The Simple Dollar has a great list with 30 great programs to download. All are free and all are immensely useful, pending of course on what you need.
Stratford Publishing
I just read in the paper today that Stratford Publishing, out of Brattleboro, VT, has merged with another company.
I’ve been looking and looking for publishers in Vermont and I somehow missed Stratford. Though the company seems to have hit hard times, Stratford has a very impressive scope of topics. They do just about everything, which is a rare find with small presses.
[tags]Brattleboro, vermont, publishing, stratford[/tags]
Utilizing High School Volunteers
Many high schools require community service. By simply calling up the student development office, any non-profit organization can talk with a local school about student volunteers. The challenge is using the students effectively.
When it comes to high school students, a non-profit organization is very low on the priority list. Students often have homework, sports, activities, events, and more to the point, a life. They don’t want or need one more thing to do.
Flexibility is the key with students. Never, ever rely completely on high school students as your key volunteers for any crucial project. They may be absent, forget about a prior commitment, or who knows what else. There are too many variables involved.
Invest some time assembling a series of small, focused projects that are important, but not under a critical deadline. Clear directions are a must as is soda on most occasions.
Remember, you are immersed in your world and the students most certainly are not. Take a few minutes to explain the big picture of the project: how it fits into the whole of your organization.
If you can find two students to work together, then all the better. I think it’s much easier for multiple students to enter an unfamiliar environment and do new things than it is for a loner.
Lastly, I think that providing some snacks and drinks go much further in expressing appreciation than inviting students to your yearly appreciation event. Cards are nice too, but a little something to make the time go faster has always made quite an impression on students I have worked with.
[tags]high+school, volunteers[/tags]
Software Tips
With the arrival of Firefox 2.0, I shared some tips on free software options over at the Northshire Non-Profit Network site.
My particular favorite right now is my Google account. Google now offers Gmail, word processing, a calendar, and spreadsheets. You can’t beat free!
How Technology Saved Our Lives
The sun had set. Darkness surrounded us. The blue blazes of an unfamiliar trail were no longer visible and a thick carpet of leaves leant a terrifying uniformity to the ground. We were at best 30-40 minutes from our car.
We fortunately had two items that saved us from a freezing night out in the woods: a cell phone and a digital camera.
It was without a doubt the dumbest thing we’ve ever done as a married couple. Hiking into the woods near sunset without flashlights is not a good idea. Nevertheless, our error was in grossly miscalculating the time of sunset.
Julie and I arrived at Bald Mountain, overlooking Bennington in southern Vermont, around 5:30 pm. We reasoned if we could reach the summit by 6:30 pm, we would make it back down by 7:15 pm. Thinking that the sun set around 7:00 pm, we never thought we’d have a problem.
Unfortunately, the sun sets around 6:20 pm during this time of year.
With 6:30 pm as our goal, we set off at a blistering pace. We scrambled through muddy muck and bounded up rocks. The trail was pretty and very well marked with blue blazes. Though a few sections with multiple turns slowed our progress, we found the gradual trail covered in brown, yellow, and red leaves a relatively easy hike.
At 6:15 pm we reached bear hollow and noticed that one last hill loomed over us. Though the sky was rather dim, we thought we would give it one last push before turning around.
After zig-zagging up switch-backs, we caught the first glimpse of the magnificent view from Bald Mountain. The setting sun cast a magnificent golden shine on the remnants of the fall colors. It was 6:25 pm, we knew we were in good shape.
A few minutes later we reached the rocky summit with meandering little paths, small pine trees, and small patches of red blueberry bushes (at least we thought they were blueberry bushes).
The view was magnificent. Mountains rolled off in every direction. Mt. Greylock loomed off to the south, while the mountains in New York state distinguished themselves with large humps and hills in the west. We snapped a few pictures, laughed at our smearing of the Green Mountain Club’s estimate of 2 hours for a summit hike, and then shot down the trail.
In a matter of minutes we realized the sun was very well set and that we were on the east side of the mountain, already in a deep dark shadow from the vanishing sun. We knew that things were not looking good.
