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Minutes: April 20, 2001
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America Connects Consortium Community
Technology Centers Network
New England / Region 1 Meeting
I. Introductions (participant list attached)
II. Announcements
- Boston Cyberarts Festival starts 4/20 and lots of interesting
arts and technology events. Check out website at http://www.bostoncyberarts.org
- ACC/CTCNet will be sponsoring another regional meeting on 5/24
in Worcester. Easter Seals will be be sponsoring. Focus will be
on assistive technologies. Contact Jeff McAuslin (508-751-6448
or email jeffm@eastersealsma.org)
for more info
- CTCNet National Conference is June 15-17th in San
Diego. For more information check out the CTCNet website at http://www.ctcnet.org
- International Institute of Greater Lawrence just received word
that they have been awarded a NE Cancer Society Sword Award for
best educational health video created in a public access environment.
- PBS will be broadcasting via satellite on 5/3 from 3:30-5:30pm
a special series on reaching Adult learners in new ways via media
and technology. Contact your local public, education or cable
station to see about getting the broadcast downlinked.
- CTCNet board will be submitting a slate of nominees within the
next couple of weeks for elections to the National Board of Directors.
Announcement of the slate will be followed by a open period for
additional nominations.
- Negotiations with form ED of CTCNet has finally resulted in
State Street $$ for regional organizing to be released.
- By-laws for the organization will be voted on at this month's
meeting.
III. Discussion about Content in our
Centers
- What are we doing currently in our centers?
- Distance learning for the homeless (Pathfinder & Lowell
Transitional Living Center, Lowell, MA)
- Multilingual health education videos (International Institute
of Greater Lawrence, Lawrence, MA)
- Multilingual citizenship testing videos (International
Institute of Greater Lawrence, Lawrence, MA)
- Distance learning for ESL
- Community database for health and social service information
(New Beginnigns, Lowell, MA)
- Sciencequest (a project of Thinkquest) linking up science
and math activities in after-school environment in interactive,
web format (EDC, Newton, MA)
- Creating web content for NPOs - (i.e. Day care center) - Pelham
- Multilingual community radio programming that is also streamed
on the web (UML- Center for Family, Work and Community, Lowell,
MA)
- Spanish-language community newspaper (UML- Center for Family,
Work and Community, Lowell, MA)
- Intergenerational cookbook project linking up teens with senior
citizens in a desktop publishing cultural exchange (The Caleb
Group, North Adams, MA)
- Online health resources
- Online religious and family information
- Web streaming services - planning and viability (Codman
Square Health Center, Dorcester, MA)
- Regional Broadband Network focussed on creating and disseminating
community information and content - proposal to TOPS (UMB
- College of Pubic and Community Service, Boston, MA)
- What are the challenges and issues?
The key challenges / issues facing our many organizations revolve
around the following five (5) areas: 1) assessing content &
information needs; 2) finding adequate tools and resources (i.e.,
technology, humans, knowledge) to produce such content; 3) providing
adequate training and skill development; 4) distribution and
promotion of content / information once it is created and 5)
gathering feedback and input about content / information products
that in turn result in new needs or allows for the adjustment
of current products. The questions and comments below were raised
during this part of the discussion.
Needs Assessment
- It is important to engage participants and community in the
creation and identification of content. Content should always
start from the end user and be based in the community.
- How can we help folks find existing content and then identify
what is lacking?
Resources / Access
- How do we get access to tools? humans w/ knowledge and skill?
- Are high-end technologies (i.e.video streaming) really the
way to go? Perhaps the use of lower end options would be easier
and more effective (i.e., streaming audio w/ powerpoint presentation).
- What about centers that barely have the technical and human
resources to approach such activities? What about the NPO infrastructural
support issues separate from the programmatic technology support
issues?
- What are effective ways to leverage existing resources?
Training / Education
- Also the idea of writing instruction, voice, and individual
expression as a means to not only ABE and technology instruction,
but content production.
- We should make sure we are training those who have content
/ information needs to create their own content.
Distribution / Promotion
- How do we distribute content and get feedback once it is created?
- How do we create ways to direct people to the overwhelming
amount of information and content that is already there?
Feedback / Critical Input
- Assessing needs and training communities to create their own
content.
Next Steps
- How do we make the shift from CTCs being viewed as training
sites into information / content production and distribution
centers?
- Are there better ways to share resources and lessons learned?
Better way to aggregate information?
- Community collaborations to prevent replication of lessons
learned
- Can we share information and what should we share?
- Face-to-face meetings
- Email lists
- Central entity that organizes, coordinates, & edits information
(i.e. ACC / CTCNet) -
- Case study series (i.e., CTCNet )
- Online protals (i.e.
http://www.americaconnects.net)
- Creation of organizational development tools or creating models
of excellence
- Peer counseling / consulting
IV. Break
V. Volunteer Management:
Presenter Laura MacNeil, Habitat for Humanity International
Handouts for the workshop are attached
- Motivations - tapping into an individual's motivation
for volunteering can help you identify why they are volunteering
and what they need in order to get the most out of a volunteer
experience. A simple motivational survey that identifies power,
achievement, or affiliation motivations could greatly help you
make sure your volunteer gets the most out of their time with
your organization (survey, scoring tool, and explanation handouts
attached)
- Recruitment - You can find people all sorts of ways.
Best place to start is your own membership base including your
Board of Directors. A recruitment strategy should be planned
and a process clearly created. Also, volunteer should never
be a job description, rather it is a pay grade. When recruiting
people make sure there is a detailed description of the job
with expectations, skills, and other relevant information. "Hiring"
a volunteer should be not different than hiring a full-time
paid employee. Make sure there is adequate supervision and feedback
given to the volunteer.
- Retention - Providing feedback, creating opportunities
for challenge, growth, and recognition are important in retaining
volunteers (and employees). Training, including, tapping into
individual goals for personal fulfillment and creating a fun
atmosphere also help.
VI. Adjourn
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