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Ben Sheldon's picture
Ben Sheldon
CTC VISTA Project / College of Public and Community Service at UMass Boston
Boston, MA
September 7, 2007 - 2:39pm
No comments

Hello September at Project HQ

Categories:

Boston has just started getting chill again, which is unfortunate, since the weather in Boston is near-usually pretty darn cold. Of course, I don't know that about 9 hours out of my day because I'm in an air-conditioned, fluorescent lighted alter-space where the rules of nature our blocked out by cinderblock and drop ceilings. Fortunately, despite those conditions here at UMass Boston we've getting a lot of work done at CTC VISTA Project HQ.

I've been working overtime getting all our exiting VISTA's paperwork in order and making sure that they have a smooth transition into post-VISTA life. There are a lot of nuts-and-bolts details that I've been trying to get done and, considering this is my first year ever of taking on these responsibilities, it's been a little tough. But I'm pretty confident that we've gotten all i's dotted.

Classes here at UMass Boston just started last week and we've been inundated with questions of "Do you know where Professor so and so's class is?" (Answer: "No"). But fortunately the influx of new students has allowed us to try to pick up a couple interns to help out with some of our Project goals this year. We're part of the College of Public and Community Service, and a few of the professors have been channeling students our way to help design some community building, volunteer management and supervisor trainings. We're still in the planning stages, but I'm looking forward to having some good materials to push out to y'all.

These new interns will hopefully keep us moving forward with innovative and useful projects since we're losing some hard-working and friendly faces here at HQ. Danielle Martin, VISTA Leader extraordinaire, has left us for MIT and our support specialist Erin Taylor is beginning law school at St. John's in NYC. They have contributed great work to the CTC VISTA Project and communities across the country and we'll miss them greatly.

Lastly, I've been trying to keep up with everything everyone is up to, both through the Field Reports, talking with VISTA Leaders and on those rare and pleasant occasions where I'm in direct communication with y'all. I've been really impressed by the the projects you have been working on, and, equally as important, the reporting and communicating you have been doing, through our website, listserv and with the VISTA Leaders. I hope you are finding it useful and interesting and please keep up the great work, err, service!

lauren bratslavsky's picture
lauren bratslavsky
Media Bridges, Cincinnati, Inc
,
September 7, 2007 - 9:38am
No comments

The end.

Categories:

It's been one year. And all the should ofs and could ofs are now expired. But I think I've accomplished a lot of good things, learned a lot and definetely had a great experience.

Sure, I could have blogged more, or made more programs, written more grants, etc etc etc. At least I can say that I have followed most of the workplan and hopefully instilled a foundation for a strong youth program at Media Bridges down the road.

Since the last blog, I have taught another great class - Ad Attack! The kids were middle schoolers and very receptive to learning about advertising and the NMMLP's list of persuasion tools. They knew they were being marketed to, but only to the obvious level. Hopefully they'll keep in mind the other marketing techniques and persuassion tools and practice being smart consumers. For anyone teaching such a class, I would suggest recording some recent commercials from the kids stations and also places like BET and MTV. I thought some of the commercials would be too mature for them, but these kids watch a lot a lot of tv. One student really liked the "bow chic a wow wow" commercial - the Axe one. So I also threw in info on sex appeal, since they already were aware of those commercials. Also, when preparing for such a class, come up with a tv/media watching survey and throw in some questions also about what they think advertising is. Then that will take you into a discussion about their favorite commercials and all that. Anyways, that class ended with some short videos that were, eh, ok. But I think the main point about ad techniques was well recieved.

The rest of my month was rather boring, tying up loose ends, making an end of year binder and all that. The highlight was going to Washington DC, courtesy of Danielle and that Housing Network conference. I presented with Nettrice Gaskins about Digital Media. I think it went well. And it sure was fun to go to DC for free and hang out with the ol' vista leader!

So thank you CTC VISTA project for exisiting and providing such a phenomenol opportunity. This has been the ideal situation for me, being between schooling and not quite sure what to do. I was actually able to utilize previous education, gain knew knowledge and experiences and of course look impressive on the resume (seriously). Future plans (which is basically now) are to move to Oregon. I'm in Ohio, so it's a serious excursion. I'm going to the University of Oregon for masters in communication and society. Maybe I'll continue down the path of media literacy, community media and media reform, as I have been doing the past year. But who knows where this will take me! And here's a note - if you are applying to school anytime following the VISTA year, whether you believe it or not, you are an impressive candidate for being in Americorps. And depending on your duties and experiences at your site, you may be able to translate that into a full ride! I'll be a graduate teaching fellow (fancy for ga) because I have Photoshop and Final Cut Pro experience, so I think I'll be teaching or assisting with those in some way (still don't know for sure). So if you're going to school, try to find the department (even if it's not what you are going to school for) that can utilize your experiences, and hopefully you too will be offered an assistantship.

