09:25, 22 November 2010
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Forumer.com has been home for my blog since April 2005. I chose Forumer.com because I wanted my blog to be accessible to Mac users still using web browsers for OS 9, something no other blog host seemed to offer then. As someone who has a large percentage of readers and followers who do not have the latest and greatest computers, operating systems and Internet connections, accessibility is really important to me.
Sadly, Forumer.com has had several glitches recently that has made my blog unavailable for a day or two at a time, even an entire weekend. And now that I've got a rather large blog following, I can't afford any downtime.
I'm moving my blog here, to posterous.com. I'm working on a better blog URL, but for now, it's http://coyoteblog.posterous.com
The first post is already up, on how
online volunteers are essential to Wikimedia fundraising.
I'm not sure if I will be able to move all of my blog entries from there to my new blog location. Hopefully, if not, then they can continue to be stored here at Forumer.
10:43, 5 September 2010
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So sorry that the blog has been down. I'm not sure why... I use forumer because it can be accessed by older browsers and is so much quicker to download than the other blog hosts out there. But I might need to move...
I'll not be blogging for two weeks -- off on my motorcycle to do some exploring.
Many interesting blogs in the works...
16:34, 31 August 2010
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Today, no matter who you are, I want you to think about
Girl Scouts of the USA (or
Girl Guides if you are outside the USA) as:
- a place where you could volunteer -- for a day, for a week, for months, for years
- a suggested activity for your daughters, your granddaughters, your friend's daughters, etc.
- an organization your association, club or nonprofit can partner with
- an organization that probably isn't what you think it is
- an organization you should support with a financial donation, however tiny
Fall is the start of the new membership year for Girl Scouts, so now is a perfect time to have a look at the organization. I'm speaking purely as a volunteer with Girl Scouts; the words below are entirely my own:
Girl Scouts as a place you could volunteer
There are volunteering opportunities with Girl Scouts for every schedule and for just about any interest or skill you have. Some opportunities are just for one-day, such as helping with a day camp, providing a training activity to troop leaders, or designing a Girl Scout Badge workshop. Others are ongoing, such as leading a troop or assisting leaders of a troop. Some opportunities support local operations and other adult volunteers, such as designing outreach activities, acting as a liaison with various organizations or companies, or translating information into
Spanish or another language.
You do not have to be a parent or relative of a Girl Scout to be involved as a volunteer with Girl Scouts. Girl Scouts welcomes men and women volunteers. If you decide to take on a high-responsibility role, such as a troop leader, you will get extensive training and guidance.
I volunteer with the Girl Scouts (
as well as other organizations). For Girl Scouts, I help troops in the southern part of my county with their publicity needs, manage
our web page, make sure region-specific announcements get out to all the troops, review fliers created by individual troops, etc.
Most of my volunteering is online, with me here at my home office, in front of my laptop screen; yes, that's right, Girl Scouts involves online volunteers!
To volunteer with the Girl Scouts in the USA,
find your local council (the regional office that serves your state, or your part of your state) and once you are at your council's web site, look for the volunteer link. Please note that all volunteers must complete a background check, regardless of the volunteering role they want to undertake, to help ensure safety. When you express interest in volunteering, be sure to say what you are interested in doing -- helping at just one event, for instance, or helping with a specific task, like communications or recruitment or a badge activity. Here are just
some Girl Scouts badges for
Girl Scouts in grades 4 and 5 that you could help with, based on your skills: Car Care, Adventure Sports, Eco-Action, Healthy Relationships, Business-Wise, Consumer Power, Discovering Technology and Science Sleuth.
Girl Scouts as a suggested activity for your daughters, your granddaughters, your friend's daughters, etc.
There are a range of activities for girls ages 5 to 17 years old in Girl Scouts. Through Girl Scouts, they may explore the solar system, learn basic car maintenance, write and star in a play, take a nature hike, learn to run a business, become a weather watcher, enjoy a scavenger hunt, cook outside, take an amazing trip, and explore various careers. A growing number of girls are
pursuing a Girl Scouts Gold Award, creating a community project that not only makes a difference in the lives of many people, but also can get the attention of university admissions offices and scholarship committees.
Girl Scouts and
Girl Guides, altogether, is the largest girls leadership development program in the world. The programs provided by Girl Scouts and Girl Guides help girls to develop qualities that will serve them all their lives, like leadership, strong values, social conscience, and conviction about their own potential and self-worth.
Girl Scouts as an organization your association, club or nonprofit can partner with
Hosteling International - USA is a nonprofit organization that ensures its member hostels in the USA meet certain accommodation and program standards. It also
encourages its member hostels in the USA to engage with their local Girl Scouts councils. For instance, they have the Go Hosteling Patch which has activities that help girls become global citizens, learn to plan overseas trips and learn about new cultures.
