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Worry, Hurry And Curry

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Do you know the reason for depression and trouble asked Sri Satya Sai Baba one day. The devotee remained silent. Swamy said- Worry, Hurry and Curry. These three words, worry, hurry and curry are the real causes of almost all troubles.

Worry is the deathbed of a man. ‘Chintha jeevan ki chitha hai’- is a saying in Hindi which points out the bad effects of worry. What this saying means that is worry is the burning pyre of life. It is true because worry eliminates all happiness in a man’s life. It induces him to forget all happy thoughts and concentrate on a particular problem so that the health of the person deteriorates by losing peace of mind and body.

When tension arises, the blood pressure of a person goes up and he may even become disoriented in the worst case. Such a situation can and must be avoided by surrendering oneself totally to God. The only friend in need is God, because he will not forsake a person who has sought his help. What God gives always lasts. What man gives perishes soon.

God’s grace is the greatest gift that man must cherish and strive to get. When a man becomes fit to receive God’s grace, he will naturally become filled with everlasting joy and peace and attains self realization. Hurry is another cause for depression. Slow and steady wins the race. A person should always be prepared and systematic in his life.

Discipline not only gives an edge over others, but also always ensures success. A man who is hard working will never have to hurry at the last moment. Be it travel preparations or the journey of one’s life, man should never procrastinate and should prepare beforehand to avoid last minute confusion and tension.

Hurry can cause many troubles in life. It can lower a person’s esteem in family and society and project him as an unworthy individual. So, one must avoid the attitude of laziness and be disciplined always to achieve success in one’s life.

Curry is an extremely spicy sometimes and can cause changes in man’s behavior also. hot dishes can influence a person’s way of thinking and make him angry or sad or depressed in extreme cases if such foods are consumed regularly. Fast foods can harm a person in the long run both physically and mentally. Changes in behavior are brought about by spicy foods and intake must be reduced to ensure good health.

Worry, hurry and curry are a shortlist of the problems that cause man headaches or tensions. A healthy life should be one filled with peace and relaxation. life is to be enjoyed. A longterm goal and hardwork will help man live a successful life.

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Source by Deepa Venkitesh

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There’s a Big Difference Between Being Nice and Being Passive

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Objectively if you were to look at the human race you could be convinced that there is something wrong with a species that seems to repel and reject nice people on a regular basis. I see countless evidence of ‘nice’ people being taken advantage of, walked over, ignored, rejected and criticized. However, when you look closely at these examples you invariably find these nice people are in fact engaging in passive behaviour and ignoring their own needs, wants and desires in order to please others. Hence why it’s easy to confuse being nice with being passive.

So, what is the difference between niceness and passivity?

Being a nice person goes hand in hand with considering the needs of others, being kind, being generous, helping and supporting those in need. However, when these qualities come at the expense of your own needs, wants and desires on a regular basis they translate into passive behaviour. The major problem with being passive under the guise of niceness is that it often translates into resentment and anger – in turn causing you to no longer want to be nice.

Being passive also tends to bring out the worst in others because people tend to assume that nice person will be more accommodating and be less likely to complain when things don’t go their way.

The reason many nice people avoid being assertive is they are driven by a need to please others. Thus, expressing conflicting views can be very frightening for a passively nice person, as it has the potential to upset others and result in negative consequences (eg rejection and criticism).

The most fascinating aspect of passive behaviour is that it ends up leading to the same negative outcomes originally feared. In others words, passively Nice people want to avoid being criticized, but through passive behavior are likely to end up being criticized anyway.

If you are a passively nice person it’s really important to make the distinction between being nice and passive and to challenge your underlying fears that drive you to behave in a passive manner. You can still be a nice person, but don’t allow your behaviour to be driven predominately by the needs and wants of others. This is particularly important when you commit to doing something with another nice person and are asked to do something at the same time by someone you are scared to say ‘no’ to. In this case, you’re likely to also choose the scary person and assume the nice person will be OK. Behaving in the exact manner you dislike in others.

