Online seminars: CSBA uses Web to deliver updates around the state
Published: September 1, 2006
There were only a few staff people in the room when Rick Pratt, CSBA’s assistant executive director for Governmental Relations, began a recent briefing on the state’s new education budget. Dozens of CSBA members benefited from his insights, though, following along with his explanations and PowerPoint illustrations and asking questions from the comfort of their own offices around the state.
It was the latest in CSBA’s growing series of virtual online seminars, also called Web casts or Webinars. They’re a powerful and convenient tool for sharing information, one that will see increasing use as the association continues to seek efficient and cost-effective ways to keep its busy members informed.
“Think of it as, you’re calling [meeting participants] in a conference room,” Kelly Lawrence, the account manager from vendor WebEx Communications Inc. explained in a training demonstration of the technology earlier in the month. “People don’t have to physically be there.”
For Pratt’s online seminar, his voice and PowerPoint slides traveled over the Internet to off-site participants. Live video and other features could have been added to the presentation, but it was decided to forgo those in order to reduce the amount of bandwidth that the online seminar would have taken up in recipients’ online capacity.
As he wound through the complicated, $55.1 billion education budget, Pratt expanded on his prepared presentation with clarifying remarks that provided an inside view of the political machinations that go into the annual budget negotiations. He explained, for example, that the new state budget contains $650 million for revenue equalization for school districts but none for county offices of education. “We tried to get equalization money for COEs too, but were unsuccessful,” Pratt noted.
He provided many useful Web site addresses to visit for additional information, such as the state Department of Education’s clearinghouse for information on the After School Education and Safety Program (www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ba/as/), which is fully funded at $550 million for the first time this year under Proposition 49.
Off-site participants were able to e-mail in questions throughout the presentation, and Pratt opened the discussion to audio questions after completing his prepared remarks. A hand icon showed up on the software control screen’s roster of participants’ names when people signaled their interest in asking a question, and a telephone handset icon indicated who was speaking. One participant who had e-mailed a question was asked to clarify the information she was seeking, and she and Pratt engaged in an illuminating dialogue.
Pratt promised to follow up on a couple of remaining questions as the hourlong virtual seminar wound down, and he referred participants to the online budget advisory that CSBA’s Governmental Relations Department has prepared. He’ll also be making his budget presentation at the six Back-to-School sessions scheduled around the state this month.
Additional virtual seminars are on tap on other topics, including an Oct. 19 presentation on CSBA’s 2006 Agenda Online service. To find out about future online seminars, go to the association’s Web site and click on “Events Calendar.” CSBA events listings can be sorted by date, event and location; to see other online seminar opportunities, just click on “location” and look for those that are listed alphabetically under “Online.”
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