McAlpine does it again

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.

The broken promises

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!

BarCampBankBC2

William, Tim and I had a conference call a few weeks back to discuss having another BarCampBank in B.C. Now when you are dealing with these two individuals you do not sit in the front seat, you sit in the back. They either do the driving or give the directions. Your job is just to make sure anything they have forgotten is mentioned or to jump in to volunteer to do something if it is something they can’t do. They really are two guys with extreme amounts of energy and vision.

What will the next Canadian west coast BarCampBank hold? This will be my fifth BarCampBank and as all our totally different you can never know. You hope that there will be a few people who have never attended because the enthusiasm they show seems to drive a lot of the energy of the function. You hope that people come without any preconceived ideas about what will happen. You know that you will meet up with people who have read your blog or who are twittering who you have never met before. The key point is the people. Sure there is always what is discussed and what issues were raised but it is always the people who come to mind when you think about what has happened before. To me that is the strongest point of BarCampBanks.

BCBBC2 is going to be different from all the rest. Above my desk at home is a picture of 6 gentleman from Texas sitting around a restaurant table. This is what I remember most about BarCampBankDallas last year. There are still 4 of them in Texas, one has moved to San Francisco, the other New York. I still hear regularly about events in their lives from their blogs or Twitter. Someday I hope to meet them all again. It really was the BarCampBank that created that connection. It is always an amazing experience when you think about it. Social media is what we all talk about but really the people behind the messages are what is important.

Susan Boyle and Twitter

It seems that trends in whatever the situation sometimes get too strong not to notice them. Yesterday Twitter showed Susan Boyle as a popular trend. The Twitter search showed some interesting comments so once again a quick click begins the journey.

A very interesting and emotional video presents a woman with a beautiful singing voice. Then you notice the number of views. As of this writing it is at 32.7 million. Yesterday when viewed it was at 29.7 million. 3 million views in one day. Even if you count everyone seeing it twice, the numbers are phenomenal for something learnt through this ‘word of mouth’ Internet process.

Now the comments and blog posts abound with various scenarios of reason and expertise. I just seem to have questions about how did this all come about? There isn’t a PR or ad agency in the world that could get that number of views for anything. It seems there is nothing to sell here. It is just a very transparent view of human nature. We see and hear a story and for a brief moment relate to it by whatever fashion. I wonder if just an audio of the event would have that garnered that sort of impact. There are so many components working in that clip you have to view it more than once to be able to realize what is taking place.

The outcome will be different for each person. For me it once again spoke to people are just people. We are social creatures. Our emotions for a lot of the time are just unexplainable and when we try to explain them they loose their magic.

Twitter plays a part here that is unique. Individuals, unedited individuals, are offering their views in small readable sentences, about things that matter to them. It isn’t necessarily a matter of what are you doing but more what are you thinking, what is having an impact on you right now. The experts are out detailing the top-10-whatevers you need to follow with Twitter for sure but the key thoughts and ideas of each person keep ringing true. It is amazing to watch but also be a part of times like these. We never really know the impact of anything until it is viewed in the rear-view mirror. It does seem the earth’s axis did tend to shift a little this last week.

The 5th anniversary of MemberNote

By now most people who have read this blog know about Mt. Lehman Credit Union’s MemberNote product. We have been working on the newest version of MemberNote (MemberNote3) for these past months and realized last week that April 15, 2004 was the day we launched the first version. It does seem like it was only yesterday for all of us here.

What have we learned by being the first to deliver real-time alerts?

That above all, the members use and appreciate what we have done. Time and time again we hear the stories of how they have used this and how it has helped them. Going into building this, we had this as the key reason for doing all of this work. If it was something of value to the end user then it would be worth it. We don’t charge anything for this which we believe is important.

That being first to market with something puts you into a whole new realm. (I think Tim can speak more to this). There hasn’t been any competition so there is nothing to compete against it. The product really stands alone right now. We had hoped that others would have been to market by now and that ideas and enhancements would have been added and pushed this type of service to a higher level. But that hasn’t been the case and in some ways it is disappointing. Probably the biggest disappointment is that because we are so small the drum we beat isn’t heard by others. That is the cost of being small. It has been interesting to view what the ‘experts’ say about alert messaging. They certainly have their views and we are sometimes amazed as to how they come to their particular conclusions. So often what they opinion is not what we see after 5 years of experience. But then they have the bigger drum.