Whilst there will always be times when it is necessary to put the needs of others in front of yours, during these times it’s important to ensure you are being respected and appreciated. For example, placing boundaries around how your children should speak to you (showing their appreciation through words like please and thank-you).

Further, whilst being ‘easy going’ might be an energy you aspire to have, don’t confuse it with being a pushover. It’s fine to agree to things if you really don’t mind, but if you’re happy, at least seek clarification and ask if there is any opportunity to alter things more to your liking.

Aspire to be a nice person, but try not to aspire to be passive.

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Source by Lizzie O’Halloran

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Protect Yourself in Case of a Car Accident – Insurance Companies Are Not on Your Side

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What You Should Do if You Are involved in a Car Accident

It is unfortunate that most people don’t know what to do when they are involved in an accident. My own mother was recently in an accident, and she called me frantically asking what she should do. Knowing what to do is important for protecting your health and protecting your interests with the other drivers and the insurance companies. This is true even if you are at fault.

The most important thing after an accident is your safety. If you, the other driver or any of the passengers are seriously injured, make sure you summon help. Call 911, the one stop phone call for police and ambulance. If no one involved has any apparent injuries, it is still advisable to make a non-emergency call to the police department and request police presence at the scene of the accident. In most cities, including Las Vegas (and the surrounding areas), you may dial 311 for non-emergency police dispatch.

In case of injuries and/or property damage, the police presence is very important so that a police report can be prepared and later used in obtaining the appropriate compensation from the appropriate insurance company or companies, even if it’s your own insurance provider. Compensation may cover medical treatment, property damage, loss of wages and/or pain and suffering.

If the police are called, through a 911 emergency call or 311 non-emergency call, the police will insure that all of the appropriate information is reported in the police report. If there is no apparent injury or property damage, and/or if the police do not come to the scene of the accident, then exchange information with the other driver. Obtain the name of the driver, the car registration information and the insurance carrier and policy number. Provide your information to the other driver.

Do not make any statements other than facts, and only to the police, pertaining to the accident and how the accident occurred. Do not make any statements about your state of health; remember that many injuries may be latent injuries that may not manifest themselves immediately. Contact a personal injury attorney immediately; do not communicate with the other party’s insurance company or report your accident to your insurance company before you consult with a personal injury attorney. In most cases the attorney assumes the responsibility to make such contacts on your behalf, but will tell you if you should make contacts of any kind. Remember that it is in the interest of the insurance companies to understate the injuries and damage cause by an accident, so that they pay the least amount of compensation. The attorney knows how to deal with the insurance companies and get you the compensation you deserve. The more serious the accident, the more important it is that you contact a personal injury attorney.

Ramzy Ladah, Esq.

Las Vegas Personal Injury Attorney, PLLC

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Source by Ramzy Ladah

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Continental Combination Knitting Review – What is it, What’s it Good For?

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In continental style knitting, a knitter holds yarn in the left hand like a crocheter. In combination knitting, Annie Modesitt teaches us how to make purls like knits in reverse, which gives them a different stitch mount. I use continental combination knitting. Here are my pros and cons.

What’s Good About Continental Combination Knitting?

Continental style knitting is fast for me. My yarn is right there ready to scoop into a new stitch, just like when I crochet. English knitting has yarn in the right hand and you throw it over the needle for each stitch. I first learned English, but switched to continental for greater speed.

Combination knitting seems odd at first with knit and purl stitches mounted differently on your needle, but it has five distinct advantages–the last one something I just discovered.

  1. A purl stitch is made just as quick and easy as a knit stitch–like a mirror image of a knit. No extra motions.
  2. A purl stitch has the exact same amount of yarn as a knit stitch, not an extra long loop for the regular stitch mount.
  3. Because a purl stitch has the same amount of yarn as a knit stitch, knitting back and forth produces no “row out” which happens when purl rows are a looser tension than knit rows.
  4. When ribbing, the different stitch mounts prevent mistakes.
  5. When doing cables, there’s no excess looseness between the last cable stitch and the next stitch.

While knitting an Aran sweater I read two comments about how to deal with the problem of looseness at the left of each cable. I studied my knitting, watched for looseness as I worked–and there was none. I credit combination knitting.

