Dropbox – Easy file sharing and online backup

“File Sync

Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically.

• 2GB of online storage for free, with up to 100GB available to paying customers.
• Sync files of any size or type.
• Sync Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
• Automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected.
• Work on files in your Dropbox even if you’re offline. Your changes sync once your computer has an Internet connection again.
• Dropbox transfers will correctly resume where they left off if the connection drops.
• Efficient sync – only the pieces of a file that changed (not the whole file) are synced. This saves you time.
• Doesn’t hog your Internet connection. You can manually set bandwidth limits.

File Sharing

Sharing files is simple and can be done with only a few clicks.

• Shared folders allow several people to collaborate on a set of files.
• You can see other people’s changes instantly.
• A “Public” folder that lets you link directly to files in your Dropbox.
• Control who is able to access shared folders (including ability to kick people out and remove the shared files from their computers).
• Automatically create shareable online photo galleries from folders of photos in your Dropbox.

Online Backup

Dropbox backs up your files online without you having to think about it.

• Automatic backup of your files.
• Undelete files and folders.
• Restore previous versions of your files.
• 30 days of undo history, with unlimited undo available as a paid option.

Web Access

A copy of your files are stored on Dropbox’s secure servers. This lets you access them from any computer or mobile device.

• Manipulate files as you would on your desktop – add, edit, delete, rename etc.
• Search your entire Dropbox for files.
• A “Recent Events” feed that shows you a summary of activity in your Dropbox.
• Create shared folders and invite people to them.
• Recover previous versions of any file or undelete deleted files.
• View photo galleries created automatically from photos in your Dropbox.

Security & Privacy

Dropbox takes the security and privacy of your files very seriously.

• Shared folders are viewable only by people you invite.
• All transmission of file data and metadata occurs over an encrypted channel (SSL).
• All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256) and are inaccessible without your account password.
• Dropbox website and client software have been hardened against attacks from hackers.
• Dropbox employees are not able to view any user’s files.
• Online access to your files requires your username and password.
• Public files are only viewable by people who have a link to the file(s). Public folders are not browsable or searchable.

Mobile Device Access

The free Dropbox iPhone app lets you:

• Access your Dropbox on the go.
• View your files on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
• Download files for offline viewing.
• Take photos and videos and sync them to your Dropbox.
• Share links to files in your Dropbox.
• View interactive photo galleries.
• Sync downloaded files so they’re up-to-date.

A mobile-optimized version of the website is available for owners of Blackberry phones and other Internet-capable mobile devices.”

How Did You (or Your Organization) Spend International Volunteer Manager’s Day?

December 5, 2009 was International Volunteer Manager’s Day. We want to know what transpired across Metro Detroit and beyond. Did your organization recognize the day?

Social Networking- Keep the Discussion Going!

We hope that everyone enjoyed our discussion on social networking at the MDVAN Quarterly Workshop. It is a comprehensive topic – so let’s continue the discussion! What thoughts, tips, questions do you have about ways social networking impacts the volunteer administrator and volunteer programs?

Feel free to also jump over to our MDVAN Facebook page and join the discussion.

Announcing the New MDVAN Board

Chairperson: Tawanna Ward
Vice Chairperson: Carrie Nicholson
Secretary: Roxanne Rahhal
Treasurer: Cecilia Bickes

Members at Large:
Stephanie Appel
Helen Beamer
Sr. Marie Judith Haupt
Christina Kokenos
Deborah Macon
Marty Martin
Mandy Mullins
Jacki Redmond
Joan Smykowski
Angela Walker (fiduciary representative for United Way)

How to Make Volunteers Feel Like a Million Bucks

How to Make Volunteers Feel Like a Million Bucks
(When You Only Have Pennies to Spend)
by Helen Beamer

You want to appreciate your volunteers in a spectacular way but your volunteer appreciation budget (what budget?) does not provide the necessary funds.  Faced with this challenge, I find it works best to be creative in how you recognize volunteers.

Here are a dozen low-cost ways to let your volunteers know you appreciate them.

1. Be friendly and say thank you.  It doesn’t cost a thing to greet a volunteer and ask how things are going.  A warm, welcoming atmosphere creates an environment that meets the social interaction needs of volunteers. Encourage staff who work with volunteers to express their appreciation to volunteers each day.

2. Involve your clients in saying “Thank You.”  Client-made cards, decorations, or performances in poetry, song, or dance demonstrate appreciation in the most precious way.  The words and drawings of grateful clients (especially if your agency works with children) convey a sincerity that will touch a volunteer’s heart.  You can replicate these one-of-a-kind thank you cards with a color copier or a scanner and color printer.  They make great gift cards attached to an inexpensive gift.  The reproductions look almost as good as the originals.

