Abstract

This paper looks at the Identification of concerns that exist with the New York Chiropractic College Website Committee.  This paper will utilize the Rhode’s Terminology in order to look at conditions related to the topic. It will also be utilized to look at concerns that exist with the topic.  With a knowledge of these a problem statement will be shown that incorporates previously stated material. Finally principal issues related to the problem will by discussed.

 

Paper 1: Identification: Concerning the NYCC Website Committee

Rhodes developed a terminology that would help to standardize definitions of many used terms by educators.  Within these definitions, he would define topic, condition, concern, issue, problem, puzzle, question and need.  For the purpose of this paper, concerns based around the New York Chiropractic College Website Committee will be discussed. For this discussion, I would like to look at condition, concern, need, problem and issues related to the Website Committee.   

To give a little bit of background on the NYCC Website Committee, I would like to begin by saying that we try to meet once a month if schedules coordinate.  All meetings are held in the boardroom of the NYCC campus Administration Building. If invitees cannot make these face-to-face meetings an option exists for them to call in via a conference line.  The committee meets to discuss content of the main NYCC marketing webpage and discusses flow and arrangement of content.  The meeting starts with a presentation on any website changes since the prior meeting and then evolves into discussion time.

During many of these meeting there is usually very little time for these discussions so for some of the participants many hallway conversations occur. The topic of these conversations sometimes gets brought up at the next meeting, but there are many conversations and decisions that occur without committee consent.  There have also been issues with members in the past who will take the conversation off topic and waste time. This prevents some ideas from being discussed due to the time constraints.  Conversation is encouraged in order to discuss site layout and flow.  Everyone involved is asked to come with ideas for discussion and more often than not, they do not get the chance to participate. 

With this lack of time to communicate and a channel of communication many do not voice inputs between meetings and many conversations devolve into email chains that can be hard to follow. In response to this, I see a necessity arise for a new meeting method. With a more open meeting environment and more opportunities for discussion, I think that the committee can gain a bigger presence on the campus and help bring about more changes.  I see a committee that can grow and correct minor issues before they become major problems.  

An online environment where everyone has the chance to participate in discussions then becomes necessary. Ideally, this environment would be asynchronous in order for participants to meet at their discretion. There is a need for everyone to participate because the discussions are centered on the New York Chiropractic College marketing site that encompasses all programs and departments.  This increased participation will improve the meetings because there will be more conversation opened up from new viewpoints.  An asynchronous environment would make the Website Committee a stronger presence in the college community.

As of now, the college is on a trimester schedule, which causes many issues with availability. There are two distinct programs that have differing academic calendars and this become apparent during the summer months or between trimester breaks.  So many committees exist now that require the current meeting space so this creates for a limited scheduling ability. This would not be an issue were it not for the need for the technology in order to show updates.  This online environment would take away these scheduling difficulties and allow for more productive meetings as the meetings could be spread out over the month.

Out of these conditions and this need we can begin to see some concerns that exist.  The current meeting set does not coordinate with participants schedules in the same way that an online meeting environment would.  This would allow meetings to occur outside of the scheduled timespan of a conference room.  Aside from the basic availability issues, there is a concern that the current setup hinders conversation that is needed to improve the overall effectiveness of the marketing website.  An online meeting location would allow more views to be expressed and more conversation to happen in regards to site observations and changes.

The problem becomes one where the NYCC Website Committee is only meeting one hour a month face-to-face due to limited availability from faculty and of the meeting space.  This limited time hinders many conversations and hurts morale and overall progress.  With the implementation of an online alternative, there would be no scheduling problems and conversation would flourish. With more conversations, the Committee could improve the overall marketing webpage and become more active.  A less restricted time frame would allow for more members to join and more teamwork to occur.

Even though this is I am confident can be remedied, there are some issues that exist in regards to the NYCC Website Committee and a change in meeting format.  First, some employees will simply prefer face-to-face meetings to online ones due to personal preference.  There will also be participants who could argue that they work better in teams with a clear set meeting time.  Another issue is that some participants may not have the setup necessary to participate in an online environment. The last principal concern become how to encourage communication and participation as there are some people who will see an online meeting as an excuse to participate less.

I think that with some fine-tuning the issues can be further identified and an ultimate solution can be found. By looking at the conditions, needs, problems, concerns and issues concerning the current NYCC Website Committee, we can get a better picture of how to get to the end goal of a more productive committee.  There are problems that exist with this current setup, but with enough research I am confident that things will turn around and the views of the committee will change.