Volunteers

People in IT and tech support often tell me they solve many problems by "knowing how to Google". Often, just typing the problem into a Google search box pulls up dozens of results - people who have had the problem before, who are asking about it and having their questions answered on bulletin boards and community tech support pages of all varieties. (Of course, you also have to understand what they're saying on these bulletin boards - which is where good IT knowledge comes in handy!) CityClub recently tapped into one of these communities for some website assistance - Elliott Bangs, our Membership & IT Coordinator, shares a bit about the adventure:

Drupal, the software that runs our website, is the product of a vast, ongoing, highly collaborative, and largely volunteer effort, made possible by the contributions of thousands of users, designers and programmers around the world. The global Drupal community includes many regional communities, one of which is the Seattle Drupal Users' Group (also known as SEADUG - http://groups.drupal.org/seattle). When CityClub needed a small but technically complex change made to the code of our website, we posted a volunteer request there. Within days, we had the help we needed - from a developer who actually resides in Chicago, but who was nonetheless glad to lend his expertise to our project.

Our massive thanks go out to Sean Fitzpatrick, our long-distance tech-support, for his information and guidance all the way from Chicago. On the homefront, Elliott hopes to get involved in SEADUG himself, once he feels more confident in his Drupal abilities (We know he has them! We've seen it!) in order to give a little something back to an incredibly helpful community!

Dennis Schatz, an active CityClub volunteer who sits on both our Program Committee and Education Task Force, has some exciting times ahead! It has been with Dennis's help that CityClub has hosted the Washington State LASER Awards three years running - and he's been invited to develop a similar program at the University of Queensland. (During this time, he'll also work on his 22nd children's book!) After that, he's been invited to be a temporary Program Director at the National Science Foundation.

Congratulations, Dennis, from the whole CityClub family! To read more about these adventures, continue below the cut.

Read more...

Collin Tong, former CityClub board member and current, long-time volunteer, has been chosen to receive the National Adult Day Services Association's (NADSA) 2009 Katryna Gould Award!
 
Collin was nominated by The Alzheimer's Association's Western and Central Washington State Chapter in recognition of his advocacy toward increasing awareness of adult day health issues. Keri Pollock, Communications Director, wrote in an email, "Our Chapter nominated Collin in recognition for his often-Herculean efforts in building awareness and rallying support for Adult Day Health (ADH) over our long battle to preserve this important community-based service!" (For more information on ADH, you can also visit Elderhealth NW.)
 
This description of the award comes from the NADSA website: This award is named in honor of Katryna Gould, who served on the NADSA Board of Directors as a consumer advocate. This award was created in 2006 to recognize a consumer of Adult Day Services who, through advocacy efforts, has increased the visibility and recognition of Adult Day Services as a viable community-based long-term care option.
 
Collin will be recognized at an awards luncheon, part of the national conference for NADSA, on Saturday, October 10th at the Red Lion Hotel in downtown Seattle.  
 
Congratulations, Collin, from all of us at CityClub!