Tutor/Mentor Connection Monthly e-Newsletter

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Edition: September 2009 Issue No. 80



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NOTE: throughout this newsletter we use a Tiny URL to shorten long web site addresses so the links do not break. We hope you find this helpful.



* What are the challenges of operating a volunteer-based program? * Building Your Network * Tutor/Mentor Conference, Nov. 19 & 20 * Still Looking for Volunteers? * Recommended Reading * President's Message - Connecting, Networking, Collaborating

issue 01

What are the challenges of operating a volunteer-based program?

First week. Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection.

Now that school has started, and many programs have recruited volunteers and students, and held orientations and pre-training sessions, what will you do to keep those volunteers and students together for the entire school year? What will you do to find the money to pay staff, rent, and keep your program going?

Tutor/Mentor Connection has launched a couple of surveys to learn about programs and challenges. Most are telling us that finding operating dollars is a priority, while others are still trying to find enough volunteers, especially minority male volunteers. You can read about the most recent survey on this blog:
http://nicolecabrini.blogspot.com/2009/09/survey-shows-programs-need-funding.html

At Cabrini Connections, the program the T/MC operates in Chicago, we are providing on-going coaching of our volunteers, and use our web site to share our weekly newsletter, volunteer handbook and training materials, on-line student-volunteer portal, etc. Anyone can browse these materials and borrow the ideas to coach their own volunteers.

Weekly newsletter http://www.cabriniconnections.net/newsletter

Handbook and on-line resources for volunteers http://www.cabriniconnections.net/volunteers/materials-to-help-you-succeed

Tutor Training links http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-tutor-training

Mentor Training links http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-mentor-training

While we're sharing ideas from one program, you can browse the web sites of more than 200 Chicago area programs at
http://tinyurl.com/ChiTM-Program-Links

You can browse web sites of tutor/mentor programs in other cities by visiting this link:
http://tinyurl.com/T-MCLibrary-programs-network


Building your network. Learning from others
Image courtesy of Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection. The Tutor/Mentor Connection database lists more than 200 organizations in Chicago. The links library includes more than 1600 web sites, blogs, research articles, etc. Our mailing list for this newsletter reaches more than 5000 people. This is the network of the Tutor/Mentor Connection. Every six months we invite people we know to come together for a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago to share what they know, network with T/MC and each other, and build visibility that draws more volunteers and donors to all of the volunteer tutoring and mentoring programs in the Chicago area. As people come to the conference from other cities, or duplicate the T/MC, these events can have a national impact on the availability of volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs. How do you understand your network? How do you mobilize your network to help you? These two graphics illustrate how I'm connecting to people that I'm meeting through the work I do. On Friday, Nov. 20, one of the nation's leading experts in Social Network Analysis, Valdas Krebs, will be speaking at the Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference. Visit his web site, http://www.thenetworkthinker.com/, and learn more about Social Network Analysis. Come to the conference, and learn how to apply this concept to build a stronger network for your students, and a stronger support base for your non profit. The next Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference will be November 19 and 20, 2009, at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. We've posted a list of people who will be speakers and we will be adding to that list throughout the next six weeks. If you'd like to present a workshop, please use the workshop presenter form to do that. If you'd like to register, please add yourself to the on-line attendee list so others can see that you will be attending, and can make plans to meet you.. http://www.tutormentorconference.org
Tutor Training Workshop Presenters The November Conference still needs workshops focused on volunteer-based tutoring. If you can lead a workshop showing how you coach your volunteers to be tutors, or how you teach students to use on-line homework help resources, we'd like you to present at this conference. Map of Homework Help Resources on Tutor/Mentor Connection web site. http://tinyurl.com/TMC-HomeworkHelp-map

issue 02
Still looking for volunteers?

