My Schedule

August 26 – December 31- Crystal City on assignment

November 24 – Tweetsgiving at Black Finn

*Schedule Subject to Change

Wine, Cheese, and HR Young Professionals Review

If you’re reading this, I apparently snuck in and out of SHRM Headquarters and no one caught me.  That is why people call me the Jackal.

Anyway, I attended the 1st Wine, Cheese, and HR YP Networking Event, provided by SHRM.  The event was in short notice as it started advertising for the event two weeks ago.  SHRM said around 90 RSVP for the event…around 30-40 actually came.  This is no knock on SHRM since they had a short time organizing the event, plus their were other events that was ahead of time: weather, holiday parties, local SHRM Chapter meetings, Caps game.  For that, SHRM did a marvelous job.

It was a formal networking event, like any typical networking event with food, bar, a few minutes of the sponsor, music (minus the loudness, which is a plus), and…networking.  A few observations I want to make:

• Almost everyone I asked heard about the event through email.  How did I know about the event?  Not by seeing an email or through social media.  I learn the event from crashing the SHRM Leadership Conference a few weeks ago and saw China Gorman, who mention the event to me there.  Social media is great and I am a big advocate of using social media in any aspect, but this still proves you need to attract people on a personal level first and email still works best. Then again, it was on short notice.
• SHRM employees have read my blog.  This is the second organization that is watching my move (the first is NPR for reasons I can’t discuss on this blog).
• SHRM unveiled their 2010 video.  This was the second time I saw the video and I’m starting to like it more and more.  “Next” will be a big word for next year for many organizations since we’re starting a new decade (new decade actually starts on 2011, but who’s counting?), but SHRM really define next.  I won’t go into details, but this was an effective ad that answers my question: “What is HR.” 

The event brought to attention that HR has come a long way from just being an administrative function.  HR is still evolving, but that will depend on how executives uses HR and what each HR professional feels comfortable doing.  Bill Maroni, Chief External Affairs Officer at SHRM,  made the an excellent point that 20 years ago, HR was an administrative function, but HR has been changing definitions each year and 10 years from now, the definition of HR will be different from today. 

This is where structure and philosophy has become an important role to HR because it has an open definition.  Employees knows what finance, communications, and business development because they are defined and people know what to expect.  HR can play many roles and thus causing a wide variety of emotions to employees either like or dislike HR (re: Tony Kornheiser, Dan Froomkin, and the Washington Post) . 

What employees outside of HR need to know is HR is the vision of the executive(s).  If they want a stiff workplace, HR will find stiff people.  If they want a creative staff, HR will find creative people.  If they want chaos, HR will create chaos, and so forth.  However, HR can question or alter the executive’s vision for the betterment of the organization, but it is up to the executive if they are open to change.  Collaboration between HR and executives is the key to establish the organization’s workplace culture.

As for the networking event, I do see a lot of promise for the SHRM YP group and it should start at the Annual SHRM Conference or the weekend of the HRGames (I missed those days) to expand the YP group since college students and graduates have their sessions Saturday, the day before the actual conference.  I also hope there’s a two-day summit or unconference on the state of HR YPs so people can discuss HR issues and bounce off ideas and how YPs can improve HR. 

Overall, SHRM did a great job of running this event on short notice.  If they had more time, I would expect more people to attend these events and from the looks of it, SHRM is serious of being forward-thinking  to the workplace for the next decade.  Looks like 2010 could be a start of big things to come.

If I Was Running A Company…Abe Pollin

I never met or saw Abe Pollin.  The closest thing I came to Abe Pollin is Abe Pollin Way.  However, there was a reason DC name a street after him.

