From MetroLight:

Our company is moving and we have some office furniture that we would like to get rid of. This furniture is in excellent condition, some are even new pieces. Please contact me Curtisa Johnson at 615-472-1953 or by email at curtisaj@metrolight.com. We would like to get rid of these items by Wed 10/7/09. Must pick up.

List includes

Wire Trash cans

2 Blue Reception chairs with table

3 black swivel leather chairs

7 multicolored chairs

1 maple square 48″x48″ table

6 bullet top desk with hutch

1 bullet top desk w/o hutch

 Pictures below:

Continue reading ‘Is Your Organization In Need of Office Furniture?’

From today’s Tennessean:

Recognition isn’t why North Nashville’s Terry Richard established and operates a nonprofit organization to help homeless, low income and ex-convict males find suitable employment.

But, if being named one of 10 finalists nationwide for the 2009 Energizer Battery Company’s fourth annual Keep Going Hall of Fame can elevate Richard’s Dream Center, that’s more than fine.
“(The more) the community knows about it, that will help a lot,” Richard said. “It spreads the work we’re doing.”

Richard was initially selected out of more than 1,000 nominations by a panel of judges to be one of the top 100 semifinalists, said Energizer Hall of Fame spokeswoman Samantha Fisher.

One winner will be honored Sept. 3 in St. Louis, determined by a public vote through Aug. 7. The winner will win a $10,000 prize and an additional $5,000 to a charity of his or her choice, Fisher said.

“This guy is the Energizer Bunny,” said Dream Center board member Suzanne Lafond. “He’s been working at this in small steps, and he has a full-time job on top of it.”

It’s been a year of change for the Dream Center, which Richard established in 2004. The Dream Center operates Gear 4 Career, which accepts suitable clothing that is generally donated for men in need to take and wear for interviews and employment. Richard moved the Dream Center and Gear 4 Career office on Jefferson Street, where he operated for about 3 ½ years, to 406 Harding Industrial Drive in the Antioch area.

 Click here to vote for Terry Richard in the 2009 Energizer Battery Company’s fourth annual Keep Going Hall of Fame through Aug. 7.

A great story in today’s Tennessean on a local couple who began a nonprofit called Standing With Hope, to provide artificial limbs for amputees in Africa:

The Rosenbergers recently returned home to Nashville from a 10-day trip to Ghana – Peter’s sixth trip to Africa. So far they’ve given legs to more than 200 people, with hopes of helping an additional 70 this year. They’re not exactly missionaries, but believe they are doing God’s work.

As an amputee, Gracie Rosenberger knows firsthand how an artificial limb can change someone’s life. She lost both legs as the result of a car accident when she was 17. She said she’d given up hope for a normal life before getting her artificial limbs.

“They gave me my life back,” she said. “I had no idea what I was capable of. I want to offer people the same hope that’s been offered to me.”

The Rosenbergers were featured in April on the Today show.

An offer for CNM members from TFLI:

In an effort to provide much needed foreign language classes to employees of other not-for-profit agencies in the Nashville area, TFLI is again offering CNM members 20% off the regular price of $350 per term.

 CNM members pay only $280 for 10 week (20 hour) group classes!

The Summer 2009 term starts the week of July 13th and runs through September 21st.
Along with our most popular classes of Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese, we are offering Modern Standard Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, German, Portuguese and Russian again this term. Also note that there are more daytime classes at both our Metro Center and Green Hills locations!

Complete Schedule Available Now at www.tfli.org. Registration deadline is Friday, July 3rd.

To receive your discount please:

• Go to www.tfli.org and register online with the special discount code: AYWZZG

• You may also call 741.7579 and mention your CNM membership when you enroll or follow the offline registration procedures below:

• Search the online catalog for the class you wish to take and note the “class code” (language/time/day/place) on your form.

• Enter that information and your personal contact details (current email address, etc) on a registration form (downloadable from our website: www.tfli.org adding a note that you are a CNM member.

• Then, email, fax, OR mail it to us. We will contact you regarding the status of your registration and the class you selected.

Note: Please register early to get the class of your choice.

From the Nashville City Paper:

If you are feeling the pinch of your tightened budget during these tough times, then your ears might perk up to hear this sweet musical news.

Up until noon Thursday, Nashville Symphony fans can purchase tickets for the slashed price of $15 to the orchestra’s Friday night performance of Brahms’ “Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73.”

(Tickets usually run anywhere from $35 to $110 a piece.)

The 7:30 p.m. concert will also feature a performance of Joan Tower’s composition “Made in America,” which won three Grammy Awards in 2008, among them an award for Best Orchestral Performance by the Nashville Symphony.

Plus, Conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony doing “Symphony No.2 in D Major, Op. 73,” and Karen Gomyo will be featured on Max Bruch’s “Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op 26.”

The $15 tickets can be yours by logging into nashvillesymphony.org or calling 687-6400 and using promo code 6415. The sale was meant as a 24-hour promotion, so hustle to make your purchase!

