Free Flowing Thoughts

Space Camp essays a great reminder on why MCEC matters

I was pulled into MCEC 4 or 5 years ago by helping judge some of the submitted essays for the annual Bernard Curtis Brown Space Camp Scholarship.  When we spend most of our time talking about policy or how to get our message out it is easy to get a few steps removed from children we exist to help.  Below is  an excerpt from a sixth grade entry I just finished judging:

"Growing up in a military family has been really hard for this twelve year old boy originally from Tennessee.  I've had to face my dad's continuous deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan.  I've had to go to five different schools due to PCS moves, and had to try and fit in and make new friends.  Since I love sports, especially football, I've had to prove myself on different teams, in different states!  But I've done all this because I believe in what my Dad does for our country.  Even though it hard and I'm tired of saying goodbye, I am so thankful my Dad and many other brave men and women are fighting to keep our country safe.  Their sacrifices are great, and I am so proud to be an American."

Great post on why Twitter is required for marketers

http://www.pr-squared.com/2008/04/get_into_twitter_or_get_outta.html

Great report on Internet Trends From Morgan Stanley

http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/InternetTrends031808.pdf

Classical music = less baby squawking

My friend Ron at work recently spent the day at his kids' elementary school and was overwhelmed by the volume in the cafeteria at lunch.  After about 10 minutes, and convinced the noise level was going to lead to permanent hearing loss, a teacher turned on classical music across the cafeteria intercom.  Instantly the noise level dropped. 

This story fascinated me because my baby girl has developed another new skill.  Squawking.  At first the little yells were quite cute, they're usually followed by a smile.  But over time these tiny baby screams have grown in volume and frequency to the point where my wife and I had trouble having conversations over the phone.  The noise is similar to how I would imagine a pterodactyl would sound, but cuter. 

As a random experiment we popped Courtney's iPod into the sound dock and started playing Beethoven.  About 20 minutes later we noticed something amazing...we could hear each other!  The baby was quietly playing with her toys, and the squawks had evolved into miniature peeps, like the cute fluffy ducks in her story books.  Much more pleasant.

We have since downloaded about 100 GB of classical music and have it on permanent repeat around the house.  God bless you Ron!

MCEC's New Web Site: Part 1

Shortly after Al Gore invented the Internet, MCEC launched www.militarychild.org and like many non-profits we have not made significant changes since that time.  It is easy for an organization to not take the time to update their Web site with all the other pressing issues.  With phones ringing and emails coming in it's easy to forget that there is another critical communication channel you are neglecting.

But on a given day, more people outside your organization probably interact with your website than with you, your staff, your magazine, send email or call you on the phone---combined.  To make a good impression on your constituents you need to make the time for your website.

The expense is the first thing that usually stops nonprofits from getting around to updating their site. It's usually not as much as you fear. At some point in the past a company provided a bid for nearly $1M to redo our site.  This of course set the expectation with our group that the project was not affordable. There is no reason for a nonprofit to spend $1M just for a website update. 

The reality is you can spend as much or as little on a site but you can have a very nice site updated by a professional firm with an open source content management system for <$25k.  If you have a lot of content (multiple pages, sections, lots of documents to post, lots of pages with different structures then expect to pay $50-$75k.  A high end firm with very strong design and heavily involved account service will be in the six figures.

To get started prepare a detailed RFP, and if someone in your staff does have online experience then seek out an expert who will volunteer some time. MCEC sought advice from my co-workers at Dell and other experts who either provided feedback on the current site we should keep in mind or technical expertise when reviewing portions of the proposal.

Ask for references of firms from people who have recently completed online work. Look for contacts who have a lot of experience in this space, all web firms are not created equal.

Keep in mind this is the primary communication channel for your organization. Invest and budget with that in mind.

Baby Dedications

Today we had our baby dedicated at church, it was an emotional moment.  For several years my wife and I watched families bring their new babies to church, and most of that time we thought we would never be able to do that ourselves due to medical complications.  We watched more families just a couple weeks after we had a miscarriage.  So it was a really special day for us.  I was just glad I did not have to speak while we were on stage because it just would have not happened.  The only thing that kept me from crying was glancing over at my good friend Chad standing next to me and realizing he was not much better off!