Social - Media - Monday - Tools for transitioning

>> Good afternoon. My name is Vanessa and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Social Media Monday, Tools for Transitioning conference call. Our lines will remain open throughout the conference. If you would like to mute your line, you may do so by pressing star 6 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to speak, please press star 6 again to unmute your line. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to your hostess, Miss Suzanne Knizner. Please go ahead, ma'am. >> Thank you Vanessa. Hi, everyone. Thank you for being a part of this afternoon's Social Media Monday, Tools for Transitioning. We are [inaudible] part of the event. We have a lot of great information to share with you. Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Suzanne Knizner, project coordinator for Campaign Consultation. And I will be facilitating today's event, as well as helping host with Danielle and Michelle. Before we begin, let's go over some rules. As you heard from Vanessa, we are going to keep the call open. But if you don't mind muting your individual line by pressing star 6, that would be great. If there are any interruptions [inaudible] to remind you to hit star 6. Also, to unmute your lines, you want to hit star 6 again, particularly during the question and answer session later on. Please take a note of the numbers on your screen right now in case you lose your connection or have any technical problems. If you do lose your connection, please feel free to log in and or just to call in just as you did originally and [inaudible]. Sir, whoever is speaking to someone else in their office, we can hear you in the entire presentation. So if you wouldn't mind muting your line by pressing star 6, that would be great. We do ask that everyone not put us on hold. While your background music is lovely, it's not something we want part of our presentation today. And, finally, please note that this event is being recorded; and it will be available on the Vista Campus Social Media Monday landing page; and that all links that are presented during today's event will we made available later. [ Audio feedback ] Again, we can hear you. If you're speaking to someone in your office and you haven't muted your line, we can hear you. So please hit star 6 so everyone doesn't hear your conversation. Thank you. Now I will turn it over to Michelle Bond, project manager, Campaign Consultation, who will introduce today's presenters. >> Thank you, Suzanne. And welcome, everyone. We're delighted to have you for this month's Social Media Monday Web shop, Tools for Transitioning. We have a lot of fantastic information and guests with us today. So, again, I know that Suzanne made a note of it; but we will extend today's session until 4:30. So we hope that you're able to stay on to -- on with us through the [inaudible]. But, if not, you can certainly listen to the recorded archive. And also we promise you'll have lots of good information up until the point when you have to [inaudible]. So, again, we hope that you'll be able to join us for the whole session. But thank you for being with us today. And, without further ado, we have several great presenters today, Zach Jackson, who's the VISTA Leaders Outreach and Recruitment Specialist; Danielle Ricks, who is our Social Media specialist here at Campaign Consultation; Stephanie Ross, who's our e-Project specialist; and then we also have Amy Potthast. We're delighted that she's with us today as a guest, who is with the new service blog by idealist.org. And so, without anything further, I turn it over to Zach Jackson with the corporation who'll get us started. >> Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to thank you all for joining us this afternoon for another hopefully wonderful hour, hour and a half of Social Media Monday. The idea this month as part of our Viewfinder and as part of Social Media Monday [inaudible] transitioning, because we know a lot of you are finishing up your service over the next couple of months. And we'd like to give you as many resources as we can possibly to prepare you for life after service. I'd really like to thank all of you for your service. It's been a wonderful and crazy year with the Recovery Act passing. And we're hoping that, after your service is over, you continuing to [inaudible] and many of our alumni programs that we are currently developing and also continue to serve no matter where you end up in life. Finally, I'd like to thank Campaign Consultation, as always, for their wonderful suggestion of setting up these great programs like Social Media Monday. And, Michelle, I believe that's all for me for now. >> Okay. Thanks so much, Zach. Hold on a second. I'm going to switch over here. My apologies. I was having some trouble with my headset. Thank you again for joining us. Thanks, Zach, for getting us started here. And for those of you who have not been able to join us in the past, we're so glad you're here today. And what we try to do each month with Social Media Monday is have a chance to apply some hands-on examples of how VISTAs out there are using different Social Media applications in their service, particular tasks within their organizations. Wherever possible, we love to get technology experts and, of course, VISTAs and VISTA alumni who have been successful with implementing some Social Media strategies into the work that they do every day. So, again, we have these the last Monday of each month, a little earlier this month with [inaudible] holiday. But we're so glad to have you with us. And Danielle will lead us into today's agenda. >> Thanks so much, Michelle. And thank you, everyone, for joining us. We are just so excited about this particular Web shop. All of them we're excited about, but this one we're absolutely excited about, even more so. Because we're hoping that we can really help you guys through a part of your service that we are here for. So today's agenda Social Media Monday we're going to talk about what does it mean to transition. We're going to introduce you to our guests, and then we're going to connect with valuable work contacts. How do you do that. And job hunting. That's what everybody wants to know about, job hunting and career growth beyond your service. Maybe you don't want a job. Maybe there are other things that you want to do after your service is complete. We'll talk about hands-on resources, tools, and tips to help you transition after service. And, then, finally adjusting to your new life. What is that going to be like for you? We'll talk about that and give you some tips there. Before we get started, Michelle is going to walk you through a poll. And we basically like to do this poll because we want to make sure that we're speaking to the things that are going to be most important to those of you that are on the call. Of course, we're going to touch on other things for the archive purposes, as well. But we want to make sure that we're actually touching on those things that are going to be important to you so that you could walk away with some great takeaways after the Web shop and resources and tools that you can use. >> Great. Thank you, Danielle. And if you would all look to the lower right-hand quadrant of your screen, that's where you can actually fill out the poll. There are just four quick questions there. If you can just give us a sense of what brought you to this Web shop and how are you thinking about your transition after service. That would give us a sense of who's all in the room, so to speak. [ Pause ] Okay, great. So we're going to get started with connecting with contacts, those very important contacts that you're making during your service. One of the ways to do that is with a smart address book. And Plaxo is the one we're going to use today as an example. It helps you keep in touch with people in your professional circle. And you can keep each others' contact data up-to-date. So, as you move around either in your service position or after you leave, this address book automatically updates it for everybody. And you can share contacts including a blog, photos. And there's actually a social networking feature to it. So it's a great online address book. And it's a great way to stay in touch with people and to keep in touch with folks who you've been working with or even may want to work with. And so we're going to turn right over to Stephanie Ross right now who's going to walk us through our next few slides on how to set up a Plaxo account. Hi, Steph. >> Hi, Danielle. Thank you so much. So we are going to -- I'm going to walk you through how to set up a Plaxo account. It's super easy. First off, you go to Plaxo.com. And on the screen there are little red arrows where you can just press sign up at the top or start now at the bottom. And then we're going to move forward. Once you pressed that, we'll move forward to the next screen here. One second. >> Hold on one second, Ross. We've got to give you rights. Yeah. We have to close the poll before we do that. Give us a second. We are live. And, as a matter of fact, we can hear you. So if you would not mind pressing star 6, please, that will mute your phone. And then you can talk to your coworkers and we won't be recording your conversation. Thank you so much. So give us a second. So the things that Stephanie's going to do, she's going to walk you through this setup. And