The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis

Along the lines of the This American Life’s Giant Pool of Money show, this is a great video by Jonathan Jarvis explaining the credit crisis:

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

Appreciation to: Doug Fisher

McGuire Woods, Virginia Organizing Project win CYFS Honor

Children, Youth & Family Services (CYFS) announces co-winners of the Mitch Van Yahres Family Friendly Employer Award. The winners are the McGuire Woods law firm and the Virginia Organizing Project. Both of these employers are committed to providing their employees with a wide array of family-oriented benefits, notes CYFS. These employers are applauded for helping our community to foster a well-educated, healthy work force.

The winner of the CYFS annual John L. Snook Child Advocate Award is Bradley J. Wentz, a social worker and supervisor of Child Protective Services in the Charlottesville Department of Social Services. Brad works very closely with local prosecutors, police, school personnel and others to successfully address the needs of child victims in Charlottesville, explains CYFS, congratulating Brad for helping the children of our community to grow healthy and strong.

These awards will be presented at the CYFS Community Breakfast on April 21st. It is sponsored this year by Better Living Furniture and Building Supply, State Farm Insurance, Spring Creek Living and SunTrust Bank.

Seminar: By-Laws, What Are They And Why Do We Need Them? – April 14

Here’s a session that’s no doubt incredibly useful:

The Charlottesville Silver Gavel Unit of the Virginia Association of Parliamentarians will present a special seminar on Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 7:00 PM, at the Sojourners United Church of Christ, located at 1017 Elliott Avenue, in Charlottesville. The guest lecturer will be Mr. T. Page Johnson, PRP, whose presentation will be, By-Laws, What Are They And Why Do We Need Them?

Mr. Johnson will expand your understanding of, and appreciation for, the effective application of parliamentary procedure as a way to create more productive meetings. For further information and registration, contact Margaret Dryer, mkddyer@hotmail.com – Phone 434-978-7021.

Charlottesville Regional Chamber launches new web site

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce has a new, “enhanced” website — A nice update — They are now working with ChamberXpress. The last time the Chamber’s site changed was in 2000 in partnership with Weblink International. Two columns of data, “Latest news” and a “Calendar of Events,” dominate the home-page. The business/member directory lists businesses alphabetically by category and is also searchable by “member,” “category,” and “contact.” It’s all very blue.

What our local United Way does and its roots in the business community

Kim Connolly has a post on the United Way – Thomas Jefferson Area‘s Living United blog profiling what it is that the United Way does locally. It’s a valuable brief on this organization — an organization who’s mission and purpose is often misunderstood, in fact, because of the diverse areas in which they affect change within our community.

Her profile includes the oft unknown fact that our local United Way was formed in 1943 by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce as the Charlottesville and Albemarle War and Community Fund.

Better Living’s Golden Apple Award for Teachers: Deadline March 4, 2009

Better Living Building Supply & Better Living Furniture is sponsoring their 9th Annual Golden Apple Awards for outstanding teachers from our school systems.  These awards are presented to faculty members from the public and private schools in Albemarle County and Charlottesville City, including CATEC.  Eligible private schools are those that are members of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS).

Nomination forms are available from the local schools or online at Better Living or from the County School’s web site.

One candidate is selected to represent their school and receives a Golden Apple, as well as gift certificates from local businesses.  As a “Golden Apple” teacher, each candidate is then eligible to receive a Golden Apple Grant ($1000).  Grants are awarded to eight (8) candidates: 3 elementary, 2 middle, and 2 high school candidates of the public schools in Albemarle County and Charlottesville City and CATEC, and to 1 candidate from the schools that are members of the Virginia Association of Independent Schools (VAIS).  The grant award is used to support the candidate’s continued professional development.

Candidates are faculty members at any level (pre-school through grade twelve) and teach any discipline. Candidates for this award have demonstrated excellence in teaching and involvement in the community outside the school.  See Nomination Criteria.  Previous Award recipients are not eligible for nomination.

Deadline for Nominations: March 4, 2009 (return nomination forms to the local school as they must be signed by the principal)

QUESTIONS? Contact Regina Kirk, Albemarle County Schools, 434-296-5820, or at rkirk@k12albemarle.org

CATEC Annual Job Fair: Saturday, January 24, 2009

From a January 20 CATEC news release: The Charlottesville Albemarle Technical Education Center (CATEC) is pleased to announce its 7th Annual Job Fair and Expo on Saturday, January 24, 10 am to 5 pm, at the Charlottesville Fashion Square Mall.

[CATEC’s web site notes that businesses may still sign up.]

The Expo features instructors and students from each of CATEC’s unique programs, giving demonstrations of their classroom work and providing information on registration for the 2009/10 academic year. This is designed as a curriculum expo for parents and students interested in learning more about CATEC programs. Registration for CATEC begins shortly, so all parents and students should plan to attend and experience first-hand the wide range of choices CATEC offers students in the Charlottesville -Albemarle region.

Several area employers in the health industry will be recruiting on-site for new personnel as well as providing information to the community about their respective services. Many Post-secondary institutions, including PVCC, National College, and Averett University will also be available throughout the day to discuss program offerings and career pathways.

Chamber to host Dr. Grieger’s “Extraordinary Customer Service”

The Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce is offering an event that may be of interest to you in these tight financial times. Customer service can make or break a company in a competitive market. The Chamber will be hosting Extraordinary Customer Service — both a seminar and a workshop — on Thursday afternoons January 22 and  29. Offered in two parts, it is a seminar in which you will be taught proven, useful concepts and tools. It is a workshop in that you will develop your own action plan that you can immediately put to constructive use. The program is taught by Dr. Russel Grieger and will be held at the Chamber.

More information and sign up here.

Christmas Price Index highest ever – who knew?

The Christmas Price Index is out — who knew it even existed? Apparently its been calculated since 1984. Estimating how much the cost would be to buy all the items in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas,” this year’s total is the most expensive ever. The cost went up 8.1% ($1,500) over last year. I discovered this information on the Jackson Blog (Jackson Library – Stanford Graduate School of Business) and they note the biggest culprits raising this year’s index: High cost of energy and swans which were up 33.3% due to their scarcity. Read more [PDF release]. Visit the 2008 CPI.

Virginia cruises at #2 in PC Mag’s “SurfSpeed” ranking

PC Magazine has produced an interesting overview of “high speed” Internet service throughout the US — and Virginia ranks #2. “Virginia’s 7.7 million residents are surfing the Internet at near record speeds, averaging 765 Kbps statewide,” says PCMAG.com. Nevada came in at #1.

The piece includes pretty cool clickable regional maps.

PCMAG.com describes how they did it, “Over 17,000 users across the country ran our SurfSpeed application for a total of nearly a quarter of a million times, helping us to determine the speed of Web browsing in each of the 50 states.”