Take care all! Rock out, don't crack out.

Corey Funderburk's picture
Corey Funderburk
Pangea Foundation
,
September 6, 2007 - 4:49pm
2 comments

Bye!

Categories:

Hi Everyone!
This is really more of a goodbye as tomorrow is my last day as a VISTA :'(. I have absolutely loved my time serving with CTC so I want to say thank you to everyone who has made it such a great program (that's you HQ!)! You guys are great and supportive, not to mention extremely fun (makes all the difference).
To all of your other VISTAs who I have been so blessed to serve with, you rock! I loved getting to talk to everyone, going to conferences, forming new Facebook friendships, blogging with each other, sharing funny stories, talking on conference calls, etc. I hope everyone's terms have made an impact on their lives and the future holds even more!
So, just to recap on my life a bit (I learned when I logged in that the last time I posted a blog was 20 weeks ago... my bad), tomorrow I will have worked at the Pangea Foundation in San Diego for an entire year! I've learned so much and really been given a lot of responsibility and freedom to assist the organization. I always felt like a real employee and one of the team, but I am happy to say that starting Monday it's going to be official! I've been given the position of Systems Architect at Pangea Foundation. Basically, that means I get to work with the client (a wide variety of non-profits) to design the front-end/user interface of their new data management system (used for grant/funder evaluation and proving effectiveness). It's really pretty exciting and fulfilling. I help them: determine what fields need to be included in forms (and how the forms should be laid out), determine how they want to report their data (and how the reports will look), develop training materials/perform trainings, do tech support, etc.. I like the variety that my position offers me, I love my co-workers and I love feeling like what I do makes a difference. I definitely would not have been able to get this great position without putting in my time as an AmeriCorps first so I am really grateful for the opportunity to serve!
Some of the projects that I've accomplished while here include assisting in creating systems and training materials to help with and evaluate the hurricane relief effort, senior and low-income housing, and mentoring programs. I've gotten to travel a lot in order to train users and attend conferences as well (DC [ya, NTEN!!], Alabama, Mississippi, Seattle, soon Salt Lake City). All in all, pretty awesome.
The main struggle I had to overcome was figuring out my loan situation. My advice on that is to get the ball rolling as soon as possible so that if there are any issues you can get them taken care of before it's too late. Also, Danielle wrote a great doc on it that you should reference (Sorry Danielle, I'm too lazy to try and figure out how to reference it here...).
Anyone who wants to see more about me or keep in touch, please befriend me on Facebook - I keep that pretty well updated.
Good luck to everyone!
(Ameri-)Corey

Comment from Jessica McCoy on September 6, 2007 - 4:57pm

Jessica McCoy's picture

Wow, congrats on the new job! That sounds great. I'm glad your year went so well! Mine did, too. I'll get aroud to writing a post sometime soon...

Hey, I might be coming down to SoCal sometime soon, a friend of mine is starting grad school at UCSD. We should hang out! I think I'll be there the last week of September.

Comment from Corey Funderburk on September 6, 2007 - 5:10pm

Corey Funderburk's picture

Definitely let me know! Maybe we can get together with Carly, that would be rad! Keep in touch!

Jim Mora's picture
Jim Mora
HELP of Ojai
,
September 6, 2007 - 2:11pm
No comments

Conditional Use permit

Today we will get the go no go on the migration of the computer lab. I have hesitated offering progress reports until we get the results of our lab move permit. I have much to report very soon nonetheless.

Jim

Ashley Mathews's picture
Ashley Mathews
Grassroots.org
,
September 4, 2007 - 1:51pm
2 comments

New Project

Hello Everyone,
Since the last time I wrote I have been working on a new project. I am in the process of coordinating a blood drive with the Red Cross, which will be held on October, 11. So, I have been going around to businesses in the community to recruit donors. I am also getting help from StrongTech, which is the company my organization shares office space with. They also have been nice enough to help with recruiting donors and providing supplies such as, food, tables and chairs.
This blood drive is very important because the is critical shortage of blood in Central Ohio. So, I have come up with some incentives to get people to come donate such as, free Red Cross T-shirts and Grassroots logo glasses. In addition, I have asked for food donation from Panera Bread to provide free lunch and show tickets from the Shadow Box Cabaret.
My primary responsibility in organizing this blood drive is to recruit donors and make sure the Red Cross has the supplies they need when they arrive such as, tables and chairs. Outside of that I have to collaborate with the Red Cross to make sure the printed material for the event are edited and designed correctly. So, I will give an update on how the blood drive turned out later.