we're going to have a few slides for you to show you how to get through the process. And this, again, is a great way for you to stay in contact with people. I know that, when you move from job to job and you have that paper -- you have that paper address book out, scribble out your name and scribble in somebody else's name. And this takes all of that away, which is a great thing. And it's also -- our last Web shop, which is available on the VISTA Campus in the archives for the Social Media Monday landing page was all about Linked In and how we do that. And that's another professional tool. And this is a little bit different, although -- correct me if I'm wrong, Ross -- they are positioning themselves sort of as the next kind of Linked In slash Facebook. >> Yeah, they are. Definitely. And especially with bringing in your social networking features, which you will demonstrate. And after I got to open the account. So we are going to move forward. After you press the sign up button, you land on the field where it says start your own Plaxo address book. And this is really simple. It's just you enter your full name, your email address. You can create a password, enter your birthday. I do love how you don't have that year of birth, which is nice. And your gender. And then you press the orange Get Started button. And it's going to take you where you need to confirm your email address. So you just go to your email address; confirm it. And the email looks like this. And, once you are confirmed, it will take you back to the Web site where you can start filling in your address book. And, if you have -- I mean, this is a really great feature. If you have yahoo email, Hotmail, or AOL, you can click this. It will walk you through. It doesn't keep your passwords. I mean, it just basically just helps you fill in your address book with people that are on Plaxo. If you choose not to do it, you can -- I mean, you can always come back later and do it. Just click this "I don't use any of these" and you can click next. And, then, on the next screen, it gives you the option if you use Outlook or Outlook Express, then you can import your contacts from there. And if you choose not to, just click skip. And you can always come back into it later. And, on the next screen, you're going to land on your home page. Now, this is going to be your home page where you've got your address book if you had any. And [inaudible]. And if you didn't import any contacts, you can -- here's where you can do it at a later time. And, over here, I'm going to show you this little bar here. As you can see it, it says that you're about 10 percent. It's very similar to Linked In, how they give you that percentage. You can click the Edit button here or you can click down here on View and Edit Your Profile. I highly recommend this, because you're going to want to fill it out to make sure that your information is updated. On the next screen here, I clicked the Edit. So I'm editing my account. Make sure you upload a photo. And this little box here is very similar to the Facebook interface, Linked In, all of them, where you can send in your update on what you're doing. And also I want to show -- let's see. What else? Down here we can -- you can update your professional information, your contact information, your work education. Fill in this as much as you can, and that way you can get the most benefit out of it. And, as you fill it in, this little green bar over here will -- it'll get bigger. So I'm going to hand it now over to Danielle, and she is going to walk you through more on Plaxo. >> Great. Thank you. So before we get to Amy, who's coming up soon -- I know you guys are biting at the bit. She's in the background. She's coming up soon -- I just wanted to walk you through a little bit of Plaxo from the live page from my page. So, Suzanne, can you give me rights; or shall I just take rights from Ross? Take them? Okay. Hold on, guys. We're passing the proverbial ball. And I hope everyone is using the chat feature. I know that your phones are muted. But, please, if you have questions, you can put them in the chat; and we will have opportunity when we come back a little bit later on for some Q and A. So we want to know what you're thinking in the moment. I'm going to go to my desktop now. And, so, after you've signed up and you've gone through all the steps that Ross has brought you through, you can actually tie this to your Twitter and Facebook feeds and you can decide what you want to show. Right now I'm showing a feed from business. I can show them from everyone who has also signed up for Plaxo who is also on Twitter and Facebook with me, family and friends. But because I'm using this for business purposes, I really only want to see the feeds of those folks who are on [inaudible] contacts. So you can see that this has come from Facebook, Tony Dean. And you can see that there's some others that are coming from Twitter. And, then, others are simple links that are just added straight to Plaxo. So why would you want to do that? Well, hopefully people are communicating thing in a professional realm that are of interest to you and things that you may want to do or want to want follow up on in your service. You can also share just by clicking here where it says Show, you can share blogs, events, jobs, messages, music, photos -- just about anything you can do on your other social networking sites you can do here. The thing I like about this that some of the other sites did not offer is the e-card. So, in your service, you might want to figure out when your supervisor's birthday is or maybe there's an anniversary coming up, like the 45th anniversary would've been a great time to send a card to some of your fellow VISTAs or other people at AmeriCorps. And it's a nice reminder. If you can put events in, it will remind you that something is coming up that you want to connect to. It will tell you there are 19 requests from people. I have one group [inaudible] invitations, 5 messages, 14 notices. Tam Perry's [phonetic] birthday's coming up soon, and she's a business associate of mine. So I'm going to want to send her an e-card and stay in touch with her. My profile is only 70 percent at this point because I didn't finish putting in all of my education. But, once you do that, that's at 100 percent. And you can -- again, this is your address book of all of your contacts. You can divide them as I did between family and friends, people that you may not really know but you may want to know. And it's a very robust way of keeping an address book that does a little bit more than just an address book. You can back up and you can recover right here old -- say you deleted some people and you didn't mean to. You can recover it here or you can back up your phone book so that you can have access to it anywhere you go. So, if you're on the computer somewhere and you're trying to find the -- you just met someone at an event and you took their business card, you added it to your Plaxo address book, you just happen to be in their town and you can't remember what their phone number is, okay. Access your address book and you can pull it right up. So now I am going to give right back. Let me see if I can do this, guys. [ Pause ] Okay. So if we could move on to our tips. And right after this, we're going to give our poll results. And, after that, we're going to introduce you to Amy. So some tips before you transition, this is what we're going to be talking about today. So we want to make sure that you set yourself up for success. And what does that mean? We're going to be talking about that a little later on. And discern your professional calling. Amy speaks to that quite well, and she's going to be talking about that with us. Build your skill set. You may not think you have any, but you absolutely do. And you want to make sure that you're building that out before you transition. You want to get all those skill sets in place so that, when you transition, you have something to bring to the table. And you know what you're good at and where your weaknesses may lie and some things that may interest you as you transition out of your service position. You build relationships now while you're in your position right now. They're going to be valuable for you when it's time to transition. And then you want to document your success. Michelle and Zach are going to talk about this a little later on, Michelle specifically, about documenting your success. You want to make sure that you have something to show for your service term -- tangible, physical something to show for your service term. And all of you do, whether you know it or not. And that's going to be one of your most valuable assets as you transition out of your position. So let's go ahead and get the poll results. Suzanne, how did we do? >> Well, it looks like 81 percent of you will be looking for a job in the next six months. It also looks like 65 percent of you are first time job seekers and that 81 percent of you are interested in a nonprofit job and that 44 percent of you are going to grad school -- so congratulations -- followed by 21 percent doing another term of service, even better. So there you go. >> Great. Well, that's right. We're right on track for you guys. We are now -- we can go ahead and advance the slide -- we are going to bring on Amy, who I love [inaudible]. In our Facebook page someone wrote, she is the goddess of