Now viewing articles posted in 2023.
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There is Still Time for Some Summer Fun
August 1st, 2023
August, for many, can be a time of melancholy. The days are starting to get shorter, and the nights are getting colder. Ads are popping up on radio and television advertising back to school specials. Summer is starting to slip away and so are those summer plans and to-do lists that you mapped out months ago. Here it is August, and the list is far from complete, for some it may not have been started.
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Is being exceptional all it’s cracked up to be?
July 31st, 2023
Lately, I have been looking at several LinkedIn profiles, checking out people’s resumes, visiting personal websites, and perusing social media profiles. It is amazing the number of people that describe themselves as “exceptional leader,” “agent of change or change agent,” “extraordinary educator,” “content creator,” and one even proclaimed himself a human “Swiss Army Knife.” Lofty praise for oneself.
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Is Getting Rid of Affirmative Action a Good or Bad Thing for the Educational Landscape?
July 24th, 2023
Wouldn’t it be nice if we were eliminating affirmative action because there was no longer a need for it? That, as a society, we had reached a point where bias in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, class, wealth, sexual orientation, or country of origin was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
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Remember You are Managing People!
July 17th, 2023
For years, I have struggled with managing people. It is something that I was, or to some degree still am, not comfortable with. For much of the first 20 years FUN was in business, my management style was to carry a 2x4 and I wasn’t afraid to use it. At best, one might call it the Neanderthal style of leadership. For context, it was a role that I was thrust into at an early age and my youth and immaturity were a huge detriment. Like many people, the way that I viewed myself was different than the way others viewed me. It took bringing in an outside coach to help me see the error of my ways. Instead of creating a culture of caring and respect, it was one based far more on fear. Not the type of legacy we, or at least I, want to leave behind.
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Tenure for Better or Worse
July 10th, 2023
For years, I have railed against the system of tenure in Higher Education. Any system that provides a lifetime job seems inherently flawed, in my opinion. In the beginning, the system was designed to protect professors and teachers from outside interference, threat of reprisals, or even termination from those who disagreed with what or how they were teaching. An unwanted side effect was that it prevented dismissal for individuals whose materials and methods became outdated or even worse, ineffective.
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I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Take it Anymore!!
June 26th, 2023
No, I’m not mad at the world or an anonymous undefined group of people. I am mad at certain people, certain things, certain statements that really make my blood boil. If you want to push my buttons and illicit a volcanic reaction let me save you the trouble of guessing what will do it and provide you with the answer. Lately, it seems those buttons have been pushed more than a few times.
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Way More Than an Instant
June 19th, 2023
Brace yourselves, this is yet another customer service missive. Some of you, our intrepid editor among them, may ask why another customer service blog? It’s not like this topic hasn’t been covered in this space and by others many times over. So, why now and why again? Customer service cannot and shouldn’t be overstated. Many businesses, due to staffing concerns, are unable to interact with the number of customers or clients that we/they could pre-pandemic. That means taking extra special care of the folks that do walk through your doors or in this case drive through your doors. Very few businesses have the luxury of having an exclusive product or service that they are either the only one that provides it or are one of a very select few to offer it.
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Remote or in-person? That is the question.
June 12th, 2023
Few things post pandemic have created more of a controversy or been given more ink and airtime than the return to the office or stay remote debate. Pre-pandemic and in the early stages of COVID, it is safe to say that employers held most of the cards in the employer/employee relationship.
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Are we focused on the wrong things?
June 5th, 2023
Recently, we had some programs out in the western part of Massachusetts and to get there I
drove on the Mohawk trail, also known as Route 2. It is a beautiful drive along a mostly rural
route that winds through some small villages, towns and eventually the Berkshire Mountains.
For some when they drive, they call friends and family, crank the radio, or engross themselves
in podcasts. I get lost in thought, with the radio on in the background. Along the Mohawk trail
there are souvenir shops with Totem Poles and Teepee’s out front. Statues and placards with
Native American symbols on them and depending on the time of year, signs advertising an
upcoming Pow Wow. In a society that talks about DEI and cultural appropriation, are those
symbols still appropriate? Honestly, I have no idea what is and isn’t okay anymore. -
What is going on?
May 29th, 2023
People and the way they conduct business has undergone some drastic modifications and shifts over the years. In the “good old days,” deals were often solidified with a simple handshake. Perhaps, I am crazy but there seemed to be a lot less lawyers in the world and none of their faces were plastered on billboards from coast to coast. It was ingrained in me, at a very young age, that a person’s word was their bond. There are a few things that I, as an individual, or we, as a business, take more seriously. In more than 33 years in business, we have done hundreds, if not thousands, of events without the benefit of a signed contract. For some institutions it is easier to simply submit an invoice post event for payment. Clients have called us a day or so prior to or even the same day as their event. There is no time to execute a contract in those situations, but we show up, work the event, and rarely have an issue getting paid. That is what has made the last 12 to 18 months so strange.
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