South Dakota

Here are some instructions on how to do a Picasa Slide Show.

Presho has some great things on their blog that other communities can learn from!

• Lots of background information, how they got this far, everything you ever wanted to know about the Horizons project in Presho.
• Sharing the Vision & Mission Statements, asking for community feedback.
• Photos and stories tell the story of community work.
• Specific questions to elicit responses from community members - for instance asking for input on location of a thrift store.
• Sharing ideas, “getting the ball rolling” and asking for input on the shop local campaign.
• Poll asking, “What’s the first Change Presho project you want to work on?” Letting people have a say in setting priorities for action.
• Adding the “Recent Comments” link on the sidebar so people can easily see what others have added to the conversation. Want to know how to do that on your community blogs? Ask the folks at Presho!
• Clever ideas and marketing, one of my favorite ideas I have seen so far is their “Change Presho” idea. So simple and yet potential for great things in the future!

Great job Presho!!! 

Congratulations Armour! A completed strategic plan! Great work. A shining example to our other Horizons communities. Check it out by going to the Armour blog:

http://armour.communityblogs.us/2007/11/28/strategic-plan-celebration-plan/ 

Opinion Polls & Market Research

Our Horizons communities are in the beginning stages of getting their blogs up and running which is great, but how do you keep them going and keep people reading? Here are 5 tips for successful community blogging:

1. Determine the Focus of your Blog - Why should people visit the blog? Is it all about sharing information and advertising community events or do you want to encourage dialogue between community members? Posts should reflect what action you want people to take when they read the blog. Do you want them to think, respond, take action?
2. Stay on Topic - While it’s nice to add tidbits about your favorite holiday recipe, what does that have to do with your community? Make sure posts have a connection back to community, Horizons or taking action on poverty, leadership and community. Be specific, if blog posts get too random and off the wall, you will lose your readers.                  (more…)

November is already half over! Has your community started to blog? Remember that all communities need to meet minimum thresholds for blogging–that’s how you earn your digital camera. If your community wants to work towards the other incentives–the printer and computer, you need to make sure you are working on those goals. (See the blog checklist here).

It’s great to see communities adding posts about events, projects, etc. But we would also like to dig a little deeper to see how your community is changing. Check out the sidebar for the Outcomes Grid-Long Version–it is also included in the Blog User’s Guide you may have received at the Blog Trainings. There are several questions that will help you write about the changes in your community. Happy blogging!

Congratulations Whitewood for earning the Blog of the Week award! Whitewood bloggers learned early to take advantage of what other communities were doing–they borrowed some ideas from Newell.

We have also seen some comments and conversations starting between Whitewood community members and other communities. Our bloggers in Whitewood have done some great things:

• Highlighting community activities (PTO events, Soup Supper, Horizons Celebration Event, etc.)
• Showcasing a new community business (Shop 4 Less)
• Projects in progress (City Hall update, History Book, etc.)
• New community services (Newspaper)
• Finding volunteers/filling community needs (Food Baskets)
• Recognizing people or groups (Consumer Handbook volunteers)

Whitewood has a great start on their blog, can’t wait to see more! Congratulations!

The Horizons I communities of Timber Lake, Isabel and Dupree will be joining us on the blogs! A training has been scheduled for December 5th in Timber Lake at 7:00 MT at the Community Center. We will be using their community Wi-Fi.

Timber Lake was given a $393,309 USDA RUS Community Connect Grant in 2005, to be able to provide Wi-Fi access to their entire community. Another example of how big projects can get accomplished in communities!

 I’ve added the Horizon’s I communities to the side bar, make sure to check back later this year to see what they have added.

I have been so impressed by the great blogging that is already occurring in our Horizons communities!!! When you see the collective impact of what the 21 Horizons communities have accomplished this past year, it is really quite amazing!

I want to highlight a “Blog of the Week” and this week’s winner is Newell! Wow! What a great start. Here’s a snippet of the things they have done to receive this prestigious award:

Just for fun I’ve added the Meet the Staff Page on the right. So if you just need to see the smiling faces of the Horizons staff, just click!

Want some help promoting your blog? Try watching the screencasts on how to promote your blog at:  http://communityblogs.us/screencasts/promote-your-blog/. Some of the ideas that Griff Wigley shares with us include:

• E-mail announcements
• Follow up with Study Circles and LeadershipPlenty participants
• Business card sized handouts
• Links to and from other community sites

More ideas with potential:

• Newspaper articles (here’s an example from Newell’s The Valley Irrigator)
•  Some of our communities are doing “Blog Nights” at local school computer labs.
• Offer freebies! How about a free “community mousepad” for bloggers who come to a blog night.
• Prize giveaways! Everyone who signs up as a user and makes a post gets their name entered in a drawing for a fabulous community-based prize.

There’s no one-size-fits-all plan for promoting your community blogs, be creative and don’t forget you have Horizons funds that can help to support these efforts (advertising, printing, food, supplies, promotional items, etc.)

Has your community come up with a great idea? Let us know about it by adding a comment to this message!

You added a new user and you noticed that the WYSIWYG editor looks different from yours, with words like: b, i, link, b-quote and close tags, etc. instead of the user friendly pictures. Here’s how to fix that little glitch: Have the user go the Dashboard, click Profile, then under Your Profile,  make sure there is a checkmark by “Use the visual editor when writing” if there isn’t one, click it to put a checkmark in the box, then click Update Profile. That should fix things for you!

After a whirlwind trip across South Dakota in October I am so glad that the Blog Trainings are done! I’m also glad to see the enthusiasm, excitement and creativity from the community members who attended the trainings in Mitchell, Tyndall, Sturgis and Webster.

Thanks to the 45 people who attended trainings and were willing to take on the blog responsibilities for their communities! We are really looking forward to seeing what each of the communities add to the blogs and we know that you will all be working towards those great technology incentives for your community! Here’s a group photo from Webster that sums it up:

“FOR SUCCESS, ATTITUDE IS AS IMPORTANT AS ABILITY!”

Can’t remember your password? Never fear we can fix it in a jiffy! Just go to your community page, click the Login link at the bottom of the side bar on the right. It will take you to the little blue login screen, at the bottom click “Lost Your Password?” and you just need to input your username and your e-mail address and ta-da! You will be sent  a new password.

OK, so now you have a new password but it’s impossible to remember “5q7wn91″ so you need to simplify it. Once you are logged in, go to your Dashboard, click “Update Your Profile or Change Your Password” it will take you so a screen where you can edit all sorts of information like; how your name is displayed in posts, contact information and of course a way to change your password to one that you can remember.