What’s Bad About Continental Combination Knitting?

At first the different stitch mount for purl stitches feels a bit strange. What feels even more strange is how stitch mount changes again when you purl back. Knit  and purl stitches get remounted so when you work the right side again, they’re not sitting on the needle as before. This can take some getting used to.

Why bother?

It’s wonderful when you do ribbing in the round, because if you try to knit a purl by accident, or purl a knit, it won’t work at first. The needle doesn’t go in, you look down, realize you’re trying to mess up, then put the needle in the correct way. No mistakes. It speeds knitting twelve inches of ribbing for Socks for Soldiers.

These are my thoughts on continental combination knitting. It’s great for faster knitting with fewer mistakes. If you want to learn more, check out free tutorials on annie modesitt dot com.

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Source by Karen Wehrle

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Industry Use of the Word "Carwash" Versus "Car Wash" Considered

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There seems to be a bit of a discrepancy in the car washing sector as to where the carwashes the term “carwash” or “car wash” is most appropriate, that is to say is it all one-word or is it two-words. Okay so, since, I’ve been in the industry myself for nearly 30-years prior to retirement, I’d like to discuss this with you for a moment, and give you my take on this controversy.

Interestingly enough, the term “Carwash” has been used since the industry started, but many people use “car wash” online, and when they talk, so over the years, it seems to be either/or both. Unfortunately, using “car wash” also confuses those who are adamant about proper English, because it confuses the noun with the action to wash a car.

Nevertheless, I can say this, I was instrumental in my career of modifying the English Language to use the term “car wash” as a verb and as a noun, and looking back, I rather like it that way. Now then, during most of my career I was on the mobile side of the industry.

No one in the mobile car washing industry uses the word “carwash” to describe their businesses, and most everyone in the traditional location based carwashes uses “carwash” to describe their operations. That’s why I used the term way I did, although I bet you could find a half a dozen English Majors or professors in any given school who wouldn’t agree with my take on this or the realities of a changing and evolving industry.

So, that’s why I think I might disagree with English Teachers, I’ve changed the term over the years, and I like my way better, besides if you search the word online the search engines seem to pull up businesses, and doesn’t seem to pull up very many car washing “action” type websites. The world has changed, so it’s time that all the editors, English Teachers, and public get used to it, and change or get run over by the onslaught of actual users of the language, and look out now, because here comes China with more English speaking folks as a second language than the number of people in the US. India is next, so we are all going to have to deal with that.

When reading about this word in Wikipedia, it immediately announces that both uses of the word are common, and seems to indicate either are perfectly acceptable. I tend to agree with that, and would submit to you that when discussing mobile businesses, you always should use two-words to describe it, and when talking about a fixed site location, you should generally or mostly use the one-worded version, which most in the industry would agree. Indeed, I hope this clears things up for you, please consider all this and think on it.

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Source by Lance Winslow

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How to Build a Soccer Conditioning Base

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Soccer is a game where conditioning is of huge importance when it comes to maximizing performance.

At the beginning of pre-season, most coaches today focus a lot on building an aerobic base that prepare the players for the season.

Building an aerobic base

The term “aerobic base” has been frequently used over the last 10-20 years, and the reason for building this base is because of the evidence that a player run 8-12 km during a soccer game over the period of 90 minutes.

So far so good. But when it comes to the distance covered during a soccer game, shouldn’t we really focus on how we reach that distance, rather than just focusing on the distance itself?

Is the actual distance the most important aspect?

Sure, a professional soccer player may run 11-12 km during a game, but that distance is not accomplished through long distance running at the same tempo throughout the whole game, quite the opposite.

What separates a world class player from an average player is not necessarily the distance covered, but rather the number of high intensity runs and sprints being performed.

Long distance running will make your players slower and weaker

If you still think running long distance running is the way to go for soccer conditioning, then this should hopefully change your mind.

Running long distance will stimulate your slow twitch muscle fiber, meaning your body is adapting to the slow tempo being performed during long distance running, and over time your fast twitch muscle fibers will “drown”, which will make you slower and weaker.

