: a radio refugee rant :

... OK, so I am ( again ) probably showing my age, but when I jumped in the car this morning the radio was set to FM98.5 'The Ocean' ... which bills itself in Victoria as Today's Lite Rock. Their morning co-hosts, a married couple going by Forbes & Marshall, were bantering about upcoming concerts, and long term bands touring this summer.

Rush is playing BC Place tomorrow evening, and when she mentioned Rush, he replied ... 'huh? really? wow! who knew?' ... how can anyone ( in radio ) have missed the advertising of this tour?

This is an example of why I am more and more becoming a refugee from radio. I bailed on christian radio years ago, and I am pretty close to bailing on radio radio. Maybe the iPod/MP3 inputs in rental vehicles have spoiled me?

dlc

ps. then again? UVic's student newspaper, the Martlett, publishes a regular listing of the Top Ten songs played/listened to/requested each week, and I have yet to recognize any of them. Granted, university radio can be a little edgy, but I am guessing this is an indication of me being stuck back somewhere, and frustrated that Mr. McCool radio guy at the Ocean doesn't share my niche in mid-70's through late 80's rock. Bummmer.

: happy 20th birthday meggan marie :

... this time 20 years ago I had not yet been a father for a full 24 hour day.

Meggan Marie arrived, after a long 22 hour labour, on her due date, May 27th, 1988 ... at Credit Valley Hospital, Mississauga, ON. What a concept!

She's been a great kid, has turned into a great young adult, and we are very proud of her ... choices, friends, mission, schooling(s), faith, hope and love ...

Happy Birthday #20 Megg, trust this is a really great year for you, in every way.

dlc/dad

: ten years is a long time :

... there are very some reflective folks left behind on VanIsland this morning, as JimmyK and Hil wind their way across #10 Highway on BC's Lower Mainland in search of Trans-Canada Highway #1 ... which will take them, eventually, back to Ontario.

This is my favourite pic of James. Maybe taken at Mike & 'Nette's wedding, but I can't be sure. I've saved it under the title: 'JwdK ... Man in Black'.

James headed out here for university a decade ago, hard to believe, I know. Once he stumbled upon 'thePlace' Community, he never looked back. Initially, an HRDC funded summer job here and there, occasionally an anarchist phase, a great housemate for Garner & Giselle, and others ( almost forgot about his couch-crashing phase ), James stepped it up several notches Summer 2004 when Randy was on sabbatical, and ended up interning at Lambrick Park Church, thePlace specifically, but his influence, as a community environmentalist, knew no bounds. Websites. Poasis. StickMan art shows. The Cafe. Camping. Poker. Art. Posters. YLOP. PodCasts. Networking. Digging up crazy ideas and articles. Sharing them. A loss ...

There are touches and traces of the JwdK everywhere, if you are smart enough, or care enough, to look ... those who worked with him already miss him, the only good thing about his internship wrapping up almost exactly this time last year was it gave us time to adjust, knowing that family, and roots, were calling. Not that we adjusted well, mind you, but we tried.

He met Hilary Cain out here, fell in love with, and married her. Their Victoria wedding reception was an all time fav of mine ... seeing as the who's who of thePlace showed up decked out for a night at the Empress, a dress code upgrade never to be replicated, I don't think. Then there's Matty's best man's speech paralleling James & Hil's relationship to U2's Achtung Baby. Gold, pure Gold.

James, or Jamie, to us refugees from London, ON was one of those guys who got stuff done with little or no muss and fuss. He rounded out the Randy & Simon tag team into a strategic troika of complementary gifts, and when his internship ended, his name plate on the Place office suite door was changed to ... "In Memory of James Kingsley". His version of "minutes" for Place vision team meetings were a joy to read, capturing the essentials, with a tinge of subtle humour, and often an editorial comment tossed in that brought clarity to the reader. I will never forget the 3 submissions JK wrote this time last year as LPC turned the corner into nominating elders from thePlace. I read, and re-read them ... soaking up his ability to phrase things so accurately, without fanfare, or BS. Sans James, thePlace leadership limped a little, for a while, and I guess always will?

I can count on one hand the number of people I have worked closely with for almost a decade, and it was a privilege to do that with James William David Kingsley for 9 years. Maybe the UHaul will resist climbing the Rockies, and they will just turn it around and return?