Comment from Ben Sheldon on September 7, 2007 - 1:43pm

Ben Sheldon's picture

Sounds like an interesting project! How'd Grassroots.org get involved with collecting blood? I bet you're learning a lot about community organizing and collaborating with other nonprofits. I'm happy to hear that you're so active in the community you're serving in.

Are you going to have time to give blood if you're organizing all of this? :-) Whenever I give blood I nearly faint; just thinking about it makes me squeamish. Good luck!

Comment from Ashley Mathews on September 12, 2007 - 12:07pm

Ashley Mathews's picture

Grassroots.org decided to become a sponsor for the blood drive because there is a Critical Blood Shortage in Central Ohio. Being involved in the blood drive was also away to become active in the community. Yeah, I think I will have time to give blood and I hope I don't faint.

Thanks!

Marilyn Taylor's picture
Marilyn Taylor
Realizing Every Community Asset Foundation
,
August 30, 2007 - 6:04pm
1 comment

August 30, 2007

The past few weeks have been busy. I continued tweaking our database entries. Also, I've spent time training a new employee how to use Word and do Google searches. I also helped her set up a Yahoo e-mail account. She's new to computers, so it's been quite interesting training someone with no experience.

Comment from Ben Sheldon on September 6, 2007 - 2:29pm

Ben Sheldon's picture

Busy is good! How have you been tweaking the database? Are you getting feedback from users or is it just plain broken?

Congratulations on helping the new employee. It's satisfying to know that the skills you're giving them will be useful hopefully forever---or at least until we have hypersonic silicon embedded directly into our brains... or something like that. I'll stick to email.

Rayna Ramirez's picture
Rayna Ramirez
Young Entrepreneurs Society, Inc.
,
August 29, 2007 - 7:43pm
1 comment

YES Updates

OK aside from the stress at YES I have managed to accomplish some things. This is going to be a quick run down this time because I am at home and ready for dinner lol.

Me and fellow VISTA Pat enjoyed a nice visit from our leader Kevin. Beware if he is headed your way he comes equipped with video camera lol. Have fun filming Kevin.

OK here we go:
Accomplishments:

  • Ordered and received 4 Dell computers from Dell financial services. These will become the accessibility computers. Our old computers that I have been working to keep running just are not capable of handling the accessibility programs. The new Dells have P4 processors 1024 RAM 40G HD no sound cards but we will fix that. No Operating system but I will fix that as soon as they are hooked up.
  • Ordered and received Board Maker V6 for Windows - this makes communication boards using Mayer Johnson Symbols in other words if a person is unable to speak they can point to pictures or phrases to communicate.
  • Ordered and received Braille Keyboard Overlays - these will allow us to offer a braille keyboard.
  • Ordered not received yet Smart Cat Touch Pad - this is an alternative mouse that can be used as long as at least one finger can be used. Great for mobility disabilities (not to mention very affordable)
  • Ordered not received yet Intellikeys USB - alternative keyboard which can be customized for a very wide range of uses. Extremely universal for a wide range of disabilities.
  • Ordered not received Intellikeys Overlay Maker 3 - allows individuals to create custom overlays to suit ther accessibility needs for Intellikeys USB.
  • Located and installed free on screen keyboard called Click - N - Type - this little guy works with email, MS Word, browsing web, Board Maker V6, and I am still finding compatible programs lol.
  • Located and installed free Screen Magnifier - it is simply called "Magnifier" however the manufacturer list it as a different name on their website and I will have to provide that info later as I have it at my program and I am doing this report at home.

Currently working on:

  • Obtaining 14 more computers for my program. The expense is an issue and we are trying to get the funding.
  • Ensuring the completion of the new accessible location for the Biz Center. We hope to be finished by the 1st.
  • Ordering the rest of the accessible technology.
  • Meeting the committees needs as well as scheduling meetings and such for the committee.
  • Preparing a new program to be offered to the disabled members of our community. This program is under development by me and my supervisor.
  • Setting up and installing technology in the new accessible computers
  • Among the rest of my technical support and fund raising duties that are ongoing and daily.......anyone got a good way to relieve stress?????

Comment from Kevin Palmer on September 5, 2007 - 4:06pm

Kevin Palmer's picture

It was great to go over to Orange a few weeks ago and see the YES operation. The footage came out great. Keep checking the site because I think Ben is going to put some "promos" up on the homepage.

Also, how'd completion of the new accessible side of the building go?

Rayna Ramirez's picture
Rayna Ramirez
Young Entrepreneurs Society, Inc.
,
August 29, 2007 - 7:14pm
No comments

War Zone?????