The Nashville City Paper reports today that Republican state legislators are considering drastic cuts to pre-K  and child certificate programs from the state budget. Marsha Edwards of the Martha O’Bryan Center articulates the impact cuts would have the community they service:

“I am extremely worried,” Edwards said. “And I’m worried for the families that we serve because these families don’t have an opportunity to put their children in learning environments, especially ones that are nationally accredited and three-star accredited. There aren’t many opportunities for families that don’t have money for pre-K education.”

Edwards said for many of the parents, especially single mothers, whose children attend Martha O’Bryan, the choice is either employment or staying home to take care of their kids.

From the Tennessean:

Circuit Judge Joe Binkley Jr. ruled against the neighbors’ claims in both suits, a decision neighbors say they will appeal.

“We will continue to fight because this project is not in the best interest of our community,” said Kevin Rodriquez, vice president of Concerned Neighbors of Davidson County.
“When you look at the total number of homes in the concentrated area, it becomes a small housing project. Our fight is to reduce the number of bedrooms from five to three.

“We feel Habitat has not looked at it holistically to see what ills will affect our community.”
Neighbors also expressed concerns about the size of the development and say the project’s residents will increase demand on area infrastructure, bring traffic and crime to the area and may decrease property values. They also questioned why Habitat wants to build in an area that already has two of the affordable home communities.

“We applaud the single mothers that want to have a better life for the kids, and we are not objecting to them coming here, but we just want a win-win for both parties,” Rodriquez said.

Officials with Habitat for Humanity say this project will invest almost $3.5 million to provide affordable housing for those who deserve it.

“We put hard-working, quality homeowners in these homes,” said Chris McCarthy, president and chief executive officer of Nashville Area Habitat. 

Coverage from the Nashville City Paper.

Titans safety Chris Hope donates $100 per tackle to the nonprofit organization, Soles4Souls. He was at the Nashville Rescue Mission to help deliver 1000 pairs of shoes donated by Soles4Souls and Shoe Carnival. NewsChannel 5 has the heartwarming story:

Lipscomb University’s College of Business has announced the launch of the School of Executive Education, and is offering a special discount to CNM conference attendees.

Through accelerated open enrollment courses, certificate programs, and customized programs for your company, this new school provides interactive learning experiences, engaging dialogue and exposes participants to leading thinkers and practitioners elevating skills required to achieve new levels of success.

Lipscomb’s Summer Executive Series is as follows:

Critical Skills for Challenging Times

Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Barry Posner, Dean, Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University
Author, The Leadership Challenge and ranked among America’s top 50 leadership coaches

Creating a Winning Strategy in a Challenging Economy
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Turney Stevens, Dean, Lipscomb University College of Business and former CEO of Harpeth Companies
Joe Ivey, Senior Vice President for Advancement, Lipscomb University and former Fortune 500 CEO

Business Negotiation in a Turbulent Environment
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Dr. L. Randolph Lowry, President, Lipscomb University and Founder, Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, Pepperdine University

All courses will be held at Lipscomb’s SunTrust Center for Collaborative Learning.

* Special Registration Fee for Center for Nonprofit Management “Bridge to Excellence” Conference participants. $195 per program (a 50% savings!). Three seats available in each program at this price on a first come, first served basis. For more information or to register, call 615.966.5951 or visit execed.lipscomb.edu.

This post is part of a continuing weekly series previewing the topics that will be discussed at CNM’s May 12th Nonprofit Conference: Bridge to Excellence. Click here to register for this exciting day long learning event featuring keynote speaker Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone.

Sam Davidson and Stephen Moseley of CoolPeopleCare.org are on the forefront of the trends in social media. They are conducting the conference breakout session, “From Social Larva to Social Butterfly: How to Soar Using Social Media,” at CNM’s Conference.

Road to the Conference: Feature Presenters, Sam Davidson and Stephen Moseley

Standing Out in a Crowded World of Friends, Followers and Fans

Social media.

Let’s talk about it. Everyone else is.

But just because everyone else is doing it, does that mean that you should be, too? I mean, didn’t Mom always ask, “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do it, too?”

Well, Mom was way off base. Because in the world of social media, if everyone else is doing it, so should you.

Online tools like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube continue to rapidly grow in reach and popularity. People, businesses, nonprofits and celebrities have flocked to these sites time and again to connect with people who share similar interests and who can help one another accomplish things.

But, there’s a fine line between utility and idolatry. The waters can get very murky when it comes to playing around and getting things done. All of these shiny social media can be toys or tools. And what you do with them will determine which category they fall into for your organization.

Therefore, on May 12, we’ll be talking about how your nonprofit can really soar using social media. It’s one things to have a profile. It’s another thing entirely to use that profile to generate buzz, raise money and then take over the world.

We’ll take a deeper look at two local nonprofits who have used digital tools to raise awareness about their work and create a new kind of advocate for their mission. We’ll hear from them about the good, the bad, the ugly and the easy when it comes to taking your online presence to new levels.

You’ll leave our session with lots of ideas for priming that ever-deepening well that is social media so that the refreshing waters of community, advocacy and success can rush over your organization like a mighty stream.

Okay – maybe that last anology was a bit extreme. But, if you come to our session, we promise that it’ll be a time of over-the-top excitment. And free posters.