Diana R. Sieger is the president of the Grand Rapids Commmunity Foundation. For more information, visit Diana's President's pages or view her biography.

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President's Point of View: Technology! I think I can do this . . .

May 30, 2006

It was a HOT Memorial Day weekend! And what does one do on a hot holiday weekend besides enjoy cool beverages and scrumptious summer fare? Shop!

For some time now, I have wanted to join the hip generation and purchase an iPod. I have always referred to my tape cassette player as the iPod for those over the age of 50. Well, I am here to tell you that I am much younger as of this past Sunday.

With the help of two 20-something young men and my best friend who is 10 whole months older than me (a fact that she hears about incessantly for that 10 month period), I managed to buy an iPod Nano and a digital camera. Other than having a camera cell phone, I never have owned a digital camera. How have I survived all this time?

I actually was able to get the iPod up and running virtually on my own. The offer of training by the salesperson at the local electronics store for $160 was passed up by me. By golly, I was going to conquer this myself! Whew and I did.

When I told the same salesperson that I will use this little device when I jog instead of lugging the aforementioned tape cassette player requiring a belly pack, he looked at me as if I was kidding. I wasn’t sure if it was because I may not look like a jogger or if he had doubts about my ability to get the iPod up and running! I chose to ignore the look.

So as I listen to my favorite songs as I compose this blog entry, I wonder how we will use technology to serve our donors better and if it may be directed to persons of a certain age or if it matters! For years, some of my staff scoffed at my efforts to try to introduce some innovation in our thinking regarding features on our website and ability to offer online services. The prevailing thought was essentially that our donors would not access these services. That supposed knowledge was based more on conjecture than simply asking people what they wanted.

I hope that our website and the services that can be accessed online provides a true service to our community. I would appreciate hearing comments on what you would like to see on our website and what can be enhanced to serve you better.

Rock on! This iPod is just great!