14:14, 30 December 2009
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Here's your mythbusters for today: Not everyone has Internet access, not everyone who has Internet has constant access, and not everyone who doesn't have 24/7 access lives in a developing country.
Maybe you are in an airport or hotel that charges a stupidly huge amount of money for Internet access, and you can afford just one hour. Maybe you are in an area where Internet access is slow or not continually available. Or maybe your access is wonky, for whatever reason, and while the tech staff is working to fix the problem, you still need to access info online.
TechSoup staff member
Elliot Harmon wrote about
an interesting discussion on MetaFilter about how to use the Web with bandwidth limitations. Harmon says that "The user who started the discussion has only mobile broadband access, so he was trying to keep his costs down. But I think
a lot of the recommendations would be equally useful for people with dial-up Internet access or other slower connections."
Harmon is right on! Here are his favorite suggestions:
- Rather than visiting all of the Web sites you need to see every day, start using RSS feeds.
- Most Web browsers allow you to disable all images: they'll simply appear as rectangles. When you need to see an image, you can have the browser load them automatically. Similarly, Flashblock lets you choose when to load Flash elements.
- Firefox Throttle is a Firefox plug-in that monitors your bandwidth usage. If you're paying for mobile access by the megabyte, then something like this is essential.
- But on the other hand, your Web browser isn't the only program that hogs your Internet access. Use Comodo Internet Security to control when and how other applications are going online.
- Disable prefetch. Firefox has an engine that preloads the most popular pages on a site when you first visit that site. I've had marked improvements in performance after disabling prefetch, even on a fast connection.
And I'll add one more to Harmon's list: download your email and read and write your responses offline, and queue your outgoing mail for the next time you have Internet access. You can download your mail but still leave your mail on the web for reference on another computer, as you like. I've sat reading and responding to mail, offline, for a couple of hours, then sent all those mails at the first chance I've had Internet access.
09:13, 29 December 2009
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A book that's been on my to-read list for a year now is Stanford Professor Robert Sutton's:
The No Asshole Rule—Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. His book is about paid employees, but I know that most people who have worked with volunteers also have experienced much of what he writes about. Have you ever been a part of an organization held hostage by a toxic volunteer, a person who seems to make it her or his goal to tear others down, get his or her way, and poison anything that he or she doesn't own or lead?
Sutton says the term "asshole" encompasses "bullying, interpersonal aggression, emotional abuse, abusive supervision, petty tyranny and incivility in the workplace." At the heart of his book is this: "Assholes have devastating cumulative effects partly because nasty interactions have a far bigger impact on our moods than positive interactions—five times the punch, according to recent research. … These findings help explain why demeaning acts are so devastating. It takes numerous encounters with positive people to offset the energy and happiness sapped by a single episode with one asshole." Sutton's book is about how terribly toxic, costly and counterproductive bad behavior in the workplace can be.
Sutton says in the foreword: "I was convinced to write
The No Asshole Rule by the fear and despair that people expressed to me, the tricks they used to survive with dignity in asshole-infested places, the revenge stories that made me laugh out loud, and the other small wins that they celebrated against mean-spirited people. I also wrote
The No Asshole Rule because there is so much evidence that civilized workplaces are not a naive dream, that they do exist, and that pervasive contempt can be erased and replaced with mutual respect" (and superior performance) "when a team or organization is managed right."
If you are, or have been, faced by a volunteer who acts as Sutton describes, you are probably loving what Sutton has to say. But here's a problem: from the reviews I've read,
The No Asshole Rule tells you how to identify the jerks, but not really what to do about them. While most organizations probably love the sound of the rule, we see huge obstacles in implementing it.
Kris Dunn has written "
Why Do Companies Keep Jerks Around?" (registration required), a commentary on why the ‘No Asshole Rule’ isn't enforceable. I've adapted Dunn's article for volunteer managers and boiled it down to just two bullets:
- Volunteer managers hate confrontation and conflict of any kind, and most will do anything to avoid it. Most volunteer managers will tolerate a toxic employee and let other volunteers walk or be bullied rather than confront that person.
