Even when it comes to fun, the Greenlights staff has a bit of a competitive streak. Whether it’s the chance at a $5 Torchy’s gift card or merely bragging rights, we give it our all when it comes to a good challenge.

So, it was no surprise to me that our “Tech Tip Showdown” during our staff meeting yesterday came down to a three-way tie. Everyone was tasked with showing the group a tech tip (in Outlook, Windows, etc.) that they use and thought the rest of the staff might not know. After each tip was presented, points were given according to the number of people who didn’t know the tip.

Here’s some of the top contenders. Many of them were new to me, what about you?

1.  Tara Levy’s tip: To help you locate an important email in Outlook that may no longer match the subject line (ex: the subject line says “Hi” or “Quick update” but after a few back-and-forths, the content now describes a project plan), click on the subject line in the open email and just type in a new, more meaningful title (ex: “Project Plan for New Site”).
2. Taylor’s tip: If you have lots of windows and documents open at once, you can press Alt+Tab to see screen shots of all your open windows. Keep holding down Alt while you Tab through each of your pages, and stop when you get to what you want to work on.
3. Alanna’s tip: If you send emails that often contain the same content, you can use Quick Parts in Microsoft Outlook to easily save and access this text for future use. After typing email text into a new message, highlight the text you want to save and go to “Insert” and then “Save Selection to Quick Parts Gallery.” You can then give a title to the text and create a subcategory to organize your email “parts” into different groups. To access this text later in a new email, click “Insert” and then “Quick Parts” and you should see your saved text in the drop down. Click on it and you’re ready to personalize and send!
4. My tip: If you use the Outlook calendar and want to check your availability (or even someone who shares their calendar with you) on non-sequential days, go to the first date you want to check and hit the Ctrl button. Keep holding the Ctrl button and click on the other days you want to see. Outlook will then display only those dates side-by-side. As someone who arranges a lot of meetings, this is super helpful!
5. Monica’s tip: And finally, have you ever wondered what your boss would look like as Mick Jagger? Well, wonder no more. If you need to capture an image on your computer but need it in a format you can edit, use the Snipping Tool. The Snipping Tool captures a screen shot of anything on your desktop, like a picture or a section of webpage.  You can snip a window, a section of the screen, or draw a freehand outline with your mouse. Then you can make notes, save, or e-mail the image using buttons in the Snipping Tool window.
   

   Matt Kouri as Mick Jagger

• Open Snipping Tool by clicking the Start button in Windows. In the search box, type Snipping Tool, and then, in the list of results, click Snipping Tool.
• Click the arrow next to the “New” button, select one of the options from the list, and then select the area of your screen that you want to use.
• After you capture a snip, you can share, makes notes or save it to your computer.

Alanna’s tip was the tie-breaking winner based on how useful it would be for the group. She only got a certificate (suitable for framing, of course), but I’m pretty sure she was beaming with pride.

Our friends at Lights. Camera. Help. are welcoming submissions for this summer’s cause-driven film festival. Entries are free to submit up until May 15th, so don’t wait, submit now!  This is the third year that LCH is putting on the world’s first film festival for solely cause-driven films, with the proceeds from festival tickets sales going to the winner.  2011 is sure to be a great event, given the wonderful energy and momentum the group has been building over the years.

In its first year, the festival winner was Art From the Streets, an Austin program that encourages Austin’s homeless community to create art throughout the year, while preparing for an actual gallery show, where their pieces can be sold.   In a list of submissions as diverse as the organizations they represent, Art From the Streets took home the grand prize in 2009 and with the funds they received through LCH, they were able to supply over forty artists with enough supplies to last over four months.

In 2010, with the amount of official selections nearly doubling in size, thousands in  prize money was  awarded to the three winners of the festival that summer.  If you’ve got a great film about your work, don’t miss this chance to get featured in this unique event.

Submit your film now, July is right around the corner!

The Greenlights team works hard. We deserve some fun every now and again, and it is one of our core values after all. Last week, we had some fun with a purpose. Our team gathered one afternoon to brainstorm and then film a video for UPG’s Video Contest.

The prize at stake – a $4,000 Fundraising Video by UPG Video Marketing. What nonprofit couldn’t use that?

The rules were pretty simple. It was open to any 501(c)3 in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston or Corpus Christi. It had to be non-offensive, audible, no other footage besides the speaker(s) and no longer than 90 seconds. To the whiteboard we went, writing down ideas that would capture – in 90 seconds or less – who Greenlights is, what impact we make and why we could use a fundraising video.

I’ll let the video speak for itself, but I will say the Greenlights bench is pretty deep:

• Taylor Overstreet, star of the show, is a local improv master and has the best laugh on planet Earth.
• Julie Macalik, in an Oscar worthy supporting role, really sets the tone for the piece.
• Phil Niels, our intern, filled in (no pun intended) at the last minute and showed his keen use of props.
• Tara Kirkland channels her inner Amy Poehler and brings some serious comedic chops.
• Ann Starr, whose speaking part was sadly cut, still showed her sense of style with her Greenlights visor.
• Monica Maher, production coordinator and props master, provided literal support to Tara during her performance.
• Then there’s me, the queen of overacting, trying to remember how I ever earned that varsity letter in drama during my high school days.
• And last but not least, Haila Yates, the brilliant woman behind the Flip Cam.

