21 Feb 12 Small change is a big help
Loose change. It’s one of my favorite parts of cleaning house. </p><p>Flip the couch cushions, vacuum the rugs and do the laundry — I can find enough change to buy coffee and a cupcake most of the time. but Ella Rose Eckerson sees more than lunch money in the loose pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters she finds while cleaning house. She sees <span class="italic">actual </span>change. </p><p>She saves the money. and at the end of the year she donates it to <a href ="literacykc.org" target="_blank">Literacy Kansas City</a>. It’s her way of giving back.</p><p>“I am a very privileged person,” says Ella Rose, 27. “I know how to read. I never went hungry. I had an amazing childhood. my parents were great. I think it’s mandatory for people to give back.”</p><p>She grew up in Nebraska, where her parents taught her the importance of volunteering. Food pantries, animal shelters and the like — community service is what she did. </p><p>but these days, she cleans house. Ella Rose is a one-woman cleaning business (<a href="mailto:"></a>). and she loves it. </p><p>It started by accident really. One day she was working the front desk at a salon in Lee’s Summit when a client said she needed someone to clean her home. Ella Rose volunteered because she likes cleaning, cooking and keeping house.</p><p> that was almost four years ago. now she has a dozen clients, and her job isn’t just helping her give back. It’s paying her way through school at Penn Valley Community College. She hopes to transfer to the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fall as a junior and major in mechanical engineering. </p><p>“I scrub toilets for a living,” she says with a laugh during a phone conversation. “I’m scrubbing one now. and I love going to work. That’s not something many people can say. but I work three days a week and make a full-time salary, and it’s been really great not having a boss, working for amazing people and being able to give back. It’s rewarding.”</p><p>but she does have one gripe: she’s too busy to volunteer the way she did as a child. if she could, she would tutor at Literacy Kansas City, because she thinks many people take reading for granted.</p><p>“you don’t think about how much of a hindrance it might be to not be able to read, because you don’t experience it,” she says. “but for the illiterate people out there going through it, they are paralyzed. They can’t get anywhere without those skills.”</p><p>her desire to help inspired what she calls the Dusty Penny Fund. in December 2010, Ella Rose asked her clients if they were willing to donate the loose change to a cause, and they said yes. Since she can’t make the commitment to tutor, money seemed like the best option to help Literacy Kansas City.</p><p>last year she saved all the coins she found. At the end of the year she had gathered $40. then she matched it and donated $80. She continues to collect coins this year. </p><p>“I know it’s not a lot of money,” she says. “but every little bit counts.”</p><p>It’s true. if we all gave a little change, we could see big differences.
21 Feb 12 Featured Job: Senior Manager, ACME Business Consulting
ACME Business Consulting helps organizations achieve specific and critically important business objectives. We are leaders – catalysts, augmenters and force multipliers. ACME teams are comprised of senior-level managers with Big 5 experience, advanced educations and past successes. In other words, it takes a lot to rattle us.
ACME offers a level of trust and responsibility not easily found in the business consulting game. as a roll-up-our-sleeves-and-get-it-done company, our business model is based on hiring and working with proven leaders. Working with ACME, you’ll likely be running your own projects. while you’ll certainly have the support you need, we will likely not be telling you what to do or how to do it.
Founded in 2002, ACME has a corporate culture that fosters a work-life balance unheard of at traditional consulting firms. We love getting our hands dirty – solving problems, leading and seeing projects through to completion – and then going home to our families at night. We hire for talent, insight, creativity, and ability to motivate and problem-solve on every project. We consider ourselves only as good as our last project, which means the lead on that project better be great.
To say that we are growing quickly is an understatement. We increased our headcount over 50% each year over the past few years. with a growing office in Seattle and an ever-expanding Portland headquarters, there’s plenty of room for outstanding professionals like you. a key driver of that growth is that we hire the best. It’s a key part of our brand and culture. It’s why our customers love us and why people want to work for us. to be the best, we actively support a diverse workforce and we encourage all genders, races, and sexual-orientations to apply and join us.
As an ACME Senior Manager, you will tap into your left and right brains. with your left you will bring real-world analytic skill, methodology and planning. from your right you will hone creativity, sensitivity and smarts as you navigate and lead business transformation projects. This position requires strong leadership skills, project management discipline and an understanding of the methods and tools used to achieve success.
