Rational as I wish I were, I know it's not really facts and figures -- or logic -- that does most of my decision-making. In every decision I make, there is some element of emotion at play. Despite what you think, you're the same. Why, then, do most of us feel compelled to list bullet points of facts on our web sites and in our emails?

If our stakeholders are looking for confirmation, not information, it seems to me we need to refocus on the fine art of storytelling. 

Somewhere along the way, we became more obsessed with exactly how high Icarus was flying when he fell than with telling the story of Icarus. That's a concept Roger Burks has been putting into practice at Mercy Corps. During his travels, he worries less about how many people are being served than about telling their stories.  

The result? Compelling messages that make the work of Mercy Corps seem more real than any list of figures. Roger shared a little of his philosophy, the basis of his session at the 2009 NTC, "Better Online Storytelling", upon his return from a trip to the Congo. 

Roger is also really excited about getting to San Francisco to engage with the amazing nonprofit community there. I couldn't agree more. In fact, we have the perfect way for you to get to know the nonprofit scene: the Day of Service. We're helping over 60 nonprofit organizations with all kinds of technology questions. You can help, too!

Jon Stahl has some awesome pants: the front and back of each leg is a different color -- red, green, blue and yellow. I first saw them back in 2002, when the NTC was still the Roundup. Amazingly, he still fits in them -- and he's bringing them to San Francisco in April. Luckily for you, he's also bringing his decade-long experience trying to get nonprofit software to play nicely!

Jon is leading a session at the NTC called An Open Civic Engagement Platform: A new generation of tools that play nice together. He'll be talking about the variety of ways we can now make our donor databases, content management systems, and email tools talk to each other and share data, and what this means for us as a sector.

We talked about this -- and burritos -- a few days ago. Take a listen.

Kevin LoChris Peters

When you're a nonprofit manager, there are loads of great resources to help you get the skills you need to lead effectively: You can take classes on human resources, learn about the legal needs of your organization, or dive into accounting practices.

But how do you learn what you need to know about managing technology? How MUCH do you need to know?  How are you supposed to decide the technological fate of your organization when you don't know the difference between RAM and ROM?

The answer is... you don't really need to know the difference -- but you DO need to know some basics. Luckily for you, Kevin Lo and Chris Peters, both from TechSoup Global, will walk you through what matters at their 2009 NTC Session: "Foundations for IT Decision-Making".

But it's not just a session at the NTC, it's also a chapter in our book -- written by the NTEN community -- Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission.  

Kevin and Chris took some time to share their insights a while back.

We also talked about what you should do during your free time in San Francisco.  Like Nancy Schwartz, they think you ought to head over to Golden Gate Park. Chris also highly recommends the brand new California Academy of Sciences. (I'm a huge fan of the De Young as well.)

Steve Wright's PantsSteve Wright is a busy man. I know this from watching his tweets. He's the Director of Innovation at the Salesforce.com/Foundation, and when he's not listening to terrible/cult classic music, unearthing incredible scientific discoveries, or updating us on the status of his pants, he's thinking VERY BIG THOUGHTS. 

One of those big thoughts? The fact that more of us are doing our computing in the cloud means a lot more than infrastructure and energy savings for our organizations. It means we have the opportunity to collaborate like never before. As the web opens up, the difficulties in sharing data are dissolving.

In his session at the 2009 NTC, "Cloud Computing: More than just IT Plumbing in the Sky", Steve and his amazing panel of guests will talk about the implications of cloud computing as a means for learning more about our work, collaborating better, and creating more change. Take a listen.

Over the last couple of years, our IT Staffing reports have found that nonprofits are hosting their own software and services less and less. Most are outsourcing website, email, and listserv hosting.  Increasingly, organizations are also using software as a service, virtualization, and other remote computing techniques to support remote staff and increase collaboration across their sectors.

In his session, "Going Remote: What You Need to Know", Grant Howe of Sage will offer up excellent (and really geeky) remote solutions.

Cindy Leonard is one of the nicest people I know -- and I know a lot of nice people!  It's no surprise, then, that she's tackling the topic of "The Softer Side of Tech Consulting" at the 2009 NTC. 

Anyone who's done consulting work knows that your technology skills aren't the most important part when it comes to being a good consultant. Sure, you have to know what you're doing, but how you engage your clients is the key. As the Technology Services Manager at the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management at Robert Morris University, Cindy has had lots of experience. She shared her vision for the session with me in this podcast.

This will be Cindy's first trip to the west coast -- EVER!  Resplendent in her native Steeler's recent victory, she vows that the one thing she will check out in San Francisco is Lombard Street.   

As nonprofits, we're focused on action, all the time. We want to be out in the field, serving clients, all the time. It's go, go, go for the mission, all the time.

Time is a luxury we don't have in our line of work -- which is why I think so many of us resist evaluation. Why would you reflect on how you feed people when you could just go feed people?

Of course, we know better. Evaluation helps us do our work better, and we all want to do our work better. The trick for our sector is going to be moving evaluation from that thing you do when you can force yourself to sit down for a few minutes to that thing that happens as you do your work.

As Executive Director at Tincan, Karen Michaelson has had lots of practice. At the NTC, she'll share her experiences at her session, "Evaluating Outcomes: Real Techniques for Measuring Civic Engagement and Technology Fluency".

For marketing types, word of mouth advertising is the Holy Grail. We work really hard to create stakeholders who are so engaged and so invested, they can't help but tell everyone they know about what a great organization we are.

In the pre-internet days, that meant engaging some REALLY invested people, because the barrier to entry for telling a friend was pretty high. They'd have to pick up the phone or send letters, or have the topic come up in conversation, to spread your good word.  

With the introduction of email, and now social media, that barrier to entry has been removed. It's more than easy for someone to spread the word -- it's STUPID easy.  But, in a classic "be careful what you wish for" way, word of mouth advertising comes with a price. Your supporters can now easily spread your message, and just as easily market it.

It's this dillema that Nancy Schwartz, consultant and blogger at Getting Attention, will take on at her 2009 NTC session,  The Open Source Brand in the Age of Being Everywhere.  I talked to Nancy about that session -- and buffalo -- earlier this week.

Planning and technology often seem like oil and water: How can you possibly plan in a field that changes every three weeks?  Turns out, you not only CAN do it, you HAVE to do it.

Peter Campbell knows that better than most anyone. He's been at this for awhile now, first in law offices, then San Francisco Goodwill, and now at EarthJustice. 

Peter is leading the session "How to Decide: IT planning and prioritization" at the 2009 NTC.  (It's more than a session, it's a chapter in our book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission.) He took a few minutes out of his day to chat with me.

When he's not blogging at TechCafeteria, you can find Peter at Buffalo Bill's in Hayward. He suggests you try to make the trip when you're out for the NTC!