Goals

• set up group mailing lists for each classroom
• lists to be used by parents only (I don't recall this being explicitly determined, but it has been announced to the PKB families list that way).
• communications coordinator expects to use it to solicit volunteers and find unique and exciting ways to work with parents to support the staff and classroom.
• any policy about the group usage should be flexible and minimal (within any privacy/security constraints that PBK may need to impose.)

It doesn't make sense to get into more detail that that -- obviously the way each classroom will use the lists will depend on what the classroom needs and what the parents want.

We do want to achieve a certain amount of consistency, however, so that parents who move between rooms will have one less new thing to figure out and so that new communications coordinators can be supported by existing ccs! I hope the groups we set up will long outlive our tenure as PKB parents.

Suggested Configuration

• A group for each class room (perhaps one group for Savannah/

Rainforest "combined" room?)

• Group named like: "Planet Kids Bellevue - Room Desert"

• mailing list name like: "pkb-room-desert@_groupservice_.com"

• Group set up with the following access:
  • Members must be approved before joining
  • Only members can post
  • Only members can read the archive

• Managers set to:
  • the communication coordinator(s) for the room
  • the master backup coordinator (password managed by the PKB club leads, w/copy on file with PKB)

• Description like: "Announcement/Discussion group for parents in the PKB Desert classroom"

Service Choices

If we just want basic email (and the ability to read both new and old messages on the web), then any of the most popular services meet our needs.

If want more features (especially the calendar. Can you tell I'm excited about the calendar?) then Yahoo groups seems to be the clear winner.

I've made a table of the different features the group services offer. I ignored solely cosmetic features (like their capabilities for customizing the appearance of the web portal the group provides). File storage seems irrelevant, but I included it for completeness.

Feature	Google (incl Beta)[1]	Yahoo	MSN Groups	Uses
email	yes, and digests	yes, and digests and group reports	yes, and digests and group reports	communications between parents archive of historical messages for families new to a classroom
calendar	no	yes	yes, only for @hotmail.com users	field trip dates "sound of the week" volunteer/visit schedules
polls	no	yes	no	confirming field trip/even attendance canvassing interest in special events
files	100 MB/group	20 MB/group	per user : 3MB
pictures	no (files, though)	no (files, though)	yes (part of file limit)
welcome page	yes
links	yes, via "pages" feature		yes	link to other PKB groups and sites
"database"	no	yes, can store structured tables	no	listing which parents go with which child signing up what to bring to a potluck, etc.
pros	PKB already uses (so most families will have an account	really extensive features!
cons	Fewest features available of all three services		calendar feature only available if people read the messages in a hotmail account (and hotmail can't be forwarded)

[1] Note that Google has a "Beta" link which gives a few more features than the default Google view. I included these features for comparison.

-- HeatherSherman - 10 Dec 2006
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