national service. And so, Amy, although your title is there for all of us to see, I like goddess better. Goddess of national service. I think I'm going to change your title. Who do I talk to at Idealist.org? >> I'll send you her email address. >> Great [laughing]. >> So, Amy, tell us your real title and your role there at Idealist. >> Okay. So I'm the director of two programs. One is our service program, which is educating people about [inaudible] national and international service opportunities and how they can lead into a [inaudible] career, no matter what your age is or what your experience level and education level. And the other program I run is our graduate education program, which is two parts. It's a national tour of graduate admissions fairs that are going all over the country -- our first two are in June and the rest are in the fall -- to help introduce public interest graduate programs to people just like you guys who are -- who are, you know, starting out in your career or starting out in a new career who've done a lot of really good things in public service and want to go on to do more and need graduate schools to be able to progress further. And, then, we also have a Web site based on our Web site about grad schools that I'll show you in a little while. And then I also edit the new service blog, which is all about [inaudible] service and sort of any topic that can touch on national service in some way. >> Okay, great. So let's go on over to your Web site. We're going to give rights to you now. And while we're doing that, tell us a little bit about what we'll find when we go to idealist.org. >> So idealist is best known as a -- as a place where nonprofits can post job opportunities. And, in the last year or so, we've also opened up the site for government agencies to be able to post there, as well. We like to think of ourselves as an organization that connects people from their good intentions to help them turn their good intentions into action. And we try to make it so that no good connection goes unconnected, if that makes any sense. So, yeah. Maybe you can think of it more as a clearinghouse for social [inaudible] action. We have a blog. This is our home page. This is our blog, which features new and interesting information every day or so. You can see there's a [inaudible] of idealist, and I'll show you a little bit more about why you'd want to do that later on. This is [inaudible] graduate admissions events that we have coming up. And, then, we have a podcast that streams through iTunes. And it's a little bit on a hiatus right now because I'm on maternity leave. But it will be coming back hopefully starting, you know, next month. >> I'm sorry to interrupt. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Vanessa, can you separate me from the call real quick? Amy, please continue. >> Amy, let's go ahead and share your desktop so we'll go live. >> Am I doing something wrong? >> No, no, no. Just share your desktop. If you go up in the top left-hand corner. >> Yes. >> And if you hit share and then desktop, and we'll be able to see what you see. >> Okay. [ Audio Feedback ] ? >> Okay. Can you see it? >> Yes. It's loaded up. Yes; we see your desktop. >> Okay, great. Sorry, I thought that -- I forgot to do that for everyone. >> No, that's okay. >> So as I was saying, this is our home page. And these are the grad school fairs that are coming up. And this is the blog, and here is the podcast. So any new podcast shows that come up, this is where you'll read about it on our home page. We also have tons and tons and tons of resources for additional audiences. And, interestingly, graduate school secret isn't listed here; but we do have tons of resources for grad school seekers. And, then, I want to talk a little bit about how to use this site as a place to search for jobs. So, from the home page, you can click on jobs, which is right here and open up a pretty thorough search engine or search form that allows you to search by your location and then within how ever many miles of your location, if you're specific about where you'd like to find a job. You can include key words. You can search for a position by the issue area that you care about. So if you just really, really, really want to work on disaster relief day, let's say that you have some experiences because maybe right now your VISTA service is based at a Red Cross, you can search by disaster relief and try to build on what you've been doing. Let's say that's not what your service has been in but, you know, you really, really care about sustainable agriculture and farming, you can search by that. And, then, you can also search by a job category or by a role that you would play in an organization. So, regardless of the issue area as is it nonprofit or agency [inaudible], if you have a really strong background in editing and writing, and that's kind of what you feel like you could do or that's the most marketable of all of your skill sets, you can search by that or by education and training or engineering if that's what your background is, [inaudible], branch administration -- >> Amy, I have a question. >> Yeah. >> 81 percent are interested in nonprofit. Should they click that nonprofit button, or would it be better to do both? >> You know, if you -- if you are interested in working in a nonprofit but you're sort of open to looking for whatever's out there, I would say go for both. I think in this economy you should definitely not limit your choices. But if you know that the nonprofit sector -- and some people just know. They're not interested in the government; they're not interested in the bureaucracy that comes with working in a government in a or whatever the -- whatever image that you have with the government, that's not what you want. Some people are going to have the same feeling about the nonprofit sector, and they're not going to want to work in the nonprofit sector. But if you're kind of open to just seeing what's out there, you can click on both. And I have to say that we're probably best known as a nonprofit place to post jobs, so there's probably going to be a lot more job results in the nonprofit sector. Okay. So education level, you can search by. If you have to start on a master's degree and you really want to find a job that sort of meets that or responds to that, you can be real specific here. Language needed, etc. Full-time, part-time, temporary. And the reason temporary can be really important is because, in between the end of your VISTA term and the beginning of the job that you really, really want to be doing, you might have a gap in time that you still need to be bringing in an income. There's lots of things that you can do to fill that little gap, hopefully little gap. And one of them would be temporary work that still is meaningful and impactful in society. And so you could find -- possibly you could find that by searching on engines like idealist. There's lots of other ways. And I'll show you in a book I wrote for your career transition in a second. I can show you where you can learn more about what you could do to fill that income gap. You can look for fellowships, jobs, and also by year of service. And, by year of service, that's our way of saying a term of service, a term of national or international service. And, so, to the extent that national service programs are posting, they're opening on our site, they might have clicked here when they were posting. And so -- so you can narrow your search by that. Okay. So that the one way to use idealist for your transition is by searching for jobs. You can also search for volunteer opportunities, organizations, and all sorts of things. I'm going to talk for a second about how to search for organizations on our site. Still from the home page, you go to the find tab, and you come down here to organizations. As you can see, we have a huge number of organizations compared to the number of jobs that are on the site. And so the reason it's useful to search for organizations is because a lot of organizations, first of all, they might only be posting their jobs on their own Web site. And, so, if that's the case ,you're not going to find them on idealist. Or they might be posting their jobs on craigslist and not on idealist. Or just in the -- like whatever is the local way of posting nonprofit jobs in your community. So it's helpful to be able to just search for organizations that might be posting their jobs elsewhere but also for networking. It might be helpful to locate the name of a few organizations that are working on an issue area that you really care about in your community or in a community that you plan on moving to after your term of service is over and then, through your networks, figure out if you know anyone who knows anyone who works at those organizations. And contact [inaudible] for informational interviews. So sometimes it's helpful to have the names of some organizations to start out with as a way to sort of focus your networking a little bit and your relationship building. And this is organization that you can use for anything. You don't have to -- [ Audio feedback ] So, again, you can focus on issue area here [inaudible]. All of the search results, if I default, the search results are going to come up based on who was -- who posted something most recently. So you can either browse by See Latest, which is right here. These are the latest organizations