Grow your capacity: Good nonprofit governance, Anacostia Leadership Council, royalty free music, and more! — Anacostia Parks and Community Collaborative

Local Events and Resources

Free Nonprofit Legal Clinic: Understanding the Building Blocks of Good Governance, June 21, 10:30 am to 12:30 pm: This DC Bar program will cover the range of nonprofit governance topics from conflict-of-interest to whistleblower to record retention policies to employment policies, and much more. In addition to learning about the basics of good governance, participants will hear suggestions about how to put the policies into action. This will be followed by one-on-one meetings with attorneys. Contact Lauren Paley via email (lpaley@dcbar.org) to learn more and to register.

Capitol Communicator’s PR Summit DC, July 19: Registration is open

for the region’s premier full-day event addressing the disruptive convergence of communications, technology and media. The summit is for public relations, public affairs, communications and media executives focusing on emerging trends and the technologies that are creating a major shift in how organizations manage, report and distribute information. This year’s summit will be held at the National Press Club.

Hello, world! We're back. https://t.co/UOtAgbwT45 pic.twitter.com/X1eHVTms3D
— DCist (@DCist) June 11, 2018

DCist is back!: DCist is back (read about its recent history) and that’s terrific for DC. “On DCist 2.0, you'll still find our hard-hitting reporting, playful takes, shitty horoscopes, zoo stories, hidden gems of D.C. history, and the latest in city politics.” (Kickstarter) The Rachels —Sadon is again the editor-in-chief, rsadon@wamu.org and @Rachel_Sadon on Twitter; Kurzius is assistant editor, kurzius@wamu.org and @Curious_Kurz on Twitter — have hit the ground running. Be sure to follow them on Twitter, save their mail addresses, and connect with them. Never know when they’ll need a source in Wards 7 or 8 or you’ll have a story to pitch.

Roundtable: Mapping and data in the Anacostia Watershed, June 19, 2:00-4:00 pm: The Anacostia UWFP is helping to convene a roundtable forum about data and mapping efforts in the Anacostia Watershed. If you are interested in participating, let Erin Garnaas-Holmes know. This meeting will be held in the DEP Conference Room at COG, 777 North Capitol St NE, #300.

Anacostia Leadership Council, June 14, 10:00 am - Noon: You are invited to join the Leadership Council for a Cleaner Anacostia River meeting at the Department of Energy and Environment, 1200 First St NE in conference rooms 718/719. Contact Gretchen Mikeska for more information.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources is recruiting members for the Maryland Conservation Corps (MCC): MCC is an award-winning AmeriCorps program that engages young adults aged 17-25 in extensive conservation, environmental and natural resources management projects across the state. The department is planning on hiring 35 full-time members who will work on five to seven teams for an 11-month period beginning in September 2018. To be considered, interested individuals must submit an online application. Placement will be on a first-come, first-served basis.

DC High Water Mark Project grant due July 9: DOEE seeks eligible entities to provide high quality, cost-effective services to identify locations of historic flooding and coordinate with stakeholders on the design, production, and installation of high water mark signs along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers. The amount available for the project is approximately $48,000. Learn more and apply.

What do you want to learn? Please take this short survey so we know what you need to be and do better. We’ll do our best to find trainings, articles, courses, and the like to meet your needs.

Tools and Resources

Did you know that there is a simple way to save your work when accessing data using the American FactFinder (AFF)? It can be frustrating spending hours accessing data in AFF and not being able to save your work. Check out this Data Gem and learn this trick that is a life saver!

Get royalty free music at Music Screen: There are some limitations and requirements.
With the demise of Storify, we lost a valuable storytelling tool. Thank goodness there's Wakelet. You can use it online or on your mobile device; both iOS and Android are supported. What you get with Wakelet: Tweets, images (your own or from Unsplash), files, and text.
How to Make Custom Images for Your Blog Posts Without Hiring a Designer is instructive. For instance, Patel explains the Creative Commons licenses, includes free image sites, and as the title says, shows you how to make a custom image with step-by-step instructions. All with the end goal in mind:
Images should be a main component of all your blog posts. They improve your readers' experience, which leads to a more educated and satisfied audience that enjoys your content more and spends more time on your site.

Revisiting DesignEvo: APACC supporter Susie Cambria has been playing with the tool, trying out logos for her new biz, blue nose creative, focusing on editing website content and quilting (she knows that's a weird combo). When you start, choose between a blank canvas or a template. DesignEvo has lots of templates from which to choose and from there you are off. Change colors, typeface, add elements, and more!

At work

How to become the type of manager people *actually* like working for, according to boss babes of wellness is full of practical advice. Each tip (example 1, avoid micromanaging) comes with several real-life examples of what not to do and what to do.
Take a look at FlowingData's Shifted Social Media Usage, Among Teens for easily understood trends.
Why Retaining Older Women in the Workforce Will Help the U.S. Economy (Knowledge@Wharton)
Lean into Adaptive Leadership (Tamarack)
What Will You Stop Doing? starts with a familiar-sounding scenario:
If it feels like you or your organization are always having to add something new to your plate, this is for you. It feels like a default tendency of the world we live in to ask more of ourselves, our teams, and our organizations without providing the time, resources, and energy that are needed for those extras.

. . .

Unfortunately, the solution is an uncomfortable one. We need to start having painful conversations about what we will stop doing so that we can invest our energies into what we want to start doing. When we spend all of our time putting out fires, it can be refreshing and revealing to have a conversation about the goals we are working towards and examining whether the things we spend our time on are taking us there or not.

Learn something

Be a Good Talker: Making the Most of Media Appearances, June 19, free: "Whether it's a TV, radio, or print interview, a panel discussion, a book launch, or more: If a media request for an interview landed in your inbox today, would you be ready? Would your ED or CEO?" Webinar leaders will teach: What reporters really want out of an interview, how to anticipate likely questions, how to craft and stick to clear key messages, techniques to stay in control of an interview, and body language and vocal techniques to prove confidence
The most interesting June 15-21 webinars listed in Wild Apricot's 50 Free Nonprofit Webinars for June 2018: How to Use Facebook’s Free Fundraising Tools to Drive Donations (June 19), How to Educate and Empower Your Nonprofit Board for Fundraising Success (June 19), and How to Reclaim Your Sanity and Actually Post to Social Media on Time (June 21).