Retrospectively ...

dlc

ps. the Bing weighs in here.

: like a broken record :

... OK, I had a significant birthday last week, so maybe I'm feeling a generation gap? or language gap? or something?

The other day I heard someone say ... "she sounds like a broken record". It occurred to me ... I know what they mean, but anyone under 25, maybe 35 probably won't. Somehow "you sound like a broken CD ... a broken BlueRay disc, or a broken iPod" just doesn't have the same, uh ... cachet?

dlc

ps. noticed today that I am rather enjoying these lazy, no stress Sunday mornings ... I am showing up 2/3 of the time at Lambrick and/or thePlace, but this no-responsibility zone feels pretty darn good right now. We'll see how long it lasts.

: journey and/or destination :

... anyone who has done some marketing work, or training, or education will probably have seen this model of "the marketing funnel" somewhere. I first learned about it in Denver, working for OMF International, in the mid-1990's. My boss/mentor, David, had tweaked it for a more non-profit spin ... to A.I.C.I. : Awareness, Interest, Concern and Involvement. Later on, I played with it some more and arrived at O.P-A.A.U.I-P.OtI.A.C.U.C. ... or Oblivious, Pre-Aware, Aware, Unsettled,Interest-Piqued,Open to Involvement, Action, Concern, Understanding, and finally Commitment. Who says I make things more complicated? I think this may have some parallels to various Randy "Bruggemann and Roxborough" talks over the years, and Sunday night's introduction to the Psalms of Ascent by Stacey : orientation, dis-orientation, re-orientation, and I would add a final category ... new orientation.

All that to say ... I have a post-it-note sitting in front of me with half-a-dozen job postings with deadlines for resume submissions. This has been quite an interesting process pour moi ... but seeing as one of those deadline is tomorrow, and the next is Friday, I'd better get to it. My resume is done, only needs tweaking for specifics of these individual jobs. So it isn't rocket science, just feels final, like I don't want this great in-between break to end, even though I can feel the restlessness and antsyness building ... it is time to get on with the new thing, whatever it is?

Problem is? while I really do want my process to look like the 'traditional funnel' as pictured above, I really identify and relate to the second graphic, the 'complexity funnel' ... as I have said to most of you ... the $64 question these months has been ... "what on earth will Don be doing by Fall 2008? Winter 2009? Spring 2010?

This transition may be about the journey AND the destination.

Hang on ...

dlc

: them ramblin' ambassadors :

... just had to note that while most of us were at Kingsley's 'Farewell Tour' backyard party on Saturday night the Ramblin' Ambassadors were at Logan's Pub on Cook Street. Why is that important, you ask? Well, growing up, as the oldest of 5 kids, we had a steady stream of full size GM station wagons, most of them, I think, with that faux wood grain panelling. I actually remember my dad trading in a '57 Chevy 4 door on an early '60's Pontiac Stratochief wagon. Anyhow ... somewhere in that list was a 1969 Oldsmobile 'Vista Cruiser' exactly like this one on the Ramblin' Ambassadors new CD. In fact, the CD title is ... Vista Cruiser Country Squire. Crazy. Ours was the same cool green shade, although my own kids tend not to believe my story.

This last week JimmyK and Hil have been making good use of my 1990 Pontiac 6000 LE Safari wagon, with ... yes ... the faux wood panelling on it, as they pack 'er up here in BC and head for the rolling hills of SW Ontario. Looks just like this, only better, in white. Apparently the tradition continues as Megg gets to take it to the mainland for Yr III at TWU in September :)

dlc

ps. thought I'd try to re-construct a list of those stations wagons ... here's my best shot at it: 1963 Pontiac Stratochief white; 1966 Chev Caprice dark brown; 1969 Olds Vista Cruiser green; 1973 Pontiac Catalina beige; 1976 Buick Estate Wagon cream. That's about it. Lots of trips ... beach, Niagara Falls, and arenas in them chariots! There's a really great 'family folklore' story for every one of those cars ... another post maybe someday.

: balanced budgets a must? or an intentionality :

... I found this article today while researching some not-for-profit social sector support agencies.

There is some very good stuff out there, so here's a little teaser.

