In our group, we have two members that live outside of Indiana. One lives in California and the other currently resides in Japan. Because of these issues, we initally decided to conduct all our communication via email. We thought it would be easiest for everyone and would work best around our schedules. Unfortunately, within the first week of coming up with this idea, it was evident that it wasn’t going to work as no emails were really being sent back and forth, or if they were, they all seemed to be asking the same questions and no one was providing any answers.
We all agree the email is a great form of communication, but we came to the realization that it needed to be supplemented by using the designated chat room for our group. We decided to meet on Sunday nights at 8pm to chat for a bit. Only three of us were able to make it to the chat room meeting, but it was a great way to get ideas out there and get immediate response. We honestly got more done in just under an hour than we had through email all week. Also, because the chat room conversations are saved, those who were not able to make it can review the conversation and then use email to add anything they so choose to the conversation.
Thus, we have decided to utilize the weekly chat room meeting and continue using email. I think we definitely had some kinks to work out, but all seems to be more managable now.
