Digital Arts Service Corps - conference

How to be an effective DASCorps member at a conference

Bill Brown — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:35:24 +0000

The Digital Arts Service Corps requires that host organization's send their VISTA member to a national conference during their year of service. Attending a conference provides a number of important trainings, development and future-plan opportunities for VISTAs with numerous benefits for host organizations as well.

Understanding the Conference Experience

Many VISTA members are initially reluctant to attend conferences. Often they have never attended a conference before and do not understand what they gain to benefit from attending. Additionally, VISTAs sometimes equate the Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) with a conference, which couldn't be farther from the truth.

Conferences provide a number of benefits, but it probably is the best, and sometimes the only, opportunity for VISTA members to meet a broad and diverse representation of people working within or related to their field of work. Serving deeply within their own organization, conferences offer the opportunity for VISTAs to acquire much greater width and depth in their understanding of their field of work.

These opportunities take many different forms and allow VISTA members a wide diversity of interaction. Most conferences are built upon standard presentations in which an individual or small group of people present to an audience. This, while educational, often is one of the least interesting and productive parts of a conference. Instead, there are many possibilities for meeting face to face, individually with leading practitioners or individuals working on interesting or applicable projects. Between sessions, at meals, at bars, clubs or parties, conference offer a great opportunities to make fun and personal connections with other people in the field. Conferences often take the form of "blowing off steam".

Meeting People at Conferences

VISTA members often do not realize it, but the work they are doing is usually cutting edge or intensely applicable to other people in the field. Introducing yourself as an AmeriCorps*VISTA will often times elicit recognition and special treatment. Many VISTAs have met people who have found them grants, resources, career advice, future employment or free drinks.

Bring business cards, promotional materials and be willing to talk to strangers.

Making Presentations

We highly, enthusiastically recommend that VISTA members take every opportunity to present at conferences.

Financing a Conference

As part of the application process, the Transmission Project encourages host organizations to budget for their VISTA to attend a conference. Often times VISTA members will attend with their supervisor.

This should include:

''Airfare''- Booking at least three weeks before (or earlier) provides the best prices. Also, please schedule flights so that VISTAs can attend the entire conference, even allowing for "book ends" in which the VISTA can attend pre- or post-conference events.
''Hotel'' - We highly recommend that VISTAs stay in the conference hotel. This is most convenient as this is where conference activities are taking place, or departing from. Additionally this avoids placing the VISTA in a dangerous neighborhood or requiring additional transportation expense. VISTAs usually can find a roommate with another VISTA in order to split costs, though hotel rooms should be booked very early in order to receive a reduced conference rate.
''Reimbursements or Per-Diem'' - VISTA members are already living at a low fixed-income and so effort should be taken to not make conferences a financial liability. We recommend VISTAs are either reimbursed for meals not covered by the conference and transportation (shuttle or taxi from airport to hotel) or receive a per diem (usually about $40 per day). Receipt retention procedures should be discussed prior to the conference.

Finding the right Conference

Ask your supervisor, coworkers, fellow DASCorps members, your leaders, or Transmission Project staff for their suggestions on conferences that they think will benefit your work. Try to attend a conference earlier on during your year of service so you can take advantage of the contacts you have made. Also, the Transmission Project keeps a list of events on their website.

Radio Nerds 2009

Megan Donovan — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:38:30 +0000

Hey there,

From March 31-April 4 I attended the NFCB (National Federation for Community Broadcasters) annual conference in Portland, OR. What struck me immediately when I arrived at the Hilton was:

1. I was one of the youngest, if not the youngest, person at this conference
2. The radio station I represent was the most illegitimate, pirate, DIY station out of any other station being represented
3. I thought I was nerdy but I barely was at all compared to these people

All the different sessions were separated into the following tracks: All, Producers, Development/Underwriting, Fundraising, Management, Youth, Community Engagement, Technology. Naturally, I chose sessions under the producers and development tracks for the most part because that is what I focus on developing in my work at ZUMIX Radio. I dabbled in a bit of everything to get a comprehensive learning experience at this conference.

The following are the sessions I attended: Interview Techniques, Strategic Planning, Marketing, Setting Up a Membership Program, Producers Shaping the Sound of Tomorrow, How Do I get more Latinos to Listen to My Station?

