Meeting summaries and handouts

NCTech4Good (previously known at Triangle Net Tuesday/501 Tech Club) meetings.

2010/11/17: Case Study: Deepen Relationships, Listen to Constituents, and Share Information

Case Study: Deepen Relationships, Listen to Constituents, and Share Information, November 17, 2010
Jeff Stern is Director of Membership Advancement for the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. He started at the Museum in January 2007 and was introduced to the world of blogging that month. Jeff will talk about how the Museum started with a blog by its animal keepers, then experimented with other social media technology. The Museum currently uses blogs, RSS feeds, google alerts, delicious, flickr, twitter, youtube and facebook as a regular part of its course of business. Jeff's talk will focus on the Museum's approach to these technologies, which is typically to start with small experiments and then expand those that seem to be working. The Museum is not currently using any of these channels for fundraising (and does not plan to anytime soon), so expect a talk that focuses on using social media to deepen relationships, listen to constituents and share information.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/14803473

Presentation slides with notes: http://slidesha.re/etiEqU

Video clips:

  • Part 1 on blogging, especially getting the staff involved, vimeo.com/17354345, about 11 minutes
  • Part 2 on twitter, flickr, delicious, vimeo.com/17331985, about 10 minutes
  • Part 3 on listening, fans, trolls, member creation of content, vimeo.com/17443966, about 9 minutes
  • Part 4, Dyno trail -- rewarding fans, content from experts and visitors, sharing through Delicious things people post about the Museum, vimeo.com/17417560, about 10 minutes
  • Part 5, Connecting, Facebook -- checking posts, managing distributed efforts, priorities, re-evaluating, vimeo.com/17426828, about 11 minutes
  • Part 6, Question, Measuring, led to info about creating safe and smart places where learning can occur, vimeo.com/17480607, about 10 minutes
  • Part 7, Question, Engaging users when content is not as rich -- the museum has awesome content, vimeo.com/17481290, about 11 minutes

2010/10/20: Are you happy with the database software you are using?

Are you happy with the database software you are using?, October 20, 2010
Are you happy with the database software you are using to manage contacts, members, donors, volunteers, events, and email blasts? If not, come find out what others use and ask questions. If you are, come and tell us what's working for you. At this meetup attendees, including Rebecca Currie, Judy Hallman, Rich Hobson, Trish Perkins and Sean Watson, will describe their experiences with database software.

Rebecca Currie is a former marketing manager and copywriter who now works as an independent consultant designing and implementing custom Filemaker-based data management systems for a variety of clients.

Judy Hallman, PINInc/RTPnet volunteer, has a little experience with CiviCRM.

Richard F. Hobson, President, HobsonStrategicVision LLC, has been involved in selection, implementation, and design of donor systems for about 20 years. Key areas and products include: The technology assessment before selection, Raisers Edge, Donor2, eTapestry, Jenzabar's CX system, Microsoft CRM 4.0, the fundraising module of various Enterprise systems, getting Technology people and fundraisers to work together, and some perspective on comparing Salesforce and Microsoft CRM as a platform for donor systems. Rich has a mini cd of documents used in fundraising tech assessments, including a sample requirements document and would be glad to provide copies to attendees.

Trish Perkins, formerly a VISTA with FaithAction International House and now an eRider with HandyCapable, is a big fan of SalesForce.

Sean Watson has in-depth knowledge about Salesforce.com in areas such as advanced administration, programming/Apex development, and other "coding" related issues. Questions like "Should I use the nonprofit starter pack?" and "Can I integrate Salesforce with ...system x....?" are things he can address with in-depth explanation if requested. Sean also has some experience with CiviCRM.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/14803378/

Video clips:

  • Know Your Data, vimeo.com/17226846, about 8 minutes
  • Rekey Data vs. Convert, & Data Cleaning, vimeo.com/16989685, about 13 minutes
    Question about moving data from Excel worksheet to another system -- rekey or use conversion tools. Led to discussion of cleaning data.

2010/09/15: Help and general discussion

Help and general discussion, September 15, 2010
For September 15, let's have a general discussion. Bring questions and problems that you'd like help with, and let's talk about things we've learned recently – new ideas, new ways of using tools, websites we've discovered, and the like. What came out of UNC-TV's PubCamp? What did folks learn from the Women Who Tech TeleSummit ( http://bit.ly/womenwh... ) earlier in the day? [You can register here - http://bit.ly/wwtreg... – it’s only $20 which covers admission to the day long TeleSummit, September 15.]

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/14684806

Video clips: vimeo.com/15240851

Notes: One of our best discussions! Initial discussion and ideas focused on Heartmail by NCGives — a community art project celebrating acts of giving among North Carolinians — leading to discussion of several projects.

2010/08/18: Tools to handle revenue generating activities

Tools to handle revenue generating activities, August 18, 2010

Location: UNC-TV, 10 T.W. Alexander Drive, Research Triangle Park

Leader: Paula Jones, Director of Technology and Administration, N.C. Center for Nonprofits

Website: http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/14307256/

Slides: Slides are on slideshare at: http://bit.ly/generaterevenue.

Video recording: Public Information Network, Inc. purchased a Flip camera to record NCTech4Good meetings. Judy Hallman recorded this meeting and put it online in five segments about 15-20 minutes each at http://vimeo.com/ (search for 'nctech4good meetup').

2010/05/19: Building an online community for NCTech4Good

Building an online community for NCTech4Good, May19, 2010
We registered NCTech4Good.org and are currently using it just for the NCTech4Good Conference (June 25 at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill). But the plan is to use NCTech4Good.org to "support" our Meetup group.

We have a unique opportunity to collaborate on the design of an online community, learning new skills in the process. To get the ball rolling, Sean Watson will lead a discussion about what we envision as the purpose of NCTech4Good.org, how to organize the site to meet the needs of our community members, how to connect the NC community of nonprofit tech folks, and how to encourage communication and usage of the website before, during, and after the conference.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/13360061

2010/04/21: What's new and exciting in the nonprofit arena?

What's new and exciting in the nonprofit arena?, April 21, 2010
We'll start with reports from folks who recently attended conferences:

  • Paula Jones, Nancy Shoemaker, Sean Watson, and Judy Hallman for the NTEN conference. Does anyone else who's going to NTEN want to join them?
  • Ruby Sinreich for South by Southwest Interactive. Does anyone else who went to SXSW want to talk about what they learned?
  • Is there anyone else for other conferences?

This will be an informal meeting and a good opportunity to ask questions or talk briefly about what you find new and exciting.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/13076967

2010/03/17: Online Fundraising and Open Mic Night

Online Fundraising and Open Mic Night, March 17, 2010
Due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, our speaker for the March 17 meeting has had to cancel.

Rather than cancel the meeting, we've decided to convert the meeting to an "Open Mic Night." We'll start by having participants share their experiences with online fundraising, and then open the floor for anyone to discuss

  • A technology solution that has particularly benefited their nonprofit
  • A problem they are facing that seems to be in need of a great technology solution

Depending on the number of attendees, we may need to keep these presentations quite short, so please do come prepared to describe your solution/question succinctly.

If time permits, we'll break in to groups to delve more deeply into particular solutions or questions.

Be sure to bring plenty of business cards so you can connect with others after the meeting.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/12697575

2010/02/17: Using WordPress

Using WordPress, February 17, 2010
Continuing the theme of Content Management Systems started with the June 2009 Meetup, this session will go deeper into WordPress, an open source CMS that has grown dramatically in popularity over the last couple of years. Leandra Ganko (LeGa Design Group) and Nancy Shoemaker, both with years of experience building and maintaining WordPress sites will demonstrate its capabilities and help you decide if it is right for you and your organization's web site plans.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/12451315/

Slides: http://www.legadesigngroup.com/UsingWP.pdf

Handout: http://bit.ly/wp02-2010 (a google doc)

2010/02/11: Planning a conference for June 25

Purpose: from the Meetup site.

The NCTech4Good organizers and PINInc/RTPnet would like to have a local nonprofit technology conference similar to those RTPnet had in 2000-2005. We've reserved space for the conference at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill for Friday, June 25, 2010.

We've rescheduled the first planning meeting for Feb. 11, 11:30-1:30, at United Way of the Greater Triangle, to do initial planning and set up committees. If you would like to help out, please join us, RSVP, and bring your own lunch. Whether you come to the meeting or not, please join the discussion group for planning the conference at http://nccommunities.org/conference-team. I hope we can do a lot of the work using online tools and won't need many face-to-face meetings.

I've started a wiki-like section for conference resources at http://nccommunities.org/conference . Note in particular the proposed timeline at http://nccommunities.org/conference-timeline.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Website: http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/12506506/

Attendees: Shelly Bowers - SBowers at unitedwaytriangle.org, Rebecca Curry - currierc at earthlink.net, Leandra Ganko - leandra at legadesigngroup.com, Marjorie Fowler - marjorie at email.unc.edu, Judy Hallman - hallman at email.unc.edu, Paula Jones - pjones at ncnonprofits.org, Tani Kennedy - tanikennedy at aol.com, Justis Peters - justis at indythinker.com, Dov Pinker, Saroj Primlani - sarojprimlani at gmail.com, Nancy Shoemaker - nancy at shoemakergroup.com, Sean Watson - support at seanwatson.com

NOTES

Most of the discussion was about determining the technology needs of local nonprofits so that our growing team of volunteers can help. We agreed this would be the focus of the conference.

We talked about a two-day conference with Friday as a conventional conference aimed at nonprofit staff and Saturday an unconference aimed at volunteers, but felt this was too ambitious. Instead we'll continue the conference into early evening, inviting those who can't come during the day to join us for Happy Hours.

