The number of corporations scaling back air travel spending this year continues to grow. The investment firm, USB conducts a twice-annual survey that looks at corporate air travel spending. Results this month show that of 80 companies surveyed, 42% said their companies are reducing air expenses this year compared to last. That figure is up 26% from the October 2007 results.

The high cost of fuel has forced the airlines to take drastic actions to reduce costs. Just today American Airlines announced that it plans to reduce overall capacity and add a new fee for coach customers to check their first piece of luggage. Many airlines are already charging a fee for a second piece of luggage.

Higher ticket prices coupled with additional fees are pushing airline travel out of the reach of many small businesses. Yet these companies still have the need to communicate with clients and colleagues in different parts of the world.

The time to learn about Teleconferencing is NOW!

Today there is technology available to replace almost every aspect of the face-to-face meeting. It has been estimated that by utilizing a teleconference instead of taking a two day business trip and travel six hundred miles you will save two thousand dollars or more in total travel costs.

AccuConference technology coupled with the Internet or just your phone connection enables you to:

• Eliminate travel time and expenses
• Improve productivity
• Collaborate on business proposals in real time
• Easily and instantly exchange information with your associates around the world

With the AccuConference International Outdial feature, participants from around the world can be brought into your conferences at very reasonable rates. Add a PowerPoint presentation via the web or full face-to-face video conferencing and it’s almost like being in the same room with your associates at only a fraction of the cost of an actual meeting.

If you’re new to the idea of conferencing, but know it’s time to make it part of your business communication, AccuConference is ready to help. Our user friendly interface coupled with stellar customer service will get you on the right track for enhancing your communication without breaking your budget. Our system is reservationless, so when you want to start a conference call you just pick up the phone and dial. No extra equipment is required.

Learn more about AccuConference at http://www.aBetterConferenceCall.com or call 800.730.0626 for more information. Download the Whitepaper – Do’s and Don’ts for Participants at Your Next Conference Call

Mac Anderson, founder of Successories and (www.simpletruths.com), published a fabulous book called the “Essence of Leadership.” I challenge us to grade your performance last week on a 1-10 scale against each of these one dozen “secrets.” If we had enough nerve, we’d have a couple of our direct reports grade our performance too. You may go first.

• Leadership secret 1 — Develop a service attitude. “Service is the lifeblood of any organization. Everything flows from it and is nourished by it.” Customer service is not a department, it is an attitude.
• Leadership secret 2 — Love what you do. “Many things will catch your eye, but few will catch your heart.” Pursue those.
• Leadership secret 3 — Focus on priorities. “Focus on the critical few, not the insignificant many.”
• Leadership secret 4 — Understand the soft stuff. Mary Kay Ash once said “There are two things more powerful than money and sex. They are recognition and praise.”
• Leadership secret 5 — Build your personal and organizational brand. “In the race for quality there is no finish line.”
• Leadership secret 6 — Embrace humor and optimism. Helen Keller said “Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.”
• Leadership secret 7 — Commit to excellence. According to Aristotle “Excellence is not an act, it is a habit.”
• Leadership secret 8 — Take risks. “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb, That’s where the fruit is!” You will always miss 100 percent of the shots that you don’t take.
• Leadership secret 9 — Reinforce core values daily. Goethe wrote “Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
• Leadership secret 10 — Earn trust. According to Tom Peters “Trust, not technology, is the issue of the decade.”
• Leadership secret 11 — Take action. “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
• Leadership secret 12 is to aim for the heart because “they don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” We may not remember what someone says or does, but we never forget about how they made us feel.

How did you do? Can you clearly identify one or more actions you committed this past week in support of each of these dozen leadership secrets? We get another week to practice beginning tomorrow. Post Mac Anderson’s secrets where you can read and act on them every day. Those you lead will be most grateful — and so will your customers.

Charlie Dexter is a professor of applied business at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Tanana Valley Campus. He can be reached at 455-2837 or ffcnd@uaf.edu. This column is provided as a public service of the TVC Applied Business Department. Copies of this column can be found at www.CharlieDexter.com.

