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Organized To Be Your Best! – A Book Summary
Nov 15th, 2010 by admin




The Big Idea

One of the factors to success is the ability to manage
tasks efficiently and systematically in a similarly
conducive environment. Practicing time management allows
you to accomplish the more important tasks on time; and
helps you achieve the goals you have set for yourself.

Organized to Be Your Best! gives simple tips on how to
get started and maintain good organization practices.
Being productive doesn’t have to be difficult. After
all, it’s supposed to make life easier for you!

How to Be Positively Organized!

Being organized goes beyond having a clutter-free office,
it also involves getting your priorities in order and
finding the time to do all the things you want. Another benefit of being positively organized is that you are
able to create a balance between the different aspects
of your life such as work and family.

In order to do this, you must first be able to identify personal and professional goals you would want to
achieve. These goals help you stay on track.

Writing down goals is a very powerful technique. Make
sure your goals are specific, and that they clearly
define what you want to do. Knowing why you want to
achieve these goals and mapping out ways to achieve them keeps you committed. Goals do not necessarily have to be realistic all the time. The higher you aim, the better.

Techniques to Ensure Success

1. Put your goals into writing.

2. Read them daily before you do your planning and before
you go to sleep.

3. Take some action on your goals every day or at least
every week.

4. Share them with another person and listen to their
goals as well.

5. Every week, write down and accomplish smaller goals
that relate to your long-term goals.

6. Review and revise your goals at least twice a year.
Always make sure that your goals reflect your deepest
values.

7. Let your goals inspire you and not haunt you.

8. Include both professional and personal goals to
increase the balance of your life.

Time Management: What You Really Need To Know
Time Management helps you manage the important things
in your life. It is also the basis of any good
organization. Time management helps you focus on
tasks that are essential in reaching your goals.

Planning and Prioritizing

Planning and prioritizing are the foundations of time management. They clearly define your short-term and
long-term goals; and make decision-making on a daily
basis easier.

Identify priorities according to the importance of the
task and how soon it is needed. Classify the tasks
according to the following:

1. Important and urgent.

2. Urgent but not important.

3. Important but not urgent.

4. Not urgent and not important.

Remember that you should make time to do tasks that
are important but not urgent because they are activities
that can help you accomplish your goals.

Six Ways to Maximize Planning and Prioritizing When
Making To-Do-Lists

1. Plan tomorrow, today, and put your plan into writing.

2. Revise your plan. Stay flexible and use common sense!

3. Make at least one, screened-time appointment with
yourself each day.

4. Consolidate activities and avoid unnecessary to-dos.

5. Make time every day to work on your “should” priorities.

6. Write down key goals, activities, or projects for the week.

How to Handle Too Much to Do in Too Little Time

Control Interruptions at Work

Interruptions often hinder you from finishing your work. These interruptions are either things that you cannot control, such as mail delivery or incoming calls, or
events that can be controlled because you initiate them.

Some interruptions are part of your work, but some are unwarranted. Ask yourself if these interruptions are necessary. If they aren’t, find creative ways to go about
it.

Five Secrets to Taming Telephone Time

1. Take control through preparations and planning.
When making telephone appointments, make sure to take
note of the best times to call. Decide if some meetings
are best done over the phone or over another medium such
as email.

2. Remember what you say goes a long way with PTA. PTA,
or positive telephone attitude, helps you establish good relationships with people you work with.

3. Use concise communication. Be specific on times when
it would be best to reach you or how much time you can
spare to converse with the other person.

4. Take notes and take action. Some calls require you
to call back after a period of time. Take notes when
making a call so that you won’t forget important details
or even the name of the person you are talking to.

5. Train your telephone team. If you have other people answering your phone for you, train them how to handle
or answer calls. Teach them how to screen the important
ones and how to take notes.
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Food Fundraising the Healthy Way!
Nov 3rd, 2010 by admin



Healthy Food Fundraising

As obesity runs rampant in America, PTA’s, school districts, and school boards are turning more and more often to healthier alternatives to the classic cookie dough fundraiser or candy fundraiser that has dominated the landscape for years. Fundraisers that sell healthy foods instead of unhealthy foods are clearly the future of fundraising.

Problems with “Old Fashioned” Fundraisers

For as long as anyone in the fundraising community can remember, the most popular fundraisers have been those that sell cookie dough or candy.

Cookie dough fundraisers have seller’s pre-sell cookie dough to customers out of catalogues. The dough is delivered frozen, which means that the group who sold the dough needs to be there when the truck arrives so their cookie dough doesn’t spoil. Cookie dough is also ridiculously high in fat and sugar and is made with raw eggs which can make people sick.

