A Glorious NPSP Day Seattle

Both years I’ve attended NPSP we’ve had incredible weather so the idea of a unhandled sunshine error is not applicable to this magical day.

MOOD of the room: Excited, happy, energized, grateful to be part of this amazing supportive community.

KUDOS: Ryan Ozimek and Katie Fadden are delightful facilitators! Megan and everyone at 501 Commons pulled this off flawlessly the day after Give Big! Congrats to Crystal on the birth of her new baby girl! So much !!!

STRAIGHT TALK: In this segment of the programming, we brought the elephant to the center of the room and talked about the .org acquisition. As a .org employee, I just want to make it clear that the opinions below are those of other folks who attended, some of which I might share, but they by no means reflect any official stance of Salesforce:

• We want .org or .com to say “IT’S GOING TO BE OKAY. YOU DON’T NEED TO WORRY.”

“It’s too soon after the Demand Tools acquisition for us to trust that this will go well.” — Natali Terreri

• The change management for this sucks and the press release was terrible.
• Clarifications: There are three legal entities, .org, .com and the Foundation. .Com is paying the Foundation $300million for .org.
• Maybe it will all be okay and our support tickets will finally be routed to the right place. Maybe this is a good thing.
• There’s an open letter from the community to Salesforce which you can find here.
• And overall….nobody really knows anything…

Let’s get back to the good stuff, shall we?

SPRING 19 RELEASE FAVORITES: Top three exciting things from the release notes, as indicated by crowd noise:

• Increased Data storage (tip: if you’re paying for storage, call your AE. Who is your AE, you can find that in your profile in the Hub!)
• Pinned List Views which we learned work based on cookies, so it won’t stay pinned on another computer or browser.
• Assign a custom home page to each app.

SUMMER 19 RELEASE FAVORITES:

• Subscribe groups or roles to receive a report IF new records show up in the report (in Lightning).
• Related list Quick Filter (to which a few of us thought, sure, but you can already add a related list Lightning Component to your page layout, just saying.)

MY FAVORITE NEW SETTING: As you do at NPSP Day, we got so wrapped up in an admin question at lunch that 2 phones and 2 laptops came out to solve the puzzle. Jon Sayer insists that the emails he sends from a campaign member list say “on behalf of Salesforce.com” and others, myself included, say we don’t have that problem. Solution you can change this using the Email Relay Setting.

USER DEVELOPED AWESOMENESS: During “speed geeking” folks share cool things they have built or know how to do.

• Jillian Adkins, please write up a blog post for us on how you create year end tax statements using an opportunities report, Excel formulas and word mail merge.
• Dave Boyce of 501 Commons has made a duplicate management system for admins! When you’re ready Dave would you please share this with us?

PAID APP I AM EXCITED TO CHECK OUT: StepUp by Percolator Consulting for engagement, moves management, donor stewardship & cultivation (I learned the difference between those two).

OLD NEWS: Lightning transitions were NOT as big a topic of conversation or concern as they were last year. I was in a group talking about campaigns where MOST people had transitioned!

TALK 1/NTH OF THE TIME: Ryan says if you’re in a group of N people, talk 1/nth of the time. I love this advice because I really need it. I went to a group about engagement (my favorite topic – “hey, I wrote a webinar on that!”) and just dove in answering questions. Once Nick Campbell got a chance to talk, it all came back to me. I was sitting in this same seat one year ago listening to him talk about engagement plans and levels because…he built them. Oops. [Insert zipped lips emoji.]

MOST EXCITING MOMENT: Getting to meet Felice who is the only person in the world who attended all six of the webinars in my engagement series! (Did I mention I write webinars?) Her advice: be clearer up front which things cost money so she doesn’t waste her time.

BAR CONVERSATIONS: More straight talk at Perihelion Brewery (delightfully larger than last year!) Important distinctions were made: one can be an outgoing introvert (three of us in this camp), and an insecure extrovert.  Also, life tip: if you live alone and work at home, have a plan to check in with a buddy regularly so someone knows if you’re still alive.

SHOUT OUTS TO MY COLLEAGUES:

• The new Program Management trail got some well deserved praise.
• The Hub is amazing in Lightning and now you can find your AE from your profile!

SUBMIT SOMETHING TO THIS BLOG: Especially during the summer months, Maya and I find it hard to write so please submit something cool you’ve done or thoughts you have. Did you do a speed geeking session? Know how to write a cool formula for something? Please share! Blogging is great for “building your personal brand” 🙂