Hub Heroes: April 2018

The Power of Us Hub is an online community for Salesforce.org customers, certified partners and staff. The Hub is a place for you to get answers, build your Salesforce skills, share your expertise and connect with others in the nonprofit, higher education, and K-12 sectors who are using Salesforce!
Every month we feature members of the Power of Us Hub who help other members become more successful — they become “Hub Heroes”!
For the month of April, we are proud to highlight the community contributions of Samantha Shain, Dale McCrory, and Buyan Thyagarajan. Thanks to Samantha, Dale and Buyan for all you do! Want to nominate someone who has helped you in the Hub? Nominate a helpful Hubber!
We ask that our Hub Heroes share two truths and a lie about themselves — take a look below! Head to the Power of Us Hub, meet Samantha, Dale and Buyan, and see if you can solve their “two truths and a lie!” See you in the Hub!
Buyan Thyagarajan
Eigen X, LLC
Twitter handle: @buyan47
1. Two truths and one lie about you!
- I love reading
- I love inspirational movies
- I hate ice cream
2. Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?
I am passionate in learning and sharing knowledge to the community. The reason why I am motivated to do is because of belief that higher education folks have the biggest impact in a student’s life which can make or break a career. I also have a dream of creating an institution which would align industries with higher ed institutions and help students to get to a job quicker!
I believe that my purpose in life is to help others to be successful and one of the ways I can do that is by sharing my knowledge! For those who are thinking about this, the more you give, the more you will get from it. Sharing your knowledge with the community always builds trust, compassion and gratefulness with the community!
Samantha Shain
1. Two truths and a lie about you!
- I am a twin
- I was one of the top 200 swing state MoveOn.org phonebankers in the state of NJ during the 2006 midterm elections
- I’m NOT an accidental admin – totally planned it this way!
2. Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?I’m a political organizer at heart (I hope that doesn’t give away my 2 truths and a lie!) and reciprocity is among my most deeply held values. When I first started using Salesforce and NPSP, I was working at a sustainable agriculture organization that needed help onboarding customers and farmers. It was a classic use case for a Sales Process, including a Web-to-Lead form and lead conversion, but none of us had any idea how to make any of that happen (or even what the potential tools were!). Worse than that, I didn’t have anyone to ask for help. I want to do everything in my power to make sure other people don’t have to feel that way!
Almost every Friday, my partner and I invite friends, family members, coworkers and sometimes people I’ve barely met to join us in a big, family dinner. It’s part of our Shabbat routine to cook a feast, say blessings over grape juice and challah bread, and kick off the “day of rest” in the company of a deep and ever expanding community. I see magic around that table – whether it’s telling old family stories, debriefing the week, or planning our next political action. This promise often gets me through the week! Sure, the Hub is more work than play, but the spark of community is also alive and well there. When we see each other in person at Open Source Community Sprints or at events throughout the year, I get a taste of what I want most – generous, thoughtful, kind friendships with people who are dedicated to rigorous problem solving.
Dale McCrory
Lingk
Twitter handle: @dmccrory
1. Two truths and one lie about you!
- I enjoy metal detecting and searching for lost treasure
- When I am bored, I like to parkour
- I am a true believer in the underdog and have a passion for helping fatherless kids and orphans
2. Why is community important to you? What motivates you to contribute?
A community is important because it helps motivate you to do your best. Throughout history, societies rise and fall on the strength of their communities. When it comes to Salesforce, having a community of people focused on using technology to the world with education and non-profit activity enables “sustainable change and motivation.” Sustainable change and motivation requires a searchable history (to see what happened in the past) and a group of people who will continue on even as interests and roles change among individuals. The Power of Us hub provides that basis for Salesforce.org users.
I am motivated to contribute in part because I have first-hand experience with the challenges of using data effectively for small organizations and how quickly data issues can move you “off mission.” I want to provide insights and solutions to those trying to use Salesforce, HEDA and NPSP more effectively. I’m a co-founder of Lingk, a provider of easy to use tools that move data into Salesforce and improve the ability to build reports and dashboards with the data. The data loaders and recipes we provide are designed to help the community stay “on mission.”
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