Digital Arts Service Corps - VISTA Life

Bye!

Corey Funderburk — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:49:24 +0000

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

Small Museum Grant

Elisha Durrant — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 20:28:56 +0000

We have received a small grant from Humanities Washington to go out to all the small town museums in our area. We are going to show them how to digitize their collections and place them on the INMP website. Also if they do not have a website of their own we will help them to create a basic website to help promote their museum. Finally we are going to create a 3 to 5 minute film of the project. I'm excited and ready to start.

Getting in to it.

Derek Maxwell — Fri, 11 May 2007 16:49:39 +0000

So I have finished 1/3rd of my year as a Vista. When I started I was very ambitious ready to sink my teeth into the community and my organization. I was on the brink of a new life and I did not know what to expect. I went to Boston and completed my PSO. I returned to Minneapolis and showed up to my organization on the next Monday. I could not guess what my first day was going to be, who I would meet. So I walk in and say hello to Michael the program supervisor here at PCTV and my mentor and partner. I was ready to pounce at any task he would give me. After I set down my bag and removed about six layers of clothing (This is Minneapolis in January, and I ride a bicycle every year all year; it's not so bad it just takes some preparation and determination) we got started. What happened, what was the beginning of it all. This is what Michael said "Well we should probably get you some keys for the building and all". That is what I had been waiting for, it was sort of a shock to me at first. Then is when I realized that Vista life wasn't going to be a superhero action movie, it was going to be regular life, with a more positive and rewarding purpose.

So the first day passed, I got my keys, met the staff and the after school youth and got my desk in order. At this point I had no idea what was next. What was I suppose to do. The next few weeks were filled with learning Acronyms that I still don't know the meanings of and trying to remember who is connected to which one. I had a meeting with the staff and we started talking about what it was that I was going to be doing at PCTV over the course of the year and when I should be doing it. I started researching, ideating and thinking a lot. It's been four months. I have planned out two new websites, started an after school graphic design workshop, and mostly just gotten adjusted to working in the non-profit world.

Hey everyone

Elisha Durrant — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:04:21 +0000

It's been a while since I've done a blog. Here at Tincan, I've been refining the INMP website. And brainstorming new projects and how to increase our contributors and school involvement. INMP is an online archive of Inland Northwest History. http://history.tincan.org

Check it out those who are interested. I know it's not like many of the websites others are working on but its still cool - if you like history.

Well wishes to all

When "Benefits" aren't enough

Corey Funderburk — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 18:23:48 +0000

Hey guys,

Anyone out there have one of those pesky "pre-existing conditions" that our benefits prefer not to cover? Well, I did, and it was time to fulfill a prescription (for a measly, oh, $150!) so it came time to find some alternatives!

Anyway, my doctor turned me on to a "patient assistance" program. Basically, I searched online for the website of the company that manufactures the medication I needed and then sent them an email explaining my financial situation. I received a reply the next day complete with information on patient assistance programs and an application to be completed by my doctor and myself. A completed application, attached tax forms and a month of waiting later and I am happy to say I received a little medical card from the company giving me my prescription for FREE! Booyah!

Hope this helps anyone out there who might have a similar issue. Good luck!

Projects, Daytrips and Life in General

Corey Funderburk — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:30:00 +0000

There has been a lot going on in my neck of the woods (San Diego, CA).

Work:
For one thing, my company, the Pangea Foundation, was just granted a contract to develop databasing software to be used in the Home Again Mississippi project (I think that is the project; If not, you get to see a cool webpage with stories). It is really such an honor that a company as small as ours was chosen to do such an enormous project. Unfortunately, though, we only have until March 30th to finish (people need homes!) and we just found out we got the job yesterday! Craziness! The gist is that there was some sort of insurance/state relief decision made where select people are each being given $100,000 to rebuild/repair their homes. However, the state of Mississippi has no way to track who needs it, at what stage they're at or any of the other details that go along with it. So along comes Pangea to the rescue! They saw some of our other systems and have heard about our great tech support and training assistance (ya baby) and felt we were the company for them. It's so exciting! Our software will hopefully expedite the process of all of the people getting the funds they need to rebuild their homes. Woot!

Second, Laura and I went to a Cultural Proficiency seminar last Friday that was very interesting. Many of the counselors who we are working with on our new AP Tracking system were there so it was good to network with them in addition to learning about cultural differences and how to overcome them.

Third, the mentoring program for which we have been working on a tracking system has been growing by leaps and bounds! It used to be just Wednesday mornings but then there was a waiting list to get involved! So now there is a Thursday morning session as well! (That was a lot of exclamation points, I apologize.) We help Karen, the program director at our office, get things organized and input all of the new data for the programs. It's been fun and I'm glad it's growing.

Moving away from work onto daytrips and fun times:

Laura, Mike Denegal (former VISTA leader) and I took a daytrip to Tijuana on Sunday.

It was way too much fun. Here's a link for pictures. Check them out! It was cool because we took the trolley from our office which was only $5 roundtrip and were able to just walk across the border, thereby missing all of the traffic and wait times! Everything is pretty cheap down there and there is a lot going on. If you ever make it to San Diego, it’s totally a fun thing to do.

Laura and I have also been taking some free classes at one of the continuing education campuses here in San Diego. We started off with HTML and then moved onto Dreamweaver (all the way through intermediate!) and Photoshop. It’s so cool to be able to learn new skills and expand horizons! There is totally one of those guys who can’t keep his hand down in lecture and likes to argue with the teacher (you all know what I’m talking about) but besides that, class is awesome.

