September 2009 Archives

Recently, "Woody" was featured on a TGI Fridays commercial promoting an opportunity to win a free burger by becoming a fan of the TGI Fridays Facebook page. If Woody can get 500,000 fans in one month, each fan would get a free burger. "Is this fair and does it make sense?," Keesha O'Galdez of Gourmet Diva  posted to our Facebook page. Since the commercial aired, a lot of conversation has followed about authenticity and the identity of Woody, but I would like to focus on the concept of quantity vs. quality.

 

I often have this conversation with my clients because I think it is critical to any social media strategy. There is a role and a significance for both quantity and quality in social media regardless of what you are quantifying (i.e. followers, fans, diggs, etc.).

 

Quantity is important for several reasons. It helps you to generate activity on your page. 90% of users in social media are voyeurs. They enjoy peeking in and watching what you are doing. Do you ever feel like you are talking to yourself? Believe me, they are paying attention. If you are successful and effective in making your content fun and engaging, your voyeurs will begin to participate. Both the quantification of fans and the level of engagement will be appealing to others. Wouldn't you choose the party with more people and activity than the one with a few people in attendance sitting around staring at each other? Well, it's the same concept. Both of these factors will encourage your fan base to tell their friends and network about it which helps your efforts to go viral and spread like wildfire. Look at it as one of the ways to show the value of joining your network.

 

Quality will help you to increase your customer base. Does quantity translate to quality? Within that quantity, there is definitely a subset of your target market, but how many of your overall fan base really fits into that subset. It depends on how you approached increasing that quantity. If you paid a company to increase your followers, or you focused on recruiting your personal network who recruited their personal network, or you relied on sweepstakes/contests with awesome prizes, you probably have not successfully populated your base with your target market. This will affect your conversion rate. If you have successfully used an email campaign to get your existing customers to join, you must leverage them to get new customers by spreading the word.

 

Now that you are ready to focus on reaching your target market, you must be more strategic and targeted in your approach. Focus on those in your personal network who fit your target market and who are true supporters of your company. Use targeted Facebook ads to appeal to your target market; only those interested in your products/services will click on your ad. Do contests and sweepstakes that would be of interest to your target market specifically rather than a mass of people. Your prize and contest stipulations should be aligned with your company's products/services which means you may have less overall participants but more of your target market participating, which results in quality.

 

At the end of the day, quality and quantity work together to make your social media efforts impactful and successful. Don't lose out on either one. However, ensure that your efforts, regardless of which one you focus on, are authentic because you are building your brand.

 

Tip: Don't expect your social media efforts to take off overnight. Take some time to craft a solid strategy which goes beyond social media, build your foundation, and refine your strategy as necessary. You will see results. Most of all, have fun while doing it.

 

Need help with your social media efforts and social media strategy? Send us an email: suzzette@solutionsmavens.net. Your location doesn't matter. We are here to help!

 

Written by Suzzette Turnbull

President/CEO, Valentine Consulting of South Florida, LLC

Follow me: www.twitter.com/suzyturn

Email me: suzzette@solutionsmavens.net

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This is big news!

It's taken six years, but as of November 1, 2009, the International Cryptozoology Museum will publicly open in a permanent space in downtown Portland, Maine.

After first being established in August 2003 via my modest home-based cabinet-of-curiosities in the Libbytown section of the Pine Tree State's largest city, the International Cryptozoology Museum will have its grand public opening right after Halloween 2009, in downtown Portland.

The museum has found a public home at 661 Congress Street, in the Arts District, just down the street from the world-famous Portland Museum of Art, the Children's Museum, and the State Theater, next to a local landmark, Joe's Smoke Shop. Also, it will sit right across from The Fun Box Monster Emporium. What a wonderful neighborhood for a cryptozoology museum!

After years of planning, I am excited and energized by this remarkable move to a fully publicly venue, complete with regular hours, sharing space with the new downtown Green Hand Books, owned by Michelle Souliere, anomalist and editor of the Strange Maine Newsletter. (The "green hand" relates to the phantom appendage appearing on classic pulp novels.)

Cryptozoology, the study of hidden animals, has been conceptualized since the 1940s, but the last few years have seen Bigfoot museums and cryptid exhibitions developed in a more organized fashion.

One great stimulation to the current evolution resulting in this public opening of the International Cryptozoology Museum occurred thanks to the exhibition, "Cryptozoology: Out of Time Place Scale," at the Bates College Museum of Art in 2006. Co-curated by museum director Mark H.C. Bessire and Kansas City Art Institute's H&R Block Artspace director Raechell Smith, the genesis of that exhibition began in my front room.

