08.28.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:42 pm by livefood
Most organizations, be they small local ones like the garden club or large ones like Lions and Rotary, depend on two concepts to keep their membership from vanishing…one is new members…the other is keeping them. It’s really very simple…don’t ask new folks to join or get involved and they don’t…more than very simple…extremely uncomplicated.
The variation that sometimes gets thrown out as the excuse for why such-and-such a group is different is that they had prospective members come to their meetings and one doesn’t have to have an invitation to join…okay…so a new person shows up, expresses interest, volunteers to work on the web site and doesn’t hear back from the group until the server crashes say…oh…five months later. That my friend deosn’t get folks involved…which leads into the “number two” from above.
If folks are involved in a group, they tend to drift away. That’s the simplified explaination…but keeping folks in a group is also a pretty straight forwrd type of deal. Folks need to feel that they are important and needed…”They don’t need me” will always turn into an inactive member…and usually into a situation where the membership is dropped.
People join groups for a number of reasons but a primary reason is to feel needed and wanted….they want to be liked and appreciated…hence the awards banquets for a lot of groups…the pins, the certificates and on and on…they want to be appreciated.
A variation on the lack of involvement is when they are posing questions prior to joining…the answers make the organization look one way and oops…when they are “in” they find out that the group is not that friendly…or they really don’t give lots of money…or they don’t actually meet but sporatically…they are a whole lot older looking and thinking than was suggested…
…it’s akin to the “bait and switch” scam…I know that nobody wants to think of their recruitment as a scam…but not telling the real story by painting the group as different than it really is…well, that i scam and will backfire everytime. Churches do this too…so don’t feel like your group is immune.
I asked a good friend once why he didn’t belong to any social groups and he just flatly told me, “Nobody every asked me to join any.”…he didn’t say that he was “too busy”…he didn’t say “I don’t want too”…he didn’t use any excuse other than nobody ask him. He had never been asked by Rotary (he is a business owner and well known), Lions, any of the tips clubs, the local sports club, Elks, Moose, Masons (he would be fifth generation skipping his father apparently)…so how does a high profile guy get over-looked? I don’t think the members in most clubs and groups even think to ask…my friend might not be the easiest person in the world to convince to join…but not asking him (and probalby many others like him) leaves me thinking that clubs and groups cook themselves in a stew they make themselves.
I’m pretty sure that is the case with most groups and most people…don’t ask and you essentially get a “no.:
Off the soapbox…tomorrow will be another.
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08.27.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:25 pm by livefood
I drive through Nevada a lot. I’m not a trucker, but I drive like one.
My in-laws lie in Twin Falls, Idaho and we have a cabin in Montana…so I80 and I are friends…good friends.
For years I have been looking at the stripes and lines on the freeway. They were huge! Like twice as wide as any other states lines…maybe because the speed limit (hahaha) is 75mph…bigger stripes and longer hatches are easier to see whizzing by if they are bigger. Everyso often when the drive got boring…and don’t gi e me grief about how wonderful Nevada is…the drive is old…my Grandmother lived in Boise…I’ve been making this drive for 1/2 a century…even though I am only 39 years old (again)…
but when the drive gets boring I used to make jokes about the unavailability of paint to other states (like California) could not properly maintain their roads…Nevada used all the paoint available in the Western US…they had first right of refusal on all road stipe paint avialable…the president of the firm making the pain lost all the production on a bad bet at tables in Lost Wages…
This summer hower, there is major road work taking place in Nevada and the road surface is being restriped. The stipes and lines are smaller now…normal sized.
Nevada has lost it’s edge on the paint.
I’m pondering what I’m going to ponder as I drive the road again in a couple of months. Now that the stripes are normal there will be nothing to muse…except the colors of various sage brush.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 3:09 am by livefood
I really only get strange new rules for professional sports when my team is doing poorly. Last night was no exception…so new rules were in play…as was a slight redesign for the park…the use of the word “park” should give you some idea of the type of sport we were watching.
Those foul balls…you know the really high ones that stay in play…usually caught…but not always. Well, last night the Seattle team was catching all of them and the Oakland guys seemed to be hitting too many of them…so I was thinking (pity it happens sometimes)…the railings along first and third and behind the plate should be wrapped in barbed wire…you could sell it as a crowd control measure but I think the players would think twice as they ran towards the stands to catch the ball…that way Seattle would leave their hands off of the balls that Oakland put into the air…never mind that Oakland would have the same disadvantage…reality may or may not have any influence on my great ideas.
But the best idea started with a kernal from my Dad…we were “watching” the game together…going no where fast it was…so we decided that in order to speed up the game just a tad, two players could stand in the batter’s box…one lefty one right hander each with a bat. The UMPIRE would throw the pitches using three balls at the same time…let ur rip.
We didn’t get to the base running or scoring methods yet…probably a good idea.
Actually sometimes the good idea is not to have one at all…last night was one of those nights.
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08.25.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:05 pm by livefood
I wrote this while at our cabin in Yellowstone country. I couldn’t upload it very easily so waited until we got back and cleared some cobwebs from the desks (like in “caught up” with some unfinished business)…
So I’m sitting here in West Yellowstone, Montana and “working” from our cabin beside a lake. I use quotes around the “work” word…because I sort of feel like I’m cheating somehow. I do set up the WIFI just after I unload the truck we come up here in…then I hack down weeds along the paths to cut down on mosquito roosting places…then come back in to check email and work on searches.