- Sometimes the jerk is a long-time volunteer and, for all the bullying she or he brings, that volunteer also brings valuable expertise and resources. Some people -- or even just one in a senior leadership role -- may say the jerk is mission-critical and can’t be touched.
But consider this:
what message are you sending to the other volunteers -- and the staff -- if you make the choice to live with the situation and refuse to deal with the jerks? How many great volunteers are you losing by enabling the jerk's behavior? You have to honestly answer those questions in deciding whether or not to keep the jerk around. And maybe, indeed, the bottom line is such that you have to keep the jerk and let good but-not-as-valuable volunteers go, at least for now.
My own advice, based on my own experience:
- The people falling under the spell of that second bullet assume that confronting the toxic behavior will drive the volunteer away, that his or her behavior cannot be modified. Don't assume jerks can’t adapt their behavior and improve if confronted in a dispassionate, well-documented way.
- If you have decided that, for now, the jerk has to be tolerated, have a plan for getting rid of the jerk within the next three months, the next six months, or the next 12 months (see next bullet for more on that). Never assume that the jerk will naturally evolve into a better volunteer or suddenly and happily move on.
- No volunteer is absolutely indispensable. Say it again: No volunteer is absolutely indispensable. All of your volunteers, jerks and prizes, are documenting their work for the time when they will no longer be a part of your organization, right? You are looking for backup volunteers for every mission-critical volunteer task, right? You have more than one person trained for every volunteer task, right? You have a recruitment plan ready to implement if any volunteer leaves, including the non-jerks you adore and want to assume will always be there, right?
- If as a volunteer manager you are uncomfortable making tough decisions, and aren't prepared to make the case for the tough decisions you may need to make, then let me be blunt: you are in the wrong business. Your volunteers deserve someone who is going to be there for them. If you can't be that person, maybe it's best you move on.
And for the record: yes, as a volunteer coordinator, I've had to get rid of the asshole volunteer. I've been there -- I'm not just talking theory. What's been much worse is being a volunteer and realizing the volunteer manager isn't going to confront the asshole, and having to move on as a result; that organization is still wondering why it can't keep good volunteers.
09:36, 26 December 2009
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As readers of my blog know,
I'm oh-so-annoyed by people who portray volunteerism as important because nonprofits and community groups have a lot of work to do and you can save money by not paying people to do it. That approach is old school and it's also offensive.
If I'm working at a nonprofit and you give me all the money in the world to hire all the staff I'll ever need, I'll still reserve certain tasks for volunteers, because
- I want to show community engagement/community investment in our organization's work,
- I want opinions that volunteers are often more willing to share than paid staff,
- I want to target certain groups as volunteers (to ensure a diversity of involvement in the organization),
- I think certain jobs are better done by volunteers,
- I want those served by the organization to have opportunities to get an inside look at operations, and
- many more reasons depending on the organization and situation.
Detroit's Jewish community welcomed fellow volunteers from the area's Muslim community yesterday to take part in Mitzvah Day, the largest day of volunteering by Detroit's Jewish community. Multi-religious teams fanned out to more than 70 sites throughout metro Detroit to engage in various tasks together.
Mitzvah Day, a nearly 20-year tradition in the Detroit area, is also practiced in other communities. It is so named because Mitzvah means "commandment" in Hebrew and is generally translated as a good deed. There is also a mandate in the
Quran regarding doing good and giving of themselves to charity (
sadaqah).
For the first time, about 40 Muslims were expected to join 900 Jews for this annual day of volunteering. Leaders said it's a small but significant step in defusing tensions and promoting good will between the the three Abrahamic faith: Islam, Christianity and Judaism.
This is volunteering as a statement, volunteering as community bridge-building, volunteering as conflict resolution, and volunteering for understanding. It has nothing to do with please-come-do-these-tasks-without-pay. Measuring the success of this day will have nothing to do with assigning a monetary value to each hour volunteers provided. This is real innovation in volunteering -- nothing to do with technology and everything to do with the stated goal of volunteer involvement.
