Let's talk Facebook and share a cup of coffee

Tomorrow's "When to boost Facebook posts," marks the fourth event in KGW's Social Media and Digital Marketing series. Each event features a specific business interest for those who use social media as part of their outreach efforts.

As a social media fiend, I am especially looking forward to tomorrow's event with Krys VanSlyke. He's the Senior Manager of Social Media for G/O Digital, a division of Gannett – KGW's parent company.

Senior Manager of Social Krys VanSlyke

I sat down with VanSlyke this morning to glean some insight on how his team in Phoenix is using Facebook. It's pretty fascinating what they can accomplish with a target and the right budget. Doesn't have to be large, it just has to be enough.

Their work runs the gamut of one-man shops to national corporations. Each company has it's own goal, VanSlyke's team creates the strategy, creates the ads, does the testing, optimizing and resetting to figure out how to hit those goals.

Most of the tools G/O Digital uses are readily available to anyone who wants to run an ad campaign on Facebook.Should you do it on your own? Sure. If you want to practice guesswork and ride the slow train.

Or you can take the fast track. VanSlyke says his team knows what questions to ask to get the campaign focused on the right targets and G/O's proprietary tools allow them to do more testing, do the testing faster, and build on areas creating success.

And VanSlyke emphasizes team.  "If someone gets stuck they're not alone."

So, if you're in the neighborhood tomorrow at 8:00 a.m., drop in for a jam packed morning of Facebook advice and a great cup of coffee.

Here's the scoop:

Parking

Plan on arriving early. Visitor parking in our lot is limited. If you miss out on a visitor spot, please do not park in spots marked reserved. These are provided to other tenants in our building. On-street parking is available along Jefferson Street, but we've got a full house, so if you're a teensy bit late you might have to hoof it a bit.

KGW Studio, 1501 SW Jefferson St, Portland OR 97201

Remember pen and paper

Summaries but not the full deck. Our presenters share their summaries, but don't dish out the whole enchilada. That means you'll want to take notes. If you arrive empty handed find me quick and I'll fix you up with pen and paper.

Bring a business card

The sponsor CenturyLink Business usually brings some bling so remember your business card in case there is a drawing or someone you want to connect with later.

Do you Twitter?

#KGWSoMe is the event hashtag. We're hoping to have a live stream so you can ask questions, so bring your smartphones and tweet away.

Contact me to set up a marketing consultation, to get updates on the next event, or to grab a cup of coffee: cdoane (at) kgw (dot) com.

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Coping with a son's mental illness propels Pamela Deane's career

In any given year, an estimated 22.1% of Americans ages 18 and older suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. That means that one out of every five people you work with may be suffering with an illness that you cannot see, that you may experience as you interact with them, and an illness that may or may not be curable.

Pamela Deane, author of The Translation of Max.

Author Pamela Deane had that experience not at work, but in her home.

While raising two sons as a single mom, her eldest was diagnosed with schizophrenia mid-way through his high school journey.

Throughout the turmoil of discovering it wasn’t a teenager experimenting with drugs or alcohol, juggling an unpredictable home life which spilled out and created chaos throughout her day teaching high school English, Deane managed to survive. She managed to raise both sons to adulthood. She managed to maintain classroom order and keep her teaching job, but most importantly she secured resources for her firstborn to improve his quality of life.

While not autobiographical, Pamela Deane’s book, The Translation of Max, introduces us to Maggie whose experience mirrors Deane’s own.

The book will inspire you to celebrate Maggie and the steadfast way she pursues the quest to help her son, the heartache she feels as she understands the limbo her younger son vacillates in when Maggie's life is drained of energy, time and money, and the honest way she admits when she is too tired to do it all.

The Translation of Max is sprinkled with nuggets of humor which allows the reader to chuckle and take a breath before the onslaught of ordeals that escalate one after the other. It will keep you reading until the end.

Meet Author Pamela Deane

Friday, August 22, 7:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.
The Breakfast Club
Umpqua Bank
720 Esther St
Vancouver WA 98660



After retiring from teaching Pamela Deane launched her writing career. The Translation of Max is her second book and is recommended for anyone facing a family crisis. It is available on Amazon.

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When to boost Facebook posts (event!)

Don't touch that boost button, yet!

Anyone managing a Facebook presence can tell you that organic page reach has been dropping every quarter. If you've tried all your engagement and viral tricks, and are thinking about putting some money behind your efforts, DON'T CLICK THAT BOOST BUTTON, yet

In this seminar, Krys VanSlyke the Senior Manager of Social Media for G/O Digital (division of Gannett), will share how his staff approaches social spend and divulge multiple Facebook tips, including:

• Why the "Boost Button" may not be a smart way to spend your money
• How to set expectations and build budgets
• Which ad types are best for your objectives
• How to use Facebook targeting capabilities

Tuesday, August 19

8:00 am- 9:30 am

KGW8 Studio
1501 SW Jefferson St
Portland, OR 97201

Sponsored by:

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See you in the morning, I'll be next to the coffee

Tomorrow marks the third installment of KGW's Social Media and Digital Marketing event series. Each event has keyed in on best practices for businesses using social media.

