Meeting+Notes+from+Sept.+21st


 * Meeting Handouts:**


 * Meeting Participants:**

Amy Ryan Catherine Wong Cheryl Davis Margaret Cohen Eileen Donovan-Kranz Brian Herrmann

**History and Background of Program:**

This initiatives grows out of BC's seven year partnership with Teachers for a New Era (TNE). Two years ago, members of the Lynch School community began asking how they could use evolving internet tools to better support Lynch School alumni. The Virtual Learning Community (VLC) is our response to the Carney's Foundation to challenge to confront the unfunded mandate of mentoring.

A central aspect of our work with TNE has been the tracking of Lynch School graduates through recurring exit surveys. The VLC aims to address significant findings from this research. -Survey respondents identify five areas of need: ?????? -Only 30% of graduates stay in Massachusetts; the rest are scattered throughout the U.S. and abroad. -Teachers desperately want a reliable place to find and store resources.

The process of developing the VLC began with a review of existing electronic platforms. Unfortunately, no existing platforms provides both the high level of content and social networking capabilities that we feel are necessary for a successful online environment. As our goal is to "reinvent mentoring", we have decided to develop an independent site.

**Scope of Work Going Forward:**

The remaining meetings are intended to be "working meetings"! It is our goal to provide a design draft to //This by Them//, our private development team, by November 2nd. Our next three meetings will be organized under the headings:

-Organization and Management -Content for the Online Community -Social Networking Components

You can read a more comprehensive description of these categories in the document posted at the top of the page.