Picks of the Week: July 13 - July 19, 2008

VolunteerMatch

VolunteerMatch is a leader in the nonprofit world dedicated to helping everyone find a great place to volunteer. The organization offers a variety of online services to support a community of nonprofit, volunteer and business leaders committed to civic engagement. This popular service welcomes millions of visitors a year and has become the preferred internet recruiting tool for more than 50,000 nonprofit organizations. Go to: http://www.volunteermatch.org/about. For some excellent volunteer recruitment resources targeting 55+ volunteers, go to: http://www.volunteermatch.org/nonprofits/resources/research.jsp.


Publication of the Week -- Boards That Deliver: Advancing Corporate Governance From Compliance to Competitive Advantage by Ram Charan

From the publisher: Finally, a book that brings the vision of truly good governance down to earth. Ram Charan, expert in corporate governance and best-selling author, packs this book with useful tools and techniques to take boards and their companies to a higher level of performance. Charan puts his finger on a growing problem for boards: the disconnect between directors' efforts and their results. The added time and attention boards invest is not translating into better governance, that is, governance that adds value to the business. Boards That Deliver gets beyond the rhetoric of corporate governance reform. It captures the tried-and-true practices used by high-performance boards. In contrast to experts who base prescriptions on number-crunching exercises, Charan identifies the real problems that drain directors' time and suppress their best judgments and explains clearly and succinctly how boards can solve those problems. These battle-tested solutions help boards achieve what rules and regulations alone cannot to get succession right, refine a winning strategy, and design a rational CEO compensation package. Click here to preview this book on Amazon.com.


Trend of the Week -- U.S. Population Projections: 2005-2050

If current trends continue, immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their descendants will account for 82% of the population growth in the United States during this period, according to new projections from the Pew Research Center. The nation's racial and ethnic mix will change markedly by mid-century, the projections show, with the Hispanic share rising to 29%. Among non-Hispanic race groups, the Asian share will rise to 9%, the non-Hispanic black share will hold steady at 13% and the non-Hispanic white share will fall to 47%. The nation's elderly population (ages 65 and above) will more than double in size from 2005 to 2050 and by mid-century will make up 19% of the total population. The Center’s report includes an analysis of the nation’s future “dependency ratio”—the number of children and elderly compared with the number of working-age Americans. There were 59 children and elderly people per 100 adults of working age in 2005. That will rise to 72 dependents per 100 adults of working age in 2050. The report also offers two alternative population projections, one based on lower immigration assumptions and one based on higher immigration assumptions. To download a copy of the complete report, go to: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/85.pdf.


Resource of the Week -- SmorgasBoard Newsletter

The SmorgasBoard newsletter is published by BoardWalk Consultants. A sampling of bits and bytes on boards and leadership in nonprofits, foundations and the institutions that champion them, SmorgasBoard offers essays, practical tools, client developments, publications and other items of interest for trustees, executive directors, and those who care about the causes they serve. For subscription information and copies of past editions, go to: http://www.boardwalkconsulting.com/Enewsletter.aspx.


Tech Tip of the Week -- Entering the Current Date in Word 2007

• Click the Insert tab on the Ribbon
• In the Text group, click Date and Time
• Choose the desired date format
• If you want the date to be updated every time you open the document, turn on the “update automatically” check box
• Click on OK