Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Picks of the Week: September 12 - 18, 2010

Website of the Week – National Issues Forums
The National Issues Forums, a voluntary, nonpartisan, nationwide network of forums and study circles, is rooted in the notion that citizens need to come together to deliberate about common problems in order to act on them. The Web site has NIF Reports, a schedule of workshops where citizens come together to learn more about convening and moderating forums, and a message board. Go to: http://www.nifi.org.


Publication of the Week -- Supporting the Decision to Join: What Association Boards Should Know and Do About Membership and Affiliation by James Dalton

From the Publisher: Third in the blockbuster companion series that includes The Decision to Join and The Decision to Volunteer, this brand new, leader-friendly title provides the intelligence your board needs to drive member loyalty, and engage in strategic deliberation and intelligence-based decision making. It's grounded in sound research mined from the 2007 ASAE & The Center study. Author James Dalton studied the responses for board-level implications then added his authoritative insights. As a result you get the know-how to inspire value proposition dialogue and membership strategy in your board members. Clearly this is a resource containing intelligence-based research--buy it for your board members today. No board member should fulfill his or her role without it. Click to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week – Nonprofits Find Value in Time-Off Programs

Even as a very slow and modest upturn in the U.S. economy is becoming evident, not-for-profit organizations across the country continue to search for ways to reward employees, despite the shrinking pay increase budgets and pay freezes seen throughout the industry. The newly released 2010 Compensation Data Not-For-Profit survey results show that exempt employees with less than one year of service earn an average of 7.7 vacation days, while non-exempt employees earn 6.7 days. More than half of the not-for-profit organizations offering paid vacation to employees use years of service to determine the number of days an employee can accrue. Exempt employees with 5 years of service average 15.8 days of vacation, compared to those with 10 years of service, 19 days. For more information, go to: http://www.talentmanagementtech.com.


Resource of the Week – Nonprofit Collaboration Database

The Foundation Center hosts a nonprofit collaboration resource page that includes a database containing information about the ways that nonprofits can collaborate to achieve their missions — through mergers, joint programming, and other forms of collaboration. This database is a resource for everyone seeking real-life examples of how nonprofits are working together. Find information from more than 250 nonprofit collaborations drawn from the 2009 Collaboration Prize, created by the Lodestar Foundation. Go to: http://foundationcenter.org.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Flipping Data in an Excel 2007 Worksheet

Ever create an Excel 2007 table and then wish the columns were rows and the rows were columns? Here's a solution:

• Select the table
• Press Ctrl + c to copy (Or click the copy button on the Home tab of the Ribbon)
• Select the cell where you want the new table to begin (this cell CAN be in the old table)
• Right click to display the shortcut menu and select Paste Special (Or on the Home tab of the Ribbon, click the Paste arrow to display the Paste Special option)
• In the Paste Special dialog box, select Transpose and click OK

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