The purpose of the e-branch is to provide an online place for interested people to connect and participate in Minnesota-based AAUW activities.

  - For current physical branch members, the e-branch can serve to augment their AAUW

      experience.

  - For those who are unable (or choose not) to join a physical branch, the e-branch can enable

      participation in AAUW activites without regard to their physical location.

The e-branch is intended to be accessible to those who are not comfortable with internet technology and useful to those who are technology "experts".

The general e-branch concept is to mirror the activities of a physical branch using both a website and this  companion wiki.

Why both a website and a wiki?

  A website provides a means to "push" information to a viewer in a wide variety of forms.

    This information can be kept current and easily updated by one or more web authors,

    however conventional websites do not facilitate communication among viewers.

  A wiki solves the communication limitation of a conventional website by allowing viewers to

    comment, edit existing pages and create new content.  It is the wiki that provides the means to

    form a participative, online group activity.  All that is required is a champion, a set of group

    participants and a relatively small amount of work by the webminder to set up the wiki group.

A relational diagram of the website and wiki is illustrated below: