Monday Motivation: South Korean TeamWork

“One piece of log creates a small fire, adequate to warm you up, add just a few more pieces to blast an immense bonfire, large enough to warm up your entire circle of friends;
needless to say that individuality counts but team work dynamites.”


 Master Jin Kwon quotes (South Korean Martial Arts master, b.1957)

Live from Korea

Today I am blogging from the Asia Pacific Conference on Volunteerism being held in  Changwon, Korea a city of one million located 185 km south of Seoul, Korea.

This is me with the Volunteering Mascot from Seoul.

Friday Facts: Aussie Volunteer Conference Reactions

There are suggestions that the Volunteering Australia conference set to operate in a few weeks has failed to meet target. It is been suggested that there are about 300 attendees compared to 600 last year. True, there may be a rush of last minute attendees but numbers do appear down.

No doubt the very recent change of date and venue, which I have previously blogged about may be a factor. Listening to people, across Australia I am hearing a range of reasons why numbers are down:

1. The price of close to $950 for a volunteer conference is very high. The mutterings about the cost have now risen to a crescendo. Add to the cost, accommodation which is not included ($250 to $450 depending on how you organise it), airfares $200 to $500, meals (up to $150), transfers etc etc and you are looking at over $2000. By contrast, you could have flown to New Zealand, paid for accommodation,  attended the NZ conference, eaten well and spent half of that
2. The economy is making not for profits extra careful
3. The lack of significant or sufficient quality volunteer management workshops or plenaries
4. The late addition of this conference into a crowded 2011 calendar
5. What is perceived as the on going disconnect of Volunteering Australia from the rest of the volunteering world in Australia
6. The poor decision to charge volunteer presenters full fee, even when they are presenting, stopped some from submitting papers

One wants the peak body to succeed and do well. These disappointing numbers at the conference reduce their income from the event and will impact negatively on their ability to provide support for volunteering across the country. Hopefully in reflecting and evaluating, some constructive changes will be made.

Tuesday Tech: What is Klout?

Tweeting, blogging, Facebooking you probably know. So what is Klouting?  Well its actually just Klout!

Klout is designed to measure a person's "influence" on Social Networking sites.  Klout looks at how many people follow your blogs, tweets and facebook posts and what they do with them. So Klout looks at how many retweets, likes and shares done by others in response to an "influencer's"  messages. tweets and posts.

Based on those interactions, Klout calculates a score out of 100, based on 35 variables. My score is currently 64.35. How does that compare with others? The CEO and co founder of Klout, Joe Fernandez says that “It’s really, really hard for a normal person to get a score above 70." That has give me an incentive!

There are five accounts on Klout with scores above 90. They include Justin Bieber at 98 and Lady Gaga at 91. There are apparently two or three others with scores above 90. One wonders that the world is being influenced by Gaga and Bieber?! President Obama’s Klout score was at 87, with the White House Twitter account coming in at 80.

The variables measure your influence on Facebook and Twitter in three categories

• True Reach- the number of people you influence I found out that on average 504 people respond to my messages. Not quite world domination but Klout says: You have a larger network than most people
• Amplification Probability -how much you influence these people- your effect on an audience
• Network Score- how many Influencers you influence- having influenctial people you connect with means, that your message will go far. This is again a score out of 100-mine is currently 62

What does this mean for a Not for Profit?

1. If you are using Facebook or Twitter or both, find out who you influence. Sign up for Klout to see how many people you are influencing and who they are
2. Find out what messages they are responding to.  This could help your organisation work out if your messages are reaching your desired audience. My most influencing messages include: Facebook, Television, Adelaide, Training, Nonprofit and Social Media
3. Benchmark your own organisation and identify what your target score is
4. Get me in to do training on Social Media. Seriously? Are you going to choose someone with a Klout score of 11 or one that is over 40? I have a great Social Media training course.
5. Engage with top influencers: Find the supporters of your cause who have the highest Klout scores they are your most influential followers. By sharing information with those people, they will promote your cause, issues and messages through their networks extending your reach
6. Recognise people who have influenced your agency in a particular topic by "giving them Klout". This is symbolised by K+. 