Otherwise, fun things I’ve been doing include going to cheap local concerts, watching movies and baking. Oh yeah, and doing Tae Bo videos with new and improved Billy Bands (yeah, I’m weird)! You guys are going to see Laura and me at the conference and be like, “Dang, those girls are svelte.” Just kidding…

Thought provoking life questions:

I came to the realization the other day that my VISTA term is nearly half over. What that really means is that my year of procrastination that was to be used for deciding what I wanted to do with the rest of my life is nearly half over. I feel like I haven’t come to any real conclusions. I really like technology and when I work at it, I can learn and accomplish a lot, but I’m no techy genius, unlike many of my fellow VISTAs out there! I just don’t feel I have a ton to offer sometimes. I majored in business and I am pretty good at that – organizing, planning, implementing, etc. I could draw you a pretty nice supply/demand graph any day of the week. However, I’ve found that really putting things into practice is often difficult. All I really know is that I want to be useful and I want to help people but I don’t know in what area I can do that most efficiently. I know I don’t want to go back to school. I should probably move away from San Diego for an adventure and growth but it’s just so comfortable here for me. My family is here, my friends are here, I know my way around (Anyone who knows me well knows that is huge because I have absolutely NO sense of direction). So yeah, anyone out there in the same boat? Have any suggestions or ideas?

Hope everyone is doing well and that no one has frozen over with the recent weather. Looking forward to seeing many of you in April at NTEN!

Im a vista Gangsta!

Ramon Myers — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 21:32:05 +0000

Im joining the vista mob today. Loving the chance to do something for the community and meeting all the great minds for change. Boston is cold, but Im serving in LA....... ha ha ha. So its all good in the hood, Holla @ me!

VISTA's working together

Richard T. Anderson — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 17:47:19 +0000

This past week I took some time off and went to visit my friends, Darrin and Courtney in Cincinnati Ohio. Before I left I let Lauren Bratslavsky at Media Bridges know that I'd be in town., so that we could possibly get together.

After a few emails and phone calls Lauren and I decided to meet Friday at Media Bridges at 12:30. I walked in and really liked the building. It's one of these refurbished old buildings and just has a neat look. Lauren met me and showed me around.

They recently got new iMacs for their edit suites and such. They were smart enough to make sure they had DVD burners. Unlike the new mini editing lab here at the CMC. Over all I was impressed by the facility and the people I met.

It turned out that they have a second VISTA, Kathy Dumas, there as well. The three of us walked to a Deli for lunch. We had a spirit discussion about being a VISTA, problems facing Community Media, patriarchy, lax direction, and other stuff. It seems that VISTA's at Media Bridges do not get made to feel like they are part of the staff, as I do here in Grand Rapids.

After lunch we returned to Media Bridges. One thing we talked about was the program Garageband. I had put together a tutorial on it and they had some questions about it. So we went upstairs and I gave them an overview of how the program works. We made a little VISTA music piece. It is rather odd. lol.

Lauren gave me some assitance with the program Livetype, which we've had trouble with here at the CMC.

It was a great visit. Both relaxing and productive. VISTA's communicating and working together. I hope I get the chance to show them around the Community Media Center here sometime. I just emailed them my tutorial for Garageband and I will probably hear back from them with more info on Livetype and a program for ripping DVD's.

Peace,

Rich

vaguely related to VISTA life...

gariet cowin — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 22:41:56 +0000

Hey, everybody. I just wanted to let you all know that I updated my Kirsten Academy blog. I don't know if any of you are interested, but for the December class, I managed to raise over $450 for charity, and my friends all got a lot of cool art. Total expenses for me: $15 (a few snacks, and a SASE for an artist who said she probably wouldn't get around to sending me any art unless I sent her one).

Here's what you do:

1) Make a lot of friends/ acquaintances (if they are artists, that's a plus, but it's not necessary)

2) Tell them you are having an art auction for charity, and that if they want to come, they have to make and donate some art.

3) If anybody protests on the grounds that they aren't artists, invite them over and help them make something (while making something yourself). Also, let them know that crafts/clothes/food can count as art.

4) Throw a party/auction! BYOB! Bringing snacks is encouraged!

As for the auction, I decided to go with a blind/silent format. Everybody got their own bid sheets, that were numbered 1-50 (each number corresponded to a piece of art). I also forced everybody to bid at least $1 on EVERYTHING, so that I wouldn't be stuck with any unwanted art at the end of the day. And I included a "Spending Limit" box on the bid sheets, so that people could bid high on lots of items without worrying about winning too much, and owing more than they could afford.

It ended up being a little more complicated to figure out the winning bids this way (it took a couple of hours to make sure that the art was fairly distributed), but it also meant that I was the only person who saw the bids. So nobody got their feelings hurt. And it also meant that there were no angry bidding wars. Cheap, Fun, and for a Good Cause. What more could you ask for?

CTCNet Conference

Carl Seifert — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 23:55:12 +0000

Does anyone know if there will be an annual CTCNET conference this year? I checked out their website and found two contradictory pieces of information.

One here that says there will be no conference due to strategic planning and one here that claims there is one and it shall be in LA in June/July. Talk about contradictory.

I call upon the powers that be to straighten this confusion out.

Carl Seifert

VISTA in VA