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The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.
"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."
The Taxation (International Taxation, Life Insurance, and Remedial Matters) Bill passed has passed its third reading in Parliament – paving the way for the introduction of payroll giving. Payroll giving enables donations to go directly from a person’s pay to a chosen community organisation. The scheme will be administered through the PAYE tax system, so people whose employers sign up for the scheme will receive the tax benefits of their donations each payday, without having to present donation receipts or wait to claim at the end of a tax year. There will be a three month delay before the new payroll giving scheme is introduced – giving Inland Revenue, the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector and the community sector time to communicate how employers can go about setting up payroll giving schemes with their employees. From January 2010, the first businesses and employees will be able to sign up to payroll giving and the first community organisations will start to benefit.
/communitycentre/news/national/payrollgivin.htm
At a communities-of-interest meeting in June 2009, the Promoting Generosity Hub (working group) updated participants on its progress with the Generosity Project, and presented plans and initiatives for future work. The Generosity Project was set up to explore ways to encourage individuals and businesses to participate in their communities and local community organisations by giving time, money, in-kind donations and acts of kindness. Following extensive discussion and strong interest in the proposed initiatives, the Hub developed seven key projects, with nearly 30 initiatives within these projects.
/communitycentre/news/national/generosity.htm
A research team at Victoria University has started surveying NGOs on how they go about making sure the voices of their organisations and constituencies are represented to policymakers and politicians. The researchers want to hear from large and small community sector organisations about any actions taken over the past 10 years to influence politicians, political parties, local bodies, and public servants. They are also collecting information about the successes and failures that have to be coped with when NGOs actively participate in political decision-making.
/communitycentre/news/national/ngosurvey.htm
The Rugby World Cup 2011 festival is less than two years away and the Rugby New Zealand 2011 Volunteers Programme will be key to its success. Nearly 5,000 volunteers will be needed across the country in many different roles. Volunteers will be the face of the festival at airports and the 13 centres hosting games. Organisers aim to provide a positive and valuable volunteer experience for New Zealanders. Cup organisers will provide volunteer training and experiences that will enhance volunteers’ skills and abilities. For some, volunteering will mean free entry to sold-out games, while others will get the chance to meet rugby stars.
/communitycentre/news/national/worldcup.htm
The Social Services Industry Training Organisation is inviting social service sector agencies to apply for enrolment in its service to recognise in-house training programmes for staff and volunteers against unit standards. A 2008 feasibility study showed it was possible to match unit standards to existing in-house training programmes, and associated reviews helped share learning across agencies and strengthen training processes. Expressions of interest are now sought from social service agencies that run existing in-house training programmes for volunteers, staff and/or community participants.
/communitycentre/news/national/inhousetraining.htm
The first World March to circle the earth calling for the end of war and nuclear weapons, and the elimination of violence of all kinds (physical, economic, racial, religious, cultural, sexual, psychological), began in Wellington, New Zealand on October 2, 2009, the anniversary of Gandhi's birth, declared the International Day of Non violence by the United Nations. The March will last 90 days, travelling through 90 countries over all six continents, celebrated by activities and events involving millions of people along and beyond its route. It will end in the Andes Mountains (Punta de Vacas, Aconcagua, Argentina) on January 2, 2010.
/communitycentre/news/national/world-march-for-peace-and-nonviolence.htm
Office Space available for Community Groups. Christchurch Community House is home to 50 community organisations and we are currently looking for new tenants to rent office space in our central city community facility. Applications close at 5.00 pm on Monday 30 November 2009.
/communitycentre/news/national/office-space-in-christchurch-community-house.htm
Webhealth.co.nz, a leading online health and social services directory, has created a print functionality that allows anyone to print their own hard copy directories on demand. Graham Potter Manager Funding & Marketing for Linkage Trust Webhealth explains: "Health and social service organisations often spend considerable amounts of money printing specialist directories of services. To make the unit price acceptable they are often printed in large quantities relatively infrequently. This means information is often out of date after a short period of time." Linkage Trust Webhealth has created a function that allows anyone to print out a selection of services from Webhealth websites in a variety of formats. This enables an organisation to publish its own directory for free, selecting only the services it wants and print only the number of copies needed.
