MY Hines

• Aimee Mann – Pavlov’s Bell – I’ve had this song on regular rotation for a long time and did not even notice how geeky it could be.
• Tori Amos – Digital Ghost – I have enjoyed Tori Amos since Cornflake Girl so it shouldn’t be surprise that she has made my list. With lyrics such as “Your heart only beats ones and O’s” it’s kind of clear why this song made the list.
• Marina & The Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot – I have wanted to say this so many times to people – so thanks to Marina & The Diamonds for saying it for me.
• Nursehella – Geekend Freakout – This is one of those songs that I found by listening to Last.fm. Sometimes Last.fm gets it right.
• Barcelona – I Have Your Password To Your Shell Account –  This is the warning song for those boyfriends who want to double-cross a geeka.
• Bjork – Headphones – It was hard to pick the right Bjork song, but as soon as I thought of artists who may have sung a geek song – Bjork was one of the first female artists that I thought would have to be on the list.
• MC Chris – Nrrd Girl– Ok, the video is great. Just watch it.
• Helen Arney – Statistically I Love You –  I’m not so much into math, but my best friend is and this song seemed to be perfect. Plus, it was especially written by Helen Arney for Geek Pop, a free online music festival for artists who are inspired by science.
• Nerina Pallot – Geek Love – She has a great voice too!
• Nellie McKay – Identity Theft – Nellie McKay – gutsy woman there!
• Indigo Girls – Galileo – Another group that was already in my mind as having to be on this list. Then I realized that I’ve had this song playing on my iPod for a long time too.
• Britta Persson – Defrag My Heart – “What I need is a program to defrag my heart” – yeah, Britta, you make the list.
• The Hot Toddies – HTML – A doo-wop geek song? Yep. The Hot Toddies have one. They could have made the list again too – they have another song Photosynthesis which was one science word that I managed to remember how to spell in the 4th grade.
• Kate Bush – Pi – A whole song devoted to the numbers that make up Pi? Only a few people could do that and it makes sense that it was Kate Bush.

There are two mentions I must make here, because they are almost on my list except for that they weren’t female artists.

• The Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star – When I remember this song, I remember the female part which made it hard not to put it on that first part of the list – but then there is that man at the beginning. Darn him! Now this song seems so dated and there are so many different parodies of it in the variations of “Internet Killed the Radio Star”. That says a lot.
• Jason Mraz – Geek In The Pink – I’d like you Jason Mraz, even if you are a geek.

What songs have I missed/forgotten? List them in the comments!

There is always a chance for you to get some time off – even if you are a nonprofit tech. Just last year I gave everyone in my organization a 6 month notice that I was going to Disney World and that my Blackberry would be locked in the safe in my house – just to let them all know that there are times when I cannot always be connected.

But when you get this time, it’s always hard when you get back. That has been the case since I have returned from the Nonprofit Technology Conference. In fact, I’m going to list some of my tips below for when you are gone for several days and I will readily admit right now, I am including them because I didn’t do them myself.

