Jeff Herz - My view of the World

HOF Caliber or Not?

2012-05-14T10:25:00.004-04:00

Just read an article by a respected baseball writer, who says a player with these stats should be considered for the HOF because he plays a thin position. Anyone want to guess the player, or make an argument that anyone with these stats deserves enshrinement in Cooperstown?

Games: 1,975
Hits: 2,021
Homers: 310
Runs: 1,191
RBIs: 1,259
OPS+: 122
All-Star appearances: 7
Gold Gloves: 8

CUnet Offers free Compliance Review

2012-04-12T08:54:00.000-04:00

As a follow-up to yesterday’s compliance webinar post, we are excited to announce that CUnet is providing schools with the opportunity to get a free compliance audit in order better assess their current compliance risks and needs!

What’s involved?

By requesting this free compliance review, one of CUnet’s Marketing Operations Quality Control (MOQC) analysts will meet with your team to review your existing compliance process, and gather URL’s in order to identify potential compliance violations.

How do we do it?

CUnet will load the URL’s into our Sparkroom Monitor system to identify areas of risk. Any banned or required terms that you provide to us will also be entered to generate overall page scores for a more accurate risk assessment. It’s an easy way to see if CUnet can help you!

The Sparkroom Monitor tool will do the following:

· Actively crawl the pages to monitor and take snapshots of changes on the page- Each URL will be monitored by our crawler and will flag any change that happens to the page. Each time a page is altered, a screenshot is saved in the page history, and the change of the page will be labeled – whether it is a program removal or addition, or a change in the school copy.

· Flag suspicious or banned terms that appear on the page, as well as required language that is missing from a page – Sparkroom Monitor recognizes and highlights general terms that put schools at risk as well as any terms that our clients specifically provide that should not be allowed to be used under their brand. This also works the other direction. Any content that is required on a page, such as a school’s privacy policy, that is missing from the page will also be flagged.

· Create ‘Scores’ of risk on each page based on the criteria of what’s getting flagged- For any term that is flagged, a numerical risk score is assigned to create an estimate of how much risk each page contains.

· Organize the data for the MOQC Professionals to conduct future manual audits - The MOQC professionals review and audit each URL periodically giving the quality control that can’t be completed with technology alone. If a school chooses to utilize CUnet’s compliance services, any brand guidelines, required information, copy, or legal information that a client provides us with will be audited by the MOQC team aided by the previously listed features of the Sparkroom Monitoring tool. The MOQC team will then create compliance violation tasks that need to be created, and approve that the violation is corrected.

Where do I sign up?

If you are interested in taking advantage of this compliance audit, please contact Jeff Herz (jeff.herz@cunet.com) at 201-477-7793

About Jeffrey Herz

As the Director of Compliance & Internal Operations, Jeff Herz is responsible for Enforce, CUnet’s fully managed compliance monitoring solution, which brings leading technology together with industry expertise to give schools a turn-key solution to monitor, manage and enforce regulatory compliance. He has over 20 years of experience in operations and the interactive sp

CUnet - LeadsCon 2012 (Jeff)

2012-03-13T22:11:00.001-04:00

You can shed tears that he is gone

2012-03-07T22:11:00.000-05:00

You can shed tears that he is gone
Or you can smile because he lived

You can close your eyes and Pray that he will come back
Or you can open your eyes and See all that he has left

Your heart can be empty because You can't see him
Or you can be full of love that you shared

You can your back on Tomorrow and Live for yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow

Because of yesterday, you can remember him and only that he is gone
Or you can cherish his memory and let it live on

You can cry, close yourmind
Be empty and turn your back

Or you can do what he would have wanted
Smile, Open your eyes, love and move on

A poem by David Harkins

CUnet Responds to Gainful Employment Regulations

2012-02-22T14:22:00.002-05:00

Posted by Jeffrey Herz on February 22nd, 2012

In July 2011, the Department of Education passed a series of new regulations targeting for-profit schools which have a significant impact on recruitment. These regulations created the need for agencies like CUnet to place a greater focus on compliance, and help schools become more transparent for prospective students. At that time, CUnet committed itself to becoming a leader in the quickly-evolving area of compliance through significant investments in:

