Ithaca Community Block Party

On September 20th D.A.N. Members from the Ithaca College and upcoming D.A.N. Chapter at Cornell University volunteered at the Ithaca Community Block Party. We arrived at 12PM and collected canned goods, helped set up displays, and coordinated event logistics until 7PM. There was live music as well as dozens of local non-profits that came out to share information about their causes.

It was great to have D.A.N. Headquarters work with the local D.A.N. Chapters in the Ithaca area. We made sure to bring the D.A.N. spirit to the atmosphere. I have to say, one of the great parts of D.A.N. is its members. You always know you're getting a quality volunteer.

The Ithaca  Radio Group WYXL 97.3 put on the event with a generous sponsorship by Maguire Automotive. A local restaurant, Italian carry Out, donated three sheet pizzas for the D.A.N. volunteers at the event. It really was a great time as we learned about other great causes in the area and thought of ways that we can work together. I look forward to seeing the future projects that Ithaca and Cornell roll out. 

Of course, we are always looking for new D.A.N. Chapters at schools around the country. If you are interested in starting a chapter you can contact Charlise Manuel at cmanuel@doanythingnice.org anytime of the day. And I mean anytime, let's be honest, there's really no sleep when it comes to college life.

A special thanks to WYXL 97.3 and Italian Carry Out. We had a great time and look forward to future adentures together.

Welcome To Fall 2008

Welcome back to a new and fresh academic year with Do Anything Nice. I hope everyone had a fun summer as well as a great start to their new school year. Some colleges have already entered their 3rd week, but most high schools are just about to start their 1st. Now, in my Senior year at Ithaca College, I am set to graduate in December 2008.

This past summer we had a new executive officer join The D.A.N. Team. Charlise Manuel is a Junior at Cornell University and joined the team as the Director of D.A.N. Global. In addition, all current executive board and officer member are still hard at work. We will have more information on becoming a new chapter of D.A.N. as well as information for returning chapters shortly.

Kindness Journal Feature #1

Here is a Kindness Journal Entry that really speaks to being nice and keeping people safe.

"I work at Ithaca College and many time when I drive on the main road downtown I notice that there is a car trying to turn to the left going up hill with many cars stuck behind it because of a long line of cars going downhill and no one stopping to let the car turn... Many times, when I am in the D.A.N state I stop and let the car turn and then catch the rest of the cars before me. It does not take much to do an act of kindness and when I do not stop I do not feel good in my heart." ~ Dani Novak

Read comments here!

Brainstorming 101

Brainstorming: (option 1)

This is best to do at the first meeting and periodically throughout the year. During a brain storming session all ideas are welcome (but are not to be debated). Bring some food and drinks and possibly break up into small groups.

• Have a topic to discussion in mind: What do you want to talk about? Remember, lead with direction!

• Choose your audience: Are the people who are present really the right audience? Make sure to invite people to the brainstorming session who have relevance or a common interest in what is being discussed. If you talking about the best way to improve the energy consumption of your school and the audience is there to talk about how to determine the best NBA team, well, you get the idea. However, if you are brainstorming about enhancing energy consumption and the audience is the cafeteria staff, this may be good. How can your school cook and serve food efficiently while cutting down on waste. Maybe one of the solutions is to go from self-serve to full service food lines, this way people don't take more than they need.

• Have a time limit: It is important to know how long you are going to be in the room brainstorming. We suggest no more than 25 or so minutes. This is meant to be quick and painless. The purpose is to get ideas on paper and have fun in the process.
  

• Write the ideas on paper: Make sure to capture the ideas on paper so that the group can return to discuss the ideas at a later point. People are going to want to feel like there was progress made, and if everyone leaves without anything to show for it next time, well, that's not much fun.

• Review within the week: While the ideas are still fresh go through and categorize the ideas by short-term and long-term goals. This way you know where to head first. From here committees can be formed and the rest is history.

Brainstorming: (option 2)

In this option there are three changes:

• Form a problem that has to be answered: This is critical because ideas that are formed will center around this problem as a solution.

• Shout out ideas and write them down on the chalk board.
  

• Choose a rating scale: On a scale of 0 to 5, how relevant is each idea to your problem? Keep the 4 and 5 rated ideas on the top of you list and put aside the 1 through 3 ideas. Now you have your focus.

Remember to also: choose and audience, have a time limit, and review your ideas.

Craft Your Campaign For Change

Choosing your campaign for change:

• Find something that members are passionate about in your area, then go after it. All things are possible when the heart is in the right place.

• Get the ideas on paper. When ideas are left in the mind there are two things that happen:

1. Only the person with the idea knows about it.
2. People forget and the idea is lost.

• Organize your ideas long term and short term. You may also choose to create a category of "if I could do anything in the world, it would be...". This way you can choose some realistic short term goals to achieve each month while there are long terms goals also in progress.

Size of the idea should be kept in mind. Is it small, medium or large? Taking a trip to another country for humanitarian work is a great goal, but knowing that this may be one of the larger goals of the group enables you to plan accordingly.