I have often said the technology needs of non-profit organizations are similar to those of for-profit businesses. To begin with, many for-profit businesses are actually non-profit, but I digress. Where the difference comes into play is in the significance of the technology to support the mission of the organization, especially when it has a greater cause. The following is a true story and the name of the organization have been withheld to protect the innocent.

What this particular organization offers to its community – services for inner-city youth – is vital. When it comes to their tech infrastructure, they needed help, and that’s how I came into the picture. I first got involved with a past program they had with refurbishing computers for kids, later consulting to them pro-bono on their Web site through my previous Web business.

One day, and I remember it was July the third, I got a phone call late in the day from the Executive Director of this organization. A few days earlier on July the first, they switched to a new Internet provider in their office, something I was aware of. However, what I was not aware of – and neither was their Executive Director – was the hosting of their Web site and email went away with the switch, as it was at their previous provider. As a result, their Web site went down, and so did their email.

Part of the reason why I supported the organization, in addition to the great things they did, was the Executive Director himself. His professionalism and enthusiasm could have him leading any corporation. So as he acknowledged what happened and what they didn’t prepare for, in his unique style he asked for my help. How could I not? Despite the timing before the holiday, I told him I could restore his Web site and email accounts by the time they were back in the office on July the fifth.

Even while I was on my call with him, I was putting together a plan to restore their services. Luckily I had recently taken a copy of their entire Web site so I was able restore it. I established new Web hosting and email and setup and configured it all. Once completed I crafted instructions for managing email, sending it to the Executive Director’s personal email. In the message I let him know I will offer the hosting to them at no cost.

When they got back in the office after the holiday, I got emails from their new email accounts thanking me for all I did.

Deconstructing Consulting For A Greater Cause

I gladly setup and offered the organization its hosting as I was helping a greater cause. Although what I did for them was not pushing the technical limits of what I can do, it was up there with the most gratifying work I have done. Today I look back on this with pride for the important services I was able to offer this vital organization.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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It was a week that started so beautifully that leaf raking was a fun activity, and ended with the leaves wet and nearly frozen… ah, fall in the upper Midwest of the United States.

Thanks for not noticing – I didn’t want to mention it last week as I hadn’t actually published anything to the blog yet, but last week I upgraded the software that makes The Hot Iron tick. Note this was just the back-end so nothing looks different to you the reader. Taking the sage wisdom from a thoughtful engineer from afar, I first did a test upgrade then after defining the steps, executed it on the live site. So 16 hours of measuring twice before 5 hours of cutting once. Now to learn the new features, or as I have discovered so far, less features that need to be compensated for.

I was not alone – Where I only focused on the back-end here, my good friend Emily Brackett dropped a new design for the Web site of her marketing and branding firm, Visible Logic. While you’re there subscribe to her blog and check out Branding Compass, a unique service to create branding for your business or organization.

Gimme what you need – I saw a unique user experience with a Web form this past week I had never seen before or even thought of. When I went to submit it and if I had a required field blank, it would remove all of the other filled-out fiends from view and just show me what I needed to fill in. Where I don’t think it would work with every form, it did in this case. And this case was a customer service survey for Kroger supermarkets.

Painfully lonely – Hubie Halloween was the best Halloween movie I watched last Saturday night. Did I mention it was the only Halloween movie I watched last Saturday night?

Not just another day – This past Monday was Columbus Day in the US. It is a federal holiday and is in honor of Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. In recent years there has been a lot of scrutiny of Columbus and what he really did when he sailed the ocean blue in 1492. This scrutiny has been a challenge to Italian-Americans who consider Columbus a hero and the holiday one for celebrating all Italian American heritage as well. But as Italians are not known for being shy, the Italian American Podcast has been talking about this over several episodes. I haven’t listened to all of them, but I recommend it as issues like this need to be discussed.

It’s here, get used to it – Just about every day I hear some sensationalized story about the logistics of the 2020 elections. I use the word “sensationalized” as there is a lot of extreme opinions on voting, from in-person to by mail. But what about online? Yes, voting for the President of the United States online. And the kicker is, this is not even extreme. If you don’t believe me listen to this interview of Larry Moore by Josh Dukelow on his Fresh Take show. Larry has been a founder and leader at 2 digital voting firms, and is now an advocate for it, including with The National Coalition for Accessible Voting. Listen and learn, just as I did… from my old boss, as I worked with Larry at a previous job.

Be successful again and again – I finally got to watch this presentation offered by the Scrum Alliance back in July, and I am glad I did. Richard Kasperowski is a Boston-based teacher and coach and presented on High-Performance Teams: Core Protocols for Psychological Safety and Emotional Intelligence. This is a great presentation, and if you have any interest in team and inter-personal dynamics, it’s worth the hour watch.

