Twice in the last month I’ve been contacted by friends I’ve made in the local tech community with questions about tech volunteering they are doing, or planning to do for local non-profits. I, hopefully, was able to provide them with some pointers and info to help them out.

I find that awesome. Not the me helping them out part, but the fact that they’ve gotten engaged and are giving back some of their vital skills to local organizations in need.

Over the past couple of years, through my work with the Poughkeepsie Farm Project, and the IBM year of service, I’ve realized that tech volunteerism is quite a rare thing. While there are a lot of techies in our area, when most of them volunteer, they do so in a non tech role. They are board members, and program leaders, which is good and important, but the very real technology needs are often overlooked.

Those conversations, plus a few other in the last month, have made me really start thinking about more ways to encourage and nurture more of this in our area. I’d love to have a peer group where I could share these experiences, and learn from others. This is a whole other master plan.

So, if you are a techie of any sort (developer, designer, it guru), consider giving those skills back to your local community. It’s something very few can give, and very many need.