I kept the pace very swift and we bounded over rocks and through piles of leaves. While rushing along I noticed that the abundance of leaves would make finding the trail very difficult in a matter of minutes.
Fortunately the trail was exceptionally maintained with extensive blue blazes all along and generous double blazes to alert us of turns. Yet 15-20 minutes into the descent the blazes were no longer visible. Though the trail was fairly straight and obvious, we knew that it would soon level out, begin winding around, and generally make life very difficult for us.
Panic crawled up through my body and began to set off alarms and pure fear at the encroaching darkness, but then I remembered the cell phone. We never wear watches, so we always bring a cell phone along to help us keep track of time. I thanked God just then for the cell phone.
Though we were out of range for service, we could use the cell phone’s LCD display light to find the blazes and keep on the trail.
Stumbling along, I kept an eye out for blue blazes and shone the phone closely to each suitable tree in search of the kindly blue paint.
Things went surprisingly well until we hit a rather clear area with a few trees. In a matter of seconds we were off the trail. I had seen a double blaze, stepped forward, and soon lost my bearings completely. I also began to lose my mind.
Thinking that I could make things work, I ran around with the phone wildly shining it on everything I could find and immediately found nothing. This only heightened my alarm. The thought of running around the woods all night to keep warm did not appeal to me.
Full scale panic was about to set in when Julie, who had quietly followed my stumbling lead thus far, intervened. “Stop running around, that’s not helping,” she told me. “Let’s just get back to the last blaze on the path and then take it from there.
I walked back with her and within a few tense minutes she found the double blaze. After a few failed attempts to find the next blaze together, we regrouped back at the double blaze. “OK, I’ll stay here while you go ahead and look for the blaze,” Julie said.
Feeling my ineptness and panic, I felt unable to search out the next blaze. I was still reeling from the panic attack of five minutes ago. “Can you try?” I asked. “I haven’t had too much success with this.”
“Sure, no problem,” she replied.
I should say something now about my wife Julie. She is very experienced in the woods. Her family has been hiking for as long as she can remember. No doubt she was frightened, but she also knew exactly what to do when we lost the trail. While I ran around and got disoriented, she stayed put, turned about face, and quickly found the blazes.
While I waited by the double blaze, Julie advanced down the trail with the bouncing light of the cell phone and examined the trees. After a few tense minutes, she called out, “Got one!”
I was relieved, full of hope, and immensely grateful to God. Each blaze was another step out of this mess and Julie had just cracked the hardest part of the trail.
I clumsily stumbled over rocks and into stream beds until I reached Julie with the glowing cell phone. We agreed that I would wait by each blaze until she found the next one.
To her credit, Julie made the most of the situation and made a sort of game out of finding each new blaze. Her resourcefulness amazed me.
I watched Julie and the bouncing light of the cell phone bound down the trail and shine on a number of trees until she declared, “Got One!” I then followed her awkwardly through the darkness.
While waiting at one of the blazes, I realized that I had a light of my own. Slung around my shoulder was our digital camera. Turning the camera on and flipping the LCD screen to a bright picture, I found that the camera made an even better light than the cell phone.
We now made quick work of the trail, each flashing our own lights on the path and onto trees.
During one of our meet-ups at a newly found blaze, Julie remarked, “Isn’t this a great parable?”
Completely missing her point, I mundanely replied, “You mean, don’t go hiking close to dark without a flashlight or something like always know when the sun’s going to set?”
“No,” she stated, “It’s a parable of how God works. He only gives you enough light for the next blaze.”
I agreed, it was a great parable. I also had to place a tremendous amount of faith in whoever designed the trail, praying that it was relatively straight and obvious, and whoever put up the blazes. That was all feeding into the lesson of life and how often we simply have to live by faith. It was a sobering moment that hinted at a grand purpose behind our stupidity.
Though our pace was slow, we arrived back at our car around 7:45 pm or 8:00 pm. We honestly didn’t notice.
