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The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.
"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."
Some of the challenges faced by rural health practitioners and providers in New Zealand are different from those faced in urban areas. For this reason, the Ministry of Health provides a number of projects and programmes to support the New Zealand rural health sector, which includes the Rural Innovation Fund. This Fund aims to support, encourage and enable innovation in primary health care service delivery in rural New Zealand only.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/ruralinnovationfund.htm
Jennifer Pelvin from Butler Pelvin & Associates is organising activities in Wellington to discuss topics of mutual interest. If you are interested in attending events during the year or helping organise them please contact the Wellington Not-For-Profit Network.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/wellynfpn.htm
This invaluable Funding Resource has been totally revised and updated, including new funds. Covers the 7 council districts of Greater Auckland including Rodney, North Shore, Waitakere, Auckland City, Manukau, Papakura and Franklin. Comprehensive directory of funders, council funds, gaming societies and support for Not-for-Profits.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/akfunding.html
The Salvation Army's latest annual state of the nation report Into Troubled Waters offers a "progress report card" on a range of social issues including housing, work and incomes, crime and punishment, and social hazards such as gambling, alcohol and drug addiction. The report finds social progress in the past five years has been mixed but The Salvation Army is worried advances in some areas like child poverty are starting to retreat as the recession bites.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/salliesreport.htm
Now you can share your thoughts about how government can improve engagement with community and voluntary organisations and citizens. The It's More Than Talk discussion paper from the Building Better Government Engagement (BBGE) reference group has been publicly available for formal consultation since before Christmas. Submissions are due by 31 March 2009. To supplement formal feedback, the BBGE group wants you to share your thoughts and ideas with others to help generate in-depth, meaningful discussion on the important issues raised in It's More Than Talk.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/morethantalk.htm
Although it is too early to assess the overall impact of the economic recession on the community sector in New Zealand, we have already noticed a wide range of conflicting reports on what may or may not happen. Some data and historical evidence indicates that the community sector may fare better than the private sector, as people and organisations continue to support 'good work' or focus on 'what really matters', rather than luxury items or frivolous things.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/downturn.htm
New Zealand's largest women's online portal, Flossie.com, is looking for a New Zealand charity to receive financial benefits and media exposure. After launching in September 2008, Flossie.com is giving something back to the community through an alliance with a Kiwi charity. To become Flossie's preferred charity partner, organisations (that must be registered with the Charities Commission) need to signal their interest online before Sunday 15 March 2009 at Flossie.com. The winner will receive a minimum of $100,000 worth of advertising campaigns over a 12 month period, the proceeds of donations made in connection with the Smart Car giveaway (worth $23,000) which will be given away on Flossie.com to a person who makes a donation to the charity.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/flossiecharity.htm
Due to the success of the last two Challenges, the yMedia Challenge is expanding to become an all year programme. Renamed the yMedia Challenge 365, the objective will be the same - to connect tertiary students with community organisations through media, digital and technology related projects. This year the Challenge will be run through a website, which will go live on 1 April when the yMedia Challenge 365 begins.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/ymediachallenge.htm
Do you have an important story to tell, but no way to get it into the mainstream media? Or trying to get your local group online, but lack the budget or know-how to do it independently? Or maybe you need somewhere to post notices on the web that isn’t geared towards buying and selling? Help is now at hand in the form of innovative community web service, the People’s Times (www.peoplestimes.org.nz). A brand new addition to Aotearoa’s digital landscape, the People’s Times has brought together the latest internet technologies to create a world-class website with a very home grown mission – supporting New Zealand’s grassroots groups to communicate, organise and promote their activities, while also giving individual Kiwis a place to express themselves.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/peoplestimes.htm
Does your group in the Hutt Valley have a lease running out in the next two years? Looking for new premises? The Hutt Council of Social Services, an umbrella group for Social Service and community groups in the Hutt Valley, is setting up a Community Hub building that will house a large number of Community Groups in Hutt City. The group is currently looking at a building in the Lower Hutt CBD with ample room for other groups wanting to join this exciting project.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/huttcossspace.htm
Latest community news, events, jobs and ads are online at:www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news.
