Example of how we lose (fwd)

[Barb Weismann]

Barb sez:
I agree with all these, I even think the order is pretty good.  

Please,however, remember Nan talking about "volunteer coordination" when
she began, and as she reiterates; VC is a profession.  So is fund raising'
professional fund raisers are called development directors.  We do not
need volunteer grant writers.  Grant writing should account for 20 percent
or less of an org's annual income.  You ask, well then where does the
other 80 percent come from?  and I say, you see, development director is a
profession. We answer that question by doing.  

Which is not to say development directors don't plan.  An organization
without a fund raising
plan is losing revenue opportunties.  SCN has lost revenue opportunities
since it started. 

Barb

On Sat, 26 Jun 1999, Rich Littleton wrote:

> 
> On Fri, 25 Jun 1999, Barb Weismann wrote:
> 
> > Rich:
> 
> > What are your priorities?
> > 
> ----------------
> 
> Whew!  That question opens worlds of responses.
> 
> Let me answer that, and then I'll suggest that we might not get to do
> anyone's priority list.
> 
> Rich's Priority List
> 
> 1.	Recruit volunteers.
> 	This involves several aspects, including giving volunteers real
> benefits, providing a "hovering" volunteer coordinating agency to monitor,
> motivate and manage volunteer activities (the 3 Ms), and TRAIN THE
> VOLUNTEERS so they understand the need to serve the community.
> 
> 	The Volunteer Committee has been revitalized by the presence of
> Nan Hawthorne and optomism burns brightly in beating breasts.  (Not bad,
> for off the cuff aliteration!)
> 
> 2.	Improve our E-mail Offering
> 	We need to get a graphical (GUI) e-mail program of quality.  One
> the largest services SCNA provides is e-mail. But it is an uncomfortable
> product for too many.  I just learned that our planned PPP connection as a
> solution to this need will not really do the job because it will allow
> only 40 connections at a time.  We should contact techies from other free
> nets that have GUI e-mail and find out how those free nets deliver e-mail
> products.  [BTW, this would automatically affect the help desk effort.
> We would have LESS (tho still some) need for the help desk.  We should be
> giving enough effort to building our e-mail teaching program that we would
> automatically create a huge pool of help desk people.]
> 
> 3.	Establish Universal Voting for the Board
> 	We now rely on voting by those who show up at a meeting on only
> one night in the year.  That is not democratic and not necessay.  We
> should have mailin ballots.  I think we should have electronic voting,
> though some of the techies worry about security. But we don't have
> security in the current method.  But, whether by mail or by electron, we
> have to start having voting available to all the SCNA members. This
> implies also implementing a forum in which debate, discussion, and
> defiance (I needed a third D) can occur publically, so voters can see
> candidate attitude.
> 	Related to this is the need to have both (*) advanced notice of
> board meeting agendas (so the membership knows what is to be discussed),
> and (*) the rapid production and distribution of minutes. Without these
> information tools, there is little relationship between the board and the
> membership. 
> 
> 4.	Fundraising
> 	We need to see what IRS regulations will permit and try to get
> benefits for people to sign up with scnA.  Right now there is not real
> benefit, and SCNA is quaking at the risk of making the same mistake made
> by Eugene, OR. So let's go find out!  
> 
> 	We also need some of our new volunteers to set up a fundraising
> group (forget the Board).  The group should probably be a handful of grant
> writers.  (This is why # 1 is #1:  We need to get qualified volunteers to
> do ANYTHING.)
> 
> 5.	Revitalize our IP program
> 	We we should be the IP site of choice.  This is the second-most
> important function (depending) SCNA provides.  The Speakeasy Cafe has done
> a lot of this (the Seattle City Council member, Nick Lacitas, uses
> Speakeasy (not SCN) for his newsletter to the public.), and we could do
> more.  HOWEVER, it must be said that SCN has done a lot here already.
> (That's why it is rated #2 in the community service evaluation.)  This is
> by no means a negative area for SCNA.  It has slowed up a lot lately, but
> it is an area where SCNA can serve to community better.  Perhaps we can
> re-kindle our relationship with the Seattle Public Library by offering to
> teach WEB site classes -- but, that then runs into the near-fatal fact
> that we don't have graphical capablities so we can't show the user what
> s/he has built.
> 
> These 5 prioritized goals should get us started.
> 
> *****************
> 
> 	Here's where I raise the question that we might not get to
> implement any priority list. 
> 
> 	SCNA is not setting goals and priorities. (I've asked for the
> SCNA priority list several times.)  The importance of this is that SCNA
> Board decisions are not being guided by a clear, known-to-all, measurable 
> list of what the organization is all about.  Should e-mail be more
> important than Web hookup?  (dunno)  Should SCNA invest in conferencing
> software? (dunno)  Should SCNA implement GUI e-mail? (dunno)  Should SCNA
> offer a graphical browser (making appropriate system changes)?  (dunno)
> Could SCNA provide benefits that increase fund increasing?  (dunno)
> 
> 	We are falling out of favor with librarians.  We COULD lose our
> piggyback onto SPL's hookup to the internet if (a) we do offer graphical
> capabilities and (b) a commercial ISP challenges our competing by means of
> piggybacking on the PUBLIC library bandwidth.  So, should we explore
> funding to operate independently of SPL?
> 
> 	SCNA does not know what it wants to do. Our lack of clarity about
> our mission and/or role in the community delays decisions, which in turn
> delay action, which threatens our prestige still more.
> 
> 	Obviously, mission decisions change the priority list.  If SCN
> decides it cannot provide GUI e-mail, then the e-mail priority item above
> (#2) must be stricken from the list.
> 
> 
> 
> 

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