Last weekend, I attended NTEN‘s  2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference as you may have seen from my tweets.   It was an amazing conference (I especially loved Moira Gunn from NPR’s TechNation – she’s an awesome woman and I have to throw in an NPR shout out when possible).  There were thousands of other nonprofit tech people -and all of them seemed to love what they do. It was inspiring, and I came away with tons of food for thought and new ideas for us to try. The good ones will hopefully become other blog posts. Overall, it was a worthy conference, and a great time.

Well, except for one thing. While like the other attendees, I love the mission of where I work, love technology, and especially love putting the two together, there was a vibe going around that I just did not understand. At all. In every session I attended, (particularly the IT-specific sessions) there were horror stories, rolled eyes, nodding heads, and some “uh-huhs” and “oh-yeahs” whenever anything came up about getting buy-in from the leadership of the organization or other departments and colleagues. At the end of the day, I would think – “Man, these people are beleaguered!” I could think of no other word to describe it. They were full of passion for their cause on one hand and full of frustration on the other. My tech colleagues often feel misunderstood and unappreciated, as if they alone at their orgs know the work they put in- the complexity and the creativity of what they do, and they don’t seem to be part of the strategic decision-making process. They know how tech can drive their mission, but they feel like they are only noticed when the e-mail system goes down. The interactive sessions often became support groups.

At NSCS, technology helps drive strategy, our CEO has every gadget under the sun, and I feel special, even gifted here because I work with technology. Operations and technology have a voice, and I am encouraged to speak up. I have to tell you, it’s fabulous. I couldn’t relate to the horror stories.

So, I guess I have it easy, and maybe I shouldn’t rub it in. But here’s my advice to the CEOs and Executive Directors in our readership: if you don’t already, value your tech people, and listen to them. And to my fellow “accidental techies” out there: speak up and make yourself heard! If you can’t make it work where you are, find some place where you can lead in your own way- trust me, organizations that get it do exist.