Soccer is a “power-sport”, where sprinting, maximum strength and jumping ability is of extreme importance. Running long distance will do the opposite for your players and make them weak and slow.

Is there a need for an aerobic base?

Not in the traditional way through long distance running. My philosophy on soccer conditioning is that it all should be performed on the soccer field, and most of the conditioning should be sport-specific, meaning most of it should be performed with the ball.

However, during the beginning of pre-season, I build an aerobic base through tempo running.

Tempo running is where the players run at around 75-80% of what they would run when sprinting that distance. The distance I use for tempo running is 100 meters (the length of a soccer field), and 200 meters (back and forth).

A rule of thumb for the distance and time is:

– 100 meters: 18-22 seconds

– 200 meters: 38-44 seconds

So if they do 100 meter tempo runs, they should run at a pace where it would take them 18-22 seconds to run 100 meters.

I use tempo runs for 3-4 weeks, 2-3 sessions/week, increasing the distance with 200-300 meters per workout. I coach a Boys 18 team, so if you coach younger players, be a little more careful with the volume.

The first session might be 8 x 100 meters, and then the next 10 x 100 meters, and then after that I would alternate 100 meter runs with 200 meter runs in the same session.

I often let the players rest halfway through for 2 minutes, and then let them run the rest of the distance after that.

Tempo running will help you build that aerobic base necessary for soccer, and it will ensure that your players still stay strong and explosive.

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Source by Jonas Forsberg

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Disadvantages of Wide Angle Lenses in Landscape Photography

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Wide angle lenses are a huge part of landscape and seascape photography and are used extensively within the field. They are extremely popular and quite often produce amazing results if used correctly. Just like any lens that is used in landscape and seascape photography it also has some disadvantages and limitations that you need to know about.

One of the big disadvantages of wide angle lenses is that when you are up close to an object, they tend to distort and stretch the subject out of proportion which is not a desirable effect. Unless of course you are actually trying to achieve that effect but most of us as landscape and seascape photographers aren’t after that effect. It’s easy to avoid this effect if you know about it, but if you aren’t aware of it, it can catch you out by surprise.

Another disadvantage of wide angle lenses is that they are prone to vignetting and can often produce photos with soft edges. The entire photo may be sharp except for the edges, again this is an undesirable effect but it’s easy to avoid. Your wide angle lens will be particularly prone to vignetting if you have a thick filter holder on it. You should always try and get a really thin filter holder so as to avoid the vignetting.

The last real disadvantage of a wide angle lens in landscape and seascape photography is that it has a very limited zoom. They are fantastic for taking close up photos of objects but are almost useless when trying to capture objects that are a fair distance away.

The advantages of a wide angle lens far outweigh their disadvantages but as with anything that you buy, you just need to be aware that there are some downsides to them. As with anything as long as you are aware of their limitations you should have absolutely no issues with them. They play an important part in landscape and seascape photography for good reason, they are such an effective lens and can capture so much information.

If you are looking to buy a wide angle lens, you shouldn’t stress out too much about the disadvantages as the advantages far outweigh them. Go for it!

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Source by Jamie Paterson

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Restaurant Back Door Security – Protecting People and Profits

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They watched from the shadows as the employee propped open the back door to take his nightly run to the trash corral. He did not deviate from the routine the last two nights. It was 1:35 AM, right on schedule. As the young man returned with his empty cart, they pulled the ski masks down over their chin and jumped out with guns drawn. They pushed the employee into the restaurant. Upon entering the office area, the two robbers sprung into frenzied action. One robber grabbed the manager, pointed his gun at her, and screamed for her to open the safe, while the other forced the other closing employees to lie down on the cold tile floor of the kitchen. The employees’ lives are changed forever as they experience the terror of peering at the edge of life – and death.

Unfortunately, this scene plays out somewhere each night in the world of fast food. A world serving the public, late at night with predators lurking, waiting and plotting to take advantage of every opportunity to forcibly rob others hard earned cash. Crime prevention solutions cost virtually nothing other than implementing changes in policy, routines and discipline.