Why does your organization involve volunteers? In 2010, resolve to think about new answers to this question. Look for ways involving volunteers is somehow tied to the mission of your organization. Look for ways that involving volunteers can be a part of meeting your organization's goals for the year, like having a better diversity of supporters, or reaching demographics that are under-represented at your organization, or over-coming a reputation of being closed or inaccessible. Volunteer coordinators -- make an appointment with your organization's program staff and help them think about involving volunteers in a very new way!
09:38, 21 December 2009
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Thanks to everyone who joined in
the online discussion over on
LinkedIn on how nonprofits reach people NOT reached by social media (you must be a member of
LinkedIn to view the
the online discussion).
My original post said:
So-called "social media" is a great way to reach very tech savvy audiences. But the reality is that millions and millions of people are not reached by online tools like MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube and the like. How is your nonprofit reaching those who are not reached by social media, whether that's people locally in your geographic area or audiences on a larger scale? How are you recruiting volunteers, reaching new clients, and reaching potential new donors who are not reached by MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.?
Some people took issue with me calling it "so-called" social media. I used "so-called" because those of us who have been using the Internet since the mid 1990s or earlier know there's nothing new about "so-called" social media -- it's a new name for practices that have been around from day one with the Internet (the Internet, by its very nature, is "social media"). Before the World Wide Web made much of the Internet experience one-way, online discussion groups and shared file spaces were the dominate Internet tools, doing all things that FaceBook, MySpace, blogs and other so-called social media of today are doing: building networks of people and organizations, sharing documents, photos and other information, collaborating on documents, "crowd-sourcing" (putting a question out on the Net to be answered by anyone who sees it and feels inclined to respond), and on and on. (and, for the record, I still find
YahooGroups a much more valuable networking tool than anything that's come along since).
And some people are in complete denial that using only Internet tools leaves people out. Some stood firm that there's no need for nonprofits to use anything but the Internet to reach potential donors, volunteers and other supporters, as well as clients. Hence the clarification I had to add to my LinkedIn question:
...the reality is that a nonprofit makes a huge mistake in limiting its outreach to FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., just as it makes a huge mistake *not* using such.
Andrea Hamblin, whose answer I chose as the best to the question (and who I know through our volunteering with
Knowbility, said,
The other way I am reaching this audience is by calling individuals via the telephone. Our executive board has a membership phone list that we divide amongst us to call. When we call, we verify contact information (snail mail and phone) and notify the members of upcoming events and other pertinent information.
Yes, the telephone! And maybe that includes
Skype or
iVisit as well. The point is that it's a one-on-one conversation that does more than gather information; it creates a sense of connection between the organization and the supporter that will add value to future communications sent via the Internet.
Another responder,
Dan Farkas, offered this excellent insight:
While new media has achieved great things and has even greater potential, I was floored by the measurable results of good old-fashioned airtime. I did a 3:00 segment on a local news broadcast and saw a 300% spike in web visits from that area that day, with a residual boost I still see months later.
I’ve also seen instantly local coverage work. A friend of mine did an add in a church bulletin and was pleasantly floored with the response. When you find where communities congregate, that path will create results.
If you want to reach a
diversity of potential donors, volunteers and other supporters, as well as a
diversity of clients, and if you want to target certain demographics not reached by the Internet (and, yes, whether you want to admit it or not, there are people not reached by the Internet), you must use some traditional tools.
The good news is that you can use many of these traditional tools via the Internet: you can email your announcement or press release or photo to print media, radio stations, TV stations, communities of faith (churches, temples, mosques, etc.) and various civic clubs, and they will, in turn, get that message into their printed materials (or announced on radio or TV).
Also see this earlier blog,
Could social networking sites eliminate diversity at nonprofits?
10:50, 15 December 2009
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The Center for Global Development has made available a syllabus: "Introduction to Microfinance for Development." The course, by David Roodman, explores the role of microfinance in economic development. It discusses how poor people in poor countries use financial services such as credit and savings; the history and practice of delivering such services; what is known about their contribution to development; and how stories and statistical studies shape public perceptions of microfinance. The course is in PDF format, 403 KB.
David Roodman's current focus is microfinance. He is writing a book on the subject through an "open book" blog, through which he shares chapter drafts. His earlier Microfinance as Business report, with Uzma Qureshi, shows that financial imperatives can explain much about how microfinance is conducted, from the emphasis on credit to the focus on women.
