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Dear DIA Community,
For our first newsletter of the New Year, we've got several exciting things to fill you in on.
QuickTips!
We're
excited to debut our QuickTips! - a comprehensive resource guide which
gives you easy strategies and tactics to make the most effective use the DIA tools, from
constructing an
email blast to viral marketing. Campaign Managers can view
them in the DIA Headquarters. All others can sign up to view them
here.
Come to a Training or Event
Jan 31 Strategy Session: Growing Your List We're pleased to bring to members of our community this
series of free workshops on making the best possible use of
e-activism tools. Join our own Kelly O'Neal on January 31st, 1:00PM till 2:30 PM for our next session: Growing Your List.
We're
happy to announce that we've scheduled our first in-person training
session in New York! January 27th at the New School in Lower Manhattan,
we'll have a free afternoon introductory training on the DIA tools -- open to current and prospective DemocracyInAction users.
Join us for our monthly live training session in DC. On February 9th, we'll cover basic and internmediate uses of the DIA platform--also open to current and prospective DemocracyInAction users.
Does your organization have a conference room we can use for trainings? Please let us know! email mara at democracyinaction.org
Join DIA's Growing Online User and New Developer Community
Join Our Developer Network: The
geeks spoke and we listened! DemocracyInAction is proud to
announce the launch of the DemocracyInAction Developer Network -- a new
venue where the tech-oriented among you can get to know our systems
better and help each other with your projects and programming. Of course, membership is free.
Read Our Blog! DemocracyInAction has launched a blog dedicated to covering Internet activism for progressives -- whether DIA users or not. Drop on by! We're always looking for guest bloggers to liven up the discussion. If you're interested, let us know!
Join DIA's user group---a great place for campaign managers to talk
tools, strategy, and development with each other and the
DemocracyInAction staff!
Meet the New Staff and Consider Joining the Team!
Elissa Laitin, Director of Business Operations (say hello: elissa at democracyinaction org)
Elissa can on board in November to handle DIA business operations including
contracts, billing, accounting and human resources. Her projects for
2006 will include streamlining member sign-up, billing and management, and
documenting all DIA business and HR policies and processes. Elissa was
a co-founder of the Running for Change political committee and its "Run
Against Bush" campaign, which raised over $700,000 for the 2004
presidential election. She was responsible for FEC compliance as well
as website management. She comes to DIA from the Arlington County
Public Health Division, where she automated client management practices
in several programs, gained experience in project management, developed
expertise in risk communication, and created several workforce training
modules.
Nick Ballenger, Support Engineer (say hello: nick at democracyinaction org)
As
Support Engineer, Nick is one of DiA's main points of contact for
organizations. In addition to troubleshooting technical fixes and
helping
users interact with the DiA platform, Nick is responsible for writing
documentation, creating usability improvements, and communicating
between the technical and administrative staff.
Nick comes to DIA after spending the last year teaching web programming
in a charter school in Eugene, Oregon. After starting and launching a
successful political documentary project in the fall of 2000, Nick
returned to school for further coursework in political theory and
computer science. He then went on to do freelance Geographic
Information Systems and GPS work, as well as grant-funded geographic
research on Tibetan and Feng Shui sacred forests in Hong Kong and
mainland China. Nick brings his experience in geographic analysis to
his work at DIA, and hopes to eventually integrate tools for spatial
analysis and visualization into DIA's online services.
Jason Lefkowitz, Chief Operations Officer (say hello: jlefkowitz at democracyinaction org)
Although
we feel badly about stealing him from one of our favorite DIA members,
Oceana, we're fortunate to have him join us and fill a crucial role on
our team. Jason will be managing and providing strategic direction on
the DIA product roadmap to create a superior technology platform. He'll
also be managing client services and working with large campaigns and
organizations like ONE and Center for American Progress. A DIA advocate
from the beginning, Jason started using the platform at Oceana where he
served as the Director of
E-Activism. In that role he oversaw the growth of Oceana's online
support base from 70,000 supporters to more than 250,000 around the
world. Additionally, he managed all the organizational Web properties
and launched one of the first blogs ever by an environmental
non-profit, the Oceana Network.
We currently have the following positions open. Send an email to jobs@democracyinaction.org to apply.
Systems Administrator
Senior Engineer Interns
Case Studies: Making Effective Use of the DIA Service
DemocracyInAction.org is committed to providing online campaign
tools to nonprofit organizations that are working to strengthen civil
society. The case studies below are highlights of organizations that
are making a difference. DemocracyInAction.org is proud of their
achievements and grateful to be able to be a part of their fantastic
work.
We want to hear from you. How is DIA improving the effectiveness of your organization? Please share your story here.
Thank You!
Thank you for toughing this server migration out with us. We know there have
been some bumps on the road, and we appreciate your patience.
We're excited about the new data center -- e-mails are already flying
out -- and looking forward to working with the whole DIA community in
the year to come. Consider yourself part
of a growing movement of progressive online activism!
Here's to an Exciting New Year,
(Chris, April, JasonZ, JasonL, Ian, Elissa, Nick, Mara, Kelly, Justin)
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