Nice Portrait!

My work associate Lisa took this fantastic portrait of me sitting on the fire escape of our office in San Francisco's Mission District.

Note the eye makeup!

Above and Beyond the Call of Duty

This is the first job I've had that provides managers with a team of associate support staff. Everyone in our office is a non-profit management over-achiever and you really appreciate that drive when it comes to the associates.

I am accustomed to setting up for my meetings and then cleaning up after. The associates are just too quick. It is a strange feeling, when you've worked most of your career in non-profits and it is all hands on deck, to be asked for the third time if you need any more help.

Sometimes I think we go too far, having associates make "coffee runs" to the local Java Detour. Is this really a good use of expertise? What values are promoting? Can't we take ten minutes and go ourselves?

Well, I went one step too far when I asked Jessica, one of our associates, if she could check my teeth for offending matter prior to a meeting. She oh-so-seriously looked at my not-so-pearly-whites and pointed out areas that needed help. As soon as I reflected on what was going on I was of two minds. I trust Jessica and consider her a friend. This "pruning" I reserve only for my closest friends and would do the same for her. However, this was work and she was doing her best job to make me look good. Couldn't I have just taken five minutes to check my own teeth in the mirror?

I can see how absolute power can corrupt absolutely. I've been on the receiving end of these inappropriate requests and it certainly doesn't feel good. I pledge to stop the train and take care of my own dirty business. Or, happily check Jessica's teeth in exchange.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Berried Treasure of In-Kind Contributions

I'm contacting corporations to ask about t-shirt donations for the Mt. Baldy Fundraising Hike on October 25. This is like trying to find berried treasure!

Old Navy gave me their corporate line 1-800-old-navy. Funny thing is that I don't have a traditional keyboard on my crackberry. So, I've had to go to the internet, find a picture of a phone face and figure out the number which translates to 1.800.653.6289.

The helpful customer service person has guided me to Gap Inc's Social Responsibility page which has now guided me to an interesting non-profit called Gifts Inkind International which seems to connect non-profits with in-kind goods donated by corporations.

Hum, a fantastic organization but not exactly what I was looking to get. I'm more on the corporate sponsorship track. Back to the search.

Now I've typed in T-Shirt Donations into Google and found that Gap Inc does make donations of t-shirts. Unfortunately our timeline is too short, no surprise. They respond within six weeks.