The crux of all of this though is that you can do whatever you put your mind to. Forget about listening to the ‘doubting Thomas’s’. Don’t pay any attention to all of that outside ‘noise’ that keeps telling you that only the big players with their vast resource bases can accomplish what is necessary. These last few months of economic turmoil have told us much about what that eventually can lead to. Is there anything so insidious as the remark ‘too big to fail’? There has to be a balance for sure. To be creative and innovative is not for the weak hearted. You have to believe what you can accomplish and not look back. You will fail and you will fall but that should not stop you from arriving at what think should be done. This small group of employees at this small credit union have accomplished some incredible things. What does the future hold? We don’t know but are working on a few items so stay tuned. Probably never as big as this but what the heck. As Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870), the first senior officer of the U.S. Navy at the time of the American Civil War said, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.”

Twitter and the new search function

Take a look at this post at TwiTip as Chris Allison explains some of the features of the newly released Twitter search function.

I have been using the search function on the iPhone application Tweetie for over a month now and have found it an extremely useful function. Twitter has expanded that functionality by a huge factor. You really need to just dive into this and try a few of the searches out. I tried the near:abbotsford function and quickly saw a huge list of people getting over last nights hangover. That gives a new perspective of Abbotsford for sure. Chris points to a phrase the hive mind which seems very applicable in trying to grasp what is happening here. (and of course there is a definition on Wikipedia!)

Something came through loud and clear at the recent NorthernVoice conference. The strict borders that were voiced 5 years ago that people and businesses don’t mix that well in blogging and social media have passed. Mainstream media and valued businesses are accepted in what they present through any social media means. Sure they are filtered but the platform allows them to speak. The rigid pendulum has moved. Twitter seems to be the rage and not just a passing fashion. With the search function and this view of the hive mind, you can begin to realize another paradigm shift about to happen or has happened. The ‘wisdom of crowds’ can be viewed as an actual dynamic knowledge pool.

Once again we can see a wave of change about to occur. Our world gets smaller, bigger, adds a new dimension or garners an attribute that we could only think about a few years ago. Of course there will those were changes are not viewed with any admiration, only suspicion. Those that can attempt to try something different will once again have a unique learning experience. For me, anything that makes meaning is what life is all about. Search on!

The Italian Deli

Just about every Monday (it is a day off) I head up to Hastings Street to the Ortona Deli to pick up lunchmeat. It never ends up with just lunchmeat. There is always something else to try.

The store isn’t that big. One big aisle down the centre with shelving and dry goods on one side and the meat and cheese window coolers on the other. You have to look pretty carefully to find things but over the years you find some gems.

Barilla pasta. This is pasta that you can boil for 10 minutes and it is still firm. It never gets pasty or soft. I have made a meal of some linguine, added olive oil and then fresh ground pepper and freshly grated Romano cheese (a cheese named after Rome having been made for over 2,00 years). Now I understand why Italians love pasta.

Cambozola. This is a blue veined cheese made up of Gorgonzola and Camembert. Creamy with a tartness that you need to limit yourself from eating it all, at once

Casa Giullia Amarene jam – sour black cherry. Not sweet but pleasant. Filled with actual cherries.I find the jar much too small.

Callipo Tuna in Olive Oil. You will never go back to Tuna in water again.

Today my find was olives, Sicilian olives. The are large, light green, pitted olives that have a bit of a spicy taste to them. They are very firm with a bit of a crunch to them. Very different from Calamata or Morrocan olives.

It does seem that some of the fondest pleasures are not too far from your door step. I always look forward to Monday mornings.

Self fulfilling prophecies

Finally a small amount of time to be able to write something. I was back east for a meeting in Winnipeg and stopped in to visit my son and daughter-in-law in Saskatoon. It turned cold the day I left, well cold for someone from the west coast.

