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The CommunityNet Aotearoa monthly newsletter.
"News and views on community networking throughout Aotearoa."
A new outlet for the future of sound has begun on Auckland’s North Shore. The webpage known as JamRadio is an online resource of locally made radio programmes. Punk, folk, blues, electronica, unsigned artists, interviews, arts reviews, literary readings and live recordings are just a mouse click away.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/jam-radio.htm
Incorrect or incomplete applications cause delays and re-work. To ensure your application gets through the process as quickly and easily as possible, we urge you to check your application carefully before sending it in or submitting it online to us.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/analysts-tips.htm
Te Kotahitanga o Te Arawa Waka Fisheries Group is the first group of charities to become a registered 'single entity' under the new Charities Act. Rotorua-based Te Kotahitanga o Te Arawa Waka Fisheries Trust Board is the 'parent' organisation which has led the application process and will act on the group's behalf.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/first-group-application.htm
This high-level principles document outlines the importance of psychosocial recovery when planning how to respond to and recover from an emergency event. It is aimed primarily at a health sector audience, but should also be useful for other agencies, organisations, providers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/emergency-recovery-report.htm
The Global Education Fund (GEF) provides funding for small projects to develop awareness and understanding of global perspectives among New Zealanders, and to encourage them to become responsible global citizens.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/global-education-fund.htm
ICLEI Communities for Climate Protection has released a new short DVD based on climate change issues included in the recent IPCC 4th Assessment. The DVD is only 9 minutes long and features NIWA scientist Dr David Wratt and Victoria University's Professor Peter Barrett talking about the latest evidence, the potential impacts on New Zealand, and some things each and every one of us can do to help mitigate climate change.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/climate-change-dvd.htm
The 2007 local body elections take place on October 13. What is the council doing in your area, and what priority will candidates give to alcohol issues in your community? The NZ Drug Foundation has put together an information pack backgrounding some possible issues for your community and suggesting questions that you or your organisation could put to candidates.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/alcohol-harm.htm
Health and Disability Sector NGO-MoH Forum Working Group election, 2007. The Working Group consists of 2 invited representatives from the MoH and 2 or 3 elected representatives from each of the Health and Disability sub-sectors. Each year there are 1, 2 or 3 positions from each sub-sector open for nomination for either a 1 year or 2 year term. To nominate candidates and to be eligible to vote in the election, an NGO must be registered.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/NGO-wg-election.htm
A free information resource has just been released to help organisations in the Tangata Whenua, community and voluntary sector get their issues in front of local government election candidates. Developed by the Sector for the Sector, the free resource provides candidate lists for all New Zealand Mayoral, Council and District Health Board candidates by region. It also includes information and practical advice specific to the Sector.
http://www.community.net.nz/community centre/news/national/elections-resource.htm
Webstock is delighted to be able to offer some full scholarships to our main conference. The scholarships are aimed at those who might otherwise be unable to afford Webstock, and at those who are under-represented in our industry.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/webstock-schol.htm
Statistics New Zealand is releasing further free and easy-to-use regional information from the 2006 Census. QuickStats About a Place is a searchable, web-based product that provides a wide range of information about the population of each regional council and territorial authority throughout New Zealand; with highlights and straight-forward tables and graphs.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/quick-stats.htm
The Health and Disability Sector NGO-MoH Forum is now calling for nominations for Working Group positions. Representatives of the Health and Disability sub-sectors are elected annually, on a rotational basis to ensure consistency. Anyone from a registered agency can nominate a candidate for the Working Group.
http://www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news/national/ngo-nominations.htm
Latest community news, events, jobs and ads are online at: www.community.net.nz/communitycentre/news.