1. Do expect something to go wrong – You probably are expecting something small to go wrong while you are gone – maybe a printer runs out of toner and there is no spare toner on site for it. That’s a minor something going wrong. However, I’m in the school of thought that it is easier to be prepared for that pet project that you have held together for the past eight month that finally seemed to be all ready to launch to have something threaten the timeframe. It is much easier to come back and found out that the pet project kept on track. But the disappointment of having it go off track because you were expecting it to stay the course is hard to shake from your mood and it colors everything.
2. Don’t start new staff the day you return – If you can avoid this, do it. I wasn’t able to do that and I love having new staff. But it also put a lot of extra pressure on me before I left to make sure that I had a training plan in place, all the papers that had to be filled out ready to go, and made it impossible to catch up with email until my third day back because I was so focused on bringing the new staff member into the loop of how we work. There are some of us that need the staff so badly that we’ll take them whenever we can – but if you can, avoid it being right when you return.
3. Don’t misplace your excitement for the job – This was so hard when I came back from the Nonprofit Technology Conference. I was so excited about all the new things that I learned. I wanted to go through all of my notes, I wanted to share my resources, and I wanted to try new things out that I had been suggested. Then I walked into my office and dealt with the reality that I had in front of me and I almost lost that excitement. I have held onto it for weeks now and am now really starting to share the resources, let others know what I learned and finally getting to read those books that I got. You have to find a way to hold onto that excitement for the job. Even when you are gone from the job for a personal vacation, you almost always come back with an idea of what you are going to do next. Don’t let the 1,000+ emails in your inbox deter you.
4. Schedule time with your direct supervisor in those first couple days that you return – This was a hard lesson I learned and I learned it well. I need to make sure that I have this time into my supervisor’s schedule or it may be days until I get in front of that supervisor after I return. Yes, it’s important to let that person know what you learned or the fun you had while off  – but you need that knowledge transfer of what transpired while you were gone also.
5. Do not rehash what didn’t get done – It makes no sense to go over all the things that didn’t get completed while you are gone – even if some people said that they would be done. It makes no sense and what the focus should be on is moving forward from that point in time.
6. Keep your schedule simple that first full week back – If you were out for almost a full week – keep your schedule as open as possible. If you get filled with meetings during that first week back, you’ll be like me – dreaming of the inbox of over 1,000 emails waiting to get your attention. Sometimes you can’t avoid meetings, but try to avoid extra meetings if possible.
7. Take a deep breath and schedule your next time away – In my book, I like knowing when I’m getting away from the office again. Even that one day away for a training is sometimes the refreshing break that I have to focus on when I just come back from a trip. I’ve been lucky – coming back from the Nonprofit Technology Conference I know that the second week of May I’m out of here to go to a week-long fun trip to Las Vegas. That has been a great motivator to get right back into the groove so that I don’t fall behind before leaving for that trip. Plus, we all need to have those breaks.

I find that sometimes the primary function I provide as a nonprofit techie is that of a translator. I have to find the ways to translate the geek-speak into something that all staff will understand. There are so many different levels to this ungeeking that sometimes I feel like I’m under seige. However, when I find a good way to ungeek something, I love to share it – because maybe it will help someone else do the same thing that I’ve been forced to do.

Most often, the easiest way for me to ungeek things is by turning them into analogies of some sort. I have to find some way to remember that defragmentation is a lot like cleaning your desk, or a point to point connection is a private driveway between two buildings that you can only travel on if you work for the buildings. It’s easy to get lost in this world too – but when you figure out an easy way to explain, you feel like you have followed that rainbow to the pot of gold.

That is the situation I was in last week. For years we have been talking about individual silos of information that our databases are and how we need to centralize in the future. Now, those don’t seem like geek terms to me, but what was happening was that employees were imaging this one giant mess of a database with lots of things that they could see, but wouldn’t have permission to use because it wasn’t for them. It was clear that what was in my head and the heads of our consultants did not match the employees’ thoughts. I had to find a way to bring this back to something that could be understood. So, after a couple of hours of thinking, I thought of the way we want our databases to communicate much like power plants working together to support the power grid. Below is what I’m using to explain and you may find it useful if you ever have to ungeek this situation.

Database Version 1.0 (right now) – This represents a situation where the database/system is much like a new nuclear power plant that has been started. It has security in place to make sure that everything stays contained and if things go outside of the nuclear power plant, it is going to a special location that is only being used by the nuclear power plant (the power plant was built to give power to just one community.) Each individual database/system is represented by all different types of power plants – there are some hydroelectric power plants, some wind plants, some coal plants and so forth. Each works independently and when started are working within their own little shell.

Database Version 2.0 (near future) – This represents the nuclear power plant realizing that it has excess power that it wants to give out to the greater community. But before it can start sharing information, it has to figure out how it can work together with other power plants. Sometimes this means finding what types of wires can be used and sometimes this means that changes need to be completed within the nuclear power plant in order for it to have the right types of wires to connect to other power plants. These wires are like finding the similar fields within the database/system that wishes to start talking to another database/system.

