 Hello everyone. Hello. Welcome in. Okay. So we can go ahead and get started. So this is the August Open ed 21 community meeting. The very first thing is today's agenda. We have a few things mainly focused on strategic planning and the strategic vision discussion. We have mentee setup which will have for you to be able to respond during strategic planning as well as in the beginning for a few icebreakers. A quick operations update just to catch everyone up to speed and we'll go straight into strategic planning. So first things first. If you want, go ahead and open up a separate browser to set up your mentee. This is how you'll be providing feedback during the meeting. So take your time to go ahead and use the QR code as well here or the code which is 33784289. I love that Jeff. Well tell Rocket I said hi. Okay. If everyone is all set up, I can move to the next slide. So where are you joining from? Rhode Island, Texas, Illinois, North Dakota, Edmonton, of course, of course, Alabama. I went through Alabama on my way to Virginia. Did a cross country trip. New York, Georgia. Yep, passed by a corner of Georgia as well. Quebec. I love that Texas is front and center. Okay. Great. That's a great mix. All right. Next. This was a little fun. What is your dream summer vacation? Oh, I know who put that one. Iceland. Mountains. Ooh, Switzerland. Yes. Don't know if anyone's into sea dramas, the pennies dramas, but actually that was a K drama. Sorry. Crash Landing on You. Had a portion filmed in Switzerland and I was like, oh my goodness, it is just so gorgeous. So gorgeous. Iceland sounds good. Pennyware with a beach. Now I can't tell if that emoji is part of that one or that's just a separate emoji, just a drink emoji. Made in Rockies. Yeah. Haley, who I work with very closely, is in Canada and she sends us these nature photos and I'm like, wow, like Canada is just gorgeous. A COVID free utopia. Yeah. Okay. 100% agree with that. Okay. This is great. Dream summer vacation. All right. And we were moving on to an operations update. And so Nicole will take it from here. All right. Hello, everybody. Nicole Allen from Spark on the steering committee. Since we hold these meetings every month and for those that are joining us for the first time, we just like to give a quick overview of how the conference is organized and what to expect for the upcoming conference this fall. So the open education conference has been around. This will be the 18th year at the end of 2019, the conference transitioned to a two-year organizing structure supported by four organizations shown on the next slide. And the, Wendy, can you move the slide? Thank you. So that's OpenSax, Spark, the organization I'm with, the university system of Maryland, Corwin Center and the Colorado Department of Higher Education. And with the conference over the last two years, the charge that these organizations took on was to support the conference through a transitional period in 2020 and 2021 toward moving the conference to full community governance in starting in 2022. And the dual focus of our work has been organizing the conference's law, also allowing space for a strategic planning process to take place, which we'll hear about later on in today's conversation. So the steering committee is the, I guess, group that's running the meeting today, but on the next slide, you'll see information about the other committees that are part of this process. There's actually over a hundred people that have been involved in, from volunteering on proposal reviews and working on the various committees that are part of this. And we're just incredibly grateful to all of the community members that have helped shape the character of this year's conference. It's made last year's conference a really special event, and it's going to make this year's conference even better in new ways. So I just want to acknowledge all of the great committees. You can see more about the people who are on them in the link that Aisha just put in the chat. So moving on, just quick logistical updates on the 2021 conference. It's going to be held on October 18 through 22nd of this year, which is just over two months away. It's hard to believe that. It is going to be a virtual conference, and most of the schedules or live sessions are going to be scheduled during North American business hours centered on East Coast time, but there will be lots of prerecorded content and other activities happening before and after hours to engage people all around the world. And registration is open. The rates are set the same as last year at $75 for standard registration and $25 for students. And that's US dollars. And the registration process also welcomes organizations or system offices or states to contact us about group invoicing for registration. If you have a larger group, we don't have group rates, but we're happy to give you a code that you can use to register. All right. So I'm going to hand it over to David to talk about the scholarship process. All right. Hello, everybody. I would be remiss to start off without acknowledging the cats next to me that I've snuggled in. We have Lucy over here in her very famous open education sweater and matching button. And then Ziggy. I saw the call for the rocket camp, so I thought I had to do that just to make sure that everybody knew there is more than one open-ed animal. Rocket is pretty tight up in the fabric, but we also got Lucy. We got to put some respect on the cat. Where's the hoodie? It's on here right now. It's this one. We actually re-embroidered it too to add the wording to be a bit more solid too, so it's like even more customized. But delving into the meat of the agenda, we got the scholarship process. Nicole mentioned that registration is going, and if there is a barrier to access, if there's a barrier to engaging in the conference because of that registration fee, there is a scholarship process available. It's open right now. You should be able to see the chat for the link for that, and anybody who might be prevented from taking part in the conference because of cost is highly encouraged to apply. That includes students, international participants, people without institutional funding, anybody who would face some form of barrier. Oh, that looks like Rocket's very excited to join the community call. But the thing is the priority deadline for the scholarships is today. So that's the priority deadline. You can still apply after today, but if you apply today, your application will be prioritized. So apply as soon as possible. The priority deadline is today. Now alongside the scholarship process, we also have a programs update, which is fantastic to see. See the proposal review process as actually completed with more than 100 people involved in the review it. So just a quick second round of applause for everybody who participated in that. I know there's countless hours, lots of work from all of