Chapters of the
the Society of Women Engineers have organized technology-related badge days for their local Girl Scouts troops.
Your association, club or nonprofit can engage in an activity that supports both Girl Scouts and your own membership. For instance, could Girl Scouts help your club regarding a recycling initiative? Or help with an annual awareness walk or run? Could you coordinate all of the activities for a badge that relates to your organization's mission, so that Girl Scouts could earn said badge in just a few hours at your event? Could members of your association or club volunteer just one day, even for just a few hours, at a Girl Scouts day camp? If you want to coordinate such a group activity, set up a meeting with
your local council leadership (don't try to do it just via email).
Girl Scouts as an organization that probably isn't what you think it is
- Girl Scouts does not discriminate on the basis of a person's sexual orientation, unlike the Boy Scouts of America.
- Girl Scouts does not require a belief in God for girls or volunteers, unlike the Boy Scouts (note the asterisk next to the word "God" in the Girl Scouts promise)
- Girl Scouts are participating in very serious activities, such as UNIFEM's Say No to Violence Against Women campaign.
So many of my friends and colleagues have been shocked to learn I volunteer with such a traditional organization -- Girl Scouts. But once I talk to them about what Girl Scouts is today, in 2010, they become shocked for different reasons -- and in a good way. Girl Scouts fits with my values and my passion for building the capacities of girls to be leaders, to be in control of their lives and their decisions, and to be willing to explore, experiment and push themselves in all the right ways. My dream is that Girl Scouts becomes truly global, and that will only happen if I can motivate more of you to support the organization in some way.
Girl Scouts as an organization you should support with a donation, however tiny
No girl who wants to be a Girl Scout gets turned away because her family cannot pay the $12 annual membership dues, or because she cannot afford a uniform or vest. To cover those costs, local Girl Scouts councils rely on donations. In addition, donations help pay the admission costs to certain events which some girls cannot afford. Finally, donations also help pay for the resources needed to support girls and volunteers. So please
find your local council and consider a donation. Even just $5 makes a difference!
14:42, 27 August 2010
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I'm off to the VSO assessment in Vancouver, Canada, which
I blogged about earlier.
It's informal Friday here at the Jayne Blawg, so to get you through your weekend, come with me on my journey of the last two years learning to ride a motorcycle:
here's the journey in photos and here's
the journey in narrative, with tips for other women who might be thinking of doing this themselves!
Happy weekend!
(addendum: trip POSTPONED)
08:38, 24 August 2010
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I've been out of town for a week and disconnected from phones and Internet (try it some time -- very refreshing). I'm slogging through oh-so-many emails now. If yours is one of them, apologies; It will take about 48 hours to get through the backlog, but if you are waiting for a reply, no worries -- I will get to you!
06:43, 23 July 2010
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A Frequently Asked Question (FAQs) on the Intertubes is "
How can I work for the United Nations or in humanitarian organizations overseas?" It's also an FAQ to me once people hear about where I've been working over the last eight years.
There was a web page I co-authored with a colleague that I used to refer these folks to, but the entire site went down for more than a week, and I'm a little afraid the organization could disappear, along with the web site, by the end of the year.
So, I've re-written the page and now host it here:
Finding a Job with the United Nations or Other International Humanitarian or Development Organization.
The advice is based on the experience of people who have worked for the UN or other international development organizations, including people who make hiring decisions for such organizations. Following the advice on the page is no guarantee you will get to work abroad in international development. But you will greatly improve your odds.
Also, please note that I have
a CV consulting service. I have screened résumés for a variety of aid, relief and development agencies and nonprofits, and I have helped many professionals, from people just getting started to seasoned professionals, to improve their résumés and overall presentation, with excellent results. Using your answers to a variety of questions, a review of your current résumé, and a review of the jobs you feel you are qualified for,
I can work with you to greatly improve your résumé -- and, ultimately, improve your chances of being hired.
Also see:
12:33, 21 July 2010
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I would REALLY like to know why you read this blog, and how you know when I update it.
So please complete this oh-so-short survey! It's just nine questions!
I have more than 700 subscribers to my
Tech4Impact email newsletter, more than 100
fans on Facebook, about 120 friends on Facebook, oh-so-many readers of my blog, and more than 100 followers on
Twitter. I will be asking all those various subscribers and friends and fans and what not to fill out this survey, so apologies if you receive the invitation more than once.
11:06, 16 July 2010
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Because of the economic hardships brought on by the massive oil spill in the Gulf,
hundreds of dogs and cats are being dropped off at animal shelters in the Gulf states. And it's more than the shelters can handle.