Resources for families, children, communities and programme providers of OSCAR (Out of School Care And Recreation) throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand.
http://oscar.org.nz
JamRadio is an online resource of locally-made radio programmes. Punk, folk, blues, electronica, unsigned artists, interviews, arts reviews, literary readings and live recordings are just a mouse click away.
http://www.jamradio.co.nz
Mensline is a free and confidential telephone counselling service specifically for men and staffed by male only counsellors. As a national service and because it is part of the Lifeline family of services, you will receive the same level of professionalism and confidentiality no matter what part of the country you call from.
http://www.mensline.org.nz
The NZ Academy of Fine Arts is a non profit-making incorporated society, supported by membership subscriptions, donations and commission on the sale of exhibited art works. A variety of exhibitions are mounted annually covering most art and craft forms practised in New Zealand. Exhibitors are drawn from all over New Zealand.
http://www.nzafa.com
Refugee LifeLine provides language and culturally appropriate telephone-based counseling support to refugees and their families. The service helps address the many challenges and problems associated with the settlement process, and is available in Farsi, Arabic and Burmese languages.
http://www.refugeelifeline.org.nz
The Women's Centre is a community organisation, operating since 1986. Unique in Christchurch, the Centre provides a broad range of information and services in a safe, supportive, affirming, women-only environment.
http://www.womenscentre.co.nz
The NZ Society of Authors (PEN NZ Inc) is the principal advocate for the professional interests of New Zealand's writers. We also work on behalf of writers everywhere to protect their right to freedom of expression.
http://www.authors.org.nz
The Clearing House is a collaborative, non-profit, project. It provides research and other resources to people and organisations involved in Tangata Whenua, Community and Voluntary Sector Research. Help us build a strong, vibrant research community by registering to share your research. Find resources or researchers with similar interests.
http://www.communityresearch.org.nz
No matter whether you’re from Fiji or not, the Fiji Association is the club for you. Our members are from different parts of the world and have an interest in Fiji and the diverse cultures that co-exist. Membership will also ensure you a ride to the national conference, where sometimes the kava ceremonies and other celebrations last until dawn.
http://www.fijistudents.wellington.net.nz
Open and distance learning is the fastest growing area of education in the world. As New Zealand’s specialist institution and largest polytechnic, we play an important role in extending learning opportunities. Our job is to improve access and choice, something we do for nearly 30,000 students in New Zealand and in over 40 other countries.
http://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz
The mission of the Young Pleiades Foundation is to support children with exceptional abilities. The foundation helps talented kids at an age when they need reassurance and understanding for their gifts to blossom.
http://pleiades.ellefun.com
With funding from the Community Partnership Fund and with a fabulous project team of volunteers, Volunteering Waikato designed and produced a series of training CD ROMS for volunteer co-ordinators and managers.
http://www.volunteeringwaikato.org.nz/cms/index/69
The Australasian Housing Institute (AHI) is the professional body for everyone who works in social housing across New Zealand and Australia. The AHI offers members the opportunity to be recognised as a social housing professional, make connections with your colleagues, engage in social housing specific professional development, and influence social housing policy and practice.
http://www.housinginstitute.org
Far North REAP (Rural Education Activities Programme) - Whaia Te Matauranga is one of 13 spread throughout Aotearoa, New Zealand. We are a local, community-based non-profit organisation which provides flexible formal and non-formal learning opportunities in the Far North. We have been using our own evidenced-based parenting skills programme called TIPS (Tips and Ideas to Improve Your Parenting Skills) for a number of years.
http://www.farnorthreap.org.nz
TIPS Parenting Skills is a skills development program that will help parents gain the skills they need to cope with everyday life. Our program, TIPS (Tips and Ideas to Improve your Parenting Skills), has been developed over a number of years and has helped hundreds of parents in New Zealand and Australia improve their relationships with their children.
http://www.parentingskills.co.nz
Flying Pickle is a free community website for suburbs of Korokoro, Maungaraki and Normandale. Our goal is to bring the community together in an open and democratic environment where people can exchange views, news, opinions, advertise their businesses in a friendly and non-intrusive manner as well as find help and support from others.
http://www.flyingpickle.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.
Readers under 25 are almost certain to have sent and received text messages on a cellphone within the last month. In fact, such readers have probably sent or received a text message within the last hour.