Opening of the back door exposes the business to cash and product losses and the employees to serious crime, including homicide. Opening it at night greatly increases the chances of bad things happening. Yet it is one of the most serious breaches and most often violated of all security policies. It is a virtual weak link that can be turned into one of the strongest bonds in creating a safer and more secure environment for customers and employees when executed properly.

This particular scene is avoidable with simple policy and procedures on limiting these dangerous exposures to crime and theft. Most importantly, the procedures must be engrained in the training and routines of employees in the restaurant and violations met with appropriate discipline. Not only is control of the door essential in keeping employees safe and secure, but is a major component in preventing theft and inadvertent losses.

Policies

Effective policies regarding the back door include prohibited opening times such as night time and possibly peak rush times when every employee should be focused on serving the customer. Sound loss control programs insure the door is locked at all times and monitored by a member of management whenever it is opened. The keys to the door lock and alarm do not leave the possession of the management team or be readily available to non-management personnel. Trash runs made after dark should be made through the lobby doors while the restaurant is open for business and never made after the doors are locked at closing.

Procedures

When opened, the door should not be propped open. During a trash run, all the trash is placed outside the door, then closed and locked unless the open door will be monitored by a member of management. Clear trash bags are to be used and all cardboard boxes broken down. No one is allowed to enter through the back door. Any request to enter or open the back door is to be made at the front counter. Audits should be routinely conducted for adherence to company policies pertaining to opening of the door, key control, testing of alarms, and procedures regarding the removal of trash.

Equipment

The back door should be equipped with an audible, push bar alarm with a key that cannot be removed while the alarm is in the “off” position, a peep hole or small (less than 4″) covered window and anti-pry plates at the lock. Outside lighting illuminates the back door and trash corral areas. If the restaurant is equipped with a perimeter alarm system, the back door is to be included. A sign in applicable languages on the door stating the rules of authorized openings assists in communicating clear expectations.

Technology

Apply simple technologies to audit compliance and report the unauthorized openings that jeopardize the lives of employees and the profitability of the company. Effective digital camera systems include monitoring of the door’s activity. Audible enunciators and/or strobe lights near the manager’s office notify when the door is opened. Exception reports can be generated by connecting alarm contacts with a restaurants camera system. The reports can be transmitted to supervisors and/or security representatives with attached video of opened door activity. Additional combined video and audio technology is able to interact with store personnel and/or customers causing problems from an off-site monitoring station.

The back door to every restaurant is essential in maintaining effective operations from trash removal to the receiving of inventory. Sound loss control principles involve the control of when the door is opened. Old habits of maintenance or stockroom employees having possession of door keys, keys hanging on a hook or indiscriminate loaning of management keys are difficult to change. Maintaining control is often considered an inconvenience by management. The costs of implementing new policies, procedures and disciplines in the use of the back door are inexpensive. When the door is uncontrolled, the chance for bad things happening increases dramatically, as depicted in the opening passage above. When “nothing bad has ever happened here” and “if it ain’t broke, why fix it!” are the responses to not having proactive loss prevention procedures in place, the ultimate price may be extremely high.

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Source by Libby Libhart

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Post-Rationalization – When a Representation Fills a Gap in Understanding

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What is post-rationalization? What is to post-rationalize and why is it useful? Is post-rationalization something we use to create an illusion, or can there actually be a useful reason for its existence?

The post-rationalization of an action is the act of giving meaning and purpose to actions after they have been conducted, and can serve as a tool to generate explanatory interior motives that were actually present, but unseen by the conscious mind during the rapidly exceeding act(s) or when a person was so caught in the moment that he or she is able to perceive from emotionally more neutral perspective that what had happened. This ability to post-rationalize is also a vital tool for learning from the personal history, as the strategies that were used in the past can be modified and lead to the creation of better strategies and responses. It can be used to romanticize one’s personal history, to dramatize it and also to sketch comedic episodes from one’s past in contrast with another way of thinking.