I mean I do work…it’s just doesn’t feel the same as the office back home. Well that might be because it’s not the same. Right now a pretty powerful thunderstorm is moving up the lake and the waves are getting significant…and imagine that, nobody is out water skiing…or jet skiing even. ..oh wait…there goes a boat…no skier but there is a boat…brave soul…or stupid…looks like he’s headed for the other shore…now turning into the wind…now beaching it on the shore across from us…so he’s not stupid…just got caught with his panties around the ankles.
I’ll be up here for a couple more weeks and then heading back.
In the mean time I’m going to try to get ahead with some of my reading and music compositions…a few pieces need to be polished…well maybe a bit more than just polishing.
The town of West Yellowstone is the same yet is a bit different every year. It’s funny how some towns can’t adapt to changes…West can. I’m sure that there might be a little less spending going on by some people…but the town is packed with people and it’s tough to get a good parking place. The line at the Foster Freeze to get a soft ice cream is looonnng.
Coming up we saw just two rental RVs…last year we saw 55 on the round trip…the year before we counted 157 on the round trip. There is definitely a different mode to come here…still lots of bikes heading to Sturgis. (we saw a TOTAL of 19 on the complete trip this year).
So what ever is happening in the economy, it’s not same here in West. I’m happy for the town folks.
But I can tell you not to get too fussed up about the hype regarding 3G…not always reliable…we used it just fine here last year…this year it’s slow to just get the email…sorry ATT…not quiet what is was in the past.
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08.21.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:12 pm by livefood
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08.20.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:19 pm by livefood
“If it doesn’t happen now, I don’t want to hear any carping from the left. Your own party had a shot and screwed it up. Democrats, you will have no one to blame but yourselves. It’s now or never. So stop whining about the Republicans and get your own house in order.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Roland S. Martin.”
It’s a CNN piece…take it within that context…but there are some good points to be made in the piece. Too much is made about the minority Republicans holding everything up…maybe there is a reason to hold the reins and ride a bit longer on this bill…say a TRILLION reasons.
Remember that the Budget Office only thinks the bill will cover 11 million people…nowhere near the 45 million or so that are not currently covered by health insurance…that is a cost of over $90,000 per person…so we spend a TRILLION for a plan that may not serve all those who are now un or under served? What’s with that?
If you want a real good laugh…or just want to cry…look at the definitions of “small business” in the bill. I can’t think of a single employer in our area that qualifies (because of the size of the payroll) that would fit into the bill’s requirements to make healthcare available or to pay for it…no one is not already paying all or a major portion of the healthcare for their employees…of course the vast majority of employers in the area are way WAY too small to be effected by the bill…and most people who might not have healthcare now…well they won’t have it when the bill passes either…at least in our area.
The bill has some big flaws…they need to get it right…they need to take their time. A good bill will pass when it hits the floor for the vote with some of every party voting in the affirmative and some from every party voting “con.” It’s the way it’s suppose to be.
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08.19.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:14 pm by livefood
Well ain’t technology a great thing…or not. Last year we had a little device with us from Cradlepoint and plugged out aircard into it…set up the WIFI in the middle of the Gallatin National Forest just outside Yellowstone National Park…and it was pretty much “business as usual.”
Last year is not this year. The Cradlepoint device worked well…the ATT phone worked well…but the aircard (ATT) didn’t pull in crud. What a huge disapointment that arrangement was. We’re rethinking the technology for next year…and I’d bet that the ATT phone card will not be on the short list of solutions. 3G? WhereZ? I don’t know, but not where we were…and cell towers are visible on the hill across the lake. Geeeze.
No convenient interent was the reason for no blogging…Facebook was impossible…everything that was web was a joke…somedays it didn’t even want to download email into Outlook and when it did the turtle was slow…very slooooooow…and I could add a couple of more “verys” and a few more “Os” to the phrase.
You really don’t know how much you are attached to the interent until you are without for a coupdl of weeks.
I like the internet. I work on it all day and most of the day on weekends. I store my stuff on the internet. I learn from the interent…I don’t get a newspaper anymore…I get better information on the internet.
What I’m afraid of is folks like ATT knowing just how addicted we are becoming and when they got us where they want us they will use our very acquired tastes to pound us into submission…voting for Bush again perhaps…it could happen…right?
Luckily we could hook up to a WIFI at the visitors center to catch up on the email…but it would have been rude to sit there for hours in my normal routine…but then I wouldn’t have been able to listen to more of the same questions being asked of the staff…”I need a room in the Park”…there none available is the answer…”I need a room in town”…here’s a list of hotels and motels in town…the phone is over there…the other question/statement and answer…
The questions about rooms went on and on…over and over.
Two years ago we started counting rental RV units on the road during out trip…157 two years ago…55 last yeat and just 19…NINETEEN…this year. I know this is n informal and very non-scientific way to survey anything, but 157 to 55 to 19 is pretty dramtic even in a non-science sort of way.
BUT more people were going through the gates at Yellowstone…about 10% more per month…some additional sales tax revenue was being collected in town and the room tax was up a bit…but sale and room taxes were up no where near the perportionally to the visits through the gates…so if they weren’t renting rooms or RVs and not spending in town where were they staying and what were they buying? Who knows…but more people were in town…and fewer parking spaces were available.
But Obama came to visit Old Faithful…should have come out to our cabin to visit…he would have had a slightly different experience at the cabin…we watched the transport plane fly by…it looked like it was going out of Bozemand…that’s for the chopper he travels with…not the Harley sort of chopper…the Heli kind…although YNP is on the road to Sturgis and Obama would have looked cool hangin out with a Harley…it would have been fun watching him get tangled up with fly line as he tried to fish on the Madison. I wonder if Obama had trouble with email on his Berry…I’ll bet he didn’t pick any Huckleberries…we did…so nana nana nana na.
I’ve been home for only 19 hours an already am thinking of the trip back in June next year.
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