Most animals dropped off at animals shelters in the USA are killed, because most shelters are not "no-kill" -- there's too much dog and cat overpopulation for them to be no-kill.
These are already hard times for dogs and cats. From California to Florida, millions of pets were abandoned in 2007 and 2008 as the U.S. economy floundered (stat from
AP story). These are dogs and cats that had homes, had families -- and now have nothing.
Please consider making a donation to the St. Bernard Animal Shelter or the Louisiana SPCA, or any animal shelter serving the Gulf region. Your money will be used not only for animals in those shelters, but also for transportation of highly-adoptable animals to other shelters where they have a better chance of being placed with a family.
And, as always, please consider adopting an animal from your local animal shelter.
All of my pets have been doggies no one else wanted: one from the street, one on his way to a shelter, and
my current dog, Albi, from a shelter. All were fully grown when I adopted them, and all have had such strong bonds with me that my vets have commented on it. Do not believe all those shelter animal myths: how dogs from shelters are more unpredictable than dogs from breeders (not true), how adult dogs or old dogs can't bond with a person as closely as a puppy (not true), and on and on. And please,
spay or neuter your dog or cat -- don't contribute to the dog and cat over-population problem!
More about
why adopting animals from the shelter is such a great idea and why, if faced with problems with your pet, you DO have options other than dropping him or her off at a shelter.
12:12, 8 May 2010
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I doubt there are many people hanging on my every blogged word, but in case you have been wondering why I haven't been blogging daily -- my in-laws are visiting from Germany and that's my full-time job for a while! I'll resume rants next week some time.
15:54, 12 February 2010
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I want mass transit and my bicycle to be my primary means of transportation on a day-to-day basis, the way they were in Germany. But cities across the USA make that impossible, including in supposedly alternative-transportation-friendly (NOT!) Portland, Oregon.
For mass transit to work, it has to be as easy as jumping in a car and driving somewhere. It has to allow for spontaneity and changes in plans. It can't require hours of planning and preparation. The USA is so very, very far from that reality -- a reality that Europe and other countries realized long ago.
The quality of mass transit and bicycle transportation in the greater Portland, Oregon metropolitan area has been a huge disappointment. The
breathless reviews of TriMet were one of the reasons we moved here in August of 2009. I've realized none of the writers were people who actually
use TriMet. It's fascinating to hear Portlanders brag about it, but start to stutter when I ask, "Do you yourself take it every day, or even every week?" I single Portland out because of how often their non-car infrastructure is
lauded here and there, and because I currently live here, but the reality is that, compared to other countries,
the state of mass transit and bike travel anywhere in the USA is shameful. Portland's trains and buses are reasonably priced, yes, and they are clean and very comfortable. But after six months of experiencing it, I've found TriMet to be largely over-rated.
What would make the alternatives-to-cars infrastructure better in Portland -- or anywhere else in the USA? What would make this scheme actually work, here in Portland or elsewhere?
- GIVE CHANGE ON BUSES. Any bus in Europe gives change. Don't tell me it can't be done, that it's too expensive, that it will take too much time. It works in countries all over the world. The only reason it isn't happening here is because those behind mass transit in the USA are lazy.
- Have ticket machines on trains. No one should have to miss a train because they are standing at a machine on the platform.
- Ticket machines should always have multiple ways to pay: by credit card, by ATM, by bills and by coins. I lost my credit card and ATM card, and had to get them replaced. That meant for 7 - 10 days I couldn't use the WES train, because the machines don't take coins or bills. Ridiculous!
- Post transit maps inside trains. Portland Max light rail trains rarely have a map of the line anywhere inside the train (in fact, I've seen it only once in the six months I've been taking Max). Forget jumping on the train and figuring out the rest of your trip -- as you can in any other developed country in the world (as well as in transitional countries in Eastern Europe). If you don't have a map yourself, you will have no clue where you are going, what lines you can transfer to at each stop. etc.
- Post transit maps at most bus stops. You can find maps in the heart of downtown Portland, but only for the heart of downtown Portland. Outside of that area, there are no maps. So, once again, if you don't have a map yourself, you will have no way to figure out your trip from a bus stop, meaning you have to map out your trip from home before you walk out the door.
- Transit centers should have boards in ONE location listing all of the buses and trains that stop there and their schedules. That allows me to make choices at a transit center that best fit the moment - what is going to get me to my destination the quickest depends on the day and time of when I "land" at that station.
