Bulletin Boards, Forums and Web Boards used as Virtual Committees

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Bulletin Boards, Forums and Web Boards used as
Virtual Committees
Jay Rumsey, OD, FAAO and Paul Abplanalp, PhD, OD
Purpose Within a busy professional college,
time for faculty committee meetings comes at a
premium. Different schedules, commitments and
responsibilities call for special solutions to
achieve a modicum of progress concerning college
business. Our purpose of this poster is to
compare and contrast different internet
applications and demonstrate the applicability
and usefulness of a web board (WB) for faculty
correspondence in the workings of a college
committee. Because the members are not required
to be physically present to conduct business in
cyberspace, we refer to this technique as a
Virtual Committee (VC). We intend to show that
the benefits of the VC to discuss and debate
committee business is well worth the effort to
set up a web board for active faculty committees.

• Virtual Committees on a Weboard
• Advantages
• Contributions and responses can be made at any
  time, hence no schedule conflicts.
• Achievement of a quorum to conduct business is
  not an issue because conflicts with classes and
  schedule overlaps does not occur.
• Participants have time to more carefully
  articulate and document their contributions.
• Committee meeting minutes are always displayed
  for review. This leads to fewer misquotes by a
  recording secretary concerning deliberations of
  the members.
• Fewer interruptions during VC contributions
  because member controls situation.
• Individual discussions and side topic tangents
  during the meeting are eliminated, but remains
  available as a new topic posting for further
  considerations.
• No need to wait for a full agenda to call a
  meeting for a committee action.
• Recorded contributions of VC members tends to
  lead to more civility at meetings.
• Improved efficiency and effectiveness of the
  committee.
• Disadvantages
• Sacrifice of the dynamism of body English and
  physical presence.
• Members must remember to log into VC at regular
  intervals.
• Electronic display is not best format for
  disciplinary hearings or legally obligated
  committees because of security concerns.

College of Optometry
Bulletin Boards Web Forums Bulletin Boards
(BBS) were one of the first methods of
information dispersal for an individual server.
Typically, information would be electronically
transferred to the individual in charge of server
maintenance. This person in charge would review
the information and determine the appropriate
posting and hence control publication.
Information in the form of text files could be
uploaded and downloaded from the server. Postings
only changed with revision by the host and were
not actively changed by the user without
interaction with the host. Web Forums (WF) are
a newer method of correspondence utilized on the
web. This application involves asynchronous
dialog among other users and moderators. The
topics of discussion are stored in 'threads' that
keep a chronological display of the dialog as it
occurs. Different threads are positioned at the
top of the queue and can be reviewed by initial
topic or question. Other viewers may respond to
the question or topic and express their views or
give their opinions of how to solve various
queries posed. As less and less dialog exchange
between other users or moderators occurs, the
link to the discussion 'bubbles down' the
selection list. As soon as discussion resumes,
the link is moved to the top of the queue
again. Forum side topics of the original
question are best served by creating a new and
totally different thread posting, so while the
information can be located by a 'search', the
comment or topic is not so tightly organized to
remain with the original posting.
Web Boards WB are an established method of
internet publication that is somewhat of a cross
between Bulletin Boards and Forums. With this
internet application, information and discussion
of topics are displayed in a fixed chronological
order, without the distraction of lead topics
changing moment-to-moment. Threads again are
used to organize and display by
expanding/contracting discussions. Should a side
topic to the main thread be created, the
information remains accessed in the original
posting and therefore leads to better
organization. We find this method better for
Virtual Committee use as it more closely follows
the actions of a committee following 'Robert's
Rules of Order'. There are fewer interruptions
in the discussion. Comments and actions more
closely follow the topic without the distraction
of interrupting with a new topic forcing it's way
to the top of the 'soap-box'.
Results We, at the College of Optometry, are
able to demonstrate the efficiency and usefulness
in the utilization of a web board to complete the
business and activities of faculty committees
within the scope of a virtual meeting.
Conclusions We can recommend this resource as a
valuable tool to complete college business within
the framework of elected and assigned faculty
committees.
Methodology A common university supported
faculty resource is a web board. A summarized
set-up and maintenance of this resource is
displayed below and can be found at
http//www.nova.edu/techtrain/web/wwwboard.html