that have done anything to their profile. Or, when you actually do the search, they're going to be listed by who last modified their profiles. So hopefully the results are going to be most up-to-date, and you're going to get information from organizations that is totally accurate. And an easier way to do either of these searches, especially the job search, is to create a membership to idealist.org, which is completely free. And, once you've done that, it just takes a few steps filling out a quick questionnaire and agreeing not to post any content that's violent. And then -- then you have to do this validation thing through your email account. But once you've done that, you just go to your equipment in control panel and you can look at your own email alert. So you can request to receive -- okay. All right. So I'm just on the email alert page. So if you join idealist as a member, solely free, go to your control panel. You can set up email alerts to get the job description that you were looking for, the parameters that you were looking for in terms of location, issue area, key words, that kind of thing. You can get that email to you regularly rather than go back to the site every day and keep searching. If you are kind of like more of a control freak, you might want to go back every day and tinker with your search and that kind of thing. But that would be my way of doing it. But if you -- if you're busy and you have three months left in your term and you just want to keep an eye on what's out there, I think having an email alert set up is great; because it will help you to keep a pulse on what kind of jobs are available. Okay. So it's like much less lower maintenance than going to the site as much as -- as often as you can think of it. Okay. So the next thing I wanted to show you guys that's really important in idealist is that we have a series of career guides that will answer pretty much hopefully any question that you could have and offer you some really good road maps to getting a job. We have two longer books. One is for -- both of them are focused in the nonprofit sector, but I think that a lot of the wisdom that is there is useful in any sector. And one is for sector switchers, which would be focus for you guys that might be at mid career. Especially if you're coming from a business sector or a government sector career, you really want to go into the nonprofit sector. So it takes into consideration that you are coming into your job search with a ton of experience and that you might need some help figuring out how to deal with that. We also have one for first-time job seekers, which would be people coming out of college, you know, in their younger 20s, maybe, who've never really got a full-time professional position other than here, just the term of service. And, then, a companion to this is a book that I wrote just for you guys. And I think of this as a really good starting point for you, because it points back to these other guides as necessary. So it's called Service Corp to Social Impact Career, and it's basically all about what you guys are going through. So part one is where you guys are right now if you haven't finished your term of service yet, setting yourself up for success. And all of those points that Danielle was making earlier about the things that you can be doing right now, like discerning your professional calling, building skills and relationships, documenting your successes and achievement, I go over all of these in detail about how you can a tackle them during your term. You're already doing these things. It's just how to you capitalize on it and make that transition to make a more career transition to leverage them. No one usually goes into a term of service with the idea of coming out of it at the other end like just to do a term of service just for their career. Most people do a term of service because you really have something that you want to contribute to the world through your term of service. But these are how to sort of use the things that you're already going to be doing to be savvy about them for that transition. Part two is actually during the transition. So the last month or so of your term and then the first few months after your term ends, what you can be doing to keep yourself afloat; how you can translate your service experience, both in your resume and cover letter but also in speaking in the interview, that kind of thing. So that is what part two is all about. And then -- >> Amy, before you go on -- >> Yeah. >> -- is this where we tell the story of the person who was -- the VISTA who was going to -- >> Oh, I'll tell it in one second, because when I go -- there's nothing here -- I will say that this last thing about other options for your next step includes committing to a second term of service, and I saw that about a quarter of you guys are thinking of doing that. If you're not sure if you want to stick with your same service corps or -- of course, you all want to stay with VISTA and go on to become VISTA leaders. But if you're open to committing to service in a different kind of a program or something like that or you want to go overseas, there's a whole section here on why that might be a good idea and why it might be a not a good idea for you. So -- and, then, part three is after your transition, which is just adapting to your new life. So, in terms of what you can do right now, part of [inaudible] is discerning your professional calling. There's an exercise that I want to talk to you guys about really quickly. I talk about it in this section in my book. But we go into more detail about it in chapter 3 of both of these career guides, which is all about -- both of these are all about self-assessment, chapter 3. So this exercise is called a career tracks exercise, and it's a really great starting place to help you figure out what skills you do want to build during your term, what relationships -- which additional relationships would be helpful for you to build during your term. And it could be helpful in terms of helping you figure out what you want to document. So the career tracks exercise is a great turning point. You look at idealist.org. You look at [inaudible]. You look at whenever nonprofit or social impact jobs that you're interested in are being posted in your community or in the community where you're planning to move. And you look at these job descriptions, and you -- the ones that you want to set aside or print off or however you want to manage it, you look for jobs that -- the role that you would play or the job description itself, the kinds of things that you'd be doing in the job are really interesting to you and compelling to you. And you say, That is the kind of job that I really want to be doing or that I'm good at or that I'm qualified to do -- or I want to be qualified to do, more importantly. So you find job descriptions that sound like that, and you put them aside somehow. You print them off, you put them in a folder on your desktop, you copy and paste them, whatever you want to do. Or you find jobs that the organization where that job's being posted, regardless of what the job is, that organization is just really interesting to you. They're doing interesting things. They're using a new model for social change that you could really get behind or it resonates with you for some reason. And after you've pulled aside no fewer than 50 of these job descriptions, you take them out and you look at them. If they're hard copies you can just make a huge mess in your room and just look at what are the commonalities, like what rises to the surface when you take these job descriptions as a whole. What is it that is making you pick these job descriptions. Is it a certain role that you could play that maybe you haven't thought about ever playing, or is it just confirming a role that you already know that you want to play. And you can look at these job descriptions and say, Actually, that is really what I'm interested in. And I think Danielle was referring to this exercise. I described this to a group of VISTAs here in Oregon earlier this year. And, one of them, I saw again about a month later. And she had already applied to and had been accepted in a counseling psychological graduate program for this fall after VISTA term ended. And, so, at the first meeting, she knew that's what she wanted to do. She went home and she started to do this career tracks exercise. And when I saw her the second time about a month later, she said it changed her life. Because she started doing this career tracks exercise and she realized that none of the counseling jobs were interesting to her at all and that what he really wanted to be doing were other things maybe related to the arts, related to working with children. It just wasn't -- counseling in itself was not something that what was interesting to her as a job. And it was just so -- it was valuable for her because then she didn't just spend the next two years and gobs of money on a graduate degree that she wasn't going to end up being happy with. And I think it's a valuable exercise because, you know, you should be able to tell, if the job description is not interesting to you, then probably the job is not going to be interesting to you. And it's definitely for something like committing to graduate school. To graduate school, you want to be somewhat sure that what you're going into is really something that