As a data fiend, I am especially looking forward to tomorrow's metrics roll out, not that I think it will stop the naysayers who complain about social media in general and offer a litany of excuses of why they don't like it, why it is a waste of time and why they hate all the advertising in their Twitter stream, but because I do like social media. All parts of it. Including the advertising.

Don't confuse me with people who sell advertising — I used to think I did. Of late, I've come to the realization that I no longer sell advertising. I sell audience.

No one cares which website their desired target is on, they care about the person they want to reach. They think that I can only reach people who visit KGW.com, but that is only a fraction of what I do.

With a myriad of tools that are available through our parent company Gannett, I can deliver audiences on just about any website you can think of, and about 100,000 websites you didn't know existed and through in a little search engine marketing to drive it home,.

In the meantime, drive over to KGW tomorrow and join us for a jam packed morning and a great cup of coffee.

Here's the scoop:

Parking

Plan on arriving early. Visitor parking in our lot is limited. If you miss out on a visitor spot, please do not park in spots marked reserved. These are provided to other tenants in our building. On-street parking is available along Jefferson Street, but we've got a full house, so if you're a teensy bit late you might have to hoof it a bit.

KGW Studio, 1501 SW Jefferson St, Portland OR 97201

Remember pen and paper

Summaries but not the full deck. Frank Mungeam is a great presenter and he shares his summary, but not the whole enchilada. That means you'll want to take notes. If you arrive empty handed find me quick and I'll fix you up with pen and paper. (See my card below for contact info).

Do you Twitter?

#KGWSoMe is our event hashtag. We're hoping to have a live stream so you can ask questions, so bring your smartphones and tweet away.

WIN a Kindle!

Our partner CenturyLink Business is sharing the love with a business card drawing for a Kindle. I want YOU to WIN, so remember your business card.

Here's mine. Contact me to set up a marketing consultation, or to get updates on the next event, cdoane (at) kgw (dot) com.

Smashing digital marketing events continue at KGW

Frank Mungeam addresses a Portland, Oreg. audience on developing engaging social media content.

The simplest, most basic information can be the most compelling. People want to know stuff. They want to know the stuff experts know.

Sometimes we listen to someone promoted as an expert and think, “I knew that, what makes everyone think this guy is so smart?”

Then there's the brilliant people who teach, and the chatter overtakes the room, “That would have taken forever to figure out.” “That was awesome.” “Thanks for making it easy to follow and understand.” “When's the next event?”

That smart person bringing the Portland metro area up-to-speed in business social media is Director of Digital Media Frank Mungeam. He knows stuff, good stuff, stuff other people want to know. In fact, people pay to hear what Mungeam has to say in pursuit of degrees from Washington State University Vancouver, where Mungeam is an adjunct professor in the Creative Media and Digital Culture Program.

I had heard Mungeam speak before we ended up working for the same company. I came in to his session at Washington State University Vancouver pretty skeptical, and like many before me, I left a big fan.

At a recent event hosted by KGW Media Group and CenturyLink Business, Mungeam shared with a full house of Portland and Vancouver businesses, nonprofits and government entities how their organizations can create engaging social media content. It gets down to basic stuff, listen, test, gain insight, do what works, and at the heart of what works always seems to nestle: do good things for your customers.

Do I think that having a Twitter account is going to create sales for your business?

No more than me creating a business prospecting email. But, over time, as we have a conversation on Twitter or LinkedIn or SlideShare or Facebook and connect through email, you'll see what is genuine about how I approach what I do, what is consistent, and what is remarkable.

Eventually, you'll figure out I've gleaned good insights about online marketing by creating and optimizing effective campaigns and by asking good questions as a campaign progresses, ends and renews. These experiences have developed good instincts on advertising and PR.

You can take a long time to figure marketing and online advertising out, or you can have me help you.

Either way has a cost. One is cost effective.

You can also attend the next social media and digital marketing event at KGW Media Group. It comes with it's own price tag – your time. The benefit is that you get Frank Mungeam's time, as well.

Sign up below for alerts on upcoming KGW social media and marketing events:

* indicates required

Email Address * 

First Name * 

Last Name * 

Company * 

Tomorrow the clever crafting begins

For everyone who has signed up for Crafting Engaging Social Media, here are a few reminders:

Parking

Plan on arriving early. Visitor parking in our lot is limited. If you miss out on a visitor spot, please do not park in spots marked reserved. These are provided to other tenants in our building. On-street parking is available along Jefferson, but we've got a full house, so if you're a teensy bit late you might have to hoof it a bit.

