Project News

January Newsletter

Ben Sheldon — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:24:52 -0700

December was a less than joyous month for us at the CTC VISTA Project. Paul Hansen, the Project Director, passed away and there has been much sadness but also much thoughtful and inspiring messages and memories. We've collected all of them here: http://ctcvista.org/paul Thank you to everyone that sent us an email, or left a message. It has been greatly appreciated.

But despite our loss, we're moving forward into 2008 and what is looking to be a successful year for the CTC VISTA Project. Read on for some important news and resources!

Important things to do (today!)

Register for the Nonprofit Technology Conference: There is only one week left to get the early-bird rate---it ends January 15! CTC VISTAs get a discount too! When registering ( http://nten.org/ntc), in order for the "CTC Vista Rate" of $349 to show up on the registration page, the person registering needs to select "CTC Vista" in the "Where did you hear?" field. Once they do that, the "CTC Vista Rate" should appear in the "Event Fees" box. Also, send me an email and let me know you're coming (register today!).

- - Getting a VISTA in Summer 2008:*** We've officially kicked off our organization application process for organizations wishing to receive a VISTA beginning in July 2008. Supervisors take notice! We've tried to make our guidelines simpler and more straightforward, and you can find them here: http://ctcvista.org/apply/org The deadline to apply is February 22 (and we mean it!).

If Completing your Service in January...: We're proud to have such a large number of CTC VISTAs who are completing their service at the end of this month. Please, please, please send me your paperwork (cause I'm gonna remind you till I get it!).

Snazzy @ctcvista.org email addresses: You may have noticed that I'm sending this from ben@ctcvista.org and maybe Kevin and Morgan, our VISTA Leaders, as well. We're using more official looking email address (ooh), but it's all going to the same place (us), so don't feel obligated to update your address book---unless you want it to be more officious as well.

VISTA Spotlight

I want to give a shout out to Gabriel Fishman who got a great write-up about his Community Wireless project in the neighborhood newspaper. Gabriel is currently serving in Boston at a low and moderate income housing complex to provide free WiFi internet access and computer support services. If you have any news articles about your service please let us know! You can read about Gabriel here:

http://ctcvista.org/node/1196

Resources: Worth Reading

Successful Technology Use in Small Grassroots Nonprofits (Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management): This great report shows how small nonprofits use technology and what it means for a nonprofit to use technology successfully.

http://www.usfca.edu/inom/research/INOM-Tech%20Use%20in%20Small%20NPs.pd...

5 Nonprofit Success Secrets from Van Jones: Yeah, a lot of people have been blogging about these "counter-intuitive and probably immoral success secrets". But they're actually worth reading. And doing. And because everyone is busy, here's them in a nutshell:

1. Self promote (you're awesome) 2. Steal (ideas) 3. Don't Lie (no, really, don't) 4. Hate your enemies, but love your rivals (you mostly have rivals) 5. Do less (cherish your vacations)

http://www.10zenmonkeys.com/2007/12/25/miracles/

And lastly...

The CTC VISTA Project wishes you the best of luck with all of your new years resolutions. We've resolved to use media and technology to end poverty. Sure, it's a little ambitious but with all the hard work you all are doing, I think we're making a difference. Have a great year!

Ben

Paul Hansen (1969 - 2007)

admin — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:00:00 -0700

Paul Hansen, husband, artist and Director of the CTC VISTA Project, passed away on Monday night. Paul's humor, optimism and vision will be greatly missed.

We have also set up a page on the CTC VISTA Website with links to some of Paul's work, art and influences (it is in progress and suggestions would be appreciated):

http://ctcvista.org/paul

Paul's passing has come as a great shock to all of us. Nearly a year ago he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and despite that he has maintained a positive and ever-optimistic outlook. At the CTC VISTA Project we have been forever changed by his presence, management and friendship and we hope to continue in his legacy.

December Newsletter

admin — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:00:00 -0700

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-conferenc...

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!

November Newsletter

admin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:10:22 -0600

November has brought with it a chill to the air, and considering we have 48 VISTAs currently serving in 15 different states, someone has got to have warmer weather than HQ here in Boston. Here's some info about what's new or useful from the CTC VISTA Project:

+++ Quick News & Announcements +++

READ a little about the CTC VISTA Project in an article on TechSoup

http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/volunteers/page7636.cfm

SHARE all the great work you're doing by posting a Field Report:

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.

THANK YOU all for your hard work and service! (not news but you deserve it)

+++ VISTA Spotlight +++

Anita Lie at the Little Tokyo Service Center in Los Angeles has been doing some great work around accessibility and training. She's currently finishing up a manual for all of the assistive technology her center offers, and which Anita has been involved in identifying needs and purchasing. Anita has just started working on a curriculum for teaching computer and internet skills to people with developmental disabilities. I've been really impressed by the progress Anita has made through her service as a CTC VISTA.