Before owning the Washington Bullets/Wizards and Capitals, Abe was in the construction business.  Abe made tons of money and decided that he (and a bunch of investors) want to buy the Baltimore Bullets in 1964.  He wanted to move the team to the DC area, so in the 1970s, Abe put up $200+ million of his own money and build the Capital Centre.  At that time, it was state of art arena with a big screen TV and box suites.  It was home of the Bullets only championship in 1978 and the first and only championship Abe won.  When the arena was outdated in the mid 90s, Abe wanted an arena in downtown DC to build traffic and swarms of people.  He wanted funding from the DC government, but since DC had no funding at all to pay for Abe’s arena, Abe had a choice of moving his team somewhere or spend another $200 Million plus on a new arena in downtown DC.  He chose the latter and it is paying dividends.

The MCI (now Verizon) Center revitalized downtown DC since people can go to the “Phone Booth” to be entertained and go to numerous bars and restaurants surrounding Penn Quarter and Chinatown.  It open new business and job opportunities and an additional 3 hours to stay in DC.

Why I am mentioning Abe Pollin in the workplace blog post is because he was a rare businessman whose decisions not only effect  his organization, but the whole city.  

One of Abe’s strengths was his charisma and straight forward attitude.  When seeing and hearing Abe, you want to help him out and volunteer for the guy.  Abe wanted to see the big picture and his vision trickle down to his employees.  A great example was in 1982 when the Washington Capitals were struggling and thoughts of relocation were in play.  Abe created the “Save the Caps“ Campaign to keep hockey in Washington.  Ken Delinger and Dave Kindred scoffed at the campaign and when Abe read that, he pulled out a full-page ad in the Washington Post calling the writers untruthful and that the campaign was real.  A year later in 1983, the Caps made to the playoffs for the first time.  Another example was the “firing” of Michael Jordan in 2003, where Jordan was supposed to bring the Wizards to the playoffs either as player or President and didn’t get the job done.  People want Jordan to stay, but Abe realize this was not going to work and fired him instead.  It caused an uproar in DC, even calling Abe “racist.” In hindsight, it was the best direction for both parties.

Another of Abe’s strengths is that he gave back.  As a philanthropist, Abe gave money to Jewish Centers, cancer research, and various charities in DC.  As a businessman, Abe made two sacrifices to help rebuild DC.  The first attempt was to show DC was a sports town beyond the Redskins.  The second attempt was a calling to rejuvenate DC.   He succeeded in both.  Also, he was very loyal to his friends and employees.  If you screw up, Abe will guide you and be your mentor.  Abe made you feel you can’t do no wrong, unless you screw up big time.

Which leads me to his main weakness: his loyalty.  As the saying goes, “Your weakness is your reflection of your strength.”  Abe was loyal to a fault. Look at Wes Unseld: He was great friends with Abe since he was on the 1978 Championship team.  He became coach in 1987 and the team never had a winning record under Unseld.  However, Wes stayed on the job for 8 years because of Abe and admit to Abe that he was not a head coach.  Abe wanted to depend on his inner circle and didn’t want to go outside of it (re: Jordan).

Another fault of Abe is he did show favoritism towards his brands.  Basketball was his first love.  The Bullets won the championship and Abe wanted a second NBA Championship.  That never happened because of Bird and Magic and their luck in the NBA Draft Lottery, plus giving $105 million to Juwan Howard.  At the same time, the Capitals were flying high, appearing in the playoffs every year, but when free agency rolled around, Abe didn’t put out the money to future hall of famers Scott Stevens and Mike Gartner, and both had great careers after leaving the Caps.

Of all those faults, the overall point is that Abe made his decision for himself.  Abe didn’t have to stay in DC because the government rejected public funding for the arena nor he had to bring Michael Jordan.  However, he wanted to because he love DC so much that he would donate his body to DC if he wanted to.  Ted Leonsis will be a great owner for both DC franchises and from the looks of it, he will do an awesome job, but he realize he is miles behind Abe Pollin.  

Abe thought he owe his employees and the city of DC something to be proud of.  The Verizon Center was his version of saying, “Thank You” for 12 years and counting.  You can have your cake, Abe!