By creating a representation, the mind that seeks to understand existence can find meaningful and explanatory answers. The realizations created through post-rationalization in to an action make it possible for an individual to project new meanings to his or her past after recreating the event(s) in his or her mind, and even perceive in an inventive sense more intelligence, stupidity, other motives, or for example as a relic of the history of Freudian psychoanalysis, hidden psychopathological factors, other than what were present in the actual connections produced by the sub-conscious in the causal history.

Post-rationalization can alter the individual’s sense of personal history in the representational level. In good, it can create a mindful neutrality to the representations of the past, but can also be used to generate content that increases already existing anxiety or keeps on the status quo of negativity in the person’s life by generating more negativity to be a part of personal history. Thus we can observe the two sides of the ability to post-rationalize, which should both be noted during the use of this ability. In a more wider perspective, we can perceive this when we interpret the history of mankind, or in the sense of personal relationships, how we projects motives and meanings to the actions of other individuals, while trying to predict in a posteriori sense what their motive might have been during the actions we interpret.

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Source by Henry M. Piironen

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Major Challenges Facing Nonprofits

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Information abstracted from regional and national studies concerning the challenges facing nonprofits indicates that several issues are shared as concerns for nonprofit leaders. Board development and fundraising and are the main issues for nonprofits with a secondary emphasis on difficulties related to improving operations and more effectively managing resources.

EMERGENT THEMES

Some fundamental concerns were commonly identified in the studies, which surveyed nonprofit executive directors and board members. Five major themes clearly emerged from the various reports’ inventories of issues. These suggest areas of the most pressing needs as indicated by nonprofit leaders:

1. Board Development – Building an active and strategically oriented board of directors was the most frequent concern. Specific issues identified were:

· Recruiting high-impact board members

· Cultivating a dynamic and effective culture among board members

· Fostering a strategic orientation for boards

2. Marketing/Fundraising – Developing effective marketing programs to recruit and retain donors was also a high priority. In particular, respondents were concerned about:

· Applying marketing/communications techniques to donor contact activities

· Expanding their current donor base

· Increasing donations from current donors as well as enhancing donor loyalty and retention

3. Information Management – Utilizing effective information management for measuring and evaluating operations and programs was also very important.

· Establishing a clear set of quality benchmarks for assessing services

· Using IT to reduce costs and create value

· Evaluating programs/services against key performance measures

· Establishing a better model for measuring and reporting outcomes

· Measuring the real benefit of development and marketing investments

· Devising a consistent approach for measuring organizational performance and impact

4. Human Resources – Attracting, developing and retaining productive staff and volunteers was a critical concern:

· Attracting and retaining skilled staff

· Attracting skilled, motivated volunteers

· Developing a leadership transition and succession plan

· Improving workforce performance

· Providing ongoing training and skill building

5. Collaboration – Pursuing constructive alliances, partnerships, and mergers was also a significant issue.

· Developing collaborative partnerships with public sector agencies, including government

· Forging collaborative partnerships with the private sector

· Pursuing mergers with overlapping services/agencies

Extrapolating from these topics, a sixth theme is implied as a supplementary concern:

6. Business Proficiency – the need to embrace the business skills and processes essential to effectively addressing the needs identified in these five major themes.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

Several changes in the operating environment of the nonprofit sector are impacting leaders’ perceptions of the issues facing them.

Funding Challenges – Many nonprofit organizations are simultaneously facing a rapidly changing funding environment and a steadily rising need for services from the communities they serve. Reduced or tightly focused government funding is placing great pressure on the sector, which has also experienced a proliferation of new nonprofits during the past decade, thus increasing the competition for a smaller pool of funds. Countless nonprofit organizations are feeling the impact of federal reductions to their core funding streams at the same time foundation endowments and giving are down and many state and municipal governments are experiencing deficits that are reflected in reductions in spending on social programs.

Accountability Pressures – As a result of a few high profile cases, nonprofits are facing powerful accountability pressures to provide measurable proof that the services they provide have an impact on the communities and populations they target. Funders and the public want to know in detail if the funded organization is effective in doing what it sets out to do and if it is also efficient at what it does. While gaining and keeping the pubic trust is absolutely essential, calls for accountability can lead nonprofits to spend more time searching for financial support and accounting for funded task performance in order to continue receiving funding from the source. This can cause nonprofits to be more business-like but may also draw attention from responding in innovative or distinctive ways to community and/or client needs.

