Nashville ISD Group A Networking Group for Instructional Designers in Nashville, TN

Please read on for important news about the future of this site.

Why We're Moving

For the past 18+ months, this group's online home has been at nashvilleisd.groupsite.com. The Groupsite platform has served us well - it's been a great free platform for us to use for sharing information, networking, and organizing our monthly meetings.

However, in creating this site, Groupsite failed to let me know that "free" only includes 100 members in a group. Now, I never imagined when we started this group that our little free monthly interest group would grow to 100 members. But here we are -- only 10 or so from triple digits. What a great problem to have!

Unfortunately, Groupsite's paid features are much too costly for this free group to take on, even with donations. Despite my best attempts to talk them into other options, their $45 per month plan is the best we can do in staying with Groupsite and allowing for any growth in membership.  I am 100% committed to keeping this group free and open to anyone. Therefore, I have no choice to move us to a new web platform. 

My Goal with Our Web Platform

In evaluating our options, I created a list of requirements for this group's web platform:

1. No cost.
2. Provides an easy way to notify all members about upcoming meetings, and allow RSVP to those meetings.
3. Has a low barrier to entry for joining.
4. Allows all members to share knowledge and opportunities with one another.

Of course, this group could easily be organized by email alone, if we assume that the point of this group is our monthly meetings. Those of you who have attended meetings in the past know that we rarely have over 10 or 15 people in attendance at our monthly meetings, and a core group attends the bulk of our meetings. That means that the large majority of our 90 members have never attended a meeting.

While I've found that the monthly meetings are the most beneficial component of this group, I believe the group can provide value to every member -- even if the monthly meeting doesn't fit in the schedule. I envision our web platform as a social learning tool built around our geographic proximity. I want our web platform to serve as a place to ask questions, share resources, share knowledge, and pass along opportunities. My goal is that the Nashville.ISD Group helps the Instructional Design community in Nashville flourish by nature of making it easier for us to support one another.

Email alone can't do that.

Why LinkedIn

I evaluated a number of options when I realized we had to switch platforms. Ultimately, I believe LinkedIn's Groups feature is the best free platform available for meeting our goals. I believe this based on a few key points:

1. LinkedIn is a successful operation, so they're not going anywhere and the functionality should remain free.
2. A large majority of us are already on LinkedIn, making the barrier to entry very low. 
3. Sending notifications to all group members is easy.
4. Sharing within the group is also very easy. Additionally, these updates appear within a network you're likely already checking occasionally. In this way, LinkedIn is better than Groupsite, as it's not another site for you to check.

I apologize sincerely for the need to move our group's base of operations, but after playing with LinkedIn Groups, I believe it will offer us several benefits over the Groupsite platform.

What's Next

In the coming week, I'll be inviting you all to join the new Nashville.ISD Group at LinkedIn.com. Please take your first opportunity to click through and join that group if you want to continue participating in Nashville.ISD -- even as an "online-only" member. I'm going to leave Groupsite.com in place through our August meeting, and you can expect a few reminders in your email box. However, after the August meeting, I'm going to start sending all our notifications through the LinkedIn group.

Thank you all, sincerely, for your participation and support of this group. I appreciate your patience as we move. If you have questions or suggestions, please speak up below!