Wine, Cheese, and HR Young Professionals

Appearance Note:  I will be attending the SHRM’s 1st Annual Wine, Cheese, and HR Young Professionals Networking Event this Wednesday.  This is the first event the SHRM has dealt with young professionals (with the exception in the main Conference in June).  I really don’t know what to expect from the event since SHRM contacted Jessica Lee and I a couple weeks ago about the event, although the event is almost sold out, which is awesome in such short notice.

What I should expect from this event is people talk about their job searches, workplace culture, money, long-term situations, generational differences, you name it.  I have no expectations out of this, so I’m coming in with a blank canvas.

I do know is SHRM really wants everyone’s viewpoint and the past couple of weeks, have grabbed Lance Haun and Mark Stelzner to be SHRM members and ask Jessica and I to be part of the event.  You might question the overall outlook of SHRM, but you can’t question their committment of asking HR professionals of what SHRM (or HR in general) should be in the upcoming years (although I’m worried this invite to the networking event might be a trap to be stuck in a SHRM dungeon for years and years for something I’ve done that I didn’t know it was illegal in SHRM).

I hope to learn a lot from the people who are coming to the event and if anyone is reading this and is attending the networking event, a question to ask before entering the event:

To you, what is Human Resources?

Ponder that and we’ll discuss this Wednesday.

If I Was Running A Company…Gift Cards

If you being reading my blog for a long time, you know I oppose giving gift cards to anyone.  Over the few years, I have kind of soften my stance.   The only time you allow to gift cards is if you’re a boss of over 50 employees.  Other than that, BE THOUGHTFUL!

Here are gift cards really are: plastic money from any specific or general sector. 
Here’s what organizations should do with the dollar amount in those gift cards: donate money to the employee’s charity of choice or give them money as a small bonus. 

For employees who want to give something for the holidays, have the instincts and feel of what the employee wants.  If you got nothing from the employee, just Google your employee’s name.  It will prop up the many different profiles of your employees if they existed.  Now, I know what you’re thinking: is this an invasion of privacy?  Yes, but I will counter why did you create your profile and did you check your privacy settings?  In most cases, they won’t notice, but if they ask, just say you’re a psychic.

Anyway, try to get your employee’s information of their favorites and hobbies.  Accumulate from various profiles and find your gift for each employee.

There are guidelines of buying a gift to your employee:

1. The maximum budget for a gift should be $25. Anything over will show favoritism to an employee to your co-workers.
2. The more thought toward the gift, the better.

If you are really inexpensive, there are many ways to show it without spending money:

• Photoshop into a  picture
• Send a story or poem
• Video of yourself or something else.
• Holiday Mixtape

Simply put, what employees want for the holidays is a token of appreciation for the past year and how you genuinely show it.  That’s what the holidays should be about…

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in addition, employees want their holiday bonuses, but I’ll leave that to you. :)

If I Was Running A Company…Chances

I attended my alma mater’s alumni weekend festivities and attended a session where Jim Larranaga was talking about George Mason basketball.  In the session, he mention how Dr. Alan Merten, the President of George Mason University, persuaded him to be the head coach of George Mason in 1997.  Larranaga told another story of how Merten persuaded Vernon Smith, an economics professor at the University of Arizona at the time, and staff to go to Mason.  As a result of those moves, Smith won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002 and Larranaga lead George Mason to a Final Four run in 2006.

Alan Merten’s actions has position George Mason as the number one  up-and-coming university in the United States, which leads to what organization need to grow…ONIONS!

To paraphrase what Larranaga said about his boss, “When Merten became President, he had a vision of what George Mason should be and use his networking skills to get what he wanted to achieve that vision.”  This should be what other executives mindset if they can get superstar talent.

(To get this out of they way, if your organization has numerous problems, don’t read the rest.  Your organization likely has internal problems and there are too many problems to fill.  Now, if your organization has a few problems, read the rest).

