[Editors] MIT Editors' Club Minutes, Dec. 2010

[Elizabeth A Thomson]

MIT EDITORS' CLUB

*Meeting Notes from December 8, 2010*

In my humble opinion, this particular meeting of our club was one of the most useful yet (and I've been to over 160, if I've just done the math right). We talked about everything from social media to Publishing Services Bureau (PSB) webinars, and man (woman?!) did we also laugh!

*Chemical Engineering Festivities*

Many of the laughs came from Melanie Miller's wonderful description of her department's holiday festivities, which are actually taking place right now. These include a bake-off, PowerPoint presentation of who won said bake-off, and skits.

Melanie explained that the bake-off is a Big Deal. Last year some 40 people entered in categories ranging from cookies (the hardest to win, Melanie reports) to cakes and pies. Of course, Editors at this meeting asked Melanie to share the final results when their out, and how better to do so than through.....twitter! So, for the First Time Ever, Melanie promises to post the winners at the department's twitter site, or http://twitter.com/MITChemE

*Social Media Working Group*

Someone inquired about the Social Media Working Group led by the News Office, and what that group is doing. Kris Brewer of TechTV, a member of the group, told us that, in general, the group aims to come up with a set of guidelines for MIT departments and centers on how to use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media. 

When the guidelines are ready, they'll be available in a printed book you can check out from the MIT Libraries. "A little social media humor there, eh?" someone chortled. Kris grinned and clarified that actually the guidelines will be posted online, probably through the MIT Communicators Toolkit (see <http://commtoolkit.mit.edu>).

*Online Tutorials*

I asked the group about their favorite tutorials available through Lynda.com, an online site packed with tutorials about techie stuff ranging from web design to social media. I am partway through a course on Web Design Fundamentals, and think it's quite good.

I actually never got an answer, because Robyn Fizz of IS&T got everybody excited when she told us that soon we can all use Lynda.com for free (well, at MIT) because MIT is negotiating a license with the site. (My department has had a subscription for about a year, hence my use of the site.) 

*Publishing Services Bureau Webinars*

The PSB has been hosting a variety of cool webinars, but what if you can't make one? Are they taped? "It depends," said Bara Blender of the PSB. Some of the presenters do indeed give MIT a url for a given webinar that can be accessed for a few months, but others don't. 

The webinar from last week (Essential Marketing ROI Tools), however, is indeed available online right now, apparently because there were technical difficulties during the actual presentation. If you would like to see it, please contact Bara at <bblender at MIT.EDU>. She can give you the url and password.

*Thank You, MITEI!*

Many thanks to the MIT Energy Initiative (Terry Hill, Rebecca Marshall-Howard, and Nancy Stauffer) for hosting this meeting, complete with gorgeous snowflake cookies, coffee, and hot cider.

*Next Meetings*
The next meetings of MIT Editors' Club, which are always from 12-1 but in different locations around campus, are as follows:

Tuesday, Jan. 25
4-303 (Johnson Room, physics)

Thursday, Feb. 24
NE48-3027 (Tech TV)

Wednesday, March 9
W98-302 (Resource Development)

Tuesday, April 12
NW17-218, 175 Albany St. (Plasma Science and Fusion Center)



Have a great weekend,

Elizabeth


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Elizabeth A. Thomson
Associate Director of Communications
MIT Resource Development
Office of Communications
600 Memorial Dr., W98-300
617-258-5563, 857-756-9457
<thomson at mit.edu>, giving.mit.edu
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