you're going to be happy with for the long term. So that's part of discerning your professional calling. But after you sort of figure out why these job descriptions are interesting to you, you can create tracks for yourself, like a track for, you know, a role that you'd like to play or an issue area that you'd like to work in or several issue areas that you'd like to work in, that type of thing. And it can help you both narrow your job search so you have a much better sense of what you're looking for. You have a better sense -- all of you guys know what an elevator speech is because you went through your PSO. You can incorporate what your goals are, what these goals are that you're just finding out about in your career tracks exercise when you're giving your elevator speech as part of your career transition. And you can identify for people exactly what it is that you want to do in your next job. >> Hey, Amy, everybody probably does know what the elevator speech is. But we all get confused of how long it should be. >> Short. Shorter than how long I'm taking to explain [laughing], you know, career tracks exercise. You know, like -- I don't know. Maybe a minute. >> Minute? Okay. >> Two minutes. Some people think five minutes. I mean, the idea is as long as it takes to ride an elevator. But if you work on the top floor or here at a conference on this -- you know, on the 15th floor of a huge hotel, it's going to take longer than if you're on the second floor. >> Right. I'm going to use that line from now on, by the way. >> When people ask you how long it should be? >> Yeah. It depends. Are you in a big building or a small building? >> How fast you talk, you know? And do they interrupt you a lot with questions. That's actually probably the goal of it, right? >> Right, right. >> So, anyway, the career tracks exercise can really help you also have confidence that, whatever it is that this thing is that you found or these things are that you think you could do at your next job so that you could get excited about for your next step. It kind of can take the worry away, because you can see you found out about this. You figured it out by looking at tons of job descriptions, so you know those kinds of jobs are out there. They might not be in your community right now, but at least it helps you figure out and identify when you see one come open that's the right one for you and has the right timing for you that that job is going to be out there. And I don't want you to limit -- the job descriptions that you find, I don't want you to limit just for the purpose of this exercise by the level of the job. Like it could be an executive director position. You're not ready for that yet, but maybe you will be one day. But still pull off that job description or where it is just or how much money it offers or that kind of thing just for the exercise. Just pull off the things that are really calling to you because of the job description or -- or the organization itself. And all of this, like I said, is in chapter 3 of either of these books. And I definitely touch on it and bring in lots of other discernment activity in part 1 of the Service Corps to Social Impact Career. But a full description of it is available in chapter 3 of this. And it was all developed by David [inaudible] public service. So, okay. The next thing I wanted to show you for you guys who are thinking about doing another term of service, another -- can you guys see my chat here? I should hide that. >> No. We can't see your chat window. >> Oh, okay. >> We've done a blog which is highlighting the Social Media Monday Web shop and we [inaudible]. >> Yeah. It was just something I should do that more often. If I'm going to be speaking something, I should probably blog about it. But I almost never do that. So this is a new service blog. This is my blog. And I try to bring in the voices of other people. If anyone's ever interested in guest posting about something going on in the national or international service world, I would love to feature your posts. And I just wanted to highlight this right-hand sidebar here. First there's career and alumni lanes for Corp members. So this is a link to my book. But there's also, depending or -- you guys are all VISTAs, so AmeriCorps alums, there's only two AmeriCorps alums, so it's easier to go straight to their site. There's also a long list of Corps -- different service corps and different coalitions of service corps that I have found through my years of working at idealist on these issues. Not all of them are funded by the corporations. They're not all or even mostly all AmeriCorps. Some of them might be like AmeriCorps and award. Other ones are just simply unaffiliated with the government completely. But if you're searching around for another term of service to do and you're not sure where you want to do it, that's a good place to start, just because it's a little bit broader than AmeriCorp.gov search engine. And that is, obviously, like a really great place if you know you want to go and do another year of AmeriCorps or VISTA or you want to do a year of [inaudible], because that's going to have the most up-to-date really detailed information about those. But in terms of looking at different non-AmeriCorps kinds of programs, this is kind of helpful too. So there's the new service blog. How much time do I have left? Am I doing okay? >> Yeah. You're doing okay on time. >> Okay. So I think there's already -- oh, there was also a really good number of folks thinking about graduate schools. So I'm going to our grad school resources at idealist.org. They deal with [inaudible] grad school. We spent just the last couple of years building up this section of our site, and it's really focused on folks just like you, people who have some public service experience under their belt or lots of public service under their belts and that you guys -- and you want to go back to graduate school. And you want to figure out graduate school on your terms, which would be how to make a difference in the world, how to further your education and how to make more of a difference in the world through graduate school. And so we have tons of articles. These aren't articles. These are sections of articles. So I'll just show you, like, preparing for graduate school. These sections are, like, setting yourself up for success as an undergrad; reasons to wait if you are an undergrad and you want to go straight into graduate school; and then how to work full-time and study full-time if that's even something that you're interested in doing; doing informational interviews for grad school research and that kind of thing. There's also like a whole section on applying to graduate school, including, like, admissions and the application; selecting a graduate school; visiting campus; what to look for in a campus visit; what if your undergrad degree is completely unrelated; what if you're denied or wait listed; and, then, plan B, which I think if you guys are thinking about graduate school right now, you should also be thinking about plan B. Not to be pessimistic, but just like the VISTA who figured out at the last minute that counseling wasn't something she wanted to do, you know, grad school [inaudible] for a lot of different reasons. So having an exciting plan B that you won't get depressed about if that's what you go to is also a really, really helpful thing. >> So, Amy, we're going to wrap up in just a minute. >> Okay. >> -- folks over the VISTA [inaudible]. But I know you wanted to show them one more thing. Before we leave this page, there's also some information on paying for grad school, correct? >> Yeah. There's stuff about financing your graduate education. There's a whole bunch of articles about that. And, then -- and, then, also, there's this whole section on degree overviews. There are PDFs that you can download on different graduate degrees. We're going to be adding to this summer. So depending on what you're interested in, each of these talk about funding, as well. >> I know you had one more thing you wanted to show us. >> Nonprofit [inaudible], it's an annual, you know, commemorative month. And there's a bunch of resources on here including tons of podcasts about people coming from different fields into the nonprofit sector. So lots and lots of resources here that I encourage you guys to check out. This isn't branded as idealist, but I'll -- we were the engine behind it. So we try to be really inclusive with all of our career resources and go far beyond what idealist has on our own site. >> So this is a companion to the job search on idealist? >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. >> Okay? >> That was very comprehensive, Amy. Thank you so much. >> I'm going to mute my line. >> Okay. All right. We're going to grab rights back and give them to Michelle. >> Okay, great. >> Amy, thank you so much for all of that wonderful information. And we hope that you'll be able to stick around for questions. We have a few now, and we'll make sure to leave lots of time. That's one of the reasons we're running a little longer today. So I hope that you're able to stick with us, everyone. So on the heels of what Amy was talking about and really what VISTA has tried to do is to create, you know, a wealth of resources for VISTAs who are looking to transition and think about what's next for them. And so I'm going to start us off with our VISTA Viewfinder, which -- excuse me. There it is. -- which I hope everyone is subscribed to. And, if not, you'll see right here this subscribe link. Can everybody see my desktop? Okay, great. And so this is the May issue. It comes out the first Wednesday of every month. But, specifically, this issue focuses on transitions and alumni. And so the main article is dedicated to profiles of some VISTA alums, what they're doing now, how they've continued to make a difference throughout their time after their service. And so you can read that on here, as well. But just to give you an overview of the issue itself, it's really focused around resources that are available here on the Vista Campus as you go down. And, then, also, other helpful -- other helpful resources for job seekers, looking at how to search, at resume building tips, networking, all kinds of things like that. And so this issue is complete with those types of tips, and we really do encourage you to take a look at it. And I just to want spend just a few minutes going over a couple of key resources that were similar to the writing and the publications that Amy's put together that were also put together for VISTAs to really supplement. Obviously, there's a ton of information across all of these things. And it's really finding what works best for you and starting to think about your transition process, you know, when there's a few months ahead of you so you can really integrate all of these things together and see how they work best for what you're looking to do. And so the first resource is What's Next, and that's here in the left-hand column. And click here and just pull it up. And this was developed by Education Northwest, and it's a tutorial that takes you through really that piece that Danielle mentioned early on about thinking about, you know, what -- what the next step is for you, whether that's a second year of service, whether that's graduate school, takes you through scenarios of different AmeriCorps and VISTA members to help you try to figure out what that journey would be like for you. It has a series of also other explanatory documents that talk about, you know, what that process feels like from a life cycle point of view. Also helps to really think about your next steps after service from day one when your service starts. And, as everyone who's spoken today mentioned, really ways to, you know, gather your contacts, build your relationships, think about how, you know, you can get the most out of -- out of folks during your year but also how, you know, they can be lifelong contacts for you as you determine what you do next. This resource is available on the Vista Campus. It takes you through other ways of assessing what you'd want to do after service, as well as tips for resume building and cover letter writing. There's also a great journaling tool as part of this tutorial which you can use to apply, you know, what's happening in your day-to-day and think about how those poignant moments might also affect the way that you think about what comes next. The other service -- the other resource I'd like to go over is something called VISTA Works which -- well, what's next is a tool that really helps you figure out what you want to do next. VISTA Works is a -- I apologize. I don't know what's happened. VISTA Works is really a tool that was created with sort of a job search in mind. And so, as you can see, this comes across five main areas: hot trends, assessment tools, resume builder, job search, and winning interviews. And each of these sections goes a bit deeper into how you can use it to think about, you know, what's on the landscape for job searching; what are some things that are happening now that, you know, weren't happening a few years ago that might impact the way that you look for a job, where you look for a job; you know, how you can leverage those things to figure out really what is the right step for you. The assessment tool section, similarly, takes you through some assessments around, you know, what are the personal areas of interest for you. Would you rather work in an office building? Do you need to be outside? What's your -- what's your work style like? How do you respond to a certain different type of supervisor -- supervisor types. All of those kinds of things are in this self-assessment that goes through these questions. And, again, all of these tools are meant to be used as they best work for you. So, you know, they don't have to be page by page, question by question. You know, feel free to jump around and see what is most useful to you. There's a budgeting tool that really takes you through, you know, what do I need to live on. Am I going to need to have a car? Do I need to -- you know, am I going to be living with someone, all of those types of questions. And you can actually fill it out and determine what your allowance needs to be or your income needs to be, rather, each month. Same thing with location. You know, when you're looking for jobs -- I saw a couple questions about people who are looking in the Midwest or -- you know, is where you currently are where you want to look for a job? Are you open to moving? And what kind of factors influence where you might like to go ? That's one of the most extensive part of this tool is the resume builder piece. This is where you really want to take into account what Danielle was mentioning earlier about documenting your service, whether it's comments or, you know, praises from people that you've worked with; whether, you know, you hosted an event where you were able to get 300 volunteers and you were able to raise $15,000, all of these things are important both for helping to translate your service into items on your resume but also, as Amy indicated in the interview process and things that you can really point to as a result as tangible ways that you can show that your service made an impact. This section includes a sample resume, a sample cover letter, and the resume guide that really takes you through step by step how you can create pretty similarly based on the things that you've done during your VISTA service. I encourage you to really check out these sections in depth. Job searching, obviously, search strategies, indicated some of these on the Viewfinder, as well. [Inaudible] of them over on idealist, as well as a number of other sites. And the key thing I want to mention here is that this includes a job tracking tool which, you know, again, if you're applying to dozens and dozens of jobs, especially in the current climate, it might take awhile to hear back from people. And the last thing that you want to do is not remember which job you applied for or which way you wrote your resume to speak to a particular position. So the job tracking tools really helps you to keep these things organized. And so you can reference a particular skill set when you're applying for a particular position. And, finally, the fun section of this Works tool is the winning interview section. Takes you through different types of interviews; ways, you know, you might get asked certain kinds of questions; and also gives you tips on how to answer particular questions, not specifically but, you know, the types of things that employers are trying to get at through the interview process. There's also a practice interview, which is pretty fun. So you'll have the chance to answer a question. And once you submit your answer here, then you'll get a tip that says that, you know, in your response, did you think about this? Did you answer the question this way? Again, not to create a rote response but to think about what are some of the other things that a perspective employer is trying to get at through the interview process. And so, as I mentioned, we really encourage you to check out this and some of the other tools on the Vista Campus. Again, they're meant to be used with any month of your service, be prepared with, you know,, the other wealth of tools that there are out there. But we really tried to create a section under transitions where you can, at any time during your service, access information that is both useful to you in the moment but then also helps you perhaps think about the things that you're doing in a different way. [ Pause ] And I will pass this back over to Danielle. >> Okay. And so we want to talk a little bit about -- we're going to turn this over to Michelle, and I think Zach is still with us. Adjusting to your new life, adjusting to the work environment. Amy, if you want to unmute your phone or want to jump in, as well. Adjusting to work environment after service; adjusting to the increased income levels; and, then, how to continue the work you did while a VISTA. So you've been there, Michelle. You've been there, Amy. Talk to me, Zach, too, adjusting to the work environment after service. Zach, what's the most difficult thing, challenging thing, and the easiest thing that happened? Let me put you on the spot! >> No, no problem. The most challenging part of it, I think, goes with any new job you take, it's just all learning the new culture of the environment you're working in, coming into a new place just talking through and listening to what -- how people act and work, act in the job culture at work [inaudible]. Somebody just walked by and tried to talk to me while I was speaking [laughing]. Always happens when I [inaudible]. One of the things I would suggest to the VISTAs out there, though, is