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North Shore Bank cashes in on video teller technology
HOWARD – North Shore Bank installed the state's first drive-up ATM/remote video teller machine in Wisconsin at its Howard branch.
The machine allows customers to use the ATM in a normal way, or talk to a live teller at the company's headquarters in Brookfield who can do most of the things a teller in the branch office at Olsen's Piggly Wiggly could do, including accept deposits and dispense cash and coins. Notable exceptions include accepting coins or dispensing money orders or cashier's checks, though manufacturer NCR Corp. is working on that, said Susan Doyle, senior vice president of retail banking.
The machine was installed Friday. It replaces an older, larger terminal connected to the branch office inside the grocery store. It had a video connection to the Howard office, but everything had to be done by pneumatic tube. The tubes could take 45 seconds to one minute to get from car to office because of the distance, said Tavie Folk, assistant manager.
"It took all day for the tube to go from the outside to the inside," said Joe Anderson of Hobart, a regular customer who liked the new machine. "It's quite an upgrade. Is it hard to figure out? Not at all, and I'm a dinosaur."
Merry Justin, a teller based in Brookfield, speaks with Sue Doyle, a senior vice president with North Shore Bank, as they demonstrate some of the capabilities of the new drive-thru video teller machine at their location in Howard near the Piggly Wiggly on Tuesday.(Photo: Photos by Kyle Bursaw/Press-Gazette Media/@kbursaw)
Other benefits to customers include no need for deposit tickets or withdrawal slips, longer service hours and more actions that can be performed without leaving their car.
The machines are used in 39 states, Doyle said. The cost is a little more than $80,000 per unit, including software. North Shore installed its first video teller, a walk-up unit, in Kenosha. It plans to have eight in use by the end of 2015, including six in Green Bay and Appleton, one in Kenosha and one in Milwaukee. Some will be walk-up machines and some will be drive-ups.
"We've been looking at this technology for four years. We wanted certain technology before we deployed it to customers," she said.
Doyle said one teller in Brookfield will be able to provide service to multiple machines around the state. Shifts can be adjusted to peak periods and extra bodies don't need to be at each office. As a result, drive-up teller hours were increased from 54 per week to 70. Drive-up hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.
During a demonstration on Tuesday, the terminal experienced intermittent audio delays, but still was faster than the system it replaced. Doyle said cable upgrades are expected to resolve the delays. They are the kind of adjustments expected with the launch of new technology.
Merry Justin, the teller in Brookfield, looked up Doyle's accounts after verifying her identity from her driver's license, which Doyle held up to the terminal's camera. Doyle did not need her account number to make a deposit and withdrawal, but she could have chosen to enter it if that was her preference.
"I didn't have to do any slips or give her any account numbers," she said.
Sue Doyle, a senior vice president with North Shore Bank, demonstrates their new drive-thru video teller machine at the Howard location on Tuesday. (Photo: Kyle Bursaw/Press-Gazette Media/@kbursaw )
So far, transactions take about 2¼ to 2½ minutes. The number of transactions per customer are increasing, an indication they are getting comfortable, Doyle said.
For the first couple of weeks, a bank employee will be available at the drive-thru to assist customers who want help learning the new technology.
North Shore plans to open a new-model branch office in the Green Bay metro area in 2015 as well. It will include video conferencing that will allow customers to talk to subject experts, such as lenders, from other locations.
The bank plans an official introduction of the teller machine on Saturday.
North Shore Bank operates 47 office in Wisconsin and Illinois, including six in metro Green Bay. It has assets of more than $1.7 billion.
— rryman@greenbaypress gazette.com and follow him on Twitter @RichRymanPG or on Facebook at Richard Ryman-Press-Gazette. Contact him at (920) 431-8342.