These past few weeks I have been hearing this phrase “self fulfilling prophecies” on the radio and TV as well as reading it in the newspapers. Interesting phrase. It is usually mentioned that during these difficult economic times our speaking about it not getting better serves the negative purpose of it being a self fulfilling prophecy. What is also interesting is that there doesn’t seem to be any quick fix. What was to be cleared up in 6 months has turned to be a year which is turning into 2 years and possibly longer. How long did it take to create the mess we are in? I would suggest it may take that long to get us out of it.

When things were going ‘great guns’ there was nothing but euphoric hype that it would never end. If there was ever a suggestion that it may end or we should maybe turn the tap down a bit, one was usually drowned out by the great economic champions of free enterprise. Now it is only a few months old and the same captains of industry are telling us to stop talking about it because it is a self fulfilling prophecy. Maybe we should talk about it in any fashion we want to. Maybe some are very upset over loosing a big chunk of net worth. Maybe those that are saying to tone it down should be told to shut up. We are still hearing from so many ‘experts’ about what will happen. These in large part are the same ‘experts’ that were telling us nothing would ever come down, everything would always go up.

Well that sound that you hear you have heard everyday for a while now. That sound is the toilet flushing. Toilets have to flush to get rid of certain objects that you don’t want around anymore. Our system is beginning to notice things that may need flushing. It isn’t a matter of fixing, or throwing more money at it, or saying it will get better. It is a matter of getting rid of toxic loans and bad credit decisions and God knows what else. That takes time. It will be painful and it will not be pleasant but we will pull out of it and sometime in the unknown future it will be better. Right now we are still trying to understand how bad the wounds really are. Besides medication, much of getting better happens over the course of time — a priceless and limited commodity for all of us. Much of how we get better is to give things time to heal. It may take longer than what we originally expected but given the resilience of our communities, neighbours, family and the democracies we all live in, I have no doubt we will survive. Those economic wounds we suffer are far from the heart that creates the meaning for our lives.

Is this a trend in blogging?

I am just reviewing my Twitter feed and come across this

@rshevlin I’m considering pulling a Shevlin and saying sayonara to my blog. Half a visit per minute spent on a post may not be worth it.

What is happening here? First Shevlin and now the Warrior?

I can understand the need to move on, to see the limited resource of time diminish to the point of re-establishing one’s priorities but really that should be the main reason. Take some time off. Post a big blinking sign on your blog that you are on vacation and give us some lame excuse but please don’t quit. I mean how are you going to synthesize those diatribes into 140 characters? You can’t! What is going to happen to all those great ideas and thoughts that swirl around your cranium? They have to go somewhere or your head will explore.

Seriously though, and for purely selfish reasons, one puts together a group of blogs of some very intelligent and interesting people from every walk of life. For a few minutes every day you get to read what others are thinking and doing without any editorial bias from any unseen source. Sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad but they are always read. They make sense and if they don’t you get to comment and contribute. They break down an individual barrier that we all struggle with, that of thinking we are alone in our thoughts. That someone from Boston or North Carolina or Iowa could make such a connection to someone in B.C. is a remarkable experience and one that I place a high value on. There are times someone hasn’t blogged for months. Then suddenly they appear again. Sure there are some that will never blog and that is ok. Maybe this is just a phase that blogging must go through. Like it isn’t centuries old is it.

One of my favourite authors is Robertson Davies. Over the years I have read his books, sometimes more than once. When he passed away, there would be no more books and that was sad. I have one book left of his that I haven’t read and that is being saved for a some warm summer days in the not to distant future. When someone like the CU Warrior says he maybe quitting I can appreciate his position. It isn’t like he won’t be around anymore. It is that there will be something missing. Life gets like that as you get older. Things are missed. We need to remember to celebrate the moment because that gets to be very important.

Happy customers

Lori Newton twittered or tweeted about having iPhone craving as being irrational. I can understand the craving but it is not irrational.

When the iPhone appeared last July in Canada it was a foregone conclusion that I was going to get one. It was getting painful carrying the iPod Touch and the Motorola cell phone at all times and having to use the two devices to do some simple things. The question that loomed is how would this device help the credit union I worked for? We are a Mac credit union and it was pretty clear that it would fit in well with what we were already doing. So all of the staff, that means everyone, got an iPhone. I didn’t realize then that it would be an exceptional fit. It was one of the better decisions we have made. As part of the compensation for working for the credit union the only charge would be to pay for those services that you use outside of work i.e. data roaming when in Europe, ouch.