Love your feedback, reactions and thoughts on Klout. In the meantime, expect lots of posts with Lady Gaga mentioned in them!
Please do mention to others this blog. We keep growing in readership and I want to keep it that way!
Also, are you following me on Twitter? martinjcowling

Monday Motivation

True friendship exists when silence between two people is comfortable.

Future of Professional Development in Volunteer Management

Am pleased to be working with Sue Jones from Volunteer Warrington in England on a webinar on this very topic. The webinar will be LIVE from the European Year of Volunteering road show in London on Thursday November 3rd and will include:

• Rob Jackson, of Rob Jackson Consulting
• myself
• Carl Cadman, Volunteers Manager at Acorns Childrens Hospice 
• Laura Hamilton, Volunteer and Development Manager at George House Trust
• a live audience
• a web audience

Will one day these things seem normal to be doing a seminar in this way?

We will focus on:
- Why professional development is so important for managers of volunteers
- The range of options available
- What's missing and what's next for the profession

Timing: 3rd November at 15:00 to 16:30 GMT

Auckland, NZ 4:00am Fri, Nov 4 2011
SYDNEY, Australia: 2:00am Fri, Nov 4 2011
TOKYO, Japan 12:00 midnight Fri, Nov 4 2011
NEW YORK, United States, New York 11:00a Thu, Nov 3 2011
PORTLAND, United States, Oregon 8:00a Thu, Nov 3 2011


To register:
Live: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/2338945850
Webinar: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/698406286

Tuesday Technology: My Travel Blog

I am really pleased to announce that I have been asked by Boarding area.com to join their stable of blogs. Boarding area believe they have the "best" travel blogs available online. In asking me, they told me they liked my content and my reader numbers. Very affirming.

My travel blog: Wild about Travel can now be found at: http://boardingarea.com/blogs/wildabouttravel/

I am feeling very chuffed! It says I do know something about Social Media. :) I started Wild about Travel as a hobby. It has grown from that with over a 100 people reading it every day!

Come and join me!

Monday Motivation: DON'T Spend 1st hour of Day Checking email

Julie Morgenstern (dubbed the "queen of putting people's lives in order" by USA Today, is a professional organizer and productivity expert). She suggests spending the first hour of your workday email-free. Instead, find one task (even a small one)  and tackle that first thing. Her argument is the first hour of the day needs to be focussed on tasks.
Lifehacker is trying this. I am working up to it!


Food for thought

Sad times

Feeling quite sad about my sister today. Her health, after an amazing run, took a turn down this week. Thanks everyone for your kind words and support.

World Changers: handwashing Day 15th October

UNICEF (United Nations Fund for Children’s Activities) declared 15th October Global Handwashing Day.

The purpose of Global Handwashing day is to raise awareness & promoting hand washing to school children and their parents. This might sound like an odd issue but every twenty seconds a child dies from a disease that could have been prevented.

On 15th October, teachers, NFPs, government officials, ambassadors and members of private sector people will raise awareness of hand washing with soap as a  powerful health intervention

There are some Fundamental facts:

1. Washing hands only with water is not enough!
2. Hand washing with soap can prevent children dying from diseases across the developing world
3. The important time for hand washing with soap is after usage of the toilet and before having food.
4. Hand washing with soap is the single and most productive health interventions-  Hand washing decreases the risk of not only diarrhea but also some severe symptoms such as cholera and dysentery by 48 to 59 %.

What can you do?

Tell People its World Handwashing Day 

Post on your Facebook, tweet etc

WASH YOUR HANDS

Teach your kids to wash their hands

I am amazed when I go into a public lavatory, how many people dont wash their hands? Or is it just a male thing?