[Community] Meeting next week 12/16 - don't miss it!

[Nicole Pion]

Hey everyone,
Wednesday night, Beth and I met and we are thinking that the next community
connections meeting should be focused on getting all our projects in one
place, ideally the community connections backpage.  We have a lot of good
opportunities coming up, and we want to get organized at our meeting next
week.  Please, please join us Wednesday December 16th at 6pm!

Here are our agenda items:

*Community Backpage: *
Chris, did you create one?  I can't seem to find it.  If you haven't, just
let me know and I'll be happy to set one up.  If you have, can you send out
the link?

*Comprehensive list of Community Connections Projects:*
We have almost 20 sturdents who will beworking with the community
connections group next semester (more below).  We'd like to organize and
prioritize our projects before they arrive!  Please bring any notes you have
on community connections potential projects so that we can make a plan of
action!
*
Current items include*:
Making the lobby a more welcoming space
Hosting skill shares
Meeting with working groups to assess what they need from the IMC / what is
their relationship with the IMC
Meeting with community partners to see how they could utilize IMC resources
Building internship opportunities at the IMC
Building general awareness of the IMC as a community resource
...there's plenty more, but I just wanted to jog our collective memory.

*
LINC class:*
LINC stands for Learning in the Community.  This is an interdisciplinary
course based on service learning (begins Jan 19th and meets Tues/Thurs from
12:30 - 1:15).  We are invited to attend the first class.  Also, it's not
just a profesor and some students - we have 2 managers who are grad students
who elected to work with the IMC and oversee students on our project. They
are: Emily Henkels and Martha Althea Webber.  Both are awesome!  They are
familiar with the IMC and excited to work with us.  Then, we have a project
advisor, Prof. Robert McGrath (bio here:
http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/~mcgrath/remcgrath.pdf).

The students (we have about 20 working at the IMC) are expected to put in
between 3-6 hours per week on the project.  What we need to do is present
them with a challenge and they help us implement a solution.  I proposed the
idea of having the students tour the IMC in the first week of the course and
we will present 3 structured projects.  Then, students can opt to
participate in the one that is most interesting to them.  The projects need
to have a starting point and clear objective so that the students can have
the experience of project implementation.

I had a coupld ideas that would be potentially useful projects:

1.) Assistance in outreach / community connections work
2.) Planning and staffing the IMC Film Fest, IMC Fest and the spring
Children's Art fair -or- plan a series of skill shares at the IMC
3.) Help construct the new library space
4.) Assist me with fundraising and/or grant writing
5.) If students have web-design skills, it would be great to get ther
assistance on redesign of our website.

Some of this may depend on the interests and skill of the students, which we
don't know yet.  Certainly the project isn't written in stone and we should
take advantage of students who might have particular talents, but I'd like
to come up with a short, detailed list that I can share with the project
managersand advisors during the holiday break so that they can start
preparing for their section of the class.

Thanks everyone!

Nicole


-- 
Nicole Pion
Outreach and Development Adviser
AmeriCorps CTC VISTA
Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center
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