The general plan is a fairly structured morning to get nonprofts thinking about new ways technology can help them, round table discussions in the afternoon, and informal socializing (perhaps a career fair) into the early evening.

Action items may come out of the conference. We might want to follow up later with a Saturday problem solving session or perhaps follow up in our monthly meetings.

Action items:

  • Sean is overall conference coordinator, with Tani and Judy assisting.
  • Two surveys -- one for nonprofits and one for volunteers. Team: Paula, Nancy, Tani, Sean, Judy, Rebecca (leader).
    What are needs nonprofits share? What do volunteers want to do? Paula will send to Rebecca data from the NC Center for Nonprofits' help line, which Rebecca will use to propose survey items. Tani will help design the surveys. Nancy has a SurveyMonkey account we can use. We need the results of the surveys ASAP.
  • Program: topics, speakers, session length. Team: Paula, Saroj, Tani, Judy, Sean (leader).
    A keynote speaker or panel on state of the art of technology for nonprofits. Five-minute ignite sessions -- "Did you know you could...?" Pitch ideas to work on. Tips and tricks. Rehash NCTech4Good presentations. Get ideas/help from Triangle Gives Back and Durham Cares. Breakout groups based on survey. Create your own session sign-up sheets that just give title.
  • Website Rebecca, Judy, Sean, Tani, Leandra (leader)
    Judy would like to use CiviEvent for online registration.
  • Logistics: timeline, room setup, nametags, registration table, sponsors tables, publicity, info on local hotels and restaurants for people who might stay over. Leandra, Shelly, Tani, Judy, Sean, Nancy (leader)
  • Finances: Sponsors (we have space for a max of 8 tables), find giveaways, establish fees, scholarships. Tani, Sean, Judy (leader)

Join us: Communication will be through http://nccommunities.org/conference-team. If you are registered on NCCommunities, click "Join" in the left sidebar. If you are not registered, click "Create new account" and fill out the form, checking "Join Conference planning team." Members of the group will be notified by email of new Group Posts.

If you would like to join a team, please email the team leader and copy Judy Hallman - hallman at email.unc.edu and Sean Watson - support at seanwatson.com

Future meetings: Teams will meet as needed. The entire planning group will reconvene when needed.

2010/01/18: MLK Day of Service: Help families with their new computers

Martin Luther King Jr.  Day of Service, January 18, 2010: Help families with their new computers
Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville
Leader: Joe Burgess, Manager, Teaming for Technology, United Way of the Greater Triangle
Website: http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/11999446/

Summary from Joe Burgess:

Team,
 
I want to thank everyone so much for helping out on Monday!  What an impressive turnout!  In all we had 53 volunteers show up & 2 big projects going on at the same time.  Never before have we had such a dedicated group volunteer with such enthusiasm!
 
Indoors we were able to help 10 individuals gain a better understanding of how to keep their home computer in good working order, & outside we cleaned several hundred computers, nearly a thousand keyboards & mice!  Here are photos of the event:
Photos from MLK Day of Service
 
I want to thank all the volunteers who helped setup the computer room & provide the training.  I also want to thank everyone who brought food & snacks.
 
As some of you know, we will host a 2nd iTrain-to-Excel family technology awareness training on Feb 13th @ Wade Edwards Learning Lab across from Broughton HS.  I’ll be sending out another eVite in the coming days for all who are interested.
 
Thanks again!
 
Joe Burgess
Manager, Teaming for Technology

News Release: Middle Class Express Holds Computer Training Event
by Andy Huyck

United Way of the Greater Triangle hosted a computer training fair on Martin Luther King Day for the Wake County-sponsored program Middle Class Express. Fifteen Wake County families were given training in several areas of computer usage.

Volunteer trainers from all walks of life – retirees, college students seeking a way to honor MLK Service Day – manned 5 computer stations around the large conference room at United Way headquarters. The program covered 5 main areas of computer usage:

  1. Using the Internet (How to do searches, emailing)
  2. MS Office and Documents
  3. Computer security
  4. Computer Set-up
  5. Customizing a computer & How to use Windows

The program operated in a round robin process so that all 15 families had the opportunity to take advantage of each training station.

Drew Meyer oversaw the computer training session for Wake County HR. He says the mission of Middle Class Express is to help families reach the middle class in 5 years. Learning how to use a computer, along with having computer access in their homes, is considered to be extremely important in this process.

Middle Class Express participants are clients of Wake County HR and must qualify to be in the program:

  • Agree to work with a life coach
  • Be employed or pursuing and education
  • Be active in their kids’ school
  • Be screened for need
  • Be Wake County residents

Those attending the training fair said their main reasons for wanting the training was to be able to help their children with school work and to be able to conduct job searches.

While some program participants have learned to use computers at work, others have not. Participating in the computer training fair gave them a chance to learn how to use computers in their everyday lives. Attendee Wanda Hunter, who won one of the computers in a program-sponsored raffle, said she was especially glad to have the computer available for her daughter, who came to the fair with her. Attendee Bobby Williams said his main goal was to be able to help his daughter with job searches.

Participating in the computer training fair gave them a chance to learn how to use computers in their everyday lives. The cost of internet access is a problem for program participants. AT&T offers home internet access to program participants without bundling phone service with it, which lowers the cost. Plus, one of the benefits of the training fair is that after completing the training, attendees were able to buy one of the computers for $30, which includes the hard drive and keyboard but no monitor.

Another computer fair will be held again on Saturday, February 13, 2010, at Wade Edwards Learning Lab at 714 St. Mary’s St. in Raleigh. Drew Meyers says the Saturday date should encourage more families to attend.

Director of the United Way program Teaming For Technology Joe Burgess says the fair used computers donated to the United Way’s by corporate donors, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield of NC. United Way cleans the computers and installs new software on the hard drives, which arrive wiped clear by the corporate donors. He stressed that any donated monitors would be welcome. On the day of the training fair, volunteers were gathered in the parking lot cleaning computers and keyboards so they can be refurbished in the United Way’s computer lab. The refurbished computers are then donated to area schools.

Burgess says the United Way also accepts privately donated computers. Those that can’t be used are sent Synergy Recycling, an NC-based company, so the toxic chemicals and precious metals can be recaptured.

Photos
by Andy Huyck


A volunteer trainer shows kids the United Way website.


Bobby Williams learns about the Internet so he can help his daughter with job searches.


Duke IT grad student and volunteer Mia Barnes teaches an attendee about managing documents.


Learning about computer security issues.


MLK Service Day volunteers smile after working hard cleaning donated computers.


NCSU student and volunteer Khalia talks to an attendee about computer setup.


RTPNet board member Mike Rulison talks to an attendee.


Stan Holt enjoys showing kids of volunteers and attendees how to have fun on the computer.


United Way computer lab manager Al Reynolds shows attendees how a computer's hardware works.


Volunteers from Shaw University clean computers in honor of MLK Service Day.


Volunteers and attendees at the computer training stations.


Wanda Hunter learns about MS Office.

Comments from NCTech4Good participants (posted at on the Meetup site):

I was very pleased at the turn out today for this program. My boys enjoyed helping. I actually had to make them stop so we could get home! We were there until around four oclock and people were still working hard! JOE awesome thing you all are doing! I almost did not come because in my mind a DAY OFF but I am so extremely glad we came. We will be there for anything you all do as long as we can get there. Thanks again for what you all are doing for families. I look forward to the next event!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful turn out for this event. I had a great time meeting new people, helping where ever needed and learning more about what the United Way is doing for the local community. It was a great experience being part of a new program watching people walk away with newly built computers and receiving education to help them out. I look forward to helping out at future events and encourage others to also participate.

Enjoyed setting up the desktops and teaching safe computing and security tips.

I was looking for a service project for MLK Day and this one was really good. I met some nice people there and everyone worked hard to remove the hard drives (and dust!) from hundreds of computers, clean computer peripherals, etc. (The hard drives were to be re-imaged and reused in the computers.) My group worked outside, as the weather was beautiful. The United Way facility is very clean. It's great knowing that this project will make computers accessible to many families and help to narrow the digital divide.

More great photos

2009/11/18: Planning Day of Service, January 18, 2010

Planning Day of Service, January 18, 2010: Followup from October 21, 2009 Meetup.

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Leader: Shelly Bowers, United Way of the Greater Triangle

Website: http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/11741619/

Notes and discussion:

There were about 8 people.

Migdalia Santos, United Way of the Greater Triangle joined us to help us with project definition and using United Way's Volunteer Solutions.

After the October 21 meeting, Judy and Shelly posted three volunteer opportunities for agency NCTech4Good in Volunteer Solutions.

  • One to define this NCTech4Good project.
  • One for an alternative school for middle-thru-high school students that had a computer lab that was unusable because the computers ran too slow. NCTech4Good volunteers responded to that request for help and this project is completed.
  • Triangle Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service (Monday, January 18th, 2010)

Several people have registered as NCTech4Good volunteers, viewed the projects, and a couple have connected to our projects, so Volunteer Solutions looks like it will work well for matching volunteers with needs.

The plan from the October meeting was to offer Tech Assessments. We were going to select tools, recruit nonprofits that need help, recruit volunteers, train volunteers, and conduct Tech Assessments. We talked briefly about this plan and decided it was too ambitious, especially given the time of year.

