Chair’s Midyear Report
2010St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
February 2, 2010
Isabel Picó-Vidal, JFI Chair
Welcome from the Chair
The Judicial Family Institute is delighted to open this new decade in the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is here under the gracious gaze of our host Chief Justice Hodge and his spouse Jean that we will preview our new redesigned website.
The year, 2010, is JFI’s launching pad for a technological highway that will take us places, new and old, near and far. This highway affirms the famous maxim that we are not islands unto ourselves but that each of us is a part of the main.
Our hope is that each of you joins us in the remarkable journey of our judicial community. On behalf of the Judicial Family Institute, welcome to our Midyear Business Meeting.
Introduction to Chair’s Report
What a great pleasure it is for us to meet in Charlotte Amalie,
the birthplace of Camille Pissarro, the great Impressionist artist.
I imagine Pissarro would enjoy the artistry of the special
technological event we have in store for you today—the
presentation of our test website.
We are going to walk you through an ongoing endeavor that
honorary member Barbara George began seven years ago in
2004. I am referring, of course, to our updated and redesigned
website. The test site you will see blends Art and Technology, a
combination that we hope you will enjoy.
Introduction to Chair’s Report 2
Building a website is clearly a major accomplishment. Redesigning
a site is a labor of love. What drove us to take on this enterprise?
As Jesse Rutledge of the National Center for State Courts told our
newsletter: “The hardest part about redesigning any Web site is that
it requires extra work and most of us have overloaded fulltime
jobs.”
We were willing to do the extra work.
Introduction to Chair’s Report 3
We set our goal to attract more visitors with up to date articles on
topics such as ethics and security, of interest to the judicial
community. We wanted to put the talents of our members and the
expertise of our courts to good use. We did our research. We
attended the Court Technology Convention in Denver to learn more
about website design. We established a committee for website
graphic design. That Committee, chaired by Jan Aikman Dickson,
Introduction to Chair’s Report 4
included Lindsey Borshel, a leading graphic designer.
Claudia Fernandes accepted our invitation to be Website
Chair and Editor.
We carefully planned each time-consuming step in the
process. We organized those steps into four distinct tasks:
research, organizing and display, design and preparing test
site for review and approval. As we relive the process in our
presentation later today, you will see the result of that
process.
Before we describe our exciting venture, allow me to present
my report as Chair.
"What JFI has acomplished over the past six(6) months"
AUGU
ST
4
JFI Website redesign required an array of tasks:
1. Setting Goals
•Clearly present information and educational resources for judicial families.
•Help visitors quickly find information on a content rich site.
•Make it easy to contact us and navigate a user- friendly web.
•Stay current with announcements about JFI work and events.
•Increase readership of JFI website.
2. Conducting Audience Research
- Identified audience needs and preferences to
deliver correct content. - Analyzed JFI Website Statistics to learn why people
visit our site and what they are looking for.
- Engaged State Contacts to find out their needs for our
site.
- Involved Section Chairs and JFI Members in
updating content to ensure redesign met needs of
membership.
Section chairs and membership involvement
George Durham
Health and Quality of
Life
Mirelsa Modestti
Judicial Assistance Programs
Jan Johnson
Ethics and Conflicts
of Interest
Christine Alexander
Law and Literature
Susan Minton
Political Life
Mary Torres and
Ruth Newcomer
State Programs
3. Seeking Professional Advice
Jesse Rutledge, Vice President of
External Affairs, NCSC
Susan Sobel, Online Strategy
Director, Free Range Studios
NCSC Court Technology Conference,
2010
Claudia Fernandes, Senior Education
Specialist, Judicial Council of
California
Website Graphic Design
Committee members: Lindsey
Borshel (IN), Indiana’s Court
Webmaster, Ilona Holland(DE),
Website Design Professor,
Harvard University, Roz Smith
(MD) and Jan Aikman Dickson
(IN) Chair
IT Group, Puerto Rico Office of
Courts Administration
Experts advising JFI on this project include:
4. Organizing and displaying content of site
Site Map was used as planning tool. It helped us
organize entire site content.
Homepage design with blue band across the top and orange USA map and a new logo
with the word “A” as a house were submitted by Website Graphic
Design Committee and adopted by JFI.
5. Designing Home Page and Interior Pages
6. Website Building
Creating content for web sections and drafting new
pages.
Updating and presenting
proposed content to Website Chair.
Moving large volume of files to
new website format
-Website Chair and Website Editor Claudia Fernandes reviewed and
updated content for topics such as health, security, ethics and judicial
assistance, organizing topics into three categories:
articles
resources links
Role of Website Chair and Website Editor
Role of Puerto Rico Information and Technology (IT) Group
Design and develop web pages based on JFI requirements and best standards and practices.
Allow for “modules” of content to be repositioned, resized, added or removed far more easily.
Update content in the design and development of test site of redesigned web site.
Plan and transfer new design and development to host server at NCSC.
“We were willing to do the extra work”
JFI Web Redesign: a preview
Purpose of test site:
The Test Site has been prepared for the review
and approval of the design and content of the
new website before going online.
The test site can be accessed at the following
link:
http://www.ramajudicial.pr/GraficosK/jfi/index.html
WHAT’ S NEXT…
JFI expects to work on the following tasks in the months ahead:
Installation and maintenance of new website with the support of the Puerto Rico IT Group and the NCSC as host of JFI Website.
Prepare a Maintenance Plan and identify processes and persons responsible for maintaining and updating the new website.
Prepare one more issue of Online with the JFI.
Continue our participation in the ABA-sponsored JAI Committee Meetings and the development of a model program for Judicial Assistance Programs.
Chair’s Closing RemarksToday is an extraordinary day for the Judicial Family Institute.
Surrounded by the beauty of an affable island our imaginations are stimulated by the memories of a great artist who was born in St. Thomas and spent his early childhood in the port city of Charlotte Amalie.
As we begin a new decade, we are opening a new window-—with the best website, the best available articles and the best resources. We have reinforced the mission of the Judicial Family Institute to set aside differences and highlight what we have in common.
Allow me to thank our membership, our board of directors and our hosts for joining us along this journey that will surely bring our judicial families closer together.