Things are progressing at YES. Currently life there feels like a war zone. I try to stay clear as much as possible of the issues, even when some get directed at me. I'm hanging in (barely) even though I have been ready to walk away from the issues for awhile now. I love my project and what I am accomplishing there. Accessibility is a passion I have always had and technology is just something I have always loved (even when I hate it lol). As VISTA's we get warned about being excepted and for the most part I think I am until I think something should be changed or done different from another individuals personal views. It's just that the project is small and everyone knows everyone else and I think when a project is that small the people who have been there working it by themselves for so long are sometimes worried about what will happen to their project if changes are made even if we think it is for the good. I just wish that instead of ending up criticized and often yelled at or insulted I could at least be permitted to explain what my idea is (esp when I am the only person except my supervisor who has technical skills) and how it will help. At least my supervisor listens to me when we talk he says everyone is going through the adjustment phases he named of 3 only 2 of which I remember....the first we have gone through so I forget what it was......the second the "storming" phase is what we are in he says........however I don't think this phase will end with the staff intact and the individual who will end up either leaving if things don't change soon or being terminated is not the person at fault. The last phase is the "norming" phase.........is it here yet? This is one VISTA that is getting tired of crying herself to sleep at night because no one can seem to get along and it makes my goals so much harder to obtain.

Have any of you had issues with other staff or maybe even other VISTA's that you work with and if so how have you handled it? I know some of you have problems with supervisors not being open to your ideas (I know I am in the lucky few that has a supervisor that is willing to let them do just about anything as long as I check with him on major matters) but any issues with staff being rude, insulting and other things?

Elisha Durrant's picture
Elisha Durrant
Tincan
,
August 29, 2007 - 3:14pm
1 comment

Time goes on...

The summer is quickly coming to a close but wait wasn't I suppose to have more done by now? Even though I've worked on several projects here at Tincan, it feels like I should have accomplished more by now. Let's see we have a grant from Humanities Washington to go to small museums and I've talked about that a lot. Well now we are actually going to the museums and making contacts. Very cool and exciting. We've submitted one grant this summer and are working on two more to submit next month. I've learned how to use the video equipment around here, although not very well. I'm working on putting together a Wine Tasting fundraiser for next spring or early summer. Trying to find time to do oral history interviews. Creating an after school program for middle school kids to learn how to conduct oral history interviews.
I'm looking forward to continuing work here and thinking about doing another year as a VISTA. Hey the money's tight but the experiences and opportunities will some day out weigh that. This project has so many opportunities for growth and can do some very interesting and challenging things in the future. I'm just happy to be part of it growth process.

Comment from Ben Sheldon on September 7, 2007 - 1:33pm

Ben Sheldon's picture

Summers always seem to go by quicker than you think (and want!), and then here you are, with Fall and the fear of the busy holiday season ahead of you. You're probably accomplishing a lot; it can be tough sometimes though to see the results immediately.

If you've written one grant and working on two more, that can be a lot of work; just think of the research you've probably had to do to even find the grants, let alone to write them.

Good luck with the Wine Tasting. Upscale events can sometimes bring in big dollars, or attract people who will eventually bring in the big dollars. You might investigate local breweries or wineries (if you got them) and see if you can get in-kind donations---you would be surprised at what they'll donate to nonprofits in their community.

Be sure to tell us more about the after school program; it sounds really interesting. You might want to talk to CTC VISTA Julie Adler who is developing a Citizen Journalism program called NeighborMedia; she might have good tips for conducting interviews.

Kelli Williams's picture
Kelli Williams
Triangle United Way, Inc.
,
August 29, 2007 - 11:56am
1 comment

A lot of Hire

Here at Triangle United Way HQ we have just taken on 20something new employees to work as "Campaign Associates." "Campaign" is the end of the year drive we make to all our donors to give more. And then more. Did I mention more? Due to the increased amount of outreach this requires we hire Campain Associates to do a lot of the leg work. They're kind of like mini-vistas in some ways. What this means for me is there are triple the amount of people to spread the word about our volunteer program. That also means I have triple the amount of explanations and opportunites to produce. One of the extremely positive returns has been the agencies and donors asking where they can get more information about how to successful run their own volunteer opps. This is exactly what I wanted to happen and I am happy to say the CAs know to tell them that starting the first of the year TUW will begin having mini-seminars that instruct them on exactly those questions. There has been a lot of positive feedback not only externally to this idea but internally as well. It remains to be seen what the exact format will look like, but finally everyone is committed to the idea that we have to start meeting people where they are instead of waiting for them to come to us. I wish I could take the credit for that bit of enlightenment, but really I've just said it the loudest. The idea has been circulating here for years apparently, but the solution was to try and fit a square peg in a round hole by force. I just said get a @*%$ing round peg, people! Volia!