Bates' unique art show, with a nonfiction gallery room labeled "the future International Cryptozoology Museum," started with discussions between myself, Bessire, then-Portland painter Sean Foley, international installation artist Mark Dion and international natural history painter Alexis Rockman. Foley, who first discovered he lived around the corner from my home but now lives in Ohio, and Bessire, the new director of the Portland Museum of Art, are godfathers, indeed, of this present move.

The centerpiece of the collection is the once elusive eight feet tall, 400-pound "Crookston Bigfoot," created by Wisconsin artist Curtis Christensen, which was permanently added to the collection of the International Cryptozoology Museum in 2004.

The mission of the museum is to share the many items I have collected during the last half a century, with tourists, teachers, researchers, scholars, colleagues, students, documentary filmmakers, news people and the general public. I opened the International Cryptozoology Museum in a house I bought in Portland, under the spotlight of the media (ABC News visited the first week) and with a beginning trickle of invited visitors. Soon, Boing Boing TV, MonsterQuest, Lost Tapes, Weird Travels, and many more documentary film crews would come by.

The museum modestly began with sculptures and paintings created just for it, hundreds of cryptids toys and souvenirs from around the world, one-of-a-kind artifacts, a life-size 8 feet tall Bigfoot representation, a full-scale six-foot-long coelacanth model, over a hundred Bigfoot-Yeti-Yowie footcasts, jackalopes, furred trout, along with such Hollywood cryptid-related props as The Mothman Prophecies' Point Pleasant "police" outfit, the movie P. T. Barnum's authentic 3.5 feet tall Feejee Mermaid, the TV series Freakylinks' 11 ft long "Mystery Civil War Pterodactyl," and some of the movie Magnolia's falling frogs.

Special drawings, bronzes, paintings, and sculpture creations by the world's leading cryptozoology artists are featured in the collection, from Richard Klyver, Lee Murphy, Duncan Hopkins, Peter Loh, Steve Goodrich, Bill Rebsamen, Jeff H. Johnson, Erik Gosselin, Paul Dini, and many others.

Photograph used with permission of Gregg Hale, Executive Director, Haxan Productions and Fox TV.

The International Cryptozoology Museum, also includes exhibits on the discoveries of "living fossils," the successful cryptozoological stories. One of the most famous, of course, is the coelacanth. Many thanks to an anonymous individual who donated the six-foot-long fiberglass mount of a coelacanth, modeled from an actual specimen by Fantastic Fish Mounts of Florida.

Museum quality skulls also exist in the collection of Gigantopithecus, Paranthropus, Australopithecus, Panthera atrox, gorilla, chimp, lion, cougar, and much more.

Keith P. Luke photo, used with permission.

I am extremely proud to announce the formal unveiling of the public museum in tourist- and education-friendly Portland, Maine, housing five decades of cryptozoological pieces, with regular hours (11 am - 7 pm Tuesdays - Saturdays, Noon - 5 pm Sundays). The price of admission to view the gallery cryptozoology museum space, for all ages, will be $5.00, plus any other donations you might wish to leave.

Hope to see you there!

The idea for this blog originated when my local reference librarian told me that each week, she gets queries from patrons who want to write. They want to know about books that would inspire them, or articles that describe what agents and editors are looking for in a manuscript.


After I heard that, I realized that when people hear that I'm a writer, they often respond wistfully, "I've always wanted to write."

Then they continue: "But I don't know how to get started, or what books and magazines I should consult, or how to structure a novel. And who would publish anything by a novice writer?"

Well, this blog will cover all that and much more. I'll tell you what I'm teaching my students. I'll share what's been going on in my writerly life since I left Simmons a little over a year ago. And I'll look for your questions and answers in the Comments section here.

If you've always wanted to write, but have felt your dreams were hopeless, you'll get help here.

I've gotta go write another article about Boston writing careers for Examiner.com. I love doing that. You can check out all 70 of them at www.examiner.com/Boston-Writing-Careers. Or just get some encouragement from www.examiner.com/Boston-Writing-Careers-launch-your-writing--career.

Oh, one other thing. May Sarton, poet, diarist, and novelist noted that many people want to have published a book, but few want to do the work that actually writing one entails. So, do you really want to write?

If so, you can start small.

Summer came and went with hardly a good beach day and here we are practically at the end of September. The halls are bustling with students, traffic is terrible, but at least the weather has been awesome and I can finally get a pumpkin spiced latte again.

