Steve:  I will be happy to attend.  I am out of town on June 7-8.

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve DeLorey [mailto:sdelorey@...]
Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 12:20 PM
To: bworks@yahoogroups.com
Cc: BWorks Board
Subject: Re: [bworks] ByteWORKS and the St Louis Connects meeting

Gavin Perry wrote:
>
> Dear ByteWORKers and supporters,
>
> SNIP...
> [!!!!!READ HERE IF YOU ARE SCANNING THIS FAST!!!!!]
> I would like to have a meeting of all those volunteers, board
> members and potential new volunteers who would like to help
> reinvigorate ByteWORKS, and participate in our programs.

Reinvigoration is certainly necessary.

> Please pass this e-mail on to any of your friends or co-workers
> who might be interested in working with ByteWORKS or one
> of the other BTC programs or member organizations.
>
> Agenda items will include:
>
> 1. A mini recap of the sustainability workshop, focusing on
>   our program evaluation and ideas improvement.
>
> 2. Recreating and affirming our vision and goals for ByteWORKS.
>
> 3.  CTCnet  - Do we want to join this national organization?
>          Cost is $100 per year, benefits include resource manuals
>          access to other members and staff,  regional support
>          (such as the meeting I attended), national policy advocacy,
>          access to software donations.
>
> 4. Sign up to help with objective 5 above, find, evaluate and install
>    an improved curriculum for ByteWORKS (and other BTC groups
>    working with youth).
>

> You probably prefer to avoid meetings, so I would like to get some
> feedback via e-mail, firm up a date and time hopefully in June
> with a tight agenda. We will run this meeting in an hour or less for
> those who want the executive update, and continue on in working
> sessions for any worker bees who want to help with the details.
>
> Please e-mail me with your thoughts and concerns, dates/times
> you would (or specifically would NOT) be available, and any
> agenda items you would like to expand.
>

In general, I have the impression that the program is no
longer achieving our original goals.
More and more of the students that enroll are coming from
outlying communities rather the city.
More and more of the students that enroll already have a
computer in the home.
The students that do enroll from the target neighborhoods,
have a high drop out rate. It is difficult to get them to
complete the course and usually involves excusing missed
classes.
We could become more proactive in recruiting and retaining
children from the target neighborhoods but that will require
almost as much time and energy as conducting the classes or
refurbishing the equipment.
We could concentrate more on "Fun and Games" in the
"curriculum" but that gets us back into the same non
productive mode as the public schools.
As things stand now, I would like someone else to handle the
recruiting of the students and the organization of the
classes, the scheduling of instructors etc.
I'll continue to teach a few classes in each cycle but I
don't have the time or energy for more than that. 

Steve
> Thank you for supporting ByteWORKS, I hope to hear from you soon.
>
> Gavin
>
> P.S.  Please excuse any duplicates, I'm not sure who is on which list.
> (So reorganizing our e-lists to be subsets and super sets of each other
> would be a nice little project for someone.... hint hint.)
>
> Please let me know if you want to be removed permanently from any
> ByteWORKS lists, and I will purge you from my database.
>
> --
> Gavin Perry
> ByteWORKS
> St. Louis MO 63110
> mailto:gavin@...
>
>
>
>
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