After much discussion, we decided on a two-pronged approach:

  1. A pilot project to clean up the computers in two computer labs on or around Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Monday, January 18th, 2010), depending on whether or not we can access the computers on MLK Day. While cleanup programs are running, talk with staff and try to get an idea of how they use computers and other tech needs they have. Document the work done. Add "nonprofit computer lab cleanup" as an ongoing service for NCTech4Good folks, working with other volunteers. Once we have a well established computer cleanup service, we can repeat the process with another service.
  2. An ongoing project for NCTech4Good volunteers to act as liaison between nonprofits and volunteers, identifying and defining specific projects, adding them to Volunteer Solutions, finding volunteers to do the work, providing training with training materials, documenting what was done, project status, and evaluations at completion. Each project will need documentation/PR people as well as Tech people.

For the MLK Day project:

  • Shelly will work with Migdalia to find to computer labs in nonprofits that are having problems with their computers.
  • NCTech4Good will provide teams to work on the computers on MLK Day or sometime close to that day, depending on the preferences of the nonprofits. Each team will have a leader and at least one documentation/PR person who will record the problems discovered and how they were resolved, report back on how well the project went, and perhaps develop resource materials that could be used by other computer labs. It is important that we provide the nonprofits with skills to maintain their own machines. It is also important to provide feedback within our group and to future users of our services on our accomplishments. And, of couse, each team will have people to do the work, following the instructions of the leader. No skills are required of the workers. The project provides learning opportunities for volunteers along with helpful services.
  • If equipment needs replacement or upgrading, team members will return to the computer labs to complete the work as soon as possible. United Way's Teaming 4 Technology (T4T) program can probably provide any equipment that is needed. If purchases are required, requests can be made to Public Information Network, Inc./RTPnet through Judy.
  • The MLK Day project replaces the regular January Meetup. There will not be a Meetup January 20.

We do not want to have to have face-to-face meetings in order to get this work done, and we do not want to use the NCTech4Good Meetup email list for project communication.

Judy has created a special interest group for NCTech4Good projects. Go to NCCommunities.org/NCTech4Good-team, register on the website and join the group. To post a message, click Group post and create the post. Posts email to group members and are added to the page blog style -- most recent first.

The NCCommunities site can also be used in other ways to support NCTech4Good projects. Materials that are developed can be added to the Resources collection. Forums are also available. The website is build using Drupal and CiviCRM, which has a wide range of add-on capabilities. Let Judy know if you have suggestions for improving the site.

2009/10/21: Focusing on "4 Good"

2009/10/21: Focusing on "4 Good"

Focusing on "4 Good": We've spent the past several months discussing the "tech" half of what we do, so now let's focus in on the "4 good." Shelly Bowers (United Way of the Greater Triangle) will show us how United Way's volunteer matching service, Volunteer Solutions, works. NCTech4Good could use this service. Then we'll look at three projects: (1) Further define this NCTech4Good project. (2) An alternative school for middle-thru-high school students who’ve been expelled, fell through the cracks, etc., has a computer lab that is unusable because the computers run too slow. Needs a team. Leader to determine what needs to be done and coordinate. (3) Triangle Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Leader: Shelly Bowers, United Way of the Greater Triangle

Website: http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/11497540/

Notes and discussion:

There were about 12 people. Good participation.

During pizza, we talked about outreach to nonprofits, how get in touch with nonprofits and find out their specific needs.

  • Some nonprofits don't know how technology can help them and so don't ask for help.
  • Put value on volunteer time. "Ordinarily this service would cost $x."
  • Rather than say "You can get free help from volunteers," we could say "We can provide grants to 25 agencies to provide tech assessments, grants to 25 agencies to provide web site redesigns, grants to 25 agencies to assist in fundraising strategies, etc.

Shelly Bowers (United Way of the Greater Triangle) showed us United Way's volunteer matching service, Volunteer Solutions.

Judy has already signed up NCTech4Good as an agency, but has not posted any volunteer opportunities yet. She'll post three projects to start with:

  • Further define this NCTech4Good project. This project needs a team (the attendees will be the initial team) and a team leader (Judy, with help from Shelly).
  • An alternative school for middle-thru-high school students who’ve been expelled, fell through the cracks, etc., has a computer lab that is unusable because the computers run too slow. Dave offered Purple Elephant to update the computer lab, via email to Judy and Shelly. Faye (Purple Elephant) was at the meeting and will work with Judy and Shelly to followup. This project may have multiple tasks, such as (1) cleaning up the machines and (2) teaching the kids how to care for the machines.
  • Triangle Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service (Monday, January 18th, 2010). Presents an opportunity for us to do something significant and get some publicity for our group. The plan is to offer Tech Assessments. We'll need tools (such as TechAtlas) and training for the volunteers.

We'd like to have followup meetings. United Way is a convenient place.

A few things followup items:

  • Judy will create the above three projects for the NCTech4Good agency in Volunteer Solutions.
  • Judy will create a special interest group for NCTech4Good and invite folks to join the group. The software used for groups provides email notification facilities for group members, so participants can post and communicate among themselves.

Similar local projects:

  • Shelly and Judy will contact Jen about UNC-TV's plans regarding public media community engagement and volunteerism "for good."
  • NetCorps is spearheading a statewide survey in North Carolina this year to identify the technology needs and issues of nonprofits. Update: Sean says they are still creatiang the survey.
  • Technical assessment project of Triangle Community Foundation -- "technical" in terms of day-to-day operations, not anything to do with Technology/computers.
  • Triangle Impact
  • Purple Elephant
  • Other NTEN 501 Tech Clubs and Net Tuesday groups in NC: We're the only 501 Tech Club in NC. There's Asheville NetSquared Meetup Group, 4 members, no meetups yet, founded March 2009, and there's Wilmington NetSquared Meetup Group, 5 members, no meetups yet, founded July 2009.
  • At some point, we should let Jane Patterson, e-NC Authority know about the services we are trying to provide.

2009/10/07: Organizers: NCTech4Good projects

Organizers meeting, October 7, noon, United Way of the Greater Triangle

Shelly Bowers, Joe Burgess, Marjorie Fowler, Judy Hallman

We talked about tracking volunteer projects.

United Way has a volunteer matching service, Volunteer Solutions, that provides keyword searching, logging of volunteer time, and reporting capabilities. NCTech4Good could use this service. Volunteers register: If our volunteers create a common profile, NCTech4Good volunteer, then we can track volunteer activity. We can set up accounts for agencies, if they don't already have them.

Go to http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/ and click Volunteer, click Volunteer Solutions, click Register, or go directly to http://volunteer.united-e-way.org/triangle/volunteer/register/ Create a profile named NCTech4Good volunteer. Volunteers can have multiple profiles.

"Volunteer Solutions is United Way of the Greater Triangle's interactive Web site where potential volunteers can search for volunteer opportunities in the Greater Triangle area by listing a keyword or a community. Volunteers can complete a personal profile and be notified when matching opportunities are available."

Agencies register at http://volunteer.united-e-way.org/triangle/agency/signup.aspx

Some projects will have a team. Each team will have a leader. NCTech4Good's supporters can be called upon for resources.

For the Oct 21 meeting, Shelly will show Volunteer Solutions. We'll start with three projects:

(1) A team to further define this NCTech4Good project.

(2) An alternative school for middle-thru-high school students who’ve been expelled, fell through the cracks, etc., has a computer lab that is unusable because the computers run too slow. Needs a team. Leader to determine what needs to be done and coordinate.

(3) Triangle Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

2009/09/16: What's happening in the area of technology and social change?

What's happening in the area of technology and social change, and what can we do in NC? Justis Peters (whose goal is to "improve the world through the application of creativity, emerging technologies, and entrepreneurship) will lead a discussion focused on projects, sessions, and interaction at the N2Y4 NetSquared Conference he attended in May. Justis exchanged ideas for programming, outreach, and community engagement with organizers of several NetSquared Net Tuesday Meetups around the world and came back excited about the potential NCTech4Good has for our local communities.

What can NCTech4Good do and how we can work together?

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville

Speaker: Justis Peters, Innovator.

Website: http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/11208665/

Presentation outline: The presentation outline is not available.

Notes and discussion:

  • Brief discussion about possible meeting topics from the NC Nonprofits conference. The branding session is a possibility. There were not a lot of tech focused sessions. Next year's conference will be September 29-30, 2010, at the Sheraton Imperial in Research Triangle Park.
  • Steve is a fan of TechShop, which provides members with tools and training. There was discussion about similarities with providing computer resources and training and possibilities for collaboration based on getting technology to users, developing job skills, and nurturing innovation.
  • Saroj is retired and looking for opportunities to help nonprofits, which led to discussion of what NCTech4Good is for, besides monthly gatherings.
  • Shelly said that United Way gets applications for local projects for IBM equipment grants and some of these projects could be helped by NCTech4Good. Shelly will followup with more info, and the October 21 meeting will focus on specific projects that need help.
  • Leandra mentioned setting up Skype and video for talking with family. Something similar could be a fun project for working with kids.
  • TechSoup is best known for their service TechSoup Stock, where nonprofits can access donated and discounted technology products provided by corporate and nonprofit technology partners.
  • NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup, is focused on technology and social impact — creating opportunities for those involved in creating change to connect. NetSquared supports NetSquared Local groups (including NCTech4Good) around the world to share ideas and learn from each other.
  • NetSquared is an incubator of social action projects, awarding financial support through prized-based Challenges. This year's Challenges were focused on mobile applications.
  • The NetSquared Conference is held the end of May in San Jose, California, hosted by Cisco, to fund innovative projects which use technology for social change. The conference focuses on presentations about the projects (there were 15), voting, and awarding cash prizes. This year's three winners ($50,000 plus a some extra funding) and 15 featured projects are at http://www.netsquared.org/n2y4/featuredprojects.
  • Besides presentations on featured projects, there were excellent breakout sessions — see the conference agenda. Justis also attended special activities for NetSquared Local organizers the day before and the day after the two days of the official conference. 