On the tech front I also have really positive news. I arranged a donation by Blue Cross Blue Shield of NC insurance co. of 10 new laptops to be donated to the UNC Pediatric Oncology and Hematology Unit for their patients and families to be able to use when they're confined to long stays in the hospital. We had local volunteers from NORTEL come load the necessary software, they cleaned some keyboards while they were here too, and we have got a press date set up to deliver them to the hospital. So, big score for Teaming for Technology there. I have also gotten Nortel to donate 25 computers a month to our refurbishment pile, and come do the refurbisment themselves. That gives us more and saves us time all at once. A local tech company, Solectron, has agreed to set up an employee incentive initiative for paid time off to their employees that come to our warehouse and volunteer their time to refurbish. They are also setting up a regular program that allows their employees to come to us on a regular basis as a big group. So, all this means lot of extra hands doing the much needed and never ending work of cleaning keyboards and loading software (i.e. our definiton of refurbishment). To give you an idea of the volume we do here...last year we refurb'd nearly 2,000 computers with only 2 full-time employees. Our warehouse is never empty.
By the way, the big hint here to getting these companies to commit, is stress the digital divide. Guilt will work wonders. Of course I'll deny I was ever anything less than professional if asked and stick to the party line that it was these companies own idea to do this. But we, in the nonprofit world, know better ;)

Comment from Ben Sheldon on September 7, 2007 - 1:53pm

Ben Sheldon's picture

Wow! That's a lot of new people to wrangle and get on board and on message. I bet you're getting a lot of insight into how hard it can be to orient new people and volunteers to an organization. I hope you'll share with us what's in those volunteer orientation seminars you're developing. They sound like they'll be really helpful to other VISTAs (and us at Project HQ).

I'm really impressed by your tech donation. That's a lot of hardware and a lot of hard work to coordinate those third parties to get them set up. That's amazing!

Guilt's a good angle. As is, when necessary, letting other people think something was their idea. Great work, err, service!

Tony ORourke's picture
Tony ORourke
Boys and Girls Clubs of the East Valley
,
August 28, 2007 - 8:39pm
No comments

A couple videos the kids made.

Categories:

Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play
Video thumbnail. Click to play
Click To Play

Hope you all are enjoying your last few weeks as Vistas!

Wesley Kaplan's picture
Wesley Kaplan
Hyde Square Task Force, Inc.
,
August 27, 2007 - 3:18pm
3 comments

First real report

So far I've mainly been meeting with everyone who runs the various programs at the Hyde Square Task Force and assessing their technology/software needs. I've already starting researching stuff we can get to improve the programs (such as educational software for the after school programs). I'm also attempting to create a list of recording studios we can get in touch with to see if they'll point us towards resources to build our own music clubhouse (or practice/jam/recording space). Fun fact: the bassist of Aerosmith is one of the board members for the Music and Youth Initiative, who are providing the basic template for our clubhouse.

That's really all for now... I'm sure things will be getting much busier soon.

Comment from Kevin Palmer on August 28, 2007 - 11:05am

Kevin Palmer's picture

Wes you should get in contact with several VISTAs within Boston who have worked/are working on similar projects and programs. They have a lot of knowledge and experience with educational software/youth programming.

Quick list:
- AJ McGuire (did a lot of work developing after school programs with Boston Public)
- Diana Boro (currently in East Boston working with youth radio at Zumix)
- Julie Adler (working on citizen journalism/community media at Cambridge Community Television)
- Julie Bohnlein (who just finished working on a youth media program).

Comment from Wesley Kaplan on August 28, 2007 - 11:15am

Wesley Kaplan's picture

Thanks so much, this is really helpful!

Comment from Morgan Sully on August 28, 2007 - 5:04pm

Morgan Sully's picture

Hey Wesley,
I'm just reading through the VISTA Field Reports myself and wanted to just say welcome aboard!

m

Donna Licata's picture
Donna Licata
The Academy for Career Development
,
August 26, 2007 - 1:21pm
2 comments

Still going strong

Hi everyone,

Still going strong over here at the Academy. I love what I am doing. I help disabled find a way around their disabilties so they can return to the workfield or even back into a life of production. I a still working on a powerpoint project that we will use at out webinars. The thing that amazes me the most is the computer that is controled by eyemovement or controlled with a lazer beam on the forhead. Wow Its a great world isnt it.And its also amazing how many people do not know what is out there.

http://www.abilityhub.com/mouse/eyegaze.htm

Well thats all for now see tatoya soon

Donna Licata in Rochester

Comment from Kevin Palmer on August 28, 2007 - 12:57pm

Kevin Palmer's picture

Hi Donna. Thanks for the call the other day and the heads up on the payroll issue. It was great talking to you to.

What's the powerpoint presentation you're working on about?