/communitycentre/news/national/webhealthdirectory.htm
Napier Family Centre requested an unprecedented 250 food parcels from Foodbank on behalf of its clients for the year ending 30 June 2009. "We are just over three and a half months into the 2009–2010 financial year and have already requested 100 food parcels from Foodbank" said Roydon Day, Napier Family Centre CEO. Their latest annual report released this week shows Napier Family Centre's budget service took on 165 more clients than in previous years.
/communitycentre/news/national/unprecedented-growth-in-demand-for-social-services.htm
Four funding organisations — the Todd Foundation, Tindall Foundation, Wayne Francis Charitable Trust and the J R McKenzie Trust — are introducing a new fund known as the Working Together More Fund — He Pūtea Mahi Tahi. The aim of the fund is assist community organisations to make a greater difference for the people and communities they serve, through working together more closely with other organisations. Increasing collaboration may not be right for everyone, nor will it necessarily save money; but many organisations that have worked closely together report real returns for the efforts, including improved services for their consumers. Groups of two or more organisations which are interested in exploring how they might work more closely together can apply for financial assistance and/or expert help. The first closing date for He Pūtea Mahi Tahi is 13 November 2009. We appreciate that this is very short notice; however we'd like to get under way this year, and believe that some will be in a position to apply. There will be more funding rounds in 2010, the next one closes on 12 March so there is more time to get things together for that.
/communitycentre/news/national/workingtogether.htm
The Ministry of Health's breastfeeding campaign has launched two social media communities at www.bebo.com/breastfeedingnz and www.facebook.com/breastfeedingnz. The communities are an opportunity to create a conversation with mums and their supporters. The emphasis is that breastfeeding is a normal part of life. It's not a judgement nor debate about breast vs bottle, its purely about breastfeeding. The pages are for anyone and everyone who is breastfeeding, or interested in breastfeeding. Mums will be able to find out more, share their stories and get support from other breastfeeding mums. There will also be a photo competition, and free wristbands coming soon.
/communitycentre/news/national/online-communities-for-breastfeeding-support.htm
In 2010-2014, the J R McKenzie Trust will work towards a more socially just and inclusive Aotearoa New Zealand. We would like to contribute to long-term changes to systems or ways of doing things that will improve the prospects or participation of disadvantaged people in an ongoing way. We will shift away from making many small annual grants to fewer, larger, multi-year grants. We will look for opportunities to build relationships with the organisations we support, and other ways alongside grants in which to support their work. The Trust has chosen two major areas of focus for the next 5 years: Disadvantaged children and their families; and Māori development. More information about these changes and a comprehensive explanation of the new criteria for applicants is available at: www.jrmckenzie.org.nz
/communitycentre/news/national/mckenzietrust.htm
NZATD Education Trust provides grants within a wide range of fields associated with training and development. NZATD Education Trust is a registered charity with the aim to enhance the practice of training and development in New Zealand. It provides monetary grants for any individual or organisation involved in the fields of training and development at any level within New Zealand. The grants are available to assist with specific proposals (projects) which are considered by the Trustees to be relevant within a wide range of fields associated with training and development.
/communitycentre/news/national/nzatd-education-trust-grants-2010.htm
Collect for animals! It's fun, rewarding and a great Xmas gift to SAFE and the animals! This year has been massive for SAFE with the coverage of our pig campaign and we'd love to make 2010 even better by raising much needed funds for our ongoing work. Being part of SAFE's street day appeal is an easy and meaningful way to help us do this and make a real difference for animals in New Zealand. This year our appeal is on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 December and we need hundreds of collectors to reach our goal of over $300,000 in donations to continue defending against animal cruelty.
/communitycentre/news/national/collect-for-the-animals-this-christmas.htm
For 27 years, Student Job Search (SJS) has been helping to improve the lives of the elderly community, by offering a quality and cost effective recruitment service to retirement village operators who are looking for staff to fill part time, casual and fixed term vacancies. SJS currently has a number of rest-home and care-giving jobs on their website. As an example, there is one Retirement Village owner in Northcote, who is currently advertising for a student to interact with and spend time talking to residents. The student will also help residents with daily tasks like dressing, showering and meals. SJS is a not for profit organisation and their service is totally free. Their service is further distinguished by the fact that SJS screens all applicants who show an interest in a job.
