Helping the International Community Through Car Donation
The last year has been hard on everyone. The world economy is in decline, there have been a multitude of natural disasters like earthquakes, droughts, hurricanes, fires, etc. On top of that, many old regimes have fallen resulting in the displacement of many people. Whenever there is turmoil in the world, the people in the poorer countries suffer the most.
There are many charities that provide international aid. You can help them in their efforts by donating some money. Many international charities now have a car donation program that enables you to donate car you no longer need. The charities will then sell the used car and use the proceeds to provide services overseas.
One of those charities is Food for the Poor. They are the third largest international relief charity in the United States. They provide food, water, health care, education, housing, etc. to over 2 million people daily in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The mission of Partners in Health is to make a real impact on the twin epidemics of poverty and disease through a comprehensive and community based approach. They currently provide services in twelve countries including the United States. They have been rated A+ by the American Institute of Philanthropy.
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Helen Keller International is one of the oldest international charities. They work in 22 countries to prevent blindness and reduce malnutrition. They enjoy an A rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy.
Established in 1946, Freedom From Hunger has been fighting hunger in the world through with innovative programs designed to help families achieve long term food security. Their programs are serving some 18 million people in some of the poorest countries in the world. They enjoy an A- rating from the American Institute of Philanthropy.
The Fund for Peace is a research and educational organization that works to prevent violent conflict and promote sustainable security. They accomplish this through research, training and education, engagement of civil society, building bridges across diverse sectors, and developing innovative technologies and tools for conflict mitigation. They work in over 50 countries.
Since 1936, Children International has been providing assistance to children and families struggling with poverty in eleven countries including the United States. They also rely on the proceeds from car donations to help fund their mission.
TropicalClinics Medical and Education Center provides vital life saving medical care to women, children and their families in Africa. Their first clinic has been built in Kenya where they also provide prenatal care in an effort to prevent pregnancy related deaths.
Aid for Haiti seeks out the unreached in Haiti regardless of age, gender or religion through a remote medical ministry, community health training, micro nutritional training, etc.
If you have an older car you no longer need, please donate your car to one of these fine international charities. When you donate car, you will receive a valuable tax deduction and the proceeds from the sale of your used car will help some of the neediest people among us. For complete details on how to donate car, please go the website of any of these international charities, or http://www.cars4charities.org/, or call toll free 1.866.448.3487. You will be glad you did.
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Leave a commentRole of Internal Communication in Success of Today?s Organization
According to a Study by Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Companies that communicate effectively with their workers financially outperform those that don’t. Watson Wyatt’s 2005/2006 ROI Study found that between 2000 and 2004, companies with most effective communication programs returned 57% more to their shareholders than companies with the least effective communication programs.
Good communication is among the top five characteristics needed by teams and leaders to succeed in a complex working environment. Recent research has identified good communication along with strong organizational support, high levels of leadership competence, team coaching and clear objectives are crucial to the success of teams working in across a geographical or organizational spread.
And, according to the report, Succeeding in Complexity, published by training consultancy Ashridge, high-performing teams have a clear communications strategy plus focused and developed communication skills that aren’t dependent on meetings, as well as a high degree of trust among team members.
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Remote communication not a barrier:It also found a lack of face-to-face working needn’t be a barrier to good communication and working relationships, as 58% of the high-performing teams meet up only annually or less. The telephone is used for a host of activities, including selection interviewing, performance reviews and problem solving. Qualitative and quantitative research among 300 leaders and members of complex teams working in a variety of sectors enabled the identification of the highest performers and the factors – in terms of leadership, team development and HR support – that were vital to their success.
Teams becoming more complex: The research pointed to teams being increasingly complex, with 73% of respondents working in multi-disciplinary teams, 70% dispersed geographically and 57% working across organizational boundaries. Nineteen percent worked in five or more separate teams. This creates significant challenges for the team leaders, team members and HR functions that support them.
Matching leadership style to team complexity: The research also identified four leadership styles, appropriate to differing levels of team maturity and complexity, ranging from traditional hierarchical “manager” to “improviser.” High-performing leaders all demonstrated good skill levels, particularly in communication, managing upwards and outwards, agreeing outputs and team coaching and development.