Remember pen and paper

Summaries but not the full deck. Frank Mungeam is a great presenter and he shares his summary, but not the whole enchilada. That means you'll want to take notes. If you arrive empty handed find me quick and I'll fix you up.

 

WIN a Kindle!

Our partner CenturyLink Business. is sharing the love with a business card drawing for a Kindle, 6" E Ink Display, with Wi-Fi.I want YOU to WIN, so remember your business card.

Do you Twitter?

#KGWSoMe is our event hashtag. SoMe is short for Social Media and SOME really great info. Remember to connect with me, @TheClassicCarol so we can have fun during the event and tweet at each other after the event.

 

Lastly.

I'll share my notes if you share yours. When do you want to have coffee?

Writing in a digital world

Carol Doane addresses Vancouver Writer's Mixer. Photo: Chris Martin.

Writing for a community website is different than writing for a national website, different than blogging, obviously different from fiction writing that many of my friends do, and different from writing for a print publication.

I came out of a print background. For two decades I sold and wrote advertising copy. The messages were short, targeted, timely and compelling. Very much like social media.

As I engaged in social media, I could see that the goal of a friend’s social media message wasn't to sell me something, but it had the same components as advertising – short, compelling, timely or targeted, but more entertainment oriented.

My Facebook friends shared what they observed and experienced – and made me laugh out loud.

Work is no laughing matter
I wasn’t laughing much in my day job. Our company struggled for survival; our subscription base was eroding as well as our advertising stream. We were deteriorating. The reorganization benefits of Chapter 11 offered the life raft to start the arduous task of digging the company out of bankruptcy – which ultimately we did.

Our incremental corporate moments of success brought cheers around the office, but relief came from online. People I knew told me about places I loved and their short, pithy messages made me laugh. It rekindled friendships and coffee dates soared. That brought more online discussion, and not just on Facebook, but spilled over into Twitter, blogging, Foursquare and many other social media sites. I could go online and be entertained and expand my friendship circle.

Social media became a place to meet local people, get them off the computer and bring them into real life.

Working for a community website is just the opposite – taking real life and putting it back on the computer, making it digital.

The Tabasco of work life.
To get a foothold in the digital marketplace – you can’t be bland.

If you want to write for a community website you have to find a way to have an edge, but because it’s local it can have consequences. A story I wrote elicited a letter to be boss asking me to apologize to our corner of the state – or be fired.

I’ve shared the story I wrote with other writers and they shake their heads. They don’t get it. If you aren’t vested in the subject matter it doesn’t engage your full emotions. If the story threatens your home, your fence line, future job potential it pulls hard on your emotions. You read emotions into a story you're emotional about.

Point of view, though, is what alternative news sources need to survive. It can’t be a boring read, it can’t be like reading the minutes of the last board meeting. It has to have content with an engaging delivery.

I find that print is more about properness – proper form, proper paragraphs, while online you might break a paragraph up because of how it looks visually on the screen or how it wraps around a photo.

It's less about being perfect. It's more about discovery
What I’ve discovered in the past year in a start-up is to take everything on. Be surprised. Be willing to discover you may not have been doing it right, but you're willing to morph and move as the mystery unfolds.

And above all, be willing to learn.

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Writer and website wrangler Carol Doane to appear Sat. April 7

PRESS RELEASE

For a couple of decades Carol Doane worked in the land of print media leading the advertising sales team of the largest newspaper in Southwest Washington.

Not content to paddle solely in the inky black of newsprint, she dove into online and has spent the last year figuring out how to help create a new voice in the local media landscape and launch a community website.

It’s been a year since the first article -- a year that has seen almost 400 posts and just as many comments, has earned the website’s video team two Telly Awards, and earned multiple mentions in the local media.

The momentum is building steam in Southwest Washington. It has virtually made a celebrity out of a forensic accountant who a mere six months after her appearance on the community website was being interviewed by National Public Radio. In addition, after being featured in one of the website's videos, a local political blogger earned a national award, and the award winning web editor Doane hired was recruited away to be the National Director of Content for the ASPCA.

All this to say the little, local, community website is making celebrities left and right – but mostly right.

Find out why Carol Doane is at work every day at 6:30 am, which article she wrote that solicited a letter to the editor demanding she apologize to all of Southwest Washington—or be fired, how she juggles a hectic media life with raising an incredible teenager, and what the future holds for the media manager.

In the middle of the muddle will also be an inspiring message to get up and write like your life depended on it. Join us, Saturday!

Cover to Cover Books
Saturday, Apr. 7, 5:00-6:30 pm (PT)
6300 NE St. James Rd. Suite 104B
Vancouver, WA 98663

Online Ticketing for Van couver Writers Mixer: featuring Carol Doane, writer and website wrangler powered by Eventbrite

Directions to Cover to Cover Books

View Larger Map
More info at caroldoaneapril2012.eventbrite.com/.

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Tall book critic prefers short novels

The Northwest is rife with readers, writers, and those of authority called published authors.