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 9 people. The form was not distributed.

2009/07/15: User Centric Web Design, Saroj Primlani

Crafting Web sites that are accessible and usable by a broad spectrum of users, NCTech4good  July Meeting

 

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 20 people. About 10 forms collected.

Nonprofit organizations you work with: NetCorps, Christian Assembly of Durham, United Way of the Greater Triangle

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NCTech4Good Meetup.com site/email list: 7
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list: 1
  • Another email list (please specify):
  • A friend/colleague: 2
  • Other (please specify):

Have a need/have skills and time for:

  • Web/Joomla volunteers for non profits. [Not clear if need or have -- and no name for followup]

Suggestions for future meetings:

  • Topics I Could Present On:
    • SEO, PPC (pay per click?), web design
  • Topics I'm Interested In:
    • Accessibility workshop - intensive
  • Good meeting places:
  • Other suggestions:

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting.
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet.  5
    • I use this technology. 3
    • I could give this talk.
    • Other: Use now, but needed a refresher
  • Was the meeting what you expected? Yes 4, No - much better 1
  • Was the meeting worth your time? Yes 5, "Absolutely" 2, "Yes, very" 1
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: Immediately? Yes 3, Probably 1      Within six months? Yes 2
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic? Yes 3
  • Comments:
    • Great job
    • I will be passing this along to my clients
    • Wow! Saroj is such a wonderful speaker and so passionate! Amazing!
    • V. informative

 

AttachmentSize
nctech4good.ppt178 KB

2009/06/17: Overview and experiences with content management systems

2009/08/17: Overview and experiences with content management systems NCTech4Good

Location: United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Dr, Morrisville, NC 27560

Speaker: Sean Watson, netCorps, Technology Consultant

Speakers Notes: nccommunities.org/sites/nccommunities.org/files/6.17.2009 CMS Talk Notes.doc

Overview and experiences with content management systems: Sean Watson, netCorps, Technology Consultant, will provide a general overview of several of the popular content management systems and will lead a discussion of the pros/cons of each.

Meetup announcement: http://http://www.meetup.com/NCTech4Good/calendar/10542956/

Notes and discussion:

  • Judy Hallman opened the meeting and said a few words about Public Information Network, Inc., RTPnet, and NCCommunities. She said that the Meetup.com group had been recently renamed (by a team of organizers) to NCTech4Good. Beyond monthly meetings, the group will provide opportunities for in-depth learning, support subgroups of common interests, and bring together volunteers to provide consulting and "day-of-service" events. Information about the group is being added to NCCommunities at NCCommunities.org/NCTech4Good, which includes meeting summaries and forums. The forums already have one request for help and one offer of assistance. [NOTE: When I showed the forum post, the replies did not display. As, Sean suggested, I had not given anonymous users access to the comments module -- comments are not considered "nodes," like pages, so node permissions do not apply to comments, in Drupal.]
  • There were about 25 people. We introduced ourselves and described our experiences and interests in content management systems. There were a few people with Drupal interests, some with WordPress, two or three using Joomla, Sean uses Plone (and WordPress), and a few people are using, or are interested in, proprietary software, such as Microsoft SharePoint.
  • A custom built website can be very expensive and difficult to maintain.
  • Dreamhost.com (which provides free hosting for nonprofits) offers one-click-installs for WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal. Hosting services for Plone are harder to find -- plone.org has info on hosting services. Plone is written in Python and requires Zope, while WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal are written in PHP.
  • WordPress is easy to use for small sites that don't have a lot of content. It was intended for blogs and doesn't have a lot of built-in features. But it's easy to use.
  • Joomla has lots of themes. It's easy to install and efficient.
  • Drupal has a lot of contributed modules. It has a security team that investigates potential threats and provides announcements. Acquia is a commercial company that provides technical support for Drupal.
  • Plone started at NASA. Security is important.
  • There was some discussion about CiviCRM, which runs under Drupal, Joomla, or standalone.
  • Places to look for information and comparison of CMSs:
  • There was a lot of discussion about follow-up meetings
    • Do an install
    • Show the end-user perspective
    • How hard is it for maintainers? Can you copy and paste from MS Word?
    • For folks who are trying to select a CMS, state your requirements and then have discussion about which CMS best fits with the stated needs.
    • Add beer to it
    • Need a demo before hands-on
    • There seemed to be a lot of interest in demos, show what they do.
    • Content management systems could be an NCTech4Good special interest group.

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 25 people. About 11 forms collected.

Nonprofit organizations you work with: ASQ Raleigh, ESAPNC, AAUW, UNC-CH, RTPnet, YSOP Village, Incs. , Urban Ministries / Wake

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NCTech4Good Meetup.com site/email list: 5
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list: 2
  • Another email list (please specify): 2 , UNC-CH email list
  • A friend/colleague: 2
  • Other (please specify): Was searching for resources for my nonprofit

Have a need/have skills and time for:

  • Skills - most anything IT.
  • UWGT's T4T program provides computers for nonprofits. If your org needs equipment, contact us! t4t@unitedwaytriangle.org.

Suggestions for future meetings:

  • Topics I Could Present On:
    • MS Products - XP, Office 2007, small business networks
    • PCI compliance for NPOs; digital divide & tech poverty
    • WordPress design/installation/theming (in light of this meeting)
    • WordPress, Joomla
    • Development databases
  • Topics I'm Interested In:
    • Managing multimedia assets: sound files, video, graphics, flash
    • Collaboration tools
    • Social web sites ie ning, wordpress, accessibility
    • Everything
    • Security, backup strategies, framework
    • Drupal, SEO, web design, e-marketing
    • Social networking
  • Good meeting places: Welcome to use our space at FPG in Carrboro
  • Other suggestions:

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting.
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet. 7
    • I use this technology. 3
    • I could give this talk. 1
    • Other
  • Was the meeting what you expected? Yes 2, Somewhat 1
    • I expected demos and perhaps a tad more structure
    • Hoping for examples on the web
    • Yes, except that I was hoping for demo
    • Expecting more detailed overview
  • Was the meeting worth your time? Yes 6, "Yes! Thank you" 1, Somewhat 1
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: Immediately? Yes 2, No 2      Within six months? Yes 5
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic? Yes 4, Yes!!! 2
  • Comments:
    • I will attend the next meeting
    • Lots of smart people!

 

AttachmentSize
6.17.2009 CMS Talk Notes.doc76.5 KB

2009/06/10: New name, statement of purpose

Meeting announcement: Location - United Way of the Greater Triangle, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville, NC 27560

Several of us will gather for a brown-bag lunch in the Dogwood Room, Triangle United Way, Morrisville, Wednesday, June 10, 12:00-1:00, (we have the room 11:30-1:30) to work on a statement of purpose for this group and proposals for a new name. Some of us are fresh from the NTEN conference where there was an affinity group for Net Tuesday/501 Tech Club organizers, and at least one person from our group will attend the NetSquared Conference the last week in May.

You are welcome to join us. The room is small. Please RSVP so folks will know if we've run out of space.

Nine attended: Shelly Bowers (and daughter Lucy), Dawn Douglass, Marjorie Fowler, Leandra Ganko, Judy Hallman, Justis Peters, Saroj Primlani, Nancy Shoemaker, and Sean Watson. Paula Jones sent her regrets.

Notes are included in the Agenda, below.

  1. Review feedback on why people joined the group.

    We had 5 responses to the question "Why did you join this group?" Most prefer topics that are not too technical. We should aim toward overviews but provide opportunities for indepth coverage -- deep dives based on interest, perhaps using online web conferencing.

  2. What is the purpose of the group? What are our goals? What do we do?
    • Focus for meeting topics
    • Hands-on training?
    • Day of service?
    • Other ways to work with nonprofits during the month?
    • Gatherings not always on the third Wednesday evening?
    • Recruit college students – high school?

    Facilitate the social side of nonprofits.

    Help people find technology and use it.

    Have a job/need a job, volunteer, what can I bring to the table, what are the immediate needs of nonprofits, what am I willing to put time in on? We could have a list of projects for nonprofits, folks could vote on them, and we'd bring together volunteers to work on those we can do. Sean and Judy will work on this.

    Support subgroups of common interests (Special Interest Groups) -- for example one group might be the IT support staff for nonprofits, another group might be accidental techies, and another might be representatives of organizations that provide tech support for nonprofits (something like TechCoop, 2003-2005). Something similar to the Tracks at a conference.

    Help people find people with similar interests, specific events, and promote collaboration. Need a hub -- a centralized group for nonprofit technology -- a local NTEN.

    Have a regular, face-to-face time.

    Perhaps have a day-long conference.

    Start a list of goals.

    We can develop working materials on NCCommunities.org -- if you register, you can edit materials and comment.

  3. What should we name the group?

    We want a Brand -- something that people will come to when they want information about nonprofit technology. Hub for Good. Technology to advance your mission. Looked at THINK or THINC -- Technology H Information NC. NC Good Tech. We all liked NCTech4Good -- Where tech meets social change.

    T-Shirts would be useful and fun. Leandra will design.

  4. Topics for future meetings – especially July

    For July 15, Saroj Primlani will present on Universal design on the Web. She'll send Judy a blurb for the Web site. Justis Peters will lead/facilitate the meeting.