Collaboration Fascination – Government and foundation funders are increasingly requiring the use of interorganizational relationships such as collaboration, partnerships, and alliances as an element of funded projects. However, while there is a growing body of knowledge about the factors that support effective negotiation and integration of strategic partnerships, much less is known about the actual outcomes nonprofits experience and how these compare to expected outcomes. Many nonprofits expend large amounts of organizational energy for questionable returns while pursuing interorganizational relationships. Nonprofits often encounter major barriers to collaboration, such as autonomy issues and “turfism,” conflicting organizational cultures, and trust-building among organizations.

ADAPTIVE REPERCUSSIONS

Responding to these difficult circumstances necessitates adaptations that involve more than merely developing additional financial support.

Leadership Challenges – The health of the nonprofit sector depends on the quality of its executive leadership. Agency leadership, including board members, must be able to raise fundamental questions related to strategy, mission, and accountability, as well as the roles that their organizations play within their communities. For many nonprofits, being responsive to changes in the environment means a heighten need to:

· Determine the most effective way to serve a client population that may be growing or changing;

· Develop strategies and processes to access and manage new funding streams;

· Decide where and how to make budget cuts;

· Develop technology to capture information for reporting and billing;

· Manage cash flow challenges;

· Consider new partnerships, explore possible collaborations, and consider mergers or acquisitions.

Given the challenging changes in the typical nonprofit’s task environment, effective board leadership becomes particularly crucial. The issues facing the nonprofit sector underscore the need for responsive, skilled and effective board leadership in maintaining and improving the quality of organizational performance. It is appropriate that nonprofit boards take a leadership role in assisting agency management on critical issues such as mission definition and strategic planning, legal compliance and conflicts of interest, oversight of agency financial management, resource development, establishing interorganizational collaborations, cultivating community relationships, and opportunities for capacity-building training.

Management Challenges – Nonprofit managers are challenged to perform multiple functions and roles as they guide their organizations through today’s complex environment. They must be highly skilled not only in the technical aspects of their organizations’ mission, but also in management areas such as finance, human resources, information technology, program evaluation, resource development, and many other management responsibilities. Also, an organization’s human resources represent the collective capabilities and experiences of its people. Unfortunately, nonprofit organizations are often challenged when it comes to managing staff talent actively. Attracting and retaining skilled staff as well as heightened accountability and competition create a need to develop the specialized business skills and processes that are required of for-profit organizations. Consequently, like their counterparts in the business world, nonprofit managers need to continuously seek out and utilize the latest methods and techniques of organizational management and leadership.

IMPLICATIONS FOR SUCCESS

Restating the six identified needs as positive attributes indicates that resilient nonprofits will have:

1. A strong governance structure and visionary board members with the right skills and access to resources.

2. Sufficient and flexible funding.

3. A defined set of best practices in service and management functions and an effective way to measure performance against these benchmarks.

4. A skilled workforce operating in a culture that facilitates opportunities for innovation and growth.

5. Effective community relationships that include collaborative partnerships with other providers, funders and other organizations and systems.

6. Management capacity to support services, including accounting, human resources, technology and marketing/development functions.

A SEVEN-STEP PRESCRIPTION

Seen from this perspective, there are seven actions that nonprofits can take to achieve these characteristics and address the challenges they face:

1. Undertake an organizational assessment and create a strategic plan to address any capacity deficits.

2. Engage board members to ensure quality governance structures, practices and oversight.

3. Embrace and adopt sound marketing and communications strategies.

4. Build business skill sets and integrate basic business practices and tools.

5. Identify and implement appropriate metrics and make better use of technology to enable evaluation of the success and impact of delivery of services and programs as well as internal operations.

6. Institute progressive human resource practices focusing on skills and team building.

7. Explore and adopt new collaborative business models with complementary organizations.

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Source by Al Huntoon