In your organization, if there is one piece of the puzzle that is missing and there is someone out there that the organizations wants, bring the kitchen sink.  If there is one (or two) piece(s) missing, the employees and executives feel they are getting close and optimism arises within the organization, but it must start with a vision in place so you can tell your organization’s current situation and tell the person why they are important.  Then, the organization tells what they’re doing great and what weaknesses they have and explain to the person why is he/she an important piece of their organization.

The best case scenario is if the superstar accepts the decision, jubilation ensues throughout the organization and anticipation comes and after a few months, the superstar meets expectations.  The worst case scenario is with all the hoopla within the organization, the superstar fails to meet expectations and demoralize the organization. 

Simply put, it is alright to take a chance at something that your organization needs.  It will give a temporary boost within the organization.  It the organization takes a chance and fails, that happens and you move on, but if you’re not taking risks, how can your organization improve long-term?  All you need is a vision, specific goals, a great workplace culture,  networking depth, and timing to force the issue.  In Alan Merten’s case, the stars were aligning in his favor because he forced George Mason to be great.

If I Was Running A Company…The Grim Reaper

This week is Halloween and the Grim Reaper is approaching the human resources department according to all these articles here. Apparently the HR bloggers are recreating an episode of Touched By An Angel.  Seriously, is HR one foot near the grave?

Let’s be clear about one thing: the concept of HR is going to be there. Even if there is no HR, people within the organization must recruit, hire, train, negotiate, give orientation, write their own policies, explain benefits, budget, and all the other goodies they have to do.  I could mention the organizations can outsource HR, but what would be the fun of that?

Which leads me to why people are discussing HR’s fate.  The problem with HR is they have too many definitions. While some organizations view HR as tactical, strategic, and proactive;  most organizations, employees, and HR professionals themselves view it as administration, office, and (at times) legal work.  This is where the disconnect is with HR and their employees.  To show you the disconnect, here’s an audio clip of an employee who is upset at HR. Let’s call him Mr. Tony:

Also, I had a discussion with my friends about HR and here are the responses (Of note: my username there is pudgeyt). The perception is there that HR professionals are bad people.  Is there a way to change that?  There are several answers I heard from:

• Change the department name to “Talent Management”
• Outsource HR
• Make it into Marketing
• Put it under the Legal team
• Just put it out of its misery

All of the selections are reasonable, but one thing that struck me the past month was Steve Boese’s tweet to one of the speakers at the WTPF SOARS event and one of the tweets said (and I’m paraphrasing), “People should not be HR Managers…they should be General Managers.”  As Sherman Lewis would like to say…BINGO! 

To me, HR is a war room for organizations.  They plan, recruit, and discuss what are the organization’s and employee’s strengths and what needs to improve.  HR creates the working environment for organizations.  The problem is most organizations don’t realize it.  Departments need to realize what value HR has, but on the flip side, HR professionals need to know how the industry and organization is structured and be democratic about the process.  Basically…it’s a two-way communication.

In all honesty, I don’t care how organizations view HR.  If organizations vision for HR is admin or legal purposes, that’s fine. If they vision HR for branding or strategy, that’s fine as well.  Just find the right HR professionals who want to share how organizations view HR. 

To answer the question, is HR dead?  No…HR has a concussion.

By the way, if I would replace the name “Human Resources”, here would be my answers:

1. War Room
2. Romper Room
3. Situation Room
4. My favorite: The Norris Department

#TWTRCON DC 2009

Last Thursday, I attended #Twtrcon in DC. Twtrcon is a conference for businesses that have applied Twitter in their business strategy, so no novices here.

The main reason I went to Twtrcon is to meet people I met before and finally see the faces of the people I met through Twitter the past year so they wouldn’t think I’m a fake  I can say I have reach double digits meeting the HR/Recruiting people, although I have 700 HR/Recruiting pros to meet.