3. Turn others’ trash into treasure.  Your agency may have extra items left over from a fundraising event or an in-kind donation they can’t figure out how to use.  I have uncovered expensive gift bags and colorful ribbon, discovered potential centerpieces, and framed photos with castoffs I found stuffed in boxes and hidden in closets.

4. Seek out donations.  A local business may be willing to provide exactly what you are looking for.  I once got several beautiful flower arrangements for an event at no cost with the condition that I return the empty vases to the florist the next day.  Make sure to write a glowing thank you letter and to provide a donation receipt for tax purposes.  Obtain your supervisor’s approval before you solicit donations.

5. Recruit the talents of family, friends, and staff.  My mother-in-law makes and sells dried flower arrangements.  She put together more than a dozen centerpieces one year when I asked for her help.  The volunteers loved them!  A friend who likes stamping designed a card to fit a recognition theme.  Co-workers were more than happy to give an hour to wrap gifts for volunteers.

6. Turn centerpieces into volunteer gifts or door prizes.  We had lots of small potted plants (purchased at a discount) to brighten a volunteer reception one year.  At the end of the event, each plant went home with a happy volunteer.  Months later, a volunteer with a not-so-green thumb went out of her way to let me know her plant was still thriving.

7. Shop the after-holiday sales and clearance racks.  Plan ahead.  The volunteers will never know that the New Year’s greeting was printed on holiday paper purchased at last year’s after-Christmas sale at 75% off.  Look for candy (always a favorite) that gets marked down quickly after a holiday.  The off-season red, green, or pastel wrappers can easily be worked into a volunteer appreciation theme with real savings to your program.

8. Check out what is in stock at the dollar store.  The dollar store has a lot to offer to the cash-strapped volunteer coordinator.  You can pick up tablecloths, napkins, or plates in an assortment of colors for only a dollar per package, leaving you with money to purchase refreshments!  Dollar store gift items, like candles, flower pots, or lotions look inviting wrapped in cellophane or nestled inside a gift bag.

9. Honor your volunteers with certificates.  This is an inexpensive way to make sure you can afford to recognize each of your volunteers.  Create personalized certificates for an annual recognition event or to honor the volunteer of the month.  Using your agency’s second page letterhead (think, free paper) will coordinate the look of the certificate with other agency materials.

10. Do it yourself.  Preparing vegetable and cheese trays (with food purchased at sale prices) is a lot less expensive than hiring a caterer for a reception.  Be sure to use proper food handling techniques and storage if you do it on your own.

11. Use the postage meter.  When you send cards and invitations to volunteers, remember the postage meter.  Depending on your agency’s accounting practices, using the meter (instead of stamps) may count as an indirect cost to the agency, rather than coming out of your budget.

12. When you do have money to spend, look for gifts that promote your cause.

Give volunteers a practical gift imprinted with a logo or message that will show their affiliation with your program and serve as a marketing tool.  Mugs in my kitchen cupboard remind me of organizations where once I volunteered.  A tote bag or pen with your organization’s logo will be useful to volunteers and may spark a conversation with others about the work they do for you.

You do not have to spend a lot to make a volunteer happy.  One of the volunteer appreciation gifts I treasure most from my 12 years as a school board trustee is a green clay pinch pot created by an anonymous elementary school student.  I keep loose change and spare keys in that unique clay dish.  Every time I see it, it makes me smile.

Have You Reserved Your Day with Nancy MacDuff and MDVAN?

Have you Invested in Your Professional Development?

All-Day Volunteer Management Training “NEW VITALITY 2009″
Co-sponsored by MDVAN

Growing Volunteer Service in Challenging Times

Presented by national expert NANCY MACDUFF

Thursday, November 12, 2009
8:30 am – 3:30 pm

Cost $50

Location: Hospice of Michigan, 400 Mack Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201 , (313) 578-6200
Lunch included
Free, secure parking

Click here to register

Nancy is the author of numerous books and chapters in The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, The Volunteer Management Handbook, and Managing Volunteer Diversity.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from her expertise and invest in this opportunity to grow in your profession.

What Is Virtual Volunteering?

Excerpts  From: The Virtual Volunteering Guidebook
by Susan J. Ellis and Jayne Cravens, © 2000, ImpactOnline, Inc.

What Is “Virtual Volunteering”?
“Virtual volunteering” refers to volunteer tasks completed, in whole or in part, via the Internet and a home or work computer. It’s also known as online volunteering, cyber service, telementoring, teletutoring and various
other names.