    Shelly will be gone in August but will try to find someone else from United Way to host the meeting. Dawn offered Triangle Community Foundation. They have meeting rooms for use 8-5, but Dawn would be willing to host our meetings in the evening.

    Judy started a list of topics at http://nccommunities.org/meeting-topics linked from http://nccommunities.org/meetings.

  5. Make the organizers group public.

    Judy is working on making the group public. Once that's done, to join the group, people will need to go to http://groups.nten.org/profile.htm?mode=getagreement and register. Then they should be able to see the group "Organizers - Triangle" at http://groups.nten.org/group.htm?mode=home&igid=90445 and join that group.
    DONE: Let me know if you have any problems joining the group -- hallman at email.unc.edu.

  6. Guidelines.

    Are vendor presentations OK? Under what circumstances.

    Although speakers can set their own rules for questions/comments during presentations, there need to be some rules for not allowing attendees to take over.

    Need a clear statement of when a meeting is over and we're moving into socializing.

    Sean and Judy will work on guidelines.

  7. Have a job/need a job

    Do this as part of the introductions at the beginning of the meeting. Also capture this information online. See discussion under 2. above.

  8. Survey.

    We should do a couple of surveys -- one of member interests, one of nonprofit interests and needs.

    Sean is working on a survey of some nonproftis for netCorps and will include a couple of questions for our group.

 

2009/05/20: Recap of Nonprofit Technology Conference

NetTuesday/Triangle 501 Tech Club

Triangle United Way, 2400 Perimeter Park Drive, Suite 150, Morrisville, NC

Paula Jones and Judy Hallman talked about what they learned at the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference, San Francisco, April 26-28, 2009, from their notes. Leandra Ganko was unable to make it to the meeting but contributed her notes.

Their combined notes are at http://nccommunities.org/09NTC.

There were about 12 people and good discussion. Justis told us about Ignite Raleigh, coming up in August, see http://igniteraleigh.com/, and we talked a little about BarCamp -- there's one coming up in August at Red Hat, see http://www.barcamp.org/BarCampRDU.

We talked some about what Net Tuesday/501 Tech Clubs are and what they do. There was interest in finding out more about the clubs that work with nonprofits during the month -- what do they do? How do they find nonprofits to help? Which led to some discussion about matching volunteers with local nonprofits. There will be a followup lunch meeting June 10 to work on a statement of purpose for this group and proposals for a new name, see http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/calendar/10454429/.

2009/04/26-28: Notes from NTEN Conference

Notes from the NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference, San Francisco, April 26-28, 2009.

Paula Jone's notes

I have attached my notes from the plenaries and various sessions I attended. Enjoy!

  

Leandra Ganko's notes

I have attached my notes from the "33 Ways to Drive People to Your Website" that I thought was pretty good. I also have a link to it on my business blog: http://www.legadesigngroup.com.

Emira Mears was at the conference, so you can check out her blog for some recaps as well: http://blog.raisedeyebrow.com/category/nonprofit-tech/ — Usability Testing on the Cheap for Non Profit Websites and Measuring User Satisfaction.

Judy Hallman's notes

CiviCRM activites are in a separate post.

Net Tuesday/501 Tech Club affinity group meeting. There was an affinity group meeting for local organizers of these group. Amy Sample Ward (Community Builder for NetSquared) described Net Tuesday groups as focused on innovation and organizing, while 501 Tech Clubs are focused on education and hands-on training. Net Tuesdays are vibrant and changing, while 501 Tech Clubs are more consistent. There were people from San Francisco, Missoula Montana, Philly, Los Angeles, Taiwan, Denver, Vancouver, and London.

Some areas have combined the two groups. Triangle NC folks don't like the name, Traingle Net Tuesday/501 Tech Club -- especially now that they meet on Wednesdays. Groups can chose a name they like -- for example, "NYC Tech4Good (A NetSquared group)" -- but should include NetSquared and/or NTEN, so Triangle Tech Do-gooders sponsored by RTPnet, NTEN, NetSquare, Triangle United Way, the NC Center for Nonprofits would work. Some areas, like Chicago, have both. Chicago encourages "adopt a nonprofit" -- working with a nonprofit during the month and reporting back at the next meeting.

Guidelines were encouraged addressing areas such as vendor presentations and behavior during meetings (some folks try to dominate the conversation). Annual surveys were encouraged to get ideas for meeting time and places, and topics, and generally find out what people are interested in. Some groups have regular meeting places, some move from place to place. Finding free space is a problem. Some meet at libraries.

Conversation with Annaliese Hoehling, NTEN Membership and Outreach Manager, who works with 501 Tech Club ogranizers but couldn't make it to the affinity group meeting. Perhaps the Triangle group could expand its purpose beyond monthly meetings -- have projects similar to NTEN's day of service and workshops. Perhaps we could get more college students involved and perhaps even high school students.

Social Actions' Change the Web Challenge: This is something to watch. Social Actions helps people find and share opportunities to make a difference. The opportunities are collected from 40+ action sources, including Kiva, GlobalGiving, DonorsChoose.org, Change.org, DemocracyinAction, Idealist, and VolunteerMatch. Search is version 0.1. Wiki for the Open Actions XML schema and Brainstorming Fields to add to Open Actions. Search remembers filters. Have an API. RSS feeds. Share actions. The session was lead by Joe Solomon, organizer of Vancouver NetSquared.

This is Iron Chef...Battle Nonprofit: Perhaps we could do something similar in NC. Good description of this session by Kivi Leroux Miller in her blog at NonprofitMarketingGuide.com.

Website Usability Testing for Small Orgs: Who are your 3 major audiences? What do you want them to learn? What do you want them to do? Navigation, feeback, suggestions. Articulate goals. Map content. Web pages have a visual hierarchy -- the eye moves from top left. Draft usability testing instrument. Refine with team. SurveyMonkey is good -- SurveyGizmo is similar but allows pictures. Have testers sign up for newsletters, donate $1. Have a deadline. Look at analytics -- what are your top 5 pages. Figure 30 seconds to present credibility. Donate/Newsletter should be on every page -- you don't know which page they'll land on. Testers should be using two windows -- one for the questions and one for your website. People love to click pictures. Good book -- "Don't Make Me Think!"

Building and Sustaining Vibrant Online Communities:

  • Who is the site for -- clients, donors, volunteers, age, profession, social technographics, who NOT served?
  • Where -- online + offline
  • Why are we doing this -- mission, vision, purpose, focus, goals.
  • What are we trying to change? What values do we hold? What is the value of our community members building relationships with each other? What does success look like? How is the organization limited?
  • How involved are we with the community?
  • Welcome community members
  • Reward your power users

Evolution of Online Communities : Social Networking for Good

  • Arthritis Foundation, community.arthritis.org. Content = Education. Multiple communities share profile.
  • Equality California, EQCA -- Facebook. Groups are too limiting. Pages provide profiles for nonprofits (recent change), can message supporters. Make Wall public so supporters can post. Put your page on friends wall. Your Facebook content is based on your friends -- not about your organization (which is on your website).
  • Use of color to highlight content areas. Coming soon -- abilitypath.org.

Ignite sessions: There were 26 "Ignite Sessions" (during the receptions Monday and Tuesday)

  • Participants have five minutes to speak on a subject, accompanied by 20 slides.
  • Each slide is displayed for 15 seconds.
  • Slides are automatically advanced.

Other:

AttachmentSize
33 Tips from NTEN.pdf58.32 KB
09NTC_Notes.pdf112.23 KB

2009/04/21: Introduction to Content Management Systems (CMS) Workshop

On Saturday, April 18, the Carolinas Chapter of the American Society of Information Science and Technology (cc:ASIS&T) hosted a half-day "Introduction to Content Management Systems (CMS)" workshop at UNC-Chapel Hill. There's a summary at http://cms-workshop.pbwiki.com/FrontPage.

2009/04/07: Online presence for nonprofits

NetTuesday/Triangle 501 Tech Club

Location: Earth Fare, 10341 Moncreiffe Rd, Brierdale Shopping Center, Raleigh, NC 27560, (919) 433-1390

Speaker: Round-table discussion led by Judy Hallman.

Online presence for nonprofits -- more than just a Web site: Besides your own Web site, your nonprofit organization can benefit from being listed in other online services.

  • Which services (for example, GuideStar, Charity Navigator, Facebook, NC Center for Nonprofits) is your nonprofit registered with?
  • What benefits do the listings bring (for example, donors, volunteers, publicity)?
  • How do you maintain current information about your organization in each listing?
  • What control do you have over what is posted for and about your organization?

Bring your questions and experiences to this round-table discussion.

This was a new place for us. The room was quite comfortable and there were plenty of choices in the store for food and drinks.

Notes and discussion:

  • Frankie's Fun Park, Raleigh, was suggested as a meeting place and has been added to the list of meeting places.
  • Purple Elephant gets volunteers from Triangle Gives Back and Volunteer Match.
  • Justin is interested in social entrepeneurship. He attended a Startup Weekend.
  • We talked about items in the handout below.
    • Add Triangle Community Foundation.
    • Barb pointed out that Charity Navigator requires public support to be more than $500,000 in the most recent fiscal year.
    • Trish pointed out www.changingthepresent.org and said nonprofits can offer presents.
    • Barb talked about the value of Facebooks ads: $5/day, $.50/click, hers had 300,000 views and 200 click-throughs (I think that's what she said).
    • Nancy wasn't able to attend but sent email with her comments on Facebook -- after about 20 months experience and adapting to two major updates. Printed copies were in the handout below.
    • trianglegivesback.org was mentioned.
    • durhamcares.org was mentioned.
    • change.org sends a lot of email.
  • Trish talked about a movie making course. The participants made a movie using Windows Movie Maker and Audacity and a Flip video camera. They had a film festival at the end. Sites include www.dogooder.tv, blip.tv, vodpod.com (capture videos like Flicker, you pick the ones you want). Trish would be willing to do a meeting on movie making.