This past weekend I finally got down to the new trestle trail bridge and walking trail along and over part of the Fox River here in the childhood home of Harry Houdini. Appropriately, there’s an artwork piece dedicated to late illusionist. But it was far from the only sight along this trail, as the leaves changing colors along the waterway was certainly something to see, especially with the previously-mentioned warmer weather earlier in the week.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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In today’s remote working environment, often we struggle to connect with people we work with who are also in the same boat. However we soon forget that when we were working in the same office and sitting around the same table with these same people, we still had this problem. I had a challenge like to this once with a teammate that I, as well as others, hadn't really connected with. I decided to make the extra effort to bridge the gap with this person, all to a successful outcome.

At the time I was with an international firm on an international project based in Boston. On the project was a mix of people from the Boston area, around the US and a few from around the world. One in particular was from Australia. When he came into the office, his presence was known. He dressed a little differently from the rest of us had a certain swagger. Not to forget he had a unique accent. None of this really mattered to me, and I introduced myself to him and told him I looked forward to working with him. Despite this initial outreach, I wasn’t really sure he felt the same towards me.

Often this colleague and I were in the same meetings, representing our teams on the project. I learned quickly he didn’t mix words and would speak honestly, though not always the most appropriately, at least by American standards. Often he would mix colloquial terms from Australia into work discussions, causing people to scratch their heads. As a result, many people focused on how he was saying something rather than what he was saying.

I looked at this situation differently. Here was someone who had come from another part of the world and was now stationed in Boston; though Boston is a very international and cosmopolitan, it still harken back to its conservative colonial roots. He came into this ever-expanding group and was trying to make a name for himself.

A Literally Off The Shelf Solution

One day I looked ahead and saw I was scheduled to be in a meeting with him the next. That night I was thinking of how I could finally break the ice with him. As I looked around my home office I found the answer sitting on my bookshelf. The next day I brought it in to work, a book of Australian slang. It was given to me years earlier by another colleague from Australia. It was a rather thick book, the size of large novel. Even though I had held onto it for years, I never thought it would come in handy in this capacity.

As we gathered the next day in a conference room, I sat directly across from my colleague from Down Under. Just as a meeting started, I looked across the table at him and taking the book out, I slammed it on the middle of the table. As did, I said something to the effect that he wasn’t going to get away with using any Australian slang expressions on me any longer.

To this he was a at first taken aback, then he looked straight at me and smiled. From that point forward, we had a much better working relationship, and I got to know him more personally as well. It all happened because I was simply willing to work to make a connection with him.

Deconstructing Connecting with Colleagues

Every situation is different and sometimes we don't always get it right. When it comes to personalities, I feel it's definitely worth trying to connect with people. Many times just from that effort we can gain appreciation and for each other and work well together.

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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In and around wondering why iowavote.com was mentioned in yet another debate, when it is a domain name for sale and has no Web site tied to it, a few other things came before my mind.

Words Matter – I honestly was hoping meliorism was going to be my word for the week, as it was Merriam-Webster’s Word for the Day on Sunday. However, it ended up being monomania, thanks to talk show host Josh Dukelow of Fresh Take. Look them both up and tell me if you agree with my choice.

I Post Links To Make Money From Amazon But Don’t Actually Make Any – This week I got another reminder from Amazon that I need to post more notices on my blog that I am an “affiliate” of theirs. This means if you click on links to the retail giant here on The Hot Iron and buy something, then I make some money. For example, this piece of jewelry. For all of the years I have been doing this, I have made US $4.00. Yes, four dollars. That could all change if someone buys this jewelry though.

Or Buy This Book On New England Travel – Steve Jermanok has been writing about travel for years in major publications and on his blog. Speaking of his blog, I built his very first blog in my past consulting business. The New Englander has released this book on New England travel and I am going to refer people to whenever they ask me about going to the six-state region where I grew up but haven’t lived in for years.

Make Flossing Great Again – It was announced that the Quip Refillable Floss Pick got the seal of acceptance from the American Dental Association. As one of my kiddos is a prolific flosser I am going to get it for her for Christmas. As she isn’t a regular reader here, please don’t tell her to spoil the surprise. Note this link is not to Amazon, nor does it have any impact on my income from said dental organization.

Roll Your Own Music Player – For those who know me, they know I am all about controlling my content online. That’s why I have my own blog rather than posting on LinkedIn or other platforms. I also host my own contacts and calendar with NextCloud which is something I haven’t written much about but could write volumes. When I came across this article by Matthew Wilber on hosting his own music player. Granted if you have a hard time with Apple Music or Spotify, you won’t want to even think about reading this! But for those of you who do as I do, it’s a great learning experience.

