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Commissions
and Reports
March 15, 2004
Communication Commission Report
M Karol (Chair)
K Chipman
P Wright
March 2004
Communication with our members and with other organizations is now almost
exclusively via electronic means. As a result, communications is much
faster, but also more frequent as there is little hesitation to “send
a quick note”. In addition to email, communication via the website
has also increased in volume and become more current.
IUTOX WEBSITE
The new IUTOX website <http://www.iutox.org/>
was launched nearly a year ago (in April 2003), and there has been regular
ongoing interaction between Paul Wright (website moderator) and Meryl
Karol (Chair of the Commission) with Shawn Lamb and Debbie O'Keefe at
AIM (the IUTOX secretariat management firm and website redesigners), to
ensure that new items and updated information is uploaded to the website
as necessary.
The following is a brief summary of website usage statistics:
1. Usage during this period steadily increased until Nov. 2003, and then
picked up again in Feb. 2004. Approximated monthly usage (number of hits
to "/iutox/index.asp"):
Apr. 2003 ((combined new & old website usage) 395
May - Aug.2003 630-685
Sep - Nov. 2003 860-750
Dec.03 - Jan. 04 580
Feb. 04 710
2. The most frequented
areas of the IUTOX website (those most often with >20
hits/month):
- conference-related
areas (i.e. ICT X; 5CTDC; other meetings; fellowship information; proceedings
of ICT-IX)
- membership information
(society members & information)
- newsletter
- activities (RASS,
IART, IARC - GM foods, etc.)
- toxlink
It appears
that the new IUTOX website is a big success as it is steadily gaining
in usage rates, which should improve with regular emailed
reminders to member
societies, with a request to forward the email amongst
their membership.
Detailed lists of usage for each area and sub-area have been provided by
AIM and are available on request from EC members. We are very grateful
to Shawn
Lamb, Debbie O'Keefe and the team at AIM for producing and supporting an
eye-catching website that is easily opened and user-friendly in format.
We would like to remind the Executive Committee that a password-protected
section is available for their use and it will be intended to use this
for making fellowship
applications available very soon. and
a reminder of access details will be provided at the IUTOX/EC Meeting in
Baltimore.
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
During 2003, the decision was made to use the electronic medium,
rather than a hard copy Newsletter, to communicate news items
to our membership.
We are
very pleased with the scrolling “news” item format that has
been incorporated into the IUTOX website and provides late-breaking news.
Such
items as fellowship availability, upcoming meetings, and issuance of reports
have
been posted. In addition, under the direction of Kevin Chipman, the Commission
reports are posted under Meetings and Publications. This format seems to
be popular with the membership who appreciate learning of current information
and have reported few problems accessing the information.
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