Happy New Year, back from the dead, and updates

Last year, I took an unplanned hiatus from blogging when life suddenly accelerated. But when I look back on the second half of 2008, I feel gratitude and joy about the things I was able to participate in, and the things I was able to accomplish. Some personal highlights:

Music

Continued to take voice lessons.

Enrolled in the German Art Song class in the SF Conservatory Adult Extension program (the class I was interested in taking earlier). The focus this semester was on the songs of Schubert and Brahms. This class was an incredible opportunity for me - it stretched my brain in ways that engineers don't usually get to do, and helped me take my first big steps forward as an artist and performer.

Sang in two student recitals - my first as a solo performer. Another huge milestone. The first was a NATS student recital. The second recital was the culmination of the German Art Song class and was held at the beautiful recital salon at the conservatory. You can listen to clips here and here! There are also pics of this recital on Facebook.

Performed as soloist a couple of times with my choir. I don't think I'm at the same level yet as the best voices in the group, but I do think I am getting my foot in the door on the regular soloist roster.

Sang the A above the staff in public, by myself, more than once. This was during the recitals and concerts above. Not exactly an earth-shattering achievement for a soprano, but look, it is for me!!! We have to celebrate the small victories!!! B-flat, here I come!!!

Sang the Fauré requiem for a benefit concert and recruited a bunch of singers for same. The woman who organized the concert did it to celebrate her 50th birthday!

Sang some choral music at a concert at Stanford to commemorate the centennial birthday of Armenian-American author William Saroyan. Got a very fancy free catered dinner out of it, too. Mmmm, will sing for food...

Went to the Stanford Messiah Sing- and Play-Along for the umpteenth year. This is a favorite holiday tradition of mine. Each year, we try to go with a bunch of friends and get together beforehand for coffee/dinner. This year, we managed to assemble a bunch of Sugar Daddy's violin-playing friends to attend with us.

Watched and listened to more opera recordings!

Stravinsky - Rake's Progress
Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro
Bizet - Carmen
Puccini - Madama Butterfly
Wagner - Das Rheingold, Tristan und Isolde
Massenet - Werther

Professional

Started my own business doing freelance Drupal/PHP website development for nonprofits! Scared about whether this will be financially viable in the long run - but I have to try.

Took on the Diabetes Society in San Jose as a pro-bono client, to build my portfolio. Did tons of work to convert their website to Drupal - and learned a crapload about Drupal in the process. Successfully launched their new Drupal website a couple weeks ago! Hurrah!

Created a website for a book launch, also on a volunteer basis. The book is Your Money or Your Life. It's a personal finance book, but not of the get-rich-quick variety. Rather, it's about living within your means, asking yourself "how much is enough", and becoming financially liberated enough to do values-based work regardless of pay.

Found out through the grapevine that the nonprofit where I wanted to work so badly a couple of years ago is now in the midst of an identity crisis and organizational meltdown. When I couldn't get a job there, it was bitterly disappointing at the time. But now it looks like the universe is looking out for me in mysterious ways. Nevertheless, it's still a bit heartbreaking because they were doing fabulous work.

Met with a nonprofit in East Palo Alto that does youth technology training, to discuss how Drupal could fit into their program. Judging from our discussion, I think it will be ambitious for them, but I am willing to give them some mentorship and coaching so they can give it a shot. I'm going to have to be very careful to set boundaries with them. They are sending out a lot of neediness vibes (which is not uncommon with small nonprofits) and I am learning the hard way that boundaries are needed in order to work positively and productively with such groups without getting sucked dry.

Attended my first Bay Area Drupal Camp (BADCamp). This is an amazing event. It's shocking what a high-quality conference this is, considering that it's FREE and sustained entirely by volunteers and a few very-low-key sponsorships. I've been to conferences that charged good money and didn't hold a candle to BADCamp.

Also attended the Nonprofit Software Development Summit. This is another amazing event, conducted in "unconference" style. The emphasis is not on "keynote speakers" and other expert muck-a-mucks handing down their knowledge from the podium. It's more about assembling an amazing mix of attendees and then throwing them together in various small-group formats to talk about topics of common interest and share expertise among themselves. Everyone gets to be an expert (and schedule a session if they want), and everyone gets to be a learner. And the event organizers put a lot of effort into getting a good mix of participants - one of them even said "we keep the jerks out". Ha ha. Truly, the strength of this event is not so much the sessions as it is the people. This is the place to go to meet technologists who are doing brilliant things for the social good, and tap into their knowledge and professional networks.

Had a meeting with World Centric, a sustainability organization in Palo Alto, to discuss a new position they are creating that will involve website development, content management, and writing. There are potentially a lot of good fits for me here. I also have to say that it is exciting to be approached about a job because the people hiring specifically have you in mind for the job. I am motivated to make this work - we'll see if we can hammer out the details and come to agreement on a work arrangement where I can put my special talents and strengths to work for them while still being able to maintain my own work/life balance.

Travels

Santa Barbara - spent time last summer with my best friend, her husband, and her two adorable terror-children!

Detroit - also last summer, we and the in-laws flew to Detroit to visit Sugar Daddy's aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandmother.

