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The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.
"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."
The Waikato 2020 Communications Trust, along with its partners, has been developing Webguide and we are currently evaluating recent updates to the Webguide. We invite you to give about 10 minutes of your time to complete a brief survey to give us your views on how we can make Webguide even better.
www.community.net.nz/hottopics/digital-strategy/news/evaluate-webguide.htm
Are there projects on your desk that need completing, tasks that need doing, but not enough people to do them? Do you need an extra staff member – a person with excellent skills, motivation, education and work experience? We are seeking placements for the latest intake of skilled migrants on the Workplace Communications Programme at Victoria University.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/skilled-migrants.htm
Volunteering Canterbury needs your help to identify those Extra-Special Volunteers who make an outstanding contribution to our community. If you’re involved with a not-for-profit organisation or project in Canterbury and would like a Special Volunteer to get recognition for the work they do, why not nominate them for the 2008 Volunteer Recognition Awards?
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/Canterbury/volunteer-awards.htm
The Families Commission is challenging New Zealanders to get together on 15 May – Families Day. The day is about making a special effort to spend time with family. We will be using the week from May 12 to May 18 to raise awareness of Families Day and encourage New Zealanders to take time out of their busy lives to celebrate with their families.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/family-day.htm
Saturday 10 May is Balloon Day, the highlight of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation's annual awareness and fundraising campaign. We're looking for volunteers to blow up balloons, fry sausages or serve food, hold collection buckets or paint faces all in the name of raising money for resarch that will benefit children with asthma.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/balloon-volunteers.htm
Philanthropy New Zealand says putting payroll-giving into action in New Zealand workplaces should bring about a stronger culture of giving and generosity. In welcoming the Government announcement on payroll giving, Philanthropy New Zealand’s Executive Director Robyn Scott said giving in a planned manner will now be much easier. “Payroll Giving means many working New Zealanders will be able to give money to their chosen causes and receive an immediate tax benefit by way of a PAYE credit.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/payroll-giving.htm
Members of ComVoices, an independent coalition of Tangata Whenua, community and voluntary sector, say the introduction of a voluntary payroll giving system will positively impact sector organisations that rely on multiple funding streams to sustain services to the community.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/giving.htm
If you’re enrolled to vote you’ll be sent an enrolment update pack in the mail in the week of 5 May. This is part of a major enrolment drive for the 2008 General Election. When you get your pack check your details are correct, and update them if needed.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/election-drive.htm
This series for young people has proven to be very successful and effective throughout New Zealand in a wide range of contexts, including schools, tertiary training centres, youth work, community centres, medical centres, hospitals and churches.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/skylight-titles.htm
Movie star Paul Newman’s 2008 charity campaign will see NZ$100,000 donated to New Zealand charities. The Newman’s Own Foundation was formed in 1984 with the purpose of allocating the profits from sales of Paul Newman’s products to charity groups worldwide. This year the Newman’s Own Foundation will allocate up to NZ$20,000 to each successful charity and submissions for funding can be made from Tuesday 1 April 2008.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/newmans.htm
EF Foundation for Foreign Studies is looking for volunteer host families anywhere in the Wellington region, including Kapiti and the Wairarapa, to help make a student's dream come true! You can match a student that suits your family from 26 different nationalities, so you can start making the world a smaller, friendlier place.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/ef-foundation.htm
The launch of the annual Community Media Grant on Thursday, 1 May offers a major boost for Hamilton’s not-for-profit sector. The grant is an initiative of Community Radio Hamilton, Bettle Advertising, and Hamilton City Council’s City News magazine and provides one local charitable organisation with an advertising campaign valued at more than $15,000.
www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/media-grant.htm
The consultation period on the Draft Digital Strategy 2.0 is being extended to 5.00pm Friday 23 May, 2008. Consultation on the Draft Digital Strategy 2.0 includes opportunities for feedback via a wiki and online dialogue boxes.
ww.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/extension.htm
Latest community news, events, jobs and ads are online at:www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news.
SF Auckland - Supporting Families in Mental Illness. We support families and whanau to provide the best possible quality of life and recovery to their loved one who has a mental illness including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety and phobias, depression, personality disorders and borderline personality disorder.
www.sfauckland.org.nz/index.asp
The Official Homepage of the Ngati Toa Venturer Unit. A team of 6 lead this 25+ unit of Venturers with 4 awesome leaders backing us up. We set up crazy activities and things we've always wanted to do, help out in the community and compete regularly in events against other units.
www.ngatitoaventurers.wellington.net.nz
A Community Wiki, provided to Helensville and Districts Community, to inform the community with relevant collated information regarding events and discussions such as rates, royal commission and proposed power station in Kaukapakapa.