learn from your -- any potential mistakes that you made while you were -- while you were serving as a VISTA when you came on to your site. For me, when I was a VISTA, it was my first experience outside of college. And I remember being a bit too quiet my first couple of months there because I was just very hesitant. And it probably wasn't until my fourth month that my supervisor sat me down and said, You know, we hired you to speak up and, you know, [inaudible]. And it was at that moment that I realized that they wanted me to do some of the things that I was holding back on. So recognize some of the things you might have done -- you might not have done as well as you could have your first time around. And as you start into your new job, take that into consideration and hit the ground running. >> And adjusting to the increased income level, some people, you know, in other jobs may not think that this is something that they have to actually adjust to. But for VISTAs, this may be a big change, right? >> Oh, I completely agree with that. We actually had a former VISTA start here a month ago. And I've noticed that VISTAs who come onto corporation who come right out of VISTA service, for the first three or four months, they're still living the VISTA life [laughing] of -- how do I say it? Their mindset is on the cost of everything and not -- they sometimes get stuck in that. Because I remember, when I was a VISTA, everything was -- you counted dimes, nickels, pennies, you know, quarters. That was the way of living. And, as you continue your career, that should still be on your mindset. But it kind of fades into a more global perspective on the value of the money you're making and how to better enrich your life and that of others. One thing that I've learned is basically to pay yourself first, though; that is, put money into savings and, you know, put money away for, you know, something goes wrong. So you're out of work for three months or something like that, you'll have money put away. And I actually did have that occur to me right out of grad school. So just the little things like that that you learn from VISTA to really pinch a penny, it comes into -- it really comes into play later on in life. But you don't have to pinch the penny as hard, but you realize the lessons may help you in terms of that extra income. You can say, Well, I know I should probably be saving this money for something. I could put it away. Then you can [inaudible] what you want to do in life. >> It just dawned on me why Michelle is so much better at budgets [laughing]. I'm pretty good; but she's really, really good. >> I've never met a VISTA who wasn't good at budgeting. I mean, it's just something that you -- I mean, you fall on your face the first couple of months and then you get it. And you're set [laughing]. >> And, then, finally, how do you continue the work that you did while a VISTA, regardless of where you're moving, but even if you're moving outside of the nonprofit sector and you want to continue your work that you did. Any advice, you guys, for how do you continue the work you did while a VISTA? >> I can tell you, if you end up going into the business sector, there are many individuals who have been in the VISTA community who want to find an alternate service. And a lot of companies have set up time for volunteer service and actually have built volunteering into the workday for some companies. But there's an organization called Net Impact out there that is for professionals who want to volunteer. So I suggest you look into that arena. And if you just decide to go into government, I mean, you can always work for the corporation if you so choose or if -- actually more likely if we end up thinking that you're right because, man, do we get a lot of applications because I think we're one of the more -- the places that a lot of people want to work in government, especially coming from this community. But, yeah. I mean, there are multiple ways, either through volunteering on your own time. Even if you're not a VISTA still, you can become a board member. That's something that's really cool, especially with a VISTA background. The nonprofit community knows what a VISTA is and what a VISTA does and knows the type of [inaudible] that they'll bring to the table, so they're more apt to consider you for a board position. So that's another -- another outlet, as well, for your volunteer activities. >> This is Amy. I want to add that -- there's two things. One is most VISTAs, I think, are starting something new or continuing something that's fairly new for the organizations in terms of building capacity. And once you're not a VISTA anymore and regardless of what job you do professionally during the day, which could be related to your VISTA service in some way or not, you know, you can take up the same kind of leadership role in your own neighborhood, in your own community and get people together to work on issues or to start a new mentoring program for your community, that kind of thing. And all the things that you're learning as a VISTA in terms of how to organize people and how to build coalitions and get new things done that weren't going to be done if it hadn't been for you and for VISTA funding. Those are all ways that you can continue living out your VISTA code of ethics throughout your life. And the other thing is a lot of people thing of networking as the smarmy thing that you do in a business suit with, you know, self-aggrandizing business cards and stuff and handshakes and that kind of thing. But, really, networking is about integrating yourself into your community and being a resource for other people, first and foremost. And if you hear about something going on at one -- in one area of the world, like someone needs a roommate, and you can share that information with someone who's looking for a place to live in another area of your life, that's the kind of thing that you're doing through your VISTA year -- connecting people with resources -- that you can do forever. And it's another way of saying networking is also, you know, just building and being part of your community. >> Thank you, Amy. Before we move on, anything, Michelle, that you might want to add? >> The thing -- it's funny. The thing I've been thinking about is I was one of the VISTAs who was lucky to have their service turn into a position with the same organization. And I remember -- I think it is a challenge. You know, it seems like that would be the ideal situation, to continue the work that you did as a VISTA. And, obviously, it is when it comes to the items in your [inaudible] and building that network and continuing to build capacity within an organization that you love. As the thing -- the thing, too, that I think is a challenge, though, is that, as a VISTA, you know, I'm at least in my experience I was really kind of always had my mind open. I was always looking for opportunities to connect and find out about other organizations. And, you know, you don't know what's before you; so you're observing everything like that. Once you take on a different role in the same organization, there's this switch that, you know, you sort of narrow your focus a little bit because you're looking sort of down the line within a particular role. So, for me, the challenge was to balance that -- you know, that same wonder and absorbing everything that I possibly could to think about, you know, what might be happening next while I was transitioning into a new role within the same organization, If that makes sense so. >> It does. >> But, you know, good challenges to have, of course. >> Thank you, guys, so much. This was invaluable information. We're going to continue the conversation, and we want to take some time for questions. Now, I have one here that I saw in the chat. And if anyone else has any questions and if you would like to either unmute your phone so that you can ask it or go ahead and type it in, now is the time to do it. And I'm trying to find -- Kim Rush asks, When during your service -- when during your service year, should you begin looking and applying to positions right after service? I think when during your service year should you begin looking and applying to positions? >> I think -- this is Amy. About six to eight weeks out I would say start looking. It gets a little tricky if you're applying for things too far ahead of time. But -- well, you could be looking now. But, you know, six to eight weeks to start actively applying for things. And hopefully the interviewing process and all that stuff will lead up to closer to the end of your term. >> And, then, Michelle, there are some things in VISTA Works where they basically say, you know, you should start working on your resume pretty quickly. >> Yeah. >> Updating and those kinds of things, correct? >> Sure. Sure. And that -- I think that speaks to sort of the earlier idea of, you know, documenting, gathering information, you know, updating your resume, all of those things that will then make you ready so that at that six to eight weeks out when you're actually, like, hitting sand and applying for things and hoping to hear back about interviews and things like that, you know, you're in a great position to do so. That's not the time to start putting all those things together. >> Right. >> And Zach mentioned Net Impact, and I know he put the link into the Web site. Zach, do you want to tell them just a little