Tahoe National Forest - A Fourth-of-July camping trip with the in-laws. Lots of hiking and exploring. It's sooo nice on Fourth-of-July weekend to enjoy the beauty of the Sierras without the crowds!!!

Other Stuff

Took a tour of Far West Fungi's mushroom farm in Moss Landing, organized by Slow Food Santa Cruz in conjunction with MSSF. This was all-around fun. For a nominal tour fee of just $5/person, we got to see their fascinating mushroom farm operations, enjoy the beautiful coastal landscape of Moss Landing, and then eat a fabulous potluck lunch afterwards, to which the mushroom farmers contributed a generous amount of their harvest. I highly recommend any potluck that involves Slow Food people. Those people know how to cook! Sugar Daddy had to roll me out to the car afterwards.

Successfully crashed the San Francisco watershed mushroom foray. Signups filled up really early, but we just showed up on the day and were permitted to join. This foray is of particular interest because the area is so pristine and there are certain edible mushrooms known to be in the vicinity. I can't go into further detail or else I would have to kill you.

Went mushroom hunting at Salt Point for the first time. I have to say that six hours of driving and four hours of hiking yielded just a few spoonfuls of mushrooms! It's partly due to our lack of familiarity with the area and lack of experience hunting for boletes, but also the weather has been really poor this winter for mushrooms, with little rain. On a more positive note, we did get to try a few new mushrooms from this trip - slippery jacks, a Queen Bolete (delicious - never tasted anything like that before), and some oyster mushrooms (I've bought oysters and grown my own, but this is the first time I've gotten them from the wild).

Went to Calstar again in the fall - this was Sugar Daddy's first time at Calstar with his new astrophotography equipment. He was really excited and obsessed about it! You can see his photos here, and I've included one of the Dumbbell Nebula below. What's really impressive to me is that he gets these photos with low-budget equipment. Amateur astronomers can spend thousands and even tens of thousands on photography equipment and telescope equipment, but his setup is more in the hundreds range.


Well, that's the big update for now. I can't promise that future blogging won't be spotty or have more unplanned hiatuses - gotta go with the flow of life sometimes! Let's just keep our fingers crossed.

Update on Change.org blogger position

Some sad news - I didn't get an interview for the blogger job. They had more than 1000 applicants and fewer than 50 interview slots! Thanks to all of my friends who supported me, though, especially those who wrote recommendations. Your support is greatly appreciated, and I will probably tap it again!

May and beginning of June have been a particularly busy time for me. I will be posting an update on my recent activities.

Conversations with a non-profit technology co-op member

I just spoke to T., a developer and project manager at a tech co-op that serves non-profit organizations. He was kind enough to chat with me on the phone and share a lot of helpful info about his own experiences and career path as an NP techie. They are a small org that does websites and web apps for NP's and do a lot with Drupal and CivicSpace. I have a fair amount interest in working in a similar setting and with those technologies, so I listened eagerly to his perspectives.

Background of T. and of co-op

Recent college grad; active in campus activism/volunteerism; changed tracks from for-profit to non-profit in final semester

Career path: NP web guy -> Americorps IT consulting -> met members of the co-op

Spent 1.5 years as freelancer/loosely affiliated w/co-op

Co-op decided to specialize in web apps/web presence (rather than any tech-related project under the sun)

Currently has 7 full-time employees, with insurance! W-2 instead of 1099 forms!

Only a few similarly-structured co-ops nationally. Hillsborough something on East Coast?

Work environment

Tight-knit team - like a web start-up - friends outside of work, too

True co-op style - they try to keep the organizational structure as horizontal as possible

Totally virtual - most are generally in the same area of the country, but a couple of them are far afield

However, this can make management and HR decisions difficult, esp. w.r.t. performance evaluation

Also can be tough to get decisions made, get things done w/this kind of structure

Members fall into different philosophical camps: 1) business-focused: emphasize the sustainability of the business when choosing clients/projects and making decisions, 2) Idealists/idealogues (two flavors: the open-source/tech idealists, and the cause/mission idealists)

The art of client selection: evaluate them for their mission (do you want to support it), organizational readiness

Resist the urge not to bill hours (in the heat of enthusiasm about a cause or project!)

Quality vs. price - ugly reality is that there's not always the time or budget to follow software best practices. Have to be strategic about designing and testing the software. More often than not, can't build the elegant/reusable software solution, and can't do a lot of testing.

Co-op bills at $75/hour

It's an unusual niche that has its challenges. They want to be able to continue serving small orgs; however, they also want to be competitive for larger projects, especially when they're bidding against for-profit firms that charge 3x but also have 3x the resources (and can thus do 3x the work, or do the same work 3x as fast)

Co-op is transitioning into more of a sustainable business venture rather than a network of loose affiliates. Has been evolving in this direction for the past couple years. Have hired full-time staff and seem to be at the take-off point.

Expectations

Non-profit sector mythbusters:

Myth: "People in NP will all be working for good, all the time. People in the corporate are all about the money."
Reality: There are people in NP for whom it's just a job they do for $$$. Conversely there do exist corporate folks who care (as my own experience bears out).