Bike Wise is a nationally coordinated programme of events that promotes safety and biking as a sustainable, fun, healthy and enjoyable means of transport. Bike Wise is funded by the NZ Transport Agency and the Ministry of Health and is the only nationwide programme of cycling events.
http://www.bikewise.co.nz
Positive Women Inc. is a support organisation for women and families living with HIV and AIDS. Positive Women aims to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS in the community through educational programmes with a focus on prevention and de-stigmatisation.
www.positivewomen.co.nz
The Environmental Defence Society is a not-for-profit environmental advocacy organisation comprised of resource management professionals who are committed to improving environmental outcomes within New Zealand.
http://eds.org.nz/index.cfm
Easy and effective group action. Whether you want to organise an event, petition for change, or raise money, The Point is a revolutionary way for individuals to combine their influence and make things happen they can't achieve alone.
www.thepoint.com
The Environment Centre Hamilton is a nexus of community groups, not-for-profit organisations, educational institutions and representatives of local authorities. Members of the centre use its services, plus provide knowledge, expertise and resources for others in the community.
www.envirocentre.org.nz
Nurse Maude provides community and acute nursing and homecare throughout Canterbury and Care Coordination in Christchurch and Wellington as well as inpatient care in the Nurse Maude Hospice and Hospital.
www.nursemaude.org.nz
Grey Lynn 2030 is group that is part of the global transition towns movement that encourages community groups to wean themselves off fossil fuels towards a lower carbon footprint.
www.greylynn2030.co.nz
The Workplace Wellbeing Project is a sector-driven, sector-owned collaboration which seeks to promote and support effective employment practices and relationships in the tangata whenua, community and voluntary sector. The project is jointly run by the New Zealand Council of Social Services, the New Zealand Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, Community Waikato and the Service and Food Workers Union Nga Ringa Tota.
www.communitycentral.org.nz/workplace-wellbeing
NZMeccano.com is the home page of the Online Parts Museum and the Christchurch Meccano Club, along with much more information about the Meccano hobby. All the information and contacts you need to build Meccano models.
www.nzmeccano.com
The People's Times is a new, free, government-funded community web service for grassroots clubs, societies, not-for-profit organisations and community groups in New Zealand. It supports grassroots groups to communicate, organise and promote their activities, while also giving individual Kiwis a place to express themselves.
www.peoplestimes.org.nz
The Birth, Death and Marriage Historical Records website enables you to search New Zealand Government records for births, deaths and marriages (BDM). There are around 11 million records available though there are some limits to the data to protect information relating to people who might still be alive.
http://bdmhistoricalrecords.identityservices.govt.nz/Home
Community Accounts Mentoring Service is a mobile service which works alongside voluntary and community groups or organisations to provide a one-to-one professional, confidential, financial mentoring service. CAMS trains and up-skills your organisation so you can manage and prepare your accounts efficiently and effectively.
www.cams.wellington.net.nz
You'll find these and more links at:www.community.net.nz/links.
These Events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/events.
These Training events are coming up in the next few weeks. Find details at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/training.
We all know about the gigantic problem of spam: somehow the wretched calls for assistance with retrieving millions of dollars gone astray, or offering to sell pills and potions sneak past the anti-spam filters and into our In Boxes.
If our email service provider offers it, we use spam filters, spam traps and blacklists to fend off the foul torrent.
The reverse problem also is a nuisance: legitimate emails that trigger filters and are diverted away from their course, only to be found hours or days later, if at all, in the junk folder.
You may find that you can set up a 'whitelist', also known as an 'approved senders' or 'friends' list. That's a list of trusted addresses or domains that are allowed a free pass. The software ushers those emails straight to your In Box, as priority visitors.
Unfortunately there are thousands of email providers, systems and software, so there's no single easy way to explain how to whitelist an address.
Also, anti-spam filtering may take place anywhere along the email transmission process.
If I send you an email the message goes from my computer to my email provider's software for sending mail. It may be filtered for possible spam or malware at this point.
Then the message is bounced from one host computer to the next until it finally fetches up at your email provider. Your email provider may have anti-spam measures in place.
Then your computer collects (or synchronises) emails with the email provider's server, and your email software may have its own anti-spam filters.
This means that your email address may be protected from spam by your email provider, such as Xtra, TelstraClear or Gmail, and in addition by your software, such as Apple Mail or Microsoft Outlook.