Generally, I found the conference to be an excellent learning experience. I was disappointed by a few of the sessions that I was counting on to be helpful, namely the marketing and getting more Latinos to listen sessions. I couldn't have expected every session to be amazing! I wished there was a session specifically geared towards getting underwriting going for a community station. Underwriting is something I have been working towards achieving for ZUMIX Radio since I began my year of service but sadly hasn't gotten much of anywhere. Bummer.

There was a field trip for conference attendees to KBOO which is a community radio station in Portland. I enjoyed this part of the conference immensely because KBOO is full of some of the most eccentric people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, including this dude with this insanely tricked out bike:

Here is a snippet of the inside of KBOO:

My jealousy festers over their insane music library, and its color-coded organization!!!

I was invited to participate in a late night show after schmoozing with some staff people there! Sadly, none of the contacts I made followed up with any of my e-mails, the same goes for the people I met at the actual conference. Shrug. People are busy I suppose. All in all it was a great experience and a pretty cool city. I think I brought back some useful knowledge to ZUMIX and I would recommend this conference to anyone working for a community radio station. I would like to attend next year!

they play the banjo in my office

Julia Taylor — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 14:08:52 +0000

Time goes by so quickly here in the mountains, but maybe that's because I've spent a good portion of the past month away from Whitesburg. I was in Oakland, CA, for a week for the Critical Resistance 10th Anniversary Conference. It was a great week of meeting people, and learning about other organizations and resources. And I got to lead a workshop. First I had volunteers from the workshop session read the Thousand Kites Play aloud. In this informal staged reading, a diverse group of voices were heard and a variety of experiences with the criminal justice system were expressed. Act 2 of the play is the audience's chance to tell their story. We heard from a man who was formerly incarcerated, a woman who's boyfriend is currently incarcerated, among others. It was a great conversation and I think that people walked away with some actions steps. Next time I do the presentation there are things I would like to do differently, but for a first go around, I think it went alright.

I also went to a session that was a planning group for a national coalition for prison arts work. I joined the technology team (so as to use all my new ctc skills!) and have created the blog for the group.This isn't technically part of my job, but my organization is part of the coalition, and it's something that's important to me, so I'm excited about it.

Last week I went to the Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago and learned so much about radio! As I am a weekly radio producer, it seemed like a good festival for me to go to. Many big NPR personalities were there, and I learned a lot about radio documentary, and also about using social media to promote the work. It was a cool conference, indeed.

In the past month we also finished up the facilitation guide (attached) and have revamped the website. So now I'm finally able to really start in on our StoryLine project, which will use a digital google map as the key element. Right now I'm working on getting audio files into the website, and doing outreach to get more people to share their stories.

And next week I'm starting a creative writing workshop in the nearby women's prison. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to turn it into a digital storytelling workshop and since they have computers there it might be possible. That's not work related. It's just fun.

So needless to say, I'm busy down here. But the weather is still good, and I'm still getting some good hiking in!

And yes, I hear the banjo almost daily in my office. What would a good appalachian office be without a banjo?

Last Three Months

Victoria Edwards — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:55:48 +0000

So I'm in my last three months here as a VISTA, things are really winding down. It's a lot different being on my own, the other VISTA Kevin ended his VISTAship 2 months ago but he had been working here pro-bono until he found a job (he just got one as of last week as a community development planner for the Human Services Alliance). Anyway, right now I'm working on evaluating differenet non-profits with techatlas. I hope everyone here knows what tech atlas is, it's an amazing resource that offers an comprehensive look at a non-profit's hardware, software and mission. It integrates these different elements to help non-profits plan how to increase their efficiency and productivity through the use of technology (and offers step by step techie plans). Anyway, I'm definitely no techie so I'm learning a lot. This weekend a new computer lab, Crossfire opens up. I've been deeply involved in getting that lab networked and running so it's nice to that it's going to be open to the public soon. I am worried about it though, there's no firewall set up, and there needs to be regular maintenace volunteers coming in to keep the system up. In addition, I think I'm planning a Universal Access conference co-sponsored by the Knight Foundation. I say think, because our communication with them has been really shotty, and I'm not sure if I even want to proceed with the legwork without a clear go-ahead from them. Anyway, there's a lot going on but I do feel a little overwhelmed. I really liked working with a partner, this seems like a lot for one person to do. I hope I'm doing Ok.