September has been a big derby month. The Boston Massacre participated in the Eastern Regionals tournament in North Carolina on 9/11, 12, and 13. They beat the Carolina Rollergirls, lost to New York's Gotham Girls, and then won the battle with Baltimore's Charm City Rollergirls. The win against Charm City put Boston in third place in the East, which means they earned a spot in the National Championships taking place the weekend of November 13th in Philadelphia. The Philly Rollergirls took first place, and Gotham took second. This was a huge win for Boston since we have been fighting to make it to Nationals for the past 2 years, and missing our chance by a very small margin. The Derby News Network broadcast the bouts live on the Internet, so those of us who couldn't make it to North Carolina for the weekend, were able to watch from home...footage wasn't great, but it was exciting none the less. This past weekend DNN broadcast the North Central Regional tournament with the following results: #1 Windy City Rollers (Chicago, IL), #2 Mad Rollin Dolls (Madison, WI), and #3 Detroit Derby Girls (Detroit, MI), and this coming weekend we'll see South Central, followed by Western Regionals the first weekend of October. It will be exciting to see who Boston will end up playing in November. If you're interested in watching, check out http://www.derbynewsnetwork.com/.

On the home front, last weekend was the Boston playoffs between the Cosmonaughties and the Wicked Pissahs. They were duking it out for a spot to play my team, the Nutcrackers, in the Boston Championship bout on October 10th. It was a very tight game, a nail biter every jam, but in the end the Cosmos pulled through and took the game with a 121 to 102 victory over the Pissahs. The Nutcrackers are amped up to play in a few weeks, and we're definitely anticipating an intense game against the Cosmos. We have a lot on the line since we've gone undefeated this entire season.

So as the Championship bout nears, so does my impending retirement from roller derby. I vowed that this would be my final season of play, since my body has been rebeling against me all year and the derby time-suck that has kept me from doing anything else meaningful in my life has taken it's toll. I'm feeling extremely emotional about leaving skating behind. I love my team so much and I've enjoyed skating this year more than ever (much more fun to win!)...it will be really difficult to walk away. After 5 years, major burnout, and an unhealthy level of cynicism with how business is being handled these days, I think it's best to leave now.

This is your cue to go to our website to buy tickets to the Championship bout on October 10th, since this is your absolute last chance to see Malicen Thunderland skate with the league she's helped build from the ground up. Le sigh.

http://www.bostonderbydames.com/

This past weekend I celebrated the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanna, in DC with my family. On the bus ride from New York to DC (bolt bus is amazing) I ended up sitting next to a friends-friends little sister who was headed home for the holiday as well. Hillary, a sophomore at NYU, is currently living in NYU apartment style dorms with three other similarly religious Jewish students. Even though they all keep kosher and belong to the same movement of Judaism, what three weeks of living together has taught them is that they have varying degrees of observance and ideas about what it means to be Jewish. My conversation with Hillary got me thinking a lot about beliefs and religion.

When you grow up in a religious home, any religion--Jewish or otherwise, you tend to learn and take on the habits and rituals of your family. Not that there is anything wrong with this, in fact this is exactly how traditions and religion is generally passed down, in the home. That being said, what stuck with me from my conversation with Hillary was the idea that if you grow up in a very insular society, you often times end up doing things out of habit rather than understanding why it is you something in the first place.

For example, many Jew's keep kosher, however what it means to keep kosher can vary greatly from person to person. Where I grew up in Arizona we had very little options in terms of kosher foods and restaurants but to someone who grew up in New York or in Israel they would be much more versed in the many different hechsher's (A hechsher is "kosher approval" stamp; it is the special certification marking found on the packages of products (usually foods) that have been certified as kosher by different Rabbinical associations). For one of Hillary's roommates, only specific hechsher's are "kosher enough" for her, causing quite a furry of frustration within their suite. Because Hillary came from such an insular community, she feels like the way that she knows how to practice her Judaism is the only 'real' way that there is. This got me thinking about what religious and spirituality means to different people. For Hillary, her roommates way of being Jewish is seen as being closed minded--like she is doing things just because it is what she knows and not thinking about why it is she keeps kosher in the first place.

After my bus ride and conversation with Hillary, I attended my own families Rosh Hashanna dinner and went to services with cousins. For me, the way I connect with my Judaism isn't by observing every law in the book or even by going to services all the time. What being Jewish means to me is about celebrating holidays, observing traditions that have been passed down for generations, hearing the stories, becoming a good person, and one of the biggest things of course is the emphasis placed on family.

As I revisit Judaism over the coming weeks in celebration of the Jewish High Holidays, I am also beginning to think about what it is about Judaism that I hope to one day pass along to my family. For me, it is the Jewish traditions and rituals that are so important to me--the family shabbat dinners, celebrating the holidays, and recounting the stories of my people that make me feel Jewish, not keeping kosher or attending services on a weekly basis. Does that mean I am not "kosher" enough to some? Maybe, but what I love about religion is that it is supposed to be individual--each person can have their own brand or type that works for them. Over the coming months, I will begin to explore my Judaism along side my girlfriend, Whitney, who with the New Year of 5770, has started on her path of becoming a Jew. I am confident that with her I will revisit many different aspects of the Jewish faith that I have long forgotten since my days of Hebrew School. I'm hoping together we will find our own 'brand' of Judaism. I'm sure I will learn a lot from this process and I hope we find the right mix of tradition and rituals that will work for us.

