Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
Technology is all around us today. Many who read this blog stay connected using a smart phone and most of you stay in contact with friends and family using one (or more) of the many social media platforms that exist today. Many non-profit organizations don’t have the time, money or skills to fully utilize technology to help them advance their mission. You can help!
Website developers could offer their services to an organization that either needs a new website or needs regular website updates. You could also sign up to participate in the annual Overnight Website Challenge sponsored by The Nerdery.
Many organizations could use assistance with their social media platforms. You could offer to setup a Facebook page, Twitter account or blog and teach their volunteers how to keep them updated. You could also bring them information about other social media platforms that may benefit their staff or volunteers.
Some organizations have older technology that helps them run their offices. You could offer to update or maintain their software such as databases, spreadsheets, presentations, or templates. They may also need training or assistance with virus protection, data backup, or computer maintenance for their staff.
Organizations are frequently in need of other professional services such as accounting, marketing, photography, writing, graphic design, and more. You can reach out to your favorite non-profit to see if they need help. In addition, websites such as Catchafire.org and Sparked.com help individuals connect with a non-profit that is looking for your specific skills.
You could also volunteer your time to get away from technology. Find an organization that matches your interests and search their websites for volunteer opportunities. Opportunities exist for anything from gardening for Open Arms Minnesota, mentoring a child through the Art Buddies program, or making sandwiches for 363 Days, just to name a few.
I hope this post has inspired you to give back. No matter what your talent or passion is, you can find some organization that could put it to good use. Please stop by The Blogunteer blog to start your search for an organization to help!
Stacy Pearson is the blogger behind The Blogunteer – a blog about volunteerism, giving, and kindness. She is also a mom, wife, volunteer, and project manager.
Me: Agent
Fake lady: “aah, I’m not sure I heard you right the first time, are you really sure that you want an agent or should we continue to try to troubleshoot the long and tedious way.”
Me: (yells) AGENT!!!!
Fake Lady: “OK, it sounds like you want an agent, but before I transfer you over, have you reset your modem? Let’s get started with some simple tips….”
Me: UGH.
So before you call in a trouble ticket, here is what we tell our clients at Call That Girl to do when we get the exact same call. And we do this for free, no waiting in a queue, no yelling at computers.
1.) Start with unplugging your modem power cord for one full minute. After one minute, plug back in and let the modem reset itself and see if all the blinking lights come back on. If you see any that are orange or amber and not green and blinking, you may have a modem issue. The internet company will need to “reset your modem” at this point. But let’s say everything is blinking ok, we will move on to the next step.
2.) After the modem is back to blinking lights, then go to your router power cord and unplug it for 10 seconds. After 10 seconds, plug back in and look for blinking lights. You should see the internet or Ethernet blinking for sure. If that’s good to go…we move on. If those lights are not blinking, then your router may need repairing or replacing. At that point, you can call us to help.
3.) Now you have reset your modem and router the right way, all lights are blinking ok…it’s time to restart your computer. Be sure to do a full restart/reboot so the computer gets a fresh connection to the internet. If you didn’t change anything with the computer settings, the internet should come back for you.’
Just an FYI to my friends online, just watch for an email that has a zip file attached, Do not open it! Just delete it. It is fake and Delta has already been alerted of it, and sent out a release to their customers with a warning.
If you have opened it, the virus attacks fast. It deletes all of your icons and hides your programs and data. To schedule an appointment with us to remove it remotely, click the image below.
We are here to help!
Today is World Backup Day, but of course it’s on a Sunday and barely anyone is going to do it. They should have scheduled it on a Tuesday or Wednesday when people aren’t relaxing and spending time with their families. Anyway, it’s April 1 and although my joke on Facebook that Best Buy sold Geek Squad and hired Call That Girl for their Minnesota onsite support got almost 60 likes in just an hour…. backing up your data…is no joke! Theft, fire, hard drive crashing, deleting your own stuff by accident, it all can happen…any time, any day.
If you have never backed up your stuff, now is the time to consider it, at least do it once! Just think of all those pictures you would lose, memories gone forever. If you have never cried over missing memories, it’s not something you want to experience. Let’s also add in all the documents you have created, tax forms you have done, music collections you built, the list really can go on and on. So let’s get started….
For home users, I recommend monthly backup
For business users, I recommend daily backup
(pictures coming! they got lost in the website upgrade!)
That’s a picture of my hard drive on my laptop. Nice huh? I didn’t even think to look at the size of it until Windows alerted me that I was “very low on disk space” and earlier…my Dropbox told me that I was out of space there and I have a 50 gig account. Just because I run a technical business, doesn’t mean that I am technically perfect with my data. I do back up though, and that is important…but things are pretty sad when your assistant tells you that you are a hoarder. I can’t help it, I’m very creative, I’m a quick thinker and most importantly…I’m savvy enough to do a lot of things myself and FAST. If you’re like me, you may have the exact same issues. Our email boxes are clogged (because we are communications freaks and can never delete anything), our documents folders are insanely packed with little screen shots of everything we have made, images off the internet or just random thoughts of insanity (I have 100′s of text files from notepad lol). My beginnings have no ends! Well, they do have ends because I get stuff done, but now I need to really reign in these issues and take control for once. Stop the data hoarding. I will not hire a therapist!!!
It’s time for me to have a “data tune up” of sorts. Get some data off this computer and get things all squared up. …it’s time to let go. Free myself of years of data and stupid ideas that never went anywhere or worse yet, just OLD stuff that I MADE NEW to replace it. Why do I need that? The big question is, what do I need to keep and what can I pitch? I can’t pitch anything…I fear I will want to use it again or need it and there is no solid solution for me but to get yet even more data storage and figure out a way to search it fast and use it fast. Or…do the impossible and delete old data. <insert a tear here>
I started the data hoarding clean up with moving everything off of my laptop and into the Dropbox account. Then I went through the Dropbox data and moved anything past 3 months out of it and on to the computer at the office. That computer is also getting backed up daily from Mozy.com
What to do after that? Now I have moved all the data, but have I done anything that will help my data hoarding issue? I have to “go through” (my aunt’s favorite words) the data that I don’t need to use in my daily life yet again and delete, delete, delete unfortunately. I seriously do not need all of this data anymore! I still can’t delete, it’s like giving up a part of my soul.
Everything is in order for data deletion. Now…I can’t pull the trigger. But my laptop is now free of all that unused Dropbox data and it can breathe happy again. I gave the computer a whole tune up as well and it’s running quite nice now! Watch for part 2 next week of how I deleted my data and what steps I went through to get it cleaned up. I plan on doing it over the weekend, and it will be a tough one for me!
