Convene Leadership Meeting
Once the Project Leadership members are recruited, convene a meeting to begin charting the project’s course. This group will likely meet only once. A face-to-face meeting is preferable. If necessary, meeting by conference call or via web conferencing is also an option, but is probably a better venue for any follow-up discussions rather than for the initial group meeting. The purpose of the initial meeting is to discuss overarching project issues: the purpose of the repository, who should be involved in its planning and implementation, and preliminary ideas about how the start-up and sustainability of the repository will be funded.
The Project Leadership Group should also address some fundamental questions about and reasons for a statewide repository. Some issues to tackle are as follows:
- What statewide problems might this project help to solve?
- What are the potential benefits (positive results) of this project for your state? This may include cost savings, improvements in teaching and learning, or other positive outcomes.
- What new opportunities can the project create for your state?
- What expected or emerging opportunities can this project capitalize on? Use your research and background reading to highlight any promising trends or developments in the repository field that may be of benefit to your stakeholders.
- What funding strategies are appropriate? Consider two funding pathways. First, if sufficient funding is available, you may want to implement a pilot or small scale repository instance. The information and data obtained from this small implementation can be used as a case study to justify future funding. The second option is to use your initial research to justify and request funding to initiate the large-scale project.
A worksheet [PDF] of possible questions for the Project Leadership meeting has been provided.
Also use this group to recommend people to serve as the project’s Strategic Planning Partners, who will further define the project. Some of the Project Leadership team members may be willing to serve themselves. If not, they should recruit or designate a staff member from their organization or institution to participate on their behalf.
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