Our good friend volunteered to support The Brazos Valley Symphony in the capacity of facilitating the Derby Days fund raiser May 2009.  They needed a small network with one server and three client computers plus two printers.  We happened to have an inventory of older machines slated to be used as a training tool to help get local computer illiterate people to become computer literate.  We decided to build the small network and loan it for the purpose of Derby Days.  A small project to be sure, but just another example of how simple tasks add together to make a big event.  Derby Days is one of the primary fund raisers put on by The Brazos Vally Symphony.  BNSC would like to thank the community for supporting the Brazos Valley Symphony.

Once again, BNSC was tapped to help with the MayFest map project.  This is a great honor for BNSC so with pride and gusto we tackled the project.  Again, Inkscape was the layout program of choice.  This is due to Inkscape being open source.  This kind of software is great for non-profit organizations trying to save as much money as possible.  Sandra asked BNSC to particpate in the MayFest 2009 map project by providing layout and publishing services.  Using our experience from last year, we worked with Sandra over one weekend and using her expert layout guidance, produced a printable pdf file to meet specifications. 

This was again a great opportunity to help the local community.  BNSC would like to send a great big THANK YOU to the Junior League of Ft. Worth for allowing us the chance to help.  Thanks specifically to Sandra for her patience and determination. 

MayFest 2008 - (http://www.mayfest.org/)

BNSC would like to send a loud THANK YOU out to The Junior League of Fort Worth.  We were approached with the opportunity to provide technical assistance in the effort of creating the map for MayFest 2008.  This was not a great deal of work for us, but we sure enjoyed the chance and working with Kary and Sandra was great fun. 

The problem: 

The map from previous years was created in Illustrator and the software cannot be found.  How can we edit the map now?

The solution: 

After searching a bit, we found an open source program called InkScape.  InkScape is a vector graphics program that creates Scalable Vector Graphic files (.svg).  These files are very similar to the Adobe Illustrator file.  The map opened in InkScape after a small amount of troubleshooting.  The biggest advantage to using InkScape is the availability of the software.  Most non-profit organizations have many people supporting the organization and getting an expensive, licensed software package to the right person can be difficult.  Using an open source program offers collaboration and simple deployment.  In other words, everyone can install the program and edit the map without worrying about legal issues and costs. 

BNSC was grateful for the opportunity to provide some assistance in this case.  Also, working with an organization like The Junior League is directly in line with our mission to be a valuable asset to the community.  If you are working with a non-profit organization and have a technical problem, please send us a note so we can be of more service to the community.

Thank You!

BNSC originally incorporated in Arlington, Texas, but after several turns in the technology industry, the high speed digital highway dropped us off in the small town of Caldwell, Texas.  Caldwell is the county seat of Burleson County.  Since our goal in life is to be of service to the community, we started asking around for ways to help the local community.  So far, this is what we have accomplished:

• Website for Burleson County economic development.
• Information Technology (IT) services for the Burleson County Chamber of Commerce
• Support for the local city library

If you are local to Caldwell, Texas and you have an idea of how BNSC can be of service to the community, we would like to hear from you.  Please fill in our contact form and let's see if we can all pull together to make Caldwell and Burleson County one of the best places to live in these great United States of America! 

Thank you Judge Sutherland for allowing BNSC to help serve the community.
Thank you Weldon Peters and Spencer Scott for involving BNSC in the local chamber of commerce.