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The S&P 500 is one of the oldest and most widely used market index for U.S. stocks. The index — which does change over time — consists of 500 large-cap stocks, chosen to provide a diversified profile of the U.S. stock market — and the U.S. economy. S&P 500 stocks must have a minimum market capitalization (currently $6.1 billion)
As such, the S&P 500 can be a good starting point for stock-picking. Most S&P 500 stocks have a long history of profitability and growth. Many, though not all, pay dividends (the index as a whole currently yields about 1.9%). The S&P 500 is made up of established, and often dominant, companies — exactly the kind of companies long-term investors should seek to own.
With the market not far off all-time highs, valuation is a question mark. But among the 500 issues, there's still value to be found. Here are 20 of the best S&P 500 stocks for the second half of 2018, all of which have a good chance of outperforming their high-powered peers.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Kraft Heinz (KHC)
I wrote last month about the unsurprising carnage in consumer stocks, and Kraft Heinz Co (NASDAQ:KHC) hasn't been immune. KHC has dropped 25% so far this year — a stunning decline for what is normally considered a relatively "safe" stock with volatility below that of the market as a whole.
And there are some concerns here. KHC still has a rather large debt load: over $30 billion in short-and long-term debt, more than four times the company's EBITDA. Q1 results showed a year-over-year decline in organic revenue, with adjusted EBITDA dropping 2.6%. Earnings did rise against Q1 2017, but only due to a lower tax rate.
Still, the sell-off looks like it has gone too far. KHC yields around 4.3%, attractive even in a time of rising Treasury yields. It trades at less than 15x forward earnings. That's a historically low multiple, and one cheaper than other, similarly struggling, large-cap consumer plays like Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG) and PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEP).
Kraft Heinz is facing significant challenges, and it's still not as safe as some investors might believe, but there's real value here as well. Even modestly improved performance going forward could lead to big upside for KHC.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Constellation Brands (STZ)
The primary concern when it comes to Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE:STZ, NYSE:STZ.B) is valuation. STZ has risen 318% over the past five years. It trades at 21x forward earnings — a big multiple given potential challenges to its beer brands like Corona and Modelo, and modest growth rates in the liquor space.
But from here, it looks like STZ simply has taken a breather. The stock actually is down 1% so far this year, one reason why I picked it to be one of the stocks that would turn from loser to winner this year. Longer-term, there's still potential benefits from the company's entrance into the marijuana space, and self-driving cars could benefit the liquor and beer businesses.
Again, STZ isn't cheap, but it shouldn't be, and hasn't been for a long time. With strong brands and potential industry tailwinds on the horizon, this looks like a case where investors are paying for quality.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Broadcom (AVGO)
Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO) has rebounded nicely since I recommended the stock back in late April. After the company's acquisition of Qualcomm, Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) was blocked by the U.S. government, investors seemed to forget that Broadcom had a valuable business of its own. AVGO shares were priced as if the company's organic growth was zero, or close to it.
Even with a 17% bounce, however, I think there's more upside to come in the second half of the year. AVGO still is cheaper than Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC), despite having stronger growth and lower exposure to the struggling PC space. A 2.7% yield looks attractive. And it's possible Broadcom could continue its M&A elsewhere — a strategy which has proven to be a long-term winner for the company.
With the chip space increasingly looking set for long-term growth, with tailwinds like automotive adoption and Internet of Things, owning a leader in the space seems like a good plan. Owning that leader at less than 13x forward earnings seems even better.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Applied Materials (AMAT)
Another option in the chip space is equipment maker Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT). AMAT shares fell 8% last month after a weak outlook for the company's fiscal third quarter. On this site, both Nicholas Chahine and Joseph Hargett argued the weakness was a buying opportunity — and I'm inclined the agree.
Indeed, investors already have started to buy the dip, with AMAT recovering close to half of those post-earnings losses. And it's not hard to see why. AMAT trades at just 11x forward earnings. Slowing smartphone growth is a concern, but Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has shown the space is stronger than some feared.
There are risks here if chips are going to slow down, given the leverage AMAT and rival Lam Research Corporation (NASDAQ:LRCX) have to semiconductor growth. But if that growth does pick up, that leverage should drive AMAT back to all-time highs above $60.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: United Parcel Service (UPS)
United Parcel Service, Inc. (NYSE:UPS) has had a surprisingly volatile 2018. The stock opened the year strong, climbing 13% in the first two weeks. And then the bottom fell out. Q4 earnings in late January raised fears of higher capital spending to improve the company's operations. Two weeks later, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) sent UPS and FedEx Corporation (NYSE:FDX) shares tumbling after it trialed its Shipping With Amazon service.
UPS wound up losing a quarter of its value in less than three months. But the stock has steadily rebounded, as investors have realized — rightly, in my opinion — that those fears were overwrought. I bought the dip myself, and I'm still happily long UPS. E-commerce presents a long-term tailwind. Amazon could be a fearsome competitor, but the market remains essentially an oligopoly for now, and market growth could make room for another entrant.
In the meantime, investors own an industry leader for less than 15x earnings and with a 3.1% dividend yield. It's a price that still incorporates many of the risks here, but very few of the rewards.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: 3M (MMM)
3M Co (NYSE:MMM) is another industry leader whose shares look simply too cheap. MMM has pulled back some 22% from late January highs, dogged by concerns about a trade war and cyclical factors in the industrial space.
But here, too, the decline looks simply too steep. MMM touched a 13-month low in early May before a very modest bounce. Growth has slowed, but remains nicely positive, and yet the stock trades at less than 18x forward EPS.
The risks here can't be completely dismissed, and even Wall Street is cautious, with the average target price suggesting barely 6% upside. But this looks like a case where the market is simply too worried — and is forgetting about the 116 years of success 3M has enjoyed so far.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: JP Morgan Chase (JPM)
Big bank stocks have stalled out this year, and that presents an opportunity in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM). JPM stock has pretty much stalled as well, but at $110, the stock sits modestly above support levels at $105 that have held repeatedly.
Meanwhile, 2018 earnings growth should be impressive, thanks to tax reform and higher interest rates. 2019 should show more gains from higher net interest margin as well. JPM's credit card business is performing well, including a big hit with its Sapphire Reserve card. And yet JPM trades at just 11x forward earnings, and a still-low 1.6x book value.
The big risk to JPM — and to the financial space as a whole — is a cyclical downturn in the economy. That's one reason why shares have been rattled by trade war concerns and the political upheaval in Italy, among other factors. But for investors willing to take that risk in the market as a whole, JPM looks like one of the more attractive options, and one of the two best large-cap financial stocks to buy.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Bank of America (BAC)
The other big bank stock that looks attractive is Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). And the case for BAC is somewhat similar to that of JPM. BAC, too, looks like it's too cheap, at 10x earnings and less than 1.3x book value. Higher rates will help its consumer business — which shows strong performance in terms of write-off and charge-offs.
Like JPM, BAC has had a choppy 2018 (the stock actually is down modestly so far this year, by less than 1%) — and like BAC, there's the potential for real gains here. The Street average target price suggests nearly 20% upside.
Combined with a 1.6% dividend yield that should climb over the next two years, and BAC too still looks like a solid, if more consumer-focused, financial play.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: The Cooper Companies (COO)
I've admittedly gone back and forth on contact lens manufacturer Cooper Companies Inc (NYSE:COO). Back in October, I called it one of the 10 most expensive S&P 500 stocks. I've been concerned about COO's valuation for some time, as much as of its gains have come from multiple expansion — not just earnings growth.
But COO has pulled back, dropping over 13% from early March levels and nearly 10% from when I called it expensive eight months ago. In the meantime, impressive growth has continued, with revenue rising 18% and non-GAAP EPS up 45% in the company's fiscal Q1. COO now trades at a much more reasonable 18x forward earnings — against figures that were as high as 22x-23x last year.
There are some risks here. Rival Bausch + Lomb, a division of Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), is showing better numbers as it attempts a turnaround. Cooper benefited from soft competition from both B+L and Novartis AG (ADR) (NYSE:NVS) — and that may be changing. B+L is improving, and Alcon could be spun off or sold next year.
Still, worldwide market growth has been solid, and long-term opportunities exist in developing markets. Cooper has nicely taken share over the years, making it No. 2 behind Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), and positioning itself for more share gains going forward. At 22x EPS, a lot of the good news looked priced in. At 18x, the story looks much more attractive.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Oracle (ORCL)
In a tech space that looks expensive, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) looks downright cheap. What's unclear at the moment is whether ORCL should look cheap.
As I wrote back in February, the argument over ORCL comes down to one question: is ORCL the next Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)? Or is the next IBM (NYSE:IBM)? Is there a turnaround on the horizon, as it catches up to peers, as Microsoft did? Or has tech simply moved away from the company, leading to a multi-year period where ORCL wanders in the wilderness, as IBM has for some time?
At the time, I recommended betting on ORCL. And even with the stock down another ~6% in large part due to a disappointing fiscal Q3 report, I still think that's the right play. It's too early to write off Oracle just yet – but the market, given a 14x forward EPS multiple, is starting to do just that.
It's possible that Oracle will be outmaneuvered in the cloud space. But at the moment, and at this valuation, I still think that's a risk worth taking.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Dollar General (DG)
There's no shortage of concerns when it comes to retailer Dollar General Corp. (NYSE:DG). The stock fell 8% after Q1 earnings in late May missed estimates on the top and bottom line. That performance in turn seemed in turn to support fears that more aggressive pricing from Walmart Inc (NYSE:WMT) could pressure sales for DG and peers like Dollar Tree, Inc. (NASDAQ:DLTR) and Big Lots, Inc. (NYSE:BIG). On this site, Josh Enomoto even made the case that the economy was too good for Dollar General.
All that said, DG is a premium retailer trading at under 14x earnings. Its role in many of its small-town markets is significant. The company sees room for thousands of additional stores, and earnings growth remains solid and same-store sales positive.
There are risks here, both in terms of sales and higher costs that could impact margins. But this is an established retailer with years of success behind it — and limited threat from e-commerce/omnichannel alternatives. Dollar General, one way or the other, should be able to grow earnings, and that alone suggests upside in DG stock going forward.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Pfizer (PFE)
Shares of Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) have been basically flat since October — which hardly sounds like impressive performance. But given the recent history of pharma and biotech stocks, flat isn't that bad. Of late, Mallinckrodt PLC (NYSE:MNK) and biotech Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG) have plunged, after stocks like Valeant and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (ADR) ADR (NYSE:TEVA) saw sharp declines in past years.
Given that history, investors would be forgiven for ignoring the space altogether. President Donald Trump has talked of lowering drug prices, and that pressure persists worldwide. Blockbuster drugs appear harder to find. Pfizer stock itself still trades below early 2000's peaks.
But there's a case for PFE at current levels — even if investors should keep their expectations low. Current multiples basically suggest Pfizer will post zero earnings growth. The company offers a 3.7% dividend yield as well. Even "muddling through" probably drives decent annual returns. For its part, Wall Street sees about 10% upside (not including that dividend), and it doesn't look like the Republican-led government is all that interested in really cracking down on manufacturers.
Again, Pfizer isn't a stock that's likely to make a torrid move. But at this price, it's a stock that can grind out above-market returns.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Goodyear (GT)
On the other side of the coin is Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co (NASDAQ:GT), likely the riskiest stock on the list. Indeed, one of the key near-term risks is the possibility of GT being moved out of the S&P 500 index, which would lead to much lower demand from funds and push GT's share price even lower.
That would be a big problem, given that GT already trades near its lowest levels in four years. And there are reasons for concern here. Volumes fell 2.5% in a disappointing first quarter. Higher oil prices led adjusted EPS to drop by nearly one-third. Chinese competition remains an issue, and long-term self-driving cars could be a negative for Goodyear, assuming technology leads to more carpooling and fewer miles driven.
That said, as Enomoto pointed out last month, the shift to SUVs and trucks represents a positive for Goodyear. Indeed, Q1 revenue rose despite the volume decline, thanks to higher pricing. GT now trades at just 6x forward earnings, a multiple that suggests earnings will decline for the foreseeable future.
Those declines may come, but they are getting awfully close to priced in. And so value investors might try and take the risk of timing the bottom in GT — and believing that the declines of the last four years are at or near an end.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Ford Motor Company (F)
Another cheap auto stock is Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) — and it, too, looks too cheap. Even after a recent rally, F trades at less than 8x forward earnings. And I continue to believe, as I argued last month, that investors haven't given enough credit to the company's recent strategic change.
The company's decision to pretty much end its manufacturing of cars in North America – save for the iconic Mustang — is a potential game-changer. Ford simply never found the formula to compete with Toyota Motor Corp (ADR) (NYSE:TM) or Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC) in that market segment. The decision will cut costs across the board — and also free up cash to support a dividend that still yields over 5%.
Admittedly, the shift does raise some risk, particularly for Ford's U.S. sales. If oil prices (and thus gas prices) rise, consumers could swing back toward smaller cars and leave Ford out in the cold. The "peak auto" concerns I detailed a year ago have to be considered as well. But a smaller, more nimble Ford should be a more profitable Ford. And that should be good news for Ford stock.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: McCormick (MKC)
McCormick & Co/SH SH NV (NYSE:MKC) has been one of the few stocks to escape the battering that grocery stocks and their suppliers have taken this year. MKC shares are down less than 1% so far this year — which, believe it or not, is one of the best performances in the entire industry.
With the stock back near a four-month low, there's a nice entry point here. MKC does have a good deal of debt from its acquisition of brands from Reckitt Benckiser (OTCMKTS:RBGLY) last year. And considering that debt in valuation, the stock's EV/EBITDA multiple is one of the highest in the CPG sector.
But McCormick generates a lot of cash, which should help reduce the debt — and in turn lower interest expense, helping free cash flow. The spices & seasonings category is one of the few growing areas in grocery, and demand from millennials is actually higher than that of their parents (unlike areas like cereal, soda, and cookies). I still think MKC is a matter of paying up for quality — one reason it's a pillar of my own portfolio. Near a 2018 low, MKC looks like a nice buy here.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Apache (APA)
Oil exploration play Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) largely has been left out of the rally in oil stocks. The stock actually is down nearly 7% so far this year — a surprise given the strength in oil prices. Fellow S&P 500 component Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) is up 29%, for instance, and majors like Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) and BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) have performed well, at least since February lows.
The underperformance so far makes APA look attractive heading into the second half of the year — particularly if oil prices cooperate. As an E&P pure play, it's a much better stock to buy on oil prices than XOM or its peers, who see drags from higher oil prices elsewhere in their businesses.
And with APA lagging a number of other E&P stocks, there's a case that it should catch up in the second half of the year — even if oil prices stay at current levels.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Delta (DAL)
Airline stocks like Delta Air Lines, Inc. (NYSE:DAL) have sputtered a bit this year. A strong economy should set up a solid summer travel season. But those rising oil prices have taken some of the sheen off DAL and peers like Southwest Airlines Co (NYSE:LUV).
There's still reason for optimism going forward, however. Travel spending is only set to rise. Capacity discipline seems intact across the industry. Developing nations should help demand for international travel.
And DAL stock remains one of the cheapest in its industry. Those reasons are why I called DAL a compelling buy back in April, and even a couple points higher I still believe that to be the case.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Alcoa (AA)
The Trump tariffs that have rattled markets do have a few potential beneficiaries – and aluminum producer Alcoa Corp (NYSE:AA) is one of them.
Yet AA stock still hasn't gotten much of a bump. Indeed, AA has dropped 7% so far this year. And it leaves one of the world's leading industrials looking awfully cheap. AA trades at just 11.5x forward earnings. The average analyst target price of $67 suggests roughly 35% upside from current levels.
There are cyclical concerns here, but higher pricing could go a long way to easing those concerns. And at the current price, investors seem to get some optionality from tariff help for something close to free.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: Adobe (ADBE)
In a hot tech space, Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) somewhat quietly has been one of the best performers. The stock has gained 77% over the past year — and 221% over the past three. And I don't think the run is at an end.
Revenue is expected to grow a whopping 20% this year. Margins are high and rising. The transition to cloud isn't just shifting revenue; it's growing the top line for Adobe (as has turned out to be the case for Microsoft, but on a broader scale). And Adobe's Experience Cloud is showing some success in the marketing space against entrenched rivals like Salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE:CRM) and Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL).
ADBE is far from cheap, at 34x next year's earnings. (The multiple does come down a bit when considering the company's net cash.) But given likely mid-teen earnings growth at least, that multiple will narrow quickly. And with the company possibly an acquisition target (Microsoft is a long-rumored suitor), there's still room for ADBE to post more gains even after its torrid run.
20 Best S&P 500 Stocks: CBS (CBS)
A messy legal battle at CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) has obscured a very attractive stock. Shari Redstone, daughter of Sumner Redstone, wants to merge CBS and Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIA, NASDAQ:VIAB) — both of which are controlled by the Redstone family. The CBS board is against the deal for a number of reasons, among them the fact that key Viacom networks like MTV and Comedy Central are struggling.
For now, the merger is off — but either way, CBS is too cheap. As I wrote after the Q1 report, CBS actually is benefiting from cord-cutting, not just surviving the trend as so many peers. While investors pay astronomical multiples for Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX), and talk up the streaming potential at Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS), CBS already is winning through its All Access platform and placement on MVPDs like Hulu and YouTube TV.
Despite that success — and a big Q1 — CBS trades at 8.5x earnings. The Viacom deal as structured probably isn't a great move, but it's not enough to justify that kind of discount to the media space, or a valuation that suggests CBS is headed for declines. Once the Viacom mess is settled — either way — investor attention will turn towards CBS' performance, earnings, and multiples. And that will likely lead the stock higher — with or without Viacom.
As of this writing, Vince Martin is long shares of McCormick & Co. and United Parcel Service. He has no positions in any other securities mentioned.

