So I got an email today that I expect to be pretty big news in the Church IT circle. After Google took Places of Worship off the eligible list for Google Apps for Non-Profits the middle of last year, they have now come back and thankfully changed their mind it seems. Places of Worship and some other 501c3s are back on the accepted list as long as they meet the other requirements, here’s the email so you can read it with your own eyes.

Hello,

We are always evaluating ways to improve the Google for Nonprofits Program and we’re excited to share some new developments with you related to our eligibility guidelines for the program.

Organizations under the following categories may now be eligible for the Google for Nonprofits Program:

• Places or institutions of worship
• Programs requiring membership and/or providing benefit solely to members
• Websites with a primary focus on selling goods, products or services
• Car, boat, and real estate donation websites
• Consumer credit counseling

All other Google for Nonprofits eligibility guidelines must be met to participate in the program. As always, your organization must have 501(c)(3) status and have received a letter of determination from the Internal Revenue Service to be eligible for Google for Nonprofits. To learn more, please visit GuideStar.

We will be rolling out the updated eligibility guidelines over the next few days. If you believe your organization meets the updated eligibility guidelines for Google for Nonprofits and are still interested in receiving program benefits, you can log in to re-apply here.
Sincerely,The Google for Nonprofits Team

Next up was the Old Post Office, this was recommended by a good friend so we had to check it out.  It also didn’t hurt that Shana’s father worked for and retired from the Post Office so it was neat to get to see this early Post Office Building.  The bell tower of post office has one of the best views of the city and strangely enough is considered a National Park and has rangers in it to guide you.  Check out the panaromic views for the capitol, Washington Monument and everything else in DC.

 After the Old Post Office we headed over to the National Mall which strangely had no shops but still had a ton of people all over the place, while there we stopped at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Everything from Oceans, Dinosaurs, and the Hope Diamond are all available to see free of charge at the Museum.  As with most of the things in DC there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to do it all at once.  And that’s just one of the Smithsonian Museums, there are a total of 19!  After that we made the ride on the Metro, our way around for the day while in DC, to Arlington National Cemetery.

Arlington is one of those places that no matter how many times you go, I think it affects you differently each time. The beautifully manicured grounds, everything lined up, nice and neat and organized, but then you remember that each of these grave markers is someone who has lost their life to allow us the freedoms that we each enjoy everyday often with thanks and even worse with a sense of entitlement.

We finished the day up at a restaurant that is DC staple and we had recommended to us multiple times.  Well, they recommended Ben’s Chili Bowl but the line was out on the sidewalk and to the street so we went to Ben’s Next Door. The food was absolutely delicious and we will be going here EVERY time we come to DC.  The Pesto Pasta was amazing and the Fried Chicken is some of the best I’ve ever had, and this isn’t even the place that was recommended.

We finished dinner, rode the Metro back to our car and then made the 3 1/2 hour trip back to Williamsburg, our home for the trip.  And that was just day 1.

Ready to request your invite? Do it here http://www.facebook.com/about/messages/

• Twitter Stream
• Countdown Timer
• 10+ Backgrounds
• Video bumpers
• Facebook integration
• Schedule display
• and more!

A quote directly from the livetheme site:

Live Theme is a video-centric WordPress Theme designed for live event broadcasting, community interaction, and all around awesomeness. Yes. Awesomeness.

Go check out Livetheme that is based of the very popular and award winning Standard Theme!

Wondering why to use a favicon, what it is, and more: (From Wikipedia)

A favicon (short for favorites icon), also known as a shortcut icon, website icon, URL icon, or bookmark icon is a 16×16 or 32×32 pixel square iconassociated with a particular website or webpage.^[1] A web designer can create such an icon and install it into a website (or webpage) by several means, and most graphical web browsers will then make use of it. Browsers that provide favicon support typically display a page’s favicon in the browser’s address barand next to the page’s name in a list of bookmarks. Browsers that support a tabbed document interface typically show a page’s favicon next to the page’s title on the tab. Some programs allow the user to select an icon of their own from the hard drive and associate it with a website.

But…. why you are really here for the 10% discount for Mozy Annual and Biennial accounts in Ocotber.  Sign-up for the Home or MozyPro accounts at that link and then use the discount code “October”.

All proceeds from my webiste are used to pay for the mission trips my wife and I go on each year.  The past two years this has been to the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico.  That is the plan again for 2011 with a trip in July.

All instructions found on Google’s Support site:

Mail, Calendar, & Contacts:

Set Up Your Apple Device for Google Sync

If your business, school, or organization uses Google Apps, your administrator will first need to enable Google Sync before you can take advantage of this feature.

1. Open the Settings application on your device’s home screen.
2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account….
4. Select Microsoft Exchange. Yes, choose this even if you are not using Exchange

Enter Account Info

5. In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an “Unable to verify certificate” warning when you proceed to the next step.
6. Leave the Domain field blank.
7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.
9a. Choose Cancel if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
10. When the new Server field appears, enter m.google.com.
11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.

12. Select the Google services (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts) you want to sync.

13. Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your phone, select the Keep on my iPhone option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes.

If you want to sync only the My Contacts group, you must choose to Delete Existing Contacts during the Google Sync install when prompted. If you choose to keep existing contacts, it will sync the contents of the “All Contacts” group instead. If there are no contacts on your phone, the latter will happen — the contents of your All Contacts group will be synced.

You’ve set up Google Sync! Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your device. You can also open the Mail, Calendar or Contacts app and wait a few seconds to start a sync.

Choosing Which Calendars to Sync