Twtrcon had several sessions throughout the day. The ones I was most anticipated were Michael DiLorenzo of the NHL on real-time branding since if you go to my all-around Twitter feed you know I’m a bit “devoted” to the NHL.  I also wanted to listen to Jessica Lee and Kerry Noone’s presentation on Twitter for Recruiting since that’s my area of expertise. Both were great discussions on how to use Twitter.

Twtrcon also provided a few memorable quotes:

• “Free the Nerds”
• “People should tweet, not brands”
• “There is no social media expert”
• “Twitter is a sushi conveyor belt moving at 100 mph”
• “Twitter: blogging for lazy people”
• “If you aren’t failing you aren’t trying”
• “What wine pairs up best with bacon?”

The presentation that had everyone’s attention was Scott Harrison’s charity: water. Scott showed video and stats of how much people have donated and how their donations help in Africa. Almost everyone agreed that it was a powerful presentation, although some question that his presentation has nothing to do with Twitter. In hindsight, I agree that it wasn’t focusing on how Scott was utilizing Twitter, but I really think Scott made the point that if you have a powerful message, it can be transmitted anywhere, no matter the source. 

There are some things I want to change for Twtrcon like the 5 minute real-time tools “ad”.  I found it more promotional than informative and I wouldn’t mind if they gave us 30 minutes to walk around the area to see the new products for Twitter, which for the most part, are very useful.  Another adjustment Twtrcon should make is have a screen in front of the speaker or panel to see what questions arises, they can answer it, although if they put a screen outside the Grand Hyatt to let everyone see what people are tweeting about, that will be much better.

Overall, I thought the sessions were useful, but Tonia Ries made the greatest point in the beginning of Twtrcon that the conference is for the people to share their ideas and network with other tweeple and this conference drive that point.

This brings me to the future of Twtrcon if it is going to continue when Twitter’s popularity fades.  I remember 5 years ago people were holding local MySpace parties and everything thought it was a great idea.  Then, MySpace is off of anyone’s radar (except for the creeps).  What Twitter brought that no other social media did is involve anyone who wants to contribute of anything.  While Facebook, Linkedin and other social media do have some barriers, Twitter is making a small world even smaller.  Case in point: I met a guy who is a patient of my brother.  However, the world and technology is going fast and Twitter will eventually be in the bottom of the totem pole.  That said, there will be conferences about social media or any speciality involving social meadi and its impact.  This year is Twitter;  next year, there will likely be a Google Wave Conference;  and 5 years from now, there’s going to be a Hologram conference where people stay at their homes and bring their holographic self.  Either way, all of these conferences have one thing in common: the people, which the conferences should always be about.

Resources:

Pictures from ReadySetDC
Twtrcon Presentations
Official Twtrcon Site

If I Was Running A Company…Nonprofit Business

Last week, I discuss how a job seeker can join the world of nonprofits.  Now, I’m here to tell what to expect of going into nonprofits.

What Nonprofits Do:

If you want to get into nonprofits, understand their biggest strength: storytelling.  Nonprofits are there to send a message to an audience.  Nonprofits bring an emotional attachment that the person can either donate money, volunteer, or spend more time on the subject.  If there is no attachment, there will be no cause and no nonprofit.  That is why it is important what makes you tick and how to utilize your skills for “good.”

Benefits:

You know the deal that nonprofits don’t pay as much and work for long hours.  There are two reason why salaries are low.  One is funding for salaries since most come of the salary comes from the government and there are restrictions on how to spend that money.  The other reason salaries are low is your organization is spending a lot on benefits from healthcare, retirement, life insurance, and others to make up for the salary and let you have close to security in the future.

Resources:

I would like to call the nonprofiteers the “Moneyballers” of an organization.  Although nonprofits do not have the resources like the private sector has, nonprofiteers are very clever and know how to maximize with little.  This article from Harvard Business Publishing tells exactly how nonprofits use their resources.