subset: commoncrawl


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- Decent health for both me and Kiddo.
- My new Evil[-ish] Day Job
- Editors and publishers who don't hate my stories and my writing.
- My warm cat.
- I can afford decent food.
This year, I donated the money I would've used to buy a traditional holiday dinner to the Oregon Food Bank. Instead of turkey and all the trimmings (and all the work and all the clean up…) we're only having our very favorite parts of the feast. Kiddo chose special French toast for breakfast, and pie; I chose whipped potatoes and gravy. With a side of Stove Top stuffing.
Yes, I said Stove Top. From a box. My gravy comes out of a jar.
I'm donating the time I would've spent cooking to my Kiddo.
And to the 49ers, but I'm sure Kiddo will appreciate it more. 🙂
Whatever you celebrate and however you do it, I hope you have a blast this weekend.
photo credit, "Pie Pi": krazydad / jbum via photopin cc


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My Spring 2012 course is well underway (into the second week), and going well. But, as I was putting up the latest assignments and resources for the class, it struck me: I'm defaulting to CLOSED!
Many of the materials that I'm using are coming from Heidi Ellis' course at Western New England University, and from other open, online sources. Yet, here I am, posting them in our Blackboard CMS, where only my students have access to them! And this really is a default action — it's just what I'm used to doing, so I've done it without thinking.
This is a somewhat minor at this point, since Heidi has already made these materials available. But, I'm starting to develop new exercises and assignments that others may want to use. And, just as I borrowed some of the course organization from Heidi's course, someone else might find my "remix" of her organization useful or inspiring.
So, I'm starting to think about where I want to post my course materials to make them open. (Licensing is not the issue, as I've been CC-licensing my course materials for years.) Unfortunately, our school is not good about giving faculty web space that they can easily edit for themselves (our default is Microsoft SharePoint.) But, we have our own departmental server, where we are hosting our departmental blog (acting as a planet), our Git and Subversion servers, and our Wiki. I have a vestigial web site there (that just redirects to my Sharepoint page), so I can probably press that into service as the home for the course.
It may take a bit more work, because it won't be the default. I'll have to move all the materials I've already posted and remember to post the new ones I'm writing to this more open location.
And, I'll have to work on making open my new default.
2 Responses to "Oh no! I'm defaulting to CLOSED!"
Recognizing this — huge insight. Admitting it and taking steps to do something different? Courage. This much self-awareness and self-correction is very, very, very hard to do, especially in the middle of a busy day.
Karl, you are my hero. This reminded me to write my meeting notes from today as blog posts. Thank you.
[…] languages that left me howling with laughter. Via Karl Wurst came an insightful blog post on defaulting to closed and Macneil Shonle's "Why I Will Randomly Assign Students in Group Projects." […]


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Thoughts on an ISIS propaganda video "The End of Sykes-Picot"
These days, I'm pretty sensitive to the idea of Islamic militants, given that Al-Shabab seems to be successfully killing people not a stones throw from where I live and work. Honestly, as much as it pains me to say, I'd be more than happy to see some American humvees rolling into Kenya's coast right now since the Kenyan government seems pretty useless when it comes to issues of security.
ISIS's crusade, however, lies far from here, though ISIS's successes could embolden Islamist groups elsewhere, though it's difficult for me to gauge how deep the connections are between Islamist groups.
The video, however, was quite interesting. The first thing that strikes me is that the presenter is Chilean, speaking American English, representing the international nature of ISIS itself. It is not a home grown ethnic Islamist movement, struggling for historical territory and self-determination. Like it's arch enemy Israel, it is an international movement of foreigners seeking to establish and ideological state in a foreign, based upon a self-created narrative of religious entitlement.
There are various scenes which show the host talking with other members of the group, who are clearly a hodge-podge of ethnicities and nationalities. The common language appears to be, in many cases, English, though at times it's hard to tell.
The production values, outside of the sound, are excellent. Most striking is the use of symbols. Throughout the video, the host walks through a number of symbolic points, starting at the border of Iraq and Syria itself, to symbols of border checkpoints, military patches and signs. The message is that ISIS is exposing these symbols as empty illusions, positioning itself as the harbingers of Islam in a corrupt and empty landscape.
What's interesting is that a young Chilean, likely raised in the US or Canada, is seen mocking much older and obviously local prisoners. He calls the Kurds Satan worshipers and mocks the Iraqi soldiers as cowards and fools.
So, how is ISIS, as an international terror group with roots in the West, any different from the corrupting Westerners they so hate? The video repeatedly appeals to Western sentiments that Sykes-Picot was the great destabilizing factor in the middle east, but it's unclear as to how ISIS provides an avenue of self-determination to the ethnic groups who were broken up or forced to tolerate one another. Does taking the borders away liberate Sunnis and Shiites? Does ISIS respect the right of self-determination for Kurds? Clearly not.
Check out the video. It's pretty surreal.
The Invasion of Iraq Began 10 Years Ago
The ending to Vietnam was easy to recognize. We have the iconic pictures of the last helicopter on it's way out to freedom to prove it. The end of WWII came with capitulations from Japan and Germany and a cessation of fighting.
If the media is to act as a guide, the end of the Iraq war (which was really an invasion) is not so clear. I would even speculate that most Americans think that the war is still on in full force. (To be charitable, they might not realize there's a difference between Iraq and Afghanistan.) Despite this perception, iCasualties, a web site which tracks deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan only reported one military death in 2012 and, so far, none in 2013.
The Iraq Body Count site, however, listed 355 civilian deaths last month. The question is, though, where does the war stop? I find it hard to believe that there weren't violent deaths previous to the entry of the Americans. A look at the listing of deaths lists attacks in markets and police stations, random roadside bombs.
Most troubling to me are the targeted killings of educators, University employees and academics. Though it may be unpopular to say so, there comes a point where we can't blame ourselves any longer. Reading this list, I'm thoroughly disgusted. Hate the Americans if you will, but the killing of teachers and kids is inexcusable.
There is no doubt that the war was a colossal waste of resources, begun under intentionally fabricated pretenses for reasons which still remain mysterious to me. I sincerely doubt Bush had the intellectual faculties to come up with it on his own. The blame for the war goes to people like Robert Zoellick, Francis Fukuyama and Paul Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld all members of the "Project for the New American Century," a group which pressured Clinton to invade.
The saddest part is that the war was massively expensive, we haven't really even begun to pay for most of it. The money came from low interest bonds. Of course, with inflation outpacing the interest rate on those bonds, we might not ever have to.
The Washington Post put it rather well:
In relative terms, the Iraq war has been fairly cheap by historical standards, costing about $120 billion a year or around one per cent of GDP, compared to 45 percent of GDP for World War II. In absolute terms, however, the Iraq war is the "second most expensive war" in American history after World War II. According to Hormats, it has been financed largely through the issuing of treasury bonds, 40 to 45 percent of which have been bought by foreigners
These treasury bonds were bought at rock bottom interest rates, I might add (again). To be honest, I get annoyed when liberals start screaming about how expensive the war was. Perhaps they don't know what a bond is but the absolute expense isn't the problem. The scary part is (as it states above) that the war, in relative terms to GDP, won't cost us hardly anything. This lack of financial pain just makes it easier for us to do it again in the future.
I wrote a couple of posts on Iraq back in 2009. A spatial analysis of the Iraq casualty data here, a time series analysis here and a movie here.
HRW did a great piece on torture and human rights abuses in Iraq.
I'll include the movie here for posterity:


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Our veg at home is grown vegan organic.
Now, I'm sure there's something psychological about this, but our home-grown food tastes 'clean'. Whenever I eat prepared/bought vegan food, it seems to give me a (bloated?) feeling, not really sure of how to describe it. Getting back to basic, simple, fresh food is cleansing in some difficult-to-define way.
Even if it is purely psychological, I don't care, it's all fun!


