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In this issue:

March 3, 2003

CNE Surveys for Consultants

Microsoft Changes its Software Program

Tech Grant Opportunities

OANO Conference Leads to Excellence

What Do You Want to Do?

Lynnete is Now a Master Instructor

Maximize Your Excel Expertise

Did You Know? Our Secrets for Better Computing

Register for Upcoming Classes

Training  Schedule 

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The Center for Nonprofit Excellence is launching a new initiative to create a database of consultants for direct services in our region.

The Center for Nonprofit Excellence will not recommend particular consultants. Instead, we will provide a variety of information about providers and their services, as well as solicit references. The database will be searchable and the information will be retrievable through our website or by calling the Center.

Toward that end, the Center for Nonprofit Excellence needs your help. The information you provide us about your consulting experiences will assist us in compiling a list of consultants for use by all local nonprofit organizations. Please visit infolineinc.org/cnesurvey.doc and complete the survey. You can e-mail it back to . If completing a hard copy of the survey is easier, please just mail it back to Info Line at 703 South Main Street # 211, Akron, Ohio, 44311 or fax it to 330-253-1137.

Please complete the survey by March 17th. When your survey is received, your organization will receive a certificate for one-half of the value of a CNE training. It’s our way of saying thank you for your input.

Microsoft has made significant changes in its nonprofit program which you should be aware of:

• More product variety - more than 35 software titles, including new server titles.
• Increased number of software titles available per organization - up to 6 titles per organization and up to 50 licenses per title.
• The Software Assurance program is included in all nonprofit licenses.
• Fees have been drastically reduced --- you can get Microsoft Office XP Professional for $24 (used to be $60).
• Eligible organizations can make one donation request through DiscounTech per 2-year period.

The last bullet is EXTREMELY important: one request every 2 years. Once you have received the software from DiscountTech, you can purchase additional licenses from Provantage (http://www.provantage.com/scripts/go.dll/-s/fc_msoc), but the price is much higher.

Three Technology Grant Opportunities

Check out these three new exciting opportunities to improve the technology of your organization. If you would like Project Connect to help plan your requests, please contact us:

AT&T Foundation:

SBC Excelerator seeks to fund projects that build the technology infrastructure of nonprofits enabling them to increase their organizational effectiveness and/or service delivery capability. Technology plans are strongly encouraged. See the 2003 RFP at http://www.AT&T.com/corporate_citizenship/0,5931,58,00.html for more details.

TechFoundation:

TechFoundation is offering four grant opportunities to be awarded by June: E-learning;  Intranets Creation and Maintenance; Website Creation and Maintenance; and Implementation Assistance. The first three appear to be product specific (i.e., use our products for free), but the latter offers cash grants cover training, staff planning and other costs related to implementing one of the grant projects. For more information, visit http://www.techfoundation.org/ and select the link to the 2003 application.

Verizon Foundation:

The Verizon Foundation offers $240 grants for internet access and free training for Project Connect participants. Visit http://foundation.verizon.com/06003.shtml for more info.

Leading the Way to Excellence & Innovation - 2003 OANO Conference
May 15-16 - Columbus OH
http://www.oano.org/Programs.asp?page=CONF

This year's OANO conference is promising to be a powerful event! Keynote speakers include David Allen (author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity), Carol Weisman (author of Secrets of Successful Fundraising and Building a Better Board in 30 Days), and Lee Fisher (President & CEO of Cleveland's Center for Families and Children and former Ohio Attorney General).

Project Connect will lead a pre-conference session entitled Turbo-Teching Your Mission: Evaluating and Revitalizing with Technology.

Other sessions include:

• Avenues of Affiliation: Government and Nonprofits
• Frank Talk with Funders
• Balancing Price, Quality, and Service
• Best Practices in Diversifying Your Revenue Sources
• Public Policy Initiatives: Successful Processes and Outcome Measures
• Minding Your Business: Nonprofit Business Planning
• Fiscal Management for Smaller Nonprofits
• Integrating Technology into Strategic Planning

Remember that Project Connect members get a 25% discount on the registration fees! For more information, visit http://www.oano.org/Programs.asp?page=CONF.

What Do You Want To Do?

