Corey Pudhorodsky

If you contact employees at Convio on a regular basis, last week you may have gotten several out of the office notices stating that they were out for the day but would return your email or phone call as soon as possible. This was because last week Convio sponsored our annual Convio Cares Week when each employee is encouraged to participate in a service project in our local communities. It’s a great chance for us to get out into the community, support organizations we care about, and get to work with one another in a context outside of our daily jobs. The event makes me more proud to work for Convio because I think it reflects our culture to support the nonprofit community.

The project that I volunteered at with fifteen other Convio employees was a classroom makeover for a local Austin school, Gus Garcia Middle School. The room is used by Communities in Schools of Central Texas, a local affiliate of the largest national dropout prevention organization. Communities in Schools works with other nonprofit organizations to bring programs into schools to help students with academics, social issues, counseling, mentoring, and financial support. As students passed by our classroom throughout the day while we were working I came to understand how important Communities in Schools is to each of them. Their smiles and excitement over the changes we were making was priceless.

Our challenge was that the classroom was not originally well suited for the activities that take place in it. There are often sensitive conversations that counselor and volunteers need to have with students. Small groups of students also need an environment where they can feel at home, distinct from the other classrooms that they are sitting in throughout the day. We were asked to think of a way that we could divide the room into several areas that could be comfortably used for various activities. We wanted to soften the room with design, decorations, and furniture.

We supplemented a small budget with donated items from TOPS, a local office furniture and supply company that donated literally a 14 foot truck full of shelves, chairs, tables, and other supplies. The shelves were used to divide the room into 3 sections and then we used curtains, lamps, rugs, and shades to create unique spaces. Lunch was also donated by Jason’s Deli which we gobbled up as we learned more about Communities in Schools and the work they do from the program coordinator, Melissa.

I also love to volunteer because it reminds me of how the money that I’m helping nonprofit organizations raise is being used. It’s important to keep this in mind when designing campaigns to acquire new supporters or raise awareness for a cause. It’s fun to feel physically tired after a day off good deeds. The results from our efforts at Convio last week: almost 30 projects completed in 7 states and DC which amounts to thousands of hours donated to help out some great causes. Check out pictures from several of the projects at our Convio Flickr photo set for Convio Cares Week 2010.

Update: I forgot to mention another generous donor who helped us out on the project.  HOME DEPOT La Frontera donated: 4 area rugs, chain for curtain system and other small items like zip ties, adhesive spray.  The rugs were a huge help because they can generally be so expensive.  Thanks Home Depot!

I’m in Atlanta on the eve of the 2010 NTEN Nonprofit Technology Conference and excited about the few people that I have already run into and looking forward to reuniting with more friends and NPTech peeps.  Last year I wrote about my Kumbaya Moments at the NTEN Conference in San Francisco and I’m looking forward to more this year, but I thought I’d start off with a few tips that I’ve found helpful to get the most out of the NTC whether you’re here or not.
First off, watch for the #10ntc hash tag.  You’ll find people at the conference using it in Twitter, Delicious, Facebook, Flickr, and more.  Monitoring for this tag in different social media outlets is a great way to get a feeling of being here or learning about events that are happening while you are at the conference.  One of my favorite tools for monitoring a hashtag at a live event is: tweetchat.com. At the end of each day or just after the NTC has wrapped up, be sure to go back a browse the hash tag again.  You’ll be able to pick up on links or resources that you may have missed in the hustle and bustle of the day.
This year there are also remote events happening in Austin and DC too.  If you’re in one of these cities it may not be too late to sign up and catch some of the sessions as they are happening even though you couldn’t travel.
If you are here, remember to check in with your favorite location aware app.  I’ll be using Foursquare and Gowalla.  I’m guessing others are going to be doing the same.  It will be a great way to learn what sessions, lounges, parties, and venues are trending and allow all of us NTennies to make an impression on Atlanta.  But, be sure to take your head out of your iPhone or Android long enough to talk to people sitting around you at the convention too. NTEN attracts the smartest people in the nonprofit sector; they’re all worth talking to.
Finally, don’t forget to check out the Past Session Materials from 2009, 2008, and 2007.  Tons of resources that are still very relevant.  They might also give you a better idea of which session to attend here in Atlanta.  You’ll find them in the Past Session Material index on the NTC Agenda Page.
Tomorrow starts early when Chad Norman of the Baudcast and I are leading a We Are Media workshop on podcasting.  So, I’m off to get some rest because it’s a busy few days ahead. Let me know if you’ve got any other tips for making the most of NTC. 

• A Career Center : Arguably one of the largest and best know career resources for people interested in starting or enriching their career in the nonprofit sector.
• The Public Service and Graduate Education Resource Center (PSGERC): Articles and help for those considering returning to school for a graduate degree in public service.
• Mentoring and Teaching tools : Inspiration for up-and-coming leaders and tools to help teachers introduce youth to public service are just a couple of the items that you'll find to help the next generation of do-gooders get fueled.
• Nonprofit Organization libraries : The Nonprofit FAQ answers common questions that organizations run into and there are resources for all kinds of staff from webmasters to volunteer managers. 

Over the past ten years, most of our funding has come from the small fees we charge organizations for posting their jobs on Idealist. By September 2008, after years of steady growth, these little drops were covering 70% of our budget.

Then, in October of that year, the financial crisis exploded, many organizations understandably froze their hiring, and from one week to the next our earned income was cut almost in half, leaving us with a hole of more than $100,000 each month.

For a couple of years my wife and I have had a wacky idea: chickens in the backyard.  I joke with people that I’ve always wanted a pet bird and she loves fresh eggs so it made sense.  We loved what we read about how chickens could compliment backyard gardens by consuming kitchen scraps and producing rich compost. The idea of knowing where our food came from also appeals to us. Most people agree that backyard gardens allow people to shrink their carbon footprint with a more local and sustainable food source too.

