Obama Summit starts today in Chicago

Today is the first day of the Obama Summit being held in Chicago. I was not invited, but will follow the on-line sessions at https://www.obama.org/summit/ and tweet ideas using hashtag/#obamasummit

I encourage you to join in.

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I met Michelle Obama in the mid 1990s when she was at the University of Chicago and Barack Obama when he spoke at a Tutor/Mentor Leadership and Networking Conference in May 1999. They both were introduced to the Tutor/Mentor Connection (1993-present) and its ideas, which I borrowed from how companies support multiple stores from central office teams and how United Way campaigns depend on CEOs of major companies asking leaders of other companies to run campaigns and make personal gifts. Since 2011, I have led the T/MC from the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC organizational structure. 

During that conference and one before then I was trying to generate "best practice" ideas around topics like recruitment, volunteer training, fund raising and communications, with awards presented at the Conference.  In this photo Barack Obama is presenting an award to a program leader from Quincy, Illinois.  In the background is Betsey Densmore, who was the Executive Director of the Chicago Bar Foundation in 1994 when I reached out to create a partnership intended to draw operating dollars to tutor/mentor programs in all Chicago neighborhoods.  The Lawyers Lend A Hand Program is still operating today, 24 years later.

Here's a graphic that I created several years ago to show the year-round attention we need to give to support youth tutor, mentor and learning programs in every high poverty neighborhood of Chicago in order to draw volunteers, ideas and operating dollars to every program on a continuing basis..and to help new programs grow where more were needed.

I used President Obama's photo from the 1999 conference to illustrate how people with higher visibility have greater impact and influence than people with less visibility, such as myself.  I describe this year-round strategy in this PDF and this video.

So far I've not seen any leaders consistently use maps, and a data-base of youth serving organizations, the way I demonstrate in articles on this blog and on this page of the Tutor/Mentor Institute, LLC site,  yet I've shared these ideas freely for over 20 years, as you can see from this page of a 1990s printed newsletter.

Unless some of you share this with others, and duplicate my own efforts, we still may not see leaders take this role in today's Summit or in future years.

Unless a few of you provide financial support (click here) I may not be able to continue this beyond 2018.