Kudos to CGD and Roodman for making this course freely available.
10:30, 15 December 2009
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Mercy Corps is an international nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon. "Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities."
In many places where Mercy Corps works, women are particularly vulnerable to disease, violence and extreme poverty. As any humanitarian or development worker knows, when women are given the opportunity to attend school or open a business, women gain the strength to lift their families and communities to a better future. When a woman succeeds in school or farming or business, she provides food, education and healthcare to her family. Her own health and well-being improves, her household becomes stronger, and the entire community benefits. In short, helping women helps an entire community.
If you are looking for a gift this holiday season, consider purchasing of a Mercy Kit to help women in some of the world's toughest places improve their lives and achieve their dreams. You can purchase:
In the interest of full disclosure: these are symbolic gifts. Purchasing a Mercy Kit supports Mercy Corps' worldwide programs and proceeds from the sale these Mercy Kits is used where most needed. But by designating your gifts through a program like this, you are saying that
women's issues should be a priority, and that does,
very much, influence a nonprofit's program decisions.
08:42, 14 December 2009
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How do nonprofits reach people NOT reached by social media? Join the discussion at LinkedIn/Answers/Nonprofits (you must be a member of
LinkedIn to participate there), or, comment on
my own network. I've got my own ideas, which I use myself and which I will post in an upcoming blog and
web page, but I would like to solicit other input.
09:41, 13 December 2009
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Once again, I cannot send email from
Thunderbird. I can download mail just fine, but my outgoing mail will not go. This started when I moved to a small town in Oregon and changed my Internet provider. The new ISP gave me new settings, which worked for a while, but I travel a lot, and have to use different settings elsewhere so my outgoing mail will work (and it doesn't always). I'm just back from a trip and I've switched back to my home settings and, once again, I can't send mail. And it's Sunday and tech support is closed.
The error message is long. Here's an excerpt: "Sending of message failed. The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP service (name of my mail server) failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections."
Oh, and I'm on a Mac.
I've tried:
(1)
- server name as the one my mail server company recommends
- port 26
- "no" for "use secure connection"
(2)
- server name as the one my mail server company recommends
- port 25
- "no" for "use secure connection"
(3) (this is the one that used to work)
- server name as the one my Internet service provider recommends
- port 25
- "no" for "use secure connection"
(4)
- server name as the one my Internet service provider recommends
- port 26
- "no" for "use secure connection"
I've also tried restarting my computer and clearing out all the pending message and sending a brand new message entirely from scratch.
Email me with your idea.
06:57, 9 December 2009
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A snazzy online tool with video and audio streaming -- live or otherwise -- does not a compelling presentation make.
Remote presenters:
if your presentation is going to be longer than five minutes, it
must have content that
- those who are supposed to watch and listen are dieing to hear,
- that they need urgently, or
- that they will find immediately, intensely interesting.
In other words, after every 30 seconds or so, your audience should feel compelled to shout out "Wow!" or "Yes!" or "Thank you!!"
This is particularly true if users are going to be watching you on a big screen rather than their own laptops.
(and having your audience watch you surf the Internet is never, ever a "wow" moment)
Otherwise: if your content can't meet that absolute wow factor, or is longer than what could be presented in five minutes, then cut it back until it is JUST FIVE MINUTES, and leave it to an onsite presenter to do the rest, in a high-interactive, low-tech manner.
(I just watched a room get put to sleep by a remote presenter using the very latest snazzy online live audio and streaming tool, killing the momentum of the day)
12:09, 5 December 2009
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December 5 - today - is
International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, as declared by the United Nations General Assembly per its resolution
40/212 in 1985.
This isn't a day to honor only international volunteers; the
international in the title describes the
day, not the volunteer.
That said, I think it's a shame to turn the day into just another day to celebrate any volunteer, rather than
specifically those volunteers who contribute to economic and social development.
Such volunteers deserve their own day. Such volunteers are part of the reason
I bristle at all the warm and fuzzy language used about volunteers (and thanks for all those links to
that blog, folks!). There are plenty of days and weeks to honor all volunteers and encourage more volunteering; why not
keep December 5 specifically for volunteers who contribute to economic and social development?