The full text is available at CompassPoint Non-Profit Services BlueAvocado 'blog. CompassPoint itself has a wealth of information, take a wander over sometime and have a look. You may be pleasantly surprised, I certainly was.

dlc


Nonprofit Budgets Have to Balance: NOT!

*****************************************************

As nonprofits serving people and communities in difficult financial times, we don't expect things to turn around for our communities in the near future. Many of us are wondering: how can we achieve a balanced budget in these times? When is it okay not to have a balanced budget?

A potentially harmful habit practiced in many community nonprofits is presuming that a break-even budget is mandatory. Board members and staff may be under the influence of the false but persistent ‘nonprofits can't make money' myth as they develop the year's income and expense plan. Like other conventional wisdom, the balanced budget is based on sound concepts, but can become unnecessarily constricting. Instead of "How can we make the budget balance?" the annual budgeting cycle should begin with the question, "What financial outcome does our organization want or need this year?" Different scenarios lead to different decisions about what the budget's bottom line should look like:

1. We need to increase reserves or pay down debt: adopting a surplus budget. When the organization's leaders decide that its cash and other reserves are lower than ideal, the organization can plan to generate more income than expenses, creating surplus funds that can be used in future years. If the organization can deliver on a surplus budget, it will have higher net assets (net worth) at the end of the year, and enjoy a stronger financial position.

2. We can't gain ground now, but we can't lose ground either: the break-even budget. Typically, organizations choose break-even budgets by default and the skin of their teeth. A first cut on the budget shows expenses much higher than revenue, so the staff then tries to figure out how to increase the revenue number (but still stay close to reality) and decrease the expenses (but not damage programs). The staff and the Finance Committee tack their way towards a break-even budget, and hope that their cautiously optimistic projections work out.

3. There are three typical reasons for adopting deficit budgets.

First and rarest, the organization's leadership decides that its cash and other reserves are more than sufficient, and so spending some of those reserves in the coming 12 months is a good idea. At the end of the year they will have more expenses than income for the year, and thus a deficit for the year.

A second reason for a deficit budget is a decision to invest. For example, the organization may invest funds in strengthening its fundraising capacity, or in new programming. Leadership believes that resources from previous surplus years can be risked as investments in future programmatic or financial paybacks.

An all-too-common third reason for adopting a deficit budget is a decision that ending the year in a worse financial situation is the lesser evil. For some organizations, simply cutting costs may not be the right financial decision. For example, in an organization that relies on earned income, cutting staff will result in lowering income. The leadership will need to re-work the way its services are structured--perhaps too complicated to do in just a month or two.

At the end of a deficit budget year--assuming that reality matches the budget--there will be a lower net worth and the organization will be in a financially weaker position.

But "weaker" should be in quotes because a planned loss may, in fact, be a sound, strategic fiduciary decision by a board. For example, investing in a new website may mean a deficit this year, but could reap substantial gains in fundraising in coming years.

The core issue is intentionality. An unplanned deficit reflects an error in planning and/or execution, while a planned deficit is an investment of accumulated reserves for the benefit of the organization and its constituents.

Consulting to nonprofits, we've come to see that ... healthy organizations require cash reserves, which means they must generate excess cash in at least some of the years.

The majority of community nonprofits with whom we work need to build reserves. We may have to settle for break-even because we don't see opportunities for income growth or expense cuts. But we'll be settling for break-even, not aspiring to it.

: timing is everything ... and then some :

... anyone reading this from Ontario way will appreciate this article. I especially liked the line later on which I have bolded/italicized for you.

Sorry, I can't find a photo of Bess, but she reminded me of Rhoda Morgenstern's mother Ida of Mary Tyler Moore fame, so here's a glimpse of that 4'11" fiery red-headed dynamo.

'Street smarts' and people savvy helped her shape Toronto politics

**************************************

Bess Godfrey, the mother of Paul Godfrey, president and chief executive of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, died on May 13. She was 93.

The Toronto-born woman had only a Grade 8 education. But her street smarts and her way with people would make her a sought-after advisor to local politicians.

She became interested in politics when working as an enumerator, going door-to-door to register people to vote. Later, her reputation as a successful political campaign manager attracted various fledgling politicians, including former Toronto mayor Mel Lastman.

