In the end, if there had been more than the 18 or so people who turned out to hear Steve Heye of the Metro Chicago YMCA speak about his chapter of the new book Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission (produced by the Nonprofit Technology Network, published by Jossey-Bass) we probably might have had less good of a time, because Steve might have presented his prepared powerpoint, from the podium, in the theater, instead of opening in late-night pitchman style while we sat on the couches in the adjacent open space (see video).

The Secret to Managing Tech for Nonprofits… May Be To Buy This Book from Community Media Workshop on Vimeo.

(Apologies for the shaky wrist with the camera–it’s a first date with the flip camera for me).

After the pitchman-style intro, Steve delivered a thoughtful presentation outlining some of the issues the book takes up.

Working at a small organization, I tend not to think about or understand as much of the issues that the “IT department” has to deal with. It was kind of refreshing to talk about technology and not discuss social media–the focus was more on aligning IT with overall organizational operations and strategy (the subject of Steve’s chapter in the new work).

Someone from the local nonprofit technology capacity builder Lumity raised the debate about who does it better – corporate sector, nonprofits, or government? The consensus was that for infrastructure, the corporate sector wins, but when it comes to social media, Queta Bauer of Cultural Communications (and CMW board member) expressed the consensus of the group that if it can be used without spending a lot of cash, we in nonprofit land are champions.

Incidentally, more info about the book can be accessed online three ways:

• Through a wiki: with material from each chapter, highlights from a 2-day conference on the material in the book held in September
• By reading some quick takes at Steve’s blog, where he’s on a mission to write a post about each chapter (Steve’s about halfway through)
• And, of course by ordering the book: available for sale or a deeper look at Amazon.com.

I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the copy my boss paid for as soon as I can!