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Most of us have been asked if we've "Got Milk?". Some of us have been asked if we've "Got Game?". For the past few years I've often been asked if I've "Got Blog?" by people who have often heard me say, "I may not always be right but I seldom lack for an opinion". My answer to "Got Blog?" was usually, "hopefully some day". Well, that day has finally come. And now that I've Got Blog I hope I don't turn out to be like to proverbial dog who chased the car and then wondered what to do once he caught it.
The nature of my work for four decades required that I very carefully monitor, check and limit my public opinions, my points of view, and the public statements I wanted to make about a myriad of community issues. The political reality of working in the nonprofit sector meant that I was understandably severely limited about what I could say, how I could comment or ways in which I could advocate for issues, policies and the performance of the programs and organizations that are, or should be, the engines of progress in the nonprofit, government and business sectors of our community.
I welcome the chance to speak more freely now that I am retired. I look forward to expressing myself in this blog, through opinion pieces in print and electronic media, and through my community affairs show, The Phoenix File, which is broadcast on Radio Phoenix, one of the largest internet-based community radio stations in the country based in Phoenix and heard throughout the world.
This blog and my radio show are both called The Phoenix File and while some of the content of each may be shared with the other they will undoubtedly contain their own unique information.
The blog will be published periodically while the radio show will be broadcast Tuesdays at 6:30 pm beginning October 25. I invite my readers and listeners to offer their suggestions for topics and provide candid feedback on the content, subjects and positions expressed in both channels. Both will share the same mission: to create a forum for commentaries and conversations about the people and programs which positively impact the quality of life in the Valley of the Sun.
I look forward to making The Phoenix File as interactive as possible. After all, I may have some things to say but so might you. I hope this forum will provide you an opportunity to give voice to what is on your mind or in your heart when it comes to our community. Comments are invited – feedback is encouraged – and your opinions are welcome because the are just as important to be heard in the online public square as mine.
Please share this blog with others and encourage them to subscribe, follow and join in. I'm thrilled to finally be able to answer the question "Got Blog?" by saying – I do now and it's right here on The Phoenix File.
Stu Turgel
For more commentaries by Stu Turgel go to: https://thephoenixfile.net/commentaries/


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…. Sports Minister, Governor For Opening Ceremony
Both Rivers and Lagos states have expressed readiness to win the maiden edition of the Governor Wike Wrestling Championship, which kicked off at the main bowl of the prestigious Alfred Diete Spiff Sports Complex in Port Harcourt at the weekend.
This is just as the Minister of Youth Development and Sports; Barr Solomon Dalung will join Governor Nyesom Wike, alongside other dignitaries to declare the championship open on Monday, November 27, 2017.
Dalung will also unveil the logo and mascot for the African Wrestling Championship, which Rivers state is hosting in 2018.
Wrestling Head Coach, Rivers State Sports Council, Oyonomunude Eli in a chat with sports journalists expressed the readiness of the state's wrestlers to sweep all medals available in the championship.
According to him, Rivers is the home of wrestling and as such, they were adequately prepared to surmount their opponents and prove that they were not just hosting but ready to win in a free and fair contest.
He disclosed that Rivers was presenting 60 male and 30 female wrestlers in both freestyle and Greco-Roman events, adding that they were prepared to compete well.
Also speaking, the Secretary of Lagos State Wrestling Association, Somade Ganiat declared that they were not in Port Harcourt for mere participation but to cart away available gold medals.
She stressed that Lagos is the grassroots of wrestling in Nigeria and would prove same on the mats as the events unfold. She expressed satisfaction with the facilities at the venue, saying they were top class.
Meanwhile, Commonwealth gold medalist, Adekuoroye Odunayo has dropped the gauntlet, saying she is ready for any opposition at the championship.
While expressing satisfaction with the state of facilities provided for the championship, she stressed that the mats would do the talking against her opponents.
As at press time, 25 states and 5 wrestling clubs have been registered and cleared to participate in the championship.


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A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I have zero interest in virtual races. Why would I pay money for that? What's the point when I would just be by myself and unable to enjoy the race atmosphere? Can't I just go on a regular old training run?
I may have *slightly* changed my tune. I don't see myself running a virtual marathon any time soon (or ever), but maybe I'm down with virtual versions of smaller races after all.
My change of heart started when Rip It Events announced a Cinco de Mayo virtual 5K. I've been a proud ambassador for Rip It for several years, and I'm so sad to see their spring race season just disappear due to COVID-19. First they had to postpone the Clyde's 10K, then cancel both the Bear Triathlon and the Columbia Association Triathlon. (That last one really stings, personally. Last year's Columbia Association Tri was my first and only tri, and I was really looking forward to doing the super sprint again. Next year, I will be there!)
So to make up for these postponements and cancellations, Rip It owners Danny and Suzy decided to organize the Cinco de Mayo virtual run. It sold out so quickly that they pulled together a second virtual 5K, the Donut Worry Be Happy Virtual 5K Run to coincide with National Doughnut Day in June.
I registered for both, because as an ambassador I want to show my support. I figured that was probably it for me for virtual races.
But then I got an email from Get Pumped For Pets, a race that I was supposed to be running on May 3 on Kent Island. The original race had been scheduled for March 29, but when coronavirus started blowing up, the Seashore Striders optimistically rescheduled it for May 3. I figured they would end up either rescheduling it again or canceling it all together, and earlier this week, they decided to do the latter. They also decided to convert everyone to a virtual race and mail out finisher medals and T-shirts (which apparently have a special quarantine-themed logo on them, LOL) afterwards.
So, I'm already getting all the swag associated with that race, including a medal. I hate the idea of hanging up a medal (yes, I display every medal for every race I do) for a race I never ran. Therefore, I decided that I am going to race a virtual 15K on May 3. That way, I'll feel like I have actually earned the medal and the shirt!
And honestly? I've been struggling with feeling like I have nothing to look forward to. I'm normally a pretty upbeat person, but this is a challenging time for everyone, no matter your life circumstances. All of my races are canceled through at least the month of June. I can't go anywhere. Who knows if I'll be able to take my planned summer vacation. At least virtual races will give me something fun to plan for.
I doubt I'll be seeking out virtual races to sign up for, unless they are Rip It races (update as of April 27: I'm now also registered for Rip It's V5 Virtual Duathlon series! Check it out and sign up for one of four different distances), or unless my favorite A10 goes virtual this year. But I think if a race I'm signed up for automatically converts my registration to a virtual one, I might as well do it. If there's a deferment option, I'll take that instead, but if not — why not do the virtual race? This is our life for the foreseeable future.
Might as well make the best of it.
As a Rip It ambassador, I received free entry to these races and other Rip It races.