Until next time I wish you all a Shana Tova a Good New Year and encourage you all to think about what religion and spirituality means to you in  2009.

At lunch the other day, I found out a friend's company (major global corporation) actually instructs people in new employee training sessions NOT to reply in email to thank others. In an effort to reduce the size of people's inboxes, the company has across the board eliminated thanks. Talk about SCROOGE.

As a bold move of quiet rebellion, my friend simply added "thank you" in her signature.  Maybe she's the ghost of gratitude past...  But now she thanks everyone!

Have we become so inundated with content in our culture that we find gratitude to be unnecessary and superfluous?  An annoying task that should be omitted to save time?  Sometimes the occasional thank you is my favorite email to receive. It makes all the other emails worthwhile. Gives a feeling of closure. Completeness. Meaning in life.

As in... "YES, we did it. I couldn't have done it without you. THANK YOU."

*sigh*  A momentary memory of what business used to be.  What our culture used to be.  Now we just expect people to watch our Facebook newsfeed to see if we appreciated them. And if they don't notice us when we Twittered about how cool lunch was, then screw them.  It's their fault they don't know we care.

We must strike back, folks! We must stop this madness of not thanking people before it spreads further. We must fight for the right to thank people for their hard work, dedication, patience, and good humor. Thanking people is an integral part of the œpursuit of happiness afterall. Right?  Don't you think??

So I say screw the rules. Don't listen to scrooges. Go forth and appreciate!

By the way, thanks for lunch...........

mc

Welcome to my first blog.  Social media fascinates me so I jumped at the invite to participate.  Think what you may about social networking-there is no better way to gather information and disseminate content.  I think this is especially true when the purpose is to gain insight into human experience and thought in this day and age.  

Over the coming months I selfishly hope to prompt a blogger to provide me with information I seek.  Today, I seek information about PASSION.  Passion in your career, education and personal pursuits.  Not romantic passion.  Do you have it?  If so, what is your passion and how did you find or develop it?  Did you have a passion then lose it?  If so, what do you think led to you losing it? Do you do what you do because you have to, because you feel like you have no choice, or because you love it or are energized by it?  I am particularly interested in personal successes and failures from people who took a leap of faith or risk, and shed their need for financial security or rejected societal expecations to pursue their dream.

I believe there is value to learning what people are passionate about and how they nurtured it, as well as acknowledging the lack of passion in our daily lives and the resulting effects on mood, health and relationships.  I look forward to getting to know you and learning from your experiences.

When I got pregnant with my first child 15 years ago, I took full advantage of financial security, jettisoning my career hopes to embrace motherhood and domesticity. I filled my days chasing toddlers, attending playgroups, creating elaborate meals, furnishing and decorating my home, volunteering and training for marathons. But after ten years, a subsequent child, four marathons and a move into a new home, I began to feel, well, bored. My daily pattern of school drop-off, workout, grocery store, lunch, reading and - gasp - a nap before school pick up that, while, comfortable and leisurely, didn't offer much in the way of intellectual fulfillment.

I had begun to devour books, the re-ignition of a lifetime love of reading, and fantasized about having a really great bookstore in town. I wasn't a fan of the grubby old book shoppe that  sat at the center of our village, but felt guilty about my frequent Amazon deliveries, believing that I really ought to be supporting my local business. And so, on one very slow day at home, I thought - hubris alert! - I can buy that bookstore and maker it better! Four years later, I'm the proud, occasionally exhausted, sometimes chastened owner of the new old book shoppe at the center of our village. I'm a few hundred grand in debt, but I'm not bored anymore.

For a time I outsourced or neglected as much non-work responsibility as possible; I engaged a nanny for my children, I quit running, and my house turned into one big pile of unfolded laundry. While it was exciting to throw myself into something entirely new and challenging (having never even worked in a bookstore before, I had everything to learn - and fast, because I was the boss), my old boredom had morphed into a giant ball of stress and frustration at not having the freedom to have fun anymore. So as my renovations have "cured," my staffing changes have settled, and the barrage of change has receded into normality, I have begun to reclaim my leisure, my family, and my home.

This summer my kids didn't go to 4 weeks of sleep-away camp. I rode my bike almost every day. I took a ten-day vacation. Now, granted, there were days when my 14 year old son did his couch potato thing while I biked 50 miles alone that I felt like I wasn't doing anybody any justice. And when the holidays come around and I spend all day, every day at the store and the kids put up the Christmas tree themselves, I'll feel terrible. As a whole, though, my fifth year of ownership is going to be different.