Comment from Donna Licata on August 29, 2007 - 8:19am

Donna Licata's picture

The power point presentation is what we will be taking to our seminars and/or webinars to educate people as to what sorts of assistive technology are available for people with all kinds of disabilties. Whether it be a learning or physical disabilty there is so much out there. Computerized wheel chairs, speech to text programs,magnifiers for the pc. Remember star trek they talked to the space ship. well we can do that now we talk to the computer and (if its programed right..ha ha) it will do what you say.Also there are self contained homes that are totaly handicapped accessible.check it out.

http://www.hygienicare.com/

Sarah Pierantoni's picture
Sarah Pierantoni
Grand Rapids Cable Access Center Inc.
,
August 23, 2007 - 2:54pm
No comments

It's all good

Hola everyone. This morning the Grand Rapids Community Media Center held a teacher orientation for the public school system in GR. We basically let the teachers know how to use our Media Center to help them in the classroom. I presented on digital storytelling and talked to a Spanish teacher about helping out in his classroom. I never thought that I would be able to use Spanish this much during my VISTA year, and it has really been helpful in a lot of situations. We did demos on how to use cameras and iMovie. Overall it was a success.

Summer is winding down, and the two youth programs we had going on are finished. It was pretty intense, working with young artists in the morning and then at-risk youth in the afternoons. It is nice to actually have a lunch hour these days.

The GLBT digital storytelling program is up and running. I have 6 youth involved, they are all high school, and really fun to work with. The word is getting out, and I have a lot of requests for adult classes on digital storytelling. Digital storytelling has been such an easy way to get in touch with people who want to make a smaller, non-intimidating work of video.

The GRCMC has been awesome to work at because as a staff member I can pretty much do what I want with the resources they have. Everything is volunteer based, and we just need people to put the time in to do things. For example, we have a new sound system in our theater, and have been putting on music concerts. I started setting the lights and programed the light board, and so far have lit 14 bands from GR and beyond. I am trying to take advantage of everything I can here during my year of service.

I am pumped for the NAMAC conference in OCT. and hope to see some familiar faces there!!

Pre-production for fall projects with youth are in the works...

Have a spectacular day!
Sarah

Morgan Sully's picture
Morgan Sully
Media Arts Center San Diego
San Diego, CA
August 21, 2007 - 1:01pm
No comments

Field Report #4

Categories:

Ergonomics Image

This past week's been a bit bumpy. I was feeling some pain and tingling in my wrist and fingers and had to go and see a doctor. I went to specialist in RSI (repetitive strain injury, as that's what I thought it was) and was turned off immediately by finding that it would be $150 for the initial visit, up to $100 for each consecutive visit and that 10 to 15 visits would be needed. AND Seven Corners did not cover it. So... I went and got a wrist brace, visited and acupuncturist (which i paid for out of pocket) and made a visit to UCSF. Which happens to be in my neighborhood and is also one of the top medical schools in the nation. I was given a prescription, suggested a stronger wrist brace and given some exercises to do.

The same day, i went and saw an acupuncturist who did AMAZING work on me (I live bordering a very culturally rich Chinese neighborhood). It was actualy in conjunction with acupressure where the nerve medians on your body are stimulated by intense pressure. The guy was really good and i felt pretty relaxed afterwards...

Back at the office, they've been very supportive, ordered a new keyboard and today, I'll be looking for a new chair. I've also gotten some anti-inflammatories for my arm which help with the pain until I heal. All visits to the doctor + anti-inflammatories were covered. The acupuncturist however, was not.

Consequently, on Saturday I had to go to the emergency room for getting bitten by a wild mouse. Was seen by a nurse, than doctor, given a shot (for tetanus actually, rabies is pretty rare in SF and even then, mostly transmitted by bats) and a prescription for some antibiotics. All this was covered, save for a $25 emergency room visit co-pay.

In the meantime, I found some great resources on RSI/ergonimics. Check em out here:

http://web.mit.edu/atic/www/disabilities/rsi/index.html

http://www.ergonomics.org/

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Kevin Palmer's picture
Kevin Palmer
CTC VISTA Project / College of Public and Community Service at UMass Boston
,
August 20, 2007 - 1:50pm
No comments

Project HQ coming at you

Earlier this month the CTC VISTA Project swore in 4 new VISTAs: Stewart Blair (Appalshop - Whitesburg, KY), Wes Kaplan (Hyde Square Task Force - Boston, MA), Gabriel Fishman (Castle Square Tenants Organization - Boston, MA) and Anna Simanovich (HandyCapable Network - Greensboro, NC). Ben and I trekked down to Providence to welcome them. Unfortunately the new VISTAs did not have the luxury of staying at the UMass Lowell dorms like our June crew but instead roughed it in the "grand historic" Biltmore hotel. They were real troopers.

