I’ve stayed out of non-profit. I’ve even stayed out of IT. I am a Product Manager for websites for a business-to-business publishing company. The work has been wonderful and my wife is still impressed that I’m so happy at work, especially after the 10 horrible months at that horrible non-profit. Despite the tough year ahead, I’m looking forward continuing to work in for-profit and the web.

For those of you giving your all to non-profits, I commend you and wish you the best. Continued good luck to everyone in everything.

Best,

Milind

IT Manager

Born in the afternoon on Feb 7, weighing about 4 lbs 10 oz, both are already home and doing well.

Over the years I spent a lot of time attempting to integrate the branch office staff so they were less remote. This included VPNs and Citrix, new hardware and regular visits. Eventually many staff were mobile and it worked mostly well. My final hoorah was supposed to be setting up a new phone system that should have made everyone just 3-digits away. The phone system, 15-years old, needed to be replaced anyway, so it was a good opportunity. However, having never worked in telephony, I look back and realize this was one big job to take on. 90 staff, 5 sites, 1 me. It wasn’t a complete failure, but I grew a few gray hairs that have stayed with me.

Lesson one has to be not to push the technology envelope on a tight budget. The immediate project budget was robust but monthly recurring charges had to be kept lean. To make the 3-digit extension scheme work vendors repeatedly told me that VOIP was the solution. Of course it was. But I was also told that it could be done over cable-modems and SDSL. My own figuring told me no, yet I listened to the experienced vendor. No, it can’t be done that way and it wasn’t.

While the main office, which has a hybrid digital and VOIP phone system, works flawlessly, the branch office have been left in bad shape due to poorer than expected voice quality. The main office project ran into cost overruns because the vendor, CBS Whitcom (site), has no concept of project management or the limits of the technology they hock. Though we had used them for 15-years, that made no difference in the level of care shown in setting up the project. While its sales rep and “lead engineer” (and I do mean that sarcastically) insisted that the setup was workable and that they do it all the time, the site technicians stated it couldn’t be done in the first hour they appeared (prior to showing up the techs hadn’t even been informed what the job was). Thankfully the techs were smart, competent people and over the next few days made the system at the main office work, but only after we wound up spending a couple thousand more than originally projected due to oversights by the lead engineer.

The false guarantees of CBS Whitcom about VOIP capabilities have stranded the company. The project should have been finished months before I left but it continues to be worked on months after. I feel terrible about this. At least if the system worked, albeit delayed, there would be some closure. Certainly lessons were learned. The biggest was vendors will not treat you fairly just because you’re a non-profit. Money is money.

To sooth my guilt-ridden soul, I’m wondering if anyone else was taken as badly as I was.

In the midst of this mess is my non-profit. Not nearly as bustling or exciting but just as cramped as any rush hour subway car (pic). There is a “beautiful” view of the building across the street. The datacenter that looks back sports a wall of blinking lights. Yeah, so what? We may only have five servers and no air conditioner but we help people every day!

The thought doesn’t really alleviate the blinking-light envy (pic) I feel in my gut.

No, load balancing will never be an issue at my little non-profit, but it is amazing what so few people with nearly adequate tools can do for the betterment of the world. It’s rewarding working as a non-profit technologist, despite the politics and difficult budgets. Small improvements in technology and an understanding of staff needs can make a big difference in output. Personally, it’s great ROI to be there for those that are there for others.

My day usually ends 15 minutes too late and then I’m off to class. The streets aren’t nearly as bad as in the morning but the trains run like broken escalators. I gripe about my day-to-day happenings, yet in the end I can’t imagine being happy anywhere but at a non-profit. Hopefully that continues.

Firstly, the job needs to go. Despite having made the decision out of shear frustration, it is the right choice. I just wish I could quit now and take a month off. The wife won’t allow it at a time like this. Understandable.

Second, I’ve turned this site into something too personal. I wanted to keep the blog very much about the technology and managerial trends exemplified by work experiences. I wanted to document what I learned and how I went about performing my job. Along the way I could reevaluate what I said, learn from criticism and others experiences, and grow. For this to happen I would have liked to work on project after project. Unfortunately the work environment has left me lacking in this regard, and therefore I feel the blog has not lived up to what I had hoped it would be.

