TA Tuesday (April 17, 2018)

Tools and Resources

• Thread reader is a tool to use when you want to present Twitter threads in an easy-to-read narrative. It strips out all the distracting bits like date, time, handle, etc. Want to read an example from a thread in DC? Thread by @cmclymer: "Today, I was sitting in front of a cafe in downtown D.C., minding my own goddamn business, when three people who were clearly tourists of so […]".
• Looking for an online photo editor? Try LunaPic. In the LunaPix toolbox: filters, adjustments, rejiggering in a user-selected art style, and much more. Maybe best of all: It's easy to use. And it's free.
  
• Head over to 82 Free or Low-Cost Online Tools & Mobile Apps for Nonprofits for a terrific selection of tools. Some have been shared here before but most not. In the not but you should definitely check out category:

  • Squared :: squared.one
    Squared is a service that enables Instagrammers to print their favorite Instagram photos or convert them into magnets and posters. Ideal for staff and volunteer appreciation.
  • Noisli :: noisli.com
    Noisli is a background noise and color generator that can help you focus while working and brings to you the healthy benefits of the chromotherapy.
  • IFTTT :: ifttt.com
    IFTTT is a free applet creation service based ont he the premise of if this happens, then do this. You can user applets created by others or create your own for sites such as Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.

• The Magazine Rack. Enter "The Magazine Rack," the Internet Archive's Collection of 34,000 Digitized Magazines says it best: "Before we kept up with culture through the internet, we kept up with culture through magazines."

At work

• Tami Forman – What Gets Measured, Gets Managed is quite useful. Two of the takeaways: "Why your work performance drops off a cliff after 55 hours" and "How implementing 'core hours' can create more work/life flexibility and limit time spent in meetings." (HurrySlowly)
• Looking for some #MeToo quotes? Most Righteously Indignant Quotes From the Golden Globes has some. (The Cut)
• Why People Really Quit Their Jobs (Harvard Business Review)
• If you haven't caught up with the optional standard mileage rates for 2018, read Standard Mileage Rates for 2018 Up from Rates for 2017. (IRS)
• How To Help Build Employees' Career Paths So They Don’t Quit (Fast Company)
  
• How to solve U.S. social problems when most rigorous program evaluations find disappointing effects (part one in a series) and How to solve U.S. social problems when most rigorous program evaluations find disappointing effects (part two – a proposed solution), both from Straight Talk.

Learn something

• Where Do I Go From Here? Engage Volunteers in New Ways webinar, May 15. Free. (VolunteerMatch)
• Findings of the 2017 National Food Hub Survey webinar, April 19. Free. (National Good Food Network)
• How to Ask for a Raise (The Cut)
• 10 Unusual But Critical Edit Checks Before You Hit Publish (The Writing Cooperative)

Good reads

• From City Observatory's The Week Observed, April 13, 2018:
  

  Measuring Social Capital. Two decades ago, in his book “Bowling Alone,” Robert Putnam popularized the idea of social capital, the notion that widely shared norms of reciprocity and networks of loose ties underpin equity and economic success. The term has been easier to describe than to measure. A new report from the office of US Senator Mike Lee of Utah presents a set of state and county indicators intended to measure variations in regional social capital. The state measures are based on a rich array of survey data, mostly from the US census that looks at everything from family structure (single-parent households) and children’s television watching habits, to rates of voting and volunteering and the numbers of non-profit organizations in a community. Similar to Putnam’s original results, this index shows the strongest social capital in the center of the country, in a belt running from Wisconsin to Utah.

• What It’s Like to Know You’ll Be on Antidepressants for Life (The Cut)