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Posted in Internal Communications | communication, internal, Organization, role, success, todays | Leave a commentTest of English for International Communication (TOEIC)
There are many tests that are developed to examine the ability of non-English speakers to use English. One of these tests, which focuses on the use of English in daily work is the Test of English for International Communication or TOEIC.
The test itself assesses listening and reading the candidates, two hours long, consisting of 200 questions, and the total score of the test is between 10 and 990 points, where half of them are attributed to reading comprehension and a half listening comprehension. Candidates who pass the test receive a certificate in one of five possible colors – orange, brown, green, blue or gold. The certificate of orange indicates that between 10 and 215 points were scored, while the gold certificate indicates that between 860 and 990 points were scored.
Although the idea of this particular test has its origins in the 70s of last century, its latest version, which includes speaking and writing sections, was introduced in 2006. For the listening section, speakers are hired from Britain, North America, Australia and New Zealand and the candidate may choose not to take the speaking part. This adaptation of the TOEIC is awarded between zero and two hundred points and eight levels are used to group candidates based on their speaking and reading skills. Some organizations and institutions have adopted and extended the TOEIC to include sections that are important to their perspective candidates.
The TOEIC test is extremely popular in Japan and nearly 1.5 million men and Japanese women are taken each year – then the test could be taken two ways. Candidates can take the test in a testing center at a date announced or to any of the various agencies that administer the test, however, is also done in accordance with the recommendations of a steering committee.
Posted in Internal Communications | communication, English, international, Test, TOEIC | Leave a commentInternational Community Pledges International Community Pledges on Haiti
Caribbean island Haiti occured richter scale 7.0 earthquake at 4:53 p.m. on the January 12, 2010 (local time), and its Captital port-au-prince and most areas in the country had disasters in serious conditions. Office of the President of Haiti and a number of government departments were damaged in the earthquake on 12th, but the President René Préval and his wife were unharmed. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-P3 – Max • Bellerive said the next day that the death toll caused by the earthquake could reach 100 thousand. To January 19th, 2010, the estimated death toll might have exceeded 200 thousand.What’s Popular now?Pulse Oximeter Go Public
The earthquake collapsed local buildings and buried some residents under rubbles, some of whom died. The collapsed buildings blocked roads in the city. There were dozens of dead and injured people in the rubble, and all the things began to shake, people screaed, “God” and scattered around, and houses began to collapse, the city chaos.Tiffany and Co â€[ Are They Still In Vogue?
Intranet Development: Providing an Enhanced Environment for Internal Communication and Collaboration
Offering an effective opportunity for in-house communications and collaboration is an intranet system. Technically speaking, an intranet is very much similar to the Internet. The only difference between the two lies in accessibility of the connections. While the Internet can be used by anyone from any part of the globe, an intranet can only be accessed by limited people with access rights. Since an intranet is a private network of computers designed for a private organization, it is always the members of the organization who are entitled to access the intranet network. A successful intranet design can not only improve the workflow of the organization but can also cut down its operational cost to certain extent.
Now let’s take a look at how your business can benefit by installing an intranet software application. First of all, the intranet acts as a platform for across board internal communications. The management can upload on the sites all important announcements including change of positions, new business policies and strategies, turnovers etc. Rather than sending e-mails to each and every employee, the communication can be delivered instantly and at one go. Similarly, it has become easy for the management to mobilize opinions and view points of the employees through online polls, discussion forums etc. Such forums are also a great place for sharing knowledge among the employees.
Another impact a successful intranet system can make relates to corporate transparency. Since the employees are aware of all the company policies and returns through the site, they also develop a positive feeling for their employers. They feel very much a member of the organization. Better the sense of loyalty among the employees, lesser is the attrition rate. Another area of benefit has to do with cost cutting. It has also been proved that intranet development can lessen the operational cost of an organization. Since many of the internal documents and records are available for instant access online, the need for maintaining physical documents is lessened to a great extent. This presents you with an opportunity to cut down the spending on buying papers, printing works etc.
