The Digest Fall '06 : the CTC VISTA Project Newsletter

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As the air gets colder in Boston, it's that time once again...the Digest is coming, the Digest is coming. Here's some details:

History:

The Digest, as the newsletter is known, is a Project specific publication based on the content we used to produce in the professional journal, the Community Technology Review (which is now on hiatus indefinitely). CTR was filled with contributions from all volunteer authors as well but had much longer pieces and was printed. There also used to be a tiny newsletter produced by VISTA leaders.

The Digest is the next generation of news about the Project. It has the goal of highlighting the work of the VISTAs and accomplishments of our participating organizations. As Peter stated in the intro to the first issue of the Digest in May of 2006 :

"Developed using Drupal content management system tools, the Digest allows us to present the kind of substantial content the Project has provided in the past via the Community Technology Review—organized from a limitless number of perspectives, and we have chosen here themes of news, trends and reports in our focus area work, and blogs—with special takes on those focus areas: community networking, TA to NPOs , community organizing, and digital media for youth (for more categories, check out the tag cloud)."

The last issue of the Digest is at < http://www. cpcs . umb . edu /vista/digest/ >.

Articles:

All the content of the Digest is original to the Project, whether it is new articles or excerpts from VISTA blogs. In the past we've aimed for articles of 600-800 words (but sometime longer) on topics specific to the work the VISTAs are doing in their organizations. Articles fall into sections such as:

  • News - Articles written by VISTAs, Project HQ staff, and supervisors about news about the Project itself and events at our participating organizations (especially highlighting the work of VISTAs)
  • Trends & Reports - articles by outside experts, friends of the Project about trends/topics related to work of the VISTAs, primarily in the four priority areas. also includes updates based on mid-year and end of year reports.
  • From the blogs - excerpts of entries by VISTAs in their CTC VISTA blogs, including photos
  • Wall of Video - links to videos made by, related to, or were a result of VISTA's programs

Deadlines for Fall 2006:

  1. Rough Draft deadline: 10/13
  2. Final Draft deadline: 10/20
  3. Production week: 10/23-27
  4. Full issue out online - out around 10/30

Call for authors:

ANYONE can be a writer for the Digest - new & current VISTAs, supervisors, alumni VISTAs, and even friends of the Project. Please contact Danielle or Erin at Project HQ if you're interested. It's a great chance to get published and get the word out about your organizations.