the volunteers, all of the committee members. So snaps to that. Thank you for everybody for participating in that. We have actually accepted over 200 sessions, and there's some really, really exciting topics. I know every year their proposal review process is one of my favorite things because it's just a fantastic way to build excitement about the process about the committee or sorry about the conference because you get all of the fun ideas and it's honestly like Christmas morning where you get to see all the fun things and all the possible conference sessions that happen. So the program itself will include both live and pre-recorded sessions. So there's going to be a mixture of both, which is really good if you want to engage with some and there's somebody kind of put off to the side and watch later at your own time during the conference. So that'll be really useful to be able to have that flexibility there. And we also have updates on our keynote lineup and our full schedule. Those will be coming in the next few weeks. So keep an eye out for that. There's going to be some some pretty fun big announcements around there. So that's kind of the main update for the program right now. Keep an eye out in the next couple of weeks for keynotes as well as the full schedule. And thanks all for coming today. I'll pass it off to Hayley for some strategic planning updates. Sure. Thank you so much, David. I'm not sure if I'll be able to follow up cats and sweaters, but I will do my best to present something interesting to you all today. So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Hayley. I am an open education project manager here at Spark. So I've been helping out with mainly the strategic planning process side of the work that we're doing here. So yeah, very excited to give a really quick update on what we've been working on. And we have something very exciting to share with you today. So we'll head to the next slide. I guess before I get into arching announcement, I guess just a background on the strategic planning process and committee in general. So we've been formally the strategic planning committee for a few months now and really diving deep into answering this question of what's going to happen to the conference after this two-year commitment comes up that the interim organizing partnership has taken on. So obviously, as we come up on OpenEd 21, that will mark the second conference that this body and its current form will be carrying through. And we're currently engaging with the community to help us figure out what's going to come next. So throughout all of this, our goal that has been centering us in our work is just our intent to build a sustainable and really truly community-governed conference that centers the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. So that's been at the heart of everything we've been working on over the past few months. So in light of that, we're very excited to be able to share sort of the first product of this work. And that is our draft strategic vision. So this has been developed by the OpenEd Strategic Planning Committee in partnership with our consultant that we've been working with, but also drawing upon feedback that's already been given to us by the community, either through these community calls, through other feedback mechanisms at the conference, what have you. So we're very excited. We've got a product that we think is going to be very exciting to be putting out for community consultation. So at this point, Aisha, if we could really quickly drop the link to the blog itself. This document will sort of outline a little bit of the background. Oh, you've got it already. Amazing. The background of sort of how this came about, some details on how you can get involved and a link to the vision itself, which we'll be talking about a little bit later today. So feel free to sort of cruise that. So what this document is, is it outlines our proposed mission, vision, values and approach to how we do the work. It's intentionally, you know, a shorter, more concise document that is going to be at the heart of everything that comes next. So everything, when we're talking about, you know, operational structures or governance of the conference, all of that will be informed by sort of the shared values, vision, mission that we've articulated on this document. So it's extremely important that we have as much community feedback as possible in order to have a product that's, you know, truly representative of the community that we are doing our best to serve. So that's open to you now. We'll go ahead to the next slide. So you'll have a couple options to actually share your thoughts with us. We've got some asynchronous and synchronous options. So asynchronously, we actually invite you to comment directly on the draft itself. And we've got a couple options for that. We do have a Google doc where you can utilize the comment function. And that is linked on both the blog post and sort of the consultation page on our website, which there's links to the chat available, links in the chat available now. And then also using Hypothesis, which is actually a tool that I hadn't used before this process, but that I think is so cool. So if you are, if you do have a Hypothesis account, you can actually comment directly on the text as it appears on the website. So a couple options for you there. If you are the kind of person who wants to sort of really dive into this with other people and chat it through, we are offering a few interactive sessions where you'll be able to join us and share your thoughts verbally. We'll have somebody available to capture those and make sure they get shared with the committee. And I'll share those details in just a second. But if we could just go back to the last slide really quickly, I think there was something else. Oh yes, the consultation period does close on September 3rd at midnight. So that's a Friday. So you will have a few weeks to sort of chew on this a little bit, think about it and share your comments with us. Now we can go ahead. So who can participate, everyone? We, you know, we, like I said before, the more input that we have, the more that this is really going to be reflective of the entire community. So, you know, it's really important to us that we have folks from all different sorts of professional roles, backgrounds, geographic locations, you know, what have you, everyone who's interested in this work, you know, we really invite to feel empowered to be a part of the process and participate however they can. So yeah, definitely feel welcome. We'll move ahead. Here's the details for the interactive sessions. We will be doing a little bit of sort of Mentimeter first reaction, but I know not everyone will have had a lot of time to really fully dive into the draft as we sort of just shared it with you. But this is just sort of meant to get you thinking. And then if you