Besides the obvious college and adult education classes, there are more than a dozen organizations, clubs and bookstores with monthly events aimed at improving the craft of writing and getting that writer promoted to published status.

Being published is not the end of the journey, though. Before the book is hot off the press or fresh from the Internet, the job of marketing ensues. Blogging, social media forays, speaking engagements, workshops, and waiting with tying fingers crossed for the platinum review keeps the author on a virtual roller coaster.

A balding, unassuming, yet tall, man can make that roller coast ride worth it or almost worth it.

Jeff Baker, The Oregonian’s book editor, launched the fifth season of the Northwest Author Series hosted by the Wilsonville Public Library and The Friends of the Wilsonville Public Library. Baker told the audience, which consisted mostly of writers and subscribers to The Oregonian, that he weighs the merits of a bad review against the benefit of introducing Oregonian readers to a book they might actually buy. Baker believes there’s got to be a good reason for a bad review.

“Sometimes I pick up stuff I don’t like,” he said. When that happens, “Let ‘em have it, but don’t be mean.”

Baker writes the reviews, writes and features, assigns everything else, and edits while blogging and tweeting and juggling an ever constricting budget. If one reviews the comments left on the online site it would appear to be a thankless job.

The upside for Baker is that he gets to choose what he wants to read and farms out the rest to freelancers who write 500 word reviews for about 30 cents a word. When his budget is depleted (hello, December!) he pulls stuff off the wire.

Baker receives about 500 books a week. That equates to an hour a day of unpacking and organizing before one book spine gets cracked and perused for possible review. Those most likely to be chosen for one of the five weekly review slots include local authors, books that have a Northwest setting, or authors booked for a local appearance.

Baker offered his insight on how to write a review offering this short list:
1. What’s the book about
2. Do you like it
3. Why
4. Include a quote.
“You want to give people a feel of the writing style,” he said.

Currently, Baker is reading Hemmingway’s Boat, by Paul Hendrickson which he will review soon. Expect a very positive review. Other authors he mentioned included graphic novelist Craig Thompson, Karl Marlantes who wrote Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, and Justin Torres with his 144 page book “We the Animals.”

You can judge a book by its cover, says Jeff Baker, and you can also judge it by its page count.

“250 pages is better than 500 anytime.”

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Upcoming events for the Northwest Author Series

The Northwest Author Series takes place at the Wilsonville Public Library once a month on these Sundays, 3:30 p.m. DIRECTIONS

October 23
Emily Chenoweth, Memoir or Fiction? Make The Most of Your Choice




December 4
Christina Katz, The Writer's Workout: Whip Your Literary Ambitions Into Shape




January 29
Karen Karbo, Passions Into Paychecks: Make A Living Without A Brand




February 26
Bill Johnson, A Story Is A Promise: The Essential Elements of Storytelling



March 18
Pamela Hill Smith, For The Love of Research: How To Write Biography




April 15
Kevin Sampsell, The Book World: From Reader To Published Author




May 6
Heather Vogel Frederick, Much Ado About Middle Grade: Mastering Setting, Character & Plot




The Northwest Author Series 
Wilsonville Public Library
8200 SW Wilsonville Road
Wilsonville, OR  97070
503-682-2744

Sundays 3:30 p.m.
DIRECTIONS

The times that define us and the media we use to survive them

The times that define us are points where we can mark 'before' and 'after.'

The recent catastrophe at the Indiana State Fair reminds us of tragedies that occur due to human error, human neglect, and human arrogance -- race for profit and shortcut on safety. Then there's the apex of Nature and man-made, with Nature taking the stunning lead in almost every instance and leaving the human landscape devastated.

How does a community manage the chaos? How does a company manage the fall-out, whether they are liable or simply caught in unpredictable circumstances?

The entertainers before the stage collapse and the entertainers slated to go on next, but were pitched out due to the collapse, flew to Twitter and sent out messages that they were okay. It surfaces questions about what  response the associated businesses and sponsors made.

The PR spin will fly and fingers will point, but what would you do if you were the company that sponsored the main stage at this fair? Would you use social media to communicate, make yourself readily available to the news and broadcast media, donate large sums of money, or keep your head low until the dust settled?

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Interrupted internet access causes depression

People deprived of internet access feel upset and lonely according to a recent report on the Daily Mail.



What about people deprived of mothers, fathers and other family members who spend too much time online or on their phones?

For the past four years I served as a Director on the Clark County Fair Board. The second Tuesday of each month my daughter waved goodbye as I toodled off to board meetings. She didn't mind the time I invested, she loved the fair and experienced it herself through 4-H. She even took her Bolognese dog to the Washington State Fair where they won a blue ribbon.

Looking for next step, she became a founding member of the junior fair board. They're like a little start-up, raising funds before the fair and trying to figure out what they can add to the venue that no else is working on. My daughter's role was to create and post signs outside the barns of the day's events. For nine of those days she performed her duties without a co-hort who would make it fun.

She invited me to spend a day with her.

Yesterday, a Friday, I headed to Delfel Road on the outskirts of the county and landed square in the middle of the fair festivities.

Then my iPhone bleated.

Issue at work.

I bent my head over the oblong glass of my thin digital equipment. I tapped out a response. I made a call to clarify. I texted a few more times. I flipped through a few apps and responded to email. Closing in on noon, we stopped for a two-fer at the burger stand and the phone bleated like a new born goat.

By late afternoon, I learned a lesson that had nothing to do with local commerce, animal herdsmanship, fitting and showing, what to buy to have softer skin, or how to prepare quick family meals.

"I thought it would be fun to share the fair with you," complained my teenager. "But you spent the whole time looking at your phone."

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I realized she was right. I even had a kink in my neck.

We began our adventure not on the same page. She had wanted to buy a dream catcher, which we had done, but I thought she had already picked one out and just wanted to show it to me and have me buy it for her. What she really wanted was for the two of us to wander through every booth offering them for sale, discuss the merits of each, and then decide together which one to buy.

She didn't want a credit card, she wanted a day with mommy. And even at almost sixteen she enjoys calling me mommy. I thought taking care of a work issue would allow me to let go of the office and enjoy the day. Simple exchanges and assumptions did not define what her intent was, nor bring clarity to me of what role she wanted me to play.

If interrupted internet access causes depression, what are the results of an interrupted family?

Educate a girl, change the world

At last night’s Dining for Women event the table topic printed on narrow slips of green paper read:

“How would your life be different if you hadn’t been allowed to attend school?”

Education is such an ingrained part of our lives it was difficult to have any meaningful exchange on the ‘what if’ premise. What proved more tangible was the $7,000 the eclectic group of Vancouver, WASH. women have donated to various organizations across the globe during the past seven months

Most Dining for Women chapters meet in women’s homes, but this group is a powder keg of female enthusiasm, filling a large meeting hall and taking on the world’s ailments one fundraising dinner at a time.

They’re fun women, working women, retired women, kayaking women, artists, photographers, gardeners, golfers. They play ice hockey, weave baskets and create software for Fortune 500 companies. They're running women and women running for political office.

They love to:

• Bake
• Bike
• Cook
• Dance
• Eat
• Read
• Swim
• Travel
• Walk
• Write

They believe in giving.

They believe in education.

They believe in accountability and scrutinize finances and management of the organizations asking for support. You’d be surprised how far a Dining for Women dollar goes. There’s no fat, fluff, or golden fleece awards. The $7000 the Vancouver women have donated in the past seven months is part of a $1.15 million kitty that is changing the future of women around the globe.

They believe in standing up. And each month, one woman stands up and shares. She tells us what it would be like if we didn’t have an education, if we didn't have a safe place to live, if we didn't have enough to eat or basic choices that make us human beings.

The Vancouver women cry and laugh and celebrate how lucky they are to have the opportunity to write a check, donate online, or throw cash in the basket that makes it from their corner of the world to another.

Then in that corner, on the other side of the world, women "laugh and dance and sing" because of a handkerchief size fragment of hope that life will be better because someone shares.

Will educating women somewhere else change us?

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Prior post on Dining for Women: Can a good dinner change the world?

The August dinner raised money for Nurturing Minds in Africa, as shown in the video above. Nurturing Minds offers access to quality education in Tanzania with a particular emphasis on girls who are poor, marginalized, and at-risk of becoming involved in exploitative forms of child labor.

Dining For Women website.
Dining For Women Facebook

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Key to the internet? Being able to read

Looking up the wall on the first floor of the NEW Vancouver Community Library

The first key to the internet is literacy. What are you going to consume if you can't read? The community I live in holds a high value on literacy. It voted to increase taxes to support a new central library, and built it!

Sort of.

Here's what really happened — we voted three times. It almost didn't happen.

In 2004, the library received 56% yes votes. Not enough to pass the bond.

In 2005, the library received 59.4% yes votes. Not enough to pass, but enough NOT to give up.

In 2006, someone threw in $5 million of their own money to back the library's efforts. Another generous community member threw in premium property valued at $2 million to build on. Everyone crossed their fingers and another vote was cast. The results came incrementally closer, 63% yes votes.

THAT WAS ENOUGH.

The funds built a fabulous structure on the east side of town, the Cascade Park Community Library, and was the starter package for the main branch downtown.

Happy ending? Almost.

In 2009, the library district went from being conservative to ultra-conservative. Faced with the same economic downturn as the rest of the community, they eliminated 10% of the staff and the equivalent to one day a week of service.  The message was clear, we're good stewards of your investment. They also didn't give up.

Executive Director of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library, Bruce Ziegman says, "In the hopes of restoring the hours and improving our book (and other things like e-books, downloadable audio books and music, etc.) budget we ran an operational levy in 2010."