Database Version 3.0 (several years from now) – This represents when the nuclear power plant is transmitting extra power out to the whole power grid and it is able to work along side of the hydroelectric power plants, wind plants, coal plants and other types of power plants. The plants all know what they have in common and they also know what they don’t have in common. They work together to make sure that they work together to supply electricity for all and to also know when they have things that are uniquely theirs. Problems can be isolated if necessary so if a thunderstorm takes down hydroelectric plant, the other plants can continue to work while the hydroelectric plant fixes its problems and then comes back up online.

Someday I will have a list of suggestions for returning to work after a conference, but since I haven’t found an easy way to handle it, I don’t feel comfortable enough writing any tips at this point. Maybe because the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) was so good it has been harder to get back to work. This conference held my heart from the moment that I signed up for the conference and it surely didn’t disappoint. In fact, it probably has given me materials for the next several blog posts because there is so much to process and comment on – I hope no one gets bored by my rehashing of things because personally, I need to process more.

So this post isn’t going to have much but some resources that I jotted down that I would love to share and let you know how I look forward to using them. I also plan some changes to this blog due to my We Are Media blogging session – but I don’t think I’ll ever keep my posts between 300 to 500 words.

Books I have in my possession –
Linchpin by Seth Godin (I participated in a the hunt for Anderson Cooper to get this book)
Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission – (I had a copy of this book but it disappeared so the new copies feature autographs from Holly Ross and Edward Granger-Happ)
#SocialMedia Nonprofit Tweet by Janet Fouts with Beth Kanter – (autographed by both also!)

Books I want to get –
Switch
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots

I have lots of websites to go thru also. They range from Jing and Screencast to several podcasts to the posts about the newest FCC ruling. There are other resources I have waiting for me to pay attention too that I haven’t even had a chance to view.

I think this conference, over other conferences I have been too, will be providing me information for a long time to come. I have ideas about a possible game to help promote my agency due to the keynote about Games for Change. I have guidance on addressing budgeting due to my Curbside Consulting time. I have some questions about Social Media benchmarks and how I can use that data for making a plan for my agency’s use of Social Media. I have a plan on raising the funds to go to next year’s conference in Washington D.C. (it’s within driving distance).

I look forward to continue to explore what I have learned, maybe even get comments back on how I am remembering things I learned, and continue to grow off of this experience.

PS – I know that I could have tons of links in this message – but simply, I haven’t learned how to manage coming back from a conference and dealing with the backlog of work that needs my attention. I’m actually sneaking this post in. So please, if you have the links to share easily accessible – post them in the comments.

It should not be any surprise that I’m bouncing with excitement to start heading to Atlanta tomorrow since one of my first blog posts was all about how much I love NTEN. So anytime I have anything on my schedule related to NTEN, I just feel a little bit more of a spark. Really, NTEN often keeps me motivated when the technology aspects of my job are draining me. For weeks now I have been looking forward to the Nonprofit Technology Conference.

So in preparing to leave, I am not even stressing that much about what is left in the office to do (except for a graphic project that I would love to have to the printers but I must admit it isn’t looking good). But there are some things that I am going to miss – and guess what, nothing have anything to do with work. I’m going to miss Cafe World on Facebook, I’m going to miss the last regular season game the Penguins will have in the Mellon Arena, and I’m going to miss writing fan fiction for my secret identity.

On the same note, there are things that I am not going to miss – and is it just by chance they have to deal with work? I’m not going to miss HelpDesk tickets at all. (New staff starts when I return!!!!) I’m not going to miss VPN, VPN directions for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS…. well, you get the point. I’m also not going to miss trying to piece together hardware for an 8-year-old computer from several other broken machines (not even the same brand!) and if someone else feels like making that happen, go for it! I’m not even going to miss my white board!

