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Bagels & Bytes Meeting Notes – April 2018

About the Meetup

We had our first of two meetups at the Frick Pittsburgh on April 4. We will be back at the Frick one more time on May 2. Thank you to Lynn, Linda and the Frick team for hosting us!

Following are the notes and resources discussed during the meetup.

Security Surveillance Cameras (vendors don’t say “security” but surveillance these days)

  • NEST – backs up to cloud, can see who’s at door instead of just having a buzzer
    • Also has smoke detectors and the like
  • Lorex – phone app so you can see all cameras
  • Axis Companion – integraIVMStes with phone system
  • Vector – company that does comprehensive security
  • SmartCam
  • Ccure – security company

Updating technology

  • What to do with technology is the last thing to receive attention (sometimes caused by older board members who don’t get it)
  • Sometimes scaring board and leadership by pointing out risk can work
  • Need to get people on the board who are technology advocates
  • Donated software and hardware isn’t usually “free”
  • NTEN technology staffing and investments survey – to see how much your org should be spending
  • Plan more than you think you need to
  • TechSoup – low cost software and hardware; have to watch for license expirations
  • Other free software for NPOs
  • Ask merchant account providers about nonprofit rates
  • Northland Public Library lends out Internet hotspots

Social Media Policy Template

  • Look online for templates
  • Hard to enforce – need to make sure legal looks at it before deploying
  • Policy for staff is good, but also want to consider other stakeholders, like volunteers, board members, etc.
  • Social media task force can possibly help

Social Tools/Channels Most Used by Younger Generations

Website Security

Bagels & Bytes Meeting Notes – October 2017

Bagels & Bytes attendees holding a meeting

Meetup Info

We had a great meetup at ACHIEVA earlier this month! Thank you to Nicole and the staff there for hosting us!

Our next meeting is in the same location on Wednesday, November 1, 8:30 – 10 am. Be sure to also mark your calendar for the December B&B Holiday Party Meetup at Dave & Busters on Friday, December 8 from 1 – 4 pm. Lunch meeting, followed by a Techie White Elephant gift exchange, then some gaming, including our annual skee-ball contest!

Here are the notes and resources from this month:

When IT is kept out of the loop

  • Sometimes tech staff are deliberately or inadvertently kept out of the loop on IT-related decisions (example: when HR staff choose a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and don’t involve tech staff)
  • One theory is that IT represents a large expense in an organization and not involving tech staff keeps costs down.
  • Another theory is it simply boils down to organizational politics.

Why should passwords be changed frequently?

  • Is every 90 days too often?
  • The network admins in our group don’t think so.
  • Financial auditors will actually recommend changing passwords more frequently, such as every 60 days.

Can you over-customize a database?

  • Ask yourself, is the database overly complex because it needs to be or is it because business processes are overly complicated and affecting workflows in the database accordingly.
  • An interesting exercise – think about what CRM you would go with if yours blew up tomorrow and was permanently un-usable.
  • Fractured systems are the worst thing of all to deal with.

Software resources mentioned

  • Paycom – newer company doing HRIS/payroll software.
  • Mass email tools:
    • Vertical Response – good nonprofit rates (first 10K emails per month are free) but gets blacklisted a lot.
    • Constant Contact – costs more per month, but does have nonprofit pricing. Get a discount for paying for the whole year in advance. Doesn’t get blacklisted as often. Integrates with Salesforce, including the new Lightning interface.
    • MailChimp – good and not too expensive. Doesn’t get blacklisted as often. Does not integrate well with Salesforce Lightning interface.
    • Emma – possibly most costly of all, but also has the most features for marketing and fundraising included.
    • Google Groups – not necessarily a mass email tool, but can do group messaging with it.
    • Click Dimensions – works with MS Dynamics CRM in particular.

 

Bagels & Bytes Meeting Notes – August 2017

This month…

…we met at Jewish Residential Services in the Rodef Shalom Congregation building. A big “thank you” to Paula and the JRS team for hosting us!!

We will meet there once again on Wednesday, September 6 from 8:30 – 10 am. See the sidebar to the right for ways to register.

Here are the topics and resources discussed during this month’s meeting:

  • CRM for Nonprofits (Constituent/Client/Customer Relationship Management)
  • Sharing Documents with People External to Your Organization
  • Salesforce Resources
  • Migrating to Google Drive
  • Outlook + Sharepoint Desktop Version vs. 365
    • Permissions have been a persistent issue for some
    • Training is a constant issue
    • User acceptance can be slow
      • 365 is more difficult to understand – the cloud and file sharing aspects of it
      • Files get saved over if don’t change file names from version to version
    • Can embed a Google Calendar inside of Sharepoint
    • Are we pushing older workers out by all these upgrades in tech?
    • What about outsourcing to the cloud completely?
      • Internet bandwidth must be sufficient to do true virtualization
      • Off-site hosting is more $ for service, less $ for backups, maintenance, licensing
      • JENLOR is one local company that does virtualization
    • Office 365 is on TechSoup
  • LaserJet 401 Troubleshooting
    • Old printer, but hates to get rid of it because has been a workhorse till now
    • Won’t print graphics, only text
      • Maybe is an issue with Windows security?
      • Perhaps an issue with a recent Windows update?
    • Where to e-cycle if decide to ditch it?
  • Listserv Usage
    • Reminds us of VCR tapes and DOS
    • Mass email marketing tools if wanting to do one-to-many messaging (like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp)
    • Group tools if want members to message each other and the group at large (Facebook, Google or Linked group)