July 29, 2010

Editor's Note

It’s time to start looking for the best nonprofit for which to work. Following on The NonProfit Times’ 2010 listing of the 50 best nonprofits at which to work, we are seeking contenders for the 2011 crown.
Management always thinks it’s providing a great work experience. Well, what do the employees think?
Please go to http://www.www.bestnonprofitstoworkfor.com for details regarding how you can nominate your organization to be recognized as one of the best. If you won during 2010, it’s time to defend your title.

In This Edition:

News Update:

•Top Ten Technology Issues

Tips Section:

•Documents That Don't Look Like You Did Them Yourself

•The Land of Lost and Broken Power Supplies

	NPT Jobs
	NPT Resource Directory
	Subscribe to NPT
	NPT Latest Edition
	NPT Advertising
	Contact Us

Please forward the NPT Instant Fundraising to your colleagues so that they can also subscribe.
Tell-a-friend!

Top Ten Technology Issues

Advances in technology have enabled organizational entities to accomplish much more than was once thought possible. Instant is the thing, and networking has come to have an entire new range of meanings.

With those advancements have come new challenges, however. A computer crash, or even a glitch, can bring operations to a screeching halt. Employees often expect to have state of the art equipment at their fingertips. And green is much more than a color nowadays, as environmental concerns generate a range of paperless and recycling strategies.

Speaking at an AICPA Not-For-Profit Executive Forum, Randy Johnston, executive vice president of K2 Enterprises of Hutchinson, Kan., discussed the problems he has found in his assessments of the technology at 118 on-site firms.

Johnston said that he identified 186 unique issues, of which he was able to arrive at the 10 most pervasive. He singled out the following as the Top 10 issues:

• Lack of consistent, firm-wide procedures.
• Compliance issues.
• Insufficient training.
• Incorrect cabling.
• Power problems.
• Improper use of scanners.
• Too little memory in servers and work stations.
• Not balancing server and work station purchases.
• Incorrectly configured firewalls or wireless access points.
• Incorrect licensing.

Documents That Don't Look Like You Did Them Yourself

Everyone wants their organization’s documents to reflect a certain amount of professionalism. When you are getting the word out, and/or asking for money, a certain amount of roughness might be tolerated, beyond which you start to loose credibility.

Few of us, however, have a secret identity as a graphic artist, or even have the budget for one to help design important mailers, reports, and brochures.

The result is a document that reflects the do-it-yourself nature of a project.

One good answer is to use pre-designed templates for the project. Templates for Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Publisher are plentiful, and easily found on Microsoft’s Office download section or with a quick search of the Internet. Some of these are more professional looking than others. Some, though free for the downloading, may not present quite the appearance that you want.

If you are willing to spend a few dollars, though, the choices greatly expand. One vendor that offers a nice variety of very professional-looking templates is www.stocklayouts.com. For about $100, this vendor provides templates for different types of documents (brochures, fliers, and the like), and different types of business entities. There are some free samples on their web site, and the layouts are available in a variety of formats for use with most of the popular word processing and document layout applications.

Another good resource is the InDesign IdeaBook, by Chuck Green. It’s available for different page layout programs, including InDesign, PageMaker, and Quark, and contains a CD with 300 templates for a huge variety of different document types. You can order it directly from the publisher, www.ideabook.com, or from Amazon. For $59, it’s a real timesaver.

Keep in mind that it’s still pretty easy to ruin a professional layout with the misuse of clipart. And a professional layout is no substitute for poorly written and edited material, so be sure to pay as much attention to the content as the appearance.

The Land of Lost and Broken Power Supplies

If you think you’re the only one who has lost a laptop power supply, lost track of which power supply goes with which laptop, or broken a supply by knocking it off a table onto the floor, take comfort in knowing that you are far from being unique.

Just about everyone who has used laptops for any length of time has found themselves without a working supply at one time or the other.

You can always get a replacement supply from the vendor. But it can take weeks to find the right supply, the right place to order from, and often a long wait. And, of course, an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) power supply is not inexpensive. If you’ve had the laptop for a number of years, paying $90 or $100 dollars for a replacement supply frequently isn’t a viable option.

A more palatable approach in many cases is a third-party replacement. Not only are they usually less expensive than the original manufacturer’s replacement unit, but frequently, they are smaller and weigh less due to improvements in technology.

In choosing a replacement supply, there are several factors to consider. The first of these is the output voltage of the supply. Different laptops require different supply voltages. Sometimes this information is contained right on the laptop next to the socket that the power supply plugs into. Other times, you will need to log onto the web site of either the laptop vendor or the replacement power supply vendor to get this data. If the replacement power supply cannot be set to supply exactly the required voltage, you stand a good chance of damaging the laptop.
The new Antec SNP-90 slim notebook power adapter, which costs about 60 dollars, is a good example. It comes with a selection of power plugs that fit a large number of laptops from different vendors, but the output voltage is fixed at 19 volts. This works great with our Lenovo laptops, but might not be suitable for some models from other vendors. The next thing to consider is capacity in watts. A laptop draws a certain amount of power when it operates. If the power supply can’t deliver the required amount of power, the laptop won’t work. The Antec mentioned above can deliver 90 watts of continuous power, which is enough for any but the most power hungry laptops on the market. Again, this information may be on a plate located on the bottom of the laptop, or on the laptop vendor’s web page. If you need a replacement or extra supply for a netbook, or a laptop that doesn’t gulp down a lot of power, Scoshe’s netVOLT (about $50) provides 50 watts of power, which is fine for a wide variety of laptops. A version of the netVOLT for use in a car or anywhere that has cigarette lighter-like power fixture, puts out 40 watts of power, is priced at a reasonable $40, and even provides a 5-volt USB port to charge your phone or other portable device. Losing or breaking a power supply isn’t the only reason to consider a replacement unit. If you frequently move your laptop between your home and your office, having a power supply in both places means never having to worry about forgetting to pack the supply. And having an extra supply at home or in your luggage has saved our bacon on more than one occasion on our frequent trips.

Update your email address!

Simply click here and let us know your new address

Make Sure We Move Too!

If you are changing positions or moving to another opportunity, make sure you let us know so that we can still deliver our enewsletters and/or print edition to you.
Simply click on this link: moving@nptimes.com