Now that I’ve outlined that, I must admit, I do have some challenges coming up while at NTC. I thought I’d share and maybe I’ll get some feedback

1. Carry-on vs. Checked Bags – I think I can pack with just carry-on. This is probably only because my personal item is going to be the really sickenly-awesome bag I got several years ago at Cisco Live! That bag holds my laptop (I’m taking a Mac because it fits). This bag is just the bag that I love to live in. I even have extra space right now for bringing back goodies. But I have a plan if I have to bring more back. So for now, I think I’m fine with carry-on.
2. We Are Media Sessions – I made my selections and I’m going to the blogging session and the podcasting. It may seem odd that I’m going to blogging, but I’m a novice at blogging. I know that I can learn more. Podcasting is interesting to me, but I’m afraid of what will happen when people back in the office know that I know how to do podcasts. So, I better think of some things to podcast before I have to do it for real. I think it’s a skill I need to know since I play so much in that marketing role. (I decided not to take movies because I’ve become friends with iMovie, Final Cut Express, and AfterEffects in the past three years – each year learning a new one. I think I got my hands on those. As for Listening to Social Media – that’s why I know (and have training sessions planned with) Cindy Leonard.
3. Breakout Sessions – 100 possible breakout sessions? Quick, someone tell me how many different combinations one person can have for sessions? That’s a kind of math that I can’t handle. More difficult, I can’t even start to narrow down which ones I want to go to at a given time. I do plan on trying to let the ones that are going to be taped go on by so I can catch them later, but still, that’s lots of options left. Given my dual hat situation, I’m getting many different “angels/devils” on my shoulders telling me that I should just focus on Social Media, or just focus on Websites. Or better yet, just planning & collaboration. But wait, maybe I should get at least one session about budgeting in. Yet those Change Management sessions (especially Leading Tech Change when You’re Not the Boss”), looks like it is calling to me.
4. Geeka Being Social? – I like to hide sometimes behind the screen and words on a computer. That’s easy for me. But part of me is very shy (even after being an un-cool lead in some badly budgeted high school musicals). In social situations, it takes me a long time to warm up. I always feel like I’m stumbling over my words. That is exactly what happened during Cisco Live! (Plus, the ratio of gals to guys was like 1 to 150!) Now I think this crowd is more “me” and hopefully it won’t be so difficult for me to be a bit more social. If you are meeting me, I apologize for any social awkwardness that I start out with because once you get to know me a bit, and if you like sarcastic humor, I think you may like me.
5. Weight Watchers at a Conference – Yeah, I’ll admit it. I’m a Weight Watcher and anything that takes me away from my norm, well, it can throw me off. But I also don’t like to call attention to it too much. Conferences are always difficult because the food isn’t usually my call. I know that if I eat the wrong types of carbs in the morning (right now I can have a Fibre One muffin without any problems), I will crave carbs all day long – and I will need to eat them. This uncertainty has had me on the trails, bikes, and elliptical a bit more since last week in the hope to lose some extra weight before leaving. I need to remember water, water, and more water. I’m giving myself the right to gain because if not, I’ll probably gain more. Yet, it’s a rough situation to be in – because in the end during the conference call last week Holly Ross mentioned the bar and all the social events. Holly, you’ll see me at the bar at some point.
6. Science Fair – I think NTEN might have Cisco Live beat in this one. The list of vendors at the Science Fair look so much better than the list of vendors that were at the Cisco Live event I was at. Wow – w0w – ah, in fear to sound redundant – wow! Focusing in on what I need may be a challenge (plus I have to make sure to at least try to be in the running for one iPad prize.)

I’ve got to stop because I have to do some work today. In the end, I feel like I truly only have a couple of questions left for the NTC: How many new projects/ideas am I going to have when I come back? When can I sign up for the 2011 NTC? When can NTC come to Pittsburgh?

