Car Wash Weekend

This weekend was full of prepping for and watching car washes.  You may remember that the Cary High School Tuba students have decided to raise funds for at least 1 tuba since they will have more tubas than ever before.

The number of tuba students has dropped from 10 to 9 as one of the students was accepted to (I think) the NC School of Science and Mathematics.  [Just what were they thinking of, giving up the marching band life for a "higher calling" anyway... LOL ]  The need for more Tubas is still critical even with this small change in tuba personnel!

The car washes were scheduled for Saturday 9:30am - 1:00pm and Sunday from Noon until 3:30pm.  Since quite a lot of the supplies are in my possession, I was 'obligated' to go even though my son Stephen (1 of the 3 tuba student organizers) was in Boston for a funeral on his mother's side.  Fortunately, I was only needed sparingly to fill in only a few times as the students got themselves organized.  It was good to see another of the Tuba students take on a leadership role in organizing the student team to get the cars washed in a quick and perfect manner.

A side note is that my leadership role with my boys' Boy Scout Troop is in Youth Leadership Training, so I was having a great time in watching the development of youth leadership during the car washes.  They will have something cool and interesting to put on their college resumes!

We had several people who had seen the car washes on the Internet (maybe from this article in the Cary Citizen, or our many Facebook posts).  There were 3 former Cary Tuba players ('08) that came together and a former student from Concord who mentioned that his band director patterned what they did from the Cary Marching Band!

The fundraising is going well with the students so far raising $1,100 from their efforts at car washing and another $1,200 in sponsorships.  There will be a few more car washes in July and then the Cary High School Marching Band Camp starts in August so that will be the end of the fundraising window.  We are now discussing the final plans for a sponsorship blitz and the final car washes...  Success is in the air for these students!

TWC Blues

So we have been having periodic problems with the home office high speed Internet connection.  Most times the connections are ok, but then we get annoying connection problems.  The speed tests look ok all except for the ping and upload speeds...  Here is one of my trace routes to Google.

The first TWC Business class technical support rep I talked to today at ~2pm (when we were not experiencing the problem) did some connection tests which had an unacceptable ping and packet loss, and then rebooted the modem and all looked ok.  She also had us disconnect our network from the modem and that looked better, so she suggested that the problem was on our end, but gave me a ticket number to pursue the problem if it came back.

I took a trip to Staples (since it was closest and I was time constrained) to purchase all new network equipment for the home office (and the rest of the home...).  I know that when network equipment starts to fail that the debugging process can be very long and frustrating to figure out which component has failed.  I also work with a company that as a best practice replace all of their networking gear every 2 years.  Since our routers switches, etc were older than this - in the 2-5 year range - I thought it best to replace all of it and take the opportunity to upgrade as we did this.

My preference is Netgear and so I purchased the Netgear N900 Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router (WNDR4500) and several gigabit Netgear switches.  Once installed, everything looked good and I even got a thumbs up from the "game testers" ;) that the XBox connection had gone from 1 bar to 4 bars, which I took was a good thing...

Well tonight at ~9pm, the Internet connection problems again reared their ugly head.  I did get a very knowledgeable technical support rep this time and we spent time doing trace routes and other networky things.  That I had just replaced all of the networking gear with good equipment short circuited the 20 questions that are always asked about your own network (who really connects directly to the modem to do a speed test these days anyway...)  The one thing that stuck in my mind was that the Tech was having difficulty seeing that the bridge was working (we have a static IP address, so the modem is bridged to pass the public static IP address that is configured in our router).  End result is that it remains a puzzle and that it needs to be escalated to the next level of Tech support, so I will hopefully have more news tomorrow.

I'm thinking that our modem needs to be replaced or there is a problem with the node at the street.  Come to think of it, the neighbor across the street had TWC out a few days ago and they were checking the connections, decided the replace the modem, etc.  Maybe our street has a problem??

What has been your experience with TWC Business Class?

Tuba Car Wash

This week has been thankfully slow on the charity side of my life, so I can get caught up with work...

The Tuba fundraisers which started last week are still going on and have taken up quite a bit of my time.  On Monday, I took Stephen to the Cary Band Booster Meeting.  Stephen was first on the agenda and informed the parents about the progress of the fundraisers.  Cary Band Booster President Bob Murray took great pleasure in introducing Stephen and the Tuba student led fundraising efforts.  Bob kept prompting Stephen as the parents clapped for each fundraising success by saying "but wait, it gets better..."

