Using a wiki to manage your committee
As the Chair of 2020 Communications Trust its my job to manage our governance bodies, including the full meetings of trustees and the monthly Admin committee.
Naturally we try to use the tools we promote, starting in the old days with emails and attachments. That soon gets totally unwieldy as participants add their comments, want to edit or amend documents and add or amend agenda items. The secretarial load soon becomes impossible. Time to webify the process. [Read more →]
Welcome back to Groupings blog. Now that you are a regular, please feel free to comment on any story that you feel comfortable with.
December 14, 2009 No Comments
Accountants resisting online applications
As one who has recently made the transition to online accounting system from having the software based on a third party's PC; one who charged us every time data was entered and even for fixing any data entry errors, I'm sold on the idea, especially for small organisations.
But the accounting profession is about as conservative as you can get - its what we pay them for and when they get "creative" or "innovative" we ALL get into deep trouble - so you might expect some resistance when you rush in with the idea to your CFO, accoutnay, auditor or treasurer. AccountingWEB.co.uk has the lowdown Accountants bring Cloud summit down to earth [Read more →]
December 9, 2009 No Comments
IT use self assessment tool
Connecting Up Australia has created a capacity benchmarking tool for organisations wanting to know how they measure up in IT capability alongside comparable other organisations in the sector
"Are We There Yet?" lets you benchmark your technology capacity against almost 1,000 nonprofits who completed their detailed survey in October 2008. As more and more nonprofit organisations use the AWTY benchmark tool online, the richer the benchmark data will become.
They are about to add a section that also allows you to benchmark your efforts to be 'green' and environmentally responsible.
The real point of 'Are We There Yet?' is that it helps you answer the question of 'What Now?' Once you complete the survey they direct you to resources that will help you get to the next stage.
So how does this work?
1. Click the 'Are We There Yet?' button at the bottom of this page.
2. Complete the benchmark survey and click Submit. The Organisation and Email fields are optional but we'll need your email address if you want your report emailed to you.
3. After you hit the Submit button, your detailed benchmark report will be displayed, showing how your nonprofit organisation compares to other nonprofits of a similar type and size. You can print this report or email it to yourself by clicking the relevant button.
4. Click Next Steps at the bottom of the page and read some cases studies about how donations obtained through the Donortec program have assisted nonprofits.
5. Click Directory at the bottom of the Page and see the service providers and products that other nonprofits in your category are using. (The top grouping are those most commonly used but they are not in set order because these change over time.)
There are so many efforts under way to help NFPs gain more from their investments in IT, many of them little more than harangues about how others are doing this or that, often with the implication that you should to. "Are We There Yet" at least has a go at helping you figure out where your start line is.
If you give it a whirl, leave your evaluation of it in the comments for the rest of us.
December 2, 2009 No Comments
Another question about Cloud services
This potential problem for those of us thinking about storing our data "in the cloud" of the internet is more about contractual obligations and corporate attitude than actual technical issues which can occur any time and in odd ways.
But it IS worth thinking about. Mozy glitch fogs the reliability of storage clouds [Read more →]
November 30, 2009 No Comments
Your ICT and your audit
Thanks to the folks at eRider for this reminder on the role that IT plays in governance and financial accountability. Auditors watching how organisations manage IT risks.
As It systems become critical to daily operations, they also become critical to the survivability of any organisation that comes to depend on them, not just on a daily basis, but on much broader time scales.
November 24, 2009 No Comments