A couple months later I called the phone number. Not only did I learn about restaurant and hotel jobs all over Alaska, but also that Holland America owned the Gray Line of Alaska tour bus company. The recording spoke of the need for driver/guides for all their division in Alaska and listed where their training sessions would be held. Seattle was the primary location. That’s about a 1 1/2 driver from where we live in Olympia, but it caught my attention, because during our trip the previous summer, I had actually contemplated what a cool job it would be to drive a motorcoach up and down the Alaska highways.

I had never driven a large vehicle before, and frankly, I wasn’t sure if I was even remotely capable, but after contacting the human resources department, I was assured they could train just about anyone to drive a motorcoach. I went through the hiring process and by February 1994, I was enrolled in their 13 week training program. I completed my training with a class-B CDL and on June 6, 1994 flew to Anchorage for my first summer as a driver/guide with Gray Line of Alaska.

That first summer in Alaska was quite an experience. I spent a lot of time transferring people to and from the cruise ship port of Seward, AK. It’s a beautiful drive, but can get a little old when you sometimes have to drive the 127 miles a total of 4 times in one day! I also learned how to wash a bus as quickly as possible, get up a 2:00 am, dump the toilet holding tank, sleep in bunk beds with 4 other drivers to a room, and the list goes on. I can’t say it was any easy job, but I still managed to have a lot of fun. I was 44 years old and most of the other drivers were young college kids, so that alone kept me energized!

Holland America has an incentive program that awards a free cruise to seasonal employees who complete two summers in Alaska. I think when I first started I figured I’d do the two years and take my free cruise and that would be the end of it. That first year I shared a small room with a younger gal who was working her 5th summer in Alaska. I wondered how she could possible have done it that many years. When I came back for my second season in 1995, I really thought it would be my last, but Alaska had other ideas for me. I came back one more year to drive out of Anchorage, and on the fourth year, I switched divisions and began another three year stint working out of the Fairbanks division. This gave me the opportunity to drive different highways and to get into the Yukon Territory of Canada. I even got to drive the haul road up to Prudhoe Bay where the oil fields are. For my seventh year I went back to Anchorage to drive some longer charter tours that took me through the complete circuit - Anchorage all the way down to Skagway, up through Whitehorse and Dawson City, Yukon, and back up to Fairbanks, down through Denali Park and back to Anchorage. I also learned to fully narrate all the tour routes I drove; thus the title, Driver/Guide.

Picture below: John Hall’s Alaska tour bus at Matanuska River overlook with King Mountain in background.

By the year 2000 I felt I had gone about as far as I could expect to go with Gray Line. In August of 2000 I drove a couple charters for a small company out of Minnesota and that’s when I met John Hall for the first time. He ran one bus in Alaska and needed a second coach and driver to handle the large number of guests who were signed up for these two tours. An old Gray Line friend of mine was driving John’s single bus, and recommend that John request me to drive these two charters. By the end of the second tour, John had asked me to come to work with him the following year since he was adding a second motorcoach to his fleet. That was the beginning of what has now been a seven year run with John Hall’s Alaska Cruises and Tours. (John now has four motorcoaches in his fleet!)

Working for John has been a completely different experience than working for Gray Line. Instead of wondering day to what what I’d be doing the next day, I now know my schedule for the entire summer ahead of time. I have my own motorcoach (and the responsibility to keep it clean), I sleep in my own hotel room, and most of my meals are included as well. I also have a lot more independence when it comes to planning my tours. Of course I have to follow the published itinerary, but I have my choice of picture stops and any extra activities I can fit in along the way. My personal opinion is that John Hall tour members get a much better organized and comprehensive tour than with the larger companies like Holland or Princess.

In June of this year, I’ll be heading back to Alaska for my 15th season. Who would have guessed in 1994 that this seasonal career would have lasted this long? I’ve also spent just about every March in Alaska working a volunteer position for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. (more on that in another article.) I guess you could say, “Alaska has a hold on me.”

As for our son Kevin; in 1994 he ended up working for Holland America’s Westmark Hotel in Skagway and continued to work several more summers in Skagway after that. He now lives in Anchorage, AK and manages a tire store.

So what’s the take away?

I guess the take away is that you’re never too old or too young to find new adventures in your life. Prior to my time in Alaska I had a pretty normal life; raising a couple kids and working some very ordinary jobs. But once the youngest child was out of high school, I seized the opportunity to do something extraordinary and it changed my life completely. I’ll be 58 years old this summer as I drive my motorcoach thousands of miles around the northland. I figure I have a couple more good years in me and maybe then I will retire. But I can guarantee you that I’ll never leave Alaska for good.