Older readers may use text messaging less frequently, or perhaps even not at all.
There are several stumbling blocks for older users:
Early cellphones required you to press each key several times to reach the letter you wanted. For example, to type the word 'you' you would have to press the number 9 three times, the number 6 three times, and the number 8 twice. Those 8 keypresses are extremely tedious.
Most newer cellphones use a system called T9 predictive text.
T9 uses intelligence to guess what you want to write: press the number 9 just once, follow that with one press each of the numbers 6 and 8. Only three keypresses and the word 'you' appears.
You may find that the phone also offers alternatives to the word 'you' --- other 'words' that can be made by typing 968, such as 'wot' and 'wov'. It may even offer longer words such as 'you're', 'would', and 'yourselves'.
Use the scroll and selection buttons on your phone to choose the word you want.
Your phone also gives you a key to change between upper and lower case --- probably the * or # key --- but the phone should automatically use a capital letter at the start of a sentence (for grammar sticklers).
If you have a tricky word to spell that's not in the Dictionary, such as 'Porirua', locate the button to bring up the Spell or Edit Word menu item. Type out the word, pressing each key enough times to reach the correct letter, and then choose Insert from the menu.
When you Insert the word the phone should also add it to a personal dictionary, so it'll know it next time you need it.
BTW: text messages must be less than 160 characters. That's why so many people use abbreviations. Each letter, number, space or punctuation mark is a character.
(That last paragraph was exactly 160 characters.)
There's a lot happening on, with and to the Internet. Can your group keep up? Should you keep up? Could a Technology Scout be an answer?
Here's a sweeping generalisation: people under 25 are deeply engaged with the Internet, and with their cellphones; people over 25 are not.
Like all generalisations, it can easily be challenged (it's not true of the writer, for example), but it does contain an important seed of truth.
Add another generalisation --- that most community groups are dominated by people over 30 --- and we have a clue that leads us to a communications gap.
'Social' sites such as MySpace and Facebook are increasingly popular. If your groups wants to reach out to and engage with younger people then you need to go to where they are.
But it's MySpace today, and Facebook tomorrow. These things change all the time. How can your group keep up? Especially when you're already busy doing the things you've been doing for a while.
My suggestion is to create a new volunteer (or paid) position: Technology Scout. This person needs a willingness to learn about two things: your organisation and new technology.
They don't need to know it all already, but they do need a decent computer, a broadband connection, and the time to explore and learn.
Their job is *not* to fix the broken printer, or to figure out why a spreadsheet formula doesn't work.
Their job *is* to explore the world of new technologies, especially, but not only, the Internet, and to work out where and how your group should be involved: to scout the terrain and suggest a way forward.
While blogs such as Groupings can provide general clues for community groups about what's happening in technology, a Technology Scout could take that information, explore it, and apply its possibilities to your group's specific situation.
The Scout should also engage with Webstock --- perhaps applying for a free registration for the February 08 conference. Note: applications close on 3 November, so apply now.
Also watch yMedia and keep an eye on the yMedia Challenge that "aims to connect media students with [NZ] not-for-profit organisations (NPOs). In one weekend, students and NPOs will come together to hear inspiring leaders, brainstorm possible digital solutions and share knowledge and ideas." The students will go on to compete to produce an effective and intelligent digital media solution for their chosen NPO.
A few New Zealand groups are already taking steps into this new territory --- Webguide 2.0, to be launched soon, will carry Case Studies --- but many more need to be investigating the possibilities.
I believe a Technology Scout would be an asset for every organisation.
Panui tips contributed by Miraz Jordan, http://mactips.info/
Past Website tips are all available on CommunityNet Aotearoa.
In September 2007 there were 35,867 visits (August: 30,515).
Last month, 73 new community items were published.
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There were files 6,173 downloaded (August: 8,216). The most popular file download in September was the ‘Sample charitable trust deed and guide to its clauses’ with 250 downloads: in August this was also the top with 315 downloads.
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Nick Stanley, Web Content Writer.
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