Myth: "NP budgets may be smaller, but their timelines are more flexible, so I will have more opportunity to write good software."
Reality: Budgets are definitely smaller, but timelines are not very flexible!

Put foot down for including testing as part of the dev cycle for large projects (well above & beyond a McWebsite). Been burned before.

McWebsites: Basic web presence for $1500-$5000. Includes informal/free support (fortunately this is not abused because they have a good, informal, open relationship w/clients and can turn around and say "hey, that's more support than we can offer w/o doing a new engagement".)

Advice on freelancing, work-life balance

Have a contract! This is a no-brainer, but T. has been burned before!

Beware of having too little or too much motivation. Need to bill enough hours to eat! But, since your home IS your office, it's also possible to be "at work" 24/7! E.g. T. sometimes bills 60-80 hours on busiest weeks, translates to 80-100 hours actually in front of the computer!

On a related note, myth of billable hours: if you are billing 40-50 hours/week, you are actually working more hours than that! Maintaining your business and dealing w/the business side of things, finding new clients, etc.

Many freelancers/co-op members also still volunteer for their causes of choice. This can keep you very busy!

Toggl.com - good tool for tracking hours

Desirable skills for NP techies

If you already have tech skills, look to building project management skills. There are a lot of code jockeys out there for the NP sector to draw on. What's in short supply is people with management/PM skills who can serve the NP sector. Problem is the pay and also the career advancement (you top out in a couple years). People with these skills are desperately needed.

Soft skills

Ability to work on the NP's organization processes

T.'s co-op looks for these skills when evaluating candidates for hire.

Project management

Kitchen-sink RFPs for <$5K "champagne on a beer budget" - these are common!

Response: Do a needs assessment engagement. Deliverables are a project spec and a brief. Client is under no obligation to engage the co-op for the development stage - they are invited to shop it around. The brief is written with a target audience of grantmakers - often, the briefs are dropped straight into the grant proposal. This is valuable because often the RFP authors are not that tech-savvy and benefit from having someone with technical knowledge write the brief for their grant proposal. The client may receive the grant and often they come back to the co-op work for the dev work too.

Walk the client through the website process. Use mock-ups (easy w/Drupal). Repeat back to them what they just said.

Frugal green blogs; Change.org blogger position

Well, after much typing and sweat, I've submitted my application for the Change.org blogger position. It was a good excuse to update my resume, which I've been meaning to do for a while.

While drafting the application, I decided to do some reconnaissance on blogs that are green and frugal, since that's what I'm proposing to Change.org. There are not as many blogs on that topic as there are on, say, politics or the general green movement. But still, there is quite a community of bloggers on the subject:

A more green and simple life: saving money
Budget Hippies
Cheap and Green
Consciously Frugal
Cranberryfrog: Simple Living
Crunchy Chicken
Frugal and Green
Frugal Fu
Frugal Nuts are Green
Going Green
Green Boot Camp
Green Living | Wise Bread
Green Minded Wallet
greenfrugality
Green Simple Frugal
Healthy, Green and Frugal
Living Cheap and Green
Living Green Below Your Means - v 1.0
Living Green Below Your Means - v 2.0
No Impact Man
Organically Inclined: The how-to journal for simpler, greener and cheaper living
Simple - Green - Frugal
The Greening of Gavin
The Greening Tree
The Lean Green Family

Green career counselors

Met P. for dinner at Hobee's last Thursday - yum. She recommended two green career counselors:

Marie Kerpan - founder of Green Careers - based in Marin
http://www.geocities.com/greencareers

Three Month Visa Coaching and Consulting - based in SF
Life and Career Coaching - Life Sabbaticals - Long-term Travel
http://www.threemonthvisa.com/

Blogging job with my name on it

Okay okay okay okay okay. Opportunity (that elusive vixen!) has presented itself yet again with a listing for a paid blogger job that just landed in my inbox and that has my name written all over it - details below. I need to submit an application, ideally by end of next week. Here is my to-do list for preparing an application:

* Polish up my resume
* Gather some competitive intelligence: who else is blogging/writing about consumer culture and frugal green living (my subject of choice)? I know some of the answers, but need to probe a bit further
* Get some recommendation blurbs from my peeps that I can include in a cover letter
* Put together a convincing case about why Change.org wants to have me as one of their bloggers
* Write some thoughtful responses to the application questions

Apply to be a Blogger for Change.org!

Want to blog on an issue you are passionate about for an audience of hundreds of thousands of activists and nonprofit leaders?

Want to create the premier online space for your issue and become a leading voice for social action?

Change.org is launching a social action blog network this summer and is currently hiring a team of part-time bloggers/editors to help create a movement for change around the major causes of our time.

Each blogger will lead an online community focusing on a different social, political, or environmental issue, maintain a daily blog covering news and offering commentary, convene leading nonprofits and activists working on the issue, and help people translate their interests and passions into concrete action.

Change.org's blog network will include communities around the following issues:

Global Warming
Human Rights
Universal Health Care
Public Education
Homelessness
Peace in the Middle East
Microfinance
Disaster Relief
Racism
Gay Rights

Human Trafficking
Global Health
Darfur
Women's Rights
War in Iraq
Global Hunger
Autism
Promoting Democracy
Immigrant Rights
Fair Trade

Poverty
Prison Reform
Humanitarian Relief
Animal Rights
Cure Cancer
Domestic Abuse
Mental Health
Rights of the Disabled
Sustainable Agriculture
...and more to come...

