We see ALOT of unbelievable things on our travels through the non profit environment. Organizations that are barely getting by but have a core group of people who deeply believe in the mission and believe in helping people, right through to organizations that have more technology and equipment than they know what to do with. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't wish I had everything on videotape so that you wouldn't think I was making it up. Thankfully, I have witnesses on most of these encounters. Here is one that can be verified:
We were on an initial visit with a grassroots food bank and social service agency. The "office" was in what used to be a row house, but now was a single because the city had demolished all adjacent properties (our mayor's idea of wiping out blight). On our way, we witnessed a bizarre fistfight in the middle of the street where a woman was beating on a man twice her size while another man just watched. We had to swerve to miss them.
There was already a meeting in progress when we entered the house: "Can I use the bathroom before I leave", asked the man. " Oh no, we don't have any running water", she replied. "Something went wrong when they demolished the two adjacent abandoned houses."
When it was our turn to meet with woman in charge, we discovered that the hole in the roof had been fixed, but not the collapsed ceiling. Only half of the building had electricity. And she wouldn't dare go into the basement to show us the mysterious "hub" that she thought they had. That would have to wait for another time.
We also met with a man from the advisory board. "We'd like to design and host websites here in order to make extra money to support our mission", he said. "My tech guru is going to teach us how to do it. " "We'll keep the web servers (note the plural) in the basement and charge the businesses around here to host their websites. (Did he notice the demolished buildings, what surrounding businesses?)
I explained the current web hosting market environment and gave examples of how giant web hosting and design companies were charging only $2.95 per month. That volume was the only way to make a small margin on web hosting commodity. I even began to do a cost analysis for return on investment for equipment, software, Internet connectivity and redundancy. They argued that they could do it. . .
And then I reminded them both that web servers needed electricity to run and that half of their building didn't have that one essential item. I haven't heard back from them since. I should call them. Oh right, no phone.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Second Post
Don't worry, I'm not naming each post consecutively. The more I think about blogs and blogging, the more I realize that "good" blogs are really hard to come by and that finding "favorite" blogs are really based on personality types and interests and good content. Kind of like comic strips. I read the comics in the Philadelphia Inquirer everyday. I have definite daily favorites and some that I just don't get. I am sure that writing daily comics if very difficult and it shows sometimes in the strip. I applaud Fox Trot's creator for cutting back to weekly rather than let the strip go down hill due to lack of inspiration etc.
Anyway, I've decided to post less frequently than other blogs - but try to have good content, written in a style that I hope will suit your taste. I hope that the analogy above translates into tech issues. We'll see.
OK now onto the post:
I should have named this one "A watched Outbox never boils" or "A penny saved is a dollar spent later". Non profit budgets are really interesting. Rarely is there a line item for IT expenses. Rarely does a non profit org budget for maintenance. It's just not something that we can approach funders about. All of the money goes to programs, programs, programs. Very little for operating or general budget. Of the operating budget, very little is set aside for IT maintenance if any at all. This is nothing new to you. It's nothing new to us either.
Because of this budget dilemma, it seems that non profit staff are quick to shoo our techs out the door in order to try to save a few dollars. Our techs are keenly aware of this and try to be as efficient as possible.
Take this story for instance. A non profit asks our tech to fix an Outlook email issue during his regular visit. The tech is conscious that he is just about out of time for the appointment and wants to get this last issue taken care of so he doesn't have to charge the organization more money for an additional visit later. He makes some changes in Outlook to fix the issue. To test the fix, he sends a test message from the user's Outlook to himself.
The message sits in the Outbox, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits.
What seems like forever turns out to be 3 seconds. 3. Do you know how many times the user can say "OK, see you next week" in 3 seconds? Plenty. The user was so worried about time that she wasn't concerned whether the fix actually fixed her issue. Once the email left the Outbox, the tech felt better about leaving and the user went back to using her computer for important non profit work:
Anyway, I've decided to post less frequently than other blogs - but try to have good content, written in a style that I hope will suit your taste. I hope that the analogy above translates into tech issues. We'll see.
OK now onto the post:
I should have named this one "A watched Outbox never boils" or "A penny saved is a dollar spent later". Non profit budgets are really interesting. Rarely is there a line item for IT expenses. Rarely does a non profit org budget for maintenance. It's just not something that we can approach funders about. All of the money goes to programs, programs, programs. Very little for operating or general budget. Of the operating budget, very little is set aside for IT maintenance if any at all. This is nothing new to you. It's nothing new to us either.
Because of this budget dilemma, it seems that non profit staff are quick to shoo our techs out the door in order to try to save a few dollars. Our techs are keenly aware of this and try to be as efficient as possible.
Take this story for instance. A non profit asks our tech to fix an Outlook email issue during his regular visit. The tech is conscious that he is just about out of time for the appointment and wants to get this last issue taken care of so he doesn't have to charge the organization more money for an additional visit later. He makes some changes in Outlook to fix the issue. To test the fix, he sends a test message from the user's Outlook to himself.
The message sits in the Outbox, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits, and sits.
What seems like forever turns out to be 3 seconds. 3. Do you know how many times the user can say "OK, see you next week" in 3 seconds? Plenty. The user was so worried about time that she wasn't concerned whether the fix actually fixed her issue. Once the email left the Outbox, the tech felt better about leaving and the user went back to using her computer for important non profit work:
Good thing she's budget conscious.
Monday, February 12, 2007
First Post
OK, so I'm supposed to know all about technology due to my job title. The fact is that I really don't know how to do the cool stuff like IM, set up a blog, or use my cell phone for text messages. I do know how to set up safe and secure computing environments.
This is my first attempt at blogging. Other techies have blogs that techies should read with lots of information about networking and programming. Other non profit techies have blogs with lots of information regarding technology used by human and social service agencies. These blogs are GREAT. However, when I go home or out with friends it's not the geeky technology that we talk about. No, it's the people, sights and sounds of non profit life that monopolizes our conversations (and ice hockey, but that's another blog).
I've been urged to share some of these stories with a wider audience. These posts are not tech myths, not meant to hurt anyone's feelings, not meant to make fun of disadvantaged or underserved people. These postings are meant to share daily experiences of our staff in a light hearted way.
We work really hard and take our jobs very seriously. Our clients work really hard and take their jobs really seriously. But we all need a giggle now and then so stay tuned . . .
This is my first attempt at blogging. Other techies have blogs that techies should read with lots of information about networking and programming. Other non profit techies have blogs with lots of information regarding technology used by human and social service agencies. These blogs are GREAT. However, when I go home or out with friends it's not the geeky technology that we talk about. No, it's the people, sights and sounds of non profit life that monopolizes our conversations (and ice hockey, but that's another blog).
I've been urged to share some of these stories with a wider audience. These posts are not tech myths, not meant to hurt anyone's feelings, not meant to make fun of disadvantaged or underserved people. These postings are meant to share daily experiences of our staff in a light hearted way.
We work really hard and take our jobs very seriously. Our clients work really hard and take their jobs really seriously. But we all need a giggle now and then so stay tuned . . .
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