If you’re interested in Alaska motorcoach driving jobs, I recommend you start with a company like Holland America Tours or Princess Tours. They will train you to drive and you’ll have the opportunity to learn the tour material for the routes you drive. Both companies have non-driving seasonal job opportunities available as well. Visit their web sites for more details.

If you’d like to see more pictures from my Alaska tours, check out my web site: MooseAndBears.com

My work in Alaska goes back to 1993 when Dale and I took a bare bones tour to Alaska. We rode the Alaska ferry (known as the Alaska Marine Highway) as foot passengers from Bellingham, WA through the inside passage of Canada and Alaska to Skagway, AK. We spent time in each of the port cities where the ferry stopped; sometimes just for a few hours and sometimes for an overnight stay. When we were on the ferry at night, we slept in our backbacking tent on the upper deck, and when we overnighted over in port cities, we stayed in youth hostels. Now you can see why I call it a bare bones tour, but experiencing Alaska this way was the best introduction we could have hoped for to the 49th state. We got to see a lot of the “touristy” things, but also had the opportunity to meet many very interesting people and learn more about Alaskan culture than most tourists.

Once we got to the end of the water route, we boarded a bus and traveled the Alaska Highway (Alcan) for 2 days to get to Fairbanks, AK. We overnighted in a rustic hotel in Beaver Creek, Yukon. It was on that bus trip that I began to think what a fun job it would be to drive the highways of Alaska and the Yukon for a living. Little did I know that the very next year I’d be back in Alaska, doing just that. I ended up working for the same company as our bus driver from the previous year, so to this day I kid him about it being all his faulth that I’m working in Alaska!

The rest of our adventure took us by train from Fairbanks to Denali National Park for two nights. We went into the park on a backpacker shuttle bus the next day, and then finally on to Anchorage, again by train. All the while, we carried everything we needed for the 2 week trip in our backpacks. In Anchorage we rented a car for a drive down to Seward, AK for a sightseeing boat trip of Kenai Fjords National Park. Then it was back up to Anchorage, turn in the rental car, and head to the airport for our flight home.

Our trip was jam packed with activities, but even so, I felt like we had barely touched the tip of the iceberg when it came to seeing all there is to see in Alaska. I had fallen in love with the land, and I knew I’d be back. To this day, Dale and I both admit, this was the best vacation we’ve ever taken.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about my tour guide job - stay tuned!

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re adventurous, you can plan an independent trip to Alaska, but you’ll need to spend some serious time making all the arrangements. We depended very heavily on the Lonely Planet Guidebook for Alaska. You’ll also need copies of the Alaska Marine Highway ferry schedule, the Alaska Railroad schedule, and a bus company schedule like Gray Line of Alaska. If you are not interested in booking all your accommodations, transportation, and attractions, you might be better off booking a tour with an experienced tour company like the one I work for - John Hall’s Alaska.

How could we find a housesitter?

I got on-line and did some research on housesitters and found a great resource in HouseCarers.com. This web site shares the profiles of thousands of people all over the world who are looking to either house sit or hire a housesitter. After filling out our profile and stating exactly what we were looking for in the way of a house sitter, the offers started to roll in.

We read the profiles of the people who were expressing an interest, and if they looked like a possibility, we would private message them back. Once you’ve communicated with a person on the web for awhile, you get to the point where you can decide if you’d like to exchange more private information like phone numbers and email addresses.

Like I said, we had lots of offers, but one stood out from the rest. It was a couple who had both recently retired from major companies in this area and moved to Arizona for retirement. They were not, however, too interested in spending the hot summer in Arizona and wanted to come back up here to be near their grown children.

They were coming up to Washington in April for their son’s wedding, so we had plenty of time to set up a meeting. We first met them for dinner at a local restaurant, and after that we felt comfortable asking them over to the house. Soon we came to a mutual decision that this would be a good working arrangement for both of us. I can only say that you have to listen to your gut feelings once you get to this point. For us these folks just “seemed right.”

