“Make it two days long! I want to know it all.”   “This session will make my job easier.”   “Broadened my view of what’s possible.”   “Loved all of it – great new tools.”

These are just a few of the reactions to our spring Southern Oregon Technology Training series funded by the Carpenter Foundation and held at Southern Oregon University’s Medford campus.

Twelve sessions covered everything from how to prepare images for web, email or print to email and contact management in Microsoft Outlook. Jenny Council, NetCorps’ Southern Oregon Technology Consultant, explains that “we wanted these trainings to convey a wide range of information in a way that would be immediately relevant to nonprofit staff in their day-to-day work.”

The classes were designed to address either very specific work functions (such as managing emails, doing web research, using formulae in Microsoft Excel or mail merges in Microsoft Word), or to address very general needs that reach across the full range of office applications used every day. These trainings became known as the “Ten things you didn’t know you didn’t know about…” classes, which addressed overall productivity and functionality in the Microsoft Windows environment and gave attendees an overview of the capabilities of the products they use as well as ways to use them more efficiently.

With 60 individuals participating in this training series, Jenny is now working on offering more regular trainings in Southern Oregon—both in Medford and elsewhere in the region. To be informed of upcoming trainings or to request technology training in your region or for your nonprofit, go to http://www.netcorps.org/signups/.