Yes, undaunted, the library went after a levy following 3 bond measure attempts. If successful a 50-year old structure would not only be replaced with a new, more useful, more relevant resource, but it would be stocked and staffed.

People read the ballot. People voted. Other people read the ballots to count them. The outcome of the election remained in doubt until every last mail-in and absentee ballot was tabulated. The local newspaper wrote about the election for a week. The tally teetered and tottered between pass-fail:

August 17  Library levy trailing, but margin 'razor' thin
August 18  Election update: Library levy fate unknown
August 19  Late ballots push levy to 400-plus vote edge
August 20  Library vote nearly a lock
August 22  Reflections on Tuesday's showdown

What happened? Literacy won.

Cascade Park Community Library

Beginning April 1, the library restored hours and started buying new reading and listening materials that had been promised during the campaign for the levy.

"Now we have new libraries in Cascade Park and downtown Vancouver that will be better stocked and serve our communities for decades to come," says Bruce Ziegman.

Fifty years into the future I'm not sure we'll need all that space for books. We'll probably be teaching classes at the library facility on how to repair your Kindle. We'll probably be checking out "Everything You Need to Read in Grade School" as an electronic device the size of your credit card that will project book holograms any place there's airspace.

Hopefully, we'll be consuming more books in whatever format we invent. For now, there's five floors of wi-fi, an in-house coffee shop, and miles and miles of words to, as the new library's interior details (pictured above), to dream, discover, contemplate, enjoy, question.

Of course, with all that wi-fi, the internet wins, too.

In the meantime, I'm happy to pay these taxes.


Photos by Kailynn via flickrSLiDR.

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Read more:
New library wows crowd | The Columbian
Library is open invitation to discovery | The Columbian

Can a good dinner change the world?

The path of our lives and our successes may be based more on the place where we are born then on our talent or skills. Dining for Women is organized around the concept that those of us born in places of opportunity can change the world when we share with those with no opportunity.

Once a month, women around the United States gather at tables and create a potluck of pre-packaged  or homemade dishes. The beverages run the gamut: water, coffee, herbal tea, wine. The table conversation isn't focused on jobs and careers so much, as shared experiences of family, friendships and neighborhoods.

The people the potluck invests in are the people most likely to change the course of their own family life, most likely to support their neighbors, and ultimately change their country.

Dining for Women invests in other women.

I attended a local chapter of Dining for Women last night. My entrance fee was an easy potluck dish: spinach salad with mandarin oranges, hydroponic tomatoes, and candied walnuts. The money I would have spent, had the dinner occurred in a nice restaurant, was instead donated to fund another woman's future.

In addition to the local Dining for Women gatherings, trips to these faraway places are organized to open our eyes in a hands-on way to the needs of others. Women who take these journeys return as project champions, bringing home the message that this concept is working. Keep dining. Keep donating.

A woman who sat at my table, Josie, took one of those journeys. She shared her experience traveling to Peru to learn about INMED, a program that rescues children. Another woman, Tina, took us on a virtual trip to Sri Lanka where we 'toured' the shelters of Emerge Global and learned how creating jewelry changes lives of abused girls.

Emerge Global supports Sri Lankan girls, ages 10–18, who have been removed from their homes due to abuse. To date, Emerge Global has transformed the lives of more than 170 girls who, despite tremendous obstacles, are now building houses, running businesses, and supporting other young women with the skills and resources they developed through Emerge. www.emergeglobal.org

The jewelry is sold around the world and can be viewed on etsy.

It's not welfare.

It's learning a trade. It's using what you have – hands and time, to create your own therapy while you wait to testify in court against your abuser.

Girls emerge when they stand up with courage to confront the family and communities who have physically or sexually abused them. Girls emerge when they embrace business practices by learning budgeting and banking skills, and learn how to save for education or a house. Girls emerge when they allow their creative spirit to awaken and spark their confidence, and discover they can change their world.

Sri Lankan girls have the right to believe in their own power. The woman who champions this message, is the founder of Emerge Global, Alia Whitney Johnson.

“Ultimately though, it’s about a girl. Just one. One human being." wrote Alia Whitney Johnson to Tina, last night's program presenter. "I took her hand when she cried and she took mine when I thought I’d break. And our story is far from over. But with a dedicated team, an ever improving curriculum, and more kilos of beads than I had ever imagined, we are slowly building a reality where she, and many others, can truly emerge into her own,” 

In six months, the local Dining for Women group has raised $6000. That money is dispersed to the far corners for good.

Yes, a potluck can change the world.

And just like the girls in Sri Lanka, you and I have a right to believe in our power.

Are you ready to emerge and change your circumstances, help your neighbors, and change your country?

What would it take for you to step out in courage, right now?

UPDATE on Vancouver, WASH. Dining for Women: Educate a girl, change the world.

