Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Part One: Volunteerism making a come back

Published on June 29, 2008 in Gen Y and Society. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

photo by brandejackson

From Obama’s volunteerism platform to California’s Governor creating a State Cabinet position dedicated to volunteerism, the notion of paying it forward seems to have reached critical mass in the United States.

With Obama including civil service requirements among his Presidential platforms, he shows young Americans how charity work could become an integral element in career preparation.  In regards to melding education and service, Obama aims to:

  • Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
  • Promote College Serve-Study: Obama will ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.

This requirement of community work would be a win-win scenario.  A public service requirement would allow undergrads to apply their classroom learning in real life settings, providing resume builders for college students.  Sociology majors would not only learn about the socioeconomic disparities in urban areas, but could turn around and apply that understanding to work with an area non-profit seeking to help the impoverished or underserved.  Marketing majors could help non-profits raise its public and digital profile, build membership, and raise funds.

Since non-profits rely on volunteers to keep the mission alive,  these students would have real world, quantifiable experiences. Imagine helping raise $1 million to fight cancer or doubling membership numbers for an organization before the age of 21.  Accordingly,  it might give college graduates a chance to bypass the entry level grunt work that yields corporate churn and help allay Boomer concerns about inexperienced twenty somethings looking for a fast track to management.

The obvious benefit to non-profits would be the surge in human hours nationwide. Boutique and mainstream charities could expand their work given the increased availability of volunteers.  Already, California is trying to tap into the service spirit of its state residents.

In February, Gov. Schwarzenegger added a Secretary of Service and Volunteering to his State Cabinet, a position meant to better coordinate volunteer efforts related to government initiatives. Given the financial impact of volunteerism, streamlining efficiency and maximizing the output of volunteers will be a boon to a state suffering from severe budgetary cuts.

In 2006, volunteers contributed approximately 858 million hours of service to the California economy—a value of more than $17.4 billion. A one percent increase in the number of Californians who volunteer would equal approximately 365,000 new volunteers contributing 48 million hours—equal to nearly $1 billion in service to the state.

Additionally, if undergraduates are more active in their college towns, these communities may see a decline in the brain drain that occurs when graduates leave the region and often the state. By becoming more invested in the outcomes, students might see their stay in a town or city as more than a passing experience. Pittsburg or Madison or Atlanta could become home, given the inevitable communities ties formed by regular interaction with residents and other volunteers.

Indeed, this increased focus on service brings the best possible outcomes to young adults and the organizations and communities they offer their skills sets to.

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QOD: Churchill

Published on June 27, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

photo by markop

You make a living by what you get. You make a life by what you give.
–Winston Churchill

Big idea? Start small.

Published on June 26, 2008 in Business. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Photo by xerones

Random reminder of the day: The best ideas grow organically, from small to big.

Think about wildly successful franchises. Out in Los Angeles, Pink Berry started as one small location with horrible parking options in West Hollywood. The “real” frozen yogurt was so desirable, many felt it worthy of the $40 parking tickets and pissed off neighborhood residents awaiting them on the return to their cars. Fast forward 3 years and a $27.5 million investment from (Starbucks founder) Howard Schultz’s people, and the company has nearly 50 Southern California locations.

Same principle applies in other areas of life. Take politics. If you’re thinking about entering politics, regardless of age, running for President is probably not your first stop.  You might run for the Board of Education or mayor of your town.  Perhaps for a state legislature seat.  A few years after that you might take a swing at federal legislature.  But you don’t wake up one morning and run for President.  Even Ross Perot spent a few years on a Texas committee appointed by the Governor before he ran for President.

For those of us with more pedestrian lives, the same rules apply.   A couple of months ago a friend decided she needed to take her  company to the next level.  Having been an independent contractor for several years, she wants to put her name on the map in her profession.  She sees a gap in the professional development programming offered in her field — though it’s dominated by men, there are enough women to warrant a separate conference that blends work-life balance with professional growth.   Over coffee, she  shared her vision of a three day conference with multiple tracks and a gala on the final night.