I intend to work intently when I'm at work, and play, rest or parent intently when I'm not. Guilt-free. I've planned a regular day off. We don't have a nanny this year, so school pick up, activity delivery, and homework supervision is on me (or Dad). And we'll eat dinner together as frequently as possible. I'll still feel responsible when on a given Saturday (today) my staff is stretched to their limit because I'm not there to make it easy for them, but something tells me my 10 year-old daughter's memory is longer.

Working and caring for our families and ourselves in today's world demands a crazy balance that's unique to each of us. I know that, as my own boss, I actually have lots more flexibility than many working moms, and my good fortune, financially speaking, is not lost on me. But in terms of my own experience as a working woman, I like the playground analogy: the teeter totters wildly some days, but I think I'm finally learning the trick to staying on.

 

I am just back from summer camp, complete with cold showers, loud dining room songs, campfires with s'mores, swamped canoes, lots of bug spray, bathroom jokes, jobs assigned on the clean-up wheel. Although I can't wait to go back and am counting the nearly 50 weeks until my next week at camp, I'll admit that being there was quite a challenge. For although I was not new to sleep away camp and had, in fact, spent seven summers at camp, a bit of time has elapsed. To be more precise, it's been 48 years.

Greetings to the Simmons Community!  I especially want to welcome back to Boston and to campus all the students, faculty and staff of Simmons as we enter September and this exciting new year.

If you have been following this blog for a while, you may have noticed that it has been a few months since I have written.  I have been a bit busy.  You might remember that I have pledged to share money saving tips with you that I have learned by running my financial planning firm here in Boston, Lantern Financial.  I am taking a break from that this month, since I have exciting personal news to share.  In addition to the challenges of running a start-up company, my husband and I welcomed our first daughter (and future Simmons student!), Alice, to our family in mid-May!

While this has been an extremely rewarding summer in many ways, the challenges of raising a newborn and keeping a company thriving have been difficult. 

I have been working primarily from home this summer - juggling client work and caring for Alice each day.  Prior to the birth of Alice, I was thrilled to have found recent Simmons graduate, Leah Hanson, and hired her to handle the day-to-day operations of the business while I am working from home.  Leah has been doing an amazing job and Lantern has continued to grow and succeed over the past few months thanks to her remarkable efforts.  Additionally, we have continued to welcome students each semester from the Simmons internship program and each of their contributions have added significant value to the business. 

My husband and I both have careers about which we are very passionate and love our work, but we have been hesitant to send Alice to daycare right away.  First of all, we enjoy spending time with her.  Additionally, daycare in the Boston area is so expensive.  For the time being, we have been relying on a rotation of me, my husband Scott, and my nearby mother trading off on caring for Alice during the day.  For now, this solution is working.  The business is thriving and Alice is a happy, content baby. 

At the beginning of 2010, we will need to re-evaluate the situation and come up with a more long-term solution, but in the meantime, this delicate dance is working.

As Simmons women, we work hard to be able to "have it all" -  primarily career, family, and community success.  From my short experience so far, I can say it is definitely possible.  It is more challenging, but also more satisfying than I thought it would be.

Have you been through this in your own life?  Do you have any tips to share?  I would love to hear them!

Hi Everyone,

Like the beginning of any classic Mr. Bill episode, you may be exclaiming "OH NO!" Not chemistry!  While chemistry in our society has garnered a somewhat tarnished image and the reputation of the dreaded Organic Chemistry course precedes itself, I hope to change your mind through weekly blogs about fun, innovative and even 'green' topics within our 'wonderful world of chemistry.'

 

You may wonder, what green and chemistry could possibly have in common?  Well, there is a rapidly developing movement with the world whose goal is to develop products and processes that are 'benign for human health and the environment.' This movement collectively termed "Green Chemistry" is changing the face of chemistry and the world around you.

 

Products of the green chemistry movement are already right under your nose!  From common household cleaners and cold beverage containers made from corn, to furniture and homes constructed without formaldehyde glues or resins.  Each and every innovative item helping us maintain our quality of life while striving to be more benign for human health and the environment.

 

As one of the founding members of the Green Chemistry Education Network, I work to spread the word in educational arenas across the globe.  As a research scientist, I involve students directly within Green Chemistry research at Simmons College.  Stay tuned next week for a look into a research project that our students have championed over the past two and a half years at Simmons involving the newest greener polymer on the commercial market, poly lactic acid. 

 

The next time you grab an iced coffee, check your cup for the "Natureworks, PLA," or "Greenware" logos.

For learn more about the company involved in creating PLA, see:

http://www.natureworksllc.com/

 

See you next week!

 

Take care,

Be Green!

