ALESSANDRA MIKIC • Daily Research Log
Monday, May 7, 2007 — 8 hours
- Looked at Trenton’s city and school budgets
- Found Trenton’s city government website and entered data about departments, etc.
- Created Trenton Government Organization Chart
- Read articles on truancy
- Went over Guidelines for Writers & Editors from PolicyOptions Wiki
Tuesday, May 8, 2007 — 8 hours
- Read about City Council members, looked at City Council meeting agendas, and looked for list of committees
- Entered more data about Trenton’s government departments
- Called several departments to find out how public is notified about grants
- Spoke to Nancy Diehl (Coordinator for State & Federal Grants) about grants and public announcements made for them
- Made Trenton City Council Organization Chart
- Read about Bonner Foundation’s partners and other New Jersey foundations
- Researched private organizations (non-profit and corporate)
Wednesday, May 9, 2007 — 8 hours
- Entered data about foundations, corporate foundations, newspapers, policy research/think tanks, and community-based foundations
- Made Trenton school board organization chart
- Searched for information using Google searches “truancy solutions” and “truancy in Trenton”
- Started outline for truancy brief
Thursday, May 10, 2007 — 8 hours
- Subscribed to mailing lists/newsletters of foundations and entered more data about them: schedules, issue areas, annual budget
- Sat in on first half of Bonner Foundation overview for Eastern Mennonite University
- Continued working on truancy policy brief
- Had meeting to discuss current progress/plans
- Bought office supplies
Friday, May 11, 2007 — 8 hours
- Continued entering data about foundations and subscribing to their newsletters
- Sat in on second half of Bonner Foundation overview for EMU
- Made Mercer County Government Organization Chart
- Researched Mercer County Government — budget, etc.
- Continued working on truancy policy brief
Week 1 Total: 40 hours
Friday, May 25, 2007 — 8 hours
- Caught up with what has happened in the past two weeks
- Worked on defining main issue categories with David, Josh, and Michelle
- Looked at how other organizations categorized issues and decided what was relevant
Week 2 Total: 8 hours
Tuesday, May 29, 2007 — 8 hours
- Put up sticky notes for local foundations
- Looked at progress on Trenton.policyoptions.org
- Researched policy*and advocacy-oriented organizations, specifically those advocating for senior services, education, and human rights
- Reviewed 2007 Trenton budget, started working on table of contents for budget, researched the organizations that were allocated money from budget and entered data
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 — 8 hours
- Finished researching organizations found in Trenton budget and logging data
- Entered non-profit organization data and contacts into Policy Options Trenton
- Began entering governmental organization data and linked contacts to them (at Policy Options Trenton)
- Noted where problems occurred Policy Options Trenton
- Went to career services with Michelle to pick up payroll and direct deposit papers
Thursday, June 1, 2007 — 8 hours
- Continued entering governmental organization and contact information into Policy Options Trenton and linked contacts (finished for Trenton)
- Came up with list of additional questions to ask during an interview with a non-profit and chose additional organizations that we would like to interview
- Continued noting where problems occurred on Policy Options Trenton and compiled list of all problems, which was sent in an email
Friday, June 2, 2007 — 8 hours
- Created school board organization sticky note chart on wall
- Made To Do List and hung on wall
- Went over original draft of questions for interview with organizations with Bobby and then redrafted and grouped questions based on suggestions
- Split up list of organizations to enter into PolicyOptionsWiki.org
- Continued with data entry on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
- Drafted introductory letter/email to meet with government officials on city and county level
- Identified people to interview and created list of names and contacts
Week 3 Total: 32 hours
Monday, June 4, 2007 — 8 hours
- Read United Way funding information and took notes according to questions outlined by Bobby
- Read over lead poisoning issue brief to give feedback to David
- Started logging data and contact information for foundations on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
Tuesday, June 5, 2007 — 8 hours
- Finished logging data and contact information for foundations on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
- Logged data and contact information for Mercer County government and Trenton School Board on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
- Started sending emails to individuals we want to interview this week
- Attended hunger forum, helped set up beforehand, took notes on PowerPoint presentation
Wednesday, June 6, 2007 — 8 hours
- Split up state government and began entering data and contact information on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
Thursday, June 7, 2007 — 8 hours
- Finished entering state government data and contact information on Trenton.PolicyOptions.org
- Entered grant information on USA.PolicyOptions.org
- Went over rough draft of intro letter with Bobby
- Taped up Mercer County map
- Figured out who to call for an interview tomorrow morning
Friday, June 8, 2007 — 8 hours
- Called and emailed government agencies to set up interviews
- Entered Hunger Forum slides onto PolicyOptionsWiki.org
- Went to administrative services building at TCNJ to pick up time sheets from payroll and filled out timesheets
- Continued researching hunger in Mercer County
Week 4 Total: 40 hours
Monday, June 11, 2007 — 8 hours
- Found another contact to interview, sent e-mail
- Worked on fleshing out hunger issue brief
- Researched hunger statistics
- Found, saved and read hunger issue briefs
- Read homelessness issue brief and took notes on it
Tuesday, June 12, 2007 — 8 hours
- Worked on fleshing out hunger issue brief on PolicyOptionsWiki.org
- Searched for more hunger issue briefs to outline
- Found Rhode Island food stamp program policy options
- Outlined it at PolicyOptionsWiki.org
- Called Division of Food and Nutrition (New Jersey Department of Agriculture)
- Left name and number
- Emma Davis-Kovacs (director of Division of Food & Nutrition, New Jersey Department of Agriculture) called back
- Gave her our websites
- Wants to know more about us before doing an interview
- Left message with Public Information Officer Lynne Richmond
- Need to speak with her about publicity
- Called Mercer County Social Services
- Left name and number, but they have a high volume of callers
- Called back and told me to call David Rimley
- Printed two letters to be faxed to:
- Mercer County Social Services
- Department of Agriculture: Bureau of Child Nutrition Programs
Wednesday, June 13, 2007 — 8 hours
- Called David Rimley
- Wasn’t there, left message
- Searched for more hunger issue briefs to outline
- Printed out letters to be faxed after reworking template
Thursday, June 14, 2007 — 8 hours
- Attended Americorps breakfast
- Gave short presentation on what we do at Bonner
- Learned what everyone else was doing and asked questions
- Added “global” to hunger issue briefs
- Continued searching for and reading hunger issue briefs
- Found more national hunger-prevention organizations
- David Rimley called, missed him, called back, but he was out at a meeting
- Attended meeting with interns from Project 55, Princeton University, and CBLI
o Talked about our individual projects and issues we have been dealing with