Having an opinion, speaking your mind, telling it like it is...whatever you want to call it, at PortageLife it's all good news. There have been so many positive things that people have shared with us this past year, and rightly so because a lot of positive things have happened this year.
Here are the Top 10 Voices Articles of 2012. Please read on and enjoy.
I Love People with Balls
Click here to read this article!
What is it about people who have balls that attracts me so much?
Growing up surrounded by traders and entrepreneurs gave me a tremendous appreciation for the men and women who put it all on the line every day, whether that was the position they were taking in the market that day, hour, or minute, or it was the uncensored language they used to describe their opinions on everything from politics to baseball teams to personalities and who has the best beef sandwiches or bar snacks.
From My Desk to Yours - Pride
Click here to read this article!
The hot weather this summer has brought with it will not soon be forgotten. For many who enjoy their pool, boat, or frequent trips to the lakeshore, this weather is enjoyable. For hose who work outdoors or experience poor health, this hot weather can’t leave soon enough.
For the Chamber, summer is a time to complete our directory, promote our Music in the Park series, plan our banquet, deliver our profiles, create our budget, prepare our membership renewals, and secure new members.
Here's the Good News: It's Over.
Click here to read this article!
The election sauntered across our landscape like a two-year tornado, churning debris and data into a soupy mix of dialogue and diatribe. It left a trail of destruction – or opportunity – however you choose to view it, but alas, it’s over. Today the clouds have cleared and a new day dawns. Maybe the sun shines on an opportunistic horizon, or one fraught with more challenges and gridlock. In reality it’s both. But since we don’t know for sure we might as well get moving.
Each election process teaches us something about ourselves, because let’s face it, we make it ugly. However, the process itself is a beautiful thing especially when you think about the sacrifices it took to create it. Millions lay in graves - some well-manicured and revered, others never found or marked – to provide us with this privilege to choose our own representation as a people. Our founders made themselves enemy of the Crown, even formally Declaring such on a length of parchment with their prominent signatures. It’s hard to put into context in our world today the significance of that act. Our forefathers left their homes and families often for years, for our independence and right to choose our own representation. They fought through winters with no provisions – many even with no shoes - against a professional army of foes. They died horrible deaths on battlefields here and abroad, in little pastoral Pennsylvania towns or on heavily fortified beach bulkheads in the Pacific and Atlantic. Some knew the instant they stepped out into the open they would die, and they stepped anyway.
Ride the Wave of Creativity with National Novel Writing Month
Click here to read this article!
Do you have the idea for a novel burning inside you, but you've never had the chance to sit down and write it? Consider joining thousands of people across in the globe in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Branded as "Thirty Days and Nights of Literary Abandon," the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a novel of 50,000 words minimum in thirty days or less.
It may sound daunting, but breaking down the word count helps alleviate some stress - 50,000 words in 30 days breaks down to 1,667 words a day. It's a fast pace, but if you plan your time, it's more doable than you might think.
Teamwork and Positive Attitudes - Amazing How Related They Are
Click here to read this article!
I am often accused of being hopelessly optimistic, even delusional at times. One who sees the silver lining in a storm cloud that actually contains a zillion watts of energy that is about to strike down on me in the rain, while I happily dance and think about how much the grass loves the nourishment. While I would not argue that my mental state is at least a couple of standard deviations from the norm of what would be considered healthy, there is a method to the madness, and for the Life of me, I often cannot understand how others see things so differently than I do. Life is about choices, so why not choose to see the green in the grass and the smiles on the girls wet faces, versus the mud in the back seat and the musty smell the next morning when you get in the car, since all of them are absolutely going to happen following a rain soaked Sunday afternoon soccer game.
Lessons are out there for learning in everything we do, and this weekend streamed the positive impact that Teamwork can have into my brain from the minute it started through the crash with which it ended this Monday morning. Running around throughout a couple of counties now, and connecting through thousands of Facebook connections, Twitter friends, and countless quick conversations as we take pictures, tell stories, answer questions, and communicate, gave me good examples of where positive interactions builds teamwork, and negative interactions tear teams apart. People coming together create communities of support that can achieve often illogically positive outcomes, while spending time dwelling on the clouds or the divisions between us, weigh heavily not only on the heart, but often negatively impact the final outcome of the game. I get down and discouraged just as anyone else does, when the best of efforts do not succeed, when good intentions don't deliver the optimal outcome, miscommunications happen, or the stream of negativity that comes at any of us through our TV screens, mobile phones, or Twitter feeds gets the better of whatever positive attitude we try to bring to life.