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 7 people.
About 4 forms collected.

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NetTuesday site/email list: 3
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list:
  • Another email list (please specify):
  • A friend/colleague: 1
  • Other (please specify): Meetup.com

Suggestions for future meetings:

  • Topics I Could Present On:
    • Coordinating volunteers with mobile devices.
  • Topics I'm Interested In:
    • Coordinating volunteers with mobile devices.
  • I'd like to join the organizers group to help plan meetings:
  • Good meeting places: Carrboro Coworking, Edge Office
  • Other suggestions:

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting. 1
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet. 1
    • I use this technology. 1
    • I could give this talk.
    • Other
  • Was the meeting what you expected? 2 Yes, No, 2 had no expectations
  • Was the meeting worth your time? 4 Yes
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: Immediately? Yes, Did already.      Within six months? 2 Yes, No
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic? 1 Yes, No
  • Comments:
    • Thank you

Handout

Online presence for nonprofits -- more than just a Web site, April 7, 2009

The meeting summary, with this handout, will be posted at http://nccommunities.org/meetings

Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, http://www.charitablegift.org/

Winter 2009 Newletter, Winter http://www.charitablegift.org/docs/Benefactor-Winter-2009.pdf

Evaluating Charities http://www.charitablegift.org/your-charitable-plan/evaluating/missions.shtml

Charitable Giving Resources, http://www.charitablegift.org/your-charitable-plan/evaluating/resources.shtml -- a good list

Charity Navigator, http://www.charitynavigator.org

Top 10 Best Practices of Savvy Donors, http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=419

6 Questions To Ask Charities Before Donating, http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=28

GuideStar, http://www.guidestar.org/

When is the last time you updated your Guidestar entry? http://nonprofits.change.org/blog/view/when_is_the_last_time_you_updated_your_guidestar_entry: "Web 2.0 fundraising is built upon and empowered by the Guidestar database. Change.org, Network for Good, and Facebook Causes (just to name a few!) are all pulling your organization's information directly from Guidestar." Note the comments on this post. GuideStar had major changes Feb. 1.

It's a PAIN to update! Show RTPnet's info that I can't figure out how to change and the forms.

Triangle United Way, http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/

Designation Questions, https://donor.united-e-way.org/CustomPage.aspx?id=1#Where%20can%20I%20direct

Volunteer Spotlight, http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/vol/

Teaming for Technology, http://www.unitedwaytriangle.org/t4t/community_impact.asp

Triangle Impact, http://triangleimpact.org/

Choose a Project, http://triangleimpact.org/projects/viewProject.php

Volunteer Projects, http://triangleimpact.org/projects/viewProject.php?_mode=project_intro&_clearFlag=course,specialevent

Corporate Projects, http://triangleimpact.org/AboutUs/index.php/corp_events.html

VolunteerMatch, http://www.volunteermatch.org/

Search Chapel Hill NC, Technology

Change.org, http://www.change.org/

Search RTPnet, click "Public Information Network, NC," "Click Read More"

Network for Good, http://www.networkforgood.org

Search RTPnet. "This organization has chosen to opt-out of receiving donations through Network for Good." Huh??? Search orange literacy. Login for GuideStar doesn't work for Network for Good. "Powered by GuideStar and VolunteerMatch" Search for a volunteer opportunity literacy 27514. All links go just to volunteermatch.org.

Idealist.org, http://www.idealist.org/

Search RTPnet -- listing is out of date. Idealist doesn't use GuideStar database.

Facebook See Nancy Shoemaker's email.

Being visable in the right places

NC Center for Nonprofits, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/

These nonprofit organizations are investing in themselves today for a stronger future tomorrow, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/mbralpha.asp

Member Services, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/memberservices.asp

Nonprofit Calendar of workshops and trainings available to nonprofits, http://www.ncnonprofits.org/calendar.asp -- Nonprofits can post their items for free.

NTEN, http://www.nten.org/ -- people who change the world

NTEN Helps You Get Attention and Be Heard, http://nten.org/join/benefits-professional-roi -- becoming a member means being connected to the leaders in nonprofit technology -- and being listed in the online directories with them.

Search for organizational members in NC - https://www.ntenonline.org/EWEB/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=NTENOrgSearch&site=NTEN

Search for individual members in NC - https://www.ntenonline.org/EWEB/DynamicPage.aspx?webcode=NTENMemberSearch&site=NTEN

Others:

TechFinder, http://techfinder.org, http://techsoup.org/techfinder/index.cfm, under "Service," click "Hosting," "RTPnet"

IRS, Domain registry, Funding agencies (Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation), MySpace, LinkedIn

Subject: Re: Thoughts on the value of being listed in Facebook -- other thoughts???
From: Nancy Shoemaker 
Date: Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:11:13 -0400
To: Judy Hallman 

Here are some comments on Facebook -- after about 20 months experience and adapting to two major updates.

1. Facebook makes the barrier to getting info onto the web very low. Encouraging volunteers to post about
 your issues is more about motivation than technical training.

2. Facebook's emphasis is on viral marketing in the "friend-to-friend" sense. The primacy of the
 individual permeates much of what makes Facebook unique. That's why it's important to expand the list of
 those who will post information for you.

3. While Facebook does support "groups," there is no formal support for finding out when something new has
 been posted to one of your key groups (even if you are the administrator). The "check back often" 
assumption is just odd in the days of RSS feeds everywhere. This limits the value of volunteers posting on
 related groups about your issues since there's no guarantee that the members of the group will ever come 
back and see the updates. This may, of course, change as Facebook evolves.

4. Facebook "pages" have some advantages over Facebook "groups" - and seem to be the way to go for
 nonprofits building a Facebook presence.
o There is no limit on the number of "fans" that the page admin can "message" (once a group reaches 5000,
 that feature is turned off)
o Messages from pages come in as "notifications" rather than "messages" -- less disruptive to the
 recipient (and perhaps less likely to be read?)
o The "suggest to friends" link for pages is new -- and may not be used as often as the "invite to join"
 link for groups
o Pages have a "wall" and posts there bleed through into users home pages/news feeds -- like the actions
 of their friends (somewhat mitigating the "primacy of the individual" characteristic)
o Applications (like importing an RSS feed as "notes") can be added to pages -- with groups you've got the
 basic functions and that's all.
o The flip side of being able to add applications is that Pages have a more complex structure than groups.
 You can place the applications on different tabs -- not everything appears on the main page.
o While applications can make changes to pages, not all of them get "publicized" to the fans. For instance
 when an individual imports blog posts as notes, those get published to their friends. The same doesn't
 appear to be the case for pages.

5. Other notes -
o Searching for your issues on Facebook may turn up new stakeholders
o Cultivating the garden takes time and energy -- but the benfits may be worth it.

Best specific advantage for me to date -- finding Birgit Pauli-Haack because she started the AAUW Naples
 (FL) branch group.  She's now a board member for the AAUW  Tar Heel Branch and has been connected to the
 national technology group.

I think of Facebook as the "student union" -- everybody swings by there at some point, and you're never
 sure what conversations you'll overhear, what bulletin board postings you see, and what friends of 
friends you'll meet. It's a place to get some initial visibility for your issues, but it does take off-
Facebook follow up to convert those contacts to real supporter.

-Nancy

2009/03/17: Introduction to Salesforce CRM

NetTuesday/Triangle 501 Tech Club

Location: Wake West Regional Library, 4000 Louis Stephens Drive
Cary, NC 27519.

Speaker: Trish Perkins, a VISTA volunteer with Faith Action International House, a human rights and advocacy organization in Greensboro, NC. She also directs the international technology consultancy, Worlds Touch, which focuses mainly on work with nonprofits in the Himalayan mountains..

Introduction to Salesforce CRM: Until two months ago, Trish Perkins had heard lots of good things about Salesforce-- how it made 10 of its Enterprise (Premium) Edition licenses available for free to each qualifying nonprofit. She'd also heard that it was a bit tricky to configure, since it was designed for sales teams in the corporate world, but that the company wanted to get a toehold in the nonprofit realm. NPower New York sent their staffers to the consultant's training and now they help nonprofits that want to use it as their CRM.(Constituent Relationship Management, i.e. org database.) Salesforce has put together a Nonprofit Edition that came out in December. Trish's organization, seeking to update its resource manual of social services available to immigrants, signed up.

Trish is NOT an expert, just a passionate beginner who is willing to show the group what she's discovered about this very powerful tool. She has spent 10-15 hours taking Salesforce's online tutorials, configured her organization's Salesforce to reflect its immigrant/refugee constituency, and begun using various features with interested staffers.

Join Trish in the Salesforce sandbox to see what the buzz is about. Trish is a VISTA volunteer with Faith Action International House, a human rights and advocacy organization in Greensboro, NC. She also directs the international technology consultancy, Worlds Touch, which focuses mainly on work with nonprofits in the Himalayan mountains.

Website: http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/calendar/9722199/

Notes and discussion:

Wireless connectivity was not working well. Trish had made several screencasts (using jingproject.com) and was able to move through them quickly, giving us a good idea of how Salesforce works.

