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

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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

Website at http://jfi.ncsconline.org

New JFI Letterhead 2010

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.