AASHE Home > Resource Center > Open Space Conference Call Line > Scheduling

Thank you for your interest in scheduling AASHE's Open Space Conference Line!

To organize a call, please email openspace@aashe.org with the following information:

• Organizer's name(s) and contact information including position, institution, email, and phone number.  Please keep in mind that at least one of the organizers must be affiliated with a campus member of AASHE.
• A suggested title for the call
• Short description of the call (to be used for publicity purposes, 50 word max).  The topic of the call must be directly related to sustainability in higher education.
• List of presenters (if applicable)
• Target audience (for example, "Eco-Rep program coordinators" or "campus sustainability advocates in the Southeastern US")
• Time/date request (please check the list of upcoming calls to make sure something else isn't already scheduled during your preferred time)
• Any materials (e.g. presentations or advance readings) to go along with the call

To give us sufficient time to process your request and publicize the event to the AASHE community, please contract us at least two weeks in advance of the call.  Three weeks notice is preferable if possible.

Instructions for Conference Call Organizers and Moderators

Publicizing your call

Once the call has been scheduled, AASHE will announce the call in the AASHE Bulletin.  We will also post the call on the Open Space Conference Call web page and the AASHE Calendar.  Organizers are responsible for any additional publicity efforts.  You might want to post a notice about the call on related email lists or send a personal note to specific individuals who you think are likely to be interested.

Moderating the call

AASHE staff will join calls as possible, but organizers are responsible for call facilitatation.  To minimize confusion on the call, we recommend that organizers determine who will be moderating the call in advance.  The moderator has access to a variety of special call features including recording options, head count, and muting capabilities.

On the day of the call, the moderator should call in at least 5 minutes before scheduled time to check that the line is working and to welcome participants who arrive early.  This is especially important becausethe call won't start until the moderator has entered their pin number(you will receive this number when you schedule the call).  The number for open space conference calls is 218-862-7200 (passcode: 151307).

At the beginning of the call, the moderator should introduce themselves and the goals of the call.  At this time, it's also a good idea to set some basic ground rules for the call.  This generally includes things like saying one's name and affiliation before speaking and muting one's phone when not talking to reduce background noise.  Users whose phone does not have a built in mute functionality, my mute and unmute their line by pressing (4) then (*) on their telephone keypad.

Participants should also be reminded to keep comments focused on the topic at hand and to take care not to dominate the discussion.  If you are recording the call, please be sure to let participants know that the call is being recorded and will later be posted on the Open Space Conference Call Materials page in the members-only section of AASHE's Resource Center.

Once the call gets underway, it is the moderator's responsibility to keep the discussion on topic.  If the conversation seems to be drifting away from its intended purpose, you might kindly suggest that a separate open space conference call be scheduled to discuss the other topic.  Likewise, if a business participant seems to be making a pitch for their specific product or service, gently remind them that commercial solicitations are not welcome on the Open Space Conference Line.

Calls are generally scheduled for one hour, but since calls are not to be scheduled back to back you will be able to go up longer if desired.  As the call is wrapping up, be sure to thank all of the callers for their participation.

After the call

If a recording of the call has been made, AASHE will post it on the Open Space Conference Call Materials page within three business days after the call.  Please also send any additional materials from the call you'd like for us to post (e.g. call notes, how-to documents, or power-points) to openspace@aashe.org.  If you don't have any additonal materials to post, we'd still welcome a quick note letting us know how the call went.  We're also very interested in any suggestions for improving the Open Space Conference Line.