Responsibilities:• Manage and direct consulting projects — several small or one larger, more complex project• Work with clients and prospects to develop project scope and approach, regularly interfacing with the most senior level executives at the client• Define project resource requirements (Core Team, Steering Committee, etc.)• Manage teams comprised of both client and ACME resources as well as develop and review staff• Ensure quality and timeliness of project and deliverables• Proactively manage and resolve project issues
Requirements:• 6+ years’ project management consulting experience, preferably with a Big 5 firm• Deep experience in process analysis, process design, systems selection, change implementation and the application of best practices• Strong understanding of top-tier ERP, CRM and integration technologies• Experience managing complex, high performing projects and teams. Including strict cost controls and attention to deliverables• Strong references• Strong presentation, communication and customer facing skills• Ability to coach and guide team members, including helping staff recognize, develop and maintain strong client relationships• Bachelor’s degree required – MBA preferred
Please submit a cover letter and resume to hiring@acmebusinessconsulting.com.
consulting, initiatives, project management, process improvement, assessment, merger and acquisition, ERP, supply chain, lean, six sigma, client, program management, MBA, business intelligence, strategic planning
21 Feb 12 Learning French With an Online French Course – Get the Best of Both Worlds
An online French course is a great approach for learning French and these are becoming more popular all the time. There are great reasons why an online French course makes sense for learning French, but it is important to understand both the advantages and disadvantages before you make a commitment to this approach.
The best way of learning French is to move to a French-speaking area to achieve total immersion in French conversation by essentially living your life through French as a means of learning French to a confident conversational level.
This is a much better approach than a classroom approach or an approach which is based on text books or written lessons.
A classroom approach has some benefits, because there is direct interaction with the teacher. Also, there is essentially a community of fellow-students who are learning at the same time. This can work for you or work against you, depending on the quality and motivation of your classmates. There are also structured text-based lessons which can have value to get you up to speed with some of the nuances of verb rules, tenses, and grammar.
Where a classroom approach falls down is that the frequency of the classes, usually once or twice a week, works against you. That is simply not enough time to be devoting to structured learning if you are serious about learning French.
While an online French course is not the same as moving to a French-speaking area, it can have some of the immersion benefits. it can also incorporate many of the advantages of a classroom approach without dragging you down with the weaknesses.
To that extent, the right online French course can provide many of the benefits of both the immersion benefit of moving to a French-speaking area and also the classroom benefits. a well-structured online French course can provide almost the best of both worlds.
The critical element which can make all of the difference between a great and a terrible online French course as an approach for learning French is the quality and breadth of the audio immersion modules or components which it incorporates. You need to spend some time understanding what you are getting as you evaluate your online French course.
Make the right choice and it is entirely possible to be learning French immediately and to be at a competent conversational level in French in about eight to ten weeks. That is the power of an online French course
21 Feb 12 Lavish meals for 'bogus uni invoices'
A UNIVERSITY manager enjoyed lavish meals and free booze from contractors while arranging for them to tender bogus invoices, the corruption watchdog has been told.
Colin McCallum was in charge of hiring cleaning, security and other firms when he worked as University of new England’s (UNE) campus services manager between 2003 and 2011.
A NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiry heard on Monday that mr McCallum was wined and dined by several contractors employed by UNE, and on occasions arranged for them to send in fake invoices.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Kate Williams, said in 2005 UNE signed a $1.2 million contract with Quad Services for cleaning.
Mr McCallum later arranged with a Quad regional manager to send in bogus invoices worth $7000 to UNE to cover the cost of a van, Ms Williams told the ICAC.
"Evidence will be adduced to the effect that those allegedly false invoices were issued by Quad Services, approved by mr McCallum and paid by the university during the period from February 2007 to May 2009," Ms Williams said.
About the same time, Quad took mr McCallum out for "expensive dinners with fine wine" and the company delivered cartons of beer to his offices, Ms Williams added.mr McCallum conceded going for lunch with Quad Services was against UNE’s code of conduct.
"Even though it was contrary (to UNE’s code of conduct), it was just something we viewed at the start of a contract … we tried to build those relationships," he said.
Ms Williams outlined how another supplier, Prosys Services Pty ltd, was engaged to do design and maintenance work at UNE.
"the inquiry will hear evidence that Prosys maintained a bar tab at the St Kilda Hotel (in Armidale) which was used by mr McCallum frequently," Ms Williams added.
The inquiry continues.
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