want to dive in deeper, encourage you to attend one of these sessions, we've intentionally sort of held them at different time zones, time frames to accommodate people in different geographical areas. So hopefully there is one in there that will work for you. So as you go through the doc, just a couple questions to sort of prime you and think about, you know, what is it that we're really looking to get to the bottom of. So first of all, like I mentioned, the document is relatively concise. Is it clear? Does everything come across properly? Do you have enough context to understand, you know, whether or not this accurately captures the values and goals that we all hold as a community? And then is there any sort of important themes that are missing or under emphasized through this? Great. So at this time, I'll sort of hand things over to Lee Miller, who's a member of our strategic planning committee and has been, you know, an incredible sort of advocate throughout this process to sort of go through some preliminary discussion questions. And I'll be available to answer any questions as well. But Lee, why don't you take it away? Awesome. Thank you, Hailey. So like Hailey said, we understand that you guys may just be seeing this for the first time, but we did want to go ahead and just get some initial reactions and just go ahead and do some prompting questions. So the first one is what are some immediate reactions to the draft strategic vision? And we can pause here for just a second. So you do have a few minutes to look at. And then you can just drop in your comments into the Mentimeter. Perfect. Yeah, thanks, everyone. It's a we intentionally wanted to leave sort of a long feedback process to let everyone really think about this. It's really an important question. Like these are the sort of foundational documents that'll be carrying us through the next chapter of the conference. So it's been a very exciting process to be a part of. MVP. Awesome. Thanks, everyone. Okay. I think the process by itself has just even helped identify and just be able to actually articulate what some of those are in terms of, you know, in line with values as a kind of a collective. So that's great. It's absolutely makes it powerful to become more global, multilingual. Great. Yeah, this is all awesome feedback. Well, perhaps we'll move along. We've got a couple of questions just to sort of go a little bit more in depth. Okay. Oh, opening up for comment much appreciated. So yeah, if we want to go ahead and go to the next question. Thanks everybody for your feedback. So what do you enjoy about the draft? Is there something specific that really stands out to you? I think a few may have been commented earlier, but concise, clear. Yeah, something that we worked on as a committee going through just different sort of versions and drafts was a sort of an exercise of like, okay, what are some awards we can give? What are some things you like? We really enjoy. And then what are some things we might change? So being sure to sort of take those two things hand in hand. So we'll get into the second half of that question after this. But just noticing there's a comment in the chat. So if you're on Mentineer on a device, there may be a little flag sort of at the top of the screen thing to you can move to presenter slide that may be able to help you along. It's good to hear seems like a strong foundation. Thank you. That's encouraging. Definitely a goal. Let's go ahead and go to the next question. All right. And by the way, you can still keep answering those questions, right? Haley, outside of just this presentation, is that still correct? Like it was in the other community meetings? Sorry, at least. So this link will be open for a little while afterwards. Is that what you did? Yes. I believe so, but we could definitely ensure that that advocates. People are able to go back and keep filling stuff up. Okay. All right. So yeah, just keep that in mind that you guys can definitely continue if you do have other additional comments. But the next question is what would you change about the draft? I see some of you have already added. So it's like adding context, translation, so the multilingual piece. That's a great, great suggestion. You have a good point. Open education by itself is not defined. And links to other documents had voice and authorship. Differentiating open education from open educational resources, a couple notes about defining open education, some links, additional context, totally. Yeah. These are all great observations. Would definitely welcome, you know, if you have sort of more like specific items you want to comment on, please do, you know, go ahead and do that in the draft. But of course, there is, you know, quite a bit of time left. Great. Okay. Thanks, everyone. We'll go ahead and go to our last question. What else should we keep in mind as we go about the consultation process? So I think just, you know, we've got, we sort of set up this consultation process based on, you know, some questions that we asked at the last community meeting. This question is just more to hear your feedback about process. And is there anything else that we could do to sort of more accurately, you know, capture community voice or any recommendations you have for us as we sort of navigate this for the next few weeks? Avoiding group thinking? Definitely. Definitely for many people in mind. Reaching out to learners for feedback? Okay. Awesome. Yeah, that's something that's been really top of mind through the process. How do we engage our learners? Being open to outsider opinions. People can be insular at times. Time frame makes it hard. Would you mind dropping in the chat what you mean by time frame? Makes it hard. Are you talking about, unless you want to keep yourself anonymous and that's fine? Right. Yeah. Return to school in the fall. Okay. So just remember this is open. There's a lot across a lot of different opportunities for you guys to engage with this document. We'd love to hear more feedback. But I'll go ahead and we've passed it over to Tiffany to close us out. Okay. So I'm sorry. Right. As you said that, I put something in my mouth. So okay. So our next meeting is on September 10th at 1 to 2 p.m. Eastern. Don't forget to follow us on social media. So it's still at hey open ed for all of the accounts. And then our official hashtag is hashtag open ed 21. So if you're not already following us, please do. And I'm going to put the link here for September's meeting in the chat. And thank you everyone for joining us. Like I said, if you're not already following us, please do. We'll leave this up for just a second. But otherwise, thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks so much, everyone. And yeah, like I said, more if you're interested in chatting further, do attend one of those sessions. And we look forward to getting your feedback. Thanks so much. Thank you.