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Connect with Emerge Global

• Follow on Twitter: @EmergeGlobal
• Join their Facebook Group
• View recently created jewelry: Flickr photostream

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Article from OregonianLive HERE.

Article from Columbian HERE.

Calendar

Are we creating a bridge or a fiasco?

"This is not a bridge project," began the Bridging the Gaps event. "This is a light rail project with some other things thrown in for political cover."

Saturday, the first sunny day of the season, an eager, albeit light, audience ambled into the auditorium at LifePoint Church. When attendees settled into their seats, the event launched with a non-edited approach to bridges, tolls, politicians, government entities and vendors.

Tri-Met was held up to scrutiny using Tom Sawyer-esque comparisons. Their participation was described as an enterprising boy chomping on a crunchy apple, while everyone else paints the fence, i.e., Tri-Met intends to pay for nothing on this project, including pieces planned for the their side of the border. Yes, Washington State's responsibility includes funding the connecting pieces inside Oregon. The project's funding was described as 'novel.'

Light rail received a bashing. Tom Hann, from We The People, noted, "As long as rail is part of it, it is never going to be a cost effective alternative." He raised up other options: update and repair the I-5 bridge, consider third, fourth and even fifth bridges. Additional river crossing points were pointed to as making sense for the long term. "They incorporate redundancy into a system" that will need more than two options when earthquakes occur.

Tolls were uncharacteristically embraced. "Everywhere else in the economy user fees--pay as you go--is the way the economy works." Speakers also were quick to note, that tolls only makes sense, and are only beneficial to consumers, when consumers have choices.

The audience clapped at the video “CRC: Project cost comparison,” featuring third bridge proponent David Madore. Madore's final video question, "Is the CRC Project sky high or what?" elicited audience chuckles.

Madore's second visual, a virtual rendering of a proposed 192nd Avenue Bridge, gave him the opportunity to dispel the anti-bridge label that the media has pegged him with. “I am for a 192nd Ave Bridge," he stated. He encouraged the audience to take action. "The solution is for us to get engaged. We cannot leave it to those who want to come in and only sell services. We are the customers. We need to participate in the solution." His solution proposed that private industry be tapped to build bridges, saying they build "much more effectively than government."

Joe Cortright, known for the Cortright report, talked about the cost of the project. "Closer to $10 Billion," and not the $3.8 to $3.9 Billion that’s been widely discussed. "The initial price, $3.9 Billion, is only realistic if you could presumably walk in and buy the bridge, or pay for it outright." His PowerPoint showed the CRC project is predicated on very large borrowing, on tolls, surcharges, fees to operate light rail, and the cost to correct critical choke points inside Oregon, such as those at the Rose Quarter.

A project that involves extreme complexity and must pass through the political hands of eight government agencies was boiled down to its simplest terms during an animated feature (embedded above). Children's voices combined with flying seagulls gave a birds eye view of the Columbia River and the two current bridges. The description of the light rail train traveling no faster than the cars stuck in track erupted in chuckles and claps from the audience.

While a sunny day burst with warmth and frenzied activity outside, a half dozen more speakers and one country singer engaged the group that sat in the dark auditorium. The not to be missed moment, was the numbers person. The longest spontaneous applause and loudest hoots came during the forensic auditor's presentation.

When was the last time an accountant made you want to stand up and clap?

Video of the event will be available mid-week on couv.com.

Editors Note: The author is employed at couv.com, a corporation owned by David Madore.

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Thursday, I'm a character!

On the eve of the first ever Pacific Northwest #140 Conference, I'm struck by all the friends I've met through social media.

Met as in real life.

Assumptions are made, that people who like to kibitz via computer connections rarely venture beyond their laundry ridden, messy bedrooms or dank basements.

Not true.

A world of fascinating, friendly, people with fresh viewpoints on a variety of topics have crossed paths with mine. There's my @whiffies friends, the #CouveCoolKids friends, and the random stranger who meets me and exclaims, "So, YOU'RE The Classic Carol.

Then they look at my legs.

Then we both laugh.

Not because of my legs, but because it's so much fun to connect, to see the smile behind the avatar, to have a face-to-face conversation. To be real.

It is not unusual for us to hug.

Thursday, I will be facilitating a fast-paced, 20 minute panel on Twitterdipity. This phrase was coined by Michelle Anderson. She blogged about it on ReadWriteWeb. I met Michelle at an event she posted on Twitter. I just showed up. She made me feel welcome.

Michelle, aka @mediachick, is part of our panel. Her Twitterdipity 'net' gathered Mary Rarick, @Mary_Rarick, who I met at a #CouveCoolKids coffee meetup. I tease Mary and say she stalked me, because after that meeting I had a LinkedIn connect request, a Facebook friends request, she liked my FB Fanpage, and she followed me on Twitter.

I felt very befriended.

The fourth person on our panel I met during the planning session for Thursday's event, Michael Perozzo. I met Micheal first on Twitter as himself @michaelperozzo.

