Our total “likes” is an interesting diagram to analyze. As I stated before, Facebook is somewhat difficult to know exactly how many people are being exposed to the page. In our case, our monthly users is nearly double our total likes. Many Facebook users will go to our page, but not necessarily “like” it and be a loyal active user. Since the page was created (Spring of 2009), the page had a average following of about 140 people. I started the internship on July 19^th, and started updating the page with photos of the construction on campus, links to the Chico Performance’s page, summer student achievements, and finally the Wild Cat Welcome event. When looking at the graph, one can see a strong increase in total “likes.” This I would correlate with the beginning of the school year and syncing / tagging other Chico State “pages” with the Public Affairs page as the official means of receiving campus news and information. Now that five months have passed, the page is nearing a plateau of total “likes.” This may be to the end of the semester as students limit their interaction, and families become busy for the holidays. On average total “likes” increase by about 2 to 5 per week. However, in respect to other “Chico State” Facebook pages, the total following of is about 18,00 individuals and growing (with overlap).

Total likes as of December 7, 2010:

• Public Affairs and Publications: 417
• California State University, Chico: 10,147
  • Chico State / I Love Chico State: 7,233
  • Chico State Alumni Association: 91
  • Chico State Housing: 516
  • Chico State Parents: 485

Other pages Involving Chico State:

• Chico State WREC: 3,730
• I’m A Chico State Student: 2,425
• Associated Students: 1,213

By Friday the two houses were mostly complete, and the volunteers spent Saturday  landscaping.

The homes were furnished and passed final inspection Sunday before the keys were handed over to Anastacia Snyder, Catalyst’s executive director.

Completing this project on deadline was no small feat, but each day I visited the site the volunteers made it look easy.

And although the Catalyst Blitz Build was just completed, I’m already looking forward to learning what community service project the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Construction Management have in store for next winter.

Check out the time-lapse video of the Blitz Build project, which shows the nine day construction from start to finish in about six minutes! Like the other videos linked below, this piece was done by Chico State’s great Academic Technologies staff.

“Weather hasn’t really affected building at all,” she said.
This biggest concern, however, was making sure volunteers were safely off the scaffolding during yesterday’s powerful winds, Pantera said.

Since last week’s prefabrication and Saturday’s official start of the project, the site looks much different. During Saturday morning’s wall raising ceremony, very little of house two’s frame was in place. But by that night, the entire house was up, she said.

This morning, both houses were even further along. On the exterior, volunteers were perched on scaffolding all around the houses painting the trim, while others were crouched on the pavement finishing the detail siding.

Inside, the walls were painted and light fixtures were in place; cabinets had also been installed and were waiting for counter tops to be put in place today.

While the last day of the project is officially Sunday, they hope to complete construction Friday so the volunteers can have a day off before Sunday’s barbecue where the keys will be turned over to Catalyst, Pantera said.

This was the crew leader’s first day on site, which began at about 6 a.m. As a crew leader, her job was mainly overseeing the volunteers and attending to any tasks that arose like sweeping, landscaping, and setting up temporary lighting, she said.

After years of volunteering in New Orleans, Spalding was happy to give back to the Chico community. Especially because people will be living in the homes soon, she said.

Housing is a great need and challenge for Catalysts’ clients, said Jackey Humpfrey-Straub, who works for the non-profit.

The current Catalyst facility offers limited housing that isn’t permanent, she said. Families can only stay for 12 to 18 months. But soon Catalyst’s clients can move from the shelter to these new transitional homes.

Despite the storm, the volunteers are continuing construction to complete the structures on time. Follow their progress from home by watching the live feed.

For more background on the project, check out the video below:

Check out the YouTube video, which offers background information on the project and glimpse into the volunteers’ experiences.

But seeing the crew in progress was even more impressive than I had imagined. Within the pavilion at the University Farm stood the frames of two 840 square feet houses almost entirely constructed.

The plan for day two was setting up the walls and drilling holes for the electrical wiring and plumbing, explained Student Project Manager Christina Pantera. Next they would mark, disassemble and send the walls to the site, ready to be reconstructed Saturday.

On day one of prefabrication volunteers participated in an instructional session, said Pantera. The plans for both houses were laid out on the ground, and industry leaders and supervisors talked through the process, making sure everyone knew exactly what needed to be done. This seemed to have been a very successful session, as the volunteers worked together seamlessly.

Volunteers work together to push wall into place

Roaming the room with a hard hat and digital camera was Nikki Kanto, one of the students who worked on the project all semester. She was excited to see how much work they could do in just a day and a half.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “They just framed a whole house.”

Kanto wasn’t actually swigging a hammer but found plenty of work to be done during days one and two organizing tools, taking pictures and assisting the cooking. Although, she hopes to get more hands-on experience next week at the site.

With the walls almost completely standing, Pantera explained that they would wrap up prefabricating the walls in the early afternoon and then head to the site to prepare for bad weather by laying straw and bark to avoid mud.

On Wednesday and Thursday a paint station will be set up at the University Farm and everything from the trim to the doors will be painted.

And Friday, just one day prior to the official start of the Catalyst Blitz Build, the crew would spend the day learning from industry professionals about what exactly will need to be done to install electricity, heating, air conditioning and ventilation, roofing and more.