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August Toolshed Tips
Aug8
Posted by Nina Schwartz
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Hello!

Welcome to GMT's monthly e-newsletter for August 2008.  We send this e-newsletter on the first Monday of every month to share feature announcements, membership tips, links to recent articles from environmental reporters, new members, and other helpful resources. 

You are receiving this as your organization is a member of Green Media Toolshed and you are currently a registered GMT user.  Should you wish to opt out of this monthly communication, please see the instructions in section 8 below.

Word Count: 1,582

Read Time: 5 minutes

 

In this issue you will find:

1. Member Connections

2. Be in the Know – How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group
3. Buzz from the Beat

4. Link(s) of the Month
5. Community Coverage

6. GMT Welcomes 2 New Members

7. Support: Database Do’s and Don’ts
8. Opt out instructions

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1.    Member Connections:

Want to Network in the GMT Community?

Fill out your User Profile!

 

Your user profile enables you to

  • reach out to other members who share similar interests
  • find others who work on similar issues
  • connect with others who are looking for similar training opportunities.
  • manage your community involvement. Through the profile notifications, you can track your subscriptions to all of the campaign rooms and posts to which you are joined.

For other notifications, also visit your Dashboard (located in My Dashboard of the main member hub toolbar) to see a list of all the recent content added to your groups and campaigns.

In addition to the basic contact and bio information, there are skills and interests tags through which you can search for and find other members who

  • have tagged the same campaign topics
  • possess an ability that you are looking to acquire
  • who would form a good online network.

 Also include in your profile…….

Campaigns to which you are joined         website 

links of interest      Email address     job description  issues you work on 

special skills and interests           photo

View this screencast for some step by step advice on filling out your profile: http://greenmediatoolshed.org/node/465

GMT’s goal is to have 100% of profiles completed by November 1st

 Your profile is your landing page when you sign into the Member Hub.

http://members.greenmediatoolshed.org/community        

 

 

 2. Be in the Know - How GMT Tools Can Help Your Group:

                     …Speaking of notifications…

 Sign up for immediate notification for member hub posts and discussions.

In each discussion or post in the new member hub, you can sign up to receive notifications when anther GMT member adds a comment to a discussion.

These notifications are a great way to stay tuned to your posts of interest.

 To subscribe to a post:

  • Click on it’s title to view the original post and all the current comments
  • Beneath the post you will see a place to Subscribe to This Post
  • You can also Subscribe to Posts of this type (i.e. the Hub Discussions, Hub Events, Hub Announcements)
  • You will also see the link to add a new comment

Contact Nina if you have trouble signing up for these notices.

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3.      Buzz from the Beat:  We can all use a good chuckle…

Green-Conscious GE Develops Hybrid Lightbulb

FAIRFIELD, CT—One year after pledging to develop more energy-efficient products, General Electric Co. unveiled a product it is calling its most eco-friendly lighting source to date: the first-ever gasoline-electric hybrid lightbulb.

"With the price of gas escalating as its supply dwindles, now is the perfect time to introduce innovative lighting technology that only relies on this fast-depleting, nonrenewable resource for a portion of its power," GE chairman Jeff Immelt said in a statement released Monday.

If the Wisebulb, which will be available in stores by November for the retail price of $89.99, is used only for recommended short-term, dim, and frequent on-and-off lighting, it could eliminate nearly 80 percent of global-warming pollution that would be caused by using solely gas-powered lightbulbs, GE spokesman Brian Tormey said.

Laugh out loud at  http://www.theonion.com/content/news/green_conscious_ge_develops_hybrid

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4.     Links of the month:

New Website for NGOs Launched: Microsoft NGO Connection

http://www.microsoft.com/About/CorporateCitizenship/CommunityInvestment/NGO/en/us/default.mspx

The Microsoft NGO Connection website has been launched to provide nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) a place to go to learn how to use technology more effectively and to access the resources Microsoft and its partners offer. The website provides free or discounted software applications, training and certification information, and NGO discussion forums. The goal of the website is to help NGOs achieve their organizational goals more efficiently. Visit the website listed above to learn more about this new online resource.