Additional Details

* Positions will start in June - we'll start interviewing in mid-May and positions will begin in mid-June.
* Part-time - this is a part-time position. There are no formal hourly requirements, but the blogs will require daily activity, so you will have to be willing to dedicate significant time outside of your normal work.
* Monthly stipend - we will be paying all bloggers a modest monthly stipend.
* Collaboration - this is a collaborative effort, and you will be in regular contact with Change.org's Managing Editor and participate in weekly phone calls with the other Change.org bloggers.
* Location: anywhere - the Change.org team is distributed across the country, and you can write from anywhere you like

To apply, send the following information to bloggers@change.org

1. Your resume

Nothing fancy here - just send us what you've got.

2. The social issue you want to blog about

Each blogger will focus exclusively on one of the issues mentioned above. Please include the primary issue you are interested in writing about. You may also list any other issues you'd also like to be considered for, including issues we may not have listed above (we'll be expanding this list soon).

3. The URL of any blog(s) you have written for before

Applicants are not required to have previous blogging experience, but if you do, please list the URLs of the blogs you have written for in the past, including your personal blog if you have one, along with links to specific posts.

4. Why you're interested in the position

This is free-form and casual. In your email give us a short intro about why you're interested in the project and any brief background info you want to highlight. This is not a formal cover letter and we're a laid back organization, so don't spend too much time laboring over this.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Your Nonprofit Job Search: Where to start

Just found this article:

Your Nonprofit Job Search: Where to start

Are you just starting to look for a job in the nonprofit sector? Don't know where to begin or how to go about finding work in this area? To help you get started, we've created this overview on how to look for jobs in the nonprofit world.

The following paragraphs provide an introduction to the types of jobs available in this field, advice on how to go about determining where you fit into the nonprofit world, and tips for finding work in the sector.

Whether you are looking for full time employment, a fellowship in public service, or long term volunteering opportunities, this overview will provide you with ideas and resources for beginning your search. Read more

Sharing knowledge with fellow travelers on the journey

Last month I had a chat with D., who contacted me after reading an article on personal finance that I wrote. Like me, she is interested in making the transition from the corporate world to more values-based work and/or a saner pace of life. I tried to give her as candid a summary as possible of my transition process thus far, and I also recommended some resources that I thought she might find helpful.

I really welcome phone calls and emails and face-to-face chats with people who contact me to learn more about my experiences and to have a sounding board for their own experiences and plans.

I also seek out people who are living and working in a way that I admire and to which I aspire. I try to find mentors and cultivate relationships with them, or at least chat with them and glean what I can from their own experiences.

I feel strongly no matter where we are along our journey, we need to share our own stories and support with those who are following in our footsteps. And we need to seek out the knowledge and support of those in whose footsteps we follow. It's especially important if we choose a life path in which we are swimming against the tide.

Nonprofits and "Mission over Membership"

Just read this article from the NTEN newsletter that I found both pointed and refreshing and wanted to make a note of it for myself:

Mission Over Membership in Online Advocacy by Charles Lenchner, DemocracyInAction

It is a good reminder for those involved in non-profit work that technology/fundraising/outreach strategies must always be in service to the mission - not the other way around!

Updates: opera, househunting, socializing, beading, and (eek) coding

Updates, updates, updates all around...

On the musical front:

Watched DVDs of two operas and one operetta: Rigoletto (film version with Pavarotti), a rather sensual production of Massenet's Thaïs, and The Pirates of Penzance by Gilbert & Sullivan.

Attended more master classes at Stanford, one by John Bellemer and one by Rudolf Jansen (wow. has his own Wikipedia page) for both singers and collaborative pianists.

Broke down and finally got an MP3 player. It's coming in very handy so far, especially after I installed Rockbox on it. I have to confess that I'm enjoying playing with my new toy. What tipped the balance is that Sugar Daddy and I use MIDI and MP3 files a lot during our music practice sessions, and I finally realized that during those sessions, we were basically using our laptops as expensive, power-hungry, and not-very-portable MP3 players. I hope that's not too much of a self-deluding rationalization :)

On the creative front:

Made this bun cover (for a hair bun) out of beads from my trip to Africa a couple years back. I'm working on a pair of matching earrings, too.


On the practical front:

Decided to get serious about buying our first house (well, condo, most likely) this year. Signed up to get new real estate listings. Also doing lots of research, reading, and surfing.

On the technical front:

Working on the local Sierra Club's website event calendar. TOTAL time suck. But I am fast learning Drupal, which is the point (and which is why it's a time suck, being new to it and all).

On the social front:

Had A. over for dinner Sunday night - delightful! A nice bonus is that the apartment is clean, something that only happens when company comes over :) And last Wednesday, met R. and B. for dinner at B.'s place and did a lot of catching up. Had a delicious dinner of garlic naan, Indian vegetables, braised tofu, fresh spring rolls, tea, and peach mango cobbler.