And just to be clear: by
volunteer, I mean someone who is
not paid for his or her service, and his or her "stipend" that's supposed to merely cover essential expenses so the volunteer can give up employment entirely during his or her stint as a volunteer isn't in fact more than some mid and high-level government workers of a country are making. Yes, that's a dig.
Here's
how I volunteer (no stipends yet!)
15:01, 4 December 2009
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In the winter of 1872, The New York Times printed a letter - one reader’s paean to his favorite breakfast food, "scrapple." Calling himself “EPICURE,” he pronounced the dish—a Spam-like slab of cornmeal and pig parts—both delicious and inexpensive. Later, his recipe ran.
Over the next two weeks, The Times published more than two dozen letters on the subject of scrapple, which, taken together, are a prototype for online food discussion. As this NYT article notes, "It’s all there: the pseudonymous 'usernames,' the off-topic ranting, the preoccupation with pork fat. In short, it’s a modern-day food thread in very slow motion."
"In thoroughly modern fashion, EPICURE’s recipe was almost immediately wikified. PORCUPINE warned against over-frying the scrapple, A HOUSEKEEPER swapped in Graham flour, and MIDDLETOWN gave her method for removing excess grease... Participants in the discussion didn’t just object to scrapple, of course. They also objected to each other."
Honestly, the more I learn about communications and engaging the public -- and I hope I'm always learning -- the more I think that, really, things haven't changed all that much. Certainly people haven't.
08:10, 3 December 2009
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Social marketing is the application of marketing to achieve specific behavioral goals for a social good. You've experienced social marketing on a very basic level when you have seen a TV ad encouraging you not to drink and drive, or seen a billboard that reminds you to wear your seat belt. But just one single message probably didn't change your behavior; it was a combination of messages you heard during a radio news story, read in various places, heard from friends, and so forth, that got the message through to you.
I'm fascinated by social marketing. And I'm passionate about promoting condom use
anywhere. Recently, I found a long summary about year-long multimedia behaviour change communication campaign launched in December 2007 to promote condom use among young men in India. It's a great example of how social media can work successfully.
Here is the long summary of the campaign.
Here's a shorter summary: the objective of the campaign was on getting men talking about condoms with their peers. "The secondary objective was to address barriers to condom normalisation including negative judgment and increased association with disease. The stage of condom normalisation at issue here is freedom from judgment among community, with the objective of associating condoms with smart and responsible behaviour. In the end, the key message to emerge: a condom is just another (personal) product."
Television was the lead medium selected. In addition to using local satellite and terrestrial channels, combined radio, print, and outdoor media was used, as well as cell phone technology, such as the
infamous condom cell phone ring tone. It is AWESOME!
08:25, 2 December 2009
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I don't just
talk about volunteering.
I volunteer myself, regularly, online and onsite.
Recently, I wrote the first draft of a press release for a nonprofit I support, and a few hours after I sent in the draft, I got this from the Executive Director:
"I'm impressed. You did a great job, very quickly. Of course we tweaked it, but you have given us bones, flesh and blood."
I'm not posting that to brag (yeah for me!). I'm posting it as an example of
a simple way of thanking a volunteer. In less than 25 words, she made a volunteer feel amazing. Pins, mugs and posters are, to me, impersonal, something mass produced and handed out to everyone. Sincere words of gratitude, sent in a timely manner and showing, inexplicably, that service was appreciated, sent particularly to me, mean so much more. They cost only thought and care.
Something tells me this is an organization that doesn't have trouble keeping volunteers -- and one I'll be supporting for a while as a volunteer myself.
See
more ways to use the Internet to recognize and thank volunteers.
14:15, 1 December 2009
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The Volunteer Centre South Derbyshire, in England, features
one of my posts to
UKVPMs (a discussion group for volunteer managers in the United Kingdom) on its blog in response to an article that says treating volunteers like employees is a great idea. I'm flattered that they thought my thoughts so worthy!
