The Universal Benefits of Volunteering

Maybe it's just me but reading this book is like being hit over the head. It has tons and tons of lists and policies and the like, but it assumes an alternate reality. This alternate reality involves people who want to volunteer and therefore make themselves spreadsheets of the kinds of experiences they would like to encounter in the process of volunteering. It involves boards of directors who sit down and methodically merge volunteering into the organization's strategic plan.

Now, to be fair, the book is very good at providing example documents to use in beginning a program. These would be good for someone running homeless shelters or other outreach-intensive organizations. Or as part of research on volunteering. But even this poses a problem since they're just thrown at you without any context, visual or otherwise. I am serious, the book would be useful in those instances, so go out and get it if that applies. However, if you're an ASAE/trade-association type, this one is not worth the trouble.

By Walter P. Pidgeon, Jr.
ISBN# 0471185051

An Army of Davids

So, I've been spending some time with Glenn Reynold's book (Glenn being of course the seminal and highly influential Instapundit ), and I must say that it gives me lots of language I can use to talk about phenomena that are easily observable right now. I think you could say that Glenn Reynolds has done for technology what Virginia Postrel did with design topics . Which is to say, they beat the drum and say, hey, look at what this democratization of knowledge can do for you! In that vein, the book is really pretty visionary, pointing out the magic of the internet age. And I for one see it as magical. You know how Laura Ingalls Wilder's Pa in Little Town on the Prairie said to Laura that it was an amazing time to be alive (that was in the 1890s)? I've been actively thinking that to myself for the past few years, and An Army of Davids gives me ample evidence to back that up with its talk of citizen empowerment and the "comfy chair revolution." The theme of "

Public sector information design

Here's an article from the UK's Design Council talking about how information design is important in public-sector efforts. Of course, it's helpful to everyone, but this is a good example of the universal need for better presentation of information--and more design.

Get Out of Your Own Way

This book, by Robert K. Cooper, was on the library's newly arrived shelf. It's pretty good, although if you read biz books a lot, there's a lot you'll want to skim. Still, the principles he talks about are good to think on. The subtitle of the book is "the five keys to surpassing everyone's expectations." These keys are: 1. Direction, not motion 2. Focus, not time 3. Capacity, not conformity 4. Energy, not effort 5. Impact, not intentions Each key has three or four supporting chapters that talk about subprinciples. Some things that I identified with from key one is that a) "good and great are the enemies of possible," a quote Cooper attributes to his grandfather. It's pretty self-explanatory though. The other thing is he talks about "what's automatic, accelerates." Basically, if you can put effort into something until it becomes automatic, you've won the battle. So focus resources on issues and behaviors that will eventually

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