BRAINSTORMS
Safe Travels
This spring, an outbreak of H1N1 flu — swine flu — left the United States bracing
for a major health scare. Offices were closed, international meetings cancelled and
overseas trips postponed.
Although the outbreak was quickly contained, it served as a good reminder to
association professionals that when it comes to global travel, it pays to be prepared.
If you’re traveling abroad to attend a meeting, visit a member or just take a vacation, remember these recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Released in response to the swine flu outbreak — a resurgence of which
is expected this fall — they’re smart suggestions for every traveler and every trip.
BEFORE YOUR TRIP 1. Monitor the outbreak situation. Check official Web sites — the CDC ( www.cdc.gov), the Pan American Health Organiza- tion ( www.paho.org), the World Health Organization ( www.who.int) and the state health department at your destination — for health information and advisories. 2. Prepare for your trip. Be sure you’re up to date with routine vaccinations and identify in advance health care resources in the areas you’ll be visiting.
DURING YOUR TRIP
3. Monitor the local situation. Pay attention to announcements from the local government and follow local public
health guidelines, including any movement restrictions and
prevention recommendations.
4. Practice healthy habits. To avoid spreading germs, wash
your hands often with soap and water and use alcohol-based hand gels when soap is not available; cover your
mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze; cough and
sneeze into your upper sleeve instead of your hands when
you don’t have a tissue; avoid touching your eyes, nose and
mouth; avoid close contact with sick people; and follow all
local health recommendations, including wearing surgical
masks when you’re asked to do so.
5. Know what to do if you feel sick. If you begin to feel sick or
you’re at high risk for contracting an illness, seek medical
care and avoid further travel for seven days after your symptoms begin, or until you’ve been symptom-free for 24 hours.
AFTER YOUR TRIP
6. Monitor your health. Closely monitor your health for seven
days after your trip; if you develop symptoms, seek medical
attention.
Nonprofits:
Your Newest
Facebook
Friend
When you get your next Facebook friend
request, there’s a good chance it will be
from a nonprofit, as 74 percent of nonprofits currently maintain a Facebook
page, according to a new survey from
nonprofit technology players ThePort Network, NTEN and Common Knowledge.
The survey polled 978 nonprofit professionals — approximately 10 percent of
whom work for associations — about their
organizations’ use of social networks.
Among its key findings:
• A majority of nonprofits (86.2 percent)
belong to a commercial social network.
• While Facebook is the most popular
commercial social networking Web site
among nonprofits, organizations’ Facebook networks remain relatively small
with an average size of 5,454 members.
In addition to Facebook, nonprofits
belong to MySpace ( 12. 2 percent),
Change.org ( 8. 1 percent), Twitter ( 6. 7
percent), You Tube ( 5. 6 percent) and
LinkedIn ( 1. 9 percent).
• Among nonprofits that belong to a
commercial social network, 80.5 percent
use the network primarily for marketing
purposes. Some, however, also have
used it for fundraising ( 37. 8 percent)
and for generating advertising revenue
(4.7 percent).
• Four-fifths of nonprofits are committing at least one-quarter of a full-time
staff person to their social networking
efforts, and more than half intend to
increase social networking project staffing over the next 12 months.
• Approximately one-third of nonprofits
have built one or more “house” social
networks that they host; of those, 86.3
percent host communities of 10,000
members or less.