People: Dedicated internal team of compliance specialists

CUnet responded to this challenge by forming the Marketing Operations Quality Control (MOQC, pronounced: MOXIE| MOK-see|) team in Lincoln, NE and hiring 13 associates to focus exclusively on creating and implementing our compliance practice. We also dedicated a team of developers from our Toronto, ON office to focus on extending Sparkroom, our industry-leading platform, to track our client’s affiliate networks and ensure compliance guidelines are being met.
The MOQC team is made up of Analysts and Professionals who are responsible for manually reviewing websites, looking for issues, and creating compliance violations; marking them as major or minor based upon client standards. The MOQC team also proactively identifies and monitors the internet for fraudulent or “blackhat” activity in order to attack compliance violations on all fronts for our client base.

Processes: Clearly defined set of operational processes to monitor, enforce, and address misrepresentation

CUnet’s MOQC team manages the following processes :
   - Creating & managing compliance guidelines
   - Conducting automated monitoring
   - Performing analyst reviews
   - Tracking & communicating violation alerts
   - Providing in-depth reporting
   - Performing periodic audits

Technology: Significant investments in technology solutions, backed by our industry-leading Sparkroom platform

The Sparkroom Monitor software supports the compliance team by storing URL information for monitoring, crawling the URLs daily, and comparing URLs against previous records. When Sparkroom Monitor detects changes within the URLs, it takes an image snapshot for analysis. The system also records when manual audits are performed by the MOQC team and scores all media objects (URLS) to help the MOQC team quickly prioritize their tasks; flagging client designated banned terms, and automatically tracks the differences in pages that occur over time.

About Jeffrey Herz

Today is a Great Day!!

2012-02-19T12:02:00.002-05:00

Today is a great day!!

Today is the first day of the new baseball season when Pitchers and Catchers report. It is almost like the you can feel the winter coming to an end (in spite of a massive snow storm last weekend) and a warm breeze blowing in your face. It is the smell in the air, and the pop as a ball hits a mitt.

Pitchers and Catchers reporting has a magically sound to the ears. Like birds singing this morning in the back yard, since they too must know that spring is almost sprung. All teams start today with an equal chance, a clean record, last year removed from memory, and just like spring itself, they are ready to bloom anew.

Everything is fresh and clean, with nothing but green fields in front of us. Arbitration is completed, new managers are settling into their offices all over FL and AZ. The long winter is over. No more (NY) Giants, no more Lin-sanity, because Pitchers and Catchers report today and everything is going to be alright again. Baseball is back.

Today is a great day!!

CUnet – Customer and Vendor Task Management

2012-01-31T22:31:00.000-05:00

JobTraQ case study on CUnet

Background:

CUnet delivers industry-leading technology, media, and marketing services to more than 1,000 colleges and higher education institutions across the US and Canada to help reach, recruit and enroll the right students. Driven by a commitment to technology leadership, regulatory compliance, and exceptional customer service, CUnet’s higher education experts partner with schools to improve marketing performance and deliver qualified inquiries that meet enrollment and retention goals. With over 8 years’ experience in overseeing online marketing initiatives, CUnet offers one of the most experienced teams of interactive marketers in the higher education space.

CUnet is a subsidiary of Nelnet which is one of the leading education and finance companies in the US. Nelnet provides quality student loan products and services to students, as well as a full range of student-lending services and technology-based products to schools nationwide. This includes student loan origination and lending, holding, student loan and guarantee servicing, and software solutions.

Nelnet (NYSE: NNI), based in Lincoln, Nebraska, ranks among the nation’s leaders in terms of total student loan assets under management with $26.3 billion in net student loan assets as of March 31, 2008.

Nelnet is well positioned to capitalize on industry growth. Its sophisticated technology and software products allow the company to service loans both internally and for third parties, which facilitates the company’s position as a preferred originator and holder of loans for schools and borrowers.