What have we learnt? Well first of all anyone that has left the credit union wants to keep the iPhone and have the service transferred to themselves personally. When I have asked the person what they wanted to do there was no hesitation in stating they were keeping the iPhone. People really like this device and have found so many pragmatic uses for it. It is addicting. Secondly this device has given us an unbelievable opportunity for communication amongst ourselves 24/7. We have the ability to easily, and that point must be stressed, easily, call or email or SMS each other. No one finds a simple SMS an intrusion to get an update on some pending manner. A telephone call can be viewed very differently. Sometimes a call is just a plain pain in the neck. The synching of your contact information with your desktop adds another easy solution of finding the number to call and knowing who has called you. Having something this small and connected to the Internet either by wifi or 3G is another huge plus. By the way our plans included data transfer maximums. No one has come close to their data limits. Why? A lot of the time you can connect via wifi, much more than you think. But watch out when traveling, it gets unbelievably expensive to use American or European networks. There seems to be more apps than one can imagine so if there is something specific you probably will be able to find it in the App Store.

One hears about Apple fanboys and the zealous cult following this company has. I wouldn’t put my view of Apple in those terms. It would be summed up in something simple like ‘a happy customer’. In today’s marketplace with so much lipservice for product and service it feels pretty good to just be happy about something you use all the time. Try the poll.

Chapters sucks

I don’t usually get upset with bad service but today it was worse than bad.

I was at Chapters in Metrotown Burnaby BC to buy a book on baking. I had taken 4 books from the shelves and was looking for a place to sit to review the books. Every seat was taken. Every person in a seat had a single book that was being read. It didn’t look like they were going to give up their seat anytime soon. There was a lot of space on the side by the shelves so I sat down on the floor and began to look at the books. If I am buying a book on a subject I want to review it to get the right one. Within a minute an employee came up to me and said I couldn’t sit there, company policy, and I had to go to the far end of the shop to sit. I was about to tell him there was no space but he walked away. I picked up the books and wandered through the shop, once again no place to sit. I came back to the bookshelf area and put the books back. No luck in finding the person who originally told me I approached another person stating my problem. All that I was cited was it was company policy and sorry. I left the store not buying anything.

Chapters really didn’t want my business. No one that spoke to me wanted to help or discuss the problem. It was like a take it or leave it attitude. Sorry but with that type of service you couldn’t give me the book for free. You really need a few lessons on customer service. No way I am going back there.

When economic times get tough business is going to have to get better in so many ways to survive. It will probably be difficult to a large business like Chapters to key into this given their size. It will take a lot of work to change such a haphazard attitude towards service. Gook luck Chapters. Time to get better acquainted with someone else.

Retweeting

There is an excellent post on TechCrunch about a site for retweeting. I hadn’t really thought about this because using Twitter in a browser doesn’t have this function. TweetDeck does (and if you aren’t using this program as your desktop browser you are loosing some extremely valuable tools and processes) and the wonderful iPhone app Tweetie. The program Retweetist purports that retweeting indicates authority or popularity and the program lists those tweets that have had numerous retweets (enough with the tweets…)

What seems to be happening here is that Twitter, since it seemingly is or is close to mainstream now, is beginning the “authority” or “popularity” or whatever you want to call it game, like past discussions on blogging and Technorati. Benedict Spinoza said something about vain people “It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.” That sums up the popularity discussion for me.

Those that I have followed who have used Twitter for over a year (and that is a generalization) don’t appear to be playing this game. Those that one follows or are following are part of a network. That network is built up over time and it becomes a valued network. To me it is a very simple criteria to follow someone – I have either met them personally or would like to meet them someday. The popularity that others may speak of is not important because what people state on twitter is for my ears. The authority that is being discussed is moot. Numerous times this network of fellow Twitterers have shared valuable thoughts and insights that have always made my day much more colourful. The stimulus of a single sentence is extremely positive. It is one’s own Bartlett’s – Familiar Quotations. There is humour, sadness, wisdom, political irony, joy and many more emotions attached to these 140 character blurts. I have rarely quit following anyone. That action takes place when people begin to twitter numerous times in a row, numerous days in a row. That isn’t twittering, that is Soapboxing.