/communitycentre/news/national/sjselderly.htm
Discussion about what should be included in a proposed Relationship Agreement between the community sector and Government has begun online at two websites. Community Central and the Community Sector Taskforce are both hosting online discussions about who should sign an Agreement and what should be included in one. A proposed Relationship Agreement would replace the existing Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship with a joint agreement reflecting the perspectives of both Government and the community and voluntary sector. A national Community-Government Forum, to be held in Wellington on 11 November, will determine whether a Relationship Agreement is the best way forward. In the meantime, the online discussions are allowing people who cannot attend the forum to have a say – both before and after the event.
/communitycentre/news/national/relationshipagreement.htm
The Community Sector Taskforce invites applications from communities for the 'Weaving Communities Together' funds. The Minister of the Office of Community and Voluntary Sector has funded the Taskforce to build stronger Tangata Whenua, Community and Voluntary Sector networks that will find solutions to important issues for the Sector. The Weaving Communities Together programme will provide opportunities to build new networks or enhance existing networks to find solutions to important issues within their specific communities. To make an application, download and complete the Project Guidelines & Registration of Interest (ROI) form available from: www.cst.org.nz/about/work_programme/weaving_communities_together/
/communitycentre/news/national/weavingcommunities.htm
Latest community news, events, jobs and ads are online at:www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news.
Anxiety Support Canterbury (ASC) offers free information, education, resources and inspiration to people who experience many types of anxieties and phobias and who live in Christchurch and North Canterbury. We provide topic and education sessions led by qualified subject matter speakers and run separate support group meetings for each of our anxiety consumer groups.
http://anxietysupport.org.nz
The aim of the fund is to assist community organisations to make a greater difference for the people and communities they serve, through working together more closely with other organisations.
http://www.tindall.org.nz/working-together-more-fund
MobileActive.org connects people, organizations, and resources using mobile technology for social change. We are committed to increasing the effectiveness of NGOs around the world who recognize that the 4.5 billion mobile phones provide unprecedented opportunities for organizing, communications, and service and information delivery.
http://mobileactive.org
Our aim is to provide families with access to a wide range of entertaining and educational toys, puzzles, games, story and music tapes, CDs and CD-ROMs. We are a community library operated by a voluntary committee of library members and librarians.
http://www.karoritoylibrary.org.nz
Belisha Dance Club members are people who like to dance — learning how to dance at regular sessions in Rotorua and Tauranga — and learning more from guest tutors on specific styles and dance-related things. Mostly Middle Eastern with a little Medieval too.
http://www.belishabellydance.org.nz
Learn and talk about gardening and swap your home grown produce with people in your area. MyGarden is for those with a budding interest in gardening, and those with comprehensive expertise in growing and cultivation.
http://www.mygarden.co.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.
There's a new service in town: Wolfram|Alpha, the Computational Knowledge Engine. Its goal is to make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything.
We're all used to turning to Google if we have a question and we usually get some pretty good results. But if your question involves computation or numbers, then it might be worth taking a look at a new service, Wolfram|Alpha.
It's not technically a Search Engine, as Google is. Rather it's a Computational Knowledge Engine.
Where Google aims to search pages of information on the World Wide Web, Wolfram|Alpha aims to make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything.
That means that if you type into Google a question such as how many people live in New Zealand, you could expect to see links to websites that might talk about the population of New Zealand. You might, for example, see a link to Wikipedia, or the CIA Factbook, or perhaps Statistics New Zealand.
On the other hand, if you type that same question into Wolfram|Alpha, you receive an answer.
Wolfram|Alpha tells you that a 2007 estimate put our population at 4.18 million. It goes on to show you a graph of how the population has increased over recent decades. Then it gives further data and statistics about population density, life expectancy and how we rank in the world.
When it comes to maths and data, Wolfram|Alpha can help you while away quite a bit of time. For example, type in a question like what day of the week was 6 February 1840.
Not only do you see how many years, months, weeks and days ago it was, and which day of the week, but also handy facts about other notable events for the same date.
Would you like to know how much fat there is in buttermilk? Turn to Wolfram|Alpha for the answer.