Meeting with About-Face executive director

Last month I had coffee with Jennifer Berger, the executive director of About-Face. About-Face is a media literacy non-profit that equips women and girls with the tools they need to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image. I've been a supporter of About-Face for several years now, and it is always exciting to meet the people who are working to effect social change in areas that I'm passionate about.

I wanted to make some notes about our discussion before it all dribbles out of my head, like stuff tends to do these days...

State of the organization

Three active campaigns
Media literacy workshops for girls at schools/clubs/orgs
"Take Action" program for training girls (teens and young adults) to create change in the media landscape. The girls are in charge of envisioning and executing the action; About-Face provides training, resources, and mentorship/guidance
About-Face website: revamp of tools/resources, update of the Gallery of Offenders and Gallery of Winners
They are in capacity-building mode. Pursuing grants, donors. Big push for funding, esp. building funding momentum for "Take Action" program
Other orgs doing related work on girl's issues: Girls, Inc. (J. recommended that I check them out) and Girls for a Change (local, based in San Jose; "Take Action" modeled after them)
They are on eBay - MissionFish

What are About-Face's current needs? (besides funding, of course :)

Pro-bono or discount consulting: organization and/or tech
Trying to incorporate video into their media literacy presentations & website - dealing with fair use & copyright protection issues
Board members - 3 more needed. ~10 hrs/week commitment plus a "personally significant" monetary contribution; 6-mo. trial term; currently a "governing board" rather than a "working board"
Finding and connecting with new donors
Charitable gift registries
Technology needs/questions
We may have some common interests here (building my resume while assisting their org) - explore further
Understanding CRMs, what they can do for you, which CRM (if any) is best for this org's needs
Pro-bono Salesforce.com consulting (me?), Salesforce Foundation product grants
CMS (esp. Drupal, Joomla) vs. Dreamweaver + Contribute
Trusted community/mailing list for tech advice
They are a Mac house

Action items

List of charitable gift registries
TechSoup white papers on CRMs, CMSs
NTEN affinity groups/mailing list
Explore tech consulting possibilities
Think about people in my network to tap for potential board members, donors

Getting Drupal experience as a Sierra Club web volunteer

This was in a recent newsletter of the Loma Prieta chapter of the Sierra Club (of which I am a member):

Web Support Needed

Help improve the chapter’s website and web services. Seeking a web developer familiar with Drupal related services including installation, configuration, design, module development, and customization.

It's a fortunate stroke of serendipity. I am looking to get some Drupal experience, and this is a great opportunity to do so while helping out a local environmental organization - and putting it on my resume as non-profit experience.

I had a chance to chat with the person coordinating their website effort, and we've identified some easy tasks for me to start with. I'm going to start working on it tomorrow.

Job listings at Beaconfire Consulting serving non-profit clients

This contractor job listing caught my eye. I don't have the qualifications (yet), but in future, this is the kind of work arrangement that appeals to me.

Beaconfire Consulting: Careers

Beaconfire often utilizes independent contractors as part of providing our clients with the best advice and solutions for their business needs. We prefer contractors who are not employed full time and who may be able to commit anywhere from 5-20 hours per week on an as needed basis. Flexibility, availability and reliability are key to building a contracting relationship.

We are looking for contractors with the to fill the following roles. If interested, send resume and cover email/letter according to the instructions in each listing. Please include the role or position of interest in the subject line.

Programmer/Developer

Green Your Career

Last Wednesday I attended an event called "Green Your Career", sponsored by Acterra and held at the Green Building Exchange. Five panelists in various green careers gave short presentations. The moderator was Carol McClelland, who runs a career coaching business and website called Green Career Central.

I didn't learn anything hugely profound that I didn't know already. The panelists had diverse backgrounds and careers and had interesting stories. However, there wasn't any particular panelist that I felt like I identified with closely, in terms of what they are doing in their career. Also, for the "Green Technology Career" presentation, I would have liked to hear from an actual technologist (the panelist was a marketing person working at a technology company). However, I really appreciated the expertise of the moderator, who asked some excellent questions of the panelists (given below) and dished out quite a bit of good advice herself.

Download the presentation handouts here. My own notes follow:

Introduction

• Positioning yourself for emerging industries
• Be realistic about the current state of your target green industry/company. Is it emerging, or is it mature and well-established? This affects how ready they are to hire.
• Engage in policy-influencing activities; these will create the green economy sector that you want to work in
• Check out the GreenerComputing newsletter

Green Marketing Career - Lynn Strand Marks

• Whatever job role you may have now or in the future, you can always advocate green values to the people and processes you interact with
• Marks only figured out what her calling was about 6 mos. ago!

Renewable Energy Career - Max Greenberg

• Salespeople for residential/commercial solar energy installations are in big demand

Green Building Career - Danny Beesley

• Beesley doesn't just give out green building advice, he has also given green career advice to many people who have asked him and has served as a mentor

Green Technology Career - Krista Van Tassel

Environmental Management Career - Michele Beasley

What one experience best prepared you for your current green career?

• Reframing past experiences and applying them to the current job
• Acterra's Be The Change environmental leadership training program
• Real estate experience
• Hands-on construction experience
• A background in traditional marketing
• Working with diverse groups/stakeholders/volunteers

What are the hottest jobs in your green sector?