Learn About Scrum Too – A couple of links came to my purview which are excellent resources for Scrum. One is the Scrum Training Series with great overview videos and an accompanying FAQ section. The other is the EduScrum presentation I learned about last week that you can watch it here.

Mini Me First Computer – My first computer should have been the TRS-80 Model I, but then the Model III came out. No worries, as I can now buy a mini model of the Model I that I can actually use to house a Raspberry Pi, which is a very small computer. Or I can use it as a Christmas tree ornament, which is likely what I would use it for.

New to Me, From The Beyond – Paul Harvey was the genial radio host whose style was well-known for many years. He was based in Chicago and I once saw him getting into his limo on Michigan Avenue and he turned to me and smiled. Before I was born he recorded this monologue, “If I Were The Devil.” Not completely sure, but it seems like it could have been written this good day.

This week I had the honor to speak to the class of Dr. Sara Steffes Hansen as part of the Interactive Web Management Program at the University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. The topic was on consulting, as her class will be consulting to non-profits on the Web and social media. For the past several years I have given this guest lecture in person, and this year it was virtual with a recorded presentation and live Q & A. Despite this, the questions from the students were some of the best I have been asked. Though only one student turned their camera on…

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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As you settle down to read what passed by my brain this week, allow yourself the indulgence of some delicious nuts and candies, as well as some informative or at least colorful magazines… all to benefit my kiddos’ Girl Scouts troop!

Save Advertising – Garage door opener maker LiftMaster released a commercial this week with a take from the 80’s movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The particular scene is when Ferris works over Cameron to take his Dad’s car for an ill-fated drive. The ad features Alan Ruck, the actor who played Cameron in the movie. With all of the attention on Millennials and Baby Boomers, it’s nice to see advertisers focus on my generation, Generation X.

What You Can and Can’t Zoom – Zoom has recently released some new features to help you better manage virtual training sessions. Note none of these have anything to do with taking you off mute when you think you are not. Additionally, though I should have guessed it was the case, you can only hold one meeting at a time with a single Zoom account.

Meet the New Radio, Same as the Old Radio – SiriusXM released a new radio receiver that looks a lot like the built-in capabilities for SiriusXM that comes with most new cars. Maybe for those cars that don’t have satellite radio receiving baked in this may be a worthy investment, but unfortunately is in a long line of lacking in innovation from the network.

I Actually Came Up With This One – When the fun turns into work, it’s no longer fun.

Your Web Site Can’t Write Itself… Yet – A worthy read is from the Nielsen Norman Group on auditing the content on your Web site to determine what to write next. For some people who see making even basic edits to Web content an arduous event, this may be overkill. For a more basic approach, this post I wrote 3 years ago on a simple Web content plan may be more suitable.

Cherry on the Learning Sundae – A few weeks ago I mentioned the rebranding of Evolve Solutions Group. This week Evolve launched a series of newsletters with a nice twist, where by referring others to sign up for them, you get Evolve swag. You can see the topics of their newsletters and signup here and note this will help me get a t-shirt as I already earned stickers and the water bottle.

Quantity Not Quality – Google sent me an email this week telling me, "From 10/30/2020, we will not allow new sites to be monetized using AdSense, Ad Manager or AdMob in unsupported languages or where they do not contain content." Note they don’t say the content has to be any good, simply that it has to exist.

A Retail Marriage Made In Wisconsin – This week discount retailer Kohls started selling clothing from Lands’ End. This was first announced in the early pandemic days and clearly didn’t make my radar then, but the site of the lighthouse-branded apparel is a nice addition for the retailer that has struggled like its fellow brick-n-mortar retailers for years.

Recall by Parents for Change – Where most every school district that surrounds the one my kiddos go to started the school year in person, mine did not. It has been frustrating, and as misery loves company, my family has not been alone in it. A group called AASD (Appleton Area School District) Parents for Change has filed to petition to recall 3 school board members. I have learned issues with the school system go beyond simply the pandemic response, and got a lot of insight from a rally last weekend I attended, hearing it first hand from fellow parents, many who are also teachers. I am following closely and will likely get involved if I can.

Ping This – Have you ever been asked to “ping” a Web site or IP address, and after saying you have no idea what the requestor is asking, you are then led down a path to do so? Next time try this Web site instead to perform the ping.

Flattening the Scrum Learning Curve – A key to successful Scrum teams is relationships among the team members. I found this article with helpful questions for a new Scrum Master on a team to ask the Product Owner.

Henry Would Approve – I needed to create a Gantt chart this week, but wanted to make it so I could easily edit it without special tools or complex manual adjustments. I learned this can be easily done in PowerPoint and this article showed how to create such a Gantt chart with the popular presentation tool.

Herbie Rides Again… in my neighborhood?

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This is from The Hot Iron, a journal on business and technology by Mike Maddaloni.

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