- Easy access for bikes on trains. Easy access means I don't have to be an extreme sports competitor with the top-of-the-line commuter/mountain/sport bike in order to take my bike on a train. In Portland, if you want to take your bike on a Max train, the bike must meet very narrow requirements (it can't be just any bike -- only very particular kinds of bikes) and you better have terrific upper body strength, because you have to hang your bike inside the train, something I know I couldn't do with my traditional utility/roadster bicycle. In other words, Max trains are NOT accessible for all types of cyclists -- just an elite group.
- Ample bicycle parking at transit centers. In Europe, a train station will have places for a hundred -- even hundreds -- of bikes. In the Portland area, there are between five and 15 massive storage lockers, one for one bike, that must be reserved in advance, Yes, that's right -- only 5 - 15 bicyclists can park their bikes at a Max station at a time.
- Allow people to take their uncrated, well-behaved dogs on buses and trains. Limit animal access to outside of rush hour -- that's fine. I took my dogs on the buses and trains in Germany, no problem. They had to have a ticket, ofcourse. But dogs were never a bother in Europe on buses. People, on the other hand, could often be a huge bother. The bus from Canby to Oregon City stops just five blocks from my vet. But I may not use the bus for my dog in the USA. I'll muzzle her, I'll pay to put her through an evaluation/certification process, I'll buy her her own ticket, I'll do whatever -- and other dog owners would as well. It works in other countries -- it can work here!
- Make bike commuting accessible for all types of cyclists. Did I mention that I'm not an extreme sports competitor, and that I don't have a top-of-the-line racing/mountain/sport bike? That means biking in and around Portland is far out of my reach. In Germany, I took my traditional, trusty utility/roadster bicycle all over the greater Bonn area. I rode at my own pace. I road tiny distances and great distances. But in Portland, you cannot just jump on whatever bike you have and head to your destination; you have to be on a racing bike, and move at a racer's pace.
- Undertake massive, ongoing education program regarding the rights of bicyclists. There should be billboards outside of Portland (Canby would be a great place to start), as well as TV and radio public service announcements reminding drivers that bikes have the same rights to the road as car drivers. These efforts need to be in English and Spanish.
What would happen if all these changes were employed? Rider numbers would sky-rocket. It would become economically feasible to offer more frequent service, and to increase service in the evenings, cutting down on the number of drunk drivers on the road. Car drivers, you should support all this, so you have less fellow drivers on the road to contend with.
It takes a tremendous amount of planning in order to ride Portland mass transit -- unlike just jumping in your car and heading off to where you want to go.
Outside of rush hours, mass transit in Portland cannot be relied upon, because of the infrequent service and wait times for transfers. And outside of rush hours in Portland, your fellow riders won't be people who are trying to be green; they will be people who have had their driver's license suspended, or have never had such a license, because of various medical conditions, and they will be far more disruptive during your ride than my dog would be. And that speaks volumes about the true attitude of most Portlanders to mass transit.
None of the aforementioned suggestions above is impossible; they are being done in other countries, and have been done for many years. It's not happening in the USA only because of lack of will. In Germany, I considered myself a
mass transit/bike commuting convert. I gushed about the freedom using mass transit and bike commuting gave me in Europe. But in the USA, I'm being driven back into a car.
11:36, 9 January 2010
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Yahoo has a web site called
Shine which is supposed to be focused on women and the issues Yahoo thinks women care about. And what does Yahoo think women care about? Let's look at the site's primary headers:
- Manage Your Life
- Fashion + Beauty
- Healthy Living
- Parenting
- Love + Sex
- Food
- Astrology
Oh, it just gets better (she said dripping with sarcasm). Featured on Shine this week:
- Celeb Fasion Video
- This Week in Books
- New Year, New You
- 2010 Horoscopes
Hey, Yahoo! Stereotype much? Geesh, is this the 1950s?
There is a lot more to American women than people like the folks at Shine think there is.
Here's the subject headings (in no particular order) that would have kept me and
lots of other women from a variety of age groups coming back to
Shine, most of which are either completely ignored by Yahoo's site or are buried so far in the site I can't find them:
- Travel & Outdoors
- Sports (with a particular focus on women's sports)
- Personal & Spiritual Growth (WIth just as many stories about ethics and atheism as there are about faith-based beliefs, including astrology)
- Money (with a particular focus on women... do I have to keep saying that?)
- Career
- Home & Health (which would include love, sex, parenting, etc.)
- Science (with a particular focus on women)
- Entertainment (not just celebrity, but also books and theater)
If you are like me and are looking for information that actually has
relevance to your life and interests as a women, whatever age, in the USA, try subscribing to
BUST magazine. It's well worth the price of your subscription, and its articles and ads will turn you on to all sorts of fascinating, relevant information, stories and people that Yahoo's Shine site ignores.
