July '03 - Premiere Issue

We Are BCNM

Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management

TechNotes eNewsletter
July 2003

Welcome to the premiere edition of TechNotes, a free monthly technology newsletter from the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management. Our mission is to provide you relevant information that helps you use and manage technology in your nonprofit through tips, grant news, learning opportunities in our community and the trends to watch. We hope you will find this premiere issue both interesting and useful!

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In This Issue:

Subscribing to TechNotes
Tip of the Month: Avoiding Common IT Management Mistakes
What's New at the Bayer Center
Technology for Leaders
Nonprofit Techies Unite!
Sites of the Month
Food for Thought

Tip of the Month: Avoiding Common IT Management Mistakes
Network World recently published an article on "Ten Common Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them." While this publication is obviously not geared towards the nonprofit sector, the problems that the corporate world makes for itself are the same ones that nonprofits make. By avoiding these mistakes, you could save more in the long run than you did in the short term. Paraphrased below is the list.

Not using battery backup (UPS) for servers.
Not having the right tools.
Failing to apply the latest patches.
Not checking backups.
Not using a licensed cabling guy.
Buying cheap, incompatible and unsupported parts.
Skimping on warranties.
Not testing before implementing.
Not planning for the future.
The x-factor: users.

For the complete article, go to Network World at www.nwfusion.com/research/2003/0609mistakes.html

What's New at the Bayer Center
Keep your eyes posted for information on open source opportunities. We plan on providing the opportunity to play with open source software and talk to open source users and developers about this exciting possibility for nonprofits!

One new forum you might be interested in is Bagels and Bytes. Read below under Nonprofit Techies Unite for more information.

If you're looking for other educational opportunities, the Bayer Center has lots to offer this fall. You can get a preview of our fall courses on our website at www.rmu.edu/bcnm.

Technology for Leaders
Following the success of our initial Tech for Execs meeting last fall, we have decided to offer this series bi-monthly. Tech for Execs is for nonprofit decision makers who want to informally explore the benefits of mission-driven solutions. These sessions showcase best-practices technology and provide opportunities for non-technical peer learning and support.

Our first session will be on August 20 from 8:00 - 9:30 am and will explore the benefits and challenges of strategically integrating technology into long term goals. For more information, please contact wormer@rmu.edu or call 412-227-6823.

Nonprofit Techies Unite!
If you're responsible for the technology in your nonprofit and feel like you're in a vacuum, take heart! You're not alone! Join other nonprofit techies (accidental, part-time and full-time) for "Bagels and Bytes" as we discuss the problems and, yes, opportunities for managing, maintaining and implementing technology while keeping your sanity and your end-users happy.

Our first session will be held on Wednesday, August 6, 2003 from 8:00 - 9:30 am at Quiet Storm at 5430 Penn Avenue in Garfield. All are welcome to join but please RSVP to wormer@rmu.edu or 412-227-6823. There is a $10 fee to cover the cost of a light breakfast and materials.

Sites of the Month
There's no such thing as a free lunch, but there are some places you can get practically free technology if you're a nonprofit! If you don't already know about TechSoup and Gifts in Kind International, check out their websites!

www.techsoup.org
www.giftsinkind.org

Food for Thought
In a few hundred years, when the history of our time will be written from a long-term perspective, it is likely that the most important event historians will see is not technology, not the Internet, not e-commerce. It is an unprecedented change in the human condition. For the first time - literally - substantial and rapidly growing numbers of people have choices. For the first time, they will have to manage themselves. And society is totally unprepared for it.
--Peter F. Drucker

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