I Create your own map using http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/InteractiveMap.aspx
Many programs are still looking for volunteers and will be recruiting throughout the year. The Tutor/Mentor Connection library contains links to many local and national volunteering recruitment portals, where you can post a volunteer opportunities and potential volunteers can search for you. http://tinyurl.com/T-MC-Volunteering In Chicago, we've created an interactive Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, which enables parents, volunteers and donors to search different parts of the city to locate programs, and view their web sites. The map above is one sample of how to zoom into a neighborhood to determine what programs are available, and what ASSETS are in the same area who might help local programs grow. Assets are businesses, colleges, hospitals, faith groups, as well as elected leaders, or public access routes such as a highway that brings potential volunteers through a neighborhood as they come and go to work each day. See this map at http://www.tutormentorprogramlocator.net/InteractiveMap.aspx If you'd like to know more about how to use the Interactive map, or how to add your Chicago area tutor/mentor program to the map, call Nicole, Mike or Dan at 312-492-9614, or email tutormentor2@earthlink.net

issue 03
Recommended Reading - Innovation & Business Involvement
What if businesses, non profits, educators were all using the same resources to learn better ways to use limited resources to help all kids move through school and into 21st Century jobs and careers? It would be impossible for everyone to meet in the same room at the same time. But if the Internet were the place we were meeting, think of all of the people who could be meeting in the same places.
This is one graphic that you can find in illustrated essays on the Tutor/Mentor Institution web site at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net. It illustrates how parents, teachers, volunteers, social workers are pushing kids to make good decisions, that we know will result in a brighter future. It also illustrates a role business should be taking of using their resources (jobs, ideas, technology, dollars, volunteers) to PULL kids through school and into careers. We know industry spends billions of dollars on research and development. How much do they spend on innovating new ways to help kids from poor neighborhoods stay in school and get the critical thinking skills needed to succeed in the global economy? Here are some web resources that we hope you'll encourage your board members, volunteers and community leaders to read.
· Resources for corporate social responsibility http://www.independentsector.org/mission_market/organizations.htm · This is one article found on the Independent Sector list. From Spare Change to Real Change: The Social Sector as a Beta Site for Business Innovation, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/2974.html . · More links on innovation, collaboration, knowledge management, process improvement - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-innovation-links · More Links on Corporate civic engagement - http://tinyurl.com/T-MC-Civic-Engagement · Tutor/Mentor Connection Resources map (Flash) http://tinyurl.com/TMC-Resources-Map
president's message

Connecting, networking, collaborating

by Daniel F. Bassill

If you are reading this email, can I assume that you are using social media to show why tutoring and/or mentoring programs are important, and why business leaders, faith leaders and philanthropy leaders should support your program?

I was given recognition for my leadership of the Tutor/Mentor Connection and Cabrini Connections in a blog article written by Phil Shapiro and published in PCWorld. http://www.pcworld.com/article/172366/article.html

I know Phil because I spend time every day sharing my ideas on our web sites and blogs. I spend even more time sharing my ideas in a variety of internet forums hosted by others, such as the http://www.socialedge.org forum and the Fireside Leading discussions at http://firesidelearning.ning.com

Many of the people leading non profits are not yet using the Internet for this type of learning and networking. They may have people in their organizations "on the Internet" but I'm not sure if this gives the same hands-on understanding of the ideas that are shared in these forums, or of the potential of the internet to draw mass support to our industry, and to each individual program.

Below are places where you can connect with myself and members of the T/MC on the Internet. I hope you'll connect with us in these on-line forums, and that you'll connect with us at the Nov. 19 and 20 Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in Chicago. If you feel these strategies make sense for you, then I encourage you to find ways to share your own vision and mission on the Internet. Together we can attract greater support for volunteer-based tutor/mentor programs than we can by working alone.

* Tutor/Mentor Connection on Ning - http://tutormentorconnection.ning.com

* T/MC on Facebook - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-CC-Facebook

* T/MC on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/tutormentorteam

* Linked in group discussion of volunteering - http://tinyurl.com/TMC-LinkedIn-Volunteering

* Tutor/Mentor Connection blog http://tutormentor.blogspot.com

* Cabrini Connections blog http://cabriniblog.blogspot.com



The Tutor/Mentor Connection is part of a two part non-profit. We also operate a site-based tutor/mentor program called Cabrini Connections, http://www.cabriniconnections.net. If you can provide time, talent, and even dollars, to help Cabrini Connections, Tutor/Mentor Connection do this work, we would appreciate your support. Read more about our fund raising efforts at http://www.tutormentorexchange.net/donations Thank you for reading this and forwarding it to others.

Daniel F. Bassill President Tutor/Mentor Connection Cabrini Connections 800 W. Huron, Chicago, Il. 60642 312-492-9614

Read the blogs at : http://tutormentor.blogspot.com http://mappingforjustice.blogspot.com http://nicolecabrini.blogspot.com http://cabriniblog.blogspot.com