Vic

Field Report #11: The Importance of Knowing Your Neighbors

Morgan Sully — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:14:09 +0000

The N-TEN Conference and Meeting Other VISTAs

Photo: bensheldon

The N-TEN Conference was fantastic. Aside from the high-quality speakers, panels and opportunities for meeting other professionals working in the field of non-profit technology, I was fortunate enough to meet up with Ben, Kevin, Wes, Karl, Ashley and Anita from the CTC VISTA Project. We also had a special surprise visit from CTC VISTA Alum Jessica McCoy as well as another AmeriCorps Alum Jules (who we'd previously met at the NAMAC Austin Conference in October!).

Opportunities like this, I feel are crucial to supporting VISTAs during their respective years of service.

The conferences that VISTAs are 'mandated' to attend via their org/Project agreements are EXCELLENT opportunities for VISTAs own professional development. I for one came away feeling more knowledgeable, empowered and inspired to continue my work.

Panels I enjoyed attending were:

Changing Your CEO from Barrier to Partner

Project Management for Techies: Delivering on Time and Budget

Building, Growing, and Sustaining a Vibrant Online Community – How to Reach Beyond Traditional Tools into the Web 2.0 Sphere

Photo: bensheldon

The face-to-face OFFLINE interaction with our national network of VISTAs is priceless in adding a sense of value, shared experience and belonging to something bigger than ourselves COMMUNITY. It's half of what we as CTC VISTAs do...

New Orleans
On a personal note, another highlight for me was the impromptu tour that Ben, Kevin and myself were given by Lisa Stansky from Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (who are also hiring a CTC VISTA for this upcoming VISTA cycle). We were given a very sobering tour of many parts of New Orleans that still, three years later, are being rebuilt after the 'storm':

I
waterlines on houses
stained where water had risen trapping and drowning people inside their homes
where people died
spray painted x's like graffiti on people's homes
marking where people still might be able to recover bodies or animals
perhaps still living
perhaps not
dead animals in attics
II
impromptu mini economies of resilience
and resourcefulness amidst little
schools and libraries becoming community centers
churches with broken windows still but with people singing gospel
people, families children dressed for church among demolished houses
III
and a kind stranger inviting us into our home
a cheerleader for New Orleans
IV
a lively city
people come to rebuild during the day until they can't anymore
party at night and then back to their tents under the freeways amidst the educated and homeless
only to do it again
the next day

As AmeriCorps VISTA Members, I feel we are very fortunate to be part of a national program that helps people out of poverty, increase literacy AND allows us to develop our potential as professionals in the public sector. There is still so much that we as AmeriCorps (and beyond) can do to help our communities.

The one 'take away' I can think of from my trip to New Orleans was on the importance of knowing your neighbors. After the storm came, many neighborhoods were simply eradicated. Houses were simply picked up and then deposited two blocks down, perhaps on someone else's property. Sometimes exquisite old mansions laid tattered, while more poor-looking homes remained intact. Other areas had pristine houses - separated by only a few feet in elevation - standing proudly amidst it's peers, now in shambles. It was as if the lines of people's property and class and race were perhaps uncomfortably, necessarily pushed together, merged or erased.

It was as if God had taken a giant Etch-A-Sketch and shaken the neighborhoods (I saw) up.

The importance of knowing your neighbors I think, is the single most important part of being the community builders that we are. When there is strife in the world (only aggrevated by the terribleness of poverty), it's important to be aware that communities can in fact come together to bridge lines of class and race. I don't think we should have to wait until tragedy forces us to. Perhaps in our arrogance it's necessary.

I'd like to think not.

Field Report #7: A VISTA from the Frontier

Morgan Sully — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 20:35:14 +0000

Last week, I returned from NAMAC's 2007 conference in Austin: The Frontier is Here. Being a dilettante professional relatively new to the field, this conference was a great view from the frontier. From meeting other media makers and supporters from the ‘old school’ to hanging out with fellow VISTAs working at NAMAC’s member organizations, I was thoroughly ecstatic to have attended. In going forth with my work here at NAMAC, I feel better informed as their new Online Community Manager.

NAMAC Youth by jazminrjones
One thing I was particularly sensitive to, was the intergenerational engagement between those from the ‘old school’ and those from the ‘new school’. While there were many people throughout the conference who had been involved with media far longer than I (some nearly thirty years!) there was a good portion of young people there under twenty. Many of the panels and workshops that the youth presented on were attended mainly by other youth – not as many other, more seasoned professionals. It would have been nice to have more intergenerational ambassadors to bridge dialogue between the two, perhaps provide some context and mentorship. I myself am in my late 20s and did my best to connect some of the VISTAs (mostly in their mid-twenties) to other people at the conference as well as each other.