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Started the trip with the NSSC National Sporting Clay shoot.
Lots of fun.
Shot 20 & 28 gauges only – FITASC next year b/c sub gauge targets are getting too "normal" and boring.
Lots of 7 and 8 scores and I was pleased with my shooting.
Bobby Fowler & wife was on my 28g squad – interesting…..
0515AM depart from 168 into hurricane Patricia.
Huge downpour.
Side trip into Austin for Larrys guns.
1350 miles to Bowdle, SD.
10 am into OK.
Headed to Omaha to meet Steele Z.
Flint Hills and grasslands in Kansas are cool.
First good leaf colors south of Topeka.
Very pretty sunset drive through Nebraska.
Arrived in Omaha 8 pm. Long haul.
Ducks in sky in Omaha.
What a magnificent morning drive going north.
Sunrise from east throws long bright light and spotlights color trees.
SD freeway speed limit 80!
Finally see pond ducks in mid SD.
Road to Aberdeen is thru duck factory!
Reached Bowdle 3PM.
Bird Down Lodge
Jeremy Hoffman owner
The Lodge is the old hospital building. Restaurant is below. Several us of stayed in one of their rental houses – was easier and could keep dogs in kennel in garage.
I love the camp short bus and dog trailer – brilliant! He drove, offloaded with guns & dogs and then she took blockers down to the end of the strip. Probably doubled the number of walks we could make avoiding truck wrangling.
This guy has this down to a science. He's son of a local farmer and has a portion of family farm. Mostly farms for pheasant strips and since everyone around him harvests, he has the last and greatest habitat. He's a crop duster in the off season.
The camp short bus made our walks very easy. We had several guys above 70 yrs and they didn't miss a step the whole day. I hope I'm in as good a shape at that age as they are!
Jill & I made every walk. I tended to shoot mine early and then shoot backup or hold back and only take hard shots. Jill was magnificent as usual!
AM 4 roosters.
PM 2 roosters.
Bowdle SD pheasants.
Lots of runs down long windy rows of dying corn stalks.
Pheasant habitat management – this guy was excellent!
The Austin Woods & Waters Crew. These guys are a blast to hunt pheasants with!
AM 3 roosters
PP 5 roosters
A very cold (34), wet, windy morning. Jill still needed to cool off.
The chill was nice – for a while.
AM 6 roosters
PM 2 roosters
Travel to Mitchell SD to overnight on our way to Holt Creek Ringnecks in Atkinson Nebraska.
I invited Larry on the Chicken Hunt and he's traveling with me.
Surplus of corn. Shortage of storage and rail transport – primarily due to high oil prices.
Obligatory Mitchell, SD Cabela picture.
And again.
Arrived Mitchell, SD 2PM.
Larry said "Let's go see the Corn Palace".
Yeah, you should probably skip this. It's a very big building covered with corn on the cob.
Travel Mitchell, SD @ 12PM to Atkinson, NE Holt Creek Ringnecks & Prairie Chickens!
We needed another stop at Cabelas for bullets – imagine that!
Boyd County Court House where Larry had to get his NE hunting license. It's been far too many years since we could do that in TX. She even laminated Larry's and mine for us!
Arrived Holt Creek Ringnecks 3PM
Very big skies in NE sand hills.
We stayed in a very nice modern farm house on the ranch. This was looking out the front windows.
Betty, wife of Stan, was our hostess and made all our meals home cooked. It was delicious!
Smoky hot sunset in Nebraska.
You gotta love it when you're far enough away that the cell doesn't get service – I don't do this often enough!
They ran 800 BLM mustangs on grass pasture. They were forbidden from feeding or caring for them other than letting them eat grass. The grandson was our guide and I tried to get him to stampede or run them so I could hear what 800 thundering horses sounded like. He said, "Gram wouldn't like that." and that was the end of the discussion.
Short windmills!!
I was worried. It took ALL DAY to find birds.
Grandson Austin was our guide – great young man!
Our hunting method was bird dogging it in a Suburban back and forth across grass pastures (mostly smooth with hidden irrigation ditches!) until we glassed bird heads or they flushed.
Austin avoided the ditches today but will get busted later…..
Saw some chickens early but lost them – they fly very far – even when you bust them from the trees!
At this time of year, chickens are sparse and wary. They covey and hold in Sept but if you don't have a truck full of dogs, you'll never have enough dog power to find them due to late Summer heat.
We lost another group we were trying to sneak when a hawk came along mid-stalk and busted them all to hell and gone.
Lunch was soup & sandwiches by Betty – wonderful!
Took an early afternoon ride around with Stan and Austin. Stan told many cool stories about growing up out here. Fun but didn't see any birds……
Took a break and restarted around 430PM.
We found chickens working in and out of a corn field.
Cornfield was continually full of chickens. They were out far enough that you couldn't flush them or stalk them. Smart birds!
We sat & watched for a bit as they worked in and out. Finally, some circled close enough overhead for me to shoot at.
I jumped out and shot.
Prairie Chicken In Hand!
60 yards, 20ga w #5 Fiocci.
Excellent and I'm glad I practiced long shots and had a full choke!
Sunset Chicken Picture!
Confident, unflappable, tired bird dog w/ gun & 1st Chicken.
Larry on a stalk at sunset. Very spooky birds – no luck today.
What they really look like.
NE Prairie Chicken a Day 2
The time changed overnight and Jill was ready to go early!
Saw 7 coveys
Shot several times. Long shots!
Many great points from Jill.
Hard Points!
Prairie Chickens loafing in a field. Long zoom camera shot. We couldn't get very close without spooking them.
Very wary!
Larry shot a great double on the second flush. It was beautiful.
Great nap after lunch.
Proud retrieve!
Must taste & smell good – check out her ears!
Several a coveys after lunch. I shot a hen on a walk up flush. 40 yds. 20g full choke. Sweet!
NE Prairie Chickens Day 3
Great day
4 coveys
Missed 2 close birds to start the day
Team shot a monster rooster w Larry late morning.
Finally shot a late hen while jumping from the truck on the covey rise.
Jumped a last covey just at sunset. The Gide outran Larry and they bounced.
Great way to end a great hunt!
Depart Holt Creek Ringnecks 7am to Grand Isle NE to drop Larry at airport to return to Austin
Back on 281 South again.
Even saw chickens on high wires!
Depart Grand Isle 945 to Loveland CO.
Rocky Mountains in view!
Arrive Loveland CO 330
Sunset 430 p
Called guide. Has some ducks. He also has a bunch of Collared Doves!
Meet 5am for ducks w his dog.
Rockies are cool to see again.
1st day of duck hunting in CO
Nothing beats a great deke set and waiting for the ducks to come!
Gotta love those Rocky Mountain Mornings!
Am duck hunt
Shot 2 drakes and 1 mallard hen in 3 shots on a reed pond. Slow though.
I think it's too early to really be trying to hunt waterfowl in late Oct or early Nov.
Future hunts will be upland only and then chase waterfowl on a dedicated waterfowl trip
PM hunt
Dairy Farm for eurasian collared doves east of Lucerne CO.
Big storms rolling in while hunting collared doves in the afternoon
The shooting was excellent. I stood out in a cut corn field between dairy barns and roost trees. Plenty of high collared doves to pop.
Jill had a big workout with lots of birds and some tough corn stubble to navigate.
A very nice collection of collared doves.
Ended shooting right before the storm comes in.
20 birds on 3 boxes. Bonanza!
Jill did 20 tough retrieves in a couple hours. She's zonked!
It's always a good hunt when the dog is pooped.
I field cleaned all the birds wo water. That was nasty.
No water for cleaning collared doves. Yuck!
Just realized that today and these trips are really amazing. Amazing personal fulfillment. Peak like this in every area of your life!!
You should pick non-upland duck states and do fly in bad ass duck hunt every year in addition to 2 state 10 day bad ass upland driving hunt.
I'm sorry I didn't invite Todd. Do that every time.
Ducks and doves in the same day is pretty rare after early teal!
2nd day of CO Duck hunting
Different pond but very slow waiting for another north wind push.
Gadwall drake, buffleheads head drake, scotch double on 2 Redhead hens.
Good hunt!
Need to practice mounting SBE w coat and layers.
Missed 2 due to bad mounts.
Travel back home Day 1
Last night Jill discovered the dog on her blanket.
I heard her growling and staring at her blanket.
Turns out there were dogs woven into it – couldn't find a way to turn it so that dogs did not show!
She didn't like it very much but was tired enough to sleep on it anyway.
Depart Loveland to Denver to see JSeibly.
830 depart Denver.
10am Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs for Maxfield Parrish mural.
Reproduction since 2000. Smaller than expected. Still very nice.
Sparse trees South of Fountain CO are changing very pretty.
Herds of antelope near hwy outside Raton, NM towards Clayton, NM.
Target is Abilene. 6hrs from Clayton NM.
Arr Lubbock 730. Good enough.
Day 2 travel back home.
Depart Lubbock 6am.
Still raining at home. Can see big line of clouds to SE. Radar confirms.
Back under solid clouds just north of crossing I 20.
Just passed 131K on truck near Coleman.
Re topped 183 s from brown wood is nice! Too short.
I'm coming home to the wet winter I've been expecting.
Home by 1230
Checked the river first. Was very high.
Nice to be home again. Most excellent trip!