We had our monthly Mass area meet-up last week. We had a decent turn out, appointed Gabe Fishman our official secretary, and presented a good-bye cake to our departing VISTA Leader Danielle Martin. Don't feel too sad, she's going to MIT and will eventually make the VISTA salary to a power of ten.

I traveled over to BNN last Friday to see the last day of Julie Bohnlein's and AJ McGuire's summer youth media program Teen TV. It was great! I got to hang out with a lot of the students I met working in Boston Public Schools last year as well as some hold over kids from last year's Teen TV I ran. AJ should be uploading a bunch of the Teen TV segments and shows online soon so keep checking his blog for links.

CTC VISTA Project-wise, I've been working on developing the CTC VISTA Project's Advisory Board. Basically we're looking to give it some more depth and utility. FYI: Advisory Boards are not run like a Board of Directors. Advisory Boards have no governance ability, provide no oversight, generally give advice or guidance when asked, and are possibly run by wizards.

The CTC VISTA media/marketing project (www.ctcvista.org/node/1008) is officially under way. We taped the Project's Primary Investigator (PI) Reebee Garofalo about the Project's history and how it started. It was interesting to see how and why things began and where they've ended up. Next stop on the CTC VISTA media blitz is Orange, MA this Wednesday. I'm heading over to visit Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES), where Pat Conrad-Wexler and Rayna Ramirez are stationed. Looking forward to the site visit and getting some good footage.

Onward!

Josh King's picture
Josh King
Acorn Active Media Foundation
,
August 20, 2007 - 1:05pm
2 comments

technobabble & foodstamps

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It's been a long time since I wrote a field report (I'm really going to try to be more attentive to this). There are a lot of projects that I'm currently working on. I'm trying to do a a complete redesign of my organization's website, in order to integrate a lot of project management and accounting stuff into a centralized location, since my organization's staff is a little far-flung. The current site is running Drupal 4.6.3. I spent a week trying to manually upgrade it in stages to Drupal 5.2, but ran into so many database errors that I eventually created a new test site in 5.2, with the intention of getting that stable and then porting the content. I highly recommend the module casetracker (http://www.drupal.org/projects/casetracker). Most ticketing systems are designed for software development, but casetracker is much more generalized, so you can have general tasks that have support tickets submitted against them. I'm trying to integrate that with Organic Groups and a wiki (wikitools+pearwiki+views), so that projects created in casetracker can have a group assigned to that project, and each task within the project can be associated with one or more pages in a documentation wiki. I'm also trying to integrate the ERP module, which does complete business management, so that tasks can be assigned hours and values that are automatically entered into the timesheet in the accounting software. If I can get this all to work I'll post a complete tutorial on the CTC VISTA wiki, if people are interested.

Besides that, I'm still trying to get the cool but somewhat buggy distributed monitoring software ZABBIX (http://www.zabbix.com) working with our datacenter. Partly I think it's our firewall setup, but I think it'll help once we get our new colocated server in place (the current virtual server where I'm setting it up is somewhat overloaded). Once that's setup, our servers will be able to alert us when there's a problem, rather than us having to go look for it.

I'm going to be writing a whitepaper soon on the ideal open-source wireless mesh solution, and I'll be doing some hands-on research with some state-of-the-art equipment to do it. I'm also going to be working on an application to ARIN for IPv6 address space allocated specifically for community networks (never too early).

There are three other especially big projects that I'm working on, one of which is probably going to take up the majority of my time during the next month. I'm not sure how much I'm supposed to say about these projects yet, unfortunately, because of the groups involved, but they'll be exciting to talk about once they're a little further along.

Also, I finally managed to get foodstamps. Apparently in Illinois, Americorps income is exempt from considerations as far as how much you get for foodstamps, so I got the maximum amount ($155/month). This will be a huge help, because besides rent, food is my number one expense. Things are busy but going pretty well, I'll try and post these much more regularly from here on out.

Comment from Cecille Isidro on August 21, 2007 - 1:30pm

Cecille Isidro's picture

"Especially Big Projects" = secret ops?

Comment from Josh King on August 21, 2007 - 3:48pm

Josh King's picture

Well, Cecille, I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you (of course).
--
Josh King, Acorn Active Media Foundation (http://www.acornactivemedia.com)

Wesley Kaplan's picture
Wesley Kaplan
Hyde Square Task Force, Inc.
,
August 18, 2007 - 1:36pm
2 comments

Just testing...

The PSO ended up being pretty informative, despite it not being a CTC orientation. The facilitators allowed a lot of discussion/conversation which I appreciated.

Everyone at the Hyde Sq. Task Force is pretty cool so far. Official work won't be starting till this coming week , so I don't really have any definite impressions. I'm excited to be working on music with kids.