20:36, 8 January 2010
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It's Girl Scout cookie pre-sale time in the USA! Through cookie sales, Girl Scouts practice important skills: goal-setting, money management, teamwork, planning, decision-making & customer service. All proceeds-every penny-from a local council's cookie activities remain in the area where cookies are sold. Say yes to Girl Scout cookies!
More details.
Buy Girl Scout cookies!
Jayne Cravens
Brownie: 1973-1974
Junior Girl Scout: 1974-1976
(I was *adorable* in my Girl Scout uniform, but sadly, I've no pictures to prove it)
Oh, and Happy Birthday, Elvis.
12:09, 3 January 2010
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This is a personal blog -- it's a challenge for those of you living in or around
Portland, Oregon, who used to live in or around Portland, Oregon, or love visiting Portland, Oregon:
If you were to visit Austin, Texas and said you wanted to see what made Austin such a great city, or you just wanted to have a good time, I would tell you to:
- Have breakfast at the Magnolia Cafe on South Congress Avenue, then stroll up and down the street and enjoy the various shops and galleries (particularly Yard Dog). Take lots of time and then have lunch at Guerro's.
- Take in a show at the Continental Club and/or Ginny's Little Longhorn
- Take in a movie at the Alamo Draft House
- Have some beer and play table shuffle board on a beautiful antique table at the Shoal Creek Saloon
- Drive out to Black's barbecue in Lockhart, for great food, Texas prairie scenery, and a cute little town visit
- Hike Barton Creek
- Walk around downtown and the grounds of the state capital
- Enjoy the sunset over Lake Austin at the Oasis Restaurant
- Stroll around Waterloo Records and Book People, then have some ice cream at Amy's.
If you were to visit Louisville, Kentucky, I would tell you to:
- go to any of the Irish bars on Bardstown Road in the late afternoon or early evening with your dog, and just eat and drink and people watch outside (and play cornhole is such is offered)
- have breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe and then visit the shops two doors up and two doors down on either side of it.
- walk around the Highlands and take in some really amazingly-beautiful houses (if any are for sale and having an open house, go in!), then visit the Pie Kitchen.
- go to Cherokee Park and have a picnic with your dog
- go see a baseball game at Louisville Slugger field
- take the Louisville Slugger factory tour
- visit the historic house and grounds of Locust Grove (during an event like a concert or festival is even more fun)
- go to any bar during a U of KY game (I'm sure there's a few Cardinal fans in Louisville as well)
- drive down and take the Maker's Mark tour, then stroll around Bardstown, and see some lovely Kentucky scenery in between your drives.
- visit the Speed Art Museum
Now, people of Portland and lovers of Portland, do the same for me regarding your city and the surrounding area:
offer concrete ways to spend a morning, an afternoon, an evening, even an entire weekend, that would make someone say, "Wow, this is really nice/great/different. This is what makes Portland cool." We've seen Powell's Books (which is WAY impressive and more addictive than heroin), we've visited Silverton (adorable) and we've had some nice lunches at a few places (all nice, but nothing really special). Here's your chance to show us what we're missing!
Email me your suggestions.
22:17, 9 September 2009
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73zkai8dj6
22:16, 9 August 2009
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After two weeks on the road, seeing several amazing parts of these United States for the first time and enjoying nine different camp sites (two with wi-fi!), we've finally arrived in Portland.
We're now in find-a-place-to-live mode and, therefore, I'll continue to be hard to reach for a while. If you think you can help,
contact me for more details.
Subscribe to the blog you are reading now via
RSS or subscribe to my email newsletter,
Tech4Impact, for updates on my availability.
Simultaneously while trying to find a place to live, I'm looking to find a permanent, full-time position in Portland, Eugene, Salem, or some other community here in Oregon or Washington state. I would most like to do the following (and have the qualifications for such):
- manage/direct a program at a nonprofit, university or government agency. The dream job would be one that is focused on women, the environment, international development, mass transit, or anything that helps a specific community.
or
- direct marketing and public relations activities for a major project or program at a nonprofit, university or government agency. Again, the dream job would be one that is related to any of these aforementioned subjects.
Among the jobs I've applied for recently, to give you an idea of what I'm looking for:
- public information officer for a liberal arts college with several international programs
- marketing director for the continuing education/adult education program at a university
- coordinator of a nonprofit-focused program at a state's attorney general's office
- chief communications officer for a division of a large international foundation
- senior writer for program development at a large, international health institute
- directing a program that places media professionals in the developing world to train new journalists
- public affairs specialist at a federal office that manages several international programs
- director of communications in North America for an American university abroad
- public information officer for a conservation district
I've also really enjoyed teaching parts of courses for universities in Texas, as well as presenting workshops regularly for nonprofit organizations and researchers (
more information on my training activities), and would love to create or co-create an entire course as a part-time instructor at a university. I am most interested, and, I think, most qualified, to teach courses relating to:
- media writing and media relations
- public relations (basic public relations functions, outreach to particular audiences, crisis communications, how to address misinformation/misunderstandings, how to deal with public criticism, etc.)