It was an Austin Meetup.com online community and monthly meetings that allowed us to stop dreaming about chickens and actually jump into building a coop and adopting seven pullets (young hens).  In learning about different breeds, feed, chick coop styles, predator control, and general care for chickens I also learned some valuable lessons in social networking and online organization:

1. There truly is a community for everything.  I’ve sometimes wondered how so many micro-communities have sprung up on Ning.com and Meetup.org. Who’s interested in those things, I thought? Then I found a reason to be especially interested in backyard chickens in Austin, TX and I joined one of these small communities. I post pictures of our personally designed and built coop, my wife shares questions and answers to community questions, and we mark our calendars for the monthly in-person meetups at feed stores, backyards, and garden shops.
2. Community involvement is cyclical. Owning chickens for less than 6 months, we are still fresh and excited with the things we have learned and questions we still have. Community organizers are wise to welcome people like us into the community immediately and leverage our passion.  We will become less involved over time but I’m sure we’ll play a part in welcoming other chicken noobies into the group.
3. All information is not online. Being a web-geek, I was determined to learn everything we needed to know about chickens online. When faced with a question on chicken care, I flipped open the netbook and my wife referenced 2 books she purchased.  More often than not she found the answer more accurately and quickly. There’s huge value in person-to-person networking too. Chicken breeders and feed shop owners are a far more valuable resource for us than Google for this hobby.

Along with chickens, we have also hoped to own a home where we could install solar panels to reduce our reliance on energy off the grid.  Turns out local resources were also helpful for us on this front too.  After visiting a friend’s house who recently installed panels on his garage, we learned that Austin Energy and a federal refund program made solar panels a much more affordable endeavor than we expected.  We received free quotes from several local companies and now have 24 panels on the back roof of our house which should cover between 60-80% of our energy consumption throughout the year. 

There are some great resources online for those interested in learning more about solar energy and if it would be a viable solution for your home.  Check out Mother Earth magazine’s Renewable Energy page.  The National Renewable Energy Lab publishes a lot of information about current research and methods of converting the sunlight into electricity.  As for the companies implementing systems, I worked with a company in Austin called Green City Solar and found them to be very helpful and they took the time to educate us about the system.

Finally I believe that Yelp.com is helping me fight global climate change also.  Yelp, you ask?  The restaurant, bar, and services review site? Yep, Yelp.  Here’s why:

Yelp has fundamentally changed how I search and discover the restaurants and bars where I socialize and get together with others.  With Yelp I’m able to find local establishments within walking or bike-riding range no matter where I am.  I can be very targeted with my visits and planned activities for an evening.  I no longer need to cruise across town to find a restaurant that is strongly recommended by others, Yelp helps me find the ones that are right in my neighborhood.  If I’m meeting someone in another part of town or another city, Yelp helps us find the best place that serves food we can be sure we’ll both be interested in.  No more hopping around between establishments until we find one that looks good.  If you have an iPhone, discovering local venues is even easier with the augmented reality “monocle” view which overlays names and ratings over the camera view of the iPhone as you hold it up.  It’s amazing, I encourage you to give it a try and find a local restaurant or pub to support. 

There you have it, this Blog Action Day, I declare I am fighting global climate change with chickens, solar, and Yelp. Grow and raise food in your backyard, consume less, adopt sustainable energy solutions, and get on your bike and peddle to support local establishments. Maybe a stretch by some standards, but I’m also taking a lot of the more conventional approaches, and every little bit helps. Happy Blog Action Day and please do your part to raise awareness of global climate change. 

When most people hear the word Mozilla, they think of the popular open source browser, Firefox and the plug-ins that help many of us to do our daily work on the web.  The Mozilla community includes a diverse international crowd of developers and supporters working to make the web better.   This September 14-21, 2009, tech lovers and specialists are coming together to improve local communities all over the world in support of Mozilla Service Week.   At Convio, we think that’s a pretty cool thing which is why we are encouraging our employees, partners, and clients to participate in Mozilla Service week also!

For Organizations and Causes:
If you work for a cause or organization, the first thing you should do is think about needs and talents that would help your efforts.  Get creative and find projects that have been on the back burner because of lack of resources or knowledge.  Need some help thinking of ideas?  Check out some of the projects that people have shared already on the Service Week Stories and Inspiration page or by browsing the Idealist.org opportunities database.  Registering and adding opportunities is absolutely free and available to all organizations with technology needs.

For Individuals:
There are a several things that individuals can do to support this effort:

1. Register and Pledge the hours that you’ll volunteer September 14-21.
   There are already more than 2,500 hours pledged on the Service Week home page. Adding your hours early will increase the community’s excitement for the event and give everyone a better idea of how successful the effort is going to be.
   
2. Share your stories about what you are planning to work on or the causes you are volunteering for.
   After registering on the site, you can share a short description of your project or link to online media with more information.  These stories will help people image how they can work for change in their own communities.
   
3. Spread word about the event to other organizations and co-workers.
   You can download site badges, banners, and buttons; print flyers and posters to post at your office, local shops and tech gatherings, or even install a personalized persona Firefox skin for Mozilla Service Week.  The success of this event will be largely dependent on two things: getting the needs posted in the database and making sure the right techies are aware of the needs for volunteers.   

   Those of us who work with web technologies everyday often forget about the barriers that people in our local communities face using and accessing the Internet.  Mozilla Service Week is a great opportunity for us to work together and make a huge impact in short amount of time.  Please consider helping out and supporting this effort one of the ways that I’ve suggested above.