Our shoes and pants were wet and muddy, but in the grand scale of things, they didn’t register. We were far more concerned with turning on the car’s lights, cranking up the heat, and digging into a waiting bag of Sun Chips on our journey home.
Revising: DELETE
Don’t be shy about deleting.
There is such freedom that comes through deleting what you have just written. In fact, a lack of deleting seems to imply that you take your writing too seriously.
If you can’t figure out how a whole paragraph fits into your story or essay, then can it. Erase it forever. Don’t save it.
If you need to type it again, you’ll do it better without the old paragraph lingering around, casting disapproving glares in your direction.
Volunteers Stop Stuffing Envelopes
Time magazine has a very important article on volunteerism for the baby boomers. Here’s a clip:
“The newest crop of potential volunteers–baby boomers–is the most educated and driven in history, with a volunteer rate among the highest. But many boomers plan to keep working even as they start doing community service. So their time will remain dear. Unless they feel they are making a difference, they’ll walk.”
The point is that non-profits will need to take a hard look at how they do things. There is a tremendous potential to tap into some free expertise.
The danger is that the meanial tasks will be pushed forward as the only thing a non-profit has to offer. That will mean the loss of this expertise. And the meanial job may not be done either.
Plan Ahead or Last Minute Volunteers
Volunteers tend to prefer being scheduled in one of two ways. Though some will want to be marked down on the calendar for weeks or months ahead of time, others will want to find out the week of or even the day before.
Planners
Planners typically are the volunteers who can do the marathon. They are able to volunteer for small amounts of time over a long period time and will want to have everything planned out ahead of time.
Of course the planners may want to only volunteer for one long task, as in the case of sprinters, but they will still want plenty of notice.
Planners value the organizations they serve and one way the organization can respect them is by giving them plenty of notice when scheduling them. Calling on planners at the last second repeatedly will sometimes aggravate and frustrate them.
Give planners notice and they will be generous with their time.
Last Minute
Last minute volunteers are less likely to plan ahead. They thrive on being flexible and making decisions rapidly. To call last minute volunteers the day before volunteering is not a problem. They sometimes even take pride in their status as “emergency help.”
It is important to give these volunteers the flexibility to say no when they are too busy. Give them space and do not overburden them with last minute calls. Make sure it really is an emergency. Part of what makes them tick is that they only want to be called when they truly have an important role to fill.
[tag]volunteer, non-profit[/tag]
Volunteers: Chaos or Order
Another crucial part of matching a volunteer with a particular task is determining how much structure he/she prefers.
Some volunteers need to be focused and mostly stationary, working on one task for a long period of time. They want to know exactly what they are supposed to do and wish to accomplish it. They thrive in an orderly environment.
Other volunteers are able to go with the flow and prefer to be on the move, always doing something different. They are tired of their hum-drum jobs and want to do something different. Throwing these volunteers into a little chaos is just what they want, provided that it’s the job they signed up for!
[tag]volunteers[/tag]
Sprint or Marathon Volunteers
One of the most valuable lessons I learned in a class with Joe Myers has to do with two kinds of people. Once you understand this simple truth about most people, the applications are limitless.
Sprinters
Some people like to sprint. They want to be busy in short spurts. Don’t ask them to sign up to do something every month and especially not every month. Though they can make exceptions, sprinters like to do things all at once with a very sharp focus. They are committed, but prefer to accomplish their tasks in one intense span of time. Don’t try to tie them down. Find them a task they can plunge into and then give them a break for a while.
Marathoners
Marathoners are interested in helping for the long haul, but in small, measured amounts. Don’t ask too much of them at once because they can only do a little at a time. If you respect the time of a marathoner, he/she will be very loyal and helpful for a very long time.
Application
These two categories apply to volunteering styles, but also to areas such as charitable giving, reading, study, etc. Once you find out whether your volunteer is a sprinter or marathoner, it should be easy to find activities that fit his/her preferences.
Ed Cyzewski: Author // Contemplative 