  • Faith Action International House deals with refugees and immigrants.
  • People in the organization each had their own system, mostly piles of business cards.
  • Trish had worked previoiusly with Organizers Database for grass roots organizing, which runs on a PC.
  • Salesforce has a business image, but there is a nonprofit edition
  • Go to salesforcefoundation.org to sign up -- not salesforce.com.
  • They'll donate up to 10 licenses.
  • You can get a 30 trial before you send in 501(c)3 paperwork.
  • Good training materials, including a workbook.
  • Tutorials/screencasts for getting started.
  • Accounts are organizations, a person can have multiple organizations.
  • Salesforce has relationships, event management, campaigns, and good reporting (which CiviCRM doesn't have).
  • E-Base, an early constituent management system, was good. CiviCRM was derived from E-Base.

Followup email from Trish, posted at http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/messages/5578975/

Here are the slides and video tutorials from the Salesforce Introduction
presentation I gave last Tuesday night at the Research Triangle Net
Tuesday meetup.

http://www.screencast.com/t/ZQDGnxru1

And here's the link to the Jing Project. Free download of screencast
stills and videos. This is what I used to make this presentation.

http://www.jingproject.com/

I've put them all online at Screencast.com. Let me know if you are
having any trouble viewing them.

I read an article yesterday supposedly comparing Salesforce and CiviCRM,
but the critique of Salesforce smacked, to me, less of analysis and more
of religious fervor. Maybe it comes down to a question of faith. I don't
know. I'm busy customizing Salesforce for our Immigrant Assistance
center's cage management component.

VISTA, by the way, is a low-income poverty-fighting program of the
federal government. The low-income is YOURS, at a whopping $800 a month
"subsistence allowance." But for folks emerging from poverty or college
with a set of skills that can really benefit nonprofits, it's one way to
do what you love and let the money come later, if at all. For retirees
on fixed incomes, for faculty spouses like me, it can very well be one
way to contribute to your community while bringing in enough to act
charitably and generously elsewhere in the world.

Trish Perkins
VISTA @ FaithAction International House
336-379-0037

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 9 people. Only one form was returned.

2009/02/10: eNewsletters

NetTuesday/Triangle 501 Tech Club

Location: Wake West Regional Library, 4000 Louis Stephens Drive, Cary, NC 27519.

Speaker: Rebecca Currie, a former marketing manager and copywriter who now works as an independent consultant designing Filemaker-based data management systems.

The promise and pitfalls of email marketing and newsletters: New ideas, like social networking, have captured the imagination of marketers, but email remains a proven approach for getting the word out about your organization and the work you do, and for connecting directly with constituents, donors, and potential donors. Creating and sending email newsletters can be simple and cost-effective or costly and time consuming. From creating content to tracking address changes, myriad issues will raise their ugly little heads, and a variety of options are available for managing the process. At February's meeting, we will discuss the promise and pitfalls of email marketing and newsletters.

Amnon Nissan, president of Delta Force Technologies, an Internet Service Provider, and host of the radio program Computers 2K9 will offer insight on technical issues of deliverability and best practices, including blacklisting, addressing, and message formats.

Rebecca Currie, a former marketing manager and copywriter who now works as an independent consultant designing Filemaker-based data management systems, will offer a roundup of options for executing email campaigns as well as general information on things to think about when developing your organization's approach to email marketing.

The meeting will be interactive, with attendees encouraged to share stories about which approaches have worked for them, which have not, and what they have learned.

Website: http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/calendar/9523065/

Notes and discussion:

  • In your newsletter, you get to say what you want to say.
  • Need to publish regularly.
  • Long and too often are not good.
  • Check your newsletter with lots of different browsers.
  • MailChimp provides free service if you're just getting started and manage a small subscriber list.
  • Online services are good for handling spam protection.
  • Some newsletters have a double opt-in -- You ask to be placed on the email list, they send you and email message, and you confirm the request.
  • Rebecca uses MaxBulk Mailer from MaxProg. It cost $60. The ScapExchange newsletter has just over 1,000 subscribers.
  • The newsletter is sent from the email address news at scrapexchange dot org.
  • Art gallery openings are the third Friday of the month, so the newsletter goes out the Tuesday or Wednesday before the third Friday.
  • "It's all about the love."
  • CAN-SPAM act. Must have a real address, must have an unsubscribe option.

    I found some references:

    • CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, Wikipedia
    • CAN-SPAM Act Could Affect Charities, NonProfit Navigator Newsletter April 2005:

      Although intended to fight unsolicited commercial email, the "Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003" (the "CAN-SPAM Act") may catch nonprofits unaware, since their email messages may also be subject to the Act's requirements. Any organization that uses email to sell goods or services - including conferences, publications, and even certain large gifts in return for charitable contributions - will either want to be certain that the message is not subject to CAN-SPAM's provision, or comply with the Acts requirements for "commercial" email communications.

    • FTC - SPAM Rules and Acts Page

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were only about 5 people. The form was not distributed.

2009/01/13: Nonprofit website redesign

NetTuesday/Triangle 501 Tech Club

Location: Triangle United Way, 1100 Perimeter Park Dr,
Morrisville, NC 27560

Speakers: Leandra Ganko of LeGa Design Group and Elizabeth Turnbull of Turnbull Marketing Group

Nonprofit case study (website redesign + marketing plan): Leandra Ganko of LeGa Design Group and Elizabeth Turnbull of Turnbull Marketing Group will present a case study of a small nonprofit's online transformation. They'll present the process that went into choosing a direction, the elements of execution, and how the organization's improved web presence attracted a high profile visit and national press coverage. Finally, they'll share the secrets on how you can get the same results for your organization.

Website: http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/calendar/9327638/

Presentation slides: http://www.tbullgroup.com/NetTuesday.pdf

Notes and discussion:

  • The Web site they redesigned is isohimpact.org.
  • ISOH/IMPACT has a four star (highest) rating in Charity Navigator. People would find out about the organization from Charity Navigator, but the ISOH/IMPACT Web site was confusing and they were losing potential donations.
  • They integrate printed material with the Web site.
  • They use a lot of good photos.
  • The Virtual Library is in WordPress. The rest is HTML.
  • Leandra and Elizabeth started working on the site in Spring 2008 and it was up in about 8 weeks.
  • The Virtual Library was added in the fall.
  • Cost - about $5,000.
  • Elizabeth does the writing, Leandra does Photoshop.
  • When they started on the site, the Executive Director said -- don't change much because I like it. So they asked what she liked -- the colors and pictures.
  • Discussion about browsers: Test Web site in several browsers. What does it look like in a text only browser (lynx)? What does it look like on a cell phone?
  • Flash is slow.
  • Check out: CharityNavigator.

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 28 people.
About 19 forms collected.

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NetTuesday site/email list: 6
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list: 5
  • Another email list (please specify): 1 NTEN, 7 meetup groups, 3 North Carolina IT Professional Meetup, 2 RTPnet advisors, 1 php programmers users group
  • A friend/colleague:
  • Other (please specify):

Suggestions for future meetings:

  • Topics I Could Present On:
    • Salesforce for Beginners
    • Database design, SDLC, proj mgmt, Java, Oracle, Relational Database, most any IT tech but MS stuff
  • Topics I'm Interested In:
    • CMS/Joomla
    • Nonprofit management & development
    • What tools will help us get our great new web page out to the community?
    • How do you harness the Internet for marketing?
    • Databases, esp. free ones, nptech of all kinds
    • CMS for nonprofit
    • Internet, Networking, Software, Hardware
    • Cross-browser compatibility
    • Marketing & web sites/online technology
    • ebay, PCs, Cisco, IT Job Market
    • More back-end content-management technology
  • I'd like to join the organizers group to help plan meetings:
  • Good meeting places:
    • TUW is excellent - esp. this larger room.
    • Perimeter Park
    • This place is nice
    • AlphaMicron off of Capital Blvd.; Wake Tech.
  • Other suggestions:
    • Begin each meeting ala TriLUG, with "Have A Job" & "Want A Job" - just a minute a piece.

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting. 2
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet. 3
    • I use this technology. 5 -- Liked hearing about other technology.
    • I could give this talk. 2
    • Other 2
  • Was the meeting what you expected? 8 Yes, No
    • I didn't expect anything.
    • I expected more of a deeper dire of material but this was fine.
    • Had no expectations
    • Not quite - expected more on front end process.
    • Didn't really have expectations.
    • Sort of
    • Mostly
  • Was the meeting worth your time? 14 Yes, 1 Yes!, 1 ?
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: Immediately? 6 Yes 3 No      Within six months? 7 Yes, 1 Hopefully, 2 No, 1 Maybe, 1 Don't know
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic? 4 Yes, 4 No, 1 Not now, 1 Maybe later
    • Would be interested in a roundtable type thing with people showing before/after websites and/or talking about redesign projects and what technology they used, what problems they had, etc.
    • I have learned most of this before. I appreciated the speakers and learning more about them and the networking opportunities.
  • Comments:
    • Thank you for your efforts
    • Interesting
    • Thank you!
    • Well done team program.
    • Gained some knowledge
    • Probably would not make it too much about a specific topic (i.e.,donations) make it a little more general.

2008/12/09: Social at the Carolina Brewery, Chapel Hill

In appreciation of its customers and friends, RTPnet is hosting a social at the Carolina Brewery in Chapel Hill, Tuesday, December 9, 6:00-8:00 PM -- http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/calendar/8964240/.

2008/11/11: Google services for nonprofits

Triangle NetTuesday/501 Tech Club: November 11, 2008

Location: Triangle United Way, 1100 Perimeter Park Dr, Morrisville, NC 27560

Speaker: Todd Sutton, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Application Services, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Google Apps EDU Customer Advisory Board

Google services for nonprofits: Todd Sutton led a discussion on the various Google tools and services available to non-profirts and how they can be used to promote a cause, raise money, and operate more efficiently. As Google's tag-line says "You're changing the world. We want to help."

