Almost ready to Launch the Web Site!
Ann McNeal and Elizabeth Reid have been putting things together for the web site and we are almost ready to make a public launch, but we need your help! We plan to do a final edit the week of Oct 24th. Answer the questions below to help us out.
Putting a web site together is a series of hundreds small decisions. Many of them are not easy to change once they are set up. So we have made our best guess and hope it will work well enough. The goal is something easily readible and accessible, inviting and inclusive. We made the decisions we have made based on our sense of the consensus of those who contributed ideas through the blog. So we are checking first with you as a group as to whether we have implemented something close to your ideas.
So here are some specific questions to answer for us:
Check out the site at www.authenticmovementcommunity.org
The site will not cost us much money to administer. We are charging a membership fee to access the directory (anyone can be listed for free) and a publishing fee for the classified ads. Any money we collect in excess of our expenses will go into a fund to develop the web site and potentially as a gift to the fundraising efforts of groups such as Contemplative Dance who sponsored the Authentic Movement Gathering last summer.
There is a 25 page report from the AM Gathering last summer that is in need still of some editing and reformatting. We are working on that but decided to share the pages with you before we got all that work done.
Our plan is to do a final editing the week of October 24th --31st.
We are hoping to have the entire page ready to send to all 60 who attended the Gathering within the next few weeks and then to launch to even larger community in the near future. So let us know your thoughts.
Thanks for your help! We have had fun doing this, while we are amazed at all the little details!
With tons of love for everyone!---Elizabeth
Site address: www.authenticmovementcommunity.org
Putting a web site together is a series of hundreds small decisions. Many of them are not easy to change once they are set up. So we have made our best guess and hope it will work well enough. The goal is something easily readible and accessible, inviting and inclusive. We made the decisions we have made based on our sense of the consensus of those who contributed ideas through the blog. So we are checking first with you as a group as to whether we have implemented something close to your ideas.
So here are some specific questions to answer for us:
- Does the site look like it will meet the needs of the overall community?
- Does the site seem easy to understand and use?
- Are there typos or links that do not work for you?
- Can you easily tell how to submit your information for the Directory and how you would be able to use it? (Pay pal is not up yet but the instructions are there.)
- Do you see how to find the Classified ad page and how you could place an ad?
- What might help a non-web-savvy person find things?
- How we might improve instructions on how the web site links work?
Check out the site at www.authenticmovementcommunity.org
The site will not cost us much money to administer. We are charging a membership fee to access the directory (anyone can be listed for free) and a publishing fee for the classified ads. Any money we collect in excess of our expenses will go into a fund to develop the web site and potentially as a gift to the fundraising efforts of groups such as Contemplative Dance who sponsored the Authentic Movement Gathering last summer.
There is a 25 page report from the AM Gathering last summer that is in need still of some editing and reformatting. We are working on that but decided to share the pages with you before we got all that work done.
Our plan is to do a final editing the week of October 24th --31st.
We are hoping to have the entire page ready to send to all 60 who attended the Gathering within the next few weeks and then to launch to even larger community in the near future. So let us know your thoughts.
Thanks for your help! We have had fun doing this, while we are amazed at all the little details!
With tons of love for everyone!---Elizabeth
Site address: www.authenticmovementcommunity.org
posted by Elizabeth Reid at 8:17 AM
13 Comments:
From Paula Sager
Dear Elizabeth & Ann -
This is all very exciting....
And already a web site in the making!
I haven¹t had a chance to look at everything but I thought I better send you
a first round of feedback, otherwise if I wait until ³I¹m ready² it may not
happen.
The most important and biggest response I have for you both is: YEAH!
Meanwhile here are a few detail-oriented thoughts:
I was not able to access the report from the ³Our Purpose² list but I could
get to it from the sidebar link. (I won¹t have time to read through the
whole report or respond re that today.)
Here are some editorial comments re the What is Authentic Movement? section:
1. I would think about switching the ³goals² of the first two categories
(meditative, therapy)
I.e. ³as a meditative, spiritual practice to increase the capacity for
consciousness.
(I don¹t think consciousness itself is a quantifiable thing in itself that
you can measure increases and decreases of)
And, ³as therapy, to increase mindfulness and well-being (or a word like
well-being..)²
(I think of mindfulness as a tool to develop consciousness and the increase
of mindfulness might therefore be considered therapeutic i.e. How
mindfullness is taught for pain tolerance or reduction.)
2. In the paragraph that begins: ³AM is used as a part....² Does it work for
you to add, in the beginning of that sentence, ³AM can be a discipline unto
itself and/or can be used as a part of many different...²
3. Is there a way to have the last paragraph express the fact that the
absence of an accreditation system is intentional, reflecting some of the
core philosophies of the work? Right now it sounds like something negative,
that should be reported to the ³proper authorities.²
My last comment (for today!) is more of a personal aesthetic comment that I
hesitate to even say because I¹m just so thrilled about all the work you
both have done, so please don¹t put much weight in it.
I really like the curve of the letters and the font choice for the logo, but
I¹m not crazy about the spiral squiggle. For me, it doesn¹t really fit well
in the curve shape and so I¹m sure what it¹s wanting to convey.
Overall though, I think the site is really clear and accessible and that it
will open up a whole new world of possibility.
Sending you my deep appreciation and good wishes.
Love,
Paula
Thank you for these thoughtful comments. I will post them on the blog. This is just the kind of thoughtful feedback I was hoping for. I will think thru how to rewrite and add your ideas to the Authentic Movement section.
On the logo, Joan agrees with you. I thought it might express our circle reaching out to the larger world. I am sure that someone has more artistic and aesthetic sense of this. Hopefully they might offer some help on this. We are not wedded to anything except maybe the color of the pages.