Twittering is growing because people are finding new ways to challenge it’s limitations. Allowing saved searches in Tweetie gives you a very valuable tool to keep track of memes you want to follow. Being able to save linked URLs in Instapaper is just plain neat as you can quickly garner the days reading. Tweetdeck’s additional columns for 12 seconds and TwitScoop help tie in tweets to the Internet in a quick and easy fashion. This functionality will only grow. I just wish I could establish different groups to tweet to, like Jaiku (whoops). If everyone you followed, and you followed them for the right reasons, tweeted their most interesting URL once in awhile, that would be better than any search I could create in Google.

Saturday and its raining

Woke up this morning with a very bad cold. Thought I could get to work but didn’t even make it to the bathroom. With ample medication I am now mobile to some point.

Jen Lowther has written an interesting post on 10 things that will not make me follow you on Twitter. They are all pretty good but I had to disagree with #8. I think protecting your Tweets allows you a greater degree of choice in who follows you. I have had numerous requests for someone to be a follower but when I quickly glance at the home Twitter site or their blog most get turned down. Why? There doesn’t seem to be anything in common between us. Why would someone in Serbia who is 20 years old and looking for a husband follow me or a used car salesman in North Carolina? Both had thousands of followers so what is their real purpose in amassing this many followers? It just seems to be somewhat prudent to have this function setup rather than spending time gleaning your followers list every few months.

Handwriting Game

Handwriting Game

Originally uploaded by muempress

This seems interesting. Thank you Lisa.

First day back

I was off for a few weeks with the family at Christmas. Got to work early to get things and order and that was the first mistake. You never really learn do you. Those 2 weeks or so mean that when you arrive you actually have 2 weeks or so of stuff that needs to get caught up. It doesn’t matter when you come in there is enough there for more than those 2 extra hours. The really neat part of coming back is all the people that need to see you right now and after you talk to them a bit you wonder why they have come to this conclusion. There are so many adept people here you really didn’t need to talk to me. Is it a gender thing or what?

The snow is melting which is a real blessing to my back, arms and legs. The neighbour next door had to start using our snow shovel as he broke his. That is what happens when you have to shovel every single falling snow flake. Great guy but his sidewalks and driveway were just too clean. On the other side this neighbour did the easiest thing, minimal snow removal as they headed south for the holidays. He maybe shoveled 3 times. Toro used to sell small electric snowblowers years ago. If there is a Father’s day present in sight it will be something like that.

Next up seeing if there is something coming out of Macworld that will make life simpler. Doesn’t seem like anything important except the myriad of upgrades. It would be much better to sometimes just fix certain things so they work instead of giving us upgrades. But then I could be using a PC.

On the 13th day of a Christmas holiday

It is interesting to take a holiday from work. Most people need the break, some more than others. The problem always seems to be how long does it take to dis-engage from that work cycle. Invariably you tend to ‘dabble’ in a few things about work even when you are supposed to be on holidays. Your spouse will quickly remind you of any dabbling that you do. There just happens to be this demand or driving force to just get that last thing done or to find out about something that may have happened at work. This holiday was not be one of dis-engagement but it has a different quality by being with the kids.

It seems the better (read dis-engaged) holidays have always had the following points.

physically moving yourself to another geographic area at least in another time zone. The more times zones the better.
having a strong focus on what you plan to do i.e. golf. That may mean you don’t take your wife along. That presents another problem of dis-engagement.
removing any ability to contact you either via phone or Internet. Postal mail is ok.
defining the holiday by the number of postcards you send or at least buying the postcard but not having sent them. They sometimes make the best pictures of your visit.
your ability to finish at least 2 of the books you wanted to. You probably took 5 with you.
the number of times you forgot to shave (or brush your teeth).
having your meals at times you would not normally have a meal. Nothing like having supper at 9:00 p.m.

This Christmas I had a few weeks off to be at home with the family. There wasn’t much we did due to the snow and weather. There was stuff that was work related. It was still a good holiday.

Social Capital and the positive capital of employment

My good friend and colleague William Azaroff has a very thoughtful post about the need for all of us to be creating social capital through our affiliations with others on the web and that this can prove a benefit with these different economic times upon us. I wanted to bring another view into focus.