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Emotional Intelligence: Build Bonds Between Your Brand and the Customer
Though it does not pre-assign seats or provide onboard meals and at times has a lengthy wait and check in process, consumers year in and year out rank Southwest Airlines at the top or near the top of customer service.
Why is Southwest consistently near the top?
There are many reasons. The most significant being alignment of customer experience to both their brand and customer expectations; however, I believe a key component of Southwest success in customer service is the emotional intelligence of their employees.
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence is defined by four personality characteristics:
- A strong sense of self-empowerment and self regulation;
- A positive outlook;
- An awareness of feelings (both their own and customers); and
- A master of fear and anxiety and the ability to tap into selfless motives.
Each of these characteristics provide a clear benefit to the customer experience:
|Personality Characteristic
|Benefit to the Customer Experience
|Self-Empowerment and Regulation
|Make Decisions in the Moment
|Positive Outlook
|Constructive Responses to Challenges
|Awareness of Feelings
|Empathy and Better Communication with Customers
|Master of Fear/Anxiety and Selfless Motives
|Express Feelings of Empathy and Caring
Leading customer experience brands position the employee to constructively respond to challenges, make decisions in the moment, empathize with customers, and perhaps most important, not only feel but express feeling of care, concern and empathy to customers.
Much of the benefit of emotional intelligence is derived in "moments of truth" where some experiences in the customer journey have far greater importance than others. These moments of truth represent increased risk and opportunity to leave a lasting emotional impression on the customer; a lasting impression with significant long-term implications for both customer loyalty and wallet share. Perhaps the most common moment of truth is when something has gone wrong, the customer is unhappy or scared, and the relationship is at risk.
How do we build emotional intelligence?
First of all, emotional bonding cannot be scripted. Attempting to script such a connection will inevitably come off as hollow and insincere lacking authenticity and empathy, completely undermining the desired customer experience. Rather, emotional bonding must be a result of a spontaneous series of events that emerge from the emotional intelligence of employees.
The obvious starting point in building emotional intelligence is hiring frontline employees with the requisite emotional intelligence skills. Emotional intelligence can also be learned. However, it is a "soft" skill, unlike "hard" skills such as math; it can't be taught in structured sessions. Rather, emotional intelligence is learned like almost all other human behaviors primarily though observation, experience and imitation.
Four Steps to Build Emotional Intelligence
Give people meaning in their work: Inspire frontline employees with a purpose beyond a paycheck. This clarity of purpose should include both what they are supposed to do and why they are supposed to do it.
In empowering frontline employees to serve customers, brands should arm them with statements of general principles and values rather than scripted procedures, which undermine empowerment. Reinforce these principals often so in the instant, when they are in a moment of truth with a customer in need, they have an appropriate framework from which to resolve the issue – and bond the customer to the brand.
Most frontline employees want to help customers; however, their motivations may be varied. Leading customer experience brands allow their employees to discover their own motivations for looking out for the customer's best interests.
Create learning opportunities through experience: Humans are programmed to learn through self-discovery. Self-discovery reinforces the learning process by instilling a sense of accomplishment or pride. These positive feelings associated with self-discovery are a strong psychological reward, which reinforces the learning process. While self-discovery is not a top-down process, managers can foster self-discovery through feedback, encouraging employees to reflect on their own successes and failures, and anecdotes about other employees. Case studies are not just for MBA students.
Align customer experience systems and processes: It is imperative that systems and processes support the emotional skills desired from employees. Systems and process must constantly reinforce the overall message of emotional intelligence and emotionally connecting with customers. In empowering employees to respond to moments of truth, management must strike a balance between financial considerations and the things that matter to the customer. Good customer experiences are not good because they are good; they are good because they are profitable; however, there is no benefit to being penny wise and pound foolish. Finally, processes need to be streamlined to give employees both the time and ability to rise to the situation.
Enlist leaders and mentors: Emotions are learned through modeling. Children don't learn to react to certain stimuli just because a parent tells them what to feel. We learn how to react to certain situations through trial and error and observing role models. First, it is imperative that all managers and leadership model appropriate emotional skills. How can you expect emotional intelligence from the frontline if it doesn't exist in leadership? Second, identify employees with the appropriate emotional skills and position them as role models within the organization.
Key to success of any customer facing brand is alignment of the customer experience to both the brand promise and customer expectations. Most of time, this is not difficult. Appropriate systems procedures and even automated delivery channels can achieve this end. However, in moments of truth, where there is a high degree of risk associated with the outcome of the experience, leading customer experience brands rely on an emotionally intelligent frontline staff to align the experience and bond the customer to the brand.
5 Steps to Make Frontline Employees Authentic Representatives of the Brand
Actions speak louder than words. Brands spend millions of dollars on external messaging to define an emotional connection with the customer. However, when a customer perceives a disconnect between an employee representing the brand and external messaging, they almost certainly will experience brand ambiguity. The result severely undermines these investments; not only for the customer in question, but their entire social network. In today's increasing connected world, one bad experience could be shared hundreds if not thousands of times over.
Bottom line, frontline employees must be authentic representatives of the brand.
Simple enough, right? Nearly all rational managers will agree with the above statement. But how does management ensure that employees animate the brand? – It is a process of alignment.
Here are five steps to align the customer experience with external messaging:
- Align external messaging with customer expectations: Repeatedly test the effect of external messages on customer expectations. Ask yourself, what expectations are we instilling based on our messaging? Additionally, the next four steps will help ensure that operational staff fully understand and are equipped to handle these promises made to customers.
- Align customer expectations with company service standards: Even in the most sophisticated and progressive companies, standards of service delivery can be out of sync with customer needs and expectations. One reason is that customers are seldom involved in the writing of these standards. Rather, service standards tend to be the product of mid-management committees, resulting in a hodge-podge of ideas and opinions that are more a reflection of operational expediency than of customer expectations. A better practice is to calibrate service standards against customer needs, expectations and experiences.
- Align service standards with training content: Training should arise from standards, not vice versa. Bring training managers into the process from the beginning, ensuring that as standards are adjusted, training content will follow.
- Align training content with frontline execution: The success of most training programs is measured in terms of the participant's ability to recall the content, rather than to apply the information on the job. A more proactive practice is to identify specific deficiencies in service delivery and adjust training content to address those deficiencies.
- Align frontline execution with rewards and incentives: At the managerial level, incentives tend to be in the form of quarterly bonuses linked to metrics such as customer satisfaction and service execution scores. However, you can go farther. Depending on the data available, consider rewards on a much more immediate and shorter cycle. For example, on a daily basis, call centers agents can receive bonus points that are immediately redeemable at on-line redemption sites. Or a bank teller may receive an immediate reward if they display the appropriate behavior to a mystery shopper. Thus, employees receive quick, meaningful rewards that reinforce the specific skills that are needed to improve customer experiences.
These are five steps to align the customer experience with external messaging. How do you ensure your frontline employees are authentic representatives of the brand?
Opposite Sides of the Same Coin: One Word Descriptions of the Customer Experience In Experiences with Both Positive and Negative Purchase Intent
What one word would a customer use to describe the experience at your bank?
Would your customer experience be described as professional, knowledgeable or informative, or would it be described as frustrating, disappointing, inexperienced or rushed?
One simple and elegant tool to get a picture of your customer experience is to ask customers what one word they would use to describe the customer experience.
Kinesis recently mystery shopped six major North American banks to evaluate the state of the sales and service process at these institutions and identify potential drivers of purchase intent in the customer experience. Shoppers were asked a mixture of closed-ended questions to evaluate the presence or frequency of specific behaviors, and open-ended questions to gather the qualitative impressions of these behaviors on the shoppers – in short the how and why behind what the shopper felt. Part of this research plan was to ask shopper to describe their experience with one word. Finally, to provide a basis to evaluate the effectiveness of each of these brand attributes, shoppers were asked to rate their purchase intent as a result of the visit. This purchase intent rating was then used as a means of evaluating which attributes tend to be used to describe experiences with positive purchase intent compared to those with negative purchase intent.
The descriptions we received from mystery shoppers ranged from professional, knowledgeable, and informative to disappointing, frustrating and rushed. This list of adjectives alone was interesting; however, the purpose of this research was to identify drivers of purchase intent, in part to differentiate experiences with positive purchase intent compared to those with negative purchase intent.
So…how did the customer experience in mystery shops that reported positive purchase intent differ from those that reported negative purchase intent? –OR- Specifically, what adjectives did shoppers use to describe the experience that created positive purchase intent compared to those that created negative purchase intent?
Shoppers who reported purchase intent used the following adjectives to describe the experience.
From this word cloud the drivers of positive purchase intent can be deduced. Potential bank customers respond to bankers who are professional, informative, knowledgeable, friendly, pleasant, helpful and attentive. What customers want is a banker who cares about their needs and has the ability to meet those needs.
Conversely, shoppers who reported negative purchase intent as a result of the customer experience used the following adjectives to describe the customer experience.
In comparison to the shops with positive purchase intent, the list of adjectives that describe shops with negative purchase intent is a little more nuanced. Adjectives like frustrating and disappointing are illuminative but not necessarily actionable; while adjectives such as rushed, inexperienced, indifferent, and pushy provide clear direction with respect to elements of the customer experience that undercut purchase intent.
Bottom line: Customers want to do business with bankers who care about their needs and have the ability to satisfy those needs, and reject bankers who are inexperienced, indifferent, pushy or rush the customer through the transaction.
|Two Sides of The Same Coin
|Positive Purchase Intent
|Negative Purchase Intent
Informative/ Knowledgeable
When you look at these adjectives side by side, aren't these opposite sides of the same coin?
Not All Service Attributes Are Equal: Retail Bank Transaction Drivers of Loyalty
Research has determined the business attribute with the highest correlation to profitability is customer loyalty. Customer loyalty lowers sales and acquisition costs per customer by amortizing these costs across a longer lifetime – leading to some extraordinary financial results. In one study of the retail banking industry, a 5% increase in customer loyalty translated into an 85% increase in profits.[1]
Customer loyalty is driven by the entire relationship with bank. Image, positioning, products, price and service all mix together in the customer's' value equation as customers make a continual decision to remain loyal.
What customer service attributes drive customer loyalty?
This article summarizes research into specific transaction service attributes with the intent of identifying which transaction attributes drive customer loyalty, and provides an analytical tool to help managers determine which attributes will yield the highest potential for ROI in terms of improving customer loyalty.
In order to determine transaction attributes which drive customer loyalty, Kinesis surveyed bank customers who had recently conducted a transaction at a branch.
With respect to the transaction, customers were asked to rate the following service attributes:
- Professional dress
- Branch cleanliness
- Prompt greeting
- Greeting made customer feel welcome
- Dependable and accurate
- Prompt service
- Willingness to help
- Job knowledge
- Interest in helping
- Best interests in mind
- Actively listened to needs
- Ability of bank personnel to help achieve financial needs
- Desire of bank personnel to help customers achieve financial goals
- Commitment to community
The next step in the research is to capture a measurement of loyalty against which to compare these attributes.
Measuring customer loyalty in the context of a survey is difficult. Surveys best measure attitudes and perceptions. Loyalty is a behavior based on rational decisions customers make continually through the lifecycle of their relationship with the bank. Survey researchers therefore need to find a proxy measurement to determine customer loyalty. A researcher might measure customer tenure under the assumption that length of relationship predicts loyalty. However, customer tenure is a poor proxy. A customer with a long tenure may leave the bank, or a new customer may be very satisfied and highly loyal.
Measuring customer loyalty in the context of a survey is difficult. Surveys best measure attitudes and perceptions. Loyalty is a behavior based on rational decisions customers make continually through the lifecycle of their relationship with the bank. Survey researchers therefore need to find a proxy measurement to determine customer loyalty. A researcher might measure customer tenure under the assumption that length of relationship predicts loyalty. However, customer tenure is a poor proxy. A customer with a long tenure may leave the bank, or a new customer may be very satisfied and highly loyal.
Kinesis proposes a model for estimating customer loyalty based on two measurements: likelihood of referral and customer advocacy. Likelihood of referral captures a measurement of the customer's likelihood to refer the bank to friend, relative or colleague. It stands to reason, if one is going to refer others to the bank, they will remain loyal as well. Because customers who are promoters of the bank are putting their reputational risk on the line, this willingness to put their reputational risk on the line is founded on a feeling of loyalty and trust. This concept of trust is perhaps more evident in the second measurement,: customer advocacy. Customer advocacy is captured by measuring agreement with the following statement: "My bank cares about me, not just the bottom line." Customers who agree with this statement trust the bank to do right by them, and not subjugate their best interests to profits. Customers who trust their bank to do the right thing are more likely to remain loyal.
Kinesis uses likelihood of referral, hereafter labeled "Promoter," and customer advocacy, hereafter labeled "Trust," to calculate an estimate of the customer's loyalty. Imagine a plot where each customer's Promoter score is plotted along one axis and the Trust score plotted along the other. Using this plot we can calculate the linear distance between the perfect state of the highest possible Trust and Promoter ratings. This distance yields a loyalty estimate for each customer, where the lower the value, the higher the estimate of loyalty – low values are good.[i]
See Using Promoter and Trust Measurements to Calculate a Customer Loyalty Index for a complete description of this methodology.
Calculating a loyalty index has value, but limited utility. A loyalty index alone does not give management much direction upon which to take action. One strategy to increase the actionably of the research is to use this index as a means to identify the service attributes that drive customer loyalty. Not all service attributes are equal; some play a larger role than others in driving customer loyalty.
So…how does the research determine an attribute's role or relationship to customer loyalty? One tool is to capture satisfaction ratings of specific service attributes and determine their correlation to the loyalty statistic. The Pearson correlation coefficient is a measure of the strength of a linear association between two variables.
Comparing the correlation of the above service attributes to this loyalty estimate yields the following Pearson Correlation for each attribute:
Pearson Coefficient
|Want to help me achieve financial goals
|Commitment to community
|Ability to help achieve financial goals
|Best interests in mind
|Greeting made customer feel welcome
|Interested in helping
|Willing to help
|Prompt service
|Actively listened to needs
|Prompt greeting
|Dependable and accurate
|Professional dress
|Knew job Job knowledge
|Branch attractive
|Branch clean
Note the Pearson values are negative; the loyalty estimate is an inverse, where lower values indicate a stronger estimate of loyalty. As a result the stronger negative correlation translates into a correlation to our estimate of loyalty.
The four attributes with the highest correlation to loyalty are:
- Want to help me achieve financial goals,
- Commitment to community,
- Ability to help achieve financial goals, and
- Having my best interests in mind.
Two common themes in the top-four attributes are empathy and competence. Bank customers value relationships with banks that care about their needs and have the ability to satisfy those needs. Again, customer loyalty is driven by the entire relationship with bank. However, in terms of transactional service, customers clearly value empathy and competency and will reward banks who deliver on these two attributes with loyalty.
[i] The mathematical equation for this distance is as follows:
T = Trust rating
P = Promoter rating
ST = Number of points on the Trust scale
SP = Number of points on the Promoter scale
[1] Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger The Service Profit Chain, 1997, New York: The Free Press, p 21
Training Takes Over When Customer Service Gene Fails
Author: Peter Gurney
Reprinted from the Puget Sound Business Journal
February, 2002
A subject of perennial debate among those who manage customer service workers is whether good service skills are innate or trainable – a Nature versus Nurture argument.
On the Nature side are those who claim the key to providing good service lies in the hiring process. They interview, test and screen applicants to make sure they hire only those with the right instincts and attitudes. They scour the labor market looking for those Jeeves types who possess what P.G. Wodehouse referred to as "the proper feudal spirit."
On the Nurture side are those who believe good service skills can be developed through training, coaching, clear standards and consistent measurement. They are willing to hire the Eliza Doolittles, hoping they can make a lady out of a flower girl.
I have seen both approaches succeed (and fail), but the nature approach is becoming less tenable with time.
It isn't that workers with the right instincts are disappearing. The problem is there is far more service choices available to consumers than there was in the past. Expanded store hours, the proliferation of retail and restaurant chains, and the extraordinary growth of 24-hour call centers all contribute to an economy in which customer service workers are in high demand.
As the competition for these workers has increased, the talent pool has been diluted. Companies nowadays rarely have the luxury of looking for Jeeves, so they must invest in the education of Eliza.
Many organizations provided exemplary service through the nurture approach for a while, but few are able to keep it up for long. As they expand into new markets, opened up bigger call centers and faced periodic labor shortages, their ability to rely on hiring "the right people" became more difficult to sustain.
Without a system in place for developing the not-so-right people, service quality declines. In many cases, companies who worked hard to differentiate themselves on the basis of superior service find themselves unable to maintain their reputation in the long run.
Consider Eagle Hardware, the local home improvement retailer that was acquired by Lowe's several years ago. In its first years the service at Eagle was head and shoulders above the competition. Positioning itself as a kinder and gentler Home Depot, Eagle provided exceptional service quality, with well-informed, helpful floor staff who took the initiative to approach customers and answer their questions. Encouraged by its success, Eagle expanded rapidly; however, as the the competition for service personnel increased service quality started to fall.
One manager confided he had switched from being highly selective in his hiring to simply looking for "warm bodies" to fill his staffing needs. In fairness, the service at Eagle remained fairly good relative to many other chains; however, the expectations of its customers were higher, and thus, their disappointment greater when service declined.
This is not to suggest managers should give up their search for the proper feudal spirit. At the least, they should continue screening out those who utterly lack the instinct for providing good service.
There is no doubt many prospective hires are hopeless as customer service providers, and would do better looking for some other line of work. But it is the in-between service workers, those who are neither "naturals" nor hopeless cases, for whom better systems need to be developed.
Consider the following scenario: Several years ago a video rental store, part of a national chain, set up shop in my Seattle neighborhood. The staff – all teenagers – were every customer's nightmare. They talked on the phone with friends, were thoroughly uninformed about the video selection, and treated customers as annoyances who interfered with their personal conversations.
After a year or two the store closed, lying vacant for several months before reopening under the management of another national chain. The service at the new store was excellent. Customers were greeted at the door, the employees were attentive and polite, and the manager – a real, live adult – was always present. Looking at the employees, I thought they seemed vaguely familiar, then realized several of them were the same hopeless cases who worked at the original store. The flower girls had returned as ladies.
This is not an isolated case. Many businesses with vastly different levels of service exist virtually side-by-side, drawing from the same labor pool. Interviews with workers and managers reveal consistent patterns among the superior service providers: Lots of training and coaching, clear standards, plenty of feedback, and high expectations. Those workers with the proper feudal spirit tend to emerge as stand-outs and role models. The rest of the staff – the majority – are exactly as good as the system and processes that support them. When the system is well designed and administered it can survive expansion and tight labor markets – even without the assistance of nature.