On Friday morning, Stephen was presented a check for $1,000 from the Heart of Cary Association (HoCA).  That is Doc Thorne (HoCA President) on the left and Joy Pike (HoCA Board member and Treasurer) on the right in the picture above.  The money was donated by an anonymous member of HoCA to dedicate a Tuba in honor of former Cary Mayor and long-time Cary Band supporter, Mr. Koka Booth.  Bob Murray was also in attendance and after the presentation ended, Doc and Joy kept thinking of fundraising ideas for Stephen to follow up that it was hard to get out of there and let everyone get back to work!  Have you ever had one of those times when the cue is given to leave, everyone gets up and then the conversation restarts?  Well after 3 of those, I went outside and kept trying to reel Stephen out of the office...  Lots of fun!


Today was also lots of fun as the Tuba students and their friends again set up to run a car wash from 9:30am to 1pm outside the Band Room at Cary High School.  We had all of the car wash stuff identified from last week (and the signs from last week) so getting ready for the car wash was relatively easier than last week...  More kids came out which made it so that I did not have to help wash any of the cars (a bonus for me!).  I did run out to get donuts to fuel the kids (Krispy Kreme), and then had to make more trips to get car wash liquid and to replace a hose that had an end fitting failure.  One of the other parents arrived with pizza at the end which was definitely a hit with the kids.

The car wash was another success with a constant stream of cars and there was only maybe a 5 minute lull in the action.  There were even 2 trusting folks that left their keys and cars to be washed while they went to watch a youth baseball game at the Cary High fields.  Several people stopped by just to give a donation.  The final tally was $460, which is a great result for a morning effort!  More car washes and other fundraisers are planned by the Tuba students over the summer.

Fundraising - The Next Generation

In this blog, I am not talking about a new method of fundraising or something Star Trekkie, but an inspiration from a few of our youth as they start on the path towards fundraising for charitable causes.

My son Stephen is a rising Junior at Cary High School and is avidly part of the Marching Band.  He has mentioned many times that with the incoming class of Freshman, there will be 10 Tuba players.  The issue is that Cary High currently has 6 functional Sousaphone Tubas (the type they use in Marching Band), so they need to get 4 more.  At $5,000-10,000 each, this is a major budget impact to the Marching Band funds.

Stephen decided that the student Tuba players should get together and fund raise to help offset these costs to the Cary Band Boosters, and started to organize the Tuba players (The Power Line) and others to hold a series of car washes over this summer.  Hearing of his plans and myself being involved with fundraising for several non-profits, I began the process of trying to guide Stephen to hone his message and pitch to potential donors.  Since Stephen was receptive, we got a good deal of the message work done, so he had developed a compelling 'ask'.

I also broached the idea of Stephen pitching to the Heart of Cary Association (HoCA), which involves many of the downtown merchants and residents.  Since Cary High has roots going back well over 75 years and was the only High School in Cary until the Cary's recent explosive growth, the HoCA would be most sensitive to the needs of Cary High School (called "The" Cary High School!).  I was able to get Stephen onto the agenda at their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, June 7, and Stephen did a great job pitching the idea.  We found out later that a member of the HoCA donated $1,000 anonymously for the Tuba Fund (Way to go Stephen)!  Stephen was also approached by the head of the Downtown Cary Farmers Market (DCFM) that they would give space for the Tuba pitch if Stephen wanted.  As a follow-up Stephen did contact everyone that showed interest at the HoCA meeting via e-mail later in the day.

A few frantic calls later to Mr. Minick, the Band Director, and to a few friends, Stephen was able to put together a group to attend the DCFM - in uniform and with a Sousaphone - for the Saturday market!  They were to pitch the idea and the car wash they had planned for the this afternoon from 1-4:30pm.

Thursday evening, Stephen and I and others went to dinner with a very good friend of mine, Ms. Mercedes Auger, who has taught me almost everything I know about non-profits and fundraising (and a few other things as well).  Stephen put up with another onslaught of questions from Mercedes about his pitch and developed levels of sponsorship - $100, $250 and $500+.  Stephen was able to come up with a sponsorship of $100 from Mercedes which I matched and Stephen felt that he could get the current Tuba section to add another $100 sponsorship (~$10 per Tuba which seems reasonable for kids to show donors that they have skin in the game...).  So another $300 raised at the dinner.

Today, Stephen and 3 others that came out in the morning did a great job at the DCFM pitching the ask, handing out information and asking people to attend the car wash and/or to donate.  I spent the morning running all over town getting odds and ends to make the morning event and car wash successful.  After asking many questions and getting a testy "I'll take care of that" over the past few days, I realized that this student group had the idea and the passion but were not yet ready to handle the details (something that will come with practice...).  I did not want to dampen their enthusiasm, so I spent a lot of in-kind purchasing to make sure that the poster board and markers, hoses and fittings, brushes and sponges, water and ice, table and pop-up tent, step ladders, drying rags, etc. would be available.

The car wash was a success with several people who had been at the DCFM stopping by to get their cars washed.  Yes, there were also a lot of cars from the student's families that came through, but a good mixture for only ~7 students and 2 adult 'chaperons'.  The result from the day was $75 in donations at the DCFM and $255 at the car wash so $330 total for the day!  Not bad for something put together on very short notice by students.

