Overview

• Preliminaries.
  • Admin.
  • Upcoming Work.
  • Extra Credit.
  • Questions.
• Prebrief on client meetings.

Preliminaries

• Susan Sanning from CLS will run most of today's class.
• I'll try to take notes, but you should also take your own notes.

Admin

• Group assignments distributed on Monday afternoon.
• I know that many of you are frustrated to be finishing mostly-done projects. Our alumni mentors are concerned about this issue, too. So we may be combining "Finish one project" and "Start a new project". Susan Sanning and I are looking at new projects.

Homework

• Find, download, and try to get working the current version of your project.
• Do Rails for Zombies, available at http://railsforzombies.org/.

Good Things to Do

• CS Extras (Thursday, 4:15 p.m., 3821): Graduate school
• Hear About Diversity and Inclusion from Intercultural Affairs Candidate Friday, Sept. 2 4:15 p.m., Joe Rosenfield '25 Center, Room 209
• Convo, September 8 (Thrusday, 11:00 a.m., JRC 101): Roberto Gonzales on "From Undocumented to DACAmented: Understanding Legal Status in a New Policy Context".
  
  • Get a free copy of his book Lives in Limbo: Undocumented and Coming of Age in America by visiting Macy 203 during regular office times.
• Grinnell Prize Winners first week of October.
  
  • Workshop on sustaining your social justice dream
  • Workshop on making a career of changing the world
  • Workshop on fun and ding your social just dream

Everything you wanted to know about meeting with clients, but didn't know to ask

Susan Sanning is our community outreach coordinator with CLS.

Question: What does our community think about Grinnell Colelge students?

• Rich, privileged
• Raucous
• Drink a lot
• Super liberal
• Self-centered
• Think they can walk in the middle of the street whenever they want

How about positives?

• Study hard
• Smart, really smart
• Volunteer a lot
• Access to skills that don't necessarily exist in our community

On that last item

• In a larger city, many of the things our class (and other classes) do would be done by a local company or consultant or ...
• You have a chance to effect this community

Grinnell trivia (that is not trivial)

• What is the unemployment rate in this community? 12% 30% 6%. It's 2-3%
• What is the poverty rate in this community? 20% 30% 15%. Depending on who you ask it's between 30% and 60%. About 40% of our students are on free and reduced lunches.
• Our community members are chronically underemployed/underpaid, working multiple jobs, and don't have a lot of time to do things.
• Who has access to Internet in our community? Poverty is an issue. Rurality is an issue. Transportation is an issue.
• There is a lot of consolidation and putting things online.
• $400+/month for 30 gb rural Internet connections (ouch!)
• For the MICA projects, we should be paying a lot of attention to bandwidth and related issues.

Why are you here?

• Required.
• Making a difference seems important. Like doing something impactful.
• Learn about making software.
• Make things that people will use.
• Applicable skills.
• Looks good on my resume.
• Assorted other ones that I can't hear.

What will be harder in terms of working with clients?

• People who understand less about technology. That means we have to work on
  • communication skills
  • translation
  • managing expectations
  • higher standards / mistakes have different implications
• Time management
  • Certain times of day
  • Need to make appointments
  • Need to communicate when you need to push deadlines because, for example, you've found a glitch
  • Missing things has a cascade effect
  • And you are taking them away from important things, so use their time wisely.
• Assess professional dress.
• Communication:
  • Should you text at 3am? Probably not, unless they say that they turn their phones off.
  • Better: Email, phone call, whatever they tell you
  • Lead time! How much do you need?
• Think about Iowa Nice!
• Ask people about response windows!
• "Sam plans differently"

What do you know about GPCF?

• Granting organization
• Provides back-office support for nonprofits. How do I help the organizations that I give to run better?
• All non-profits must have a board of directors.
• Grant application management systems cost a lot of money
• Our nonprofits are funded by grants, so it's important that they get funding.

Head Start

• Makes preschool accessible to those who might not otherwise have access
• Provides access to resources that might not otherwise be available (to both kids and their families)

Resource Guide

• How is information disseminated in rural small town America ... word of mouth, churches, etc.
• There isn't a good one-stop shop for finding out about resources.
• Even those who provide support don't know all of the resources.

Transportation

• Most of the time, you can walk.
• We have a request form for transportation. 48 business hours ahead of time.
  • 19+ plus two-years of clean driving record lets you sign up
    to drive
  • Certified driver is a paid gig.
• Go in groups

Opportunities

• We have service-learning work-study positions. Next semester you can get paid to support the rollout/launch of the project.

Other Notes

• Kristina Weber can be a resource for folks working with MICA.
• Danielle is incredibly busy ... oversees five different sites. Good at setting boundaries.
• Chris Hunter from Sociology is on the board of MICA.
• Jamie Chambers from MICA/Marshalltown is our tech contact.
• Good question: Who else in your organization should we talk to?
• We need to think about confidentiality agreements.