Here was the situation that I commented on:
In
this commentary on the Guardian, the writer talks about a volunteer DJ at a small Christian radio project in South Manchester, England, who was fired when staff became aware that he is gay. The writer's conclusion is that the employment laws need to apply to volunteers in order to protect them from being fired for no good reason.
Here was my response on
UKVPMs:
On the one hand, I don’t believe in requiring volunteers to do things that staff aren’t: background checks should be for everyone, not just the volunteers. The anti-discrimination policy of the organization applies to everyone, not just paid staff. Neither paid staff nor volunteer staff should be exploited or mistreated or neglected.
But on the other hand, I also come from the point of view that:
- volunteering with a nonprofit is a privilege, not a *right.* I involve volunteers so long as it explicitly benefits the mission of the organization, and if forced to choose, my loyalty would be to the mission of the organization and those it serves rather than to a volunteer.
- volunteers are human beings and should absolutely be expected to be treated as such, however, they are NOT employees, and therefore are not entitled by law to any of the same legal benefits of an employee.
- volunteers are managed by a volunteer coordinator, rather than a human resources director, because volunteers are NOT employees.
So I read this article with a lot of empathy and sympathy, but then cringed at “Volunteers should be protected against unfair dismissal.” *Legally* protected? If so, legally protected *how*?
The *primary* consequence of an employee being unfairly dismissed is that he or she loses income. There are other consequences, but loss of income is the *primary” consequence, and we all know that income is necessary for our survival. The laws that protect employees from being unfairly dismissed aren’t designed to do anything other than to prevent an employee from losing income and to restore an unfairly-treated employee’s lost income; the laws aren’t designed to restore anyone’s dignity or honor.
What would be the legal redress of a volunteer wronged? If a volunteer is granted the ability to sue regarding dismissal, what will the compensation be if whatever deciding body sides with the volunteer? Will he or she receive money? If so, say goodbye to volunteer involvement at probably *most* organizations; they aren’t going to risk that kind of financial expenditure. Reinstatement? The organization will be forced to involve the volunteer in his or her previous role? Does that volunteer then become untouchable, meaning the organization will have to keep the kinds of files, including regular evaluations, on volunteers that they maintain for staff in order to justify the disciplining, the requirement for training or the firing of a volunteer?
I guess in summary: I don’t ever want any volunteer dismissed for arbitrary reasons, I don’t ever want any volunteer mistreated or exploited, and I want us all to work to make sure that never happens, but I also don’t want volunteers to become employees, for a variety of reasons that I hope I’ve made clear (not sure I have).
And so I don’t really know what the answer is...
And I still don't.
07:58, 30 November 2009
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One of the
many days and weeks to honor volunteers is December 5: International Volunteer Day. It's not a day to recognize only
international volunteers -- it's an international day to recognize
any volunteers.
I got this note in a mass email sent out from
United Nations Volunteers:
This is the time to recognize the hard work and achievements of volunteers everywhere who work selflessly for the greater good.
Selflessly?
Volunteers are not all selfless! Volunteers are not all donating unpaid service to be nice, to help the world, or to make a difference for a greater good. Volunteers also donate unpaid service:
- to gain certain kinds of experience
- for a sense of adventure
- to gain skills and contacts for paid employment
- for fun
- to meet people in the hopes of making friends or even get dates
- because they are angry and want to see first hand what's going on at an organization or within a cause, or to contribute to a cause they feel passionate about
- to feel important
None of those reasons to volunteer are selfless -- and all of them are
excellent reasons to volunteer, nonetheless (and excellent reasons for an organization to involve a volunteer).
These not-so-selfless volunteers are not less committed, less trustworthy or less worth celebrating than the supposed "selfless" volunteers.
Let's quit talking about volunteers with words like "nice" and "selfless." Volunteers are neither saints nor teddy bears. Let's drop the fuzzy language and
start using more modern and appropriate language to talk about volunteers that recognizes their importance, like "powerful" and "intrepid" and "audacious" and "determined." Let's even call them "mettlesome" and "confrontational" and "demanding." That's what makes volunteers
necessary, not just
nice.
In short,
let's give volunteers their due with the words we use to describe them.
Also see
Learning From The “Not-So-Nice” Volunteers, which I wrote back in 2004.
