Myspace Page
We are starting a Forest Foundation group on Myspace.com. For those not familiar with the site, Myspace is a networking website for people to keep in touch and share news publicly or privately with one person or many people at a time. The myspace group will be a great way to alert members and nonmembers alike of things happening in the foundation, and will also be great for the foundation to hear from a variety of people inside and outside the foundation's reach. We began building the page today, and hopefully in the next day or two we'll have it fully up. I just need to figure out what pictures to put on it...
Logan
Reviews
We're doing performance reviews at the Forest Foundation today and we'll be talking about it later in the week. I, for one, am doing a review of Dave and a review of myself. Although I like the opportunity to review Dave, I'm more excited to review myself, because it's actually something I do constantly in my head. I'm always wondering as I think about my performance whether I'm being too critical, perfectly honest, or too soft? Realistically, I don't think there's any way to tell without someone else telling me. That's why I'm looking forward to putting these thoughts down and then being told what's honest and what's not.
Logan
Finals
I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving and was able to spend time with friends and/or family. Now that the long holiday weekend is over, it's time to get back to work. Not just for us who work in the office though, but also for the students. With finals only a week away, the students at UCSB are buckling down and putting their emphasis on their studies. Once those are over, it's back to foundation business, as usual.
Logan
Losing
There's a long list of advice at the FF office. The first one reads 'Take into account that great acheivements involve great risk', an important one, but I continue to ponder the second, which reads, 'When you lose, don't lose the lesson.'
That was highlighted during training last night with Niel Rabin, who has failed with excellence and succeeded on the same par throughout his life. It's important that we learn from our mistakes, because sometimes the most important lesson we can learn is from our own failures, or to use a euphamism, a lack of achievment.
I look forward to failure, as well as its inherent success.
-Aaron Small
Blog
When I started writing this blog, I had never even heard of what a blog was, and didn't know the meaning of the word. I was told to write one, however, so without even looking at another blog, I just jumped right in and started writing. At first, the blog was something akin to a personal online public diary; a posting board for the events of my life and happenings of my mind. Soon enough, I shifted the focus of the blog to the day-to-day events of the Forest Foundation, important events and so on. Since those days, I think the blogs become a nice balance of the aforementioned extremes. Oh, and now I know what a blog is, too.
Logan
Marketing
How do you market a product focused on building community without trying to "sell" the product in the traditional business sense? This is a question I deal with every day when trying to figure out how to market the Forest Foundation. The easiest way, and most effective I believe, is to disiminate information via word-of-mouth and brochures and pamphlets. This gives one information and allows one to make their own decisions and associations about the foundation, without overtly or subliminally leading them in a desired, pre-meditated direction. However, this type of marketing does not quickly and easily lead to mass knowledge of the product. Luckily, the foundation is proud and confident enough to take a slow approach; our product doesn't need to be "sold" to any one. It's an interesting way of marketing.
Logan
Activity
I will be doing the opening activity at tonight's group meeting for the foundation. It's something I haven't done in a while, so I'm looking forward to it more than I thought I would be. I have an activity in mind that I pulled from the foundation's miracle book, but whether I'm going to use it or another idea I'm thinking about is still up in the air. Regardless, I hope the students are energized by the activity and hope the activity sets a positive tone for the remainder of the meeting. I think it will.
Logan
Yoga
We had a foundation social last night and we all did some yoga together. A lot of people expound on the benefits and relaxing nature of yoga, but I just don't think it's my cup of tea. I think I'd rather just stretch for a couple of minutes than participate in an entire yoga session. The instructor we had was very knowledgable and had the right attitude, but I can't say her yoga session did anything for me. Nothing against her, I just can't seem to catch on to the yoga bandwagon.
Logan
New Website
We saw the first look of our new website design, and it looks absolutely fantastic. After some back and forth about what should change and what should stay, we've successfully completed the first and probably most difficult step in launching our new site. The site we have right now is great, but this new site promises to be more clean and efficient than ever. Apart from the cool new look, the new site will also be more easily navigable and have much more up to date information on all aspects of the foundation. It'll probably be another few weeks before the new site is up, but stay on the lookout; it's going to be a good one.
Logan
Our Paths
We had an interesting conversation at the International Headquarters today about what the future holds for the full-time staff. It was a very intriguing discussion, because we are still very young and being all recent college grads, we still have a number of directions we're exploring. Everyone agreed that the foundation was a great launching pad for whatever direction we want to go down, allowing us infinite freedom as we learned how to work efficiently and effectively. Each of us has a distinct plan, it seems, and while all of our roads will diverge sooner or later, the foundation will always remain as the perfect starting point. I'm enthusiastic to see where we'll all go, but nevertheless, I'm intensely proud of where we all started.
Logan
Last Night's Training
We had a training with Jim Peal last night on presentation skills. I'd never thought of it before, but presentation skills are probably one of the most vital components in acquiring professional success. For this reason, I greatly enjoyed the training. Jim has a friendly and easy-going presentation style himself that always manages to simplify the material and makes it easily accessible and digestible. While I was taking notes on what he said, I was also taking notes from his actions as well. I guess you can learn things from all angles.
Logan
Denim Sale!
Who wants a pair of designer jeans at discounted price? If I was a woman, then I would, I would. Holly Spevak, together with the help of our Foundation team, pulled off the impossible. She combined fundraising with clothing, effectively creating Exclusive Denim, where everyone wins. In this jeans sale, Holly is dedicating 10% of all profits towards Tikvah, an orphanage in the Ukraine, doing tons of good for an underprivilged community.
Organization, planning, and smooth execution. It couldn't be any better! (Except mayb,e if they brought guys' clothes)
-The one, the only...Aaron
Ropes Course
Tonight we have a ropes course for the Santa Barbara social. I've never done a ropes course before, so I'm pretty excited about the opportunity. I'm guessing the students are excited about it too. The ropes course is at Rob Gym on the UCSB campus and is supposedly quite intensive. It should be a great team building exercise, as well as a great time.
Logan
