The Home Stretch

I’m now in the home stretch of my Liberal Arts degree at Prescott College. 

My final semester. It’s been a long, hard 3 years but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel: The Write Zone.

Thanks to Joy Taylor, Founder, Living Visions Now, for working with me again and being my mentor for Concepts of Entrepreneurship, and Leslie Carlson for being my Senior Project mentor. I’d like to thank these ladies for making the final journey with me and setting me on my path to future nonprofit success. 

My Senior Project will be an in-depth (hopefully) needs and opportunity assessment for The Write Zone. By the end of this semester I hope to know whether my idea is viable on its own, partner with another youth-serving organization, or take it in a slightly different direction. And whether or not I have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. As Leslie and I collaborated on the draft study contract, I came across WritersCorps and that gave me the idea (option?) to do something like that here. They don’t plan to start other WritersCorps' in other cities, nor am I allowed to use the name (which is fine), but it’s just another angle to look at; something else to look into when I’m doing my research. 

Hopefully, this semester will be more fun.

LinkedIn Today: 5-14-12

How to Make Your Big Idea Really Happen

1. Create a Compelling Shaping View

2. Make Sure the Benefit is Mutual


3. Prove You Mean It!


4. Create a Platform.


5. Gain Critical Mass.

View the whole article here.

 

SPRINGing Through the Finish Line

Spring 2012 is over—as of May 4^th-- and I can’t say I’ll miss it.

Thanks to: Victoria Michael for being my Program Planning and Evaluation mentor, and Brent Scholar, Scholar Consulting, LLC for being my Leadership Development mentor.

I’m going to be completely honest and say that I didn’t enjoy this semester. At all. I was really stressed and I’m sure that part of it was the fact that, in addition to homework from the other two courses, I had to write my 10-page Graduation Research paper. The one I have to write in order to graduate. It felt like I was taking three classes instead of two and that was a lot of added stress for me. I was also feeling some discontent over my Leadership Development course. Brent had a more “teacher-classroom” approach than I was used to in this program and I felt like I was back in college again, with the points Rubric system for grading and the textbooks he wanted to use because he was familiar with them. I didn’t like that feeling because I didn’t do well in that environment. It felt too strict. I chose Prescott’s program because it encouraged more freedom of expression and his way of teaching was the total opposite, as if it didn’t really fit into the theme of the school. I felt a little stifled, and wanted to use some other leadership books I had discovered, but Brent was adamant about only using the ones he was familiar with. But I could use these other books as resources for all the papers I had to write.

On the whole, I discovered that Prescott’s form of learning is a little unorthodox for people who are not familiar with the school. For people like Brent, who teach online (or in the classroom), the experiential aspect may be outside their comfort zone.  I’ve gotten used to the mentor method of learning because all of my previous mentors do not have the classroom experience that Brent does. This semester has taught me that “mentoring” means different things to different people and everyone will have a different style.  This semester also taught me that I still don’t have a handle on the work/life/school balance thing. I didn’t take too much time for myself and when I tried, school managed to squeeze its way back in. I had to forfeit 2 assignments from my LD course and one from my PP&E course due to lack of time. I felt guilty about that for about a day before I realized that the beauty of this program is the flexibility (I wouldn’t have been able to do this at a typical 4-year university). The important thing is that I got what I needed to out of these courses. I also learned that I see myself as having more leadership potential now than I did when I first started the class.

A little over a week later and I’m just now feeling the tension slip away. I was pretty tense throughout this semester and didn’t realize how much so until I received my final grades (B+ for LD and an A for PP&E) and a bone-deep exhaustion settled over me a few days after that. I have roughly 3 ½ weeks before my final semester starts (May 31^st) and I plan to enjoy the break as much as possible. It’s flying by so quickly….

LinkedIn Today: 4-16-12

5 New Ways to Network (That You Won't Dread)

1. Reinvent the Meet-and-Mingle

2. Be In With the In Crowd

3. Take Up a Cause

4. Work It

5. Reconnect With Your Past

I might be able to do it this way, because everything else seems so intimidating. Read the whole article HERE.