When she was asked to run as a councillor for North York in 1964, she instead promoted her then 25-year-old son, Paul, and coached him to victory.

"She had unbelievable street smarts," Paul Godfrey said. "Having her at my side, no one dared run against me."

The 4-foot-11 woman with fiery red hair was bold and ambitious.

"She may have been small, but she was a giant in the field of politics," Godfrey said. "She had the trust and confidence of premiers, Cabinet ministers and local politicians of all political stripes." She would caution politicians:

"It's better to leave office two years too early than two minutes too late."

After managing campaigns, she served as deputy returning officer in provincial and federal elections for 15 years.

Godfrey and her late husband, Philip, raised their two sons, Paul and Don, in Kensington Market, one of Toronto's oldest neighbourhoods. Don Godfrey is a provincial court judge.

"She strongly believed that you had to live in a happy home to have a happy life. She had a very strong belief in Judaism and Jewish heritage," Paul Godfrey said.

Bess Godfrey suffered from Alzheimer's disease for 13 years prior to her death.

"Although not well-educated, she was very wise and street smart. She taught all of us the importance of treating people fairly. ... She could work the room and network better than any politician I know, and she never said a bad word about anyone."

: okay ... call me crazy ... but :

OK ... as I said ... "call me crazy ... but" ... I heard this morning on the radio in the car that Ellen Degeneres announced on her show that in light of the California Supreme Court ruling overturning the ban on gay marriages in that state that she is planning on legally marrying Portia de Rossi, Nelle of Ally McBeal and Lindsay of Arrested Development fame. My apologies for the run-on sentence.

Call me politically incorrect but ... all I can say is "ouch" ... some folks will think this is one giant step for a certain orientation, all I can think is "this is one giant step backwards for the male species".

: on liberating the artistes among us :

... over at Open Hands recently Mark posted some of David's thoughts on arts in the church.

As a failed wannabe artist I eventually landed in the camp of at least being a 'patron' of the arts in the church ( at Randy's prompting, several years ago ). So David's challenge makes sense.

Wonder though, how it will play out, given the church's 'censorious' culture? Give Mark's post a read here or Naked Pastor's full post here.

dlc

ps. to Lambrick Park Church's & thePlace Community's resident artisans ... JimmyK, Chris, Ant, Rhonda, Carren, James N, Nathan, Aileen, 'Nette, Mike, Geoff, AmyK ... this one's for you, and anyone I missed.

: on holding things lightly :

... my mentor, David, has taught me more than a few critical things over the years. Easily in the top 5 would have to be ... "holding things lightly" ... as in ... nothing we have is actually ours, we may have stewardship of it ( relationships, career, assets ) for a while, but it ain't ours. I have seen a few too many people hang on to stuff ... positions, jobs, resources ... to ever want to do that.

... so is it just me? or? is anyone else asking why is Hillary Clinton hanging on to, grasping even, the chance to be in power? politics aside, she seems so disingenuous to me, every time she's on a platform, or working a crowd. I cannot get past the images of her hanging on so tightly that she's going to lose it all, alienate her party, be sent back to the Senate, which somehow appears to be second best for her now? She's moved away from attack ads, from anti-Obama negativity, but I still don't get her argument that Democratic Uber-Delegates need to support her, as the most winnable. What happened to the best candidate for the party, and the country, and in the USA's case, the world? even IF it means not getting the power? easy for me to say, I guess ... harder if you have a crack a becoming the most powerful 'leader' in the world.

Guess I'd better finish reading Shane Claiborne's book 'Jesus for President' ...

dlc

ps. for both of you reading this, I really do need to finish off a couple of specific resumes, and get them off to the right people/places. My self-imposed deadline for having narrowed my options down to 2-3-4 realistic alternatives was early-mid May, which is now! Made some progress on that yesterday, which was why my Twitter updates ranged between marginally productive, and marginally productive. Wish me well, June 30th cometh!

: whispers, or stopping to smell the roses :

... just a quick link first thing this Wednesday morning. I've mentioned David Armano's blog, and work, a few times ... mostly for his graphic renditions of concepts and ideas he is working through. Armano is a young dad, working in Chicago, at a pretty cool advertising agency Critical Mass, whose real HQ is in Calgary of all places. I still say JimmyK should be freelancing for CM when he re-establishes himself in SW Ontario in June after a decade's hiatus in Victoria.