Website: http://www.meetup.com/TriangleNetTuesday/calendar/8962679/

Presentation slides are attached below:

Notes and discussion:

 

  • Education institutions and nonprofits get the same Google services that businesses pay as much as $50/year/person for.
  • UNC-Greensboro looked at outsourcing student email. They were using Lotus Notes for email and the user satisfaction among students was low. They are now looking at outsourcing email for staff and faculty. Outblaze was expensive. With Microsoft, had to purchase some services. Google mail is free. Email was the driver. Apps were good add-on. At the time of investigation, Microsoft provided limited options for installation. Google provided the APIs to connect to their services, which meant much greater flexibility.
  • Gmail: 7+ gig inbox. Disk space is not a problem.
  • UNC-G uses igoogle to create a starter page (portal for users), a custom page using gadgets, for things like announcements. igoogle is a collection page for gadgets.
  • No ads.
  • Potential for life-time accounts.
  • The cost of antivirus/antispam, goes along with other costs since Google provides for free.
  • Google has redundant data centers. A data center can disappear without any loss of data.
  • See http://www.google.com/nonprofits/ for services for nonprofits
  • One person who attended is using Google Grants and offered to present on it at a future meeting.
  • Google Checkout: "Process online donations for free until 2009 and pay no monthly, setup, or gateway fees." Don't know yet whether it will stay free, but Todd thinks that, given the way Google has done things in the past, it could remain free.
  • UNC-G uses Google gadgets for things like newsfeeds and other information.
  • Sites integrates docs, presentation, etc. on a Web page -- lets you drag and drop -- using for intranets. For example http://www.kainoshealth.net/
  • YouTube
  • Google acquired GrandCentral -- give out one phone number and chose which phone rings.
  • Google acquired Postini for archiving and retention.
  • GDrive is in the works. "With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc)." -- http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=121
  • Google gears 30-day local caches, aimed at use offline.
  • Groups getting role-based access control. Groups for email lists, has moderator capabilities and other list features.
    Video chat with Google Talk is 1 to 1 now, will be 1 to many later.
  • With Google docs, multiple people can edit docs at the same time.
  • With Google Reader, you can create your own newspaper.

 

Sign-In and Evaluation Form

There were about 40 people.
About 20 forms collected.

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NetTuesday site/email list: 6
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list: 4
  • Another email list (please specify): 2 Meetup, 3 RTPnet list, 2 Internetworkers, 1 NTEN
  • A friend/colleague: 4
  • Other (please specify):

Suggestions for future meetings:

  • Topics I Could Present On:
    • Google Grant
  • Topics I'm Interested In:
    • Web use, best practices, upgrading
    • Technology and social media
    • Open source systems and apps to save money
    • GIS for Dummies
    • Getting local events out via the Web. More Google.
  • I'd like to join the organizers group to help plan meetings:
  • Good meeting places:
    • Central in Triangle. United Way is good.
  • Other suggestions:

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting. 5
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet. 9
    • I use this technology. 8
    • I could give this talk.
    • Other
  • Was the meeting what you expected? 14 Yes 1 No 2 Better 1 Did not know what to expect
  • Was the meeting worth your time? 19 Yes
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: Immediately? 11 Yes 2 No      Within six months? 7 Yes 1 Maybe 1 Don't know
    • Possibly, after working with it myself some
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic? 8 Yes, 2 No, 1 Perhaps just updates
  • Comments:
    • Good amount of info - Good use of time
AttachmentSize
08nov11-non-profits.ppt1.14 MB

Google Services for Nonprofits

www.slideshare.net/travelertrish/google-apps-for-nonprofits

This is a link to the Slideshare of my presentation.

2008/10/14: Social Marketing for Nonprofits

Triangle NetTuesday/501 Tech Club: October 14, 2008

Speaker: Mike Newton-Ward, Social Marketing Consultant, NC Division of Public Health

Social Marketing for Nonprofits: Mike Newton-Ward led a discussion on "Social Marketing for Nonprofits," guiding us in strategic planning for deciding which technologies to use in order to further our groups' missions, rather than just jumping to a tactic because it's new. The "social marketing" field was originally conceived in 1971, by Kotler-Zaltman, as the application of commercial marketing planning processes and concepts to community and social issues -- not as social networking nor advertising, as some have mistakenly construed the term. This session helped us understand why communication and new technologies may be necessary, but not sufficient, tactics with which to achieve our goals, and what other strategies we need to consider.

Website: http://netsquared.meetup.com/22/calendar/8851654/

Presentation and handouts are attached below:

Discussion:

Location: Wake County West Regional Library, 4000 Louis Stephens Rd, Cary, NC 27519, 919-463-8500.

Attendees: About 8 RSVPed and 7 of them attended.

Evaluations: 3 forms collected.

Sections that had no repsonses are not included.

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NetTuesday site/email list: 3
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list: 3
  • Another email list (please specify: 2 RTPnet list
  • A friend/colleague:
  • Other (please specify):

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting. 2
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet. 1
    • I use this technology.
    • I could give this talk.
    • Other
  • Was the meeting what you expected? 2 Yes, 1 Better
  • Was the meeting worth your time? 2 Yes, 1 Very Much
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: immediately? 2 Yes       within six months? 2 yes
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic?
  • Comments:

AttachmentSize
08oct14-Mike-Newton-Ward.ppt1.48 MB
Social Marketing Resources for Non-Profits.doc43 KB
Doing Social Marketing grid.doc30.5 KB

2008/09/09: Online communication and conferencing tools

Triangle Net Tuesday/501 Tech Club: September 9, 2008

Online communication and conferencing tools: Ways to use technology to collaborate, meet and communicate! We'll explore tools that allow you to share your desktop, documents, and presentations and look at options for audio/web conferencing too.

You'll walk away with new ideas and tools to help you reach your constituents without having to spend hundreds at the gas pump.

Speakers:

  • Paula Jones, Technology Director for the N.C. Center for Nonprofits
  • Nancy Shoemaker, Consultant at Shoemaker Group

Website: http://netsquared.meetup.com/22/calendar/8531385/

The handouts (all Google docs):

References:

Location: Wake County West Regional Library, 4000 Louis Stephens Rd, Cary, NC 27519, 919-463-8500.

Attendees: There were about 23 people. RSVPs showed 20 "Yes." Some who RSVPed "Yes" didn't make it. About 5 came who hadn't RSVPed.

Evaluations: About 15 forms collected.

Name and contact info: Names and contact information omitted

How did you hear about this meeting:

  • NetTuesday site/email list: 2
  • 501 Tech Club site/email list: 3
  • Another email list (please specify): meetup.com, TriLUG (Linux), 3 RTPnet list
  • A friend/colleague: 4
  • Other (please specify):

Suggestions for future meetings:

  • Topics I Could Present On:
    • Nonprofit case study (website redesign + marketing plan)
    • Social Marketing for nonprofits (Not social-networking, but the field created by Kotler-Zaltman). Also using e-tools for health - public health.
  • Topics I'm Interested In:
    • Marketing, social media, eNewsletters
    • Efundraising, services for nonprofits
    • Wikis, CMS comparison
    • Anything along these lines. Uses of blogs, social networking, widgets, etc. Also, how to deal with supervisors, boards, etc. to approve use of these.
  • I'd like to join the organizers group to help plan meetings:
    • 1 Yes
  • Good meeting places:
    • West Regional Library
    • W.E.B. DuBois CDC (919) 556-7009 x152
    • Here [West Regional Library]
  • Other suggestions:
    • Next time I might bring my laptop, or do you discourage that?

Evaluation of this meeting:

  • Previous knowledge of the topic:
    • I was unaware of this technology before hearing about this meeting.
    • I've heard of the technology, but don't use it yet. 7
    • I use this technology. 5
    • I could give this talk.
    • Other
      • Medium. 1st time about free conference call. Uses "go to meeting"
  • Was the meeting what you expected? 10 Yes
    • A little basic, I am aware of most of these programs
    • I wasn't sure what to expect
    • I thought it would cover more collaborative document options (like BaseCamp etc.) Not sure why I thought that.
  • Was the meeting worth your time? 11 Yes
  • Do you expect to use the info from this meeting: immediately within six months? 6 Yes 1 Soon 1 Hopefully 1 I don't know.
    • Currently using these things
    • Google docs immediately, web conferencing within six months
  • Do you want to learn more on this topic? 4 Yes, No Thanks
    • Yes, I'll check it out more
    • Unsure
    • Would like to play around to see if I can use it.
  • Comments:
    • Interesting - I can imagine many uses for these technologies
    • Great intro! I look forward to figuring out more on my own
    • Lots of good tips, well prepared
    • Everything was great. Lots of good info.
    • I thought the Google application features (i.e. revisions, etc.) was interesting. A lot of this I already know/use.
    • Very good - I like that it was interactive instead of people just talking (sorry if I asked too many questions)

Personal section

This section is optional, but if this is your first meeting or your info has changed, we'll use it to add it to our contact list:

  • Address: I combined this with name and email
  • Phone daytime:
  • Phone evening:
  • Employer:
  • Employment position:
  • Skills, areas of interest:
    • Photoshop, Adobe stuff -- design software, Solidworks
    • Social Network/Video/AudioConference/Network Infrastructure
    • PC repair and hardware
    • Social Marketing, strategic planning, use of e-tools by government and nonprofit agencies, use of marketing code bases for audience selection and segmentation.