Well, we had another great PNUG meeing!

Thanks to National Philanthropic Trust, Erin and the gang for hosting and for bringing plenty of energy and questions that led to great discussion and learning about a whole bunch of things including dashboards, formula fields, custom objects, and best practices to name just a few.

Also thanks to Tucker for his continued support of the group. We appreciate it Tucker.

We decided that we would have our next meeting on July 29th at the NPower PA offices, from 9 to 11. I know its right in the middle of the summer, but I want to try to maintain the momentum of the group. The agend is not set so if you would like to see something in particular, or better yet share something, let me know. We have decided that we will take August off and come back in September for a meeting on September 23, the location to be determined.

Remember that coming up on June 25th, we will are planning a joint meeting with the for-profit users group at Dave and Busters.

The Agenda

2:00 - 2:30 Registration & Networking

2:30 - 3:15 SalesForce What is new and exciting

3:30 - 4:15 Zoom Info

4:30 - 5:15 Sales Fusion

5:30 - 6:00 SalesForce helping early adopters

6:00 - till ?? Stay and play on your own

Please RSVP to Guy Yasika at gyasika@altevatel.com.

See you at D&B's!

Its that time again! We have another Salesforce.com Philadelphia Nonprofit Users Group meeting this Tuesday May 19th, 9:00 – 11:00 at National Philanthropic Trust in Jenkintown. As a note, Erin of NPT says that Google doesn't always get the right address, but we have checked the Google map link below, so please use that. Also their office is right across from the Jenkintown Train Station if you are so inclined.

I hope you remembered your homework to put a pad of paper next to your computer and to bring with you three things;

1. a question or issue,
2. a cool thing they have learned,
3. and a cool tool they discovered.

The person that brings the most new visitors to the meeting wins.....wait for it....a NPower jump drive. I will wait for the cheers to die down......

At our meeting NPT will do a short demo of their instance, we will have a preview of the Summer '09 release and will talk about resources available to all of us!

Also coming up on June 25th, we will are planning a joint meeting with the for-profit users group at Dave and Busters .

The Agenda

2:00 - 2:30 Registration & Networking

2:30 - 3:15 SalesForce What is new and exciting

3:30 - 4:15 Zoom Info

4:30 - 5:15 Sales Fusion

5:30 - 6:00 SalesForce helping early adopters

6:00 - till ?? Stay and play on your own

The next meeting of the Salesforce Philadelphia Nonprofit User Group will be Tuesday May 19, 2009 (9:00 - 11:00) at:

National Philanthropic Trust
165 Township Line Road 
Suite 150
Jenkintown, PA 19046-3533

A quick follow up to our April meeting.

First a shout out to our friends at MANNA. They were great hosts! Thank you for everything Rob and Meg.

The meeting was very productive, we got to see how MANNA is using Salesforce to manage their volunteers, Tucker walked us through using DemandTools to clean data, and we were able to spend some time on "Brain Sharing," helping each other out with our hurdles.

Thanks to everyone who attended.

I also want to share the up coming schedule so you can put aside time to join us.

We will have a meeting on Tuesday May 19th at National National Philanthropic Trust from 9-11. Tucker has promised a Summer 09 demo, and we are working on a couple of other surprises, but I would like everyone to spend some time on the Appexchange and to find one app that they would like to tell the group about.

In June we will partner with the "other" Philadelphia Salesforce User Group for a joint meeting/get together June 25th at Dave and Busters from 2-6. This is a partner sponsored event.

We have also set the following meeting dates and places (to be confirmed)

July 29th tent. - Site TBD (looking for volunteer to host!) 9 – 11 - Rebecca M. from Philagrafika has volunteered to do a mail merge demo.

The group decided that we would take August off. Relax and be ready to go in September!

September meeting tent. @ NPower.

Next Meeting
May 19th 9-11

National Philanthropic Trust
165 Township Line Road, Suite 150
Jenkintown, PA 19046
Phone: 215-277-3010

A friendly reminder that we have a Salesforce.com Philadelphia Nonprofit Users Group meeting this Wednesday March25^th, 9:00 – 11:00 at Cradles to Crayons at 141 Gibraltar Road in Horsham.

Remember if you don’t show up, we talk about you!

Also everyone has the homework to put a pad of paper next to their computer and bring with them three things; 

1. a question or issue, 
2. a cool thing they have learned, 
3. and a cool tool they discovered. 
4. There will be a test.

We also set the following meeting dates and places (to be confirmed)

• April 22^nd at Manna
• May 20th tent.

Times are all 9 – 11.

