By most measures, this year’s employees’ charitable campaign, Wolfpack Gives Back, is a success. In just six weeks, we’ve raised the same amount of money and achieved the same level of participation as we did last year after eight weeks, collecting more than $526,000 from 32 percent of our employees.

But I don’t think any of us is satisfied with just matching last year’s numbers. I know I’m not.

The need is simply too great. For example, at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, demand for food is up more than 60 percent this year, an unprecedented increase.  The change that’s in your cup holder could provide a meal for a family of four.

We can help meet this need, and the needs of more than 1,000 other charities. [Read more →]

The folks at Yahoo Education created a list of the “most favorite” jobs and public relations comes in at No. 2.  Not sure how I feel about that, especially when you read the opening phrase; “If you love socializing.” When will they ever learn.

Read more at “Where have all the fun jobs gone?”

I can’t tell you how often a job candidate will start off by telling me “I’m good with people,” thinking that this will encourage me to move forward with a hire.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate people, but being good with people isn’t one of the top priorities on my list.

So I ask myself, what are the characteristics I pay attention to?  Here, in no particular order are Five things I look for in a public relations or marketing professional.

1. Writer/Story Teller.  Not just short 140 character paragraphs either.  You’ve got to understand the basics of news writing.  The Inverted Pyramid.  Take a class. Read a book.  You can learn to be a better writer.  And, after all, what is writing all about?  Telling stories and you’ve got to be a good story teller in this business if you want to survive:-)

2. Organized.  Ya think!  But you’d be surprised how many communications professionals are a mess when it comes to organization.  Just check out my desk if you don’t believe me.  But looks aren’t everything.  You’ve got to be able to prioritize and and structure your day, your client’s work, your organization’s work.  Multitasking might be a better word than organized.  An organized multi tasker is even better.

3. Fearless.  As Lady GaGa says, do different proud.  If you want to stand out; if you want your clients to stand out, you’ve got to stand out.  You’ve got to be different.  Being different is not easy.  You get pushed and pulled to conform all the time, but those practitioners who are able to look at things differently arrive at new and different solutions to the challenges they face.  They have the most success in marketing and public relations and their companies and clients are the most successful too. [Read more →]

I’ve been out of touch the last few days, but am starting to get back into the swing of things. Spoke to a group of advancement professionals in Chicago earlier today and back in Raleigh now.

Because I don’t understand all the ins and outs of the advancement services world, speaking to the group was a little intimidating but I hope I challenged them to look at the world differently. To think differently. Ask them to reevaluate the way they do business, especially in the new environment that all of us in higher education are forced to deal with today.

That was hard, but saying goodbye to my mom was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I had to do that last Saturday.

How do you capture all those years of Love and emotions in just a couple of minutes. How do you say goodbye?

Thank you all for joining us today to celebrate the life of our mom, Mary Philomenia Blankley Hice. (May 15, 1926 – Sept. 29, 2010) Most of you knew her as Phill.

It’s a shame that it takes occasions like this to get us together, but we are all grateful to everyone here. Your support and caring means a great deal to Dad, me, Charlie and Janie, to the grand kids and everyone else who knew Mom. I know she’d be happy to see us all together, especially since she was not able to join in many family activities during the last years of her life due to the rheumatoid arthritis that was eating away at her.

She used to say a little prayer to help her during the tough times and I’d like to read that now.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannon change. The courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference.”

The thing everyone used to notice about Mom was her smile. She had the most beautiful one I’ve ever known, and no doubt it has been embedded in my mind since I was a baby and she first smiled down on me in the cradle. [Read more →]

I was stunned to hear that Jim Heselden had been killed while riding his Segway.  Heselden was one of the early adapters in Europe and a real believer that the Segway transporter could transform the way people travel short distances.

Heselden purchased the company from Dean Kamen and a group of investors late last year and was continuing efforts to introduce the machine to the general public.

Heselden was riding a Segway X2, an off-road version of the machine.  The X2 has knobby tires and is higher off the ground than the standard model.  I’ve got hundreds of miles on the machines and the X2-model was always my favorite.

My condolences go out to Heselden’s family and those involved with Segway.  It is a marvelous machine, but perhaps, years ahead of its time.  Here’s the story from BBC.

I’ve been advocating for circus dogs for the past year and now the internet is all a buzz about circus dogs as well.

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Passion (and Circus Dogs) Rule!

Getty Images OK Go‘s latest music video managed to rack up over one million views in just one day.

The band, who are famed for their innovative music videos, released the clip for their latest single ‘White Knuckles’ on Monday (Sept. 20) and it’s already proved to be a massive hit, reports NME.

They say never work with animals on television, but the band have used trained dogs to great effect in the fast paced, one-take video, which has now reached over two million views on YouTube.

Talking to NME, frontman Damian Kulash revealed that it took over a hundred takes to get right. He said, “There were many more starts and stops but we actually have slates for 124 full takes. The video you see is one whole take and what you see is all take 72.”

Speaking of the hits, he added, “It’s mind boggling. I don’t think the brain is wired for comprehending those kind of numbers. Last night it was 100,000 hits and I woke up this morning with it being like over one million.”

One

1 of Many

Passion Rules!

The 19th Annual Dog Olympics to be held at Moore Square in downtown Raleigh on Sept. 11. This family/community event keeps getting better and has been expanded for 2010 based on the response to holding it at Moore Square last year. The Terry Center construction continues to prohibit holding the Olympics at the NC State CVM.

This is a great campus/city event and the City of Raleigh is pleased with the community response and glad to provide the venue.

Here’s a link for more information: http://www.cvm.ncsu.edu/news/2010-08-16-Mark-Your-Calendar-Dog-Olympics-Sept.11.html and a link to the official Dog Olympics site: http://www.cvmdogolympics.com/

Passion Rules!  Pups too.

Dr. Craig Harms and Dean David Bristol of NC State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine are participating in a special forum that will assess North Carolina’s preparedness to respond and recover from an oil spill event. Free and open to the public, the forum will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, July 29, at the UNC Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill.

The “One Health Forum on North Carolina Oil Spill Response, Recovery and Health Effects” includes speakers from state and federal agencies who have expertise in public health, marine science, emergency management, and natural resources. Discussion will focus on the state’s strengths, the required coordination and collaboration among organizations, the training and use of volunteers, and areas that need additional coverage and management.

Dean Bristol and Dean Barbara Rimer of the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health will open the forum and welcome participants at 9 a.m. [Read more →]