The World Association for Online Education (WAOE) held a
Special Board of Directors' Meeting asynchronously in a WebBoard
from February 14th to March 7th, 2001. The five Directors,
Cyber-Parliamentarian, officers and other members attended.

Among the highlights, officers on the WAOE Coordinating Ring
now represent ten countries with the following appointments:
1) Ms. Begum Mohamed Ibrahim, Mara University of Technology,
Melaka, Malaysia -- Online Academic Conferences Committee,
WAOE Chapter and Website in Malay; 2) Rafael Molina-Velazquez,
Florida, distance education and e-business, from Montemorelos
University, Mexico -- WAOE Latin American Chapter and
Website in Spanish; 3) Bill Purdy, non-traditional student
of distance education, George Mason University -- Membership
Committee / WAOE Electronic Bulletin (WEB) e-newsletter staff;
and 4) Roberto Mueller, Universidade Federal de Vicosa, Brazil
-- who already maintains a WAOE Web page in Portuguese --
promoted to Online Educator Development Committee Chair.

WAOE will co-sponsor an e-learning conference in Mexico
led by Rafael Molina-Velazquez. WAOE is also affiliated
with the Symposium on Online Learning in Kuala Lumpur
(September 2001), whose sponsors include the University of
Malaysia Sarawak and the Malaysian Ministry of Education.
The WAOE President has been invited to the conference to
conduct online teacher training in computer rooms with
broadband Internet. For details on the above actions, see:
http://waoe.org/president/index.html

The Board meeting also began plans for the mid-2001
Annual Members' Meeting along with elections for WAOE
President and Treasurer. Online Academic Conferences
Committee Chair Keiko Schneider is willing to conduct
online events in parallel with meetings and conferences
affiliated with WAOE.

WAOE officers had been utilizing free versions of Blackboard,
MetaCollege and virtual organization environments such as
QuickTeam for online educator development. MetaCollege
discontinued its free courseware but offered a reasonable
price for its Advanced Site to WAOE as an NPO, so WAOE
agreed to adopt it for officers and possibly members to
design online courses. WAOE dues were abolished in mid-2000
thanks to sponsorship from the Child Research Net in Tokyo:
in English, see: http://www.childresearch.net/
or in Japanese: http://www.crn.or.jp/

WAOE had also changed to an ISP with the potential for
membership databases and efficient communication
channels. There were technical delays before needed
action could be taken to make WAOE a virtual organization
with responsiveness and a sense of community despite
the great geographical separation of members. Websites
in many languages and on various online education issues
can now be consolidated at the central Website. Besides
the current mailing lists for the general public, members,
and officers, there will be e-mail accounts and aliases
@waoe.org for officers and committees. For example,
a membership enquiry will then be forwarded to several
relevant officers for their action. Officers will have
directories at the WAOE Website for their duties and
subdirectories for their own use as an incentive.
Please join in or visit: http://www.waoe.org/

Collegially, Steve McCarty, Professor, Kagawa JC, Japan
President, World Association for Online Education (NPO):
waoe@... - http://waoe.org/president/index.html
Online Publications (Asian Studies WWWVL 4-star site):
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/epublist.html
In Japanese: http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/