Since we were both familiar with the guidelines of HouseCarers.com we all knew basically what to expect in the way of contracts and responsibilities. I was able to download a sample house sitting agreement from the web site and with a few modifications, made it work for us.

The HouseCarers site will answer many of your questions about housesitting. If you’re even remotely interested in getting a house sitter, or being a house sitter, we suggest you surf over there to do some reading. Here are some topics you’ll find interesting.

• What is House Sitting?
• What are the advantages of using a house sitter?
• What are the standard guidelines of a house sitting agreement?
• Why do people register to housesit?
• Who pays the bills during housesitting?
• Will house sitting affect my homeowners insurance?
• Should I require a bond or security deposit from my house sitter?
• How do homeowners and house sitters register and communicate?
• Making your decision - Steps to selecting your housesitter.
• Finalizing the arrangement - preparing a house sitting contract

What does it cost?

As a homeowner looking for a housesitter, you can register for free. If you’re the person looking to be a housesitter, there is a $45 annual membership fee. There is, however, a limited non-paid membership that allows you to try out the service, but does not allow you to actually apply for housesits.

So how did it work out for us?

It worked great! I have to admit, we were a little nervous about the whole thing to start with, but finding someone who had been well respected in our community prior to moving away was a big plus. They took care of our house like it was their own, and managed to keep the yard work in check. They also took good care of our cats.

One thing to caution you about if you have animals - be sure your housesitter knows how to reach your vet and that you have a payment option set up with the vet before you leave home. One of our cats, shown here, required a $250 surgery while we were gone, so I was grateful that HouseCarers.com had reminded me to make sure to include veterinary information in the agreement. We also had an issue with a broken water pipe while we were gone, and again, because we had included information on what plumber to call, our housesitters were able to get it resolved quickly.

And to top off our experience, our housesitters have recently contacted us again to see if we’re going to Alaska this summer because they want to stay in our house again. We haven’t decided yet on Alaska, but at least this year the decision will come easier.

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re planning a trip and want your house to have that lived in look while you’re gone, or if you’re looking for a place to stay for short or longer term, take a look into housesitting. It’s another way to experience new places without spending a lot of money.

Do you remember back in the 60’s when Simon and Garfunkel sang the 59th Street Bridge song? ( if you remember the 60’s you probably weren’t there…) The duo advised us to “slow down, we move too fast…” What a laugh thinking about the speed of the 60’s compared with how fast we are actually moving today! We live today in an instant results - or else - world. If a politician doesn’t produce instant results to our liking we boot the bum out and vote in some other bum. If a corporate CEO doesn’t produce an instant turnaround, then that bum is on unemployment too. If the drive through on Airport Way doesn’t give us fast - fast food we get testy and swear to never go back there again, until next time. It’s a fast pace world we’ve created for ourselves.

Unfortunately, we are trying to live our fast paced lifestyle in what is naturally a slow paced world. Zig Ziglar, the famous motivational speaker, once told the story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree. It seems that this tree when planted, watered, and nurtured for an entire growing season doesn’t outwardly grow as much as an inch. Then, after the second growing season, a season in which the farmer takes extra care to water, fertilize and care for the bamboo tree, the tree still hasn’t sprouted. So it goes as the sun rises and sets for four solid years. The farmer and his wife have nothing tangible to show for all of their labor trying to grow the tree.

Then, along comes year five.

In the fifth year that Chinese bamboo tree seed finally sprouts and the bamboo tree grows up to eighty feet in just one growing season! Or so it seems….

Did the little tree lie dormant for four years only to grow exponentially in the fifth? Or, was the little tree growing underground, developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond? The answer is, of course, obvious. Had the tree not developed a strong unseen foundation it could not have sustained its life as it grew. The same principle is true for people. People, who patiently toil towards worthwhile dreams and goals, building strong character while overcoming adversity and challenge, grow the strong internal foundation to handle success, while get-rich- quickers and lottery winners usually are unable to sustain unearned sudden wealth.

Had the Chinese bamboo farmer dug up his little seed every year to see if it was growing, he would have stunted the tree’s growth as surely as a caterpillar is doomed to a life on the ground if it is freed from its struggle inside a cocoon prematurely. The struggle in the cocoon is what gives the future butterfly the wing power to fly, just as tension against muscles as we exercise strengthen our muscles, while muscles left alone will soon atrophy. My problem with exercise is not getting instantly stronger after each work out! I pray for more patience every day and I pray to get it right now!