You can read more about what Anita is working on in her field reports at http://ctcvista.org/reports/user/1020 or what everyone is up to at http://ctcvista.org/vista-workspace

+++ Great Resources +++

"Writing A Federal Grant: What to Expect" from CTC VISTA Meegan Kelly

http://ctcvista.org/node/1085

YouthVision: Youth & Community Training Curriculum (contact me for a discount available to CTC VISTA host organizations)

http://www.ctcnet.org/youthvisions/

A Common Framework for Evaluating Nonprofit Performace

http://www.urban.org/publications/411404.html

+++ Other News +++

I thought we'd try putting out a short monthly newsletter to highlight some of the accomplishments of our VISTAs, spread around some useful information and just remind you that we're here if you need any help. I think the work we all do is amazing and it would be great to see that everyone who really makes this Project run--VISTAs and their Supervisors--can see a bit more of the birds-eye-view those of us at HQ get on a day to day basis.

And just to see if anyone is reading this, here's my new favorite, bad joke:

Q: Did you hear about the circus fire?
A: It was In-tents.
(You kind've gotta vocalize it to get it)

Email me your favorite joke and have a great November!

Good News

admin — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 13:40:48 -0600

The CTC VISTA Project has been featured prominently in two publications recently. It's great to see the good work we do in print!

The frontpage of TechSoup.org today has a feature article up about the CTC VISTA Project entitled VISTAs of Equal Access by Jennifer Anthony.

It's a great article about the work we do and the people our project serves. The author went to a lot of work interviewing VISTAs and writing this article and it is a great overview of the opportunities we provide to both individual VISTA volunteers and the organizations they serve with. I love the last line:

With the CTC VISTA project working as matchmaker, everyone is bound to benefit.

The October 2007 edition of the UMass Boston University reporter has us mentioned in their article entitled Grant and Sponsored Program Awards Reach New High by Jim Mortenson. From the article, UMass Boston has raised $41.8 million for sponsored program awards in the 2006-07 academic year, a 7.9% increase from the previous year. Our paragraph:

Building on its commitment to public service, UMass Boston was awarded a $634,000 grant from The Corporation for Public and Community service to support the Community Technology Center (CTC) VISTA Project. The project provides administration and coordination for the recruitment, placement, and ongoing support of 40 AmeriCorps VISTA members in CTCs across the country. Peter Miller, College of Public and Community Service, is the project's principal investigator.

We actually placed 89 VISTAs last year, but no need to sweat the small stuff.

Four New VISTAs

admin — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 12:41:03 -0600

The CTC VISTA Project is proud to announce four new VISTA members have joined our corps of innovative and hard-serving individuals. These VISTA members were sworn in last Friday, August 10 in Providence, Rhode Island.

Clockwise from top: Stewart "Mac" Blair, Gabriel Fishman, Anna Simanovich and Wesley Kaplan.

Two of these new members will be serving in Boston, at the Castle Square Tenants Organization and at the Hyde Square Task Force. Outside of Boston, one VISTA will be serving at Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY; and the other at HandyCapable Network (Arc of North Carolina Housing Development Services) in Greensboro, NC.

New June CTC VISTAs

Ben Sheldon — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 11:51:56 -0600

Last Thursday the CTC VISTA Project swore in 25 new CTC VISTA members to begin a year of service to their community. These new VISTAs are a diverse and energized group hailing from across the country and serving in a wide array of capacities: community wireless, accessibility and inclusion, fundraising and outreach, youth storytelling and many more exciting capacity-building technology and media projects.

These 25 new VISTAs brings our current size of the CTC VISTA Project to an astonishing corps of 90 VISTA members.

June 2007 CTC VISTA Members: (Right to Left) First Row: Danielle Martin (VISTA Leader), Marylin Taylor, Cecille Isidro, Victoria Edwards, Julie Adler, Anita Lie; Second Row: Morgan Sully (VISTA Leader), Angela Saylor, Rian Graves, Tony Brown, Karl Otto, Ashley Mathews, Kelli Williams, Dianne Boro; Third Row: Ross Musselman (VISTA Leader), Rob Heck, Rayna Ramirez, Sarah Pierantoni, Charles Farmer, Jack Doherty, Dianne Curtain, Jim Mora, Kevin Palmer (VISTA Leader); Fourth Row: Meegan Kelly, Alexis Walker, Josh King, John Van Houdt, Sil Green, Jack Waugh, Ben Sheldon (Assistant Director); Not Shown: Donna Licata

2007 VISTA slots are filled!

Paul Hansen — Wed, 30 May 2007 10:13:30 -0600

I am very pleased to announce that our just-completed round of
recruiting was very successful-- we have filled the nearly 40 slots
that were available!

This means that we WILL NOT be conducting a supplemental round of
recruiting for August. In fact, we will not have another full round
until next summer. Guidelines will be announced in the spring of '08.