WEBSITE UPDATE
Thank you to those of you that sent along feedback on our new website. I am happy to report that the feedback has been good and most of the inevitable bugs have been fixed and the site is stable.

We have a number of enhancements in the works for our website including banner ad capability, a public e-news sign up, and URLs for the networking groups (such as TAPG:  http://tapg.aee.org/ and EBTD is coming soon:  http://ebtd.aee.org/ ). A survey will be sent out early next year to determine the interest in social networking and document management tools.

www.aee.org Stats
The most frequently viewed pages (by UNIQUE VISTORS) on our website during October 2008:
1) 11,866 - Home Page (http://aee.org),
2) 4,464 - Conference Info (http://aee.org/conferences/annualIntlConf)
3) 1,209 - Search (http://aee.org/search/)
4) 885 - Regional Conferences (http://aee.org/conferences/regionalConf),
5) 824 - JEE (http://aee.org/publications/jee)
6) 788 - About (http://aee.org/about/)
7) 660 Contact (http://www.aee.org/contact/)
8) 274 - Accredited Programs http://aee.org/accreditation/AEEprograms)

ENEWS ONLINE
Thank you to those of you that have opened (about 40% of recipients), read, and clicked on (30%) the monthly e-newsletters. This is an effort we started in response to our member survey last spring. It is intended to serve you by keeping you up to date with members and trends in the fields that utilize experiential education. Archived issues are on our website at:  http://www.aee.org/AEENews/archive. Each update includes at least one story about or by a member and their work, recent news, alerts, and announcements from preferred partners offering discounts. I would be so grateful for your contribution to the e-news updates. Please contact me, kirsten@aee.org or 303-440-8844 x18.

The e-news updates are archived on website: http://aee.org/AEENews/archive and soon members of the public will also be able to sign up to receive them.

If you are a member and have not received the e-newsletter, contact me, kirsten@aee.org or 303-440-8844 x18. Check to see if it is going straight into your junk or spam folder and if so, right click on it and indicate that emails from membership@aee.org are safe.

CORE ONLINE
Increasing the research and evaluation resources available to you is a high priority for AEE. The efforts of the Council on Research and Evaluation have been coming to fruition and we hope they will serve progressively more of our members needing access to research. This initiative will also help us meet the Board of Director’s “ends” to “provide authoritative information for implementing and advancing the philosophy and practice of EE.”

Thank you to Mike Young, michael.young@unh.edu (NATSAP Research Coordinator, University of New Hampshire) and Tiffany Wynn, tiffany_wynn@hotmail.com (Clinician, Camp Mary Orton in Ohio) for the work they have put in to provide more research and evaluation links online:  http://aee.org/re. Please visit the site as it is underway and will be updated regularly in the months ahead.

PR PLAN
Under the leadership of our new CEO, Paul Limoges, AEE has begun work on a PR plan to better meet our mission to develop and promote experiential education. It is our hope that we can redefine experiential education in trade media and main stream media so that an increasing number of decision makers value and support experiential education. A couple of initiatives related to this include:  creating a list from our membership of Subject Matter Experts, creating a bank of press releases and announcements, building a calendar of when certain types of news are considered timely, and developing fact sheets on AEE and experiential education. We will be contracting with an international distribution service. Are you interested in or do you have experience with these types of initiatives? If so, please contact me, kirsten@aee.org or 303-440-8844 x18.
 

JOIN THE AEE LISTSERV

To join:  aeelist-join@aee.org

To submit:  aeelist@aee.org

With the reintroduction of our listserv, AEE hopes to provide our community with a forum to exchange ideas, share news, ask and answer questions, become aware of resources, and to advocate for the viability of experiential education.

Your peers will benefit if they hear from you. Please contribute to this listserv by joining and submitting content. Contact Kirsten at membership@aee.org with questions.

PARTICIPATE IN AEE MEMBER-TO-MEMBER DISCOUNTS 

List your company in the Member Handbook and online on the Members page to identify products/services that you would like to extend to other AEE members at a discount.

The purpose of this pilot program is to save you money, stimulate new business, and support fellow members. If interested, please contact Kirsten at membership@aee.org and provide the following information: name, contact information, product/service description and the amount of the discount proposed to all AEE members.