• Behavioral/creative influencers
• Marketing writers
• Solar energy sales consultants
• Solar design engineers - residential and commercial
• Solar installers - work under a foreman (who is usually a licensed electrician) to install solar energy systems
• Solar hot water systems
• Internships (unpaid) at the Green Building Exchange (they are a start-up and don't have the money yet for all the areas where they would like to grow/hire!)
• GreenPoint Raters - these are professionals who apply the GreenPoint rating system to assess how green a new or existing home is. In general this job requires some experience in construction, you must also get additional training on the GreenPoint system. Regulatory changes in the SFBay are causing a local surge in demand for GreenPoint Raters.
• Home building performance - consultants who assess energy efficiency of homes. Policy changes are in the pipeline which may result in the federal government subsidizing this particular sector in the near future.
• Green your current job! E.g. an in-house corporate event planner who decided to green her company's functions
• For advocacy groups - policy research experts, advocates
• Internships (usually unpaid) at Greenbelt Alliance
• Elected officials - consider running for office!
• Urban planning

What training was most important to you for your green career?

• U.C. Davis - studied both human development and agriculture
• Previous work with people with developmental disabilities - learning to communicate, not necessarily with words; learning about different ways to solve problems, think, and relate
• Social work
• Find mentors - lots of them
• Diversity in jobs, broad experiences, life experience
• "Speaking the language" - knowing how to communicate with many different types of people/constituencies/stakeholders/organizations
• Working with passionate/knowledgeable/idealistic/committed people within my green company
• Entrepreneurial skills
• "DIY" degree, certifications, seeking out learning opportunities - e.g. the
• Build It Green training programs
• Variety
• Meeting people - maintaining a good rolodex - networking
• Taking initiative - one panelist "volunteered" for Sun Microsystems' Eco Reponsibility Initiative even while she was holding a different job within Sun. It was hard work! But when new positions were created as part of that initiative, she was tapped to fill one of them!
• Urban planning, policy, environmental management
• Mentors - meet people for coffee, lunch; it's amazing how many people are happy/willing to meet with you and talk!

How did you find your current green job?

• (From a self-employed panelist) Meeting the right clients - companies/NGOs with a green angle
• Discovering your team's hidden passions and then turning that into a values-based company mission
• Having a strong intention
• Monster.com
• Roll with the punches - One panelist had a crappy interview. He had to buy an expensive last-minute plane ticket to get there, dropped his laptop, and felt like he said all the wrong things at the start of the interview. Yet, he was able to salvage the situation and eventually get the job!
• Craigslist
• Idealist.org
• Build your reputation for high-quality work within the company you work for

Sun Eco Responsibility Initiative

• Started as an R&D solution to an engineering problem - 5 years ago! (product line of energy-efficient processors)
• It turned out that IT cost problems were also environmental problems! (high energy consumption of data centers coupled with high energy costs)
• A way to sell their energy-efficient processor - so it seems there is a strong marketing aspect to this initiative

Tips & tricks for making the leap into green careers

• Know your green niche - YOUR special passions, skills, talents
• No magic bullet
• First focus on passion, not money

There were more tips, but I had to leave early! Check out Green Careers Central, though.

Alternative Gift Registry, and some very good news!

One of my major accomplishments this week was to finish my volunteer website development project at New American Dream's Alternative Gift Registry (check it out!).

You can see a few things that I worked on. Among other things, I added a bunch of new resources to their Green Celebration Tips page, and if you create a registry and browse the list of sample gift ideas, you will see a lot of my contributions on that list.

Finally - some nonprofit technical experience to add to my resume!!!

The best news of all is that after I completed this project, their IT guy said that he has some consulting budget money this year and would like to hire me to help with various projects as the need arises. Yay!!! I said yes and quoted him an hourly rate, which I have revised (upward) based on my findings on hourly rates in the nonprofit world. One caveat: I must pray that their funding does not suddenly dry up as it did in the last go-round!

New career, here I come!

More green job leads/resources

Making a note to myself about a couple of green job leads/resources.

First, the Sierra Magazine article Hot Jobs for a Warming Planet gives some ideas and includes links to green job listing websites. They forgot about engineering, though!

Also, my friend J. emailed me the following:

"My friend is starting a social venture called Taoit.com up in Berkeley. Please read about it at http://www.taoit.com/what. If you are interested in learning more I can put you in touch with him. He was doing his PhD in environment engineering at Berkeley and took a leave to pursue this company with his advisor."

And here's the job description from Taoit:

Taoit - Web Developer

Do you want to use your talents, skills, and creativity to change the world? So do we. Taoit is building an information platform and suite of tools to inform consumers about the environmental, social, and health impacts of products and companies, and to empower them to take actions to improve their lives and the world around them. We are a top-tier VC funded startup at the forefront of integrating science, technology, and consumer research to empower consumers around the world. We are located in downtown Berkeley, steps from BART, great restaurants, coffee shops, book stores, and the University of California. We are looking for a superstar web developer to join our founding team and to help us change the world. The web developer will help to build all aspects of the Taoit website, from front-end to back-end, through the use of world class programming skills employing Ruby on Rails/Agile/TDD/REST.