Business Need:

With CUnet managing campaigns for so many different colleges and institutions, processing and handling requests and changes to their information and requirements created an ongoing challenge. In an average week, CUnet receives more than 1,100 requests from 65 different clients. In addition, with numerous combinations of secondary vendors being engaged for fulfillment of campaigns for each client, the number of modifications to track grew exponentially. As this continued to scale, it was often difficult for the office managers to determine whether each vendor had made all of the required changes for every client request timely, or at all. CUnet utilized numerous copies of local spreadsheets to manage this process, which led to confusion about which was the most recent version and who was working on or managing which request. In addition, this process provided almost no visibility for management and no metrics by which to measure success or failure.

CUnet needed a solution that was easy to use, centralized, and would provide both a comprehensive view for the customer management and vendor management teams so they could both quickly see what tasks were requested and completed by the clients/vendors.

The Solution:

CUnet engaged JobTraQ’s Professional Services team to design a solution based on the JobTraQ Task Management System. The goals were an easy to use, consistent, and automated solution providing a unified account management system for two related organizations with distinct tracking needs. JobTraQ now manages the assignment of the appropriate internal and external resources automatically and simultaneously, and immediately notifies them of the steps required to complete customer requests when those requests are received. The JobTraQ system now makes these open requests highly visible, manageable and accountable. Utilizing this centralized solution, CUnet has subsequently able to implement and tightly integrate a relational matrix which allows JobTraQ to assign internal resources to manage specific Schools or clients as well as specific Vendors. The total solution now dynamically recognizes which Schools and Vendors are associated to a request and assigns the necessary tasks to the appropriate internal resources to ensure that the Customer or Vendor is interacting with the right people for all requests and increasing the strength of the relationship. JobTraQ core functionality is leveraged to manage each request from beginning to completion, and the solution dynamically creates follow up audit requests to ensure the Vendors are in compliance to the School’s requests.

Overall, user training and adoption has been successful, with existing associates taking 2 to 3 months to fully adopt the system and begin to realize the true value of JobTraQ. On average, new associates are able to acclimate and adapt within a week, as they have no previous experience to adjust from.

Results:

CUnet has been utilizing their JobTraQ solution for approximately one year, and today they have brought their vendor completion rate from under 70% to over 96% and are now completing more than 75% of their tasks in less than two days. JobTraQ has enabled CUnet to record metrics such as the number of tasks (both open and completed) per client or vendor, the time spent to complete tasks by different vendors and internal resources, and other measures of business value. The most valuable reports provided by this solution are those that display the overall throughput of the organization. By analyzing all of the data at once, CUnet is able to identify trends by team members, clients, and vendors that would have been impossible to understand prior to having the data aggregated into one system and each task systematically tracked through the entire workflow. In addition, utilizing JobTraQ and having a well-defined task management structure in place has allowed for the rapid addition of a new team into the business process which ensures that each vendor is compliant with and remains in compliance with the School’s requests and performance expectations. This in turn has created the opportunity for CUnet to expand the list of services provided to their customers. Jeff Herz, Director, Internal Operations, said “We are much more adaptable now, able to identify business problems and then build a process around that problem and automate it very quickly. Thanks to JobTraQ, the automation is probably now the fastest piece of that puzzle.”

About Swift Software:

Swift Software Inc is an innovative developer of Task Management Software for the Enterprise. JobTraQ, which is Swift Software’s flagship product, provides organizations of all kinds with the ability to quickly design, configure, and deploy effective, scalable, and extensible Task-Centric Business Process, Project, Program and Workflow Management Solutions.

For more information, please contact sales@JobTraQ.com

Video - "I Have A Dream" Marth Luther King Jr

2012-01-16T19:07:00.001-05:00

I Have A Dream - Martin Luther King Jr.

2012-01-13T14:27:00.000-05:00

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Source: http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html

How not to Interview for a Job

2012-01-09T16:48:00.001-05:00

This is from a friend and I could not help but sharing

(not) Me: I noticed on your resume you have assisted with editing manuscripts, can you walk me through your process of doing that?
Her: I didn’t actually edit anything, my boss did the editing and changes, I just looked over those changes.

(not) Me: What type of management style do you like best?
Her: What do you mean?

(not) Me: What qualities would you like your boss to have?
Her: Qualities like my boss at (previous job)

(not) Me: Ok, and what qualities are those?
Her: He’s a friend……………(long pause)……. But he still make sure my work gets done.