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The holidays are nearly upon us!
Shortly we start that Rocket Slide toward year's end…a rapid countdown, for sure.
In the spirit of a countdown, this month's articles all have numbers as part of their headlines, so you can come away with some actionable points you can use.
Not every idea will work for you business, but these 32 "out-of-the-box" notions just might give you some other ideas about how to grow your Facebook page. Be Creative! Try new stuff…..
Who doesn't want / need to dig in and find out more about The Competition? You'd like to discover what they're doing that you can use to inform your marketing and product development, but you can't afford a research agency to do it for you! Well, here are 4 tools that you can leverage to help you get a clearer view of what "the other guy" has going on!
It is JUST AS IMPORTANT to know what NOT to do with any given set of tools as it is to know WHAT to do! Google Analytics is an enormously powerful tool for understanding what's going on with your web site and audience. However, it is very easy to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data and choices for viewing it, apart from understanding what it means. Let's start by mapping out 10 ways you shouldn't be using it…it will help focus on the helpful uses as you go.
So, up to 90% of a customer's initial judgment of a product is based on color. Taking that information to heart, these 40 bits of information about color psychology can inform your website development so you can hold onto the attention of your visitors, which is the commodity of the Internet…..
I get it…I really do. The very word "consultant" sends shivers through your checkbook. There seem to be a lot of folks out there who say they know how to get the Internet to work for you, especially that "black magic" social media bit. You even willing to consider hiring someone to help you put together a strategy and plan, fi you only knew that you would see some results AND it didn't bankrupt you! Well, first off, read this article. It will help you put together the right kind of reasoning to engage a digital marketing consultant (BTW, that's what I do!). Then, make your decision and go for it!
One of the big challenges in running a business, especially if things are going well, is staying innovative and coming up with ideas for improvements and changes that will grow the business and address the challenges your customers have with solutions FROM YOU! Each of us has a different way of working through this, but bringing together the best to create something relevant and worthwhile has proven successful over time. Here's a way of approaching it….


