TechCoop Minutes: August 12, 2005
TechCoop Minutes
August 12, 2005
I. Attending:
1. Damita Chambers, RTPnet and Triangle United Way
2. John Gilbert, Triangle United Way’s Teaming for Technology
3. Steven Alston, Split Screen Consulting
4. Warren Fuson, TechAction
5. Shelly Bowers-Roghelia, NetCorps
6. Terry Grunwald, Making the Net Work
7. Judy Hallman, RTPnet
8. Joe Burgess, Triangle United Way’s Teaming for Technology
II. Discussion:
— 501 Tech Club
• Advertising suggestions: college listservs; NC Center for Nonprofits web site and newsletter, Common Ground; Triangle United Way’s Focus newsletter; Philanthropy Journal; Duke University Certificate in Nonprofit Management
• Format suggestions: Discussion topic as a framework for a forum/discussion with a few experts to help answer questions and/or have a speaker do a presentation on a topic; Linux Users’ Group and NC*SA have successful formats we could imitate (e.g. promote job opening, give out freebies, free food, etc.)
• Sponsors: Have six sponsors per year agree to host or at least cover food/refreshments costs and/or provide a speaker for the meeting; Companies could give cash donations so we could create a budgets for the meetings
• New 501 Tech Club meeting dates for 2005 (every other third Thursday): Sept. 15 (RTPnet hosting—not necessarily sponsored meeting); Nov. 17
• Next TechCoop meetings (every other second Friday): Oct. 14, Dec. 9
• Duties for TechCoop:
— Contact potential sponsors: Shelly-Cisco; Judy-SAS; Warren-Nortel; Joe and John-IBM; Damita-Red Hat; Isoph-???
— Shelly will draft a letter for potential sponsors
— Terry will get a list of NCTA members to help us promote the 501 Tech Club meetings
— Identify more potential sponsors using Triangle Business Journal, News and Observer, Triangle Tech Journal
— Create committees for planning 501 Tech Club meetings after we raise the club’s profile statewide
— Updates on recent nonprofit technology conferences
• Terry was impressed by a Penguin Day in NYC--> About 125 people attended; Discussed strategies for nonprofits to introduce open source applications in their agencies
• N-TEN Conference--> Judy met a rep from SimDesk-Chicago at the conference, and SimDeck later donated $500 to the RTPnet Conference
— Updates on RTPnet Conference
• Terry missed having the 3-Minute Madness to introduce some attendees after the welcome
• Warren led a conference call recently to plan for a NC Nonprofit Technology Conference in 2006, possibly held in Winston-Salem: Damita will email the TechCoop list when another planning meeting is held
• NetCorps will have a VISTA in Greensboro housed at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro: The VISTA may be able help plan the conference in Greensboro at the Greensboro Library, Central Branch (where the NC N-TEN was held)
• Engaging additional NPOs to help plan the conference: Linda Goff-Mitchell from WinstonNet is very interested in helping to plan the conference; NPower Charlotte may not want to help
• NC Center for Nonprofits could promote it: Warren has a good contact there
— Update on Nonprofit Technology Survey
• Warren received 333 responses to the surveys; Only raw data is available now; Still trying to decide how to publish the information
— CTC VISTA Project
• NetCorps’ VISTA in Greensboro; Vahid Nourani (current RTPnet VISTA) at Duram Literacy Center (Vahid will also work with Warren)--> both VISTAs may be available to support TechCoop activities
• Damita may stay at Triangle United Way with Public Allies and may be available to help coordinate 501 Tech Club/TechCoop meetings
— Around the Room
• John is interested in having a discussion with TechCoop members about making NPOs greener and encouraging reuse programs
• John agreed to review the TechCoop web site for possible improvements; Judy will give John a username and password to access the site
• Terry wants to coordinate a project to encourage discussion around safe computing concerns in NPOs
— Upcoming Calendar Events
• Next six months of TechCoop and 501 Tech Club meetings
• NC Center for Nonprofits Conference, Oct. 5-7, Charlotte
• N-TEN Washington, DC Regional Conference – Tuesday, October 11
• New webinar series from N-TEN:
1. Aug. 16: Web Analytics Demystified
2. Aug. 30: Blogging: Getting Started
— Next Coop Meeting Date: Friday, Oct. 14 at 2 p.m.
III. Adjourned at 3:30 pm