(not) Me: Tell me about a time you were on a team project and it failed, what can you do next time to avoid that?
Her: Like I said, I was an English major, we don’t have “team” projects.

Her questions for (not) me: Tell me about the gym membership reimbursement and how does the parking garage reimbursement work.

She didn’t seem nervous and that’s what made the situation so weird.

Bring Trader Joe's to Stamford

2012-01-02T17:19:00.004-05:00

I am on a new crusade to bring Trader Joe's to the old Borders Book Store location on High Ridge Road in Stamford.

If you would like to see this store here, please click the like on the facebook page and tell us why you would like to see it here in Stamford.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bring-Trader-Joes-to-Borders-Location-in-Stamford/218778924870674

CUnet Team Adopts a Family

2011-12-23T15:47:00.001-05:00

By Kate Noontz - With the holidays fast approaching, CUnet’s Compliance Team (known as MOQC) sought a hands-on activity to give back for the holidays . In Lincoln, NE, where much of the team is based, there are several “Giving Trees” which have tags on them, with each tag showing a child’s age, gender, and a few items they would like for the holidays. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for the group to “adopt” a family in need and help make sure that a few deserving kids would have a reason to smile on Christmas Day. So we went ahead, chose a few of those tags and hung them on our own little Christmas tree.

We chose four trees, representing four kids: a 12 year old girl who wanted a jewelry making kit, board games, and a bath and lotion set, a 12 year old boy who wanted C.D.’s, hat and gloves, and a basketball, a little 4 year old boy who wanted a helicopter, blanket, and Pixar Cars, and a little 6 year old girl who wanted a Leapster, board games, and a back pack.

Jeff Herz, based in the Paramus NJ office, decided to tackle the younger children and their wish list with the help of his family, and the rest of the MOQC team in Lincoln took the two older children. After pooling our donations together we set off to buy our gifts. We trolled the toy aisles and were able to find everything on their list, and even more! We took our gifts to the office and when Jeff’s gifts arrived we picked up all the bags and toys and carried them back to the Giving Tree.

We were all in high spirits after our adventures and glad to be able to give back to children who may have not had gifts for the holidays. We are excited to participate with this charity next year!

Happy Holidays! From CUnet

CUnet MOQC Compliance Team Adopts a Family

The Dash

2011-12-11T17:18:00.001-05:00

Nancy went to a funeral today and this poem was read. She came home and read it to me, and I think it is worth remembering what you do with your dash is what is important

The Dash - by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke of the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

Letter to Stamford Advocate: November 6, 2011

2011-11-06T21:48:00.001-05:00

Dear Advocate:

I was appalled when I received a call from the city of Stamford on Saturday afternoon. I naturally assumed it was a message from the mayor or the schools or something else of general public interest. It was in fact a political robocall promoting the board of finance candidates Tarzia, Kolenberg and Reeder. The message asked me to vote for this slate of candidates and made it appear as if the city wanted me to vote for these candidates.

As this robocall came from the City of Stamford I would assume a city employee had to approve this activity to use the city's assets and resources which were being used for inappropriate (political) purposes. The city now has a responsibility to find out who approved this action and determine what costs were incurred so that reprimands can be handed out and all costs are reimbursed by the (ir)responsible campaigns.

Finally, you would think two candidates who have spent a significant portion of their time in front of the Board of Ethics over the past two years would avoid any hint of impropriety before the election. However, getting elected at any cost would appear to be more important to Tarzia, Kolenberg and Reeder, rather than following the rules. How can we expect them to be the watchdogs of our community, when they are already misappropriating city resources before they are even elected?

Jeff Herz
47 Cascade Court
Stamford, CT 06903
(917) 913 5019 (cell)
LinkedIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffherz

Letter to Delta Airlines - Regarding Travel on July 31, 2011

2011-08-02T18:46:00.003-04:00

On July 31, I received a call from Delta at 1:36 pm informing me that flight #6269 from LGA to OMA was delayed by approximately 2 hours. As my final destination that evening was to be Lincoln NE, I was planning on driving from Omaha to Lincoln; I went online to check to see if there were other options available that might get me into Omaha/Lincoln earlier, so I went onto the delta.com website to investigate.

