If you haven't used blogger lately, then you haven't used blogger! If you've been reading this blog over the weekend, you will have noticed that it's been a couple of different colors, it's been a couple of different styles - and now there are new labels added, to make it easier for you to find what you're looking for!
Blogger has gone Beta!
So far, I LOVE it! It's easy to use, it works great and, after going back in and adding labels to my posts, (I'm glad I only had 40 and not 400), I can say that I'm even more of a fan!
For the time being, I'm sticking with this one - these colors and this format. Let me know what you think. And if you don't already have a blogger account, get one!
Showing posts with label Enquiring Minds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enquiring Minds. Show all posts
Monday, September 11, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Did you ever play a game called "telephone" when you were little?
Do you remember that game? It was usually played at parties when I was growing up. Everybody would sit or stand in a circle, and one person would whisper a "secret message" in the person's ear who was standing next to them...and that person would whisper to the next person, and so on and so on...
Today we have a new version of the game - it's called social networking. Places like "myspace", You Tube, even the badly maligned "friendster."
But it works on the same concept - I tell you something, you tell someone else who tells someone else, and so on and so on.
Does it work? I'm going to try an experiment to find out. Here's how: I've created a very unscientific poll on the Activist Guide Website. (You can find it here: http://www.activistguide.com/sept11.html ).
I ask the question - Did 9/11 have an effect on your life in terms of you wanting to make your mark or make a difference? Do you volunteer more now?
So, I'm inviting you to play the new version of telephone with me...go take the poll, and then tell just one person about it.
Pass it on...
Today we have a new version of the game - it's called social networking. Places like "myspace", You Tube, even the badly maligned "friendster."
But it works on the same concept - I tell you something, you tell someone else who tells someone else, and so on and so on.
Does it work? I'm going to try an experiment to find out. Here's how: I've created a very unscientific poll on the Activist Guide Website. (You can find it here: http://www.activistguide.com/sept11.html ).
I ask the question - Did 9/11 have an effect on your life in terms of you wanting to make your mark or make a difference? Do you volunteer more now?
So, I'm inviting you to play the new version of telephone with me...go take the poll, and then tell just one person about it.
Pass it on...
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Whoo Hoo! Website is up!
Hi all,
I'm so excited about this I had to share! The Website is up and looking good. There are already some free resources you can download.
The name of the newsletter has been decided (Spotlight Ezine) and I've got the basic logo!
Plus, I'm going to do a ferature every month called "Spotlight On" - and I'll be featuring you and your organizations in it! That's right - you get all of this:
Yep, it's not going to cost you anything. Lots of great publicity, 0 cost.
Well, I've got lots of work to do - but hey, if you're just surfing and want to check out the site and give me your feedback, I'd appreciate it! Click here to go there~
I'm so excited about this I had to share! The Website is up and looking good. There are already some free resources you can download.
The name of the newsletter has been decided (Spotlight Ezine) and I've got the basic logo!
Plus, I'm going to do a ferature every month called "Spotlight On" - and I'll be featuring you and your organizations in it! That's right - you get all of this:
- A press release talking about you, your organization and your projects
- A page on my Website, linking to yours
- A "call to action"
- Entries in the "What's Happening" Event Calendar
- A 15 minute audio interview with a MP3 audio file for you to post on your Website, use as a recruiting tool or for just about anything else you can think of
- Publish an article in the newsletter which will also be posted in our RSS feed and stay online forever
- Be featured as the monthly expert on your issues in our blog and on our forum
- Plus lots more!
Yep, it's not going to cost you anything. Lots of great publicity, 0 cost.
Well, I've got lots of work to do - but hey, if you're just surfing and want to check out the site and give me your feedback, I'd appreciate it! Click here to go there~
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Life After VISTA - former VISTA Turned Writer (And it's not me!)
Hi all,
One thing that I really liked about the Wordpress blog was its "categories". I miss having categories to put different blog posts into, you know?
Anyway, I just read a press release about another former VISTA Volunteer turned writer, who's doing some great things, and I wanted to pass this along to you.
