island⁹⁴

I made a simple chart of approximate seed planting times for Boston (USDA Zone 6). You can download a printable PDF of the planting chart.

Today I put together a simple raised bed in my backyard. I built it along the same design as the Food Project’s Build-a-Garden Program’s planter—which my landlord participated in last year. Other than shoveling 1300 pounds of soil needed for an 8 x 4 raised bed, it was pretty easy. The only really novel part is putting a sheet of weed-block between the ground and the planting soil to keep the vegetables from growing down into polluted city-dirt.

Two weeks ago I launched a new website at Brompt.com. It’s a web-based service for unreliable bloggers (like myself) that sends you an email if you haven’t posted to your blog in a while. It’s sort’ve like HassleMe, except Brompt actively scans your blogs RSS feed to only send reminders when you’re lax (as opposed to just sending you a reminder every so often).

It’s very practical, but I also think Brompt is really interesting conceptually too. Everyone talks about RSS as just a means to aggregating content, but there is so much other interesting metadata in an RSS feed too.

Right now the site is just the barebones service, but I’m planning on adding some statistics and such so you can track your unreliability. It’s a fun project with a lot of possibilities.

Meet my new cat, Jose Pierpont (”Ponty”). I got him a few weeks ago from the MSPCA and he’s somewhere in that adolescent cat phase between 10 months and a year old. He’s pretty awesome, though he has a strong penchant for pipe cleaners. more pictures

Because of constructive criticism of some of my organization’s archaic language, I asked the Mission Based Massachusetts Listserv, a nonprofit discussion list, what terms they use in place of “poor people”. Below are all of the responses I got, which were awesome!

Some terminology…

• low-income
• under-resourced
• under-served (Barbara humorously notes that “overserved” is a euphemism for intoxicated)
• people living in poverty
• historically and persistently marginalized groups

(thanks Michelle, Felicia, and others who are quoted below)

Some general strategies…

• Use a preposition: Instead of “poor children” the phrase “children from low income households”. Therefore, it’s not the subject themselves, but rather their circumstances. (thanks Barbara!)
• Use a specific measure, like “125% of the federal poverty threshold” or “50% of area median income,” whatever’s most appropriate in the context.
• For a grant proposal, look at the language the grantmaker is using and follow their lead. (thanks Dennis!)

…read more

Well, it’s the new year, which is always a great time for navel gazing. So, looking back, here’s some stuff from 2007:

Places I’ve Slept:
California: Poway, Venice, Santa Barbara, Isla Vista, Sacramento, San Francisco, Sunnyvale;

Central: Minneapolis, MN; Austin, TX;

South-East-ish: Memphis, TN; Philadelphia, PN;

Northeast: Lowell, MA; Montpelier, VT; Kittery Point, ME; Narragansett, RI; Portsmouth, NH;

If-you-want-to-be-anal: Alston, Brighton, Medford;

Best Purchase: new belt

Best Gift: new scarf via my birthday scarf party

Best Book: Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

Best Movie: Hawaii, Oslo

Best Album: At Home with Owen

Best Object: Zebra F-301 Pen (blue ink)

Best Transportation: new bike

Best Meal: Sweet Potato Sandwich and Kukicha Tea from Ula Cafe

Best Social Space: Delux Cafe

Best Personal Space: Harborwalk at Dorchester Bay

Best Achievement: this mouse I caught

Thought I should (tardily) follow up considering my Nonprofit Technology Sandwich was featured on LOLnptech.org

It’s the holiday season which seems to make a lot of people think about beliefs. I’m thinking about this great book on my desk entitled Communication Planning: An Integrated Approach by Sherry Devereaux Ferguson and reading the section on understanding the psychology of audiences (Chapter 7).

Citing social psychologist Milton Rokeach the book outlines five belief types:

• Type A - Worldview beliefs: These beliefs constitute basic truths: physical (”This is a cat”), social reality (”I live in Boston”), and nature of the self (”I am a man”). These beliefs are nearly impossible to change.
• Type B - Personal beliefs: These are ego centered and internally formed. Usually self-evaluations (”I’m intelligent”), they can also be phobias or delusions (”I’m fat”).
• Type C - Authority beliefs: These beliefs are formed because of an outside authority, or in opposition to that authority (”I’ll accept that because the president said it” or “I’ll disbelieve that because the president said it”).
• Type D - Beliefs emanating from authority figures: These beliefs are formed indirectly by the actions of authority figures (People’s distrust of Richard Nixon led them to distrust the office of the President and of government and politics in general).

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Paul Hansen: my boss, friend and mentor; husband, artist and Director of the CTC VISTA Project; passed away Monday night. Paul’s humor, optimism and vision have profoundly influenced me in the past two years I have known him.

Paul was an inspiration to me: in his design and art, his use of colors and contrast, his rediscovery of common (and uncommon) objects and his whimsy and delight in their placement. In our work Paul showed me how to stay sane in insane places and where to look for fun in the mundane. Most of all, Paul was a model for maintaining one’s sense of self in the most ego-reducing places.

Paul, you will be greatly missed and not forgotten.

The message and photo above was taken by my friend Rebecca and features Mabel.

I was really happy with the feedback I received from my last article”Should I get a nonprofit job?” The responses I got, some of which you can read in the comments, helped me focus the message I was trying to convey:

A nonprofit job is not the only way to make a living and make a difference in the world.

In the comments, I think I hit upon the real issue, which is the lack of Civic Literacy I see among people in my age/social group. I don’t mean “young people are lazy/apathetic/ungrateful/whatever”, but that we don’t know how to effectively participate and initiate change in our communities and society—for no lack of interest. We’re having to make things up as we go along, which as I think my parent’s generation would agree, didn’t work out quite the way they thought it would.

So below are three suggestions I have for the intelligent, well-educated (or seeking to be), self-motivated and upwardly mobile individual who can be an ally of the nonprofit sector, but not necessarily employed by it.

1. Serve on the Board

   Executive Boards are the driving force behind nonprofit organizations. Boards set broad goals and provide important oversight for the functioning of the organization. Many boards have term-limits for serving, which means they need a constant influx of knowledgeable and engaged individuals. Boards often run by the Three-G’s—Give, Get or Get out—but an active board will provide great opportunities for involvement beyond fundraising.

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