[psych-hr] Note from the moderator

Greetings to all from your friendly moderator!

It's a BEAUTIFUL spring day in Washington, D.C.-- the flowers are out and the 
trees have their leaves; Washington's Spring at its finest.

I am writing this e-mail to all of you for three reasons:

1. Request your vote on when you want to receive the remaining bios.
2. Share with you how/when I plan to start weighing in as moderator to move
the discussion along once we have enough comments on the IPEDEHP case study.
3. Share with you my pending travel plans (May 22 - June 12) and how that
will affect my role as moderator.

Here goes....

1. REQUEST YOUR VOTE ON WHEN YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THE REMAINING BIOS

I currently have another 4 or 5 bios waiting to be sent out. In that regard, 
it's still not too late to send in your "vote" on whether you want to wait 
until our web site is up in order to see your colleague's bios, or whether
you want to continue receiving them in small chunks (as I did a little over
a week ago) PLUS having all of them go up on the web for you to peruse at
your leisure. 

Thus far I have three votes--2 in favor of the "small chunks" approach; 1 in 
favor of waiting to put everything at one time up on the web; which means 
that as of today there is a "majority" vote for the "small chunks"
approach. 

I will be happy to receive any and all votes between now and Tuesday, May 
18. At that point I will go with the majority vote I have as of that date.

2. WEIGHING IN AS MODERATOR TO MOVE THE DISCUSSION ALONG ONCE WE HAVE ENOUGH  
COMMENTS ON THE IPEDEHP CASE STUDY

As you can see from e-mails over the past week (with a [psych-hr] in front of 
them), we have comments thus far on the IPEDEHP case study from three
members of the discussion group--Mike Wessells, Anne Anderson, and Anwar
Wadi. Many thanks to the three of you for your very thoughtful comments! 

I know, from side communications, that a number of you are working on your 
comments, quite a feat since I realize that you are very busy people with 
many commitments.

Assuming that, between today and Thursday, I get three or four more
comments (or maybe even more)on the IPEDEHP case, I will on Friday (May 21)
--in addition to sending them out -- draft, as moderator and in order to
further guide the discussion, an e-mail to all of you with comments on the
comments thus far, e.g.: 

-- what are the overall reactions to the case study and comments on the 
specific topics that have come in thus far, 
-- what are the questions that have been raised that are worthy of further 
reflection within the group, 
-- where might we--based on the collective comments thus far--want to take 
the discussion. 

Our hope is to use the IPEDEHP case to launch what will be a VERY rich 
discussion which, as we move on, permits us to learn from everyone's
experiences. 

3. MY PENDING TRAVEL PLANS: MAY 22 TO JUNE 12

Just to let you know that I will be leaving for Guatemala for three weeks on 
Saturday, May 22 returning to Washington on Saturday,June 12. The first week 
I will be out of commission as I will be playing tourist in Guatemala with my 
two daughters who are accompanying me. 

However, the next two weeks (starting May 31) I will be on work status and 
will be able, from a distance, to continue moderating the discussion 
(although I will not have as frequent access to e-mail as I currently do 
working out of my home). 

I will, by the way, be doing a consultancy on parent/community participation 
in the Quiche area of Guatemala, an indigenous area hit very hard by the 
violence of the past decades which as it turns out, is quite relevant to the 
discussion group. I am fortunate to have within this internet discussion 
group two individuals--Brinton Lykes and Joanie Connors--who know the region 
well and who have kindly made themselves available to give me background
information! My sincere thanks to both.

Back to the first item in this e-mail, please get back to my by COB, Tuesday 
May 18 (if you have strong feelings one way or another) with your "vote" on 
receiving the bios.

Warm regards,

Marcy