The key player:

Although storytelling and emotional content can bring people together, the most important person in nonprofits is the fundraiser.  The fundraiser can have many faces within a nonprofit: it has a face (or voice) people recognize, a salesperson who cares about the cause, and a super salesperson/networker.  The first two is easy to identify if done properly, but the last one is like the Angel of Death.  It is the one person that you don’t want to see, but it is willing to protect you.  In this case, the fundraiser’s sole objective is to raise money by any means necessary.  Storytelling might bring people to watch a mural, but the fundraiser drives the nonprofits to monetary success.

This brings to the overall point about working for nonprofits currently is strictly business.  Don’t get me wrong, there are going to be business aspects anywhere you go, including nonprofits, but nonprofits need to pick their spots.  What business does for nonprofits is give them structure, but it is also the nonprofits job to keep the focus on their cause and storytelling, but the both can overlap at times.

In the two posts I wrote about nonprofits the past couple weeks, one thing that stands out is work that you care for.  That is why I mention to job seekers to find three organizations/causes you want to work for.  If you don’t have any purpose of what you’re working, then what’s the point of job searching and vice versa for the employees working in nonprofits?

#PubCamp

This was the first #Pubcamp and my first unconference and to be honest, I thought I was missing something when there was no schedule.  I then realize that people set out the schedule in the beginning.  It also helped that there was hour delay because of a bike race in DC and it was raining, but around 250 braved the rain and bikes to come to the first #pubcamp.  It is also to note that it was the quickest introduction I’ve been to and they were very helpful to know each person with each person saying their three tags. Onto the sessions I’ve attended:

Citizen Journalism and Public Media

This was the most intense of all the sessions and there are a lot of things that were said, and Jessie X sums up perfectly of why there was tension in the session.  I want add that journalism is still a competitive sport where people are still fighting for stories.  There was one person who said their site does better covering DC than other stations and websites.  That right there shows not only a generational difference, but journalism is still competitive and it is every company for themselves, which brings me to a conversation I had with Charles Meyer and this was not mentioned in the session, but people are looking more towards the internet for the news than newspapers.  Television is still important, but the internet is catching up because there are various opinions and people can select their own news and which ones they believe in.  This tells me that although it’s great you have the story, get all the information and tell the WHOLE story.  This is why NPR and other sites are getting readers/listeners/viewers because they have the time to get the whole story and not care who has the first story.  The morale of the story is get the the story right and have a lot of specifics to clarify the audience.

Social Media Success Stories

I think mostly everyone knows Public Media have been in the forefront in social media and mobile applications.  I want to bring one thing that was mention Amy Wielunski and she mention that although the average donations are down, membership is up.  This is where I believe social media plays a key role not only for Public Media, but in nonprofits and associations.  Nonprofits will not see the big donors donate anytime soon, but through social media, public media can develop an army of supporters and ask them to donate whatever amount.  However, I do think organizations like NPR, PBS, and CPB need to tell their audience/members to donate to their local stations better, but they are improving in that area.

Gaming in Social Media

This was the most anticipated of all the sessions and depending on your viewpoint, you either got it completely, or you slowly understand gaming.  In my case, it was the latter.  The first half of the session was very technical and most of true gamers would understand was going on.  In the last half of the session, almost everyone participate asking themselves: 1) if these games can bring value to the members and 2) how would stations take advantage of the games to help fund stations.  It was a great discussion and more to talk about but here are three games, in my opinion, would help the stations, members, and viewers/listeners:

• Maria Carter mentioned a FourSquare type game for NPR/PBS news and stories.
• Andy Carvin mention the best idea that NPR should have a NPR Fantasy Head League where listeners drafts a personality and gets points of being on-air and the brevity of the story.  Personally, I want this so Carl Kasell can breakdown each NPR personality, what are their strengths and weaknesses and how much potential “air time” they have.  You have your own Mel Kiper, Jr.  By the way, if I have the first pick, it would be Carl Kasell and then Tavis Smiley (we are talking about the whole public media, right?)
• The last one, which almost everyone agreed, is follow the Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me Daily Quiz model and enhance that to give current event and NPR stories to friends and family.