We live in a quick-fix society. We get frustrated if we have to wait more than 2 minutes for service or a stop light to change. We want instant solutions to every complex problem and every fractured relationship. In short – we want it all now! Maybe its time to reflect on an old, old poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that is as true today as it was when he wrote it over 100 years ago:

“The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Toiled ever upward through the night.”

Charlie Dexter is a professor of applied business at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Tanana Valley Campus. He can be reached at 455-2837 or ffcnd@uaf.edu. This column is provided as a public service of the TVC Applied Business Department. Copies of this column can be found at www.CharlieDexter.com.

I took this photo on November 4, 2007 at Tumwater Falls Park in Tumwater, WA. The park is next to the site of the old Olympia Brewery and has a very nice walking trail. It’s a great place to go walking any time of year, but if you go in October you can watch salmon coming up the fish ladder to head up the Deschutes River to their spawning grounds.

Well hopefully next Christmas I won’t be getting so many catalogs because just before Christmas I found a website called Catalog Choice. Catalog Choice is a free service that allows you to opt-out of getting paper catalogs in the mail. To use Catalog Choice, you’ll need to create an on-line account. You’ll also need copies of the catalogs you want to opt-out from because you’ll need your customer number off the back.

Once I had my account set up it was easy to decline the catalogs I didn’t want to get any longer. It takes some time (up to ten weeks) for the merchants to take you off their mailing lists, but if after that time period, you still continue to receive declined catalogs, you can report the infraction to Catalog Choice and they will follow up with the merchant.

One great feature of the service is they allow you to list multiple addresses and names. This was good for us because some catalogs came to me and some to Dale. Some to the home address and some to the PO Box. Having the actual catalog in front of us when opting-out insured we had the right name, address and customer number to enter.

As I write this, I’m reading the blog over at Catalog Choice and see that they were actually featured on the Today Show 2 days ago. What a coincidence! I’ve had links to Catalog Choice on some of my other sites for several months and have been meaning to write this article for a couple days now, so I’m sorry I missed the show. I’m overjoyed that the site is gaining so much publicity. 57,000 new members signed up on January 25th as a direct result of the Today Show. It shows that people are really wanting to clean out their mailboxes and help reduce waste. There are now over 500,000 people enrolled who are opting out of almost 6 million catalogs! Cutting down on catalog waste is good for everyone, including the merchants by lowering their costs of distribution and helping them better target their marketing.

So What’s the Take Away?

“The mission of Catalog Choice is to reduce the number of repeat and unsolicited catalog mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices. We aim to accomplish this by freely providing the Catalog Choice services to both consumers and businesses. Consumers can indicate which catalogs they no longer wish to receive, and businesses can receive a list of consumers no longer wanting to receive their catalogs.” - Catalog Choice mission statement

So what do you think? Are you going to enroll at Catalog Choice? Have you already enrolled? We’d like to hear your comments. I think it’s too early to tell if it’s working for me yet since it hasn’t yet been 10 weeks. Most of my declined catalogs are still showing as unconfirmed, but a few are confirmed. At least none are refused!

Why AED training? AED stands for Automated External Defibrillator. CPR keeps oxygenated blood flowing to the brain and other vital organs and tissues. Early defibrillation with an AED administers a shock that can allow the heart to restore an effective rhythm. Having an AED available and the training to use it could mean the difference between life and death for a sudden cardiac arrest patient. In 1991 The American Heart Association published a paper called “Improving Survival from Sudden Cardiac Arrest: The Chain of Survival Concept”. The links within this “Chain of Survial” include:

• Early Access to the emergency response system;
• Early CPR to support circulation to the heart and brain until normal heart activity is restored;
• Early Defibrillation to treat cardiac arrest caused by Ventricular Fibrillation; and
• Early Advance Care by EMS and hospital personal.

AED units are becoming more and more common as we travel. You’ll often see them in airports, hotels, malls and other places where large numbers of people congregate.

When our Alaska motorcoach tours are traveling the remote highways of Alaska and Yukon Territory, they are often hours away from professional medical care. That’s why we feel it’s imperative that our tour managers are trained in First Aid, CRP, and Automated External Defibrillation (AED).