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Posted in Internal Communications | Collaboration, communication, development, Enhanced, Environment, internal, Intranet, Providing | Leave a commentHow internal communication can help your business
When running a business there is so much to consider, the most important of the issues being how to stay afloat in a difficult economic time such as this one, and so with so much attention being paid to the ultimate goal it can be easy to lose track of some the lesser aspects of running a business. One of the more important things that managers sometimes seem to forget about is the internal communication. Without this a business could end up behind schedule due to changes in briefs not being received or ideas being thrown about the office space with no real purpose or direction. Communication can also be extremely important for the business to have with its regular clients, to try to generate more business through successfully marketing using good testimonials. It can also build lots of successful markets for you to distribute your products through. There is evidence to suggest that communication leads to an increase in returns by up to 47% than without, which is a considerable sum, especially with the economy in tatters.
One way in which business owners can avoid this problem is by delegating the management of internal communications to a third party. This allows the company to have its position assessed and have the main problems addressed by an unbiased third party. This means that the company can honestly express to you, what they feel the problems are and how you should communicate to either your own workforce or to potential clients, and this level of expertise is extremely useful in building strong relationships. One thing I’d recommend you look for when choosing a Communication Management service would be to always look for a wide range of businesses that they have helped. This suggests a level of versatility that will benefit your company whatever your trade consists of. Also look for a company that offers training in this department, so that once they’ve done their work you can have someone in your office qualified to communicate with staff and businesses. Over time it becomes an incredible money saver, and can make all the difference nowadays.
Importance of Internal Communication
It is an unanimous fact that communication with clients is a top priority of all law firms. We all know that communication with our clients is a top priority. It’s written in the Model Rules and engrained deeply within us.
Communication with the people we work with in our firm should also be high on the priority list, but it’s often not. Have you ever noticed that some people are in the know while others aren’t? Then things spread by rumor and are misquoted and misinterpreted, turning a piece of information into a fiasco.
Ask yourself these questions: does your law firm have a good internal communication policy? Who decides when and how information gets out? Does word get out to the right people at the right time? Do people feel isolated?
Successful women lawyers have an internal communication plan is one way to build a stronger, more cohesive firm. Everyone will be working toward the same goals and will be playing by the same rules, and no one will be left out.
There are many different ways to disseminate information: in person, on paper, and electronically. Let’s take a look at each of these.
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Internal communication in person can take many different forms, whether it’s a staff meeting, one-on-one meeting (such as a performance review), or benefits meetings. Coaching, firm training also falls under the personal communication umbrella. This is obviously an effective way to communicate, but it is also time consuming.
When you think of something circulating on paper, you usually think of a memo. But you could have a firm newsletter that goes out once a month to keep people updated. Another piece of correspondence you may still see on paper is benefits information. The problem with paper is it gets buried under other papers and may never be seen, or is easily forgotten.
Everything that goes out on paper can go out electronically as well. In fact, electronic mail is probably the most efficient, cost-effective way to communicate. The trick is to get people to open your email and actually read it and respond if necessary. One way to do that is to have a great subject line. Also keep your email content short and to the point, and be clear about whether or not you require a response. We are inundated by email, and many times the messages get deleted or are forgotten as they sink farther and farther down the inbox.
Another electronic method of communication is your firm’s Intranet. This could be a substitute for the firm newsletter. Someone would have to be dedicated enough to change the content regularly, but it is a great way to make announcements, show photos and short audio or videos. It can be a lot of fun, but again, you’ve got to make it enticing enough that people will actually take the time to look at it.
Internal communication within your firm is important because you don’t want every attorney to feel like she’s a solo practitioner working in a big office. Because there are so many different ways to communicate, it makes sense to use all methods available. The point is to reach out and keep people in the loop so your firm doesn’t feel disjointed.
Balochistan: Invisible to the International Community?
When a western reporter Declan Walsh from “Guardian News Services” asked a native Baloch at Dera Bugti Foj Ali about the Pakistani rulers. His answer was clear, “it is a great injustice. They (Pakistani rulers) are making billions of rupees pumping gas from our land to the rest of the country, and we are still using fire wood.”