Conclusion

I only went on Saturday and didn’t go on Sunday, but from the live setting and the tweets, almost all of the people attending are dedicated to improve public media and bring close a community of citizens and members.  I think this was NPR, PBS, and CPB idea of to capture what vibe they have.  I think Public Media knows they have done something great for new media and their stations.  I really think the number one question is how the people attending and others donate.  Should they go for a big donation, or rally up a number of supporters who are willing to donate even if it’s a small amount?  That question will be remain to be seen, but as everyone agrees who participated at #pubcamp that they’re doing it for better relationships between media and citizens.

For more references from #pubcamp, go to Digiphile’s blog  and videos of the event.

Climate and Faith

This blog post is one of many blogs participating on Blog Action Day.  This year, the focus is on Climate Change.  For more information and look at other posts about climate change, go to http://www.blogactionday.org.

In one of the sermons I attended last year at Church, I listen to the priest talk about the presidential election. I would imagine the priest would talk about abortion and why it is bad, which I understand.  However, the priest use his sermon to stage a rant and rally all the churchgoers to vote for John McCain because he opposes abortion and Obama does not.  The problem I had with the sermon was not that he opposes abortion. I do believe abortion is murder under my religion, but that is my personal stance.  My real problem was the priest acted like abortion was the only issue people should care about and should be above war, the economy, healthcare, and climate change for most concern issue.  This is why people outside of religion look down on us because our leaders do not see the big picture.  I cannot dispute why people are angry at one’ shallow’s point of view, but this is to tell everyone: Catholics do care about climate change.

Before the Spring of this year, I thought I care about the environment but really I talked about it but didn’t do much to help out.  Probably it was during Lent season that made me turnaround and made me serious what I do with my actions.  The first big test was on Earth Hour where everyone turned off all the electricity for one hour.  From that one hour, I understand I was fortunate to have a roof over me and a uniquely loving family.  The only bad part from the experience was I missed out the last minute between Pittsburgh and Villanova.  I was mad at first, but three things I realize: 1) I did it for a good cause, 2) I can catch the ending on replay, and 3) either team would of lost to North Carolina.

After Lent season, I started taking short showers, turning off all the lights, be part of the Animal Revolution (if you listen to the Tony Kornheiser Show, you will understand the joke) and take alternate transportation, which I have done for the past 8 years.  There are times I do forget to do those things and use to be no big deal.  Now, if I forget to turn off the lights or turn off the water, I get visibly upset to do it and hopefully the next day, I turn it off.  It is still a growing process and new to me, but I know it is better for my own benefit, which leads to an organization I found on the internet.

There is a group called the Catholic Climate Covenant and they’re a group of religious leaders, scientists, lawmakers, and business owners who focus on climate change.  It would seem like a joke was coming, but you heard that right.  Only climate change can unite religion, science, business, and government to focus on possibly the biggest issue going on globally.  Which topic can do that today?  They came together because it is their job as Catholics on how to settle Mother Earth and tell us as humans, it is our job to keep Mother Earth as green as it is, which Andrew Sullivan sums up best.  So far, we’re failing that mission: ocean temperatures have risen; the ecosystem is out of whack; violent hurricanes; were creating new areas for offices, not sustaining existing landscapes, and others.  There is one way to prevent this from making our Earth worse: Us.

As Catholics, go out there and make a contribution (small or big) of any kind to help Mother Earth by:

• Assisting the poor for survival not only today, but for future generations
• Donating money that help combat climate change
• Gardening
• Taking alternate transportation
• Turning off the lights
• Lobbying to Congress
• Recycle, Reduce, Reuse
• Changing lifestyle
• And others

Don’t forget, as we are living in this planet, it is our job from the Guy Above to keep Earth in great shape for future generations.  This is not recommendation from Catholics, it is A REQUIREMENT!

By the way, anyone know a good place to buy a banana tree plant?