Counting, counting, counting.The progress report has this section that makes me want to yell at it."9. How many students/Community members did your volunteers directlyserve/tutor this reporting period?"We have 70 agencies and about 200 students. How many people wereserved? I dunno. I don't have any idea of a reasonable system bywhich to estimate it even.I just went through 200 forms to figure out that 4 of the 70 agenciesare schools! I don't know what our students were doing there!I am near yelling at my computer screen that we are not all tutoring programs.

- posted by Joseph Baruch @ 1:02 PM 0 comments

 
On the up and up
I haven't been on this in a long time! I guess no one else has either since our last posting was on November 17. Oh well, here we go.

I just wanted to share with you the fact that we are on the up and up here at Gonzaga! Right before Thanksgiving not only were we able to locate a computer and hook it up to the internet, but almost all the inner controversy here on campus related to the Resource Center basically cleared up, ready for me to take a holiday break and come back to campus with a renewed sense of freedom. I must say, this entire experience has been truly one long course in the power of words. Words can mean so many different things to different people and frankly that has never been more apparent in my life. But nonetheless, things are looking up.

And what's better, I get the gift of a Palm Pilot from our Vice President for Diversity (which was fabulous, he's one of the most generous men I know). On top of that, I got a brand-new computer for my office the week after Thanksgiving as well...so truthfully, I really feel a sense of relief and freedom to actually get done what I want to get done...Things. I haven't been able to get things done because I've been wrapped up in dealing with controversy and organizing the office. New programs can be a pain.

So now I can type this up with the confidence that this program will be a total success. I have Christmas music playing on the computer, and I am getting a huge service-learning mentoring program organized to kick off in the spring. I am very excited, and just thought I'd share this with all of you.

On top of that, our cluster is going strong. We are planning some great Civic Engagement things, and we are getting along famously. We even planned a Christmas party for this upcoming weekend for our Spokane/Cheney cluster (official name to be released soon--stay tuned). Expect great things out of the Eastern side of the state.

Take care, and write back!

Bryce

- posted by Bryce @ 3:26 PM 0 comments