criteria easier and for March staff and some active volunteers had to vote the 5 best submissions.
- Since there is a revamp on the global gallery, voting would be included in the new design.

Zine
- The Zine was an exciting place to work on especially the end of March when we had Amy Lam, a volunteer who came into the office to help with the Zine which is also being proposed to be revamped.
- For cultural diversity the strategy was to write to members and inform them about the theme and suggest possible topics that they could begin working on.
- Suggested topics to begin writing where e-mailed to members through the newsletter and posted on the overview page.
- Other methods used to encourage writers to submit there work was to post suggestions to discussions participants to submit their thoughts to the Zine.
-Through the invitation process, we will be able to build a group of willing and reliable contributors and encourage submissions from other TIG members. Later on, we may be able to provide these writers with specific roles within the Zine.

Online Chats
- This was a new initiative that was started in order to get people to draw from the theme and share what they have learnt over the course of the month.
- On the 15th of the theme¡¦s month members would be selected who have been active during the month on related topics to be part of the online discussion chats. Insuring a health balanced chat. Selection of these members would vary but basically would include members who might have had conflicting thoughts on certain issues, those that had started similar discussions, posted similar articles and shown clear interest on the topic.
- The chats are open to everyone even those not selected and therefore an invitation would be part of the newsletter.

Newsletter
- The newsletter had not been consistent and was not been written on a monthly bases. This was a loop hole that needed to be linked with the revamp that was going on with the inter site.
- To go hand in hand with the monthly themes, we decided to write a newsletter each month informing our members of the new things happening at the beginning of the next month.
- The first newsletter I wrote was in February (While preparing for this newsletter I got a chance to read the past newsletter, initiatives and history of TIG), which had the same style and format as the previous newsletter.
- In the February newsletter we introduced the monthly themes and a new section called featured member. The featured member section acknowledges 2 important aspects of TIG: Those that have made in impact in their community through TIG and the active youth leader who has shared their story through the featured member section on the site.
- For the month of March the format of the newsletter somewhat changed to emphasize the monthly themes and the activities focused for that month. Each month would be a new and exciting way to get members more involved and active (my personal hope on the actives would be to find a new and exciting, fun way to encourage members to participate and inform members about the month¡¦s theme yet keeping it different from the previous month ¡V challenges, games, contest, etc that last or are on going the whole month).
- The new newsletter section included the following:
1. Welcome to the Dispatch „³ Introduction to the month¡¦s theme
2. Cultural Diversity Discussions „³ This would feature quotes from members about previous and on going discussion on the theme and related to the theme
3. Global Gallery Contest „³ Each month we talk about the month¡¦s theme contest and why it was selected. The criteria for selecting the topic vary with theme.
4. Online Chats „³ Schedule of the online chats and topics for the chats. The chat rooms are still open during the entire month and
5. Organizing a Local Event or Meeting „³ If there are any workshops, organized events or local (featured event) meetings this would be posted on the site.
6. Featured Article of the Month „³ each month there is a featured article submitted by our members that is related to the month¡¦s theme. Selection of the article should consider gender/region/activity and relevance to the theme.
7. Featured Member of the Month „³ this section is to acknowledge the different active members who have made an impact within their community through TIG andor have been recognized for the activity online.
8. Wrap Up „³ conclusion and link for members who want to contribute to the upcoming theme

Success
- In the conferences I managed to develop personal skills (communication and presentation) as well as get contacts willing to volunteer during the summer holidays. This was to get an understanding of what youth of ¡¥the importance of cultural Diversity¡¦ as well as ¡¥what should youth do to promote cultural diversity¡¦.
- Discussions where the greatest success, making me realizes that one section of the site would be more active than the others. The key therefore is to encourage each month a focus activity that will encourage a section of the site become more active than others. Continued participation in the discussion boards is still ongoing when this report was written.
- Managed to begin continuity in the newsletter, the Zine issue and initiate an updated submission of content on the site that is fresh and interesting yet informing.
- March was particularly successful with the launch of the themes and the definition of my role.

Struggles
- Timing: This was the first theme we had and hence for me it was a learning process each day. Deadlines where set and it at times it would be difficult to meet cause of organization issues and coordination.
- Personal issues but resolved thanks to the support of the team
- Introducing and encouraging the theme proved challenging but nonetheless I was able to find means of addressing the problem. Involving Youth Reps and active members to talk about the upcoming themes is the best method.

Calendar
- A template calendar was developed during the month of March with the required input as well as deadlines for preparing for themes.