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Review: Bulgari Hotel Shanghai
Set the scene.
Cross the Suzhou Creek, pass beneath the grand gateway that leads from the street to the old Chamber of Commerce building, through what appears to be a Roman triumphal arch, and into a gleaming 21st-century tower of steel and glass, brass and marble and bronze, all Bulgari-styled within an inch of its life. If you were not in Rome a moment ago, you are now, or as close as you can be, considering this is, after all, Shanghai. Feeling dizzy or disoriented? Take a seat, a restorative Negroni is on the way.
What's the story?
For a resolutely Roman jewelry and luxury goods brand, Bulgari has proved exceptionally portable, with goodness knows how many hundreds of boutiques and concessions around the world these days. And six hotels to boot. This latest addition does not exactly mark a radical departure from those that came before it, but, like them, it does adapt to local conditions well and tailor the typically hard-edged, dark, woody, and rather masculine Bulgari-hotel aesthetic (Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel once again) accordingly.
What can we expect from our room?
They're all about the views, which are, by and large, sensational. The Shanghai skyline, particularly—though not only—by night, is among the most dramatic in the world. Because of the shape and orientation of the building, however, there are a few duds. So be sure to ask for a room with a view across the Huangpu River to Pudong. It will cost you dearly, but it (the view, that is, not the bill) will probably be the thing you remember longest after your visit.
How about the food and drink?
You may quibble with the imported design sensibility. You would be mad, though, to quibble with the imported kitchen know-how. Whether you are nibbling a chocolate in the in-house sweet shop, lapping up a gelato on the terrace, snacking with an aperitivo in the bar, or feasting like a god in the restaurant, the Italian food here is the best in town. Even if you are not staying at the hotel, come for drinks and dinner.
Anything to say about the service?
Notably warm, enthusiastic, personalized, and respectful—a winning combination.
Who comes here?
First and foremost, the tribe of Bulgari. Lovers of the great Roman jewelry brand will see their own enthusiasms (and possibly their own jewelry) reflected at every turn and on every wall, for the place is practically covered with charming old advertising material—prints, photographs, and posters celebrating their particular version, colorful and carat-heavy, of la dolce vita.
What's the neighborhood scene like?
The location is extremely interesting, as well as convenient. This section of the Suzhou Creek used to be a largely industrial neighborhood and, though it is changing quickly now, it retains some of the texture and tone of old Shanghai. Lots of hotels have sprung up in and around Shanghai recently—Capella, Edition, Middle House, and Amanyangyun—so there's a lot of competition.
Anything you'd change?
Doubt it could be changed but would certainly like to ask Lord Foster, whose architectural firm was responsible for the main tower, why exactly they needed quite so many bits of steel running both horizontally and vertically across some of the upper-floor windows. I suppose he would say "to prevent the building from falling down" or something along those lines. But it seems a shame that, here and there, those splendid views have been partially obscured in this way.
And anything we missed?
The pool is a marvel. Natural light has been somehow directed down into the basement, to cast the pool in a gorgeous and serene emerald-green glow.
Is it worth it— why?
If you like your views as big and sparkly as your jewelry, then it is definitely worth it.
All listings featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. If you book something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.


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From 2010–2013 to 2014–2017, the percentage of emergency department (ED) visits for acute viral upper respiratory tract infection that had an antimicrobial given or prescribed, hereafter referred to as ED visits, decreased from 23.4% to 17.6%.
A decline was also seen for ED visits by children, decreasing from 17.9% to 10.1%, but a decline was not seen for ED visits by adults. In both periods, the percentage of ED visits by adults was higher than the percentage of ED visits by children.
Source: National Center for Health Statistics. National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, 2010–2017. ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Datasets/NHAMCS.


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Facebook, welcome to Vancouver! Vancouver Film School (VFS) has some great facilities, as you can all see, wish I could have been there. Sadly I missed out, my "2 yr old" is a bit sickly but I managed to catch it via miss604.com's blog – Rebecca Bolwitt does a great job of covering local happenings. if you are in the local tech community and have not added this RSS feed to your reader you are missing out.
If anything else, Facebook is driving development, more so I think than others that have walked this path before, Google comes to mind. This is feeling somewhat reminiscent of the pre-bubble and dot com bust nearly 10 years ago. The excitement has been revived, I just hope there is money at the end of that rainbow. If anything else Facebook applications can be a great marketing platform for the real money apps.


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"Looking back, my life seems like one long obstacle race, with me as the chief obstacle." ~ by Jack Paar
Sometimes, although I am fully aware of what I excel in, I second guess myself. I then realise that ultimately if I'm comfortable with myself and stopped doubting all my decisions, I am allowing myself a way to make mistakes, learn, and become better everyday. That's the beauty of self-reflection and the ability to learn from "looking back".
Have a great week ahead!


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Donbocso Tiruchy in Chrome with OffiDocs
Donbocso Tiruchy Chrome web store extension
Run the Chrome online web store extension Donbocso Tiruchy using OffiDocs Chromium online.We, the Salesians of Don Bosco, formally known as the Society of St Francis of Sales, are recognised in the Church as a clerical religious institute of pontifical right, "dedicated to apostolic works".
We are a Religious Congregation of men devoted to apostolic and missionary activity and to the many different works inspired by Christian charity, but especially the service of young people, in particular those who are poorer and disadvantaged.
The Province of Annai Velankanni was canonically erected on 5 August 1999. As of now, it comprises of 22 civil districts in the southern part of the state of Tamilnadu.
Territorially, there are 12 Latin dioceses and they are Coimbatore, Dindigul, Kottar, Kuzhithurai, Kumbakonam, Madurai, Palayamkottai, Salem, Sivagangai, Thanjavur, Tiruchirapalli and Tuticorin.
The Latin diocese of Trivandrum has few presences in the state of Tamilnadu which are located within the territory of the Province.
There are three dioceses belonging to the Syrian Rite; two of Malabar and one of Malankara.
Don Bosco Media is a centre for art, media, and communication in the Salesian Province of Trichy in Tamil Nadu.
In a short span of time, it has emerged as one of the leading media centers in Tamil Nadu with the motto; 'communicate to educate, empower, employ and entertain'.
The centre is registered as a society under Tamil Nadu registration Act 1975. DB media functions with four independent operational wings.
Don Bosco Institute of Information & Communication Excellence (DBIICE) is an educational wing of Don Bosco Media.
More than 500 students have passed out of this Institute in the past few years.
We offer Short term and Long term courses in Multimedia, 2D Animation, Photography, Sound Engineering, Web designing and Mobile App Development.
Don Bosco Media is the production department.
We produce documentaries and short films on social, cultural, educational and religious themes.
We also produce promotional ads, films, short films, TV programs portfolio, albums, paintings, event management, product shoot, virtual gallery, choreography, make-up, brochures, books, music, jingles, marketing, and photography.
Alaihal ('sound waves in tamil'), Media Clubs are designed to develop in young minds greater awareness, analysis and participation in media.
There are 20 clubs with 20 members each right now and more clubs are being formed in various schools and colleges in South Tamilnadu.
Alaihal Media Books is the publication wing of the society.
Though many books have been published in the past, the society has published more than 15 books in the past two years with ISBN.
We concentrate specially on Media Education.
Additional Information:
- Offered by donboscomedia
- Average rating : 5 stars (loved it)
Donbocso Tiruchy web extension integrated with the OffiDocs Chromium online


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In August 2016, Pesa showed the first visualizations of the upcoming successor of its ELF platform for EMUs, logically named 'ELF 2'. Koleje Śląskie, the launching customer, ordered 13 units in total in three different configurations, and has already decided to use its option to raise this number to 20. On 23th of April, the designated 21WEa-001 (3-car) completed its maiden run on the route Bydgoszcz – Warlubie – Bydgoszcz.
21WEa-001 is first ELF 2 train, to be delivered to Koleje Śląskie (KŚ). New 2-, 3- and 4-car EMUs) will join the KŚ fleet that now comprises of, among other type, six 6-car 27WEb and nine 4-car 22WE trains, both based on the first ELF platform. The new trains will replace EN57 EMUs, that are currently being hire from PolRegio. Pesa has 30 months to complete delivery of the ELF 2's to KŚ.
Currently, homologation tests with the ELF 2 are to start at Cracow's rail Institute. After that, the test program will continue at Żmigrod's test center (dynamic trials). In June 2017, 21WEa-001 will be handed over to KŚ. Meanwhile, Pesa has found three customers for the ELF 2: voivodeship Podkarpackie has 7 units on order, and Wielkopolskie recently ordered ten.


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Ever wonder how to make that perfect chocolate dipped strawberries you see at your local chocolatier? This is such a fun activity for you and any loved ones in your life!
These chocolate dipped strawberries are amazing and incredibly easy to make at home! Pete uses spades that you can find at your local hardware store. You can purchase slabs of marble or granite if you don't have either in your kitchen.
Without further ado, here is the recipe!
Chocolate Dipped Strawberries
Premium chocolate
Marble or granite
Spades- available at any hardware store
Gloves (optional)
Slowly, but carefully, melt chocolate in the microwave or double boiler. If using microwave, heat in 30-second intervals and stir in between. Pete's chocolate was melted in the factory!
Pour melted chocolate out onto the marble. Try to be quick about this but keep it concentrated so it'll be easy to manipulate and temper.
Temper the chocolate using the spades. This can be done by quickly moving the chocolate around the marble and mixing it. This is another step that is timely. After too long the chocolate will begin to harden!
Test chocolate on your wrist periodically. Once it is slightly cool to the touch use spades to put it back in the bowl.
Clean hands or change gloves. Pick up berries using the stem. Gently dip 3/4 of each berry into the chocolate and place onto a tray or wax paper.
Allow berries to harden. This should take approximately 5 minutes. Then the best part: Enjoy!
We also carry Sweet Pete's own version of chocolate dipped strawberries. Available in store or local delivery.