- strategic communications (systematic planning and utilization of a variety of information flows to deliver a message and build credibility or a brand, sell more a)
- cross-platform media and electronic media (using traditional print, synchronous and asynchronous online communications, and emerging technologies effectively, and integrating the use of all information flows)
- public speaking
I have a
profile at LinkedIn, as well as details on
my own web site about my professional activities. I'm also happy to share my CV with you;
email me with your request. If you have any specific questions about my profile, feel free to
contact me as well.
13:49, 25 July 2009
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As of Monday morning (
maybe Tuesday) I'll start a long, meandering road trip from Louisville, Kentucky to Portland, Oregon, where I'm relocating permanently with my family. I will check email every few days; I'll be able to check email several times a day starting around August 10. Subscribe to the blog you are reading now via
RSS or subscribe to my email newsletter,
Tech4Impact, for updates on my location and availability.
It's been a wonderful time in Louisville, Kentucky, getting re-acquainted with living in the USA since April of this year and getting to know a part of my native state I had mostly just driven through. If you ever have a chance to visit the area, or if you are looking for something unique to experience, I
highly recommend you come to Louisville and visit the surrounding area as well (Mammoth Cave, Maker's Mark Distillery, etc.). If it weren't so hot here in the summers, we might have stayed! (We melt in Kentucky summer heat, and were thankful for the coolest July on record).
I'm still
consulting, but would like to find a permanent, full-time position. I would most like to do the following (and have the qualifications for such):
- manage/direct a program at a nonprofit, university or government agency. The dream job would be one that is focused on women, the environment, international development, mass transit, or anything that helps a specific community.
or
- direct marketing and public relations activities for a major project or program at a nonprofit, university or government agency. Again, the dream job would be one that is related to any of these aforementioned subjects.
Among the jobs I've applied for recently, to give you an idea of what I'm looking for:
- public information officer for a liberal arts college with several international programs
- marketing director for the continuing education/adult education program at a university
- coordinator of a nonprofit-focused program at a state's attorney general's office
- chief communications officer for a division of a large international foundation
- senior writer for program development at a large, international health institute
- directing a program that places media professionals in the developing world to train new journalists
- public affairs specialist at a federal office that manages several international programs
- director of communications in North America for an American university abroad
- public information officer for a conservation district
I've also really enjoyed teaching parts of courses for universities in Texas, as well as presenting workshops regularly for nonprofit organizations and researchers (
more information on my training activities), and would love to create or co-create an entire course as a part-time instructor at a university. I am most interested, and, I think, most qualified, to teach courses relating to:
- media writing and media relations
- public relations (basic public relations functions, outreach to particular audiences, crisis communications, how to address misinformation/misunderstandings, how to deal with public criticism, etc.)
- strategic communications (systematic planning and utilization of a variety of information flows to deliver a message and build credibility or a brand, sell more a)
- cross-platform media and electronic media (using traditional print, synchronous and asynchronous online communications, and emerging technologies effectively, and integrating the use of all information flows)
- public speaking
I have a
profile at LinkedIn, as well as details on
my own web site about my professional activities. I'm also happy to share my CV with you;
email me with your request. If you have any specific questions about my profile, feel free to
contact me as well.
See you in Portland! (we're also looking for a house to rent; if you think you can help,
contact me for more details).
16:16, 12 July 2009
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It's been
a fun time in Louisville and getting re-acquainted with living in the USA since April of this year, but it's time to head out to a more permanent home:
I'll hit the road the last week of July to move to Portland, Oregon and spend most of August getting settled there. As I already have two
consulting gigs going on, that means I'm booked solid through mid-September 2009. Subscribe to the blog you are reading now via
RSS or subscribe to my email newsletter,
Tech4Impact, for updates on my location and availability.
And don't forget: on July 16, I will present a two-hour
workshop about online volunteering/virtual volunteering at the
Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNPE) on 323 West Broadway, Ste 501 in Louisville. The presentation will begin promptly at 9 a.m. Visit the
online CNPE training calendar or call 502 315-2673 to register for the class. Costs are $55.00 for members of CNPE and $75.00 for non-members (however, please note that this money goes to CNPE, not me -- I'm doing this pro bono).
Space is limited. I hope people as far away as Evansville, Indiana, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee, and Bowling Green, Lexington, Frankfort and Henderson, Kentucky, will make the drive for this workshop - it will be worth it!