John Hall, the owner of the company, decided that he wanted AED units installed on each of his four motorcoaches as well as in his offices in Minnesota by the summer of 2007. He tasked me with doing the research and making the buying decision for 5 AED units. I found that the AED Superstore was an excellent resource for learning about the different kinds of units available, and after much research we decided on the ZOLL Plus. We feel ZOLL best met our needs for a variety of reasons. The one piece pad unit makes it impossible to make a mistake when applying the electrical leads to the patient’s chest. It also has a longer shelf life than some other models. The ZOLL display unit is visual as well as voice prompted, so even in a stressful situation, the operator has clear step by step instructions. Another important feature is that the shelf life the the batteries is longer than most others, and the batteries are available over the counter instead of being proprietary to the manufacturer.

So What’s the Take Away?

AED units are expensive to buy - especially when your underlying hope is that you NEVER have to use them. But if someone suffers a cardiac arrest and you have an AED available as well as the training to use it, they can save lives. And in my mind, that makes them worth every penny invested.

Knowing CPR/AED and first aid can and does save lives. We recommend everyone enroll in a CPR/AED training class on an annual basis. Classes are offered by the American Red Cross, The American Heart Association, and many local Fire Departments.

Washington State Representative Shay Schual-Berke compares it to drunk driving, saying you’re injuring your children for life if you smoke with them in your car. Several other states, including California and Alabama, already have banned smoking in cars with children, and 27 others are considering a similar ban.

Dale and I agree wholeheartedly with this proposed legislation. Children have no voice of their own so we feel it’s up to us to protect them. The unfortunate part of the law as it’s being proposed is that you could only be sited as a secondary offense, meaning that you could not be pulled over for this offense alone. Offenders would have to be pulled over for something else, and then if it was determined that they were smoking with children present, they would face a fine of about $100. We’d like it taken a step further to make it possible to pull people over for this offense alone and we’d like to see fines set at a higher level.

Why do I feel so strongly about this issue? Well for one thing Dale’s mother, a non-smoker, died of lung cancer after being subjected to secondhand smoke for most of her married life. Dale and I have long been opposed to smoking and tried many times to get his dad to quit, to no avail. As I was preparing this article I was dismayed to have my own grown daughter tell me that when she was young, her grandfather often smoked in the car with her present. Today we have seven grandchildren of our own and thankfully they are not being subjected to second hand smoke by any of their relatives, but there’s currently no law to stop a friend from polluting their lungs if they’re riding in someone else’s car and we think that is wrong.

Did you know that when kids are confined in a vehicle with a smoker it’s like they are smoking one cigarette for every four that the smoker smokes? Secondhand smoke contains more than 250 chemicals known to be toxic or cancer causing, including formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide. (1)

Secondhand smoke causes irritation of the lungs, leading to coughing, excessive phlegm and chest discomfort. It also causes irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Children who breathe secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from pneumonia, bronchitis, and other lung diseases. They are also more likely to have ear infections and develop asthma. Children who have asthma and breath secondhand smoke have more asthma attacks. (2)

There are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 cases every year of infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia in infants and children under 18 months of age who breathe secondhand smoke. These result in between 7,500 and 15,000 hospitalizations! (3)

So What’s the Take Away?

If you’re a smoker, here is what you can do to protect yourself and your family from secondhand smoke.

• Do not smoke in your car or allow others to smoke if there are children present
• Don’t smoke in your home
• Ask other people not to smoke in your home, especially baby-sitters or others who may take care of your children.
• Choose children’s day car centers, schools, restaurants and other places you spend time in that are smoke free.
• If you must smoke, try to smoke only in an open area away from your family.
• Quit for yourself and your loved ones…. Call your local American Lung Association at 1-800-LUNG-USA (1-800-586-4872) to find out more about how to stop smoking for good.

If you’re a non-smoker, write your state legislators and tell them why you believe there should be laws against smoking in public places and in cars when there are children present.

