Non-Profit Evaluation Tool Training Offered

The Delta County Independent, Wednesday, January 4, 2012, announced a “Non-Profit Training Offered” workshop offered by the Western Colorado Non-Profit Council.   The workshop is designed to help understand an organizations impact of actions through regularly measured performance.  Cindy Willard, Senior Program Officer at Helen K. & Arthur E. Johnson Foundation will be the presenter.  The workshop be in Montrose, January 18 from 2 to 5.  The cost is $25.  Contact Lyndsey at coordinator@westernrpd.org for more information.

Workkshop to Help Win GOCO Grants

Staff members from Lottery-funded Great outdoors Colorado (GOCO) will offer a grant-writing workshop in Delta, CO on Friday, January, 13, 2012 in the council chambers at the Delta, City Hall, 360 Main Street, Delta. The purpose of the workshop is to assist local communities in preparing applications for GOCO’s local government park, outdoor recreation and environmental education grants. For more information contact Luke Bolinger at (303) 226-4525. RSVPs are appreciated.

The Fine Art of Small Talk

I had the opportunity to hear a speaker on “The Fine Art of Small Talk” by Debra Fine .  In one hour she gave me more hints on public interaction then I have heard in all my many many many years of public speaking training. I you would like to learn more about this great person check out her website.

Webpage Domain Names

With over 20 million web address ending in .com other options are available.  This PC Magazine article from January 16, 2001 by Carol Levin gives a review of the new options.  Check out this link for the full article.  The old standbys include:

• com  Commercial
• edu   Educational
• gov   Government
• int    International (NATO)
• mil   Military
• net   Network
• org   Everything Else

Small Acreage Workshop: December 9, 2010

Check out this link for a .pdf file with the details of a small acreage workshop hosted by the Delta Conservation District on December 9, 2010 at Hotchkiss Memorial Hall.  small acreage workshop flyer

Growing the Cooperative Economy: Co-ops Seeding Co-ops

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

 Growing the Cooperative Economy: Co-ops Seeding Co-ops,  Nov. 18, 2 p.m. Eastern, for a webinar. We will explore strategies for identifying business, member and community needs as well as opportunities. We will also discuss the (sometimes surprising) resources co-ops can mobilize.  If you have questions you’d like answered during the webinar, please send them by Nov. 17 to the Cooperative Development Institute at info@cdi.coop. The Cooperative Development Institute serves cooperatives in New England and New York, providing education, training and technical assistance to existing and start-up cooperatively-structured enterprises in all business sectors: food, housing, energy, agriculture, arts, health, forestry, fisheries, retail, service and more.

Register for the webinar today! After registration, you will receive an e-mail from GoToWebinar with your unique website log-on and the phone number to call for audio. Keep this information for your records, as we are unable to resend the information due to the unique Web log-on. You will receive reminder e-mails the week before the Webinar and the day before.

On the day of the webinar, login at least 15 minutes prior to the start time. NCBA staff will be unavailable to assist you at the start of the Webinar. If you experience any problems logging in or connecting via telephone, please call the GoToWebinar help desk number (800) 263-6317. For more information on NCBA Webinars, contact Charisse Raysor, Member Services and Marketing Coordinator at craysor@ncba.coop or call (202) 383-5440.

Renewable Energy/Energy Efficiency Grant Training

 USDA Rural Development -  Friday, December 3, 2010, is the next date for training for Section 9007 Renewable Energy for America Program (REAP). Applications are now being accepted for this funding cycle.

 Location:  Delta-Montrose Electric Association Building, 11925 6300 Road, Montrose, CO @ 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. (bring your own lunch, if desired)

 There is no charge, but SPACE IS LIMITED and you must RSVP to  970.874.5735  ext.  136.  If you RSVP and cannot attend, please call and cancel so we can allow others to attend.  This is training to assist potential applicants, grant writers, or technology providers in the USDA Rural Development REAP grant application and scoring process. Please forward this message to small businesses and farmers or ranchers who might be interested.  This funding program is for Small Businesses (under SBA size standard guidelines) and Agriculture Producers who are installing energy efficiencies to their commercial building, or adding renewable energy to their system. Private sector applicants are the only eligible applicants.  

Micro-Grant for Government Entities Available

 The Statewide Internet Portal Authority (SIPA) has released a micro-grant opportunity available to eligible governmental entities (EGEs) throughout Colorado.  This grant is designed to aid EGEs in adopting and accelerating the use of online e-Government services.  EGEs are primarily local governments, school districts, state agencies, and special purpose authorities.  The micro-grant application is due by Wednesday, December 8, 2010 and applications can be submitted online at http://www.colorado.gov/sipa starting today. Awards will be announced and posted on January 7, 2011.  Activities eligible for grant funding include staff assistance for migrating content online, equipment purchases to support online services, creating a mobile application for an existing service, requirement gathering for potential online services, and other activities which place more information or services online.  Grants will be available between the amounts of $1,000-$6,500 but smaller and larger grants can be requested and approved.  For more information related to the micro-grant opportunity and a complete listing of application requirements please visit the website.

“Turning Crafts into Cash”

An article in an AARPORG Magazine notes that Etsy.com offers an online sales site for handmade goods.  The site has more than 400,000 sellers and in 2009 Had $180.6 million in sales.  Other sites to check out include Artfire.com and 1000Markets.com.

Book Proposal Content Suggestions

Kitta Redds in her book The ZEN of Proposal Writing notes the your proposal needs to includes ‘What your reader cares about most.”  Thoughts for a book proposal might include:  “What is the book about?  Why should you be the one to write it?  What’s the market for this book (who will buy it)?  How is it different from all these other books?  What form will it take?”   Reeds, Kendra (2002).  The Zen of Proposal Writing.  New York, New York:  Three Rivers Press