A quick reminder that the next meeting of the Salesforce Philadelphia Nonprofit User Group will be Wednesday March 25, 2009 (9:00 - 11:30) at:

Cradles to Crayons 
141 Gibraltar Road
Horsham PA 19044
Telephone: 215.836.0958

As we spoke about at our last meeting the format and cost of training for nonprofits has changed. It became public yesterday and I thought you would all like to have an update. Today I received the following from Salesforce:

North America - Nonprofit Training Policy

• All courses held in North America are offered at a 50% discount off the list price to nonprofits and partners exclusively serving nonprofit clients
• See the company site for the current list price as well as the schedule for each course
• Three seats will be given priority advanced confirmation per class
• After registration someone will contact you to schedule you for the first available class of your choice
• This offer is available only to nonprofit organizations receiving donated or discounted licenses and partners with an exclusive nonprofit client base
• Verification of your organization's nonprofit status or nonprofit exclusive partner will occur upon registration
• This policy does not apply to classes held in EMEA & APAC. EMEA/APAC should continue to register on the company website and enter the promotion code "nonprofit"
• Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ
• PLEASE NOTE: There is currently a 12 - 16 week waiting list for seats available to nonprofits at the 50% discount in popular cities including New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. In order to bypass the waiting list, you may register for the course at a 20% discount. Use the same registration below and notify the salesforce.com representative that contacts you that you that you are interested in the first available seat at the 20% nonprofit discount.
• Click here to register

PLEASE NOTE: There is currently a 12 - 16 week waiting list for seats available to nonprofits at the 50% discount in popular cities including New York, Boston, and Washington D.C. In order to bypass the waiting list, you may register for the course at a 20% discount. Use the same registration below and notify the salesforce.com representative that contacts you that you that you are interested in the first available seat at the 20% nonprofit discount.

Here is a listing of upcoming Administrator and Developer courses

ADM-201 - Dec 02 2008 - Washington, DC
ADM-301 - Dec 08 2008 - Boston, MA
ADM-201 - Dec 15 2008 - Philadelphia, PA
ADM-301 - Dec 15 2008 - New York, NY
ADM-201 - Jan 06 2009 - Baltimore, MD
ADM-201 - Jan 26 2009 - Philadelphia, PA
ADM-301 - Jan 26 2009 - New York, NY
DEV-501 - Jan 26 2009 - New York, NY
ADM-201 - Feb 02 2009 - New York, NY
ADM-201 - Feb 17 2009 - Washington, DC
ADM-201 - Feb 17 2009 - Washington, DC
DEV-401 - Feb 23 2009 - New York, NY
ADM-201 - Mar 02 2009 - New York, NY
ADM-201 - Mar 02 2009 - Baltimore, MD
ADM-201 - Mar 16 2009 - Washington, DC
ADM-201 - Mar 16 2009 - New York, NY
DEV-501 - Mar 16 2009 - New York, NY
ADM-301 - Mar 23 2009 - Reston, VA
ADM-301 - Mar 23 2009 - Philadelphia, PA
ADM-201 - Mar 30 2009 - New York, NY

We had a small but extremely productive meeting.

The meeting was held at NPower and a vocal core attended. Thanks to all that could make it and to those that could not, we hope you can attend the next meeting.

In fact upcoming meetings were the first order of business. We have tentatively set meetings for the following:

·         December 10th - the Success tour is in town and we will link with that in some way (Time TBD) see information on the right

·         January 21th - Tentatively set for the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (9:00 – 11:00)

·         February 18th - Tentatively set for the reinvestment fund. (9:00 – 11:00)

Next we talked about Salesforce certification and training. There will be additional information on training coming from Salesforce in the near future so keep your eyes open for that. Additional information on nonprofit training can be found at: http://www.salesforcefoundation.org/trainingpolicy.

Or for more info on certification go to: http://www.salesforce.com/community/crm-best-practices/resource-training.jsp.

Next the four of the meeting attendees that also went to Dreamforce all spoke on their takeaways and the new technology that was introduced. If you can get to Dreamforce you won’t be sorry you went. Save the date November 18-20 2009! If you would like to see what you missed go to : http://www.salesforce.com/community/crm-best-practices/resource-training.jsp to see video of the keynote speeches and breakout sessions.

The next order of business was a review of new features in Winter 09:

Highlights are

Scheduled emailing of reports

Event creation updates and drag and drop

Ideas

And some cool new stuff regarding cases and campaigns

Follow the link for more info.

http://www.salesforce.com/community/winter09_home.jsp

Again, thanks to those that attended, and to the rest I hope to see you at the success tour.

To join the user group and get on the mailing list

The nonprofit resources page

Thanks,

Dean

Take your Salesforce skills—and your career—to a new level! Join us for free training and best practices on groundbreaking on-demand innovations, including Force.com—the world’s first platform as a service. Attend either or both of these skills-packed sessions:

Morning Session: Dream, Build, Succeed with Force.com

• Get hands-on experience building apps without programming
• Learn to build any app you can imagine—for CRM or beyond 
• Pick up practical Force.com skills from experts
• All attendees get a free Force.com Workbook

Afternoon Session: Manage, Share, Succeed with Salesforce CRM

• Learn to get the most out of Salesforce CRM
• Get hands-on experience with new Winter ’09 features
• Experience the Best of Dreamforce ’08
• Network with your peers in Birds-of-a-Feather Roundtables   

It has been a couple of months since our last meeting but hope that you can attend the November User Group meeting.

WHEN: Wednesday, November 12th from 9:00-11:00 a.m.

MEETING TOPICS: We will talk about Winter 09 enhancements, Dreamforce, and the new Nonprofit Template. As always send me an email with your ideas.

LOCATION: At the NPower PA offices located at 1211 Chestnut Street, Suite 400, Philadelphia, PA 19107. The office is located a couple of blocks from the Market East SEPTA station and a parking garage is located on 12th street between Market and Chestnut Streets.

I hope to see you!

Dean