Candy fundraisers range from chocolate bar sales to lollipop sales. No matter what kind of candy fundraiser you are doing though, you buy your candy ahead of your sale and then either set up shop on a corner or in front of a store, or, you go door to door. Candy, obviously, is chock full of sweeteners and sugars, among other unhealthy products.

Both candy and cookie dough fundraising are being banned because neither is very healthy.

Why Healthy Food Fundraiser Make Sense

Healthy food fundraisers are just what they sound like and can be conducted in one of two ways. The first way is to have a healthy foods bake sale. Instead of selling cookies, cakes, and other sweets like a traditional bake sale, groups can sell organic breads, all natural preserves, and healthy trail mixes.

The other way to have a healthy food fundraiser is to do a pre-sell fundraiser, similar to frozen cookie dough, but with healthy, non-spoilable products. Some fundraising companies have started offering organic bread kits, organic pizza crust kits, all natural trail mixes, and even organic dog treat mixes that can be sold from a catalogue to raise money.
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Personal Brand Marketing With Affordable TV Advertising
Oct 13th, 2010 by admin



Everyone in your Town Creek Subdivision knows you. You wave to them as you come home from work.

You’ve got lots of friends. One guy takes his new Remington rifle to hunt with you in the Fall. Another likes to come over to watch your favorite NFL team on your Magnavox 52″ HD TV.

You and your wife attend the PTA meetings because of your kids. You see everyone at Deerfield Community Church on Sunday. You coach the Little League baseball team.

You know it’s essential to meet lots of people to get ahead in your business, so you are a member of the Civitan Club and go to monthly luncheons. You meet clients for a cup of coffee at Starbucks to get better acquainted.

But are you personally branded in your hometown?

In the foregoing paragraphs are the branded names of Town Creek Subdivision, Remington, NFL, Magnavox, PTA, Deerfield Community Church, Little League, Civitan, and Starbucks.

These names are branded, but are you?

Do folks in your town know you, like these branded names?

How many people in town actually know you?

Are there 500 or 5000?

How much more income could you earn if you had the same branding as those branded businesses and institutions?

Corporate branding is essential to business.

Rolex is so branded, that you wouldn’t think of buying a Rolex watch at a discount store. Or, a Rolls Royce.

“Coke” is so branded from over a century of marketing and advertising that even a picture of that little curve-shaped bottle without seeing the logo communicates the brand instantly!

Personal branding, like corporate branding, is also critically important to every professional, entrepreneur, and small business. But most don’t know how to achieve it, or think the cost is prohibitive. Most of the self-employed have never dared to imagine that they too could become indelibly stamped in the public mind like the national brands.

Without a second thought of hesitation, we all know that television is the single most influential branding venue in the world. If you can be seen constantly on TV – either locally or nationally, you will become branded! TV branding is how any national icon is born!

But the restrictive, limiting factor in TV branding is the cost of TV marketing and advertising.

Gunthy-Renker raked in $1.5 Billion in sales last year creating TV infomercials at a cost of up to $425,000 each. The most successful of the infomercials who branded themselves on TV last year was the George Foreman Grill, that sold 65 million products.

The “cause-effect” of corporate branding is readily apparent.

Personal branding, or self-branding, also enjoys the same “cause-effect” relationship as corporate branding. Now, for the first time, personal branding, like corporate branding, can be effected with repetitive exposure on TV as inexpensive as the cost of a newspaper classified ad! Now with the assistance of the Internet, efficient use of TV branding can be combined with a web site for extremely inexpensive personal branding. “Triggered Markets,” even niche markets, sparked with prime-time commercials and night-time TV airings can be linked to an Internet site that can “tell the story” necessary for self-branding. FCC-mandated “leased access” stations and “selective area” cable networks can brand your image and your service or product on TV for less than the cost of newspaper ad.

The most powerful venue ever available for branding – as with a “scorching red-hot branding iron” seared in the mind of public awareness – can now linked with the Internet to provide personal self-branding that was once only affordable to the corporate giant.
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What Does a Stay at Home Mom Put On Her Resume?
Mar 22nd, 2010 by admin



CNN recently published results of research done at Salary.com. It stated that “The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, the company concluded, and works at least 10 jobs. In order of hours spent on them per week, these are: housekeeper, day-care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, chief executive officer and psychologist. By figuring out the median salaries for each position, and calculating the average number of hours worked at each, the firm came up with $138,095 — three percent higher than last year’s results.”

That alone should make any stay at home mom feel valued. Unfortunately not all potential employers see it that way. Instead of seeing a fantastic candidate who is more than capable of multitasking, problem solving and having impeccable organization skills, they see a mom who hasn’t worked in years. The dilemma – how can SAHMs create a resume which offers the opportunity to receive an interview?