bit more about that and give them that Web site link again? >> Sure. It's netimpact.org. It was actually where I served my VISTA year. I did all the service corps for them which enabled local communities to get business skilled [inaudible] from volunteers. So if you had a background in marketing, you were working in a marketing organization, you could go into your local community and health or local nonprofit or community service center with marketing their product. Really a great organization, relatively small and has [inaudible] all around the country, which is really cool. So if you're living in DC or you're living in Chicago, basically, a lot of the major metropolitan areas, they have chapters; and actually in some nonmetropolitan areas, as well. So that's a value, as well. And just a [inaudible] individual to realize that the bottom line of -- of their work should not just by to earn their company a dollar but to actually help the community out that they live in. And I would also suggest that those individuals who are thinking about applying for a government position to realize that, when I applied for this position that I currently work in, it was the sixth position that I applied to for government. The government definitely has a different hiring process, and you kind of have to learn the ropes of how things are processed and understand the types of questions they're asking, quite different from a lot of the other jobs that I've applied in and a lot of other positions that I've worked at. So keep that in mind. And [inaudible] finishing, you have a year of noncompete eligibility. That's also very helpful. It was actually how I was able to get my position here. So that's a definitely value added. And, then, the next Viewfinder, we actually have an announcement regarding some HUD positions that are becoming available. They actually came to us because they're looking for former VISTAs that they can bring on. Because a lot of service agencies within the government are coming around to realizing the value of having former VISTAs who have worked in communities and understand what they can bring to the table as part of their workforce. >> Sounds great. And, Suzanne, I think you said you had a question? >> I do. I got a question from Mary. And she asked if you can still access the Vista Campus after the term of service is over. >> Most definitely. In fact, we have a -- within the last two months, we really started to develop our alumni section on the Campus. You'll be able to keep your user same account. I would suggest if it doesn't automatically do it that you update your account to be an alumni account. You can do that in your profile. And we have an alumni specialist here named Elizabeth Matthews. And, within the next couple weeks -- oh. You're still serving. We're actually starting some [inaudible] to all of our alumni to get them back and involved with the program. Because we realize that a lot of our alumni served in the '60s and '70s are getting near retirement age or there are those who are in mid career who are just right to make a change and coming back to VISTA or being a part. This is a great way to do it. It just doesn't have to be [inaudible]. We're also looking for ways to connect alumni with currently serving members in areas around the country, as well. >> Great. And, Michelle, I think you also have a question, correct? >> Yes. There was a question from someone in the chat. I'm not sure if Zach or Amy, if you know the answer to this. But somebody was wondering if you're about to transition but want to do another service year for a project that starts just about when yours ends, if there's a slight overlap, is there a way to maintain your benefit? >> I'm going to have to go into the member handbook because -- I actually see the question now, and there are a couple things that go into it. But it's tricky. And I don't know if it's possible, but what I'll to is I'll post it on the social media forum when I find the response so people can go in there and check it there, if that's all right? >> Yeah. That's great. Thank you. >> Okay, guys. Wait a minute. Is there one more question? Oh, no. Okay. I think we're good. Emily, is this the question you asked Suzanne? She wants to know if she can access the job search tools on the VISTA Campus? >> Yeah. Anybody can go onto the Vista Campus. You can go onto it as a guest if you don't want to create an account if you're not a VISTA; if you don't want to create an account, that's fine. The one thing you cannot do if you are -- do not create an account if you cannot access -- you cannot write on the forums. You can still read all the things that are going on in the forums; you just can't write on them. But, yeah. The Vista Campus is open to anyone. Just sign in as a guest. >> Great. Okay, guys. I think we're good. We can keep the chat open. And Amy, Michelle, and Zach are still here and they can answer some of your questions. We're going to move on to some other little bit of business. And I know some folks are jumping off for lunch. And we thank you so much for sticking with us thus far. Michelle's going to go over some things to keep in mind. I'm going to answer as many questions as I can in this little bit of time. Go ahead. >> In the chat? >> Yeah. >> Sure. As always, we do remind you during our sessions that some of the things that apply to you as a VISTA like the Hatch Act also apply to your activity online. So just remember there are restrictions on [inaudible] government employees of which VISTAs are. And, of course, that you are representing VISTA in your social media space; so please to be tasteful and appropriate as always. >> And we always want you to stay safe online to protect yourself and your organization while you're online. Private is a huge issue when you're out in the digital space. So keep your passwords in a secure place. Change them often. Don't share them with anyone. Be selective in choosing your name and email address. And don't give out information simply because it's requested. And, you know, just really use common sense out there. It's a strange, new world out there online, and we want to make sure that all of you are safe out there. And one thing I didn't mention is that the evaluation is also open on the lower right hand part of your screen. So if you would just take a few moments to fill that out as we're wrapping up, we really do appreciate your feedback. We do try to build these sessions on each other. So if you can just take a couple seconds to do that, we'd really appreciate it. Great. Amy, we're going to continue the conversation. We'll leave the chat room open a little while. And we're also using the hashtag on Twitter, and that's pound trans smm; and you can follow at VISTA [inaudible]. Post any question that you have there. There is a question there from Emily who wants to know if you can email the presenters later. You can go ahead and join the forum in the Social Media Monday Web shop forum, and you can get in touch with any of us there. We'll be checking it regularly to get back in touch with you. So if we're not answering your questions here in the chat room, you're not getting it answered on Twitter, please go to the forum on the Vista Campus, the Social Media Monday landing page; and I'll make sure that I put that link one more time in there for you so that we can keep the conversation going. Go ahead and advance. And that's the link right there to learn more. And you can visit this page to find out about all of our past Social Media Monday Web shops. Particularly for those of you who stuck with us for this entire presentation, we so appreciate it. We hope you're going to fill out the evaluation. But you'll see our past Web shop, which was Transitions Part One on Linked in, which was great information on how to use that particular social media tool to help you as you're looking for a job and in your transition. And that link there, I'm going to go ahead and copy and paste it and put it in the chat. And we can continue the conversation on the Vista Campus, and we'll be available for you guys. But these are the links that we talked about in the Web shop. And so -- I'm pasting right here now. These are the links that we talked about, and you can continue on. And please visit all of these links right here [inaudible] more. Can go on to the next one. Thank you, ma'am. Here we go. And so everything hopefully that we talked about in the Web shop, if you didn't find it in the chat, you're going to find it in these Web shop lings at the end. And you can go ahead and move there. [ Pause ] >> And, once again, thank you so much. If you haven't filled out the evaluation, please do so. I want to absolutely thank everyone who joined us today. All of you out there Steph Ross, Amy, Zach, Danielle, Suzanne, thank you so much. We really appreciate your participation. Please join us next time. We will be having a Tweet chat. We did one of these in December around Social Media and VISTAs, and it was a great hit. And since Social Media Monday next month falls right at the time of the national conference, VISTA [inaudible] will be live tweeting from there. And we really hope that, during our regular scheduled hour, we can have a really great conversation about things that you're interested in learning about and activities that are taking place for VISTAs at the national conference for service and volunteerism. Thank you.