Hello September at Project HQ

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!