Concentrate on your skills. There is no hard rule that says a resume is merely job history. Rather use bullets which annotate results achieved. For example:

Instead of: Mom’s Taxi Driver

Try: Possess reliable transportation.

Instead of: Getting kids to and from school, practice and lessons

Try: 100% attendance. Over the past eight years I have not called in sick once nor been tardy to scheduled appointments.

Instead of: Laundry slave

Try: Able to multitask multiple projects at one time, resulting in a smoothly run operation.

Instead of: Sibling referee

Try: Calm under pressure.

You get the idea. The biggest challenge moms have getting back into the workforce is that lack confidence or sense of accomplishments. Staying home to manage the household and care for the family is one of the most difficult occupations around. If you don’t believe me – ask any stay at home mom. Most would agree that they had it much easier collecting a paycheck from someone else; however there is no comparison as to the rewards of working at home.

Have fun with your resume; don’t get stuck in the quagmire worrying about lack of job history. Concentrate on your transferable skills and you’ll be fine. If you’re still at a loss on how to best display your skills, considering hiring someone to help you put together a professional resume and cover letter. You have what it takes. Employers will be fortunate to have you on their team! You can do it!
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How to Write Your KSA Answers to Get That Government Job
Feb 17th, 2010 by admin



Today’s volatile economic environment and expected layoffs means that many people will be searching for a new job. For many of you, a U.S. government job can offer security, excellent benefits, and interesting work. But be aware: competition for these jobs is intense and you have to stand out from all the other applicants to get a placement – that is where the KSA becomes a key opportunity you can use to get that government job.

What is a KSA?

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management maintains a searchable database, called USAJOBS that lists government job openings. Once you have signed up on line, you will find that specific position openings often require completion of a detailed description of your Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSA) in addition to your resume.

Each job that requires a KSA will have specific KSA questions for you to answer usually in about a page of written content. This is not an optional task. You must do it and you must do it well. Each KSA answer is scored by human resources personnel on a 0-20 scale that reflects how closely your knowledge, skills, and abilities match the complexity, impact, variety, circumstances, and interactions that characterize the job for which you are applying. KSAs are frequently the deciding factor in your evaluation for employment in the U.S. government. So, what are KSAs? According to the CDC’s Help Page on KSAs:

Knowledge statements refer to an organized body of information usually of a factual or procedural nature which, if applied, makes adequate performance on the job possible. A body of information applied directly to the performance of a function.

Skill statements refer to the proficient manual, verbal or mental manipulation of data or things. Skills can be readily measured by a performance test where quantity and quality of performance are tested, usually within an established time limit. Examples of proficient manipulation of things are skill in typing or skill in operating a vehicle. Examples of proficient manipulation of data are skill in computation using decimals; skill in editing for transposed numbers, etc.

Ability statements refer to the power to perform an observable activity at the present time. This means that abilities have been evidenced through activities or behaviors that are similar to those required on the job, e.g., ability to plan and organize work. Abilities are different from aptitudes. Aptitudes are only the potential for performing the activity.

How should you answer KSA questions to improve your chances of getting a government job?

The most effective answers to the KSA questions reflect your understanding of the job requirements based on detailed analysis of the job description and typical tasking. You should pay careful attention to the key words used in the job description and use those words in describing your knowledge, skills and abilities.

In general, knowledge is more abstract than skills and therefore can be generalized over many different tasks and responsibilities. Knowledge comes from academic and life experiences including, but not limited to, education and employment. Any knowledge that you possess that is pertinent to the job you are seeking is something you should include in your the KSA response.

It is a good idea to brainstorm by yourself and with others, what “knowledge” you should claim because you can demonstrate it via your written answers. For example let’s say the position requires “being able to organize a project”. Although your work experience did not provide the opportunity to manage a project, your experience running the PTA’s funding raising for a year, although an unpaid activity, could legitimately be claimed as “experience managing a project”. It is up to you to describe the knowledge you acquired in a way that translates to the job for which you are applying.

Think of skills as capabilities that can be tested i.e., understanding how a spreadsheet program can help manage a budget is knowledge; being able to create an Excel spreadsheet to track expenses is a skill. Extract skill requirements from the job posting and offer evidence that you possess those skills. For example, the position of Pharmacy Assistant requires knowledge demonstrated by certified training and skills acquired from previous experience handing drugs and working with customers.

How to write an effective KSA response

In responding to KSA questions, you are making assertions about your knowledge, skills, and abilities. You must then backup those assertions with believable evidence. You need to develop your KSA responses with an eye on two key variables: relevance of content and quality of presentation. The National Forest Service provides an excellent tutorial on do’s and don’ts of writing effective KSA responses.