11:03, 25 November 2009
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Today is
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, as designated by the United Nations General Assembly.
Why is this day needed? Consider this:
- Violence against women is the most common but least punished crime in the world.
- It is estimated that between 113 million and 200 million women are demographically "missing." They have been the victims of infanticide (boys are preferred to girls) or have not received the same amount of food and medical attention as their brothers and fathers.
- Worldwide, 40-70% of all female murder victims are killed by an intimate partner.
- The number of women forced or sold into prostitution is estimated worldwide at anywhere between 700,000 and 4,000,000 per year. Profits from sex slavery are estimated at seven to twelve billion US dollars per year.
- Globally, women between the age of fifteen and forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die as a result of male violence than through cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or war combined.
- At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Usually, the abuser is a member of her own family or someone known to her. Domestic violence is the largest form of abuse of women worldwide, irrespective of region, culture, ethnicity, education, class and religion.
- Women are victims of violence in approximately 95% of the cases of domestic violence.
- It is estimated that more than two million girls are genitally mutilated per year, a rate of one girl every fifteen seconds.
- Systematic rape is used as a weapon of terror in many of the world's conflicts. It is estimated that between 250,000 and 500,000 women in Rwanda were raped during the 1994 genocide.
- Studies show the increasing links between violence against women and HIV and demonstrate that HIV-infected women are more likely to have experienced violence, and that victims of violence are at higher risk of HIV infection.
These figures taken are from the Secretary-General's in-depth study on violence against women (2006) (A/61/122/Add.1), from
Women in an Insecure World: Violence Against Women - Facts, Figures and Analysis. Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces, and from the
Stop Violence Against Women website (STOPVAW).
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
Get involved this year and make a difference by:
- Educating yourself regarding violence against women, both in your local area, in your nation and worldwide.
- Researching all of the resources specifically to your geographic area regarding addressing and preventing violence against women, and be ready to refer friends, family, colleagues and others, as needed.
- Speak out regarding your local, regional and national officials taking action to protect women from and punishing acts of violence by state and non-state actors, including family and community members. Speak out in letters to these officials, letters to the editor of local newspapers, calling in local talk shows, and talking to friends, family and colleagues.
- Intervene to prevent and report acts of violence against women (as your own safety allows).
- Challenge societal gender-related power imbalances as you encounter them. (Brothers, speak up for your sisters! Fathers, speak up for your daughters!)
14:43, 24 November 2009
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As
I blogged about earlier, the world's largest
online volunteering endeavor, otherwise known as
Wikipedia, is engaging in a year-long process to develop a strategic plan for the
Wikimedia movement. Specifically, Wikimedia is trying to understand where it is now, where it wants to be in five years, and how Wikimedia could get there from here.
(Wikipedia is the highest profile activity of Wikimedia, but not the only one. Have a look at
all the Wikimedia projects to learn more.)
I am volunteering as part of the process; I started by
adding myself to the Wikimedia expert database. I did this to allow task forces and other volunteers to reach me with questions, which I can respond to as I have time. However, I ended up instead being asked to
join a Wikimedia task force - specifically, the
Community Health Task Force. A larger time commitment than I was looking for... but I've been able to contribute probably eight hours total, over two days, and as a volunteer manager myself, based on my own experience, I think that's a lot.
I've summarized my own recommendations here (note that one of them is
my own proposal regarding volunteer recognition).
Participate! Comment on those proposals!
Here are my favorite proposals and from there, you can find and read even more. If you don't know how to comment,
contact me and I will walk you through it.
What I like about the process:
- I'm always interested in seeing first hand what's happening regarding online volunteering. Participating in this process (as well as others) keeps me sharp in my abilities to provide advice to others regarding online volunteering.
- Finally, people are calling Wikimedia contributors what they are: VOLUNTEERS. It's so nice to see that many Wikimedia contributors are embracing that word. I would like to see Wikimedia do so in its own communications. The Wikipedia entry for itself never mentions online volunteering and doesn't link to the Wikipedia entry for virtual volunteering, even though, as I already said, Wikipedia is the world's largest online volunteering endeavor anywhere. The page is protected so that, unlike most other pages, anyone can't edit the page. So if you have a Wikipedia account, please go to the talk page for the Wikipedia entry and note that you think there should be a link from the page to the Wikipedia entry for virtual volunteering.
