December Newsletter

Holiday-ish greetings from the CTC VISTA Project. This is always a busy season for us nonprofits, but we hope that you can take a moment to read the following news and announcements. As always, we're here to help make your VISTA service and supervision the best possible.

=== Quick News ===

The Nonprofit Technology Conference is coming up SOON (more on this below)

SEE what the CTC VISTAs are up to: http://ctcvista.org/vista-workspace

CONTACT Ben or your VISTA Leader (http://ctcvista.org/contact_us) if with any issues or conerns about VISTA service.

=== Nonprofit Technology Conference ===

The Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) is having their annual conference (http://nten.org/ntc) from March 19 - 21, 2008. We highly recommend VISTA members attend a national conference during they're service and this conference is also highly recommended. We'll be sending out more info in the coming weeks!

If you think you'll be attending, please let us know by filling out this tiny form/survey which has more info on the conference:

http://ctcvista.wufoo.com/forms/ctc-vista-nonprofit-technology-conference/

We really think this conference is worth it for you to attend. So much so that we've even written up a couple reasons why:

http://ctcvista.org/node/1157

=== VISTA Spotlight ===

Sarah Pierantoni said she had a great time at the NAMAC conference (NTEN's should be just as good), so we have to give some recognition to the hard work (err, service) she's doing at the Grand Rapids Community Media Center in Grand Rapids, MI. Among many things, she's running a youth media program and writing a manual on how to use the lighting board at the Wealthy Theatre (sounds like a good place to fundraise). You can read more about Sarah's service on our website:

http://ctcvista.org/reports/user/1039

=== Three more Spotlights ===

I wanted to also recognize the successful completion of three VISTA members service in November:

• Dana Sou at the Community Technology Organizing Consortium in Los Angeles, CA
• Dan Chen at the Pui Tak Center in Chicago, IL
• Karl Hedstrom at NTEN in Portland, OR

Thank you so much for all your hard work (err, service) at your organizations. The CTC VISTA Project greatly appreciates your committment and wishes you all the best in your post-VISTA life.

=== Great Resources ===

"Becoming a Better Supervisor": Lots of great tips from Project Management to Conflict Management

http://www.ctcvista.org/files/becoming-a-better-supervisor.pdf

"Comparing Open Source CMSs: Joomla, Drupal, and Plone": An Idealware.org webinar taking place on December 13th

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/957/t/1079/event/checkOut.jsp?even...

"Succession Planning Resources": NAMAC puts together a nice list of resources for knowing what to do when someone moves on (for example, a VISTA)

http://namac.org/article.cfm?id=2&aid=1330&monly=0

=== Other News ===

Have a great December!