I have long felt that as an employer (one that hires and fires) one of the most important aspects of working with people is to create an environment of trust and respect. Over the years there have been a number of people that have worked for the credit unions I have worked for that got their start with us and then moved on for various reasons. It has always been difficult to see these people leave as has been the case recently. You train and challenge them to be better employees and people and you watch them grow. Life does not remain stagnant and so things change and people move on.

It is important that as an employer you keep the relationships open to the point of having that person who wants to move on talk to you about it. When they feel confident enough to approach you to say that they are going to be looking for another job then you can prepare for their eventual departure. The process becomes healthy and proves to be a benefit to both parties. One of our employees told me they were looking for something else. That was a few months ago and they recently found a new job. They had the ability to say at any interview that they could call us, the current employer, for a reference. Now how powerful is that? They had the ability to take the time off for interviews without saying it was a doctors appointment. It was a transparent approach for them in moving their career path as they saw fit. It doesn’t happen often but when it does it puts a proper closure to the situation of leaving an old job and getting a new one.

Employers should be creating social capital that can be used by current employees as they need it. That should be the norm.

Then you have the other side when you have to let someone go. To terminate anyone is one of the most painful experiences you can imagine. To do it abruptly and quickly makes it worse. When you are able create a transitional plan that incorporates social values that both parties hold as important, that takes some of the pain out of the situation. The impact of loosing people affects the bottom line of course but the loss of anyone diminishes the social capital of any business in ways that one never realizes until that person has gone. You really can’t measure this loss. In the difficult times we will face in the future one hopes that the worst situation possible, loss of one’s job, can be handled with care, compassion and respect. Everyone deserves that.

This is the element that scares me the most for the future. Experience has taught me most people can live under difficult economic circumstances. It becomes tragic when people loose their livelihood. Much of what defines us is what we do and when we loose that important definition our lives become that much blacker. If social capital is one way of alleviating that despair it will make a true difference in how we move forward.

Early Christmas Morning

Our family maintains a European tradition of opening presents on Christmas Eve. Our grandparents had this tradition (German) and when I married Marjun it remained as it is also the Danish tradition. Christmas Day has always been quiet and peaceful.

It was a different Christmas Eve for us this time. Our daughter-in-law was not with us as she had to remain in Saskatoon. Both Fleming and Nils were here so it seemed a lot like a Christmas of their past childhood. Typically we sang some Christmas carols after the Christmas Eve dinner and before we opened presents. This is the time we all have a good laugh at the male section of the family. Even though we all love music Nils and I can’t sing. Fleming is much better. Marjun is choir material. If we don’t have the song sheet in front of us most second verses are pretty well ad-libbed which makes for a lot of fun. This year I took some videos for posterity.

My family always amazes me at their generousity. My mother-in-law always sends me some wonderful mohair socks which are appreciated immensely. There is nothing so soothing on the feet. Marjun got me a Roots training outfit (that must be a hint to get to the gymn). The rest was DVDs, a moleskine and books. This years books are:

A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada by John Ralston Saul

Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries by Naomi Wolf

Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer

With all the snow this year and the sudden return to milder temperatures it will be a slushy and wet Christmas Day. The perfect time to stay inside and enjoy each others company.

Saturday before Christmas

Colder than it has ever been in Vancouver since I can recall. If it stays like this the lineup at the stores for skates will start with every body of water an ice rink.

Day 3 of Christmas holidays is going well. Not much to do and not much planned. There is the Blackhawks – Canucks game to go to tonight. This will be my first hockey game this season and I am going with a die-hard hockey fan. It would be nice to get to Dix’s before the game.

Anyone finished all of their Christmas shopping yet? If you have one can only think you are the prepared type for this holiday season stuff. I didn’t want to say anal.

Ron Shevlin has hung up his blog as of yesterday. He will be missed. He had some great stuff there and it will be missed by a lot of people. I think anyone who blogs for more than a few years has that question in the back of their mind as to how much longer. The excitement seems to wear off and at times it becomes a chore. It does push you though to get something out. Procrastination is the enemy of blogging.

Here’s wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Year’s. That should cover anyone who I forget to send a card to, right?