You need to use whitelisting techniques at the first point in the process where spam filtering takes place.
Since even totally legitimate emails can be trapped by anti-spam filters you should always use the 'Not Spam' or 'Not Junk' feature on your email software to retrieve legitimate emails from the spam trap. This helps teach the software what you do and do not consider spam.
Information from clicks on Gmail's Not Spam button helps build up a picture across millions of Gmail users, enormously increasing the accuracy of Gmail's filters. In standalone software such as Apple Mail the 'Not Junk' button increases your software's accuracy.
Much modern email software accepts mail from addresses in your email Address Book. For example, add the sender 'information@community.net.nz' to your email's Address Book to help keep this Panui out of the spam folder.
Ask your email provider's Helpdesk about how you may whitelist addresses to bypass their anti-spam measures.
While Gmail itself is free, there is a paid version that also gives you the services of a business called Postini to help protect your email. Postini not only catches a huge amount of spam, but allows you to add specific addresses and more general domains to its Whitelist.
For example, I can whitelist the domain 'community.net.nz' to be sure I receive email from any address at Communitynet Aotearoa.
As spam and malware continue to increase in frequency and intensity it becomes more and more usual to locate 'missing' and expected emails caught in anti-spam traps. If you've 'lost' an email you were expecting, check your spam filters. Mark that email as 'not-spam', add the sender to your email address book, and explore the possibility of whitelisting that sender to ensure a smoother flow of email in future.
Sometimes your community organisation may ask supporters to lobby on your behalf. You may encourage them, for example, to email a Member of National or Local Government, a certain business, or some other individual or organisation.
Such lobbying can be very effective, but it can also be hard to track — if you're not collecting the emails and passing them on you have no way of verifying how many emails were sent, or what was written in them.
The recipient may claim no emails were received, or that the bulk of them favoured one point of view, and you cannot dispute their figures.
Next time you ask supporters to send lobbying email direct to a third party also ask them to make sure they send a Cc copy to an address you specify. Set up a separate email address to collect only those emails.
For example, suppose you're asking supporters to lobby the local Council to vote Yes on something called 'Proposition 999'. Set up a free Gmail address with an appropriate account name, such as Prop999@gmail.com. Then ask supporters to Cc their lobbying emails to that address (and not to use that address for any other purpose).
Keep the email address short, easy to use and relevant.
At regular intervals look at the emails going to that address. Check how many are received after various publicity 'events'.
For example, if you speak on the radio about the campaign, how many emails arrive within 24 hours?
Do mark any junk as spam, which removes them from the In Box, but don't delete any emails.
If you wish, you may label the emails — perhaps by date, or by issue, and archive them so it's easier to see new emails that arrive.
By the end of the campaign a substantial archive should exist. Keep in mind it may not be complete — lobbyists may forget to Cc the special address, or some emails may go astray — but you will have a body of emails to refer to.
If the organisation being lobbied claims it received only 10 emails, but you have 100 that you can display, then you have more leverage for your cause.
Unfortunately many influential people and organisations still don't pay as much attention to emails as they do to written letters, petitions, visits or phone calls. By all means use email as an element of your strategy, but remember to use other channels too.
But if you do use email, set up that purposely created email address and ask for copies!
Panui tips contributed by Miraz Jordan, http://knowit.co.nz .
Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.
In February 2009 there were visits 39,460 (January 35,966).
Last month, 74 new community items were published.
Send in your free community notice or advertisement at:
www.community.net.nz/about/submit.
There were 7,775 files downloaded (January: 6,751). The most popular file download in February was the Sample Board Policies section of the Governance and Management How-to Guide (1,527 Downloads). In January this was also the MOU section of the Community Resource Kit (374 downloads).
Find CommunityNet statistics at: www.community.net.nz/about/website/statistics.htm.
Remember: please forward the complete Panui to others who'll find it useful.
Nick Stanley, Web Content Writer.
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Panui and CommunityNet Aotearoa are guided by an Advisory Group drawn from community organisations and are published by Department of Internal Affairs, PO Box 805, Wellington. Phone: 04 4957200. Email: information@community.net.nz.
While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of information in this publication, the publishers accept no liability for any errors and omissions. Views and opinions expressed are those of the authors, not the publishers.