Recruit Leadership Group

Once you have secured their preliminary “buy in,” request that the leaders in your state suggest participants for an initial high-level planning group. We refer to this group as the Project Leadership Group. This ad hoc group can help you identify the appropriate purposes and goals for the development of your statewide repository and provide guidance during its initial phases. Members may also serve as important dissemination partners or contacts later in the project, but generally they will be engaged only in preliminary planning and developing the “big picture” of the repository, rather than the later, more detailed planning. This group will recommend people or assign staff who will do the detailed strategic planning that guides the project through initial implementation and beyond. Your group should select a point person or a project manager to oversee the activities of the Project Leadership Group.

Appointing members to the Project Leadership Group who will take a systems approach to the project helps create the overall vision and generate commitment from their various constituencies. Even though the makeup of the leadership group will vary, you should identify individuals in influential or senior positions within your state education system. We also suggest you enlist people with skills useful to the project, such as people with experience in implementing large scale projects, with library or information studies backgrounds, or with experience in the use of metadata in repositories.

In order to help prospective collaborators see the potential value of the project to their areas of expertise and leadership, the recruitment of members for the Project Leadership Group requires a considerable investment of effort. Here again, effective PowerPoint presentations or other visual aids are essential tools to communicate and illustrate your points. Creating an influential Leadership Group, representing your high-level state education leaders who will support your repository as the project progresses is a vital step.