Learning to use gmail

Today was a good day. I finally wrestled Eileen down for a few minutes to show her some of the fancy features of our office gmail software. Now I'm experimenting with some of google's other featues so that I can impart greater wisdom in the future. So this is my first gmail blog; previously, I've just been creating documents individually in google docs and occasionally on the VISTA blog (smiling faces, great places) and my personal blog (sweet land of liberties).

OK, note to self: clicking on Blog This! will connect me directly to our VISTA blog, even though I joined under my Clemson account. I joined the VISTA blog with my Clemson email so that my dashboard would have all my blogs just a click away. So now the VISTA blog will be even easier to reach.

And for those who follow this blog, I created a power point presentation in Google mail on how to use gmail. Anyone interested in viewing it I think just has to have a voa-dakotas.org email address but if you can't see it, I'll send you an invitation. It's a work in progress, though, because I just found out how to create groups to send mass emails and I'm still working on how to set up Outlook. I've never used Outlook but some of my co-workers prefer it to gmail so I'll update the slide show as soon as I hook someone up to Outlook.

Have you checked out any of the labs? I just enabled a few.

AmeriCorps in the 49th state

I've been in Mission for close to a year and a half now; however, I'm still in the habit of reading my last hometown's newspaper, the Juneau Empire. Today's edition featured a photo of roughly 30 new AmeriCorps members taking their oath, administered by Alaska's Lieutenant Governor, Craig Campbell. The shot was taken just outside the courthouse, which is across 4th Street from the State Capitol.

On a personal note, I was in Juneau for five and a half years. During most of my time there, I lived in an apartment building just two blocks to the east of where this photo was taken.

NCCC in Rapid

An article was published in yesterday's Rapid City Journal about a group of AmeriCorps NCCC members spending part of their service commitment helping out at the Black Hills Workshop & Training Center.

AmeriCorps members sharing their stories is a great way to educate those who may not be aware of the disparate services provided by the national service program. Plus, these young people deserve the recognition. I especially enjoyed reading about the members' motivations for signing up and their adjustment to living off of a stipend - things us VISTAs can certainly relate to!

NCCC is the National Civilian Community Corps. NCCC projects must focus on at least one of five program areas:

• disaster services
• education
• environment
• public safety
• unmet needs

Unlike VISTA, NCCC is a direct service program. Participants are assigned to groups of up to 12 members based out of one of five sites across the country. Throughout their 10 months of service, groups rotate through a series of projects lasting anywhere between three and eight weeks. NCCC is restricted to those between the ages of 18 and 24.

There really is something for everyone under the AmeriCorps umbrella!