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STILLWATER HOMESCHOOL ALLIANCE
~Building Understanding and Perspective~
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Vol. 1, Issue 5, Weekly Edition
Monday, February 13, 2006
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We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Aristotle
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-SHA Mission Statement
The mission of the Stillwater Homeschool Alliance is to build an association of homeschoolers to work on issues directly related to advocacy, building on our individual talents and our unique experiences as homeschoolers. Empowerment to advocate both individually and cooperatively on our own behalf is key to sustaining and, in some cases, reclaiming homeschooling freedoms, thereby promoting a more informed, cohesive, and effective homeschooling community.
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The Stillwater Homeschool Alliance Discussion List
Interactive communications for the week of
Feb 07-13 at the group discussion list:
Current Membership: 240 Members (10 new members this week)
Discussion Level: 13 New Messages (this week)
Sample post:
To: StillwaterHomeschoolAlliance@yahoogroups.com
From: Helen
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 09:33:46 -0800
Subject: [StillwaterHomeschoolAlliance] A Larger Coalition
We have a good infrastructure built now to work on developing this Alliance, and I’m confident that the work being done on the SHA-related lists will continue to help this Alliance move forward and become a good resource for homeschooling families and for those seeking information about homeschooling.
Now I’d like to work on the second prong of this whole concept, which is the Coalition, which I envision as a large umbrella group for anyone supportive of educational freedoms and individual empowerment. I suppose you could say the Stillwater Homeschool Alliance is the first member group of the Coalition. 
I definitely see these two groups as being totally different and working completely separately, and even perhaps disagreeing on a few points, but also having a symbiotic relationship.
I’d like to come up with a good name for the larger effort – and I don’t have any preconceptions about one. Once we have a good name I’ll start a new list for those interested in working on the broader effort. And while we’re on the subject of names, I’ve been thinking of this larger group as a coalition, but if there’s another word which works better I’m certainly open to changing it.
Helen
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SHA Discussion Groups:
Beginning with this issue we’ll include a representative post from each list every week.
SHA-GovWatch Discussion List
[the newest SHA group] 6 new members – no messages
This is a discusion list that will discuss and explore government actions that could have an impact on individual home educators or the homeschooling community.
Sample post:
No posts to this list yet
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SHA-Assistance Discussion List
17 new members – 22 new messages
A networking group for coordinating assistance to homeschooling families.
Sample post:
To: SHA-Assistance@yahoogroups.com
From: “dwarfbree”
Date: Thu, 09 Feb 2006 20:39:32 -0000
Subject: [SHA-Assistance] Re: who to contact for Katrina help
OK, Trixie and I will be seeing each other tomorrow and working out some details, but I have been thinking about good ways to do this stuff and we spoke on the phone for a bit and here are some of the ideas Trixie and I have come up with so far:
The main goal: to connect a needy family to a family that can help them. I think the best way to do this is I can post a list online of families, how many kids of what ages, and their needs and then we can point people who can help to that list and they can look around and see what family they think they can help. I’m a computer geek so I should even be able to whip up a nice little script that can somewhat automate this. I don’t think the online list should have any personal info (ie address, phone, email) as there are to many freaks out there (sad but true) but what we can do is when someone wants to help a particular family, we will forward the information to them. This does’t eliminate the freak danger, but generally trouble makers want the easy score, not something they have to work for. Maybe I should call the donating families personally and give them the contact info over the phone to add at least a little layer of screening to any wing nuts. I know from experience that there are a lot of folks out there on the internet that are really hateful towards our situation (and I’m not just talking about on the networking list, just last night playing poker online I was harassed by some schmuck), I certainly wouldn’t want to expose a needy family to that if it’s not necessary.
Finding the people in need: We can get word out to all of the local homeschool groups, though I am not sure what kind of contacts Trixie has outside the local area. I know I don’t have any in the Gulf Coast area at all outside the metro area here in New Orleans. If anyone has good contacts of people in other places that would be willing to help find families and get us their information, that would be very helpful. I would also be willing to make up some flyers (or some wonderful graphic artist someone knows could volunteer to do that) and print them up and post them around town here with some contact info if we end up with more donating families than needy families. I know that when a friend posted up my families story before Christmas, we got to many replies and told several families that our kids were already taken care of. Our group wasn’t really back together then so I didn’t have contact with anyone else with needy kids. It was kind of wasteful to have people who wanted to help, yet no one to point them at to be helped. I guess we will just have to see how this all works out.
Finding the donating families: Well it seems that people are already on this full steam ahead! It shouldn’t be to hard to get the word out on some lists and obviously people are already picking up the ball and running with this one.