DUTIES
• Implement key website features with speed, agility, and precision;
• Be involved in the entire application stack, from back-end database to user interface implementation;
• Collaborate with small team of developers.

REQUIREMENTS
• Ruby on Rails programming skills;
• Extensive and demonstrable experience building consumer-facing web applications;
• Driven by agile methodologies, test-driven development, and a deep sense of pride in written code;
• Passion for writing concise, clear, and elegant code that supports accessible web standards;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills;
• Master of key web development tools weapons, including RoR, MySQL, HTML, XML, CSS, Javascript, Ajax, and Flash.

COMPENSATION
• Competitive base salary, benefits, and early stage equity.

To apply, please send your resume to: WebNinja@taoit.com

More local non-profits focused on technology

When I told B. at Hands On Bay Area that I was resigning as a Project Leader in order to invest more time in a non-profit tech career, she kindly pointed me to these local organizations and offer to put me in touch with her contacts there if I wanted.

OICW - Menlo Park, CA - They assist folks with training on computer equipment to prepare them for jobs and provide ESL classes. They also work with youth to take them in for after school programs.

OTX West - Oakland, CA - They refurbish old computers and "sell" them to people who volunteer with them by providing points for volunteer hours toward refurbished computers (very interesting concept). They also provide computers for schools and do computer literacy classes.

Updates: Thanksgiving, concerts, science fiction, volunteering

An update on some of my recent exploits:

Well, the major disruption in our lives lately is that the landlord kicked us out of our apartment for the last two days to fumigate our building. We only got a week's notice, and we also had to remove all food, toiletries, houseplants, and valuables from our apartment. When we returned yesterday morning, I took a shower only to discover that the hot water had been turned off. Yikes!!! Talk about motivation to move out! Other news:

Planning a lunch get-together with some of my former co-workers; looking forward to catching up.

Spent Thanksgiving on the central coast with R. and her family. Had a delicious dinner there, spent quality time with their charming and tireless kiddies, helped them put up Christmas lights, and even got a deluxe car wash and wax by F.!

Went to a recital by mezzo-soprano Malin Fritz at Stanford.

It's been a long while since I indulged my taste for science fiction, so I picked up The Year's Best Science Fiction anthology from 2005 at the library and have been staying up late to devour its 652 pages. Great writing, but disturbingly, all of the stories are dire and gloomy. Even the one funny story I've encountered so far is black humor. Authors in 2005 don't seem to be imagining a bright future for us.

I resigned my volunteer position as a Project Leader for Hand On Bay Area. This decision has been nagging at me since last fall. In recent years, it's become a toss-up about whether the sense of reward outweighed the small frustrations and the time investment. But sometimes you receive signs about what choice to make and when to make it. The recent leadership transition and ensuing disorganization at Bread of Life where I coordinate a volunteer team was a clear sign to me that it's time to move on and reclaim that time and energy to invest in a new nonprofit career.

Conversation with CiviCRM leaders

L. is one of the leaders of CiviCRM, an open-source constituent relationship management (CRM) system for advocacy, non-profit and non-governmental groups. He contacted me after hearing that I was interested in transitioning to the nonprofit tech world, and kindly agreed to meet me for a chat over coffee last week. I'll just write up the notes from our discussion, in fast but disjointed fashion:

L. was previously at Yahoo, worked for Groundspring (nonprofit donation website), ended up heading CiviCRM. He brought along his co-leader, D., who was in social services, got into tech by way of PC consumer software development, and later on to Groundspring and CiviCRM.

Check out: PICnet, Democracy Abroad(?), CivicActions

Tech consulting for NP sector: ONE/Northwest (L. thinks highly of them), CTCnet in San Diego, others - generally geographically-based.

CiviCRM is not trying to become another Salesforce.com (sales-cycle-centric CRM).

NP sector is not as tech-savvy as for-profit sector. However, more forgiving/understanding than for-profit clients of for-profit companies: they understand about severe time and resource constraints.

Check out NetSquared (I have been...)

OSS world vs. NP software world: there's some overlap, but it's not huge. Note that a lot of software target to the NP sector is closed-source - e.g., Groundspring

One way to divide up the nptech world:

1. Tech-focused nonprofits or for-profits whose "customers" are (mission-based) non-profits; i.e., they provide software and/or tech consulting to NP clients
2. "End-user customer" nonprofits (i.e. mission-based) - so the tech roles in this kind of org are: volunteer techie, accidental techie, dedicated tech staff

D. recommended that I start out with an org that fits profile #1. Why? This provides exposure to a wider variety of NP orgs, and their business practices and requirements. Through learning and direct observation, I could start to absorb and formulate my own general best practices regarding NPtech.

On joining an existing consulting group:

• Has similar advantages to option #1 above
• Opportunities for mentorship/learning/experience
• Often geographically distributed; members are usually contractors rather than employees, so there is more flexibility (and uncertainty???) regarding hours

Given the advantages, this might be an ideal way for me to go.

