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!