Rich

 

PS: No trees were harmed in the posting of this blog entry, although countless electrons were seriously inconvenienced.

Greetings from Ellie Clarke Blanton '59 in southwestern rural Oregon. My husband of almost 44 years, Joe, and I moved ourselves here from Michigan in 1988, in 3 roundtrips & the last one way. Our daughter and son-in-law live in Fredericksburg, VA. Each of them has a son.

I was a Physical Therapy student at Simmons graduating in January, 1960. There was time to return to Glen Ridge, NJ, for time with my parents before starting work in a rehabilitation hospital in Grand Rapids, MI.  After 7 years there, I became the first P.T. in an area pre-school for the handicapped, moving on to the special education students in the middle and high schools. Those years included: attendance at the World Confederation of Physical Therapy in Denmark, traveling in Europe for 3 weeks; formation of a local wheelchair group with 2 other P.T.'s  to bowl, practice archery, and participate in track & field events, traveling to & competing in the National Wheelchair Games in NY; membership in the MI PT Assoc.; & appointment to the MI PT Licensing Board by 2 governors. I became chair of the board.

Simmons prepared me well for my profession & I credit her with encouraging my participation in new endeavors & adventures. I represent the College at many Oregon college fairs & several years in Seattle, serve as a contact for the Oregon Simmons alumnae/i group: the Magnificent Oregon Simmons Society (M.O.S.S.), was secretary for the Alumnae Association for one term and class president for 2 terms. Joe & I have established a scholarship in my mother's memory for Simmons students. Both of us have returned to Boston for most reunions.

Since becoming an Oregonian, I have become part of many activities. Gaining Water Safety Instructor certification while at Simmons, I volunteered weekly to help in a local swim program. The elementary school had a Celebrity Reader program in which I read. Participating in Scottsburg Community Service activities, I selected playground equipment for the local park & wrote a grant to fund it; raised funds for a flagpole in the park; organized the annual birthday party for Levi Scott, the community's founder & Oregon trailblazer; raised funds for the local volunteer fire department; planted daffodils in Scottsburg most years; & organized the community garden with aid from 3 county departments. The state-wide environmental group contacts me to set up local projects to improve landscapes, removing invasive plants, litter removal, etc. The spring & fall beach clean-ups are among my regular activities.  I have been a member of 2 OR Dept. of Transportation committees, one to determine placement of a new bridge & one to designate the local highway a scenic byway (granted in 2009). Safety concerns pushed me to organize a one-day study of local traffic & to share the data with the State Police & Sheriff's Dept.

Joe and I became volunteers at the closest Chamber of Commerce visitor center & learned about the area. As a result ,we became tour guides on the NSF R/V Hero while it was here, gray whale watch volunteers during the spring & fall migrations, & presenters of whale information at the Umpqua Discovery Center & at Tsalila (a watershed celebration). An OSU trip to Baja California (Mex.) to see the gray whales followed. I retired after 15 years of service with the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the volunteer branch.

We enjoyed many trips to England & Scotland & saw more of Europe on the way to a conference in Prague before the Communists left.

Joe and I became part of an archeological work party to St. Kilda (west of the Outer Hebrides) in Scotland. That led to participation on 3 U.S. Forest Service Passport in Time (PIT) projects locally. Archeology is fascinating.

I continue to be a blood donor, on the way toward 11 gallons. A political activist on the local, county, state, & national levels, I attended 2 national conventions.

In 2002, I became an honorary alumna of Lynchburg College, partially because I co-chaired the centennial fund-raising effort with Joe. Awards have also been given to me by the Reedsport Chamber of Commerce and the Douglas County Democratic Party.

We survived a house fire in 2008 & moved into a custom-built house on the same site in 2009. Therein are many tales.

Your comments and questions will keep me busy on the computer -- and away from the mundane housekeeping chores. Thanks.

 

As I type this from a computer lab within the monstrosity that is Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) I catch myself thinking about what it means to go back to school. I have now begun my 18th year of school (counting from grade 1 all the way until now) so returning to campus and classes is something that never gets old and feels in a way homey and familiar. Everyone is filled with excitement to see friends after the summer, the crisp blank pages in my new notebooks, reading the syllabus for my classes and getting excited for what is to come (not thinking about the hours in the library, the papers, or the exams) and settling back into life as a grad student.

Since I am beginning my second and last year in my master's program I have become a mentor to the incoming first year students. As I watch them flutter around campus, nervous and excited all at the same time I realize it was just one year ago that I was in their shoes. The span of one year doesn't seem like much time, but I feel like when that year is spent as a student you will inevitably grow and learn tremendously--much more than at other points during your life. For me, I am sure that although I am still in the same jeans and sweatshirt, I have grown and changed greatly since I arrived on campus last year. 