Only Morgan Loves Me in the Pink Kiddie Hat (thanks for the pic Danielle!)

Meeting up with the other VISTAs was excellent and our panel went well. We even had a personal endorsement at the end of our panel from Jack Walsh, co-director at NAMAC. When I’ve met-up with VISTAs in the past regardless of what state, organization or project they’re from, there’s always been an uncanny feeling of camaraderie. The unique communal support that the CTC VISTA Project provides its members is priceless - both professionally and personally. Ben Sheldon (now Acting Director of the CTC VISTA Project) in his characteristic salty style, was professionally spot on and attentive with his polished schpiel about the project throughout the conference. Danielle (Martin) –the unofficial CTC VISTA queen mother – was as supportive as ever to organizations with questions as well as some of the other presenters on the panel. Her being there on the panel reminded me a bit of when I was in grade school and forgot my lines during a play – I was fortunate enough in that my co-star had some of the lines memorized much better than me, whispering them to me as I stood in that bright, naked spotlight.

One panel that I found particularly engaging was the panel on place-based media. For this panel, the presenters discussed the relationship and responsibility that media makers in rural and urban contexts have to their communities. Being a media maker myself and having lived in both contexts I felt excited to participate in the dialogue that the panel opened up. In the discussions that followed, conversations about class, race and community stewardship as the context for mediating between these sites was nothing less than fascinating. I really enjoyed talking with other media-making ‘in-betweeners’ afterwards.

Me jamming with Michelle Mayer (thanks again for this pic too Danielle!)

I must say that the highlight for me was an improvised performance with one of the installation artists at the conference. At midnight in the conference ballroom, I met with Austin-based video artist Michelle Mayer for an impromptu audio/video jam. Michelle connected her laptop up to the ballroom projector, while I plugged mine in to the main PA. Using nothing but the built-in mic for my laptop and the live, on-site recordings generated from this, I created rhythmic textures for Mayer to ‘dialogue’ with me using her own library of original and sampled video. Mayer had an amazing fluency with her manipulations and was an utter joy to perform with.

I feel the collaboration succinctly captured what the conference was all about: creating, engaging and acting.

Field Report #6: NAMAC Conference Planning

Morgan Sully — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 19:45:42 +0000

Been a pretty hectic few days, I'm actually in the middle of a move from San Francisco to Oakland while planning for a conference - stressful, but I'm a bit excited about what's ahead in my life path...

Today, I have been contacting our VISTA Panel presenters, coordinating meeting up with them at the conference, answering any questions they may have about the panel and generally doing my best to make sure the presenters are good to go.

I've also been prepping a small one sheet handout for the project geared towards our audience of media arts-heavy folks.

The web site (which I was hired on to develop), has been on a bit of a hold lately with the conference and my RSI thrown in to complicate things, so not much to report on that - I forsee developing a cohesive taxonomy as a challenge.

Yesterday, I did my first task that actually made me feel like a volunteer - assembling a display board for our conference. A nice arts 'n crafts affair with some new copy printed with some fancy fonts (themed with NAMAC's new style guide for all our marketing) for the various pieces of our display board. I also made some great contact with other orgs on the phone to solicit them writing for our Media Arts Movement time line - mentioned in my last post:

http://www.mediaartsmovement.org/

Anyway, off to pack n prepare....

Intel Computer Clubhouse Conference

Shaneka Smith — Wed, 16 May 2007 18:21:53 +0000

The Intel Computer Clubhouse conference is a time for Clubhouse Coordinators, Assistants, Executive Directors, and Staff within the network to reconnect and be inspired within their perspective clubhouses. This year the windy city was honored to host the Annual Intel Computer Clubhouse Conference from April 23-27, 2007 at the Orrington Hotel in Evanston. Individuals worldwide, from South Africa to Latin America to the Middle East had a chance to visit our wonderful city. They were able to experience Chicago’s diverse cultures and visit the neighbors where the four Intel Computer Clubhouses are located: WYTEC (West Garfield), ABJ Community Center (Southside), The Zone HACC (Rogers Park), and Austin YMCA (Austin). The 2007 theme was Moving Beyond Four Walls. Attendees showed the connection and collaboration between clubhouses nationwide by showcase a youth video boomerang that bounced from Atlanta to Chicago to Virginia to Miami. Preparations were also made for regional teen summits where teens from Detroit, Chicago, and Missouri will have a chance to work together on collaborative projects. The 2007 conference was truly inspiring beyond the clubhouse walls.