- Getting a notice via email that I need to go look at our task force page or my own pages.
What I don't like about the process:
- I would have like a very clearly-defined task description of what it is I'm supposed to be doing as a Wikipedia contributor. I was so lost at first I avoided reading updates. I'm one of those online volunteers that needs very specific directions for some jobs: do this, then do this, then do this, and finally do this.
- I think there should be a way for non-wiki-savvy users to contribute. Something easier to use, ala YahooGroups or GoogleGroups.
But that's it, really.
I love it when an organization invites volunteers to contribute to strategic plans, and I love it when they provide an online way to do so. It's always a good thing to do. No matter what happens,
Wikimedia can at least say, "Wow, we have a LOT of community members/volunteers who REALLY care about our future!" Can your nonprofit say that?
A year from now, I will be intensely interested to see which of these recommendations are implemented, and how.
10:04, 22 November 2009
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A colleague told me about
GoogleWave months ago (thanks, Michelle), and I was lucky enough to get an invitation from a user to beta test it (thanks, Kanti). And... wow, it's
really hard to use.
If you are
already on GoogleWave, I hope you will consider adding me as a contact and "waving" with me.
Email me and I will tell you how to find me on GoogleWave.
My first impressions of GoogleWave:
- very hard to use
- too hard to use for at least 60% of the people I work with (for instance, I'm working with two groups with members who cannot figure out how to join YahooGroups by email and have no idea what I mean by filtering their email; GoogleWave would make their heads explode)
- needs more detailed examples of how they envision people using this (less theory, more practical examples)
- needs an easier way to search for people who may be on GoogleWave
More impressions coming as I practice with it.
14:33, 20 November 2009
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I'll be in Belgrade, Serbia to lead workshops for
EducationUSA. From their web site:
EducationUSA is a global network of more than 400 advising centers supported by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other countries by promoting personal, professional, and institutional ties between private citizens and organizations in the United States and abroad, as well as by presenting U.S. history, society, art and culture in all of its diversity to overseas audiences. The foreign students of yesterday are becoming the world leaders today.
I'll be doing intensive workshops to get local staff from the area's Educational Centers up-to-speed on
demonstrating both financial and program credibility and transparency: how to create and communicate a realistic budget, writing a program proposal, and communications activities to build credibility with current and potential partners. It's an agenda I could easily spend a WEEK on, truly.
I'll arrive in Belgrade Dec. 6, and depart Dec. 12.
If you are in Belgrade in that time and would like to meet, please
email me. Please tell me who you are, the organization you represent, and why you would like to meet.
More about
my training and consulting services. Please note I am not taking any new consulting jobs for the rest of 2009, through January 2010.
11:19, 20 November 2009
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Another week, another set of lively, relevant, fascinating discussions on two of my favorite online communities, both focused on people coordinator or manage volunteers:
OzVPM and
UKVPMs.
If you work with volunteers in any way -- as the coordinator or director of volunteers at an organization, as a staff member who works with volunteers, and as a paid staff member or volunteer yourself -- you should join these
YahooGroups. Don't just join via email; create a
Yahoo account or use one you have already to join so that, even if you choose to receive messages via email, you can go through the groups' archives and read past threads.
OzVPM is focused on Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding areas, and
UKVPMs is focused on the United Kingdom and Ireland. Recent discussions and debates have focused on volunteer rights, the ongoing trend of corporations and governments to support volunteer recruitment campaigns but not volunteer management, developing national volunteering policies, the latest trends in volunteer involvement, and whether an "International Volunteer Manager's Day" would help or be detrimental to recognition of the vital importance of volunteer coordinators and managers to successful nonprofit organizations, schools, etc. Discussions and debates are lively, intelligent, provocative, and always valuable. These groups go well beyond "what kind of table centerpiece should I use at the next volunteer thank you luncheon."
Attention anyone putting together a conference or workshop for coordinators and managers of volunteers: look to these online groups to make your event
truly speak to your target audience!
