Recent Articles
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Why what your pastor wears is important to what they say
Mark MacDonald Religious CommunityWe live in a consumeristic world. I realize most pastors and ministry leaders don’t like this reality. So, we have two choices: change the world or adopt the reality (without sinning). I’ve had agents representing me for 30-plus years as I’ve walked fashion runways, acted in movies, appeared in TV ads, and sold products in magazines. Sure, you probably know me more for church communications, though. But the two worlds where I work are complementary. Here are four things I’ve learned from being a model (and why it matters to a ministry leader).
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Hurricanes Michael, Florence leave serious recovery challenges
Michelle R. Matisons Waste Management & EnvironmentalIn the weeks since Hurricanes Florence and Michael swept through the Florida Panhandle, Georgia, the Carolinas, and elsewhere, communities have started to assess damages and plan large-scale recovery efforts. This is difficult since both hurricanes have caused record levels of damage. The most recent Hurricane Michael death toll is at 45 people, while Florence caused 53 deaths. Overall damage reports are now available. Hurricane Michael caused $158 million in damaged crops, and the timber industry has endured $1.3 billion in damages.
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Health systems expect EHR vendors to assist with opioid management
Scott E. Rupp Healthcare AdministrationElectronic health records have promised health systems a lot of things — efficiency, data collation and improved revenue cycles — and even still the majority of health systems say they expect their EHR vendors to assist them in addressing the ever-deadly opioid crisis. This is according to a new KLAS report. While the firm interviewed just a scant 117 clinical and managerial executives from healthcare organizations of various sizes, the point of the researchers’ conversations was to determine how providers track opioid use among patients and implement safer prescribing practices to avoid deadly overdoses and other issues.
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Travel2020: The long, strange road to cannabis comforts
Lark Gould Travel, Hospitality & Event ManagementCBD, a hemp derivative emerging from recent restrictions in marijuana laws in the U.S. and Canada, is now showing up in spas, on health shop shelves, in foods, teas, and even lipsticks. A recent invitation to Glen Ivy Hot Springs in Corona, California, came with a chance to experience a CBD massage as an elixir added to a traditional Swedish massage and touted to take away any pains … and more. California, which legalized marijuana for recreational use in January, has been struggling to regulate an industry that has for years managed quite well on its own but is now getting scrutiny from agencies requiring studies, data and transparency.
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Drive this way: Ride-hailing increases traffic fatalities, working paper…
Seth Sandronsky Transportation Technology & AutomotiveA new working paper from academics at Rice University and the University of Chicago finds that ride-hailing services correlate to a rise in traffic fatalities among passengers and pedestrians. "The increase in accidents appears to persist (and even increase) over time," write Livia Hanyi Yi and Yael V. Hochberg of Rice University and John M. Barrios at the University of Chicago in "The Cost of Convenience: Ridesharing and Traffic Fatalities."
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What to know about visiting Fredericksburg, Texas
Cindy Belt Recreation & LeisureThroughout the country, there are spots with great hiking, spots with great museums and historical sites, and spots with good food and drinks. The area around Fredericksburg, Texas, has all three and more. It is a great area to visit for a week or more. Places to see include the town of Fredericksburg, Enchanted Rock, various museums, LBJ National Historic Park, wineries, breweries and more.
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Stop email from secretly undermining your success
Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementHow awesome is email? With it, we can work remotely, delegate, share files, manage teams, stay productive while traveling and more. Yet as useful as it is, managing email can also waste time, challenge communication and foster bad habits. Here are a few simple ways to ensure email does not secretly undermine you or your team’s success. For example, with email, we can respond to anyone, anytime and anywhere; presumably, this makes us more efficient.
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Use this checklist before posting holiday ads on social media
Emma Fitzpatrick MarketingBy now, you've likely finished your holiday ads for social media — or perhaps you're putting the final touch on them. Either way, before you mark them done, do a quick check to make sure you’re reaching the right people. If you’re like most businesses, the bulk of your holiday advertising budget is allocated to social media. It’s no small chunk of change either. Marketers are planning to spend 25 percent of their entire annual ad budget to target shoppers just during the Thanksgiving weekend, according to 2018 Nanigans data.
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Skin care product reviews: Reliable or fake news?
Elizabeth Donat RetailOnline reviews are the new word of mouth in today's digital age. They shape how we shop, where we eat, where we lodge and how we dress. In terms of the beauty and spa industries, reviews help us form our decisions regarding which skin care products to purchase and where to go to get our favorite spa procedures. Moreover, if you are a spa, medical spa or salon owner, then positive and negative reviews can make or break your business. Because these reviews play such a critical role in our businesses and our everyday lives it begs the question: Are reviews reliable or the new fake news?
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Maintaining student progress
Douglas Magrath EducationAs I wrote in October 2017, "The concern among those serving international students is shifting from recruiting to retention. Student retention is especially critical at the college level, because there are many programs from which students can choose." To be ready for college, students need to have a variety of skills, behaviors and other characteristics. ESL students in particular face a variety of obstacles. Teachers and administrators need to monitor students and give them encouragement to keep them on track. Recent arrivals to the U.S. go through several stages of culture shock.