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Community Coverage:

Common Vision’s Fruit Tree Tour Wins Emmy Award!

Common Vision engages in ongoing media outreach through GMT for their main program, Fruit Tree Tour. This past spring marked Common Vision’s fifth annual tour. Lasting for 70 days and covering 20 cities, the tour helped students plant over 1000 fruit trees at urban schools and community centers from Los Angeles to Sacramento. The goal of the tour is to engage students in dialogue about ecological stewardship through day-long programs that include green theatre, storytelling, and music.

This past spring, Common Vision produced their own DVD about the tour with friends a Woven Media.

As a result of the great press coverage they got from GMT for the tour, the producers of a PBS program called Natural Heroes invited them to be the sole subject of an entire episode. Common Vision provided the Natural Heroes team with the Fruit Tree Tour DVD that they produced, which became the basis of and content for a special episode of Natural Heroes that just won an Emmy Award.

“This award is a huge tribute to programs like Natural Heroes and the featured groups that are working for positive change. We hope many more people will see the show and be inspired to plant a tree in their community,” says Common Vision.

“There's no doubt that media attention from our outreach through GMT helped attract this opportunity,” says Paul West, Director of Communications. 

“This experience shows that a little all- volunteer group with a budget of just thousands can still make a big positive impact in the world with the help of some good press,” remarked Paul.

Read the release that the producer's issued about their episode that won an Emmy. http://cv.greenmediatoolshed.org/node/22064

Watch a clip of the video at the Natural Heroes website http://www.greentreks.org/naturalheroes/season3/fruit-tree.asp

Full episode videos and descriptions are at www.naturalheroes.org

Learn more about Common Vision’s work and the Fruit Tree Tour at http://commonvision.org/programs/fruittreetour/fruittreetour.php

And…Check out Common Vision’s media page to see some of the other great press GMT has helped them get: http://commonvision.org/news/news.html

 We Need Your Success Stories!

We like to reserve this section to share success stories from our members and to offer insight as to how groups us various methods and strategies to reach out to reporters and get the coverage they need to reach their audience(s). 

Send submissions to nina@greenmediatoolshed.org.
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5. Let’s Welcome Back 2 Members to our GMT Community:

Redefining Progress

http://www.rprogress.org/about_us/about_us.htm

Redefining Progress is the nation’s leading public policy think tank dedicated to smart economics. Their work addresses critical environmental issues such as global climate change and natural resource depletion. They promote ground-breaking ideas into public dialogue, policy discourse, and decision-making in compelling and nonpartisan ways.

Marine Fish Conservation Network

http://www.conservefish.org/site/

MFCN is the largest national coalition completely dedicated to promoting the long-term sustainability of marine fish. It has more than 190 members that include environmental organizations, aquariums, commercial and recreational fishing associations, and science groups. MFCN tries to educate policy makers, the fishing industry, and the public about the need for good conservation and management practices.

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7.  Vocus 2008 is here!

The new Vocus 2008 Edition includes some great upgrades that will aid in your media outreach.

Get a quick overview of the upgrades through this screencast:  http://www.screencast.com/t/cTkqZi0SR.

Here’s what you will see:

Media Contacts
-- Some records will have a link to a Wikipedia entry about the reporter.
-- Contacts that work at bureaus will now be listed in the profile for the outlet's headquarters in addition to the profile for the bureau.

Media Outlets
-- Some outlets now have listings for desks, such as news desk, business desk, or sports desk, within the outlet profile.

Distributions
-- You will be able to send a carbon copy to yourself of an email job that you are sending to a list.
-- On the summary page, you can preview your email right in the screen instead of sending yourself a preview. You can still send your preview as well, but the benefit is to look at the preview on the screen without waiting for a separate email.
-- There is a new distribution review section that lets you go back to review previous distributions, including the actual email you sent.

For quick and savvy web tools or general GMT support, contact Nina Schwartz at 202-408-8850 x. 10 or at nina@greenmediatoolshed.org, Monday - Friday 9am- 5pm EST.


View past e-newsletters in our monthly e-newsletter archive section of the GMT Training Center: http://www.greenmediatoolshed.org/taxonomy/term/38

 

 

 

 

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