Once I signed in, the site showed that this flight was delayed and asked if I wanted to review other flights. I chose to review a flight from LGA --> MSP (DL 2019) and MSP --> to LNK (DL 3999), and before I knew it, I had been rerouted onto those flights without even being asked. Getting immediately rebooked onto those flights was not my original intent, as I believed I was just reviewing what other flight options were available.

Now without me authorizing this change, I was now booked on a flight that was leaving LGA an hour earlier, which means I needed to rearrange my transportation to the airport as I had reserved a car service to pick me up at my house in CT at 4:30. I now needed to leave at 3:15 pm in order to make the earlier flight. As my car service was unable to accommodate my last minute request and did not have a car available earlier, I was forced to drive to the airport myself and leave my car in long term parking, not my preferred method when going to LGA.

Upon arrival, I checked in and was given a boarding pass for both flights. As the time to board the initial flight (DL 2019) came, there was a mechanical issue with the jetway at the gate that prevented us from boarding. As chance would have it, I glanced at the departure board and noticed that the original flight (DL 6269) was listed as being on time, now an hour plus before scheduled departure of 7:35 pm. I then picked up a courtesy phone and spoke with a customer service representative to inquire about the original flights status.

The customer service representative was unaware of any scheduled delay of flight #6269, she suggested that maybe new equipment had arrived and the flight was now back on schedule. I asked her if she had any additional information about my original flight (6269) or the flight I was now booked on (2019), which was now late because of issues at the gate. She told me both flights showed up on her system as being on time. I asked her what would happen if I had delayed my travels for 2 hours per the phone call I had received and wound up the flight was on time, and she said I would probably have missed my flight. By this time, I told her I did not have time at that moment to continue the discussion, as I wanted to check back to see if my flight to MSP (2019) was boarding yet, but I was very upset since it appeared my original flight was now actually on time.

After checking and seeing we were still not boarding, I walked over to the gate where the original Omaha flight (6269) was scheduled to depart from in about an hour, and asked the woman at the gate there if she had any additional information about this flight. She said this flight was still showing up as being on time. There was no indication that the flight was going to be delayed and appeared that everything was on time. She asked if I would like to get onto that flight instead. I chose to decline and stay on the flight to MSP, since I was not very confident in that flight’s status.

As the delay boarding my new flight was getting longer and longer, I was growing concerned about missing my connection in MSP to LNK. Little did I know at that time it did not matter? After an hour delay, we were finally able to board the flight to MSP through another jet way, and I was told by the representatives at the gate, that I would still have sufficient time to make my connecting flight to LNK.

Upon landing in MSP, I checked the board in MSP to see what gate I would need to get to make my connection, and next to the LNK 3999 it said cancelled. So now I was told I needed to walk the length of the MSP airport to get to the nearest customer service station, pick up a phone, see what was available, and then make accommodations for the evening. Luckily, I got there before a few other passengers, as they had to wait to speak to the Customer Service Representatives since all four phones were currently in use. I was told the next available flight to LNK was at 10:15 p.m. the next day (8/1), which would have wasted my entire effort of travelling on Sunday to get to my office in Lincoln NE on Monday. It would have been better for me to drive the 7 hours at that point, rather than to continue my travels with Delta. I then inquired about a flight to Omaha, figuring a one hour drive better than seven. The agent was able to book me on a flight in the morning from MSP to OMA (DL 2707) and then I could drive to Lincoln. What bothered me was that the agent I spoke with was not proactive in offering other alternatives to help me get where I was going. She essentially said “Lincoln, nothing during the day, only the same flight at 10:15 pm that you were scheduled on tonight.” If I had not known the geography, I would have been stuck all day, and my company would have lost an entire day of productivity.

I also don’t know why there were not more live people made available to help all the stranded travelers when other flights had apparently been cancelled. The people on the ground did a fine job of printing my boarding pass (assuring me I would get a seat in the morning) and giving me vouchers for a hotel and meals. I wound up staying at the Days Inn Bloomington MN that seemed very far from the airport, and was not very welcoming.

Upon arriving back at the airport and checking in at the gate and requesting my seat assignment, the gate attendant told me the flight was overbooked and she could not assign me my seat yet. She then began asking if anyone would