So where do I go from here? I’m not sure. I don’t know where I was going with this post. I had hoped I’d find some resolution, some direction, by the end of this paragraph.

Nope. Nothing.

I did rant some time ago about how I thought auto updates were such a great thing (post) for small companies like mine with no update protocol in place. I still think it is except in times like these. So I finally focused on WSUS and planned everything to be ready by today. Nope, not happening.

1) The settings in group policy that allow changes to workstation update schedules and update site redirection just would not take effect. The parts I setup previously work fine, like the remote printer installation and drive mapping login script, but the workstations don’t receive the changes to the auto update settings. I always have some quirky issue with group policies.

2) WSUS won’t recognize any of the computers on the domain.

I haven’t had enough time to research these issues but attempting to beat tomorrows deadline left me little choice but to go to each computer and manually change all the update settings to notify. As a simple fix, a friend suggested I could have blocked Microsoft’s update sites altogether through the firewall, but there’s some issue with the Sonicwall (site) and licenses. I always thought blocking websites was a basic part of firewalls. Unless I’ve missed something, it can’t be done without the license. I miss the Fortinet (site) firewalls I used to use at the adoption agency.

IE7 seems quite harmless overall. I’ve noticed no problems and it seems to have a few nice influences from other browsers. The PC I’m testing on continues to behave normally, however, I’m certain the new interface will trouble many users initially. I’ll release IE7 to staff eventually. It’s just not that critical for all this fuss.

It struck me that while my blog is a tremendous resource for making contacts in the non-profit tech community, my need to remain anonymous limits me from using the site to its fullest potential. Despite my disappointment in my current employer, I cannot reveal the company in any way because I have discussed too many details. It would simply be inappropriate. And frankly, the disappointment is with one person, certainly not the entire organization, which I feel continues to do wonderful work for its cause and I don’t want to hinder that in any way.

While the resumes have already begun going out, I will continue working to improve this company’s infrastructure as much as I can; as much as time allows.

Thanks again, everyone.

Immediately we got into an argument over Kintera. He had repeatedly told me that staff’s dislike of Kintera was due to their inability to use the tool. Ignoring the obvious questions about training, I gave him my opinion as an IT professional who actually has gone to Kintera training (post).

His usual threatening and belittling prattle ensued regarding any research on my part for alternatives to Kintera. Some time ago he had ordered me not to pursue such research but today I purposely informed him that I have done so on my own time. My aim at this point was to escalate this argument. Stress and frustration shouldn’t only flow one way.

Now I was wasting his time and was told I should not be doing this on my time either. All this amused me for several reasons.

1) He never uses Kintera so how he disregards anyone’s opinion is beyond me.

2) He made one of his minions delete several thousand records at 100 records at a time (yes, that’s right!). Kintera doesn’t allow more than that through their web-interface. However if Kintera ever gets back to you, they can do it with one push of the delete key. Somehow my seeking alternatives to a bad situation was a waste of time but deleting several thousand records, 100 at a time because the company refuses to get back to you, is efficiency.

3) He now presumes he has control over my personal life. I love it!

I’ve never behaved this way at work. Then again, I’ve never been treated this way at a job. I’ve worked for multi-millionaires with their own startups; Yale, Harvard, and Wharton graduates; IT engineers leagues over my abilities; even government bureaucrats, and no one has ever threatened, insulted, belittled, or disrespected me like boss has. This nobody has done it all.

The oddest thing: as a result of maintaining limited communication, people around him tend to fail often. When one fails he rewards with compassion. It’s almost as if success is threatening to him, preferring rather that those around him fail so his status as top dog maintains. Odd behavior for a CFO – for any manager, in fact.

I’m done with this. He’s right, I am wasting my time, but not because of what I do but in dealing with him. My resumes are going out tonight. I hope I can stick with non-profit but with twins on the way, I don’t have the flexibility I once did.

Wish me luck.