Posted by CindyAE under
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Today’s focus on “Oprah” was breast cancer, and guests included the woman, Nancy Brinker, who founded the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation; in memory of her sister Suzy who died at age 33 of breast cancer. Nancy explained that in 1978 few would even say the word “breast” publicly, there weren’t support groups, 800 numbers, the Internet - but worse many knew so little about it there was fear it was an “automatic death sentence” or might be contagious.
Nancy promised her sister she would fight so other families would not have to go through it. When asked by Oprah how she came up with the idea of the race and pink - she said, “I was in marketing.” At the first race she had a mammogram machine and breast cancer survivors so that it could change the image of what the test is and remind everyone there are many survivors. Isn’t that genius? The first race had 800, then spread nationwide and internationally.
Since that first race over $1 billion has been raised through the foundation for breast cancer research.
One woman who made a promise, and then used her talents to grow something as significant as the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation. Many talents we use in our professions all the time can be used with organizations that work towards change, hope and cures.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Do regular self-exams and have mammograms. It can save your life. And don’t make excuses not to do it - some huge percentage of women routinely reschedule and cancel them. I hate them too (had to stretch out on a stretcher after my last one with all my anxiety) - but do it anyway. You’re worth a billion dollars to someone too.
Posted by Ben Martin under
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I knew the volume of tweets about our recent annual convention would be pretty high, but I never expected to have our convention’s twitter tag show up at number eight on the top trending topics at search.twitter.com. Lo and behold! Click on the photo for the evidence! Thanks goes to the VAR members who mashed those little keys on their smartphones.
Tagged: Association Management; Associations; CAE; Certified Association Executive
Posted by Kevin under
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Our organization’s GR director wrote a good post explaining why the economic recovery act is important to small business.
Tags: Asides
Posted by Kevin under
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Lisa Junker wrote a great response to a Seth Godin post on asking questions (or, really, “challenging assumptions”). It’s a good example of the value of blog commenting because I wrote a response, but then Lindy Dreyer wrote a great response, including this:
“A lot of times, game-changing questions get asked by people who are least […]
Posted by Kevin under
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What does it mean when the organizers of something called “The Motivation Show” refer to their own event as “very disappointing”? (Via Sue.)
Tags: Asides
Posted by Sue Pelletier under
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That’s what most of the event pros interviewed by Special Events magazine said in this article when asked if they’re feeling any pain from the financial situation we find ourselves in these days. The consensus seems to be that the pain will start to set in with the new year, since many budgets are already […]
Posted by AEM under
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I write letters.
When I find errors in a book, I notify the publisher and usually receive a courteous response.
When businesses fail to provide adequate parking for the disabled, leave heaps of snow on wheelchair ramps, or block sidewalks with huge dumpsters, I let them know. They always respond with an apology and usually remedy the problem.
Not-for-profits, on the other hand, don’t always bother replying - unless I’ve praised them and/or sent a contribution (and they don’t always reply even then).
The Illinois PTA ignored my feedback as a school PTA president. Other organizations, too, have failed to acknowledge comments about member-related activities. The information hotline of a well-endowed charity has been erratic in its responses - sometimes calling back, and sometimes not.
Colleagues who produce special events for organizations confess they don’t always return calls or respond to mail (even e-mail). Something about being too busy.
Most businesses understand that quick responses improve customer satisfaction. Some associations could learn from them.
Posted by david@highcontext.com (C. David Gammel) under
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I was quoted yesterday by an MSNBC.com columnist about what to do when your online history, as shown by Google search results for your name, begin to cause career problems.
Here is the main portion that quotes me:
Many of us may want to find ways to erase the negative information about us on the Web, but […]
Posted by jtcobb under
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Trying to make sense of the current economic crisis? Well, one silver lining is that there is a wealth of resources out there for helping with that task – and that might also providing some good remedial learning for those who got us into it. Here are a few good ones:
Definitions and Explanations
Naturally, Wikipedia is […]