His name is John C. Redfern and he's an ecconomist an author who did three years in VISTA. Right now he's touring the "main streets" of the USA for his book. Here's an excerpt of the press release I read:
7 Palmyras existed at one time in Illinois including his present hometown in Macoupin County and the extinct Palmyra in Wabash County. In September, John is the guest speaker about his Palmyras USA tour at the historical society in Bedford KY.
Also, he will appear in the "Old Pioneer Days" parade this year that focuses upon Palmyra Iowa in Warren. Redfern has traveled throughout the country touring mainstreet communities from Maine to California. The historic grand tour has included 20 of the Palmyras with a future southern Palmyras tour planned. He is gathering the additional final research info for “PALMYRAS USA.”
The author describes the book as a microcosm of mainstreet America. The chapters include the toured Palmyras and the toured mainstreet communities giving a narrative history and future. The conclusion details the truths about modern development and the reform recommendations. John's web sites detail his French-American autobiography, his popular small-press publications, the mainstream media news grand tour stories, and the mainstreet U.S.A. slideshow.
Redfern has traveled throughout the country touring mainstreet communities from Maine to California. The historic grand tour has included 20 of the Palmyras with a future southern Palmyras tour planned. He is gathering the additional final research info for “PALMYRAS USA" The author describes the book as a microcosm of mainstreet America."
If you'd like to check out his Website, you can find it here:
http://mainstreetusa.bravehost.com
And to get in touch with John yourself, to congratulate him or ask him questions, you can reach him at this email addres (to save him from spam, make sure that you put in the appropriate symbols):
JCRedfernataoldotcom
Sounds like a great idea for a book - I may be showing my age, but one of the "cool" things to do when I was a teenager was to "drag" Main street...those of us with cars and driver's licenses would pick up our friends, and we'd drive back and forth along main street - honking and waving at all the people who were walking or sitting on cars. (This of course was in the days before computers and play stations and dvd movie rentals. I spent most of time outside from early morning until it was right up against my curfew.)
And thinking about Main Streets brings back other childhood memories, too. When I was a kid and visited my grandparents for the summer, we always went shopping on Fridays, when gramps got off work - first we'd go to the "5 and Dime" (an early version of Walmart) - a store that had an amazing variety of just about everything, then we'd go to the drug store ( they even had a counter where we could sit and enjoy a "cherry coke" while we sat and waited for the pharmacist to fill gram's heart medicine prescription. After that, we went to the grocery store and then a quick stop at the drive in, for a special treat of fish and chips...
John, thanks for the trip down memory lane that just reading the title of your book gave me...
One thing that I really liked about the Wordpress blog was its "categories". I miss having categories to put different blog posts into, you know?
Anyway, I just read a press release about another former VISTA Volunteer turned writer, who's doing some great things, and I wanted to pass this along to you.
His name is John C. Redfern and he's an ecconomist an author who did three years in VISTA. Right now he's touring the "main streets" of the USA for his book. Here's an excerpt of the press release I read:
7 Palmyras existed at one time in Illinois including his present hometown in Macoupin County and the extinct Palmyra in Wabash County. In September, John is the guest speaker about his Palmyras USA tour at the historical society in Bedford KY.
Also, he will appear in the "Old Pioneer Days" parade this year that focuses upon Palmyra Iowa in Warren. Redfern has traveled throughout the country touring mainstreet communities from Maine to California. The historic grand tour has included 20 of the Palmyras with a future southern Palmyras tour planned. He is gathering the additional final research info for “PALMYRAS USA.”
The author describes the book as a microcosm of mainstreet America. The chapters include the toured Palmyras and the toured mainstreet communities giving a narrative history and future. The conclusion details the truths about modern development and the reform recommendations. John's web sites detail his French-American autobiography, his popular small-press publications, the mainstream media news grand tour stories, and the mainstreet U.S.A. slideshow.
Redfern has traveled throughout the country touring mainstreet communities from Maine to California. The historic grand tour has included 20 of the Palmyras with a future southern Palmyras tour planned. He is gathering the additional final research info for “PALMYRAS USA" The author describes the book as a microcosm of mainstreet America."
