Featuring Old Clayburn’s CEO, Willis Turner, CAE

This direction aligns with IRS strategy to ensure open and transparent operation of exempt organizations.  Organizations holding a group exemption letter should expect to see  a questionnaire from the IRS about the group ruling in the near future.

In June 2011 an IRS Advisory Committee recommended that the tax agency eliminate the option of filing group tax returns. Up to 700 organizations currently file a group tax return, which means that any change to the group exemption ruling will have a huge impact in the non-profit world.

The solicitation emails claimed that I was injured in a car accident while attending a conference on climate change in London, my cell phone was lost in the accident and I needed money for hospital bills and airfare to return home. 

Fortunately no one that I know of fell for the scam, however one person did engage in a conversation using Facebook messaging in an approach towards responding out of concern for me.  Some Facebook friends saw it immediately for what it was and responded very firmly telling the hacker to get lost, knowing that I would never send an email solicitation like that.

Facebook security locked my account within 1 hour of the occurrence and required that I use their security system to verify my ownership of the account before I could get control back.

Here are 7 lessons I learned that you might find helpful:

1. If this ever happens to you, immediately change the password to any email account that you have associated with your Facebook account.  Hackers usually gain access to your email first and then move on to your Facebook account. 
2. Verify that your forwarding rules have not been changed in your email account.  Hackers who gain control often change the forwarding rules so that they can access your incoming emails.
3. Setup and adhere to a regular schedule for changing your on-line passwords.
4. Use alphanumeric passwords whenever possible.
5. Use different passwords for email accounts and social networking sites.
6. Be wary of 3rd party applications that connect to your Facebook or other social networking accounts in order to share information on your wall.  Some of these applications may in fact disclose your password to cyber criminals.
7. Hide your email address(es) on your Facebook information tab.  Hackers who gain entry to your Facebook Friend's accounts will be able to harvest your email address to use in their cyber criminal efforts.

For example, if your company email address is the primary and only email address associated with your LinkedIn profile, you stand to lose your profile access and all of your network contacts.  Here is a tip right from the LinkedIn site:

You can change, add or remove email addresses on your LinkedIn account from the Settings page. We strongly recommend that you have more than one email address on your account. This will allow you to sign in to your account if you lose access to your primary email address. Your primary email address is where you want LinkedIn communications to be sent.

There is one key ingredient that takes a revolution to the streets, and that is passion for the cause.  If people believe strongly in the cause, they will even take risks to their own life in order to see the fruit of their passion.  So, thanks in part to social media, dictators have been put on notice.

So, let's examine the parallel between the dictator powered regimes and the association world.  Organizations who do not operate transparently are in danger of being overruled by individuals who care deeply about the organization's cause.  Even a hint or perception of a tight network of "cronies" running an organization behind a veil of secrecy is cause for a revolution.

While social media has the potential of doing great things, perhaps one of the greatest benefits is the pressure that it puts on organizations to operate transparently.  Your organization and its leaders may not have any intention of wrong doing, but may be overcome by just the perception.  Now is not the time to "block out" the network.  Rather it is time to listen in and hear what your caring community is talking about.

The need for the video to be revised just 10 months after its original debut is an example of the speed at which social media is developing, growing, and improving constantly.

So how are YOU using this explosive tool to reach your association market?

It comes with all of the connectivity you need for your iPhone, iPod or iPad and you can get an optional cable to attach to your PC, too.  I use my Cinemin Swivel with an iPad and the Keynotes App.  Works great, and it fits easily into my computer bag. 

I bought mine at Brookstone ($279.95).

Here is a video with more information.

This donation is available to nonprofits with 501(c)(3) designation and to public libraries. Public libraries must either have valid 501(c)(3) nonprofit status or be listed in the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) database.

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