So to recap: In a few days, Stephen and his group have raised $1,630 and we have since heard that there is an anonymous band booster who will match what the students raise, up to 1/2 the price of a Tuba!

There is a buzz about what the students want to do for the car wash next week, so I will be interested to see how they learn and adapt!

It is great to see the next generation taking on the roles of leadership and fundraisers.

Economic Development Committee Mtg.

Tonight was the regularly scheduled Economic Development Committee (EDC) for the Town of Cary.  All members were in attendance.  Our guest Mr. Dave van Pelt was unable to attend so we will have to reschedule Dave's discussion for another meeting.

Sandy Jordan gave his usually fantastic summary of all that has been going on since the last meeting, and WOW, there is so much going on.  Sandy and Tom Huff (Chair of the Cary Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors) both confirmed that the pace of inquiries is slower in the 2nd quarter than it was in the first.  Cary is better off than many areas in that our unemployment rate is the lowest of the 7 largest NC municipalities.

The Global North Carolina "Heat Map", developed by the Center for International Understanding and SAS Institute was discussed as a great tool to be able to understand the global nature of the state of North Carolina at a County level.

In the 'cities with the most college educated residents' category, the Raleigh-Cary Metro Area ranks 7th at 41.0% (based on 2010 data from the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program).  Just Cary alone was mentioned to have at least 60% of the residents have a 4-year degree or more...

Social Media was again discussed by the EDC, but no definitive action was proposed.  This issue has been brought up several times, but the resistance to how it would be helpful and how much cost and staff time it may take seem to the the sticking point for many in the meeting.  They do not want to start and be unable to respond quickly to inquiries via this media.  I again voiced my point that we bill ourselves as the Technology Town, but we are completely absent on the rapidly growing communication media that more and more people are active with.  Is it more of a fault to not be present, than to be present and respond slowly?  From what I learned a few days ago, the last time that Social Media was discussed in the EDC, Pinterest probably did not exist, but has now grown to be the 3rd largest social media network!  Can we really wait to join in the conversation?

Doc Thorne had a great comment about Social Media.  National Train Day was held in Cary on May 12.  We took the event from Raleigh because last year only 3 people showed up in Raleigh for the event and Amtrak is looking at the Cary station to penetrate the Western Wake market.  In only 4 weeks, the event was put together and was advertised only via social media.  We thought that if 200 people showed up that it would be a success, but the estimates are that between 1,000-3,500 people visited National Train Day at the Cary Train Station.  Amtrak is so impressed that they are reported to now place information on all seats of the trains operating between Washington and Charlotte about Downtown Cary!  There is proof of the power of Social Media!

Railhawks Blues

So far, I have had conflicts to all of the Carolina Railhawks Lamar Hunt US Open Cup games and have had to find people to take my season tickets and/or take a few of my tickets and take my boys to the game.

Tonight was no different as I had an invitation to attend a social of the Canadian Business Association of North Carolina (The topic of a prior blog post).  I had offered my tickets to someone earlier if they would take my boys, but that fell through, and then my oldest was not sure if he wanted to go because 'graduation practice could be tiring'...  (ahhh, the whims of youth!)  After many text messages and calls, I finally told Stephen (the middle son) that if he could put together a group that could also drive him there, he could get the tickets and the coveted VIP parking pass.  Stephen had not been interested in soccer until the last few games and was able to put together a group to go to the game very quickly.  Hopefully they enjoyed the VIP seats and parking that Stephen 'scored'.

While the Railhawks lost, Stephen obviously had fun complaining about the refs along with our seat mates!

I'm torn as to whether or not I will miss the Railhawks participation in the Cup as I was not able to see any of the games after all.  I was cursed with Tuesday activities...

Canadian Business

Tonight I had the honor of attending the Canadian Business Association of North Carolina (CBANC or CBA-NC) Social.  I was invited by Carol Stymiest, the President of CBANC, who attended the last Sister Cities of Cary 5th Thursday Social - I remember my arm was twisted (very slightly) as Carol mentioned that I needed to attend her meeting...

What a great group of Canadian ExPats and Business leaders.  There was an amazing mix of culture in this group; one was Canadian/Portuguese, one was Canadian/Czech, some were born in the US and spent lots of time in Canada, some were naturalized US and some did not want to become naturalized...  Lots of interesting individual and family stories.