 

NAA e-News Leadership Lesson: Building a Staff Ladder

A "Staff Ladder" is defined as "a predictable pool, or the better analogy would be “stream” of trusted and trained individuals interested in joining your organization as a staff member." The following few paragraphs are more geared towards a mid-sized, multi-site, full service (school year and summer camp) organization. However, smaller organizations like the future TWZ can use the basic elements discussed and modify them to meet their specific needs.



Step One - Look inside first! Always begin by knowing your own staff member’s future plans and aspirations. A good student intern today may be a great part time group leader next year and a trusted full time Senior Group Leader in 5 years.

Step Two - Counselor in Training (CIT) Programs produce the skills you are looking for! Create a CIT Program and make entry into the program competitive. Formalize the training program, evaluate the participants, have the CIT’s “work” the last week of the program for their first paycheck and then hold a ceremony (in front of the whole camp or afterschool program). At the function give the students their certificate of completion (along with a check) to not only recognize the student’s successful completion of the program, but also to instill a sense of pride in them, in front of the many little faces they just worked so hard to keep safe and happy.

Step Three - Junior Counselor Programs start are step-up on the ladder. The prerequisite for being a Junior Counselor is successful completion of your CIT program, and more importantly, having excellent evaluations during the program. If your summer CIT program has 10 participants the first year, then the second year it may contain 10 new CIT’s and 4 Junior Counselors, all of who are returning CIT’s from last year. The Junior Counselors, upon successful completion of a designated period of time (for example a second summer camp) and positive evaluations would then be offered a part time Student Intern position in your subsequent school year afterschool program.

Step Four - Student Interns refine skills and are prepared for regular part time positions. Paid student internships are an integral part of afterschool programs and allow Site Supervisors the time to provide many hours of on-the-job training. This training and mentorship will in many cases lead to interns becoming regular part time employees, especially if the student intern goes to college in the vicinity of the afterschool program. After that the sky is the limit, one

LinkedIn Today: 4-9-12

10 Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

 

1. Speak not with a forked tongue.

2. Get personal.

3. Get specific.

4. Focus on the leave-behinds not the take-aways.

5. Have an open mind.

6. Shut-up and listen.

7. Replace ego with empathy.

8. Read between the lines.

9. When you speak, know what you’re talking about.

10. Speak to groups as individuals


11. Bonus – Be prepared to change the message if needed.

Read the whole article HERE .

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The Cost of High Turnover in Fundraising Jobs

Reasons for moving is mainly salary. "About 58 percent of chief executives said a low salary offer caused them  to lose their top candidates in a job search. Only 21 percent of chief executives said they were in a position to offer salaries they considered competitive." 

Advice for keeping fundraisers on the job:

Promote internal talent. Adopt a succession plan and train employees to rise to the next level in the organization. “Your best hire already works for you,” Ms. Burk said.

Set aside training opportunities. Cutting money for professional development, as many organizations did during the economic downturn will probably affect fundraisers’ performance. “The training budget is the one thing you should never allow to be cut,” she says.

Help ease workers’ schedules. According to Ms. Burk’s study, fundraisers most want help balancing the pressure of career and family duties. About 52 percent of fundraisers said they want the option to work from home, 51 percent want flexible hours, and 42 percent want additional vacation time.

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What are nonprofits doing with social media?  Six interesting stats

• 98% have a Facebook page with an average community size of over 8k fans.
• Average Facebook and Twitter communities grew by 30% and 81%, respectively.
• Average value of a Facebook Like is $214.81 over 12 months following acquisition.
• 73% allocate half of a full time employee to managing social networking activities.
• 43% budget $0 for their social networking activities.
• The top 3 factors for success are: strategy, prioritization, dedicated staff

The GROW Report 4-5-12

I subscribe to Pamela Grow's e-newsletter and discovered some posts to read for future reference:

How nonprofits can use Facebook ads | A step by step guide

Setting up a database protocol Series