For more info on the effects of secondhand smoke on both adults and children, please read: Secondhand smoke: Avoid dangers in the air you breathe

Footnotes

1. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available at: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet2.html

2. The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke. A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2006; Available at: http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/factsheets/factsheet2.html

3. California Environmental Protection Agency. Health Effects of Exposure to ETS. September 1997.

Bruce is a retired elementary school teacher living on San Juan Island in Washington state. He is married to Tina, who is of Australian heritage, and this past fall they embarked on a year long trip to Australia and New Zealand. Currently he and Tina are WWOOFING on a dairy farm at the southern end of the south island of NZ and they plan to do another project at the northern end of the island once they are done at that farm.

When our mother got the email about this WWOOF experience, she was a little confused as to what it was all about. I told her I’d look into it more and here is what I’ve found.

WWOOF. It stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms and was started in the UK in 1971. It provides volunteer opportunities for all ages and levels of experience. You can WWOOF in over 70 countries in any season for variable durations. It’s a great way to get around the world “on the cheap” and have fun learning new things.

In return for your work you generally receive food, accommodation, and training for the project you’re working on. Although most WWOOF opportunities involve either organic farming or gardening, there are also opportunities for handy persons, cooks, teachers, builders, child care and and just about any other skill you might have.

WWOOF volunteers do not pay for their stay and WWOOF hosts do not pay their volunteers for their help. There is a small fee to join a WWOOF organization in the country where you want to work.

This sounds like fun and I’m not surprised that my brother has become involved with WWOOF. He has always been the more adventurous one in the family. I get my adventure fix every summer by heading up to Alaska to work as a tour guide, but someday when I finally retire from that adventure, maybe Dale and I will look into WWOOFING.

At http://www.wwoof.org/ that they have a list of all the countries that have a WWOOF organization. Let’s see now - where should we go first?? Of course you can WWOOF in the US as well as in Canada. It all depends on how far you want to travel.

So What’s the Take Away?

WWOOF has become an international movement that is helping people share more sustainable ways of living. It’s an affordable way to travel, it’s educational, and you make lots of new friends. And it’s all about going green and the low carbon footprint that we’re hearing so much about these days. If you’ve got the time, but lack the money for a luxury vacation, maybe WWOOFING is for you.

Daniel Buckingham, age 16, is a young entrepreneur living in Palmer, Alaska with a unique idea for a home business. He builds and sells outhouses in Alaska!

Down here in the lower 48, that idea may sound absurd, but in Alaska, there is still a great need for the “little shack out back” since so many Alaskan’s are living off the grid or in “the bush”, as they say up there. Some urban Alaskan’s might even add a token outhouse to their landscaping just to give an Alaskana effect along with a dog sled and a cache (a little log cabin on stilts for storing food and supplies).

Daniel sells a standard 4′x 4′x 7′ high basic plywood design for $299. It comes with a hinged door, toilet box with hole and a toilet seat. But he’s more than willing to incorporate any custom features you might envision for an extra charge. One thing not available, however, is delivery. If you want one, you need to come and get it. At least for now.

According to the 2000 US census, one in four homes in Alaska is without indoor plumbing. It’s obvious Daniel had chosen a product that fills a need, and I can only guess that there is not a lot of competition. He seems to be willing and able to put the hard work required into building a quality product, so he could do well with this venture.

His next step will be marketing. Right now he’s only using Craigslist and word-of-mouth to promote his outhouses, which has yet to bring much success. What he needs now is a full blown web presence and a marketing campaign to get the word out in areas where indoor plumbing isn’t an option. The domain names he might choose from are probably endless! With over 10 years experience in Internet marketing, I’d love to talk to him about the possibilities. So Daniel, if you read this, shoot me an email!

Daniel’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. He received some great publicity today from an article in the Anchorage Daily News. So now it’s the time to capitalize on that and get to building for your future!

So What’s the Take Away?

My guess is that many of us wish we could come up with a great new idea or product that we could develop into a million dollar home business. I think the lesson learned from Daniel is that if a 16 year old, home schooled kid can come up with a unique idea like outhouses, we certainly should be able to think of something that can fill a need in our marketing radius. But conversely, if you think you’ll turn your product into a million dollar business overnight, it just isn’t going to happen. Daniel’s outhouse idea has still not really taken off, but he has his product and his goals in place. Now it’s time go to work on the marketing, and maybe someday he’ll have made enough to finance his college education. He says he’s not trying to make a career at it, but it’s sure good preparation for what ever he does decide to pursue in the future.