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Interesting blog post bu Elizabeth MacBride, April 5, 2013, on virtual partnerships, 5 secrets 1. must have the same agenda 2. you actually like the person 3. complementary skill sets or traits 4. open lines of communications 5. good legal underpinnings Excerpt "Our number-one rule - and the glue that holds our partnership together - is keeping the workload manageable. We don't take on too many clients, and we don't hold ourselves to unrealistic standards for production. "Our business is focused on helping people navigate a big, ongoing trend-the shift from traditional jobs to an economy built around freelance, contract and temporary work. Pulling all-nighters at the business and cutting ourselves off from the rest of the world, as we might at a venture-capital backed startup, doesn't seem like the right way for us," Pofeldt says. "Why not enjoy one of the best parts of freelancing: the freedom to have an active life outside of work without apologizing for it?" Barry "CB" Martin and Larry Gaian are food writers and marketers-for-hire who met via their common networks. "This year I started several new ventures," Martin wrote via email. "I asked him to be a sounding board. On one of the ideas, he was thinking along the same lines so we decided to combine forces." They're working together under the moniker Guys In Aprons, asking food companies to hire them to write recipe posts and interview expert chefs."

Pinterest Board from ISTE 2013 conference--lots of interesting infographs, links to resources, and presentations

An interesting practice suggested by Jordan Rappaport, 6.24.13, curated on Scoop.it!

Believe these questions also apply to business start-ups Excerpt What is your pitch? Einstein said it best: "If you can't explain it simply, then you don't understand it well enough." This is why elevator speeches are a good test. I loathe how reductive they make the mission feel, but they make for a really good exercise. Because if you can't tell me what you do in half a minute-especially if you're fired up about how right your cause is-do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go back to the drawing board so you can tell me, simply, clearly, and quickly, what it is you do. You want my attention, don't you?"

excellent infographic summary of Leading with Intent 2014, A National Index of Nonprofit Board Practices, BoardSource

excellent article by Jennifer Chandler and Kristen Scott Kennedy on building capacity through networks, February 5, 2016. 

list of Florida nonprofit alliance members includes their establishing charter members and consultants (only one of whom I know and she is excellent), and other regular members including quite a few in Tampa Bay area. Marlene Spalten, CEO of Community Foundation of Tampa Bay, is also member of the FNA Board.

profile of Shireen Mitchell, NCWO's Chair of the Media and Technology Taskforce, president of the board of CTCNet, and founder/ED of Digital Sisters/Sistas, a nonprofit org focused on using media and technology to access self-sufficiency tools for women and children.

Very interesting Slideshare on finding the juicy problems of your customers that they will pay you to help solve. Should go into our marketing resource group. Offers a leanstartup validation board from customer hypothesis to problem hypothesis to solution hypothesis to design experiment (get out of the building) to validate what you plan to offer.

""Women small business owners are not just more optimistic about their own businesses, they're also more bullish about the prospects for female entrepreneurs who are just starting out," said Billie Dragoo, national board chairwoman of the National Association of Women Business Owners. "With a positive outlook and strong entrepreneurial spirit, women business owners continue to be a driving force of our economy." The research also gauged how female business owners are using social media to help grow their companies. While 85 percent of the women surveyed believe social media is important for building customer relationships, only 67 percent currently use social media to connect with customers. The study found that just 25 percent of female business owners are posting on social media at least once a day, with 23 percent rarely posting at all. When they do use social media, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube are the preferred platforms."

Iconizer.net page has great tools for working with their images.

Maria Perez, in this article on 4/23/15 from the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog, states that by 2043 the US will be a "minority" nation, and the Latino population will increase by more than 100% between now and 2060 when one in three people will be Latino. As a result of this, she argues that it is time to embrace the idea of new integration models that will increase Latino college graduation rates, wealth, income, representation in all professions, boards of directors, gov't, and business. The article goes on to describe what these integration models could be.

side by side of the old WIA and new WIOA law. Good summary of changes of services and delivery systems. Emphasis on coordination by Workforce Investment boards. Chart compiled by the National Skills Coalition.

Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States is the tenth annual report on the state of online learning in U.S. higher education. The survey is designed, administered and analyzed by the Babson Survey Research Group. Data collection is conducted in partnership with the College Board. This year's study, like those for the previous nine years, tracks the opinions of chief academic officers and is aimed at answering fundamental questions about the nature and extent of online education. Based on responses from more than 2,800 colleges and universities,

AssociationsNow blog, July 30, 2014 "Toronto-based software company Wild Apricot, identified the same top three priorities reported in last year's survey: Small-membership organizations are most concerned about increasing membership, increasing member engagement, and demonstrating member value. Among the challenges that respondents said they face were attracting and engaging millennials and getting their boards and members to adopt new technologies. The survey gathered input from 487 organizations that represent fewer than 500 members and have operating budgets of less than $500,000. The findings provide a glimpse into the many facets of running a small-membership organization, including information about membership growth, recruitment and retention, membership models, and finances."

blog post by Vu Le, February 2, 2015--reflections on SeaHawks' loss to Patriots and tie-in to nonprofits' lessons And I found that the greatest thing about this sport where a bunch of dudes throw an egg-shaped ball and shove each other around, is the community it builds. The last two weeks especially have been great. People were nicer to each other. Everyone seemed happier. And the ice at any meeting could be broken with a simple "Go Hawks." Applied to nonprofits: One of the most important things that nonprofits do is that we build community. This is hard to measure and is not often funded. But we cannot take this for granted. When we do a good job, our organizations and programs instill in people-our clients, staff, board, volunteers, donors-a sense of belonging to a community that cares about them, where they are seen, where they matter. (See "An immigrant kid's reflections on community.")

Project Muse in 2005: article by Fred Turner, assistant professor at Stanford who credited Howard Rheingold with the term "virtual community" from the title of Rheingold's book The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier, 1993, that explained his 8-year participation in a bulletin board system known as the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, a text only environment.

Good article on rebalancing power/responsibility between incoming CEO and board after long-time CEO departs. Cites Chris McEntee who worked at AARP with me 30 years ago before she left for work in a health association. Interesting, I checked her LinkedIn profile and she does not list any employment prior to the 1990s. But it's clearly the same woman I worked with.

very nice infographic on netiquette in discussions