Indeed there are today thousands Foj Ali from all over Balochistan asking the same questions to the international community. Such historic root causes of Balochistan must not be ignored and should certainly be considered prior to signing the gas pipelines or any other mega project within the occupiers of Balochistan. The anger is increasingly mounting among Baloch leaders and the people of Balochistan. By the same token they should not ignore the human rights impartial reports of International organizations such as International Crisis Group of Brussels’ Europe , alarming statistics and about bloody conflicts of Balochistan which has been published from “Carnegie Endowment for International Peace” by United States Think Tank Frederic Grare Carnegie and South Asians expert Selig Harrison the author of the book ‘In Afghanistan ‘s Shadow: Baluch Nationalism and Soviet temptations” regarding Balochistan conflicts within both states of Pakistan and Iran, and the well documented reports of atrocities, and human rights violations in Balochistan presented by the world Human Rights Organizations.
An 89 years old, Baloch spiritual leader Nawab Khair Baksh Marri made it crystal clear to Pakistan, Iran and the international community by saying “we (Baloch) are the masters of our land” Ultimately, excluding the owners of the land from in all major issues concerning their own destiny poses for a difficult process and similarly does not make much sense.
Since Canada is well known for its strong reputation of good human rights and support of seculars and democratic forces around the world. Today, most secular and democratic people of Balochistan are concerned about Canadian companies interacting with the Pakistani government through trade without consultation with native leaders of Balochistan. Baloch leaders believe the western world should not overlook the injustices and decades of oppression in Balochistan. Similarly, India, Pakistan and Iran IPI projects which have 2,600 KM of gas pipelines are going to be finalized by IPI and possibly China. The gas pipelines go directly through the heart of Balochistan, unfortunately all parties are ignoring the indigenious people of Balochistan which is a grave concerns for the Baloch leaders. At this point the Baloch people have screamed out their last cry with their last breath and are begging the international community to not turn their back on the injustices and atrocities in which they have been suffering for the past several decades. Leaders cannot and must not exclude a legitimate party from negotiations when the discussions, decisions, and results will have significant affect on the particular absent representative, it is against international law.
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Balochistan’s provincial assembly seems to be running on the remote of Islamabad, any bills or resolutions that are passed by the provincial assembly in Balochistan, are all subject to veto’s by the central government which is heavily dominated by Punjab. Many claims of advancements or assistance for the Baloch are no more then hollow disillusions that do no more then depict a false picture of Balochistan. For instance, Presidents Musharrraf has been claiming that he will build a technical institution since 2005 in regions where mega projects are, but he has yet to fulfill any promises. Natives still do not get skill training and lacks fair opportunities for jobs in such so called mega projects. Musharraf’s anti-Baloch intentions became clear, when the media first exposed him, a ship with wheat arrived from Canada at Gwader Deep-Sea-port in Balochstan where he sent 400 un-skilled laborers from Punjab and Karachi (Muhajirs) to unload the wheat. He charted four buses and three trucks, for the laborers. Yet they could not find un-skilled native from their own city of Gwader, Balochistan. During his rule Islamabad has further planed to invest Rs 9 billion on constructions of cantonments in Balochistan, the main reason is to control the free movements of Baloch people in their own land. This is serious concern for the people of Balochistan.
Pakistani media is projecting around the world about the mega projects of Balochistan and claim they will bring economic revolutions for the regions, such as future gas pipelines. But behind such projects, states of Pakistan and are Iran both having their hidden agendas using Balochistan. Strategically located regions such 900 costal built gates of Asia, are to protect the central governments interest, strengthen its defense through Balochistan gwader-Deep-Sea Port, where China is investing a billion dollars in the Gwader –Deep-Sea port.
The world should look it the May 28, 1998 nuclear test example, which was conducted by Pakistani scientist in Chahgi Balochistan, which is the only sign of development Islamabad, has left behind up to this point. Due to that test the whole region has been destroyed and it caused thousands of native displacements and the states left them out of in the cold without any compensation.
The social and economic reality of Balochistan is that it is the most backward province in Pakistan. It has been at the bottom of the list in terms of social conditions compared to the rest of the country, as Selig Harrison writes “this condescending posture us reflected in the almost complete exclusion of the Baloch from the political, bureaucratic, and military power structure of Pakistan.” Such historic injustices can not be denied neither can be it hidden as according to Balochistan’s dossiers “85% of population is without drinking water, 80% without electricity, 60% are living below the poverty line and Balochistan has the highest rates of infants mortality and it is the lowest literacy rate in the regions where 70% children are deprived from the modern school.”
