I think that F2F and Virtual Conferences should be part of an on-going process of learning, evaluation, planning, etc. aimed at addressing issues important to the people who come to the F2F or Virtual Conference.
I've been hosting F2F Tutor/Mentor Leadership Conferences for 12 years as part of an effort to connect leaders of tutor/mentor programs with each other, and with information they can use to build and sustain constantly improving programs. Each time we gather (May and November) is also an opportunity to create greater public awareness of the value of these programs and the need for a consistent flow of volunteers, dollars, tech support, etc. In 2004 I began to add an eConference component. At www.alado.net/econference you can see some of the workshops that were presented. However, this is just the start. Here's three web sites that I've joined recently which illustrate my goal: www.digitaldivide.net, www.socialedge.org and www.incsub.org . Each is a portal where people can meet and share ideas with others. Each is linked from various section on my own web site so visitors to my sites can find these discussion portals. My goal is to host a portal with the best ideas from each of these, supported by the maps, charts and tutor/mentor knowledge we share on our existing web sites (www.tutormentorconnection.org and www.tutormentorexchange.net), and supported by meeting management tools that enable people to move the conversation from a chat to a brainstorming section and to shared commitment to specific actions. Once we have such a portal our F2F and Virtual Conferences will just be times along a 52 week sequence of actions where some of us meet, network, energize, share ideas, etc. The real work is what happens in the time between when we meet for a conference or any other type of meeting. I think we can support that type of work with the portal. In addition, once we have a portal working the way we envision it, we can make it available to others who are also hosting the same conversation, on university campuses, in faith communities, in business and professional groups, in other cities, etc. This would mean that any time of any day during a calendar year someone might be providing leadership to get people to think of ways they can help constantly improving tutor/mentor programs be available and what are the ways groups can achieve this goal when individuals cannot. The result would be a growing number of people who meet and share experiences and knowledge in a shared effort to make more and better mentoring-to-career programs available in all poverty neighborhoods where they are needed. While I apply this thinking in one social service sector, I feel it can be duplicated in any stream of service. As a small non profit I don't have the staff or dollars to build these tools into my organization as fast as I'd like. Thus, I reach out to volunteers who are already connected to innercity kids and who want to do more to help the kids they mentor move through school and into jobs. With the Internet, and virtual conferencing, etc. the volunteers who help can live in any part of the world. Thus, my vision of F2F and Virtual Conferencing is to a) learn from the best work being done and constantly find ways to incorporate this into my work; b) focus on the process, not the individual meeting. I focus on the reasons people gather together in the first place, the large numbers of people who need to be personally involved in the goals of the group, and the long term repetition of actions needed to solve any problem. Daniel F. Bassill President Cabrini Connections Tutor/Mentor Connection 800 W. Huron Chicago, Il. 60622 PS: next F2F conference is May 12 and 13. See www.tutormentorconference.bigstep.com _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