17:48, 28 June 2009
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Our adventure in Louisville continues:
Stefan went to his
his first baseball game (it was also
Albi's first baseball game) and his
first dirt track race. Guess which he liked more? And Stefan went on his own to a motorcycle gathering for
motorcycle travelers/adventure riders in Eastern Kentucky (hurrah! there are such people in the USA! He's been worried...)
We've also made trips to
Mammoth Cave (took the Historic tour; Stefan liked it very much),
Maker's Mark Distillery (free samples!),
Lincoln's Birthplace, and various places on
Bardstown Road (the Irish pubs, the
Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen, and the The Falafel House, where I dazzled the staff with my SEVEN words of Arabic).
Special thanks to my friend Jennifer, who made Stefan feel extra welcomed by donning a black wig, blacking out her front teeth, and running across the parking lot of
Lynn's Paradise Cafe while yelling, "Stefan! Stefan! Welcome to Kentucky." He's still recovering from that cultural experience. I spent the whole event laying on the sidewalk convulsing with laughter.
Stefan now has his green card.
I've been listening to the local public radio station,
WFPL, and often, the announcer says, "This news hour is brought to you by: The Embassy of Germany. Learn more about Germany as a vacation destination or as a partner for your business..." I'm impressed! The public radio audience in Louisville is *exactly* the type of audience that Germany should be going after, no kidding. We've wondered for the last eight years how Germany advertises to Americans. Through June, we only have access to TV-by-antennae, and so far, I haven't seen any advertisements for Germany -- guess the network TV audience
isn't their desired demographic.
Watched
Sheba, Baby, a rather bad movie with the fabulous Pam Grier, on TV the other day, because it turned out to have been
filmed in Louisville, Kentucky in the 1970s. My how the city has changed! Awful movie, but the city scenes, and Grier's outfits, were fun.
Favorite thing I've heard lately: "If you really want to clean up your karma, go get my freakin' latte." From "
The Big Bang Theory". It's so nice to have TV in English again, I cannot lie... I also got to enjoy the Tony Awards live for the first time since 2000. My verdict on the 2009 show: Best. Opening. EVA. And, as well, Greatest. Closing. EVA. Host Neil Patrick Harris was terrific (there wasn't enough of him actually), musical numbers were terrific, and except for Carrie Fisher's TRAIN WRECK of an outfit, everyone's dresses were terrific. Ultimate compliment is from Carmen Thornton, expert on Tony Awards and wine maven at Old Town in Louisville: "This stands up to the 1987 Tony award, which I have on tape." What more of an endorsement do you need?
I've taken "
TARC", the local bus system, a few times this summer and enjoyed it immensely. The drivers were friendly and helpful, the buses were clean, and the web site is comprehensive and detailed. Only complaint: TARC doesn''t allow dogs. Highlights of my TARC trips:
A very old black gentlemen -- one of those unofficial-mayor-of-the-neighborhood types -- regaling everyone at a downtown bus stop with incredible stories of when Al Capone and various famous performers of the era would visit Louisville, where black entertainers stayed during Jim Crow, etc.
A middle-aged white good ole' boy standing in the front of the bus talking to the driver, telling her in his strong Kentucky accent, "Well, I don't want to sound sissified or nuthin', but that thar Yoga really helps me calm down. You'd think hittin' a hammer all day would really release all yer anger, but it don't like Yoga does."
A young white woman telling two different people on the bus, with no shame whatsoever, that she had spent Sunday night in jail on a suspended license and what a HUGE inconvenience it was not to be able to use her car now, adding, "I've NEVER been in no trouble before" (so, dear madam, how then do you explain that suspended license?).
Realizing why the young, large black woman looked so very, very uncomfortable in her seat in the front of the bus: the bus driver stopped at an intersection next to a hospital, even though the light was green, and honked the horn until the guy in scrubs crossing the street and wearing an MP3 player turned around to see what the noise was; the driver yelled, "Hey, come over here and help this woman over to the hospital. She's havin' a baby." When someone on the bus remarked how sad it was that the woman had had to take public transportation to the hospital to have a baby, the driver said, "Well, that's how I did it myself!"
If you had told me back in March that, by now, we would have taken our dog
Albi to two bars (
Molly Malone's and the
Nach Bar) and a minor league baseball game, I would have said, "That's crazy! How many Hefe Weissens have you had tonight?!?" But it's true - Louisville is dog friendly. In addition, I've seen dogs with their owners at outdoor areas of many restaurants on Bardstown Road and people walking their dogs all over town. Now, if we could only take her on the city buses and it was cooler in the summer, life in Louisville would be perfect!