Watching the newbies hyperventilate and freak out about anything and everything in some ways put me at ease. While I have assured all of my mentees in a few short months all of this will seem like a distant memory as they will find their way, easily navigate around campus and feel comfortable in classes, I find that I am in fact still comforting myself. While I am excited about my classes (with the exception of my language requirement that makes me want to jump out of the window), I still know what lies ahead--Endless hours of reading, countless highlighters, late night study groups, quick naps in the library, writers block, writing, free food and beer (perks of being in grad school is that everyone is over 21), buying books, printing thousands of pages of reading (thus feeling bad about killing trees), cramming for exams, and obviously exhaustion. Still, I realize that in just a few years my friends and I will look back on all of these moments as "the good old days." I realize that despite the sleep deprivation and sore eyes from never-ending reading, it is these years, like my time at Simmons as an udnergrad that will forever remain as some of the best times of my life.

With that in mind I am trying to get into the mindset of adjusting to being back in school and being back in New York. Since I have many of my requirements out of the way I hope to enjoy being in the city a bit more than I did last year and have vowed to spend less time in the library. Who knows what mischievous fun and adventures lie ahead but I know I am excited to embark on my year and am glad to bring all of you along for the ride. Until next time I will leave you with this..." Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." ~ John Dewey

Hi. This is my first blog entry and I'm using  it to introduce some of the topics and themes that I expect to be writing about in the Simmons blog. 

Although I look forward to the opportunity to commenting on lots of things, I expect to focus on what I call family building. This will include infertility, egg donation, adoption and age related fertility and family building concerns. I'd like begin with the latter... 

As a social worker who counsels and consults with people who are often concerned about their age and their fertility, I have a range of thoughts and experiences. I see single women in their mid-thirties who are worried that they won't find a partner in time to beat the biological clock. I also meet couples in their 30's who are struggling with infertility and worried that they will be ancient parents and I meet some in their 40's who feel they have all the time in the world. We're young, we have energy and everyone in our families lives into their 90's they tell me. 

What do I tell them and what would I like to say?  To those who are older and worried, I try to offer some reassurance.  You can't tun back the clock.  It doesn't help to look back with regret or to beat yourself up because you couldn't -- for whatever reason -- have your family when you were younger.  To many I add that I've seen older parents appear younger and more vibrant once their children arrived.  This is how I try to approach the worried, the fearful, the every day counts group of would-be parents.

Then there are others. They are are 45 or 46, 52 or 53 and they feel young. Indeed, many do look young and seem to be youthful and full of energy. Still, numbers don't lie.  You can be a "young" 70 or a "young" 80 but if you reach those ages when you have teenage or young adult children, there are likely to be some drawbacks. For one thing, I worry about the kinds -- what it will mean for them  to be 20-ish and have an aging parent who may need more assistance than the child is ready or able ot provide.  And  healthy, vibrant parents in their 70's and 80's are different -- I feel -- than parents in their 50's and 60's.My friends and I, all early 60's with kids in their 20's and 30's, love to compare notes of our visits with our young adult children who live in different cities. The air mattresses come out, the sofa beds unfold, mom arrives and a few days of fun ensue.  We all hope that we will be active and energetic in our 70's and 80's but none of us feel that this is something we can count on.  Wanting other parents to experience the pleasures of being a youthful parent to a young adult child and wanting other young adults to delight in good times with Mom or Dad, I find myself hoping that most of the people I meet will find their way to parenthood, one way or another, before they are very far into their 40's.

That said, time is what it is, you can't turn back the clock and looking back with regret serves no good purpose.  

Well it's been over two months since the release of "An Unsung Coach" and the quest to market promote and share the message or as I like to say the ministry of the books contents has been filled with peaks and valleys.  As a novice to the publishing game, I had no idea how difficult it would be to get the book "out there". Of course the road would be much smoother if I had a major publishing engine paving the way, but alas my works are self published.  I cannot tell you the hundreds of emails, phone calls, and announcements I have sent to  the major networks, publications,  television and radio personalities  many whom claim to care about the community only to receive no or minimal response.  Honestly at times I wonder if it's all worth it, I thought I was doing what God would have me do and share my testimony  and message of encouragement on how to overcome tremendous odds to create your own definition of success, but why has it been so HARD to get the message out there?