Comment from Kevin Palmer on August 20, 2007 - 11:33am

Kevin Palmer's picture

Hey Wes. Welcome to the site and the CTC VISTA Project. For those who might not be familiar with Hyde Square Task Force and your program, what is the Task Force and what kind of music project are you going to be working on with the kids?

Comment from Wesley Kaplan on August 21, 2007 - 12:04pm

Wesley Kaplan's picture

Good questions... The Hyde Square Task Force does community development/social services (after school programs, community events etc.), mainly focusing on Hyde Square, but also JP and other parts of Boston. The music stuff won't be happening till September, but the Task Force plans on building a music clubhouse with instruments and recording equipment. My job will probably involve finding software that kids can use to record or make beats. My main job though will be evaluating software and hardware for the rest of the office and seeing what people here need to make things run more efficiently.

Leena Silverman's picture
Leena Silverman
CyberY/ YMCA of Greater Boston
Jamacia Plain, MA
August 17, 2007 - 3:14pm
3 comments

The Realities of Egleston YMCA

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It has been pretty busy at the Y this summer; camp for the child care program, the teen center slowly disintegrating, and the computer lab with all its wonderful programing happening.

This summer I facilitated two programs that were pretty successful. We had a math club and a creative writing club and the kids seemed to love it! This is one positive thing that came out of the summer. Also, for the teen center, I hired a nice man to facilitate a media literacy workshop called Media Minds. Non of the teens from the teen center became involved, which was very disappointing. But, this sort of thing is very new to Egleston, so it might take a couple of years to get people used to workshops like Media Minds. What ended up happening was that we used teens that were working for the Y during the Summer to participate in the media literacy workshop and a few enjoyed it a lot.

Your probably wondering what I meant by the Realities of Egleston YMCA, well we got broken into and a lot of nice things got stolen from the computer lab! ) ; One monitor, all the speakers, and a digital camera, among others things in the building were stolen! My supervisor Matt Crichton says that these are the realities of this place and you work with what you got. What do you think? Do you just work with what you have or do you fight and complain until things get right and you get what you want and in most cases what you need?

Comment from Kevin Palmer on August 20, 2007 - 11:48am

Kevin Palmer's picture

I'd say the whole reason VISTAs are in non-profits are to make organizations/communities operate better (big caps: CAPACITY BUILDING). As VISTA's I don't think that kind of resignation is going to serve your purpose, your organization or the community you're serving any good. Grab on to that one piece you're responsible for and make it the best you can come hill or high water. That's my 2 cents after being a VISTA for 14 months.

Comment from Gabriel Fishman on August 20, 2007 - 3:58pm

Gabriel Fishman's picture

If you need to replace any equipment maybe we can help you. Castle Square isn't too far - we don't have anything new but if you need old monitors and stuff...

Comment from Leena Silverman on August 20, 2007 - 5:52pm

Leena Silverman's picture

Leena Silverman

CTC VISTA/ AmeriCorps

CyberY Youth and Teen Media Developer

Yeah! Sure, that would be great!

Victoria Edwards's picture
Victoria Edwards
Collins Center for Public Policy, Inc.
,
August 8, 2007 - 4:08pm
2 comments

It's been a long time

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Hey, it's been a while since I last wrote so I thought now would be as good of a time as ever. So the biggest thing we're working on right now is getting funding. CTI (Community Technology Initiative) at the Collins Center is completly broke. As in we have zilch to our name, and the website (which may or may not be up) is coming out of my supervisor's pocket. Last week I helped put together my first ever grant, a Children's Trust Grant asking for a substantial amount. It was incredibly stressful, even though I had previously printed out all of the attachments. The whole thing was a huge headache/whirlwind that had us rushing to get the grant in 10 minutes before it was due (we made it somehow). Anyway I'm doing everything in my power to make sure our next grant (due at the end of the week) doesn't end up like that. I want to make sure we've all learned our lesson because I can't go through that again. That might be my most stressful experience. Ever.

Comment from Renae Smack on August 12, 2007 - 11:32pm

Renae Smack's picture

Hey Victoria,
I know just what your talking about, It is a very stressful time and you have to think how much of your proposal actually gets read since there are literally hundreds of other agencies applying for the exact same grant.
Though I try to get prepared in a timely fashion, It always seems like it's something you don't have or it could be said a different way to get the right interpretation of your program.
Keep the faith though it's a great feeling when you get it, and all your hard work and effort has paid off.

Comment from Ross Musselman on August 14, 2007 - 10:14am

Ross Musselman's picture

I'm a believer in the last-minuteness of grant writing. That's not to say that everything should be done at the last minute, but that good grant writers are always thinking of ways to improve the grant up to the last minute.

Ross Musselman
ross@zanlus.com