What a weekend it is! I’m thankful that I don’t really celebrate Easter any longer. I don’t have to worry about making a complex meal or dressing up. That is the one thing that is going for me. But it is a very difficult weekend because there are three things I really want to do, and I can’t figure out how to make all of them happen.

The most important item is to get ready for the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Atlanta next week. I have to figure out if I can fit everything into my carry-on luggage or if I’m going to check a bag. I have to look at all of the materials and try to narrow down which sessions I want to go – and that is becoming so very hard. I want to look at the vendors for the Science Fair. With over a 100, can I really see them all? I got to get used to my new portable brain – maybe switching to the HTC TouchPro 2 the Wednesday before the NTC, wasn’t the brightest idea. I got some more twitter basics done – I know to use the #10NTC hash for the conference, but my twitter skills need to increase, dramatically.

Then you have the fact that we have beautiful weather in Pittsburgh. Back in February when there were 40+ inches of snow, I never thought that on the 4th of April I would be wearing sandals, turning on the ceiling fan, and wearing tank tops to work out in while out on the trail. In fact, I guess I was worried we were still going to have snow.

Then, mix in the Pittsburgh Penguins. Well folks, hockey might as well be considered my religion right now. I dislike when I miss a game. I dislike it when I have to switch back and forth to a game because my mom needs to watch Dancing with the Stars or some other TV show. I tried to tell her the DVR is for those shows but she won’t hear about that because she can’t run it. I saw the game yesterday – when I had to half listen to it on the radio. But the other part of this is the fact that the Stanley Cup, with the 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins that won the cup last year name’s engraved on it, is at the Heinz History Center this weekend and today is the last day for it to be there. I can go see it. I’ve always wanted to see it.

So, three things to do – several reasons to do all three – and now I have to find the balance to get all three done. I’m all about Getting Things Done kind of gal, but this trio is very interesting, because any of them could take my entire attention away.

No watching the Disney Easter Parade today. It’s time to take the warm Pittsburgh Penguins jersey and put it on with some shorts and sandals, take the digital camera and hope that my mom can take a decent picture, and get moving. Lots of things to do because in the next the thing I’m most excited about it….

I can’t decide! But today is the last day I can see the cup. I can focus on #10NTC starting tomorrow (unless I get those Penguin tickets for Tuesday night’s game against the Capitals.)

I am probably not the best person to be giving tips on delegation. It is something that I struggle with for multiple reasons – I like the control, I used to do it all, and sometimes I am delegating stuff I wish I had the time to do. But, realistically, I can’t find new things that I may like to do if I’m so busy trying to do everything still. Now, when I think about delegation, I simply think ‘Let Go’ and sometimes that helps.

But of course, Let Go means a lot more than just those two words:
Loosen up
Expect the unexpected
Take time to prepare

Go away
Open up for interpretation

Here is an in-depth look at each of these and what they mean to me. They may mean something else to you, but in this field, I’m sure we all agree any help is worth it.

Loosen up – If we continue to run the tight ship, running the 101 tasks daily, and not allowing for fun, our staff aren’t going to want the assigned tasks when it is finally assigned to them. Plus, that one thing you may be holding onto because you really really want to do it may be the thing your staff person really is going to shine with, or that task may give them a challenge that raises them to the next level. If you don’t shake it up and drop the reigns, you will never find out. My perfect example is when I gave up the employee newsletter. I had been the person who brought back the employee newsletter in 2000 when I was an intern. I had done it for years with very LITTLE assistance. I would even work on it from home when I simply couldn’t get it done at the office. Giving it over to my staff – wow – it was amazing. She is doing a great job, it’s growing in new directions, and now I don’t have to stress about getting it done at home. Better yet, she is now able to take on larger newsletters, such as the agency newsletter, which means more that I can delegate. I wouldn’t have known this if I hadn’t loosened up and allowed it to happen.