If you'd like to check out his Website, you can find it here:
http://mainstreetusa.bravehost
And to get in touch with John yourself, to congratulate him or ask him questions, you can reach him at this email addres (to save him from spam, make sure that you put in the appropriate symbols):
JCRedfernataoldotcom
Sounds like a great idea for a book - I may be showing my age, but one of the "cool" things to do when I was a teenager was to "drag" Main street...those of us with cars and driver's licenses would pick up our friends, and we'd drive back and forth along main street - honking and waving at all the people who were walking or sitting on cars. (This of course was in the days before computers and play stations and dvd movie rentals. I spent most of time outside from early morning until it was right up against my curfew.)
And thinking about Main Streets brings back other childhood memories, too. When I was a kid and visited my grandparents for the summer, we always went shopping on Fridays, when gramps got off work - first we'd go to the "5 and Dime" (an early version of Walmart) - a store that had an amazing variety of just about everything, then we'd go to the drug store ( they even had a counter where we could sit and enjoy a "cherry coke" while we sat and waited for the pharmacist to fill gram's heart medicine prescription. After that, we went to the grocery store and then a quick stop at the drive in, for a special treat of fish and chips...
John, thanks for the trip down memory lane that just reading the title of your book gave me...
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Event Calendar
Hi all -
As we all know, getting the word out about your upcoming events can be tricky - you've got a lot of balls to balance, many tasks to juggle and a bunch of people, places and things to keep track of.
Over the next couple of weeks, I'll be sharing some secrets about special event management that helped me to successfully plan and manage 30 plus special events - event that brought in over $200,000 on in-kind donations, volunteer hours, donations, prizes and funding.
In the meantime, I'm also going to try and keep you updated on all the training events, conferences, workshops and teleconferences that I think you might be interested in.
If you have such a conference coming up, and you'd like to post it here, you can do that too! Or if you want me to do it, please just send me an email and I'll take care of it. You can include links to Websites for registrations or more information, or contact information if you'd like - just be careful of spam!Thursday, July 20, 2006
The Activist's Guide to Changing the World Going Interactive!
Hi all,
I’ve decided to make this blog more interactive! I’m going to start posting details about what’s going on with you - press releases, media write ups and your thoughts, comments and questions!
If you need a resource - post your question here. If you want to know “how to” do something - write a press release, organize a project, write your quarterly report - ask.
If I don’t know the answer, then chances are, one of the other readers of the blog will!
Something else that I’ll be implementing at the end of August will be a series of podcasts. I’m putting together a schedule of interviews, teleclasses and updates which I’ll be podcasting and posting here on a regular basis. Most of the podcasts will be free, and they’ll be chock full of interesting information, the latest news and helpful resources just for you!
Let me know what you think, what you want, what you need! I’m looking forward to hearing from you…
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Are we losing our "social networks?"
According to researchers at Duke University and the University of Arizona, Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin and Mathew E. Brashears, Americans are becoming more socially isolated than theywere two decades ago.
In their report “Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades”, published in the June 2006 issue of the “American Sociological Review”, participants in the survey reported that their personal social networks are smaller - that they have fewer people they can discuss important issues with or turn to in times of stress or need. (You can read the complete report here: http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/June06ASRFeature.pdf )
What about you? As a VISTA Volunteer, what do you do when you’re feeling isolated, disconnected or lonely? What about in terms of your project? Who are you connected to? Who do you turn to for help, advice or information?
What tools do you use to connect - either to other VISTA Volunteers, or, in terms of your project, to other nonprofit organizations, corporations, volunteers, supporters, etc.?
Why are social networks important, and what can they help you to accomplish?
- build a grassroots campaign
- discover a network of innovators in your own community or issue
- create your own support team
- create awareness of an issue or special event
- strengthen the support for your project
- create personal connections for after you leave VISTA
Want to know more? Here’s a great website that explains how social networking works and how you can make the most of yours… http://www.orgnet.com/sna.html
Here is a list of some great networking tools that can help keep you make new connections and keep connected. But please feel free to add others to this list!
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com
Plaxo: http://www.plaxo.com
Ryze: http://www.ryze.com
delicious: http://del.icio.us/
myspace: http://www.myspace.com
What social networks are you using? And by the way, if we’re not already connected through LinkedIn, you can find me here: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/7a3/b72 I’d love to join your network…
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