Weekly Posts

Last week's post was about what kind of teams have you been on and how is helped you be a better leader?
Over the years I have been on many different teams, weather it be sports or school clubs.
In high school I was on the golf team, even though golf is an individual sport we were still a team and we supported each other, on and off the course! As a team, we helped each other out with golf skills such a putting (which I really needed help with the most) but we also helped each other when it came to school work. We were always there for each other. I feel that this helped me be a better leader because I knew that I would always have someone backing me up.

In college, I join the SIFE (students in free enterprise) my sophomore year. I joined to get more involved with the school and business programs. I am still currently in SIFE, because as a team we are "helping out one community at a time." In SIFE we are teaching others, weather it be elementary students or the elder, about simple business principles. Being part of this team has helped me become a better leader, because I am more confident in myself and by being part of this club I feel that I have started a great networking pool, which will hopefully become useful in the near future.

This week's posting-

I believe that if you have a goal about anything and you are serious about it, that makes you passionate which will eventually help you accomplish your goal. I believe that you can do anything you set your mind to! As a team, if one person is passionate about a goal and they are willing to show others why, then hopefully the others will become passionate about it as well. Accomplishing a goal is all about communication within the team as well making sure that all deadlines are meet on time!! There are so teams where you might not have the right people to accomplish the goals therefore you will need to find others to help out!! For a team to be successful I believe that everyone must have at least one MAIN common goal, communication and passion for what they are doing and passion for the reasons that they are doing it!! It's all about the teamwork and the team players!!

-Candace Walker

RECYCLING CENTER

I talked to Judy Payton, the director of the Recycling Center and it is open on every Saturday from 9:30 - 12:00. I explained our class project to her and asked about the possibility of having the center open on a Saturday afternoon, she said it would be better if it was in the morning, but did offer to run the center for the event from 10 - 2. She is going to send me a flyer covering items that are acceptable/unacceptable, I hope to have it in time to bring to class tonight.

Tires for Mulch

One of the fabulous women in our class thought of bringing in a company to turn used tires into mulch this Earth Day. This is a great idea. I priced how much they sell the stuff for, it runs about 15$ a square foot.
Here is a great article about using tires for mulch: http://toolmonger.com/2008/08/27/permanent-mulch-from-recycled-tires/

Here is the web-site of the company who makes the mulch. http://www.internationalmulch.com/ .

I see the benefits in the rubber mulch immediately. Every year my family orders a truck load of mulch to be dumped in our drive way, and every year we painstakingly spread it again and again spending more and more money as the wood chips shrink and decay. The minute that people invest in this mulch it starts paying for itsself!

I hope that we will be able to do something at our trash bash to incorporate the rubber mulch.

--
Emma Sawin

Weekly Post

Last weeks question was about what kind of teams you have been on and how has it helped you and made you a better leader?
I have been on many athletic teams in my life and school groups, but I think the one that has been most helpful for me has been Student Government here at BC. Over the past few years I have been on SG and that experience has helped me to become a better leader and has taught me how to lead a group efficiently and get things done. In college we all have very different schedules and agendas, by working with the others in my class we have to be flexible and get things done in a timely manner. Someone has to take the lead and get the ball rolling and I think I have learned how to get conversations started and moving.

This week we talk about tribes and the importance of building a coalition with your fellow members. Within a group it is vital that we all have the same ending goal and are able to work together to get there. If someone is not in line with everyone else it is going to bring the whole group down. The whole group needs to be open to everyone's ideas and work out the pros and cons of each. Building a strong team is important so that the team can really get to know one another and play off each others strengths and weaknesses.

Motivate-Connect-Leaverage

Author Seth Godin believes that a leader can help increase the effectiveness of the tribe and its members by transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal, provide tools to allow members to tighten their communications, and leverage the tribe to allow it to grown and gain new members. What do you think he means by this and how important is this concept to the ability to build a coalition.

Recycling

I read an interesting article in the Kansas City Star this morning. This explains how the current economic situation is affecting recycling. It doesn't talk about old computers and hardware like we discussed doing for our project in class but I am sure it will have an affect on that so we might want to research this a little.

http://www.kansascity.com/105/story/1024537.html

-Reed

Lucca Leadership North America

I hope those of you who were interested in the Lucca Leadership Weekend March 6-8th have finished filling out your applications. Please bring them to class on Wednesday. The Lucca Leadership weekend is such a great opportunity to take your leadership to the next level. Take a look at the Lucca Leadership website. I think you will like what you see.

http://www.luccaleadership.org/

-Anthony J. Martinez

Biography (Reed Berger)

My name is Reed Berger and I work in a family business in Atchison. I am the 4th generation working in our Leather and Textiles Company. We manufacture products such as knife sheaths and cotton aprons and also distribute leather raw material to companies that manufacture western goods, jean labels, and dog collars. We just finished up our 100th year in business in 2008.

I was born in Atchison and have lived here my entire life. Up until a few months after I graduated Kansas State in December of 2006, I lived with my parents in the same house since I was 1 year old. It is just up the street from my Grandparents house so I was very fortunate to be able to see my entire family on a daily basis growing up. I graduated from Atchison High School in 2002 and I have watched Atchison change over the years with community projects like the riverfront project, mall projects, and new schools being built.

I feel that Atchison is a very unique community that has much going for it. We have a strong support base of active community leaders who spend both time and money to improve the town for everybody that lives here. I look forward to working with everybody in this class to learn how other people perceive Atchison and how we can continue to improve the town to benefit everybody that lives here, including students.