Google Drive Blog: January 2009

Collaborating on Art, Crafts, and Google Docs, too

Friday, January 16, 2009

What do girl-friendly skateboarding, making shoes out of a sweatshirt, and building a website have in common? They're all examples of classes that are offered by the Rock Paper Scissors Collective -- a volunteer-run organization based in Oakland, California dedicated to promoting creativity and collaboration in the community. Continuing our series on non-profits, we chatted with Mark Nicola, Volunteer Coordinator, about the organization and the work (and art) that they do for their local area.

(Photo credit)
Now in its fourth year of operation, the RPS Collective achieves their mission by providing classes, youth outreach programs, an art studio, a retail store, and exhibition space for the community to come together through art, crafts, and performance. High school students can take advantage of an internship program to explore their interest in art, fashion and entrepreneurship, while artists can apply to have their work displayed in the gallery or sold in the Collective's store. RPS Collective's popular art and crafts classes are open to the public, and over 50% of classes are either free or donation-based.
The RPS Collective started using Google Docs over two years ago to streamline their processes, and--true to their mission--to promote collaboration. Mark echoed the challenges faced by many non-profit organizations, "We have lots of meetings, but being volunteer-run, having lots of meetings is just really tough. We realized that we should be collaborating more online. And Google Docs is a really good way for us to do this." Today, Mark and his teammates use Google Docs to write grant proposals collaboratively, circulate how-to guides, and manage volunteers' schedules.
Volunteers help with everything from operating the retail store, staffing gallery events, to teaching classes. For more information on volunteering at the RPS Collective, visit their website at www.rpscollective.com.
Posted by: Vivian Leung, Product Marketing Manager

Inspiring Youth Through Robotics

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

We continue our non-profit series in the state of Connecticut, where the temperatures today are below freezing and there's a good chance of snow tomorrow. The cold weather didn't stop Michael Sperber, Chair of Connecticut FIRST, from contacting us to tell us about how his organization uses Docs for event management, alumni outreach, and event surveys.

Connecticut FIRST is the Connecticut arm of FIRST, a not-for-profit organization that organizes robotics programs and competitions for young people ages 6 through 18. Young people are exposed to math, science, and engineering as they build their robots. Working in teams of at least 25 and guided by adult mentors, participants develop life skills such as teamwork and leadership.
The Connecticut organization has 33 FIRST Robotics Competition program teams consisting of over 1,000 high school students. Students are now busy building robots to compete in Lunacy, a competition where robots will have to navigate a low friction surface that simulates driving on the surface of the moon. Cool!
Michael has been involved in FIRST for over 12 years and uses Google Docs (as part of Google Apps) with over 10 others on the leadership team. Here are some things they're doing:

A volunteer coordinator tracks volunteer contact information in an online spreadsheet.
For an upcoming event, the leadership team has shared a spreadsheet to track invitation lists for VIPs. Michael told me, "Instead of sending attachments, it's much easier to do this online collaboratively."
They've recently discovered Forms and in the near future will be creating surveys to collect information from alumni to help build their alumni network.

To learn more about FIRST and its volunteer opportunities, visit the volunteer opportunities page.
Posted by: Andrew Chang, Marketing Manager

Countdown to MLK Day of Service

Monday, January 12, 2009

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Servicefeaturing a few non-profit organizationstemplatesWest Valley Community Servicescontact listsformsweekly parent workshopswww.wvcommunityservices.orgthis formPosted by: Vivian Leung, Product Marketing Manager

Calling all Non-Profits: Share your Docs story for King Day of Service

Friday, January 9, 2009

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Servicethis formPosted by: Vivian Leung, Product Marketing Manager