The concept is not meant as a substitute for traditional “in person”  volunteering. In fact, one of the most exciting things about this innovative use of technology is that it is adding both to the quantity of service contributed and to attracting people who have not necessarily  volunteered before.

Virtual volunteering offers greater access to community resources and provides more ways for people to support community groups, nonprofit agencies, schools and other organizations.

For some people, service online will be a preferred avenue of volunteering but, for most, it will be an additional way of contributing time and talent.

Most organizations which involve online volunteers do so in addition to welcoming on-site volunteers. Also, only a few online volunteers work solely via the Internet. Often a combination of on-site and online tasks for volunteers works best for everyone involved (volunteers, staff, clients).

As will be described later, assignments can have different levels of virtuality. For instance, one volunteer may interact with clients online but meet on-site with a staff member regularly; another may talk with a client via e-mail in addition to regular face-to-face visits.

Why Involve Online Volunteers?
Online volunteers, just as those who come on site, extend the resources of an organization. The additional help augments staff resources and allows an organization to reach more clients.

There are many good reasons to involve volunteers via online technologies, as well as to use the Internet for recruitment of on-site volunteers:

• Potential volunteers not reached by traditional off-line means may be reached online.

• There are people who don’t read the newspaper’s column on volunteer opportunities or who don’t read bulletins from the local volunteer center, but who would, indeed, love to volunteer and are easily reached online via the World Wide Web and appropriate Internet discussion groups.

• People who prefer not to volunteer on-site may be willing to do so via their home or work computers.

• Setting out expectations online allows prospective volunteers to self-screen their interests before contacting an agency.

• Some people prefer to communicate via online means. Dashing off an e-mail or filling out an online sign-up sheet is more convenient and, for some people, preferable to calling an organization.

• Virtual volunteering programs allow for the participation of people who might find on-site volunteering difficult or impossible because of a disability, mobility issue, home obligation or work schedule. This, in turn, allows agencies to benefit from the additional talent and resources of more volunteers.

• People in their 20s and 30s are more prone to use the resources of the Internet than other age groups and like the novelty and convenience of finding and signing up for either on-site or virtual volunteering via this technology. These younger volunteers can turn into long-time supporters, including becoming financial donors.

• Online volunteers are environmentally friendly—no car exhausts, less paper waste, etc.

What Can Someone Do as an Online Volunteer?
The Virtual Volunteering Project has defined two categories of online  volunteering:  technical assistance and direct contact with clients.

Technical Assistance
“Technical assistance” assignments utilize the expertise of a volunteer to support paid staff or other volunteers at an agency, and usually involve accomplishing a project or reaching an objective. The results are readily visible:  a final product, a report, etc. E-mail is the main form of communication as the work progresses.

Here are just a few examples of what a volunteer can do to provide virtual technical assistance:

• conduct online research: find information to use in an agency’s upcoming grant proposal or newsletter, gather information on a particular government program or legislation that affects an agency’s clients, gather Web site addresses of similarly-focused organizations, etc.

• provide professional consulting expertise:  answer an agency’s questions regarding human resource, accounting, management or legal issues, write a speech, develop a strategic plan for a particular department, etc.

• conduct online outreach and advocacy: post information to appropriate newsgroups and electronic lists, prepare legislative alerts to be sent via e-mail, etc.

• design an agency’s newsletter or brochure, or copy edit an agency’s publication or proposal

• design a logo for an agency or program

• translate a document into another language

• prepare information for an agency’s World Wide Web site

• make sure a Web site is accessible for people using assistive technologies

• register an agency’s Web home page and other appropriate pages with online search engines, directories and “What’s New” sites

• design a database

• do daily searches for news articles relating to an organization or a particular topic

• provide an online orientation to all volunteers with Internet access (whether or not they are on-site or online volunteers), or survey volunteers via e-mail about their experiences with an agency or program

Direct Client Contact
Most organizations readily see the potential of involving volunteers in doing virtual technical assistance. A much more complex subject is how to create electronic links between a volunteer and a client or other recipient of service. This subject is discussed in more detail later, but here are some ideas for what an online volunteer could do with or for a client…

Download the entire Virtual Volunteering Guidebook pdf to read more.

We’d like to hear how your organization uses virtual volunteers — share your thoughts and stories.

Community Service – A National Call to Serve

On April 21st, the President of the United States made the falling call to America regarding community service: We need your service right now, at this moment in history. I’m not going to tell you what your role should be; that’s for you to discover. But I’m asking you to stand up and play your part….

What has been the response from your community? Are you receiving more
volunteer inquiries? If so, what tools have you developed to handle this national call to serve?

Do you have thoughts you would like to share about this post? Let’s start a conversation!

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