The connection: We get the contact info to the donating family, and they can contact the family in need and work out the details. Shipments go directly to the needy family unless they have no place to get things, in which case we can use Trixie’s husband’s address and get them the stuff from there (BTW, I don’t think Trixie wants that address posted everywhere, only to be used as a last resort). The only problem with this would be if the needy families don’t have either an email, or phone contact that the helping family can contact. If that comes up we will just have to deal with it individually I guess. Everyone should at least have access to a phone they could call out on, so if this comes up we will just have to get the phone number to the family in need and have them call the donating family instead of the other way around.
The Donation: The needy family and the donating family can work out all of these details. If a shipping address is needed, we can use Trixie’s husband’s work addy. Any situations that fall through the cracks, I will just have to deal with personally (ie no phone, no mailing address, or the 17 other things that I am not thinking of yet).
OK, how many holes do ya’ll see?
todd
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SHA Issues Discussion List
37 members – 1 new member – 3 new messages
This is a discussion list for exploring issues affecting the homeschooling community in depth and sometimes at great length. This list will be moderated for civility.
Sample post:
To: SHA-Issues@yahoogroups.com
From: Helen
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 09:06:23 -0800
Subject: [SHA-Issues] Revisiting the Issues
I’d like to get this SHA Issues group back to discussing the issues again. The SHA Media group is working on PR and creating a pamphlet, the SHA Website group is working on building a website and blogs and more, and we need to find some common ground for discussing the issues which affect us all for presenting information about homeschooling to others.
I’m spread a little thin right now, but I know we’ve identified most of the issues already. Can someone give us a recap or a listing of the primary issues we need to discuss?
Thank you,
Helen
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SHA Legislative Discussion List
17 members – 2 new members – 3 new messages
This list is a gathering place for individuals involved with the Stillwater Homeschool Alliance who would like to share, discuss or learn more about the legislative process and how to protect our freedom to home educate with as few restrictions as possible.
Sample post:
To: SHA-Legislative@yahoogroups.com
From: “Ulrike”
Date: Tue, 07 Feb 2006 06:51:13 -0000
Subject: [SHA-Legislative] Re: Ulrike and other states who monitor legislation?
> I think many of you who joined have statewide lists that monitor legislation, yes?
I’m not aware of any Iowa state lists specifically for monitoring legislation here. That’s why I started my site.
Ulrike in Iowa
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SHA Media Discussion List
30 members – 2 New Members – 31 New Messages [1 New File ]
PR, Media Relations, Publishing, etc.
Sample post:
To: SHA-Media@yahoogroups.com
From: “N.McV.”
Date: Mon, 6 Feb 2006 15:15:29 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Re: [SHA-Media] Re: Projects
It’s helpful to sort the audiences into groups not only by who they are, but by what they need / want to know.
For instance — the info piece that I’d give to a curious supermarket cashier isn’t the same one I’d give to a neighbor who seems to be asking “Could I do that, too?”
The info I’d give a cop who’s just asked me why my kids are at the playground (when other kids are in school) is different that what I’d give a municipal (read “part-time”) politician who’s considering (again) a day-time curfew.
Can we come up with a list of specific audiences and the kind of info we need to have available for them?
(Yes, I know that most of us won’t walk around with a pocket full of brochures, but it’s helpful to have them readily available to download. You may meet the same cop, or neighbor, or town councilman again — maybe deliberately — and this time you’ll have that info for him or her.)
Nancy McVicker
NJHA
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SHA Website Discussion List
16 members – 1 new member – 16 new messages
Working group for the Stillwater Homeschool Alliance website.
Sample post:
To: SHA-Website@yahoogroups.com
From: Ron R
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2006 01:01:11 -0400
Subject: Re: [SHA Website] SHA Website Development Summary
SHA Website Development Summary
The group is composed of people with a wide variety of experience in publishing to the web. In the early stages of discussion, we considered various methods of maintaining content on the web. Prior to the creation of the SHA-Website list, there was an expressed interest in using Open Source tools to maintain the SHA site. There is a plethora of Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) available. The group evaluated a number of these tools and is down to choosing between two strategies for maintaining the site.
The group has also drafted a short list of features/content which would be either necessary or desirable for the SHA site. While that list is being finalized and the tool(s) selection is being considered, we have been working toward developing a theme/style/look for the site.
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Thanks for reading, and a special thank you to our volunteers who work to provide in- depth information and ideas that help to protect and maintain homeschooling freedoms.
Join us on the Stillwater Homeschool Alliance discussion list!
~Tracy Merritt and Helen Hegener, editors
Readers are encouraged to forward this newsletter in its entirety, including headers and footers, to others who might also find its contents helpful.
© 2006 STILLWATER HOMESCHOOL ALLIANCE (All rights reserved).
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Helen
mark
david