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Showing posts from January, 2010

Board Recruitment Resources in Philadelphia and Beyond

http://dustinkidd.blogspot.com 1. Business on Board : A function of the Arts and Business Council. Provides training to prospective board members and connects them with local arts organizations. 2. Philadelphia's Young Nonprofit Leaders : Provides training and resources for staff and volunteers, including board members, for local nonprofits. "Young" is broadly defined. 3. Blue Avocado : An online magazine about non-profit boards. 4. Board Cafe Archives : The predecessor to Blue Avocado. Has a nice section on recruitment and diversity. Here's a good one . 5. BoardnetUSA : A board recruitment and placement website. Like Monster.com for boards. 6. VolunteerMatch : Similar function to BoardNet. 7. Bridgestar : Connects corporate employees to nonprofit service. 8. Eide Bailley : Non-profit toolbox. Includes a nice short article about board service. 9. BoardSource : Recruitment and Orientation resources. More resources throughout the site. 10. Wharton Nonprofit Board

Useful Websites for Writers

1. Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way . The link goes straight to the Basic Tools page, which includes a pdf sample chapter from Cameron's book. If you're not ready to buy the book, this is a nice place to start on the Artist's Way. Cameron offers a lot of her work for free, unlike most similar authors. 2. William Strunk's The Elements of Style . Full-text available on this website. Great way to get familiar with grammar and punctuation basics. 3. Guide to Grammar and Writing . Nice menus for refreshing your grammar skills. 4. Citation Machine . Easy way to generate your citations.

Fixing Your Finances for the New Year?

Some of my favorite personal finance tools: 1. Suze Orman's The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous and Broke : great book that is easy read but full of useful information. Read it with a notepad or journal handy. It also gives you access to a set of tools on Orman's website. 2. The Suze Orman show podcast. Free podcast of Orman's weekly show. A great way to learn more about money and making good financial decisions. 3. Mint.com . A website that can track all of your financial accounts. Other sites claim to do the same thing but I've found that only Mint can actually track all of them (some sites couldn't access by ING savings, others couldn't access my retirement accounts). It has tools for building a budget and tracking your expenses. Use the categories tool on the Transactions page to label and track your spending. Also be sure to download the iPhone app. 4. Get Rich Slowly . A great blog about saving money and making good financial decisions. 5. Wal

What's in Your Writer's Backpack

George Clooney's character in Up in the Air is a motivational speaker who begins his talks by setting a backpack on a table next to his podium, opening it, and then leaning in to the microphone to ask "What's in your backpack?" The character wants his audience to feel the weight of all that ties them down. I'm going to use the same question in a writing workshop tomorrow for faculty and graduate students. But I'm using the question very differently. I want my participants to take stock of all of the writing resources they already have, many of which they take for granted. The workshop actually brings together two different writing retreats: one for graduate students writing dissertations and one for faculty working on books or articles. Having been in both camps, I'll start with iconic stories from each experience: The horror of the blank page: When I was a graduate student, I followed my dissertation proposal defense with a heavy summer teaching load

What to Buy (and not buy) Organic

Nice posts on Andrew Weil's website with 12 foods to always buy organic and 12 foods that don't need to be organic (because of low pesticide use or low pesticide retention). 12 Foods to Buy Organic Peaches Apples Sweet bell peppers Celery Nectarines Strawberries Cherries Lettuce Grapes (imported) Pears Spinach Potatoes In Philly, I suggest the Fair Trade Stand at Reading Terminal, or the farmer's markets around town, especially at Rittenhouse. Many of these foods will not be available from those places when out of season. At that point, I turn first to Trader Joe's (best prices) and then Whole Foods (worst prices). 12 Foods you Don't Need to Buy Organic Broccoli Eggplant Cabbage Banana Kiwi Asparagus Sweet peas (frozen) Mango Pineapple Sweet corn (frozen) Avocado Onion For fresh non-organic food, I go Iovine at Reading Terminal (the big produce place in the SE corner). They also carry some organic food too (but it's usually not local). Otherwise, I go to Who

2010 Goals

Career Goals Publish two articles (goal is to have them at least accepted and forthcoming by year's end) Draft the proposal for my next book on popular culture Develop a longterm plan for research on art awards Get tenure (submit an excellent file; have positive results at the department level by year's end) Continue current service committees, but no new service (I do too much) File the first report on the Wolgin International Art Prize Draft several of my lectures as text that can be used towards publications and for improving the courses Financial Goals Have $25K in savings for a condo by year's end Submit a strong merit raise application at year's end (current application pending) Move current savings into a CD Health and Fitness Goals Yoga 2X/week Pilates 2X/week Strength Training 3X/week Abs 2X/week Continue cycling to work Get a physical Home New entertainment system Switch from Comcast to Clear Switch from home delivery to NYTimes Reader No new books (use librar