Anyhow ... take a minute and read David's whispers commentary on this photo ... not exactly stopping to smell the roses, but close.

... a little 'shabbat' maybe?

dlc

: macro views or micro views or both :

... not quite sure why, but over the past several months my attention has been captured more by macro thinking than specific micro stuff. Authors like Thomas Homer-Dixon, Jared Diamond, Peter Senge, Jeffery Sachs and others. Maybe just stepping out of day-to-day responsibilities in a local organization freed up some head space, or maybe something altogether different I cannot put my finger on? Maybe time will tell, I rather hope so.

... on the plane ride home from Ontario Friday night I was reading an interview with Naomi Klein, the author, a few years back, of 'No Logo' ... and last year of "The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism" ... which is pretty heady stuff, but good I think? A Canadian, with a serious pedigree ( her father-in-law is Stephen Lewis, but that's just for starters ), with quite the ability to get her head around issues, for example, as a non-economist she certainly grasped a level of economics in order to write Shock Doctrine Klein is not yet 40!

... there was a quote in the article/interview that jumped out at me. Klein was explaining ( and doing so very well ) that a specific chain of events, from a certain economic world view, may either predispose a reaction/response to world events, or more intentionally, capitalize on them. Here is her explanation/quote ...

Klein ... "there is an awareness that these disasters ( could be significant changes ) create opportunities, and so you have a whole movement ready within a think-tank infrastructure. I think of these think-tanks as sort of idea warmers - they keep the ideas ready for when the disaster ( or change ) hits. Milton Friedman said that 'only a crisis, real or perceived, produces real change, and when that crisis hits, the change that occurs depends on the ideas that are lying around ( at the time )' ..."

She uses a range of examples from 9-11 to Katrina to Poland/Lech Walesa to the fall of the Berlin Wall to describe this. Technically, I think she might say the current US mortgage crisis is big enough to force/create real change in the US financial system, but I digress :) ... basically, on a huge scale, like Myanmar and China this week, 'disasters are malleable political moments -- people are in shock, blasted out of the way, entire world views have been shattered'.

... I wonder, on a smaller, organizational scale, if there are some applications of this theory? what got me thinking was the idea that 'the ideas lying around at the time' are what are going to influence the future ... of that organization, the response to disaster, even recognizing an opportunity. I would hope most of us ... as individuals, families, teams, groups, organizations ... would have an "incubator" function ... like Klein's 'idea warmers' ... where we are perking on, nursing, maturing, developing future concepts. I thought about this in terms of my last 5 years: 2003-2008 ... and it made sense, and may still be influencing developments there.

... so what 'ideas are lying around' your world right now that may influence things for good, or otherwise, and how can you capitalize properly on them? are you writing them down? articulating them in any way? sharing them with your colleagues? ensuring that good things are not lost in trans(la)tion?

... food for thought.

dlc

: Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC :

... it has been quite a while since I took POL144 "US Government & Politics" with Dr. William McKercher at the University of Western Ontario, so the complexities of this year's Democratic Primaries have intrigued me somewhat. I can't believe 'Wild Bill' is still teaching.

I've been following the Billary / Barack saga for months now, and it has been an interesting ride. I guess, qualifications notwithstanding, the tenor and tone of Obama's campaign ... even his responses to challenges, sound refreshing. I saw this today in the New York Times on-line edition and it kind of summed it up for me. Enjoy!

dlc

: count to ten :

... yep, 10 ... count 'em. Sat 27 April > Wed 07 May = 10 days in Ontari-ari-ario! Whew ... never imagined helping downsize the folks from a 2000 sq ft home into a 1000 sq ft apartment would be such a demanding, exhausting,multi-tasking, generation-bending adventure. Didn't quite get 'er done in the estimated ( and planned, arranged for flights and car rental ) time frame, so I bumped my flights by 2 days ( I was supposed to be IN the air in 30 minutes ).

Mind you, I did take in a 2 day conference in K/W, have had 2-3 lunches with friends, and checked out a couple of employment opportunities, but still? 10 days? What must have Moses felt like as he transitioned the nation of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land on the 40 year plan? Don't tell me, just shoot me.

dlc