CiviCRM business model:

• Part 501(c)3, part LLC (to help it be a financially sustainable enterprise)
• Goal is for core functionality to meet 80% of common requirements, remaining 20% is customization that ISVs can do.
  • Try to make it fairly customizable
  • A familiar model...a lot like enterprise software in the for-profit world. That's why L. says that the distinction between NP software and for-profit software is a bit artificial (although some applications are strongly associated with the NP sector) - "it's all just software"
  • Each CiviCRM release attempts to incorporate the most commonly requested features, and also the "well, duh" features (user suggestions that make perfect sense, but weren't thought of initially)
• When CiviCRM LLP is involved with projects, it generally acts as a subcontractor; it is not directly involved in client-facing engagements. There are a few exceptions, e.g. if a NP has a dedicated tech staffer/intern who can commit to working with CiviCRM to implement functionality in a sustainable, maintainable, best-practices way.
• Challenges in the RFP process: the up-front cost of "doing it right" is quite a bit more than "doing it fast". Consultants who are only concerned with "doing it fast" can put in a low bid, but their solution will be less sustainable/maintainable and may in fact cost more in the long run. (Boy, isn't this a universal truth...)
• Case in point: some ISVs using CiviCRM build their solution as a "quick hack" that solves the immediate problem but ends up being difficult to maintain--and so they eventually get tired of maintaining it in the codebase! One of CiviCRM's big challenges.

On the client mix for consultants and other NP technology providers: currently, the distribution of nonprofit clients tends to skew towards the progressive side, although more churches/religious orgs are starting to enter the mix. There is presently a BIG boom in environmental NP clients.

D. and L. were both agreeable when I asked if I could contact them later to hook me up with organizations and consultants who could give me CiviCRM experience. D. suggests that I keep an eye out on the CiviCRM community forums for the occasional "help needed" request as well as for the educational discussions. L. offered to put me in touch with TechSoup. They are actively recruiting for a Drupal/CiviCRM developer. L. thinks this could be a good introduction to the nonprofit and open-source worlds.

Updates: nptech, music, volunteer work, mushrooms

Photo courtesy of MykoWeb

Some updates on my recent activities:

On the nonprofit tech career front: talked with S., to whom I was introduced by Gunner at Aspiration. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, his plan to bring on more people didn't materialize...however, he was friendly to talk with, offered to pass my contact info on to others, and at my request gave me lots of useful advice about the nonprofit tech sector.

I attended Gunner's talk on "How to Find Software for Your Nonprofit", the first Net Tuesday event I've attended. Pretty fun.

I got contacted out of the blue by D. who leads a major open-source nonprofit software project. He saw a message I posted on a discussion board asking about nonprofit tech career transitions and got in touch. I'm looking forward to talking to him later this month about his experiences.

I've also made some good progress on my volunteer web project for New American Dream on their Alternative Gift Registry. I emailed their IT guy an update and some screenshots. So far he seems happy with what I've done. He was also very appreciative, which I have to admit made me feel good. Money is great compensation, if you can get it...but appreciation isn't half-bad, either.

On the musical front: Whew. Busted my butt working on the pieces for the solo auditions for our December concert featuring the music of J. S. Bach and family. Just did the auditions on Monday night. Can't say that I covered myself in glory, but neither was it a train wreck.

I turned a corner during last month's voice lessons, making some good breakthroughs...but now I'm back to slow, struggling progress...

I got recruited into a small ensemble to sing the Liebeslieder Waltzes by Brahms at the Centennial Concert of the Fortnightly Music Club. It'll be a good opportunity to sing in a small ensemble, which I haven't done since college. And, I won't have to wear the dreaded blue dress!

I'm happy to report some progress tackling the subjects in my Music Curriculum for Self-Study. I've managed to pick up some IPA, and have internalized more learnings about German diction. This afternoon, I got worked over by the ear training software station at the Stanford music library. It kicked my butt. I'm drilling on recognizing chord progressions by ear. My brain is fried.

Attended a couple of concerts. One was the Stanford Symphony and Marching Band's annual Halloween concert. Very fun, but oh my god, after hearing the marching band drummers inside an auditorium, it took a few hours to get my hearing back. I also went to Sugar Daddy's concert with the HP Symphony, "From Schubert to Star Wars". Applause for Sugar Daddy - yay!!!

Other projects:

Went on an out-and-back day hike on the Rhus Ridge trail, looking for boletus mushrooms (to gawk at, not to eat or get high on :-) . Funny thing, we hardly saw any on the leg out...but on the leg back, along the same stretch of trail we passed earlier in the day, we started spotting them all over the place.

Finished reading the new book Get Satisfied. Reading this book actually made me feel serene. Highly recommend this book!

Got an update from Hands On Bay Area about sending volunteers to this Coastside Alternative Gift Fair. Turns out they won't be able to do it, since the fundraising aspect of the gift fair falls outside of their policy, and also due to low volunteer attendance for events in Pacifica. Too bad! I suggested to the gift fair people that they contact One Brick.

Made an executive decision to keep my personal & work-related blog reading down to five hours a week, max. There's lots of good stuff on blogs, but they're a real time suck (heh, do you enjoy the irony of reading that statement in my blog?). I need to prioritize.

Onward!