Ahmar Mustikhan, a Baloch gournalist and founder of “American Friends of Baluchistan” from the United States has written an open letter to L.K Advani, N.A.T.O leaders in Brussels and to the Indian Ambassador United States, Ronen Sen’ He is appealing to all head of states and institutions by concluding his letter with this appeal “I again urge you not to let the secular people of Baluchistan plunge into blood. Please do the right thing and stop the project (gas Pipelines) until such time Baluch case at the I.C.J is decided and the people of occupied Baluchistan Pakistan and Iran gets their right of self-determinations.”
Baloch people never benefited from any mega projects and economic polices of both regimes in Pakistan and Iran, their imposed projects and economic plans through out history benefited the central government. Mostly because their first priority have been strengthening their central government and military powers. They have ruled upon the Baloch with an iron fist till today. International community should look at all the historical aspects of Balochistan, both regimes are intentionally excluding Baloch representative whom are overwhelmingly supported by their people through out Balochistan. Such mega projects and gas pipe lines are seriously jeopardizing the interest of the native of the Baloch people. The International community base of international law and the United Nations charter of rights should not overlooked the ground reality and crisis that is Balochistan.
The writer is a Baloch activist who lives in Vancouver, Canada
Posted in Internal Communications | Balochistan, community, international, Invisible | Leave a commentEmployee Satisfaction Surveys Determine if Poor Internal Communications is Hurting Your Business
One of the areas that consistently receives low ratings in / is intra and inter-departmental communications. In addition to receiving relatively low ratings, / questions receive significant comments that identify problems with internal business communications. Internal organizational communications are often insufficient and ineffective. Some managers often fail to communicate important information. Other managers are not open to receiving communications from their employees and from outside their departments.
In many organizations poor internal communications is significantly impacting productivity, employee morale and satisfaction, customer satisfaction, sales and profit. / identify common communications problems and barriers across organizations as well as pinpointing opportunities for improving the effectiveness of communications in specific departments and work groups.
How effective are intra and interdepartmental communications within your company? What is the impact of poor communications within your company? Conducting / is a highly cost-effective way to assess the effectiveness of your organization’s internal communications and many other drivers of business performance.
Senior management needs to set the tone and take action to encourage, facilitate and in fact mandate effective internal communications. If it is done well the payback can be huge.
Following are illustrative comments from an employee satisfaction survey / employee engagement survey conducted for a large company that sells and services office equipment across the U.S. Is your company experiencing any of these or other types of internal communications problems?:
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- We could definitely be better about this. There seems to be a lot of bickering between our three call centers. People in Georgia have issues with the way the Florida center creates and transfers tickets. People in Florida take issue with the people in Georgia. People in New Jersey think that none of us do anything. It’s a pretty vicious circle and could be helped by each group having a better understanding of what the others are doing and how they are judged in their particular jobs.
- Customer’s calling for invoices – we transfer customers to the billing department and have them complain that the billing department transferred them back to service or supplies at the customer service center. Customers get frustrated that they get transferred all over the place.
- Communications does not happen very well at all, and it never really has in the 5 years I’ve been here. It seemed to work better when we had more authority at the district level (P&L, service exceptions, more admin control, etc.)
- We always find out after the fact when new procedures or changes have been made and some directly affect our daily job duties.
- It seems as if the Customer Service Center is on a different page than the Branch Sales Offices.
- As we have merged companies, communication has gotten progressively worse. There used to be company initiatives within sales and service from the corporate level and all departments were aware and involved in following the initiatives. Now there seems to be nothing to follow and confusion about the direction we are going as a company.
- Politics, power struggles and infighting between the various departments results in less effectiveness.
- Our company operates departmentally more separate than any corporation that I’ve worked with. In fact there’s a distinct “us” and “them” feel about our company.
- It seems that sometimes service, operations, procurement, billing, etc… don’t communicate effectively with each other. I had to pull teeth last week just to get my customer an expected delivery date… we almost lost the deal because nobody seemed to KNOW anything… they just passed me along to another person, who would recommend talking to the previous person.