As I sat listening to her discuss her grand plans, I asked her if she’d ever planned a conference before, let alone one of this magnitude. No. I suggested she might try a one-day, one track event for the first year, which is not only less pressure, but less of a financial risk for her company.  But she insisted bigger is better.

I asked her what she thought would be a fair price to charge for attendance and how she came to that number.  She threw out a low figure that “sounded right.”

After finding out how many people she thought would come, I asked what her event budget was.  Surprise! She hadn’t considered pulling together a business plan breaking down the costs of the various event components.

So she guestimated for the sake of time.  What she thought the event would cost is much much higher than the ticket price she wants to offer for the event.  Even with a higher ticket price, she wasn’t hitting the magic break even number. So I suggested tiered sponsorship packages, providing sponsors with varying degrees of access to attendees, while paying for the expense of coffee breaks and meals.

I recently inquired as to her progress on the event she hoped to have next March.  Turns out after talking with some other business-oriented folks, she was convinced to scale down to a one day event.  After repeatedly hearing the same advice from friends and colleagues, she’s going to start small and add on more programming in 2010 and beyond.  She’s well on the way to developing an annual conference  that could make her firm stand out, because she’s starting with a goal that’s manageable.

We talk about a “germ of an idea” and the “seeds of change” because you need to start small to create something big.

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Think Globally, Act locally

Published on June 26, 2008 in Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , .

I signed up to attend one of Move On‘s Community Council Meetings being held nationwide tonight, mostly out of curiosity.  I left after 90 minutes because I watched them make the bigger is better mistake    Sixty-five people signed up in my town, and 45 or so showed up.  The agenda set by move on included creating the framework for making July 9th Oil-Free President Day. (Note to readers: refill your tank outside the 5-6pm hour on July 9th to avoid the congestion that is sure to ensue that evening).

The group basically needed to pick a gas station in our community to serve as the venue to remind rush hour commuters that McCain is tightly linked to the oil companies, which won’t help the nation solve its energy crisis. It derailed when someone asked, who in this town is voting for McCain? We’d just be preaching to the choir. We need to go somewhere else.

At this point an elderly man noted that congregating in front of Occidental Oil would make much more sense. The location is more symbolic and it’s centrally located in a high-traffic part of Los Angeles (but not in our immediate town.)

Another woman piped up that to be the most effective, we need larger numbers. Thus, we should team with another community. It would be more likely to draw big media attention.

They lost the point of the July 9th event. MoveOn is trying to orchestrate hundreds, if not thousands, of these events nationwide. As attendee Alex pointed out, “we’re a cog in a greater wheel.” MoveOn is going to handle national media attention focused on this massive coordinated event. The individual town councils are meant to draw the attention of local media and local residents. Have you picked up your local paper recently. . . typically it’s full of information that’s only relevant to you if you live within x miles of distribution. The more of these small town papers covering Oil-Free President Day the better.

There’s an old saying, think globally, act locally. It’s a saying because it’s tried and true.

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Effective Cyberbullying PSA?

Published on June 22, 2008 in Society. 0 Comments

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A new ice cream alternative

Published on June 20, 2008 in Health. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

If dairy does the jig in your digestive tract or you’re trying to get away from processed sugar, I’m happy to report that Turtle Mountain has a new coconut milk-based ice cream line, sweetened with Agave syrup. I picked up a pint of the Coconut flavor, naturally, and it was divine. The frozen treat has the same smooth, creamy texture of coconut milk, without the iciness of ice cream that’s too aerated.

Whole Foods carries a selection of their five flavors: Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Cookie Dough, Mint Chocolate Chip and Coconut; other grocery chains nationwide will pick it up later in the year.  At this point I say pass on the Chocolate, it just doesn’t hold up as a dairy-free flavor, but the gluten-free Cookie Dough may just be my new favorite ice-cream.  Cookie Dough chunks and brittle fudgey bits!