Ending April with Showers in Chicago

danielle martin — Thu, 03 May 2007 16:45:28 +0000

I'm just recovering from April 2007, which will forever be known in my mind as "the month of excessive conferences." It started with WAM!, then NTEN in DC.

But then a couple weeks ago I stole Ben from Project HQ and we headed over to the newly renovated Yawkey Boys & Girls Club in Roxbury for the 7th annual Boys & Girls Club of Boston Cyber Summit. We did some digital storytelling and Google Mapping with 5 youth from Roxbury and Dorchester. The youth did great, taking lots of great photos outside the Club around Dudley but we struggled a bit with technical aspects of embedding videos in the new Google My Maps functionality.

You can check out the map but it keeps erasing the embed code so most of the videos won't play! We made DVDs and also put the videos on Blip.tv.

I also recruited former CTC VISTA Saul Baizman to do some web design, tag teaming with my pal Hope Roth who now works at Tufts University.

I enjoyed supporting my old co-workers and this great Club event. The projects the youth create in two short days (including one night of sleep-over that doesn't involve much sleep) always impresses me.

I had about 12 hours to do laundry, errand, and pack before I was flying off to Chicago, my first time in Chi-town. I jumped at a chance to attend at annual Intel Computer Clubhouse International Conference, to talk up CTC VISTA and help some Computer Clubhouses get VISTAs and present on using digital storytelling for community activism and outreach. After five years of running a Computer Clubhouse myself, I have a vested interest in how the Clubhouse theory is progressing and how these programs all over the world empower youth by giving them multimedia and independence skills.

This was my 7th Clubhouse conference, so I got to see many old skool folks like Mitch Resnik from the MIT Media Lab, Joyce & John from AZ, Gavin from Dublin, and my new friend Kane from New Zealand (who gave me kick-butt hat from his homeland and is still doing digital storytelling after I trained him last year at the conference).

I also got to see some VISTAs - my girl Shaneka from WYTEC presented and hosted with grace and I snuck Laura Mieczkowski in for free lunch so I could hear about her new outreach project with CTCNet Chicago. The crew of managers from the Boston Clubhouses were all still exhausted from Cyber Summit too, but it good to see all the old and new faces gathered to contemplate the next steps of the Clubhouse network.

Chicago was also an amazing trip because I got to chill with former CTC VISTA Nathan Biggs, who's now a fundraiser for The Association House and a damn fine tour guide.

I documented my tourist wanderings and impressions on Flickr. Overall, it was a good ending to an exhausting month of networking.

May looks lighter, both in work and weather, with facilitating just one adult digital storytelling train-the-trainer at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center and helping out with a series of Saturday trainings with youth at the South End Technology Center. Oh and working hard on user testing for the new online community site (StoriesForChange.net) I'm project managing for MassIMPACT for community digital storytellers (due to soft launch at the end of May). Oh and recruiting and matching up some new VISTAs for the June round and planning the next PSO, that's at the Grassroots Use of Technology Conference in Lowell, MA.

Wait...that's not adding up to "lighter"...is it?

Public Access Blues

Richard T. Anderson — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 20:44:41 +0000

Well there was a lot of deliberation about me going to a conference around here. But finally it was decided that I would be going to the ACM 2007 International Conference & Trade Show.

But things have changed. And it's all thanks to that lovely bit of legistlation that SBC/AT&T pushed down Michigan's throat a few months back.

While Comcast did agree to maintain it's contract with the CMC, they also took advantage of the loop hole in under the new laws which allows them to change the payment schedule. So the francise fees (over $150,000) that the CMC usually gets in April will not be coming until August. Thus all expenitures must be cut back to the bone.

So, I will not be attending the ACM conference. Nor will anyone at the Media Center be doing so including Laurie, our director, who was scheduled to speak there.

That's the way the Public Access cookie crumbles.

I don't think I'm going to be presenting the Media Center with any new program ideas. Not unless my idea is a money maker. And charging for services would kind of defeat the point. *shrug*

It's a tough time to be in this business.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Later,

Rich