We are in the process of examining our courses and identifying how they can be changed to best meet your needs. For example, some of you have stated that a class only about managing mail lists would be helpful. Others have suggested a class about creating forms and e-mailing them to donors or putting them on the internet.

If you have any suggestions for class topics, please send them to . Thanks!!

Lynnette Sieradzki Earns Master Instructor Certification

Congratulations to Lynnette Sieradzki, Project Connect's Coordinator/Trainer. She earned Microsoft's prestigious Master Instructor Certification. To do so, she completed the expert level exams for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access. Microsoft also examined her training experience, which includes everything from high-level CEO's to first graders!

Lynnette teaches the majority of Project Connect courses and answers the technical support hotline. She can be reached at 330-315-1335.

Attention Microsoft Excel users!

Project Connect is running a Microsoft Excel Series this month. If you have already taken level 1 or 2 and are ready to move on to learning more ways to increase your efficiency in this program, or just want to re-learn some of those important tips and tricks you may have forgotten…call to register for one of the upcoming dates.

March 11th
Microsoft Excel 2: Formulas
This class will teach you how to customize your toolbars and will review basics on how to get the most from your right mouse button with short-cut menus and mouse pointer tricks. We will also explore the differences between absolute and relative formulas and share useful formulas that work with dates, birthdays, if statements, combining cells, counting, and a few more. This class also covers formatting details for basics charts. You should have a good understanding of how to enter and format data before you register for this class.

March 18th:
Microsoft Excel 3: Advanced Tools
This class will review formulas and take them to a more advanced level using nested if statements. We also cover grouping data, hiding data, and comparison operators. This class shows you how to set up multiple sheet documents, create references to other worksheets and more formatting with data using Charts. A good understanding of topics covered in Microsoft 2 are needed before you register for this class.

March 25th:
Microsoft Excel 4: Data Analysis Tools
This class shows you how to get the most from the data you have entered into your spreadsheets using the analysis tools such as Pivot Tables, Subtotals, and Data Filters. A good understanding of the topics covered in Microsoft 2 are needed before you register for this class.

Did you know ...

Let's say you have a spreadsheet of hundreds of mailing addresses and you just want to pull everyone who lives in the 44308 zip code. How would you do it? How long would it take you? Using Excel's AutoFilter, it would take seconds. So ...

PC TIP #9
Excel 4

• Click to place your cursor somewhere in the header row of your data.
• Select Data/Filter/AutoFilter. You will now see small triangles in every cell of your header row.
• Click on a triangle and select a filter criteria based on the content in that column of data. Only rows which match that criteria will then be displayed.
• You can filter as many columns as you want at one time.
• You can now build quick charts, reports, printouts etc. without having to create a new spreadsheet.
• When you are ready to display all data in the spreadsheet again, just set the column filter back to (All) in each row you applied a filter. To turn the filter feature off in the spreadsheet, select Data/Filter/AutoFilter again. The triangles will disappear from each header cell.

   

Register for Upcoming Classes
Attend FREE by applying to the Verizon Foundation:
http://foundation.verizon.com/etraining

Register for upcoming classes as soon as possible. Call 330-315-1335 or e-mail . Cost is $40 per person for staff and volunteers of member organizations;$60 per person for staff and volunteers of non-member organizations.

	Microsoft Excel 2: Formulas 03/11/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
	Microsoft Excel 3: Advanced Tools 03/18/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
	Microsoft Excel 3: Data Analysis Tools 03/25/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
	Microsoft Word 1: Document & Formatting Basics 03/06/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
	Microsoft Word 2: Tables, Merges & Macros 03/13/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
	QuickBooks 1: Setting Up Your System 03/20/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
	QuickBooks 2: Statements & Reports 03/27/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon
	PageMaker 1: The Basics 03/26/03 - 9:00 AM - 12:00 Noon

Visit infolineinc.org/connect/training.htm for to see our latest training schedule. Or call us at 330-315-1335 and we'll fax you a copy.

If you would like us to mail you a newsletter with the most recent schedule and a list of all our services, please call us at 330-315-1335 or e-mail .

Enjoy!
 

As always, we are interested in hearing from you to learn how we can best meet your technology and connectivity needs. Give us a call at 330-315-1335 or e-mail us at

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