With a heat wave in progress, it’s a great treat!

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Required Reading: Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine

Published on June 18, 2008 in Books, Business, Politics and Society. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I just finished reading Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism this evening. The book is absolutely depressing; it looks at how Friedman economics has been used for private company gain, while devestating economies in South America and Eastern Europe.

Parts 5 & 6 looks at the Iraq war– including war profiteering and the explosive blowback that is to be expected.  It’s absurd that contractors refused to hire Iraqis to do the work and instead shipped Americans in.  The same happened in terms of raw materials, rather than use Iraqi companies, materials were shipped in from across country lines. When it looked as though the new government would shoot down the incredibly invasive participation by contractors, the US went on to appoint, rather than elect, a new gov’t so they could stay in control. One slap in the face after another for the country. Liberation, my ass. It’s amazing to see how different the outcome of the invasion of Iraq could have been had there been an iota of concern for the Iraqi people.

The US has aided in crippling economies globally to keep that increasingly elusive growth in the business world alive. Klein goes on to make a comparison between Iraq and Katrina contracting.  Squelching recovery isn’t just for foreigners, we’re happy to treat American citizens the same way.

It’s heart breaking and should be required reading before November.

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If you’re reading this post on Brazen Careerist, click through to the original post to see the included video.

Inertia limits changes in traditional work week

Published on June 2, 2008 in Business, Environment and Society. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Last month, David Green wrote about shorter work weeks as a possible key to higher productivity for Fast Company.

Naturally, most businesses blanch at the notion of giving up any competitive edge in a globalized economy. But it’s not as if moving to a four-day (or 32-hour) workweek would simply lop 20% off the economy. Cutting hours may actually raise per-hour productivity. France, home of the 35-hour week, creates more GDP per work hour than the United States ($37 versus $34, as of 2003). Norway spanks us too ($39), and Norwegians work 26% fewer hours a year than Americans. It’s a myth of modern hypercapitalism that an overworked, sleep-deprived, stressed-out workforce is a necessity. Studies have consistently shown that longer workweeks increase productivity only in the very short term. In a recent survey by Salary.com, workers copped to wasting about 20% of the average day Web surfing and gossiping.

At my last job, it became obvious that while cubicles may promote interactivity between staff members, it also leads to a lot of time being wasted because it’s hard to block out surrounding conversations, so you wind up doing more socializing that you intend to. Fortunately, I wound up assigned to a cubicle at the far end of the floor with little foot traffic. I don’t think management understood why I kept turning down cubicles in the fray (which was thought to be the good real estate) when they freed up; I spent too many hours at the office to begin with, being a social butterfly was not going to make my days shorter.

While there appears to be a compelling argument for a 4 day work week (improving work place efficiency, some life balance, and being aware of one’s environmental impact v. the badge of honor/shame if you log insane hours), inertia persists. But it seems our not-officially-in-a-recession economy may allow Americans to shorten the work week, if not eventually start taking back their time.

When Ohio’s Kent State University offered custodial staff the option of working four days a week instead of five to cut commuting costs, most jumped at the chance, part of a U.S. trend aimed at combating soaring gasoline prices.”We offered it to 94 employees and 78 have taken us up on it,” said university spokesman Scott Rainone.

The reason is simple: rising gas prices and a desire to retain good workers. . .

“In our office, we have people who travel anywhere from five or six miles to a couple who are on the road 45 to 50 minutes,” Rainone said. “As the price of gas rises, the level of grumbling rises.”

The cost of commuting is making the shift to telecommuting and compressed work weeks more palatable to employers who typically want bodies in the building. Employers are also looking to cut back on overhead expenses, which shared office space can do. Yes, the sharp increase in expenses makes getting your job done more expediently beneficial to both workers and management.

As always, feel good changes that benefit the environment, not as important as feel good changes that benefit the bottom line.

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