Describe your knowledge, skills, and abilities in terms that tie directly to the job using keywords that you extract from the job posting. Then “prove” by specific examples what you can do because of what you did in the past and the context in which you did it. Put your compliance with key job requirements at the beginning of the appropriate KSA answer or the beginning of a paragraph. For example: If the job requires a degree in accounting, the first place you can say clearly, “I completed my accounting degree at XYZ University” do it; then continue to describe your experience in accounting tasks.

Numbers can be your friend when it comes to providing proof to your reviewers. Instead of saying, “I wrote reports” consider saying, “I prepared monthly reports on six field trials with a lead time of two days”.

Knowledge and skills can also be demonstrated by using an overview of your previous responsibilities with examples of specific tasks, by describing training or certifications you received, and by citing awards or recognition for accomplishments. Reviewers like to see action words in your KSA answers and that requires that you write in an active versus a passive voice. You should say: “I analyzed data …” not “Data was analyzed”. You can find a great list of action verbs at Job Skills – Power verbs.

In conclusion your KSA answers must:

Be concise Be relevant Be specific Have quantitative examples Make it easy for reviewers to find your compliance with key job requirements Be action and accomplishment oriented Be well written with NO TYPOs and good sentence construction. It is a good idea to have someone else look over your answers before you send them because it is sometimes difficult to see your own mistakes. Remember, KSA answers separate those who are qualified for a job from those who are most qualified.
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Moms – Work From Home – Your Own Fundraising Business!
Jan 26th, 2010 by admin




With the economy slowing, many of us want or need to pick up some additional income. What are the things a job needs to offer for a mom? Well, the opportunity to make good money obviously, freedom to work around your schedule as a mom which is your most important job, and support so that you can do your job effectively and make the money you want.

There are great opportunities in the fundraising industry for stay-at-home moms. Moms often have a great network of other parents and tend to know a lot of people who need fundraisers. Can you think of any groups off hand that you know need to raise money? Church groups, dance teams, cheerleading squads, bands, elementary schools, PTAs, athletic teams are just a few of the hundreds of groups who need to raise money. Almost every organization or group out there is looking for new ways to raise money. You could be their fundraising resource. With a little bit of knowledge and training, you can use your skills as a homemaker and a mom to create your own successful fundraising business.

First, decide if you want to research and build your own company from scratch or if you want to find a fundraising company that offers leads, training and support in the industry. If you have tons of knowledge about fundraising and have a lot of contacts already who you know need to fundraise, it might be a good idea to go it alone. However, if you want support, a training program with a proven success record, tools and leads, you may want to go with a fundraising company. Look for a company that is available to answer your questions and that wants you to succeed. Whether you work with a company or you ‘go it alone’, you can make your fundraising company a huge success with your focus, perseverance and positive attitude.

Starting your own fundraising business will require time and work, but you will be able to set your own schedule, be your own boss and decide how YOU want to run things. It’s YOUR business. Good luck and happy fundraising!
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PTA Ideas For School Fundraising
Jan 12th, 2010 by admin



One of the great challenges of PTA activity is generating fresh and effective school fundraising ideas.

Those who have been involved in the PTA for a few years will have considerable experience of schools fundraising ideas, yet still are keen to identify new, interesting ideas.

Newer PTA members may wish to make a valuable contribution by offering something original. One of the most important factors is coming up with an idea that children and their families feel a sense of identity with and will become keen to support. A good starting point is to involve children and ask their opinions. Children are imaginative and also far less inhibited – unlike adults they won’t worry so much if people think their idea is ‘silly’ or ‘unusual’.

Encourage fellow PTA members to consult with children on ideas, or even host a ‘focus group’ in which ideas can be discussed with pupils.

Activities such as a quiz, a sports event, music or dancing are always perennially popular, and are social enough for everyone to feel involved in.

It’s always a good idea to make an event themed – consider something local or topical just to the school for added originality. The creating and selling of school-specific items can also be a huge success – people like to have something made by the school.

It’s never too early to start thinking about schools Christmas cards. These are a school fundraising winner, as almost all parents buy Christmas cards and will gladly support the school this way.

Children can be encouraged to get involved by designing a card. To allow more children to be involved, artists may like to design the picture, while budding writers can compose a greeting, emerging entrepreneurs can contribute to sales and marketing, and outstanding organisers can help with production.

The whole process is a fantastic platform for school pupils to work together to create something impressive, and ultimately raise funds for the improvement of their school.

A competition for a design can be introduced as early as Spring, with different stages of the process addressed throughout the year. School Christmas cards will not only boost schools fundraising, but encourage teamwork, creative and business skills while the children have great fun in the process.
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