Some 90 members of The National Council of Urban Education Associations joined or invited colleagues to join their Association's new social network designed to support learning and sharing of "how-to" and Web 2.0 best practices.

NCUEA, a caucus of local affiliates of the National Education Association (NEA), which is dedicated to strengthening member advocacy and making the NEA more responsive to member needs, held its annual conference in San Jose, California earlier this December. Over 400 members attended.

Three technology-focused workshops designed to inform caucus members about leveraging social networks, e-mail, You-Tube and other Web 2.0 tools where seated to capacity.

To learn more about NCUEA's Social Network or obtain more information about the Technology sessions offered at NCUEA, visit NCUEA's Social Network.

Clayton County Education Association, an affiliate of GAE, has successfuly branded with GEM.

The term "branding" is used to describe an association whose brand identity--logo, content or other association-specific content--is prominently displayed on the opening screen of GEM whenever members of that association log in to use GEM.

GEM has also received and is processing other requests from locals to brand with the internationally recognized Partnership for 21st Centry Materials.

GEM has branded with several NEA constituent groups over the last year--State Retired Associations, Student Chapters, etc.

Additionally, a number of local associations are adding directly to their Web sites, blogs and social networks a "GEM Widget"--a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed by an end user without requiring programming or design-- The GEM Widget enables association members to add a search box directly to their Web presence. This phenominon helps spread NEA, state and local brand in a viral fashion.

NEA has partnered with the GEM Exchange, Gateway to Educational Materials, and JES & Co to support Gateway to 21st Century Skills, a website that combines state-of the art search technologies and a complete database of state academic standards for core subjects.