Did I mention that if we win we’ll release the full version and outtakes? You know you want to see outtakes. I can guarantee I have at least one.

You can vote once every day until April 27th and from each computer/mobile device you have. So go and check out the videos and vote – if not for Greenlights then for another deserving nonprofit.  But I wouldn’t be a good fundraiser if I didn’t ask you to vote for us so…. pretty please?

The top 5 most popular videos will be named finalists and the winner will be selected by a special panel of judges. We’ll keep you posted!

Photo by Haila Yates

Well, around Greenlights, fun has quite a bit to do with it, actually. Need a primer? See below.

¹fun noun \ˈfən\

Definition of FUN

1: what provides amusement or enjoyment; specifically: playful often boisterous action or speech <full of fun>

2: a mood for finding or making amusement <all in fun>

Many of you joined us for a pretty fun evening last Thursday. (We can’t wait for the next one!) Traditionally, we’ve held a membership appreciation event each year to say thanks to the many wonderful, inspiring nonprofit organizations, businesses and individuals who make up our member community. We have the best members in town, so why keep them to ourselves? This time around, we decided to mix things up, expand the event and bring all of our friends together.

Based on Merriam-Webster’s definition of fun up above (those guys know everything), fun is about what and where. So first, what would provide amusement and enjoyment? For us, it was including our entire Greenlights community. We are fortunate to have an incredible network of friends and supporters that extends beyond our membership. They are just as integral to our success, and we wanted to thank them, too. After all, what could be more fun than having all your friends in the same room together at the same time? We’ve really enjoyed building the relationships we have, and it brought us great pleasure to be able to facilitate new connections.

Second, the where. What kind of environment would we need to create the right mood for finding or making amusement? I should mention that you can easily inject fun into your own workplace without physically going elsewhere. Check out this list if you need some ideas (I’m particularly fond of #2). For our event, we actually explored new venues. Our original plan was to host the event at our downtown meeting space, the Mitte Carriage House. After more than 200 people said they planned to come celebrate with us (wow!), we moved the event to Kung Fu Saloon. If Amy’s face in the picture above is any indication… our decision to move the event to a barcade was a good one. If Matt would just make some room in our budget for a Skee-Ball machine, we could probably host at our office next time. (Remember, fun is a core value!)

Now, hosting a community happy hour that includes games like Galaga and life-size Connect Four is a pretty obvious way to have fun, but one of my favorite things about spending my days at Greenlights is that our staff is able to find the fun in things that are, let’s say, less widely regarded as entertaining.

Monica flips for finances. Julie digs databases. Haila swoons for stats. Me, well, I revel in research (and alliteration, apparently…). And I think that because we have fun with these things, we’re able to make them more fun for everyone (at least I hope so). Earlier this month, Julie blogged about GLINGO (Greenlights Bingo), a game in which we get to experience the thrill of marking off a square each time we do things like update a record in Salesforce, post a blog by its due date, and my favorite, tell a joke that gets a laugh (sympathy laughs don’t count).

Fun makes our work more enjoyable and more meaningful. It reduces stress. It creates stronger connections with colleagues. It’s important for us to inject fun into our work when we can because it will energize us and give us the stamina to persevere when we’re faced with challenging situations. Don’t believe me? I’m sure I can find research to support this theory. And Haila can probably back me up with some stats.

How does your organization bring the fun? Tell us in the comments!

As the database administrator for any organization, stressing the importance of data quality isn’t always the easiest topic for discussion and definitely not as appealing as say outcomes or revenue goals.  I could speak for hours about how clean data allows your development department to steward donors more effectively, make your internal business processes more efficient, and allow you to market your information successfully to your target audience.  However, in order to make this a priority for our organization I knew we had to find a fun and creative way to get staff on board and engaged in the process.

Hence Greenlights’ internal BINGO game was created, and aptly named GLINGO.  There is nothing like a little friendly internal office competition to get fellow co-workers to do what you want.  In order to cross out GLINGO squares staff have to perform certain duties.  I can’t give away all of our squares but some include adding and updating records, finding ways to utilize our database for solutions and referrals, participating in professional development activities, and yes even bringing in food for the staff meetings.

We have had an overwhelming response internally to GLINGO.  Departments are finding new ways to work together, I am getting emails from co-workers asking about how to perform certain functions in the database, we are tying it in with our 2011 goals, and it aligns with our core value of FUN!  So, if you have any desire to ensure I take home the January prize, please contact me if you are interested in learning more about Greenlights 501 Council.  I can promise you there will be free food involved.