One Thing at a Time
Click here to read this article!
The holidays are coming up, and whatever you may celebrate –Christmas, Hanukkah, Quanza, Festivus- I bet that you have feelings about them (positive or negative is your business, not mine). Anyway, it’s November. We just said good-by to Halloween and already the holiday decorations are up. I’m seeing decorated trees and snow-covered displays at the mall, the holiday decorations are already being put up downtown, and the political commercials are (mercifully) being replaced by the retail stores messages of “Get in now for early-bird holiday shopping!”
I’ve even heard festive music wafting around in some department stores.
Branding Northwest Indiana with LNI
Click here to read this article!
Branding. The topic has been on my mind a lot lately. Re-branding a 40+ year old company, building my personal brand, studying other organizations’ branding efforts. What didn’t cross my mind until the 3rd event for Leadership Northwest Indiana class 33 today was branding the region. As I participated in discussion led by members of the Northwest Indiana Forum, the Regional Development Authority, the Center of Workforce Innovations, Purdue Technology Center, the Gary Chamber of Commerce, NIPSCO, and MediaFlex, I realized that we need to put a more concerted effort toward branding our communities.
I have lived in the Northwest Indiana since starting college at Valparaiso in 2001. I waved goodbye to my parents as they left the region for a new opportunity in the Twin Cities in 2007. I married a “region rat” in 2007. And the whole time I’ve always imagined that my stay in the region, like my years in Detroit, Cincinnati and Seymour, Indiana, had an end date. One day I’d move on to bigger and better things elsewhere.
The Coffee Shop Project
Click here to read this article!
Over the past four months I’ve set a group of 39 students out on an experiment. They are undergraduates at Indiana University Northwest in a 300-level marketing class who have a curriculum full of the four P’s, retailing, supply chain management and market segmentation/target marketing. They are a diverse lot with myriad experiences and range in age from the late teens to a few that are probably in my generation.
Throughout the course they’ve been working on a series of projects that are structured to incorporate the class material into real-world applications and study how even small businesses practice the concepts our text describes. They work in small groups to write up papers on their observations, produce slick PowerPoint presentations and talk about market penetration, SWOT analyses and customer relationship management.
Backup Solutions Revisited
Click here to read this article!
I talked about backup solutions once before, but I realized the other day that my preferences had changed since then, and there are some options out there I didn't always know about that have worked very well for me, so I wanted to revisit the idea here.
Why did I start thinking about how my preferences have changed? I was working on Wednesday night, shortly before going out to enjoy the holidays with friends and family. I was humming along, running about ten different programs and switching between them effortlessly (the magic of a Solid State Drive), when there was a hum, a flicker, and my screens went black.
Here's Why Porter Regional Hospital was Voted "Best Place to Work"
Click here to read this article!
Porter Regional Hospital has been voted by its employees “The Best Place to Work.” If you have ever visited Porter Regional Hospital, no doubt, you were greeted with a smile or a friendly hello from one of the volunteers; received a friendly smile from a doctor or nurse or even been given a flower by one of the Environmental Services Technicians more commonly known as the housekeepers. Nothing can be more true of the people that work at Porter Regional Hospital than the positivity that emulates from its employees. As an Environmental Services Technician (EVS) or housekeeper, I have been privileged to experience firsthand why Porter Regional Hospital has been voted “The Best Place to Work.” I have worked as a housekeeper for about six months and I have noticed friendships that have lasted for years. Strong bonds have been formed. People come into work with smiles on their faces ready to get their day started. We start each day off on a positive note with our morning huddle.
Nothing makes you feel better about your job than being able to tell someone, “Thank you for helping me or you did a wonderful job the other day and it was appreciated.”