USA men's soccer victory over Spain in the Confederations Cup? Rapturous. It was all I could do to stop myself from honking the horn of the U-Haul wildly as I drove across Tennessee (heading back from Austin). The loss to Brazil? Heart-breaking. And I'm someone who has had her heart broken many, many times over sports...
Yes, we road tripped to Austin, to deal with various matters, since Austin was my official home while I lived in Germany. Highlights of that trip: seeing Star Trek (awesome) at the
Alamo Draft House (also awesome) while eating artichoke pizza (also awesome), playing table shuffle board at
Shoal Creek Saloon and the bartender donning a mullet wig,
Enchiladas y Mas, and our hosts,
Sharron and
Ron.
Unfortunately, we're having to move again before leaving Louisville. Most of our things are in storage, but we still have enough to make it annoying to have to move again. And then
we'll move again at the end of July:
job or no,
we hit the road at the end of July and head to Portland, Oregon (or there abouts).
I'm keeping
my public calendar updated; it's quite easy to know where I am and when I'm available.
Things I've been enjoying online: these
Awkward Family Photos, this
very detailed, sad-but-true history of drunks in sports, and
the Worst And Saddest Of Yahoo! Answers (although it starts off with a totally geek, fun question, sums up why I gave up on
YahooAnswers).
What I've learned lately: how to
ride a motorcycle and the
The Chewbacca Defense.
I'll end with a thought for the day, from the
amateurscientist.org:
Excessive punctuation and appeals to emotion are no substitute for evidence.
08:05, 27 June 2009
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It's the weekend! Time for a personal blawg:
Back in 2002, I went to
Ávila, Spain to study Spanish (or Castellano) at the
Instituto Español Murallas de Avila. I had been looking for a school that would be focused on its students learning Spanish quickly, not on its students partying and hooking up. IEMA had been recommended to me by
my Spanish teacher in Germany, who is from a small village near the school, and after meeting a couple of students -- colleagues from the UN -- who had gone to IEMA and loved it, I booked a place for two weeks. I came back and jumped up to the next level of language class at work, then went back two years later and jumped another level!
I highly recommend
IEMA: the daily classes, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., are tiny (you will have one to four other students), very intense and a lot of fun. I recommend taking a private lesson with an instructor as well twice a week. If you are a beginner then, in just one week, you will be speaking Spanish. No kidding! If you speak some Spanish already, you will see your skills jump immediately.
IEMA is excellent for preparing for the
DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language). They also have a special class for Spanish language teachers.
The best time to start is the first Monday of the month. I only went for two weeks, but many students go for three and four. I went to Ávila for the first time in August, and it was a great time to go -- most of the village is off on vacation (and that makes it quiet at night so you can, you know, SLEEP), and it's still very cool, temperature-wise, because you are in the mountains. And it's much better to study Spanish in Ávila than, say, Madrid or Salamanca, because in Ávila, there's NO English speakers, other than maybe your fellow students. My fellow students were from Germany, France and the USA.
I lived with
a family in Avila during my stay, and it was wonderful (
puppy!) -- it meant I was always learning Spanish. There was
a lot to see in Ávila, and it was relatively easy to get to Madrid or Salamanca for the weekend.
Downsides? If you are over 30, then you will probably be the oldest student, and I think that can some time be intimidating (but the instructors don't care about your age and won't treat you any differently). Take earplugs because, while you may need to get to sleep before midnight in order to make it to class in the morning, the citizens of Avila stay up late late late. That's it, really.
I don't get anything for promoting
IEMA -- no discount on a future class, no kickback, no nothing. I'm not sure anyone would even remember me there. I just want to recommend a really great Spanish school!
Also, I'm looking for a similar school in Mexico or Central America -- particularly one focused on preparing for the
DELE and is a member of
Instituto Cervantes. If you had a similar experience with a school in this hemisphere,
let me know.
08:54, 6 June 2009
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It's Saturday: personal blog time:
Medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies, and more than 75 percent of these bankrupt families had health insurance but still were overwhelmed by their medical debts - this according to a report released Thursday in the American Journal of Medicine by a team at Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School and Ohio University. The researchers and some consumer advocates said the study showed the proposals under the most serious consideration right now are unlikely to help many Americans. These researchers and others are pressing for a so-called single payer plan, in which one agency, usually the government, coordinates health coverage.
Read more here and
here (also read the comments).
More about why the single-payer plan is what is needed in the USA from
Physicians for a National Health Program.
(personal note: we're struggling to find affordable health care right now -- in fact, my husband has to continue to be covered by a European company, because he's been turned down by everyone in the USA. Scary times.)
