Comments

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  Daniel Bassill November 3, 2009 at 9:04am

  Arlan,
  
  Thanks for your email. You have a long list of groups, and I have too little time to try to participate in each, or to understand what they do. That's why I try to recruit others to share this role.
  
  

  

  
  This graphic illustrates the role of intermediaries connecting the people they know to organizations needing volunteers and donors in order to help kids. If the different groups on your site are pointing their members to the information on the T/MC web site, and the Chicago tutor/mentor program locator, that should lead to a flow of volunteers and donors to all of the different places in Chicago where this help is needed. I would be able to see a growth of traffic and membership on this site, and on our other sites which I track with Google analytics.
  
  In the OHATS group on the Ning site we talk about an on-line documentation system, where people can document actions they do related to T/MC goals and mission. If people in the groups on your web site want to document what they are doing to help tutor/mentor programs in Chicago, they can join the OHATS discussions and I can coach them to document actions they take. Over time, this would show the impact they have, based on the number of people documenting actions, and the impact of those actions.
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  Daniel Bassill July 15, 2009 at 2:49am

  Arlan,
  
  Can you launch a discussion, or a blog, showing how people might use your site in the most effective ways?
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  Daniel Bassill July 9, 2009 at 5:21am

  You have a ton of resources on your site, just as I do on my sites. This means no one will learn all of this in a short time, and our sites are not really for casual visitors, but for people who are learning ways to be more effective at helping kids grow up and be contributing members of society. Thus, we need to find ways to coach and mentor and build understanding of this knowledge, on an ongoing basis, constantly reaching more and more people.
  
  Here's an animated map showing the resources we have. It was created in the last month by interns from Korea and IIT.
  
  What are you doing to attract representatives from all of the different resources you point to with links to connect with you, and each other, in on-line forums? I send out an email each month, pointing to some of the organizations linked on my site, and I host a conference each May and November to try to draw some together face to face.
  
  The group we're not reaching are the business leaders who might benefit from what tutor/mentor programs offer, as well as philanthropy and public leaders who need to be more sophisticated in their involvement.
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  Daniel Bassill July 9, 2009 at 2:44am

  Hi Arlan, I hope you'll use the information on the site and add your own ideas.