[NCLUG] IT Samaritans General Meeting, Monday Nov. 4th 2002.

[Michael J. Mikelson]

Hi all!  
 
As always, our meeting are held at Stella's Coffee Shop, 1476 South
Pearl Street, Denver, CO Telephone: (303)-777-1031 on the FIRST and
THIRD Mondays of each month, from 6:30-8:00 (6:30-7 is social time!).
You'll find us in the meeting room!  Please feel free to sign up to the
IT Samaritans yahoogroup, which is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/itsamaritans.  Our website is
www.itsamaritans.org <http://www.itsamaritans.org/> ; and is currently
in it's fledgling state, but being truly re-vamped behind the scenes.  
 
Again, please pass along word to any 501(C)3 Non-Profit organization
that we exist, and we are ready to jump in!  Our limited scope donated
labor program is designed to provide highly-qualified volunteer IT Labor
to Non-Profits so that IT expedites their ability to help their
constituency; making that donor dollar go further -- more efficiently.
We all know that IT is a different operational paradigm, and that
Non-Profit organizations trying to shift into need to be led by people
who have the experience levels to envision all of the pitfalls that
fluid technology presents.  As we all painfully have learned in
industry, only the years of real-world "under-fire" IT experience allow
you to see many of the potholes before you hit them-and you're lucky to
see them all even then! 
 
Please forward this email to anyone who may need help, and we'll do our
best to find a volunteer staff to get their project done.  All we are
asking in return for our limited donation program, is that they do their
best to refer the volunteers to potential employers!  Our goal is to
come in and impress you with our skills.  Once we do that, any
referrals-whether it's their friends, relatives, or guy down the block;
we really need the contacts to help our volunteers get work.  We've come
into existence to help non-profits move up to par.  In doing so, we hope
they will "do the right thing" for those volunteers who are looking for
work by giving them realistic and honest networking referrals.  Since
we've not actively sought funding or money, we need help just like what
we offer!  We fully believe that the best way to get the personal
"inside track" referral to any of the few jobs out there is to volunteer
to help someone and show by our hard work and dedication to the short
project that we're someone you should help in time of need!  
 
Another thing I'd like to ask the IT Samaritans audience to do is to
post job leads on our yahoogroup.  I've known of several job openings
over time, but none were good for me.  I've started posting them on the
board, and have gotten several volunteers onto the top of the list at
several of my personal contacts.  If you're aware of an opening, and are
willing to refer a fellow IT Samaritan to it, please post the opening on
the yahoogroup and take the emails!  Now on the flip side, we have got
to be judicious on how we use our IT Sams contact, of course!  If you're
not very well qualified for an opening posted, don't ask your fellow IT
Samaritan to refer you to something not perfectly suited for you; doing
so only reduces the credibility of the referral for those who are
qualified!
 
We've had more project activity in the last few weeks!  We've now got
several projects that are just starting up, and several just winding
down.  Overall, things are going quite well!  We'll be having the
project managers from several of the projects there talking about their
projects, and what needs they have for volunteers.  As usual, I'll be
there to tell the new members how we go about doing our business.  We'll
also go over the update on our press campaign.  At this time, we need a
project manager who can implement the project charter.  I suppose that
they also should be comfortable with writing and with the idea that they
may show up in the newspaper, since they likely will have a lot of high
profile contact. 
 
It's a great time to get involved with our volunteer programs, as we're
coming up on the Holiday Season!  While it's especially true in an
economic downturn, it's generally true that people prefer to hire others
who they or someone they trust already knows and can give a reference
about.  Right now, fear factor is real in hiring managers.  With this in
mind; come volunteer, get references and use these networking
opportunities to alleviate that fear when you speak to a hiring manager!
Why do I note the holidays?  Well, these Non-Profits generally have
Holiday Parties!  While parties are fun in general, they're GREAT ways
to network into a new and better job.  Come out and showcase your
interpersonal skills, and impress people by doing a short gig and
getting in and out as fast as possible in volunteer time!
 
In Denver, some of the upcoming skills we are going to need include the
following, which will be addressed in semi-detail at the meeting.  

*	network engineering a (24 workstation network) in Greeley
*	web page redesign of an existing site
*	some work melding an access database to a web interface
*	another network redesign

In other news, we've started our Colorado Springs branch of IT
Samaritans, Directed by Richard Byrd.  Richard currently has several
projects that he is just starting to staff, so if you are in Colorado
Springs and are interested, keep your eyes open for his meeting notices.
He's still in the midst of finding the best early evening location and
weekly meeting time!  
 
 
Michael J. Mikelson
Founder, IT Samaritans
Denver CO
MJMikelson at yahoo.com
303-388-8555
 
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