Here are some other questions I asked where Wolfram|Alpha gave me an answer.
Although that last one didn't actually tell me the lifespan but I found out quite a few other things about dogs.
The Google search engine was launched 11 years ago now. In the last decade it has been tweaked and improved daily. It can often guess what you were trying to search for, even if you make spelling mistakes.
Wolfram|Alpha is still quite experimental. It's only been operating for about six months now. To be quite honest, for every question I've listed above that produced a good answer, I tried about 10 others that failed.
Unless you are asking for answers to kids' homework questions, you may become fairly frustrated. But remember that Wolfram|Alpha hasn't had time yet to mature in the way that Google has.
Next time you need some facts and figures give Wolfram|Alpha a try.
YouTube has taken hold of the public imagination. Are you working with that fact, or are you being sidelined?
In the time it's taken you to read these 11 words, 45 minutes worth of video has just been uploaded to YouTube. And now another 45 minutes worth has been uploaded.
As of May 2009, 20 hours worth of video was being uploaded every minute of every day. You Tube now serves more than 1 billion video views every day.
So what are all these videos? Are they all dancing babies, or dogs on skateboards, or cute things the kids just said? Are they all illegal uploads of music videos?
Sure, all those things are there, along with bad karaoke, amazing bicycle stunts, and clips from motorsports. YouTube can be pretty good fun.
But it also has its more serious side. Queen Rania of Jordan discusses issues around peace and poverty. NASA talks about scientific research in the Antarctic, and its explorations in space.
The NZ Salvation Army have their channel, with TV ads, good news stories and more. PracticalMacTips (disclaimer: that's me) teaches you week by week how to use Macintosh computers. Yale University provides lectures and discussions on topics that shape the world.
Videos may be only a few seconds long, filmed with a shaky cellphone, or 45 minutes or more, filmed with professional lighting and sound. All have an equal chance of being viewed and becoming popular.
Where only a few years ago creating a video involved huge expense, mountains of equipment, and a truckload of expertise, there is now effectively no barrier to anyone, anywhere, sharing their video with the world.
Of course the quality varies. Some videos are terribly poor: shaky footage, bad sound, awful lighting.
But if the world wants to see almost live footage of the latest tragedy, the firestorm, the campus shooting, the huge earthquake or tsunami, then viewers will throng to the video. We'd rather see 10 seconds of bad video within minutes of an event than wait a day to see professional coverage.
In fact, keep an eye on the TV News to spot YouTube footage being used in stories.
YouTube is enormously popular. Search Engine Watch tells us:
In August 2009, Americans watched 10 billion videos on YouTube. That same month, Americans conducted 9 billion searches on Google. So, do you want to be found when someone conducts a search for a relevant term on Google? Of course you do. But do you want to be found when someone looks for a relevant video on YouTube? You should.
In August 2009, Americans watched 10 billion videos on YouTube. That same month, Americans conducted 9 billion searches on Google.
So, do you want to be found when someone conducts a search for a relevant term on Google? Of course you do.
But do you want to be found when someone looks for a relevant video on YouTube? You should.
There's no reason to think that New Zealand or Australia, or any other population with decent Internet access and computers (or cellphones) is any different from America.
In the days before universal education and universal literacy not so many people could read or write. You would pay a scribe to write a letter on your behalf.
These days most of us have grown up reading and writing. While for some of us writing is hard, it's still something that most of us take for granted and do automatically.
If we want to communicate with others, to tell them about our activities, to encourage them to participate in our events, we generally still turn to writing first, and perhaps exclusively.
We send e-mails, we put up posters, we put advertisements in a newspaper or magazine. Maybe we'll include a photo to catch the eye.
For decades many of us have been passive consumers of films and television. Now is the time to become literate in creating video. Now is the time to think of using video, perhaps before text.
We don't need to spend thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars on creating television advertisements. We can spend a few seconds, a few minutes, or a day or two creating a video to upload to YouTube.
There must be many stories you could tell about your organisation. Start thinking about videos you could make. Could you show aspects of your program? Could you put a friendly face to your staff? Could you show off your location, or your latest event?
It really is time to start thinking video.
Panui tips contributed by Miraz Jordan, http://knowit.co.nz .
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