Maybe it's because I'm not a celebrity, maybe it's because no one wants to admit there is a problem, borderline epidemic that thousands of young people are pinning their futures on becoming pro-athletes or entertainers to no avail without a back up plan.  Maybe if I spread gossip, or slandered someone's name, talked about all of the stuff we now call news, I'd become the next great literary sensation with a calendar filled with events and appearances.  I just don't get it at times I feel like scrapping the whole mission and jumping on the "Give the people what they want" bandwagon.  But this is not who I am, it's funny whenever I encounter the detour of self defeat, God will send a friendly, but much needed GPS signal that directs me back to the right road. A couple of days ago, while shopping at the local grocery store, a young girl no older than 10 approached  me , looked up as  if I were a giant standing over 8 feet tall, I suspect from her  point of view  I was as she barely came to my waist and gleefully stated "I remember you, you spoke to my class" I was taken aback, this elementary aged child remembered me coming to her classroom to share the popular TPC principles which I share in the book with her classmates  and that was over eight months ago, coincidentally I also received a wonderful surprise in the mail this week, it was an envelope containing a couple of letters and reviews written by students from the various schools I visited throughout the year,  they had to answer the following question, of all the speakers who visited your class this year who was your favorite and why? They also had to rank the speakers; low and behold I ranked as the number one speaker and the favorite of quite a few.  

These two experiences coupled with recent invites and requests for appearances instantly refueled my spiritual engines to continue with this labor of love.   I leave you with this thought; the results you seek when trying to fulfill your purpose may be slow to come and at times will cause you to question if you are in fact walking in the right direction, but don't give up, if God gave you the vision press on, an keep your eyes and ears open as the rewards may come in small packages!

I continue to be fascinated by the social media craze and the many ways that innovation surrounds it. Businesses are creatively promoting their priorities while others are carving new paths and creating new revenue generating opportunities for themselves. One such example are the companies that are developing new applications and tools to help us all interact more easily and efficiently in the world of social media.

 

Two such tools are Social Oomph (http://www.socialoomph.com/) and HootSuite (http://hootsuite.com/) created specifically to help you manage your Twitter accounts and communications. I happen to use both tools and would like to share my comparison, so you can determine which best fit your needs. The Valentine Consulting of South Florida mantra is, "Let technology work for you," so let's take a look. Keep in mind that there are more out there, but this is today's focus...

 

My caveat: There is an overlap in the features both platforms provide, so I will focus on the distinctions, both positive and constructive.

 

Social Oomph

Auto replys - set up a message that will be automatically sent to those who follow you. This is a great customer service touch and an automated way to manage your network of followers.

 

Replies Daily Digest - you receive a daily email, usually sent within 12 hours of all your @Replies. Have you ever tried combing through posts to find your @Replies? I absolutely love this feature.

 

Auto Follow/Unfollow - This platform has a setting that allows you to automatically follow those who follow you and unfollow those who unfollow you.

 

Vetting - You get to manually approve a new follower

 

Layout not easy to navigate - This layout is not the most user-friendly or attractive I have seen.

 

Pricing levels - There is a FREE package and a Professional package. The Professional package includes more comprehensive features but for most, the FREE package has a lot of what you need especially if you are just getting started.

 

HootSuite

FREE - Right now the entire platform and all its features are FREE to use

 

User-friendly, easy to navigate, and attractive layout - the dashboard is customizable and makes it easy to organize data and add tabs of information.

 

Track conversations in twittersphere - This feature allows you to follow and track conversations based on keywords...another great way to make technology work for you.

 

Easy to find people to follow - You can choose to follow people based on interest, brand, etc., but this feature makes it very easy to keep up and manage.

 

Groups- You can organize your followers into groups to more easily keep up with tweets (i.e. friends, clients, celebrities, etc.).

 

Feed your blog to Twitter - This feature allows you to automatically feed your blog to Twitter when it is updated...an easy way to go viral.

 

Ow.ly Link - This integrated resource allows you to shorten your link on the site for inclusion into your tweet and then it tracks and provides stats on these links. Measure, measure, measure!

 

No auto reply, auto follow, or auto unfollow - I really hope they plan to add these features because they are the biggest draw for me to use Social Oomph.

 

Both of these platforms boast many more features but these are the options that stood out to me the most, outlined based on what is most distinctive about each tool. I use both of these tools because the automated features on Social Oomph are priceless to me. Likewise, the customization, tracking, and user-friendly features of HootSuite make my life much easier and streamline the management of my clients' accounts.

 

I encourage you to take a look at both. If you are so-so when it comes to using technology, start with HootSuite. If you have a high level of comfort navigating technology, include Social Oomph in your toolkit. Let us know your take on these tools and feel free to share your Twitter tricks with us.

 

Next week, I will review a couple more of the Twitter resources, such as Ping.fm and TweetDeck, so come back and visit us.

 

 

Written by Suzzette Turnbull

President/CEO, Valentine Consulting of South Florida, LLC

Follow me: www.twitter.com/suzyturn

Email me: suzzette@solutionsmavens.net

Fan us: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Valentine-Consulting-of-South-Florida/96215061265

 

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