www.myhelensville.co.nz
The Al-Huda Islamic Charitable Trust (HICT) is a charitable non-profit organisation that offers a variety of educational and cultural services to all residents of Canterbury. HICT is the parent organisation of Al-Huda Islamic School (HIS).
www.hict.org.nz
Auckland Latín American Community (ALAC) Inc., was set up in 1994. The not-for-profit organisation provides social and cultural services and education to the Latin American community in Auckland and throughout New Zealand.
www.casalatinanz.com
The purpose of New Zealand Sign Language Week is to raise awareness that New Zealand Sign Language is now our third official language and recognised as part of New Zealand’s culture! We also aim to focus on language and communication for all Deaf New Zealanders.
www.nzsign.co.nz
This site caters for every service in the Northland Community and has been endorsed by the Whangarei District Council as the preferred first point of reference for all services. It will eventually be available in all Communities throughout New Zealand.
www.2cu.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.
At the recent Engage your Community conference in Hamilton, Mike Riversdale ran a workshop about using the free Google Apps (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, calendar), rather than using Office applications on your own computer.
http://webguide.net.nz/engage-your-community
http://work.miramarmike.co.nz/2008/04/engage-your-community-workshop-links.html
http://docs.google.com
This is known as 'cloud computing' --- your documents are stored on a server on the Internet, instead of on your own computer. You store and edit documents online, sometimes in collaboration with others. If you like, you can also save the files to your own computer.
If you have access to broadband connections, there are quite a lot of advantages to doing this.
Google Apps isn't the only way to store and edit Office documents 'in the cloud', but it's a useful place to start. Cost: free. Try it out.
You may have heard about Web 2.0, social sites, services and applications such as Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Basecamp, Twitter, Delicious, Google maps, Google Earth, LinkedIn, TumbleLog, Viddler, Wikipedia, Skype, AdSense, blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds and so on. We write about many of them here and in the Groupings blog:
http://webguide.net.nz
After reading that list you're probably exhausted, and may be panicked about how an already stretched community organisation can possibly keep up and do all those things. The good news is that you don't have to do all those things at all --- you simply have to be willing to know a little bit about them, and to consider using them in your work.
It's like salt and pepper --- you'd never empty the whole shaker on to a meal; rather you'd sprinkle a little of each, or either, or neither, according to taste.
It all depends on your audience. If you're trying to communicate to or engage with a particular group of people then it's crucial to figure out who they are, what they do, where they can be found, and how they can find you. Then you can decide on the appropriate channels for interacting with them --- be they blogs, Facebook, podcasts, phone calls, printed leaflets, TV ads or some other means.
The number of tools and opportunities at your disposal is increasing almost exponentially. Even those of us who are fascinated by new technologies and new ways of doing things can't keep up. But instead of flinging up your hands in defeat, just try a 30 day trial.
In his personal development blog Steve Pavlina explains his concept of the 30 day trial as a way to experiment with new things:
www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/04/30-days-to-success
Just pick one thing you've heard of and have an interest in --- perhaps Twitter. Get one or more friends or colleagues to try it out with you and commit to working with it for at least a few minutes 5 days a week for 30 days. Be dedicated. Take it seriously. Play with it. Have some fun. Give it a workout.
When the 30 days is up make some notes and decide what to do. Maybe even report back to your committee or board on how that tool might or might not fit with your organisation.
You may be hooked, in which case you'll probably continue to use it.
Or you may decide it could have its uses, but not right now. Note that down in your journal with a few comments to help you know in 6 months time what was good and bad or useful and not useful.
Or you may decide it's a tool you could never use, and you're unlikely to bother with it in the future. Again, make some notes about why you reached that conclusion.
There's a horrible tendency in our society to see choices and decisions as 'wrong' or 'bad' or 'failures'. The 30-day trial isn't committing your organisation to a lifelong direction. You won't be 'failing' if you try something out for 30 days and decide it's not appropriate for you. Instead you'll be learning a bit more about your web environment, and adding a bit of spice to your day.
Don't know where to start, what to do first? Mike Riversdale has written on his blog about the workshop he presented at the Engage your Community conference held in Hamilton in April 2008. More details from the other workshops should also be online soon at the Webguide wiki. Look in those two spots for some inspiration:
http://webguide.net.nz/guide/doku.php?id=eyc-workshops:start
We'd love to hear your comments about your 30-day trial and have set up a post on the Groupings blog to collect them. Please visit and add your thoughts:
http://webguide.net.nz/2008/comments-please
Panui tips contributed by Miraz Jordan, http://mactips.info/
Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.
In April 2008 there were 40,555 visits (March: 35,712).
Last month, 59 new community items were published.
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There were 7,285 files downloaded (March: 7,222). The most popular file download in was the Employment section of the Community Resource Kit with 373 downloads. In March this was the MOU Template (333 Downloads).
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Nick Stanley, Web Content Writer.
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