Father’s Day and the first day of summer! Seems like yesterday it was Christmas. This means the kids are out of school cramming themselves into the malls, that the freeways will have all the holiday warriors with their campers out in the fast lane of the freeway and everybody you try to phone in the next 2 months will be on holidays.

The big event at work starts tomorrow. We begin upgrading various software systems in preparation for the launch of MemberNote3 on Wednesday morning. There is a lot of clean up work and final testing to do. We have notified all the members via email or text messaging that service will be a bit unstable the next few days. By the end of the week we should be up and running which will be a huge benefit to everyone.

I am taking Friday off to volunteer for a national church convention at UBC. Having never been an usher before this should be interesting. Maybe tomorrow I’ll head over to WalMart and get some tips from the greeters.

One of my ‘hidden’ weapons when planning or just trying to get my head around anything is mindmapping. I know Doug True is a big fan of this. It all started in the mid ’70s when I attended a course out at UBC and was introduced to some of Tony Buzan’s books. His viewpoints on how our mind works were intriguing. So began the journey into using mindmaps. I still have one of my first mindmaps that summarizes a meeting. I can’t remember the details but from that mindmap there is certainly the expression that it was a good and productive meeting. They say the ultimate in mindmapping is to create one without words.

Then the personal computer age began and with my first Macintosh (LC – colour) a program called Inspiration appeared. I used that program for years but it moved into the elementary and secondary school realm and became less of a tool for me. Mindet MindManager is what I use now and it is extremely powerful and quick. There are a number of others and it is more a personal choice than anything else.

The question is why does something like this work. We tend to think in linear terms. A + B + C = D. We really push our minds into a box and quickly get into a rut of frustration when we try to deal with problems. A mindmap lets me move out of that box. By brainstorming and creating simple patterns, lines and text and using colour you are able to explore much more that you originally anticipated. One thing I must emphasize here is using colour. Colour can add an element that words can’t and using it expands on what you are attempting to say and solve.

Here is an abbreviated mindmap for The Mount Lehman Show. Any one of the solid coloured boxes can be drilled down to a further level. If you have never tried this before it does take some getting used to because it is so different. But don’t let that stop you from trying.

On Sunday I was googling this, that, and everything and came upon a site which was about German speaking Russians. My grandparents on my mother’s side were German speaking and were born in Russia which I could never figure out. Well this site and wikipedia entry gave me some great information. As I read further there was an entry with my mother’s maiden name (Kelln) and the village where my grandparents were from (Holstein). Some of the information was familiar so I sent off an email.

Today I received an email from Edith Bottsford which detailed some fascinating information. The family has roots back to a Hans Kolln from  Meimersdorf, Germany before immigrating to Holstein. Hans was a merchant in Germany. He was a widower and with his 4 sons arrived in Holstein May 26, 1765. He would have been born in 1718. There is a family chart that I need to get which will bring the family tree forward from that time.

What is also interesting is that my father’s family, which are English,  go back to a census in the 1750’s in London England where it is noted a Blishen lived. I looked this up when in London at the National Archives (also saw the original Doomsday Book there). The middle of the 1700’s is more than enough to find one’s roots.

As Canadians when we are asked where we are from the discussion usually leads to where your family is from. Up to now I was sure about the English side but not the German side. Now the answer can be I am a Canadian from English-German heritage or an English/German Canadian. It really doesn’t mean much as so many others can point much farther back. It just gives you an idea of where your roots are. Our youngest son lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. The circle eventually completes itself.

The night before last (early Monday morning) there was a break-in at the credit union. It has happened before and you know it will happen again but when it does happen it sort of freaks you out. The guy threw a large boulder through the front plate glass door, ran into the branch looking for computers and came away with an old HP scanner. There was a lot of glass and of course it happened at 3:00 a.m. so someone had to attend the branch with the police when the alarm went off.

The real freaky part is the video. You can usually begin to comprehend what has happened after an incident like this occurred but when you actually watch it, well I am not used to that. It is like reality TV where you work. I was thinking of downloading it to YouTube but just our luck this guy will have some rights and sue us. Today’s header shows the guy in action.

I got the Beetle today so had a very nice drive to work. The thing really goes fast and it is a lot of fun to drive. It does seem in this hot weather that every tree imaginable drips some sappy substance. Maybe it is tree sweat. The problem is with all the trees at home and at work it is tough finding a place that you can park without being under some trees. That said it was time to wash the car and get it clean again. 