Expect the unexpected – In general, this is one of my everyday mottos (along with never a dull moment). You may be able to hand off a task to someone else and magically it grows simply because that person is able to give it the time and attention that it deserves. There may be a surge of new ideas, new interest in it, or simply it transforms into something else. You should never expect the task to stay exactly the way you would have done it and you should be prepared to see it unfold in a different way. Unexpected does not always mean bad.

Take time to prepare – The worst thing you can do is to assign a task over and not spend the time with the staff explaining the task. Sometimes it’s just a simple email, but sometimes you really do have to explain face-to-face what the task is. You may have to be a sounding board for ideas and help with brainstorming if the task is creative. Sometimes you are going to have to teach the task to hand it over. Whatever the task is, don’t always assume you can just assign and walk away. You are the expert so be prepared to teach the task. I found this was the case when I was training staff on how to create email address distribution lists. I could have just opened up Exchange and showed them, but what good would that have been? I waited until there were several addresses to make, I made sure that there was proper documentation, and then I walked them through making the email distribution list and then had them finish together the other addresses that were needed. That time spent will equate to success down the road when the email address needs to be created again.

Go away – What good is delegation if you are always there? I know that there are some things that I can’t stand working on when other people are around. I find it easier to work when no one is there. This is especially the case with new things. The same thing may apply to your staff. You have to simply give up that control and trust that it is going to get done. The best way to do this is to leave. It’s the reason why we delegate and you will never know if delegation is working if you are always there. Now, this has been simpler said than done, I must admit. I currently share my office with my staff so even if I am working on other things, I’m sharing the space while they are working on tasks. But I am finding it easier to leave “early” (which really means earlier than I used to leave and it does not mean less than 8 hours of work). It is also easier to go to meetings and know that things are ok.

Open up for interpretation – Your idea of what the end product may be can be completely different from the staff’s idea and you should be ready to see that happen. If you want it to be completed in a very specific way, make that the expectation. But if the task is creative or open-ended, don’t let your picture of the completed task derail the work that was done. Again, this one is so difficult for me – especially on things that I used to do all the time. I had that reaction in my stomach the first time I saw the employee newsletter – but I stopped that reaction because you know what, it looked better than when I had done it. It was more personalized and exciting because there wasn’t a rush to get it done as quickly as possible. interpretation is a good thing.

The one thing I think is the coolest thing with my Cisco VOIP solution is the ability to add new ringtones and hold music. This may seem like something small. While I love how easy it is to integrate with Outlook and the possibilities of tying into our database applications, ringtones and hold music are two items that make staff happy.

Yes, I do care about making staff happy.

Recently, after realizing how many changes we have done to our network without much notice (new application required a no-notice upgrade to I.E. 8.0 and a screen resolution change), I thought it was time to give the staff something back. New ringtones were the perfect gift to give.

Did it yield anything? Yes – I actually could hear staff trying out the new ringtones within minutes of the email going out (oh, the beautiful symphony of Super Mario Brothers, Knightrider, and the Filet O Fish jingle all playing at the same time!) Then staff stopped and commented on the ringtones. That was good to know that they were being enjoyed and actually being used.

It also served as another tool. See, two outcomes for the price of one change!  The other thing new ringtones did was give the staff a reason to press that Settings button and to change the ringtone. It seems like something minor, but often after staff picked their ringtone, they never go back to that Settings button. Then, if for some reason their ringtone went back to the standard (and boring) ringtone, they were lost on how to get the ringtone back. In fact, I would probably get a support ticket for assistance on getting their ringtone back.

Yet, not one ticket was submitted for assistance with these new ringtones. I saw one staff member go to our SharePoint intranet and pull up the directions from our directory of directions for the network. I saw another one pull out a binder where she had printed all of her directions out so she could remember how to do the change. And the third? They just pushed buttons until they stumbled upon the Settings button and made the right changes. Along the way, two made other changes and the third remembered that after adjusting the volume for the ringtone you had to save the volume settings.

Woo-hoo! Ringtones as a teaching tool.

Plus, they keep things interesting. Now to get that Barracuda ringtone….