- Since the Oracle implementation, some processes have not been completely re-engineered causing confusion at times
- Sales and Service operate as separate silos with different and sometimes competing objectives.
- Although my personal feelings for our VP is favorable, I feel strongly they are a terrible communicator and it appears that they only communicate to those “favored” by them. The VP is a very poor leader.
- The change in our business due to Oracle is so drastic, that customers place orders and their requested overnight shipping is done days and weeks later. Oracle is taking the cooperative efforts of every employee and displacing it with dead ended policies, leaving the customer out!!!
- Half of my job is cleaning up the mess because departments do not communicate with each other. i.e. A customer will tell me that they no longer have the machine and that the lease was canceled yet the service contract remains intact. This happens a lot.
- People do not return calls or emails. I don’t think it is out of not caring, I think it is out of inability to locate the answers to the questions. But they should at least return the emails and calls. This is most irritating and unprofessional.
I have observed little collaboration between sales and marketing. These are two business units that should be closely tied together and are not.
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Posted in Internal Communications | business, communications, Determine, Employee, Hurting, internal, Poor, Satisfaction, Surveys | Leave a commentINTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ADAPTING TO GLOBAL BUSINESS
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION ADAPTING TO GLOBAL BUSINESS
Electronic Commerce can be defined as the “use of electronic transmission mediums (telecommunications) to engage in the exchange, including buying and selling of products and services requiring transportation either physically or digitally from location to location” As expected electronic commerce requires the digital transmission of transaction information. While transactions are conducted via electronic devices , they may be transported using either traditional physical shipping channels or digital mechanisms , such as the download of product from the internet. It all depends on what we order. If we buy software we can download it from the internet, while a CD may be delivered through a courier.
E-commerce is the use of electronic information technology for the business transactions such as displaying catalogues, selling and buying goods and services , processing , payments , etc. It has accelerated the pace and tempo of business , minimized time lag between transactions and reduced intermediation. Though the initial cost of creating an infrastructure for E – commerce may appear to be high , in the long run it has proved to be cost effective. The direct contact between the producer and the consumer can boost sales and the time and money spent on printing, stationery , dispatch etc. can be cut down dramatically.
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The use of web based E-commerce a subset of internet technology, has considerably increased in recent times. Many companies which had established websites mainly corporate or brand identity or for dissemination of information about their products are now using it also for sales purposes. The number of web users has grown both at work and at home and so through this method a large market can be captured. Web business is international and to open to transaction 24 hrs a day on all 365 days.
Business to business E-commerce has been expanding faster than business to consumer E-commerce because many reputed companies are already in possession of necessary technology infrastructure. And those which do not have, are likely to acquire this facility in view of fierce competition endangered by the ever increasing advancements in the field of information technology.
E-COMMERCE occurs within business organization. The objective to link the constituents together and increase the flow of information within organization. Thus we see that there are three stages of E-Commerce namely interorganisational, retails and interorganisational.
Though many technologies fit within the definition of E-commerce the main ones are :-
E-mail Internet WWW Bar codes Product data exchange Electronic data exchange Electronic forms
It has been pointed out that “companies worldwide are challenged with taking advantage of the business benefits the web has to offer while minimizing risk to their operations and their bottom line”. The security of data transmitted over the Internet is a subject of serious concern for businesses all over the world. In the survey of nearly 1600 information technology professionals from 50 countries , 73% of all companies reported some security breach or corporate espionage in just one years
I recently created a platform for internal communication and program development using Microsoft SharePoint. The intended purpose of the site is to keep NREL Student Interns and Postdocs informed about upcoming events, training, and relevant announcements. I also incorporated a way for the individuals to connect with their cohort across the organization. Some of the features include: Discussion feed: Real-time discussion board for peer-to-peer interaction and sharing. Site users: An up to date list of RPP site users and their online status. From here individuals can instant message, email, and schedule appointments. Photo gallery: Users can share their NREL experience with others by uploading photos to galleries . Shared documents: Users can share deliverables, projects, research papers, presentations and more. This document library allows users to upload a multitude of file types for the purpose of sharing and collaboration.
Video Rating: 5 / 5
Posted in Internal Communications | ADAPTING, business, communication, GLOBAL, international | Leave a comment