Why does your organization use email? Have you taken the time to think about it, or do you use it because it’s there and everyone else is doing it? Once you answer that question then you can think about what it will take to use email excellently.
The Agitator is, well agitating, but that’s the point. You have to respect a blog that has a category called “You Should be Fired.” Their latest post in this category discusses the need for a Chief Digital Officer, someone who is concerned with all the digitial communication of your organization. Read more >>
Normally I would be posting a number of links today, but I thought it was important to post this one by itself. WEP wireless encryption was cracked in less than two minutes this week. To find out what that means for your church or ministry read on.
No link round up this week, I think most of the bloggers I read are still getting over SXSW. Instead let’s talk about something that was all the rage at SXSW, Twitter.
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I read about 20 nonprofit blogs. One of my favorites is Non-Profit Tech Blog. It is a great look at technology and nonprofits. In a recent post on Blackbaud the author struck a cord with me.
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The observant among you should be asking, “Where is my weekly link roundup?” That is a good question. The reality is I’m a bit written out.
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Look for these every Thursday from now on. If you have a link to add to the round up, just post it as a comment.
Matt Cutts on howto files: A great tip on how to keep a list of all the little things we learn how to do, but never remember.
Read/WriteWeb on Kiva: Kiva:Philanthropy::Digg:Slashdot. An interesting way to do philanthropy, direct one on one. This is something that many ministries could do as well, since most of their work is one on one.
Church Marketing Sucks on Burritos and Churches: Crossings Church in Richmond, VA found a novel way to partner with businesses and serve church visitors at the same time, mmmm cilantro, lime rice
Remember the Milk on Doug’s Brain: Doug Nelson here at Silas put me on to a to-do list manager I’m digging it so far as a way to keep me on the task straight and narrow.
Saw this post on Where Most Needed about Red Cross releasing a governance report. Way at the bottom of the post he talks about putting your governance documents online.
I believe this is going to be the future for charitable organizations. As donors get more and more discerning about the organizations they support, an organization who is confident enough in their internal structure and dealings to post that online will be very attractive.
So how have I kept my Inbox empty for three years? I’ve cheated. Outlook has a feature that allows you to create rules to run on messages as they arrive.
I have about fifty (and no I’m not exaggerating for effect) rules that move messages when they arrive, that means they don’t even hit the inbox. But besides being able to tout a clean inbox it allows me to group messages with no effort.
I have a mailbox for each person at Silas Partners and one for each Partner I email with regularly. I use that in conjunction with a buried option in Outlook to create a conversations inside of folders. That option is under Tools > Options, then the Preferences Tab > Email Options > Advanced Email Options > In Folders, other than the Inbox, save replies with original message. So when I get an email from Jenn Fraher here at Silas the message is moved to her folder so my reply is put into that folder.
No more sorting through Sent Mail by date and Inbox by sender, I just click on a folder.
So there are my three ways of keeping myself sane while using Outlook. No one has chimed in with comments, and I know we all have our own little Outlook tricks - come on people share!
So yesterday we looked at how to make “read” actually mean “read” in Outlook. By doing this we are adding back in a layer of meaning to email. Something marked “read” means I have looked at it, understood it and decided on next actions.
If that next action isn’t get up and talk to the person or reply or anything immediate I use Outlook’s built in flag system.
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Silas Partners exists to help Christian ministries fulfill their missions. Our specialty lies in helping ministries use the Internet effectively, in a way that supports their overall goals and strategic priorities. Read more >