Ben Gailor, Consul and Senior Trade Commissioner from the Canadian Consulate in Raleigh, gave a report of the change in the Canadian Foreign Affairs strategy.  The Consulate in Raleigh will close on July 31 for budget reasons.  That the smaller Consulates are being closed to save $ was not unexpected, but what was a surprise was that the Buffalo, NY Consulate is also being closed (employs 57 or 75 people but I can't remember which - a big number none the less).  Headcount is also being reassigned to Asia.  Ben wanted people to follow him on Twitter so that he could "build the brand"  (@bengailor)  I had previously met Ben at a Cary Business Expo, and will be sad to see him go.

The purpose of the meeting was to generate ideas for future CBANC programs that would be able to give the membership helpful information about issues that Canadian Businesses experience in cross-border trade and in doing business in the US and Internationally.  The meeting broke into 3 brainstorming groups to develop ideas.  I participated in 1 of these, but had to leave prior to the recap of all of the ideas.  Judging by the group I was in, the ideas are bountiful, but the planning and implementation will take time and effort!

CBANC Links:

• Website
• Facebook
• Linked-In Group

Social Media Training

Social Media is moving so quickly that any of us in the field need to constantly keep training to make sure that we know what are the tools and how are they changing so we can make the best use of them (and our time...)

Tonight I went to a class given by Martin Brossman and Cramer Gallimore titled "Just the Basics for your Business; Facebook Timeline, Pinterest & Google+".  The 3 hours went quickly as we were exposed to many new things.

Information that I found interesting:

Facebook Timeline

• Allows you to define when the business was started and add milestones to your history. This gives people the sense of how long you have been in business.
• Number of friends vs. number talking about you.  2-6% engagement is good, and if the engagement is really low, then maybe the business 'bought' friends to look better than they are...
• Your updates that people see in their news feeds is based on your engagement, so if there is low engagement, no one will see your updates...  (Don't let your page get stale)

Pinterest

• The 3rd largest social network which is amazing in that it has only been around ~2 years and has 2 employees...
• Great for companies with consumer product and experience offerings.
• 75% female users right now (know your market).

Google+

• It is slowly catching on so grab your page now.
• Google Places is now Google+ Local.  They have integrated lots of user comments, have composite pictures of your bricks & mortar, (may soon have 360 'street view' of the insides of businesses).
• My thought is that this is something not to neglect!

I have been going to Martin's classes at Wake Tech for several years and have learned much every time.  It is like drinking from a fire hose!  Martin's Business Page.

PayPal Transaction E-mail

I just received an e-mail receipt from PayPal for a Debit Card transaction.  The only problem is that I did not make the transaction.  The transaction is posted as a Debit Card Signature Purchase from NATIONAL EXPRESS,BIRMINGHAM,GB.  I am not in England and my card is securely locked in a cabinet at the office and it only comes out to process a purchase...  I have begun the unauthorized transaction process using the unique transaction ID for this charge.  Right now the status of the charge is showing as pending in my PayPal account.

my initial search on Google for NATIONAL EXPRESS,BIRMINGHAM,GB brought up several links on page 1 to sites where people have also had unauthorized charges to their PayPal account from this company.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if all of your credit cards sent you an e-mail confirming each purchase?  That would help you to identify fraud before you actually get your statements to review!

Facebook Friends

I had an extra ticket to the Carolina Railhawks game tonight and I started going through my mental list of people who might want to or could go solo.  I quickly ran out of ideas, and then it hit me: look at my friends list on Facebook!  This dramatically increased the number of people I called...

... and I was successful!

The Power of Social Media

Last weekend, Jackie Holcombe (the Mayor of Morrisville) posted on her Facebook status about a shameful protest at the Miracle League field in Cary.  Hal Goodtree, the editor of the Cary Citizen, picked up on the story.

Yesterday the story ran in the Cary Citizen: Protest at Miracle League Ends in Assault and Arrest.  Through comments on the story and in many Facebook posts, the story has now begun to spread like wildfire!

None of the traditional media outlets have yet to report on this shameful protest.

Quirks of Public Meetings

I am a member of the Economic Development Committee (EDC) for the Town of Cary.  At our last meeting on April 11, I had recounted my conversations with Mr. Dave Van Pelt, the new North Carolina Coordinator for Sister Cities International.  Dave is President of the Twin City Alliance and other business organizations that deal with China and East Asia business connections.  I felt that the EDC would benefit from hearing directly from Dave about the changing international business and investing climate in China and here in NC/SC.

I invited Dave to attend our next EDC meeting on June 6, as since Dave is available, we put Dave on the EDC agenda.  Now here comes the quirky part.

Howard Johnson at the Cary Chamber offered to host a dinner for Dave after the meeting since Dave is coming from Winston-Salem and will return after the meeting.  However, no more than 4 of the 9 EDC members can attend the dinner or else this would be considered a meeting of the group and would have to be posted as an open meeting!  We are trying to work out details of who would be the lucky ones or if we could have dinner brought into the meeting or after the meeting so that Dave can connect will all of us in a less formal format...