Tuesday, May 31, 2005

North Carolina Toastmasters -- Chief blogger

I was recently appointed as Public Relations Officer (PRO) for Toastmasters International District 37 (North Carolina).

As 2005-6 PRO, I will be working with a very limited budget, but will use this time to "prototype" and "pilot" new technologies to help promote Toastmasters within my state and around the world.

One of the first things to be tackled is the website and current communications tools. As the website is being built, I decided to start a blog to allow fellow toastmasters to be able to communicate more effectively on topics such as speaking, leadership. conferences, speech contests, and more.

One thing I know for sure, Toastmasters like to express themselves. The blog right now is in its infancy with only a few people aware of its existence. It will be interesting to see on June 30th, 2006 how well this new communications tool served us.

Simultaneous to this we are constructing a new website behind the scenes which will be built with the idea of serving the members and clubs. This means the site will need to have relevant content and make it easy for them to communicate with their district officers.

We are also going to be looking at setting up a hotline, perhaps using some VOIP (voice over IP) technology, so that we can view and forward phone messages.

Again this will be a journey to use technology in a non-profit setting. On Saturday, I set off to Birmingham, AL to present a session to all the PRO's in the Southeast. We will see the impact on those states districts as well.

Please comment as you find any technologies or websites of interest in managing technology in the non-profit setting.

Sunday, May 15, 2005

Skype - No Hype

Using internet phone service is another one of those areas where the trendsetters are using services. A group of my associates are using a service called Skype. www.skype.com
This service allows us to have free phone calls over the internet and paid calls from a pc to a real phone and even conference in up to 4 individuals. In addition this product works on pc's, mac's and linux machines. They also have given users the ability to easily transfer files and chat. Skype has an on-line worldwide directory so you can find business associates, friends and family. In addition, they have an invite a friend link to send an invitation to try out Skype which comes with a cute little animation attached. As of this writing over 70 million downloads of this software have occurred. This is just the beginning of internet phones. All you eWarriors out there should check it out.