************************************* Did the lights go out? On May 20, 21 and possibly into the 22nd you could not reach the Random Acts web site. The reason was that our uplink to the internet changed our DNS (domain named server) numbers. It takes the internet and the servers up to 24 to 48 hours to note these changes and resolve them to go to the new IP address. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, we had all of 3 hours notice. Vacations and Holidays In the northern hemisphere, most of us use the next 3 to 4 months to go on holidays and vacations. If you will be gone for an extended period of time (2 weeks or longer), you will need to remove yourself from the system and, upon returning, resubmit your name to be a volunteer. We have in the past tried to put notations of someone not being available for a certain period of time, but find that some people do not pay attention to notations. So to avoid any "misunderstandings" the staff feels that total removal would be in the best interest for all. The link to the change form is http://www.raogk.org/change.html. That Change Form When you visit that change form, please be sure that you mark the radio button next to the area for which you volunteer. If you do not, you will have to go back and resubmit your form again. Selecting the radio button sends your changes to the correct staff member to take action you have requested. In creating the page for this form I have tried every way I know how to alert those using it to this fact, however there are still many who do not do this. When changing what you are willing to do as a volunteer, you need to put into the area exactly what you want to be seen on the page. If you want to add to your act of kindness, please repeat what is presently listed along with the addition. To make it easier on the staff when requesting to be removed, please use the e-mail address that is listed on the website. In trying to locate a volunteer the staff first searches for the e-mail address, we then search for your name if we do not come up with a matching e- mail address. Boing, Boing, Boing With over 4700 volunteers that are subscribed to this mandatory list, the evening a newsletter goes out is an evening that I do not have anything else planned. The reason is the average messages returned to me for various reasons is in the neighborhood of 150 to 200. That isn't a bad average, but still would like to bring that number down to a reasonable 75 to 100. Last month I received 161 bounces. The reasons vary from 89 users unknown, 45 over quotas to the best of all reasons (NOT) "not accepting mail from this sender." Folks, if we can't get this newsletter to you, how do we know you can get messages from requesters? For you folks who use the free web-based e-mail addresses (hotmail, yahoo, netscape, etc.), please be aware that you need to keep an eye on how much space you are using. These servers only allot so much space for storage. Within that allotment includes those messages you have deleted until you dump the "trash." Please be aware that if an e-mail address bounces this newsletter two months in a row, that volunteer is removed from the site. Where did my requester go? We get several volunteers writing to us asking us how to get back in touch with someone who has requested information from them. We do not maintain any records of who sends what request to which volunteer. The e-mail to the volunteer is generated by either the e-mail link on the site itself, or the requester copying the e-mail address down and sending the message. So the staff can not help you in this situation. The best I can tell you is to hang on to the information in hopes the requester contacts you again. If the e-mail address of the requester bounced, try again to send them a message in a week or so. What may not go through one week, could possibly go through the next. There is no rhyme or reason to any of the quirks of the internet. We would also suggest that when you do receive a request to print out the message. Two reasons for this, you may loose the e-mail for unknown reasons and also you may experience a (gasp!) computer crash. If you have a hard copy of the request you would have a way of getting back in touch with your clients. Your Act of Kindness Within the area where your act of kindness is listed, we have in the past made notations regarding computer crashes and your availability. Could you please check your listing, make sure it is what you are still willing to do, and if there is a notation still present that is no longer applicable, please let us know. You can do that via the change form: http://www.raogk.org/change.html. We have limited the number of characters that you may use to list your kindness. Switching to the database format has speeded up our ability to make any changes, to add new volunteers and to remove those that no longer wish to have their name listed, however this also impedes our ability to be able to have you list quite a bit of information. We apologize for this, but you have to take the good with the bad. Business Cards Have you gotten your business cards yet? If you would like to order business cards you can go to http://www.raogk.org/business.html and place your order. Remember, purchasing these cards goes to supporting the site. RAOGK Staff RAOGK Staff ********************* URL's on RAOGK you should have bookmarked: Volunteer's FAQ page: http://www.raogk.org/info.htm Section Coordinators list: http://www.raogk.org/vol.htm Changing of information (change your "act of kindness"; e-mail address change or needing to be removed): http://www.raogk.org/change.html