Since September 2000, the Tutor/Mentor Connection (T/MC) has been using OHATS (Organizational History and Accomplishments Tracking System) to document actions that lead to success in the organization's mission.

OHATS is an Internet-based system for organizations to easily record and report important events, actions and lessons that take place during the day-to-day work to improve the conditions necessary for all youth to succeed. The T/MC uses the information from OHATS to quantify and summarize key accomplishments and lessons. More than one thousand accomplishments, lessons, and activities were reported by T/MC staff between September 2000 and January 2008.

T/MC began several hundred new networking relationships with tutor/mentor organizations in and outside of Chicago. Many organizations started to replicate T/MC methods to build supportive environments for tutor/mentor programs in their own communities. T/MC also tracks its services (such as consultation and support to tutor/mentor programs), new donations and fundraising, and media events.

OHATS is an ongoing project, and new supporters and users are welcome. We have set up an on-line discussion GROUP where interested volunteers and OHATS users can discuss the findings from the new version of OHATS and talk about ways to constantly improve the system, and the Tutor/Mentor Connection.

We would be particularly interested to have graduate students working in fields of evaluation to join us in the OHATS discussions. If you can devote part of your graduate study working with OHATS, as part of your own study of social networking theory, and on-line collaboration and capacity building, you can help us further develop this system, and you can have access to it for your own evaluation work in the future. Part of the work of graduate students would be to document T/MC history from 1993 to 2000 when the T/MC OHATS was launched, so the system would show how a group of seven volunteers created the T/MC structure.  Part of the work would also be to work with the data to "create sense" from what has been documented, so T/MC can improve its own efforts, and others might learn how to apply this in their own organizations or communities.

The T/MC is a non profit organization and donations and in-kind support are sought to help keep OHATS free and widely accessible. Volunteers and interns are also needed to record T/MC events prior to 2000 when OHATS was launched.

Tutor/mentor programs and other organizations interested in such a tool are encouraged to join the on-line discussion GROUP. We invite you to review OHATS and welcome your feedback and support.