ODA Committee Update
September 30, 2002

How the ODA Committee will be Streamlining its Email Updates to Serve You Better ONTARIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT COMMITTEE UPDATE September 30, 2002 SUMMARY The ODA Committee here announces its strategy for streamlining its email updates for you. We want to keep everyone informed. We also understand that some people, while eager to learn about the latest developments on the ODA front, do not have time to read numerous long emails. OUR STRATEGY The ODA Committee believes that it is very important to keep everyone fully informed about what is happening on the ODA front, as we forge ahead with our campaign for a barrier-free Ontario for 1.9 million people with disabilities. We face a dilemma. On the one hand, people want to know what is happening, and want to know as soon as possible. On the other hand, some people find the amount of information we send out very large. They can be hard to get through when you have a busy day and tons of other email to read. It may be hard to know which of our updates are really important, and which are less pressing. We don't want to hold back or censor information, or prevent people from getting all the information. We also feel it is very important for you to be able to form your own judgements on what the politicians and political parties are saying, doing and announcing. Thus, we do not want to just send out brief edited reports. We want to share with you their actual words. Also, because we are a volunteer-driven organization, we just do not have the resources to keep separate email lists ie. one list for those who want all the details and another list for those who just want short reports. We have a solution. We hope it works and welcome your feedback as you try to take advantage of it. We have been gradually implementing it. We are going to include three shortcuts in every email we send out. We hope these will enable you to get through the material quickly, to decide if you want to read the longer materials. First, we will include a "header" in the subject line of the email which is designed to alert you to the focus of the message. You may be able to tell from the header itself whether you want to read on. Second, when you open the email, it will always have a headline, like a newspaper headline, that summarizes the message following. That will also give you a sense of whether you will want to read on. Third, just below the headline will be a summary, entitled "SUMMARY," which will at a glance tell you what the most important information in the email is. Those who are really busy can just read the "SUMMARY" and that will tell them lots. After this will be the rest of the email, which will have the details for those who want them. For example, if the Government makes a new announcement regarding the ODA, we will give you the guts of it in the headline and summary. From that you can decide if you want to read on. From time to time, we will have a very important email that we want you to read carefully and digest. For example, this is the case when we unveil a new "ODA Action Kit." We will alert you in advance that it is coming, by a separate, short email to let you know to watch out for it. Finally, it has been suggested that we send out a short "summary of recent events" every few weeks for those who cannot keep up with the regular barrage of information. We are going to try to do this, but it will depend on the time available to put that together. As it is, we have a backlog of items to send out that has built up over the summer. As well, you can usually find most of our emails eventually posted on the ODA Committee website at: http://www.odacommittee.net We hope this strategy helps you. We welcome your feedback at: oda@odacommittee.net We also encourage everyone to circulate our email announcements to friends, family, co-workers, listserves, and anyone else you can. Fax them to people who do not have a computer. Feel free to copy text from them into articles for your local newspaper, or your disability organization's newsletter. Your efforts across Ontario at spreading the word are what makes the ODA movement such a strong, vibrant and formidable force for change for persons with disabilities.

 

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Last updated October 1, 2002 1:10 am