Also thanks on the link. We will check those again. Elizabeth
From Mary Ramsay
Bravo Elizabeth and Ann. Will take a closer look but want to thank you both for making this happen...I really appreciate the time and energy you have given and the careful listening and inclusiveness with which you have approached this. Mary
From Alison Buck
Hi Elizabeth
Thanks for keeping me in the loop, with what's going on. I am so happy to
know of the great progress. I am sorry to say that I am overwhelmed
currently with life here on a number of levels, and don't know if I will be
free enough to get to doing a review at this time. I will if I can. I am
gathering you need feedback by Oct. 31st.
Best regards,
Alison
From Ann McNeal
Thank you, dear Mary. It was partly the wonderful report (how did
you pull all that together?!) that inspired us to go for it.
love,
Ann
Ann and Elizabeth,
Here's a little technical improvement I imagined in reveiwing the mock-up. Putting a link to the top of the page, the home page and maybe to other sections of the site at the bottom of each page.
You are making a great resource available to the world. I will help as much as I can.
Michael
Thanks Michael... I agree that would be a good addition. I really love that the work has divided out and you are helping. I hope each piece will be manageable and more pieces will be added with time. --Elizabeth
From Mary Ramsay
Hi Elizabeth and Ann,
I think the site works very well to get us started. Will the AM Report page be there in the future for other papers and will there be a process for posting a paper? Will there be access to the blog via this site or some other chat room type option so people can have "conversations" with each other? I can't say I'm too fond of the logo though...I see its intention metaphorically but think we should develop an image from the start that "brands" us more aesthetically. Do we have a graphic designer in our midst who may be willing to give us few images gratis? My 2 cents...thank you for all your hard work. Best, Mary
From Martha Lask
Elizabeth and Ann,
I apologize for my tardiness - I think I have made it under the wire for
your deadline. I love the site! I think it is warm, personal, "tender",
inviting. I found it very easy to follow and understand. It was clear to
me how I would place an ad and be listed in the directory and am ready to do
so.
I had one tiny ( and I mean tiny) comment - In the fourth bullet of the home
page, second line, it now reads "..if volunteers step forward to create." I
would change the "if" to "as volunteers step forward to create"
Bravo and thank-you! I really appreciate your work and initiative in making
this happen!
Also, my schedule has cleared some so I am willing and able to do a little
more work. Let me know, if you have an idea of something that requires
doing. Otherwise, I will wait and see..
Very Best,
Martha
Martha Isobel Lask
Organization Development,
Coaching and Executive Exchange
120 West Mt Airy Avenue
Philadelphia PA 19119
215-247-1740
Great change if small! Thanks so much for your offer. We will let you know if we need something. Let us know if you have an idea for something you would like to do!
we are getting very close to sending a letter to all who attended the Gathering and more.
Elizabeth
Hi Everyone
Happy launching!!!
Thank you Ann McNeal and Elizabeth Reid for the careful, inclusive way you've created this web site. Also,
-Mary Ramsay for the incredible report you've provided and your helpful suggestions re the web site
-Paula Seger for your supportive, insightful and detailed editing
-Michael Gardos-Reid for your many philosophical and practical ideas re the directory.
- Carol Zahner for taking care of the classifieds
- Alison Buck for your supportive & encouraging remarks
and last, but not least- Martha Lask for your faith that volunteers will step forward!
I have one question.
Would it be possible to put the "buttons" eg home, about us, classifieds etc horizontally, rather than vertically? I think would be more pleasing aesthetically.
Looking forward to getting the directory up and running. Please be patient with me if your entry takes a while to appear!
Christine Draper
From Donna Blank
Dear Elizabeth and Ann,
What a beautiful job you have done with the website! Thanks you so much for putting your hearts and minds and toil into it.
I love the colors, the writing, and the simple invitation to close one's eyes and listen to the breath. So simple and inviting.
The only little edit I see is in the first paragraph, Our Purpose: 2nd line: 'that is as a place'
Is the 'as' unecessary?
I so look forward to the release of the website. I only hope that my complex relationship with paypal, due to spam, will work. Will there be any other alternative to paying if there is a problem?
Is there any other help you need? I have been out of town, so am tardy in responding, but am available now.
Again, thank you for your wonderful work! Blessings on its launch! Donna Blank
There is an alternative to Paypal for payment. Just below the paypal button find an email link to email me and I will send instructions on how to use postal mail and check to pay. Thank you for your suggestions!--Elizabeth
PS to Donna Blank
I am sorry to hear you had a problem with Paypal... I hope they have gotten better with security issues. The process seems to have many securtiy check in it now. Easy solutions vs safe solutions are always complicated choices, right...
I remember from the summer that technology may not be a love of yours so thanks for taking the time to check on how we have done and find an error. We are collecting these error and plan to edit a bit later. We are hoping the announcement letter can go out at the end of next week.
Karen Kornhause called this morning to wish us well with the launch. She suggests we change the word "practioner" to pioneer in the sentence in the Authentic Movement definition section that includes Mary Whitehouse, Joan Chodorow and Janet Adler.
She also wants a quote added to the end of the section in the report Authentic Movement and Creative Expression: Making/Process. After a bullet she wants it to read
* Quote from Mary Whitehouse, "What we create first is ourselves and it is out of ourselves that the producing comes."
On her wish list is a personal connections page where people can place requests for dyads, peer groups, places to stay while visiting. She may have time to develop this for the site after she moves into new living space next month.
See her full thoughts under the Creating Safety post above.
Elizabeth
Post a Comment
<< Home