Tomorrow, we're going to ask how many people in the audience met us, first in social media and second in real life. We think we'll see a plethora of hands extend toward the Vancouver Convention Center ceiling.

I hope to see you there. And I won't mind if you laugh and give me a hug and share your best Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIN, story.

Let's get real.

They call it social media for a reason.

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Michael Perozzo's post on Twitterdipity.
Michelle Anderson's post on Twitterdipity

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If you are on Twitter, the hashtag for this conference is #140ConfNW.

You can get tickets here: THEY'RE FREE.

If you don't know what that means read this conference information:

PRESS RELEASE: The focus of this conference is a large-scale community conversation about how social media is affecting our communities, our governments and our engagement.

This conference will feature over 65 speakers over the course of 40 presentations, including @TheClassicCarol, Carol Doane. It is the first time that a 140 Character Conference has come to the Pacific Northwest and the first time that one will have so many public-sector presentations. Already, the traffic on twitter is fun to watch with the #140ConfNW hashtag.

This conference will be Thursday, May 19th from 8 am-5 pm. Registration will begin at 7:00 am.
People can still obtain tickets to attend in person at Eventbrite

But more importantly, this event will be live-streamed over the internet for people can watch it in their homes, offices, and on their mobile phones. Today, we updated our conference website for specific information about how to “Watch It Live” at http://nw2011.140conf.com/watch-it-live

Should you throw your own goodbye party?

Yes!

Last night we packed the house at Niche Wine & Art to celebrate a long newspaper advertising career.

Mine.

There was someone from the county, the library, Washington State University, Clark College, HP, the school district, Uptown and Downtown Associations, landlords, community services, the city attorney's wife, oh, and my State Farm agent. Friends from work piled in from advertising, production, layout, the newsroom, and fabulous Columbian friends from the past dropped by.

People traveled from out-of-state! Portland advertising, PR and media people trucked in. (Full disclosure: out-of-state is 15 minutes away, 30 minutes in bad traffic :-)

Greetings came from London, Canada, Hawaii, and Texas.

 

AND a videographer attended and taped the festivities for a future Chris Martin Studios feature.
 
Me?
 
I took the high heels off about 9 pm, plopped on the Niche couch and savored what it feels like to be part of generous community.

Thank you everybody!!

I quit my job

Working is hard, quitting is exhausting. In the meantime, let's have a party.

Event Registration Online for Carol's Sip Wine & Savor a Goodbye Party powered by Eventbrite

Social Media Spotlight on Thank You's

Awesome feedback on Social Media For Writers

At the end of all great projects is a moment in the sun to bask in the glow of accomplishment. That is the fancy way of saying I HAD A BLAST, and forget the sun, this feedback is like a rocket to the moon.

Thanks again to the full house at the gallery and the 700+ SlideShare viewers in the first two days of loading the presentation online. I'd like to capture your feedback because it made me feel good, and all of us should be encouraged to step forward and share our expertise with our community.

Group hug :-)

Dec 4: Thank you for presenting valuable social media education this evening.You have helped me so much! Kathryn

Dec 5: Great presentation at @Angst last night. You rock! Ron

Dec 5: Thank you, for the invite to hear Carol  Doane. I usually take many notes, but tonight I arrived with no paper, no pencil. Carol gave us a recipe for successful communication, didn't she?  WOW!! Will we receive an email with address,  links? Thank you again. - Kathryn

Dec 5: Thanks again for pitching in to do this – terrific job. Carolyn

Dec 7: Thanks for the links, Carol. Your presentation on Saturday was full of great information presented in a way that made it easy to receive. I appreciate your energy and your expertise. All Best, Deb

Dec 7: Thanks for the info!! bob

Dec 7: Thank you for sharing your expertise and for doing this for free! I enjoyed my time there and got a real good feel for the local writers and what they are all about. Thanks for your time, Jeff

Dec 7: Haven't made time to join Twitter, but feel embarrassed that you thanked me before I'd thanked you! So I sent an e-mail to you, but it was rejected. So now I'm trying this--through your Blog. I know you'd prefer a Tweet, but haven't jumped in yet, and really want you to know how much I appreciated your talk! So this is the tweet I'd like to send: To Classic Carol: I am very grateful for your fun, comprehensive, inspiring intro to Social Media for Writers last Saturday in Vancouver. The friend I brought actually has a media project to work on and is very excited. Wow. Amazing. THANK YOU for sharing your time & know-how. Gratefully, Karla Joy

Then to top off the good vibes, I received the above message from SlideShare: Congrats! Your presentation 'Social Media for Writers' is showcased on the 'How-to & DIY' page on SlideShare.

I am now enjoying my 16-20 hours of 'fame' which is suggested on slide 60 of the presentation as noted below.

Social Media for Writers

View more presentations from Carol Doane.

It did not go unnoticed that all the hoopla gave me another fan on my Facebook page. Thanks, Annie.