Besides being nice to drive it is nice to wash. It has half the surface area of the other vehicle and you don’t have to stand on the bumper to get the roof done. There isn’t a square corner of any sort, everything is round. Half the water, half the soap, half the time. Not a bad deal.

It got me to thinking about the various consumables we constantly use. Do we really need all that extra large, super size, jumbo, buy two get one free stuff? Most items didn’t exist 50 years ago or were with us in some other form and we seemed to get by. The General Motors incident seems to show that you should build a model on a sustainable level. Maybe we should rethink what we consume to something along the same lines. There seems to be limits to a lot of things we use and the sooner we realize that this is not a ‘bad’ thing maybe the better off we will all be.

At the staff meeting this morning it was decided to release our new SM (social media) site to the outside world. We have shared the URL with the staff, board, some families and friends but we wanted to make sure we were satisfied with the look and feel of the site before telling everyone.

The whole project started a few months ago with a half day session. All of the staff met with Nala and Tim from Currency to discuss and plan the future of our credit union. We were open to anything and came to the conclusion that if our credit union was going to have social media as part of its culture it had to be done by everyone. Everyone. If all the staff were the face and personality of the credit union then the only authentic method to show that to the Internet world was those exact faces and personalities. We also wanted this to be a community site. We have been part of this neighbourhood for 67 years and wanted everyone to be part of this.  This site is who we are and who the community is that we live in. 

We bought the cameras and software and everyone dove in. There wasn’t and still isn’t a lot of structure as everyone contributes in some fashion. Everyone has as part of their job description now the responsibility of spending 2 hours per week on communicating through the credit union’s social media channel. The key understanding is simple, use your common sense. This is the result – The Mount Lehman Show.

We don’t know where this will take us or how it will end up, but the the journey so far has been unbelievable. Never in years of managing a credit union have I seen such energy and concern for a project. This site shows us and it shows some of our community. We thought we would run out of ideas. Wrong. We have more ideas that we could imagine.

Why is it working? I think a number of reasons. We have had a culture of innovation here so there was little hesitation to take this leap of faith. Technology is not a stumbling block, every staff member has an iPhone which really helps and we are a Mac credit union. But most important is that we all see the value in trying something like this. It adds to what we are by extending our relationships to members and people in the community. It really creates meaning for each of us in what we do and this is just another extension of that. It adds that important human dimension that we all seem to want in some form or fashion.

It is like climbing the first hill of the roller coaster. The ride has started and it is a lot of fun. We are learning more about each other as co-workers and as part of one team. Please sign up and be a friend. We are giving away an iPod shuffle to one person from those that sign up in the month of June. (We will be giving away some more neat stuff as soon as I get the order in). We hope you too can be part of this journey with us.

Yesterday on my way to a meeting in Vancouver I headed down Hastings Street for a change. Hastings and Main is in the downtown eastside and is considered a ‘bad’ area of town. There the poverty is apparent with the unemployed, homeless and addiction in plain view. As I was passing Insite I Twittered and took a picture. No one responded which seemed unusual. After some thought that was probably because most don’t know about Insite.

Insite is the first legal supervised injection site. It is the only geographic area (the building’s large injection room) in Canada where it is legal to inject drugs. The reasons for this are many, the main one being that addiction is a sickness and this is a health issue with a health facility to attempt to assist people in beating their drug addiction. What it has done is save lives, lives of those who have this illness. Sure there are two sides to this story and some that would take a very different view but the fact remains, lives have been saved.

A few years ago I had the opportunity to tour the site when with the Watari organization. It was a life changing event. Hearing the stories of the individuals and seeing what was happening brought to light that we as a community need to come to grips with the drug addiction problems of the poor and homeless. There are some that say this is the addicts choice. Other will call it bad fate. Whatever the reason it doesn’t make sense to neglect the problem and do nothing and let people die. It makes me wonder when I hear about a 31 year old aquarium dolphin that dies in the arms of its 5 handlers and nothing about the individual who dies in the back alley of a downtown street, alone with no human consolation.

It seems no matter how much you ‘prune’ your followers and following list is just tends to grow. So I am beginning to wonder why I am following some credit unions. 

All of them need ask themselves why are you on Twitter? Everyone will answer ‘to share information with our members’ or ‘to give your membership support’ or ‘to talk about events or things we may offer’. I thought Twitter was a means to converse, a way to share insights, send out a neat URL you just found or to stimulate discussion. Most of the CUs I look at are selling me something, or telling me something that will lead to a sale or asking a question that will certainly lead to a sales pitch. The idea of communicating the authentic or genuine seems to have been missed. 

There is this singular beauty of Twiter, those whom I follow I can also unfollow. Before the marketing department types go amuck here they need to realize that. People who follow want to see the thinking person. It is going to be very interesting to watch.

What would be better yet? SMS your member when you have something specific and personal for them to know. But remember only do it if they want you to. Communicating has become an option for the listener.

The creative ninja from Chilliwack, Tim McAlpine has delivered another video for the Your Symposium hosted by Forum Solutions in October.

Of course he is going to get together his posse and take over the 2nd morning with the young at heart. But Tim you have to look at yourself in the mirror. You are a Gen Xer. Your the Brand X of the generation pool. These young guys have more energy and are quicker than you. Us Boomers know to stay out of zone that that they create. My kids are Gen Y so there is some history to learn here. They will take you in because you are a nice guy. They will put up with you because you have that creative energy. But Tim you are a marketeer not a mouseketeer. Develop the Young and Free platform, get everyone excited but remember – the Boomers are your real friends. You don’t have to go over to the other side like that. Hoodie? Next you’ll be skateboarding and into graffiti and you will be listening to You Say Party We Say Die.

Seriously anyone reading this and has gotten this far needs to know Tim and I are friends, right Tim? What we both agree upon is that this is by far the best event you can attend and here are some reasons why.

• you will meet people who have fantastic points of view.
• you will have ample opportunity for discussions.
• you will probably meet some people you have never met before but have read their blogs and twitter postings.
• you will meet the most gracious hosts (Forum Solutions) ever, period.
• the food is lots of and great.
• this is the most real symposium with the most real people you can imagine.
• what you learn and hear will churn in your head for a long time.
• there is a magical, caring quality about this event that is unique and must be experienced.
• it will not let you down, it will exceed your expectations.

Sign up, be there, keep Tim happy. This happening is about great people and socializing with them. The media stuff and marketing is the value add on.

It has been a hectic few weeks in so many areas. It seems the older you get the busier you get with a smaller amount of time.

I remember as a child the times my father would promise some small treat or time together to do something. It was important to me at the time. Often he would forget and the promise would be broken. It was something you never forget and I still feel sad. Because all of us have experienced that in some way or other most of us make the attempt to deliver on whatever we promise.

Now we are no longer children and the promises we seem to get are more of the commercial nature. Products and services, businesses and agencies, we have numerous encounters where someone promises to deliver something. It seems more the norm though that these promises are broken time after time. Most don’t deliver their promises and those that do tend to be the ones we remember. And depending on how we were brought up most forgive but never forget the incident. Just how hard is it to deliver a promise these days? Probably more difficult than we think because we tend to rely on a chain of people or companies to assist us in keeping the promise. If that fragile chain is broken the promise deliverer is the one that gets it in the neck. 

Last Sunday, on Mother’s Day, my wife and I went to a local VW dealer and bought a new Beetle. This is my wife’s very first car. We had never had more than one car since we were married in 1972. Now with both of the kids gone and our active lives outside the home it was almost impossible for both of us to get to events and meetings with only one car. Marjun picked the car and the colour, I picked the promissory note and car insurance premiums. Tonight we head out to pick it up but 2 hours before we leave the phone rings. It is the dealership. The car is not going to be ready, something about the undercoat. The broken promise. 

I have no idea why but tonight we are still going over there to find out why. To find out why a simple phone call, when it was realized it wouldn’t have been ready, wasn’t made earlier. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome, there is a good chance it may all be sorted out but when you are sitting with a broken promise, an economic broken promise, the brand has been tarnished now and it didn’t have to be.

Post Script - When we got there they explained we would have to wait at least 40 minutes or so. They actually had heat lamps setup to make sure the undercoating was completely dry and ready when we drove away. The treatment we received was more than first class. For this car dealership, Westminster Volkswagen, I would give them a 10 out of 10 for taking it to the next level in customer satisfaction. Thank you Steve and Chris for making this a memorable event. 

Off we went to Stanley Park. Marjun let me drive. After driving the car for less than 40 minutes we were stopped by the police. He just said I was driving way to fast and to slow it down.He must have smelt the ‘new car’ smell and let me go. Thank you officer, I’ll give you a 10 out of 10 too!