time flys

Hello again,

Well, I just got back from a wonderful conference hosted by the Blue Cross Blue Shield, Healthy Community Institute on strategic planning and making the ask, for money, encase you were wondering. I learned so much in two days and they sent us home with tons of great resources and tools. I am working on posting some on those for everyone but I have to find out what I am allowed to make copies, which doesn't look like much but a little rewording and you still get the main ideas. I am sure the institute will make its way to your area and I encourage everyone to attend, it is so worth it!! It is expensive but they provide scholarships, which is how many org. got to attend. We are planning to develop a plan in the next couple of week at our board retreat, we realized there are a lot of bases we haven't covered, being such a new and small org. There are many issue that we need to have set in stone for example, our business processes, board expectations, by laws and visions are just a few core concepts that we need to put in writing not only to keep the org. inline with its mission but so everyone involved in the org. knows their roles and what they are responsible for. I think it is important to take care of the basics before with can effectively put future plans into action.

Right now I am getting ready for our big computer giveaway, I am proud to say the on Oct 20 &23 will are giving 225 computers to all the 7th graders and some outstanding 8th graders at one of our local middle schools!! So I have been planning how we are going to get all these computers to the right home and in a timely fashion, yeah right... I am interested to see how this plays out but all I can do is plan for the worst and hope for the best. Also I have been contacting several media relations to cover this event.

Of course I am always trying to find more computers, which is becoming some what frustrating, a lot of corporations and public institutions are leasing computers now and I found out the Good Will now has a truck that goes around collecting computer equipment from people and it has our same colors too, green and blue!!! I am really going to work hard to develop a partnership with Good Will to see if we can get some of their equipment because I know all they do is have them crushed for parts, which I see as such a waste, because most of them can be refurbished and placed in a home and help change someone's life. Also when I have extra time, I am trying to learn about Exceed (the new database program we just received for a great price) because all we have right now are excel databases and data all over the place! It is definitely a work in progress, you can pay 200 for the train but I am going to try to tough it out. Well I guess that is all for now.......

Comment from Jack Waugh on October 12, 2007 - 11:26am

Have you considered using one or another of the free and open-source database management systems, e. g., MySQL?

Comment from Jack Waugh on October 12, 2007 - 2:57pm

Comment from Kevin Palmer on October 15, 2007 - 10:49am

Hey Anna, whatever you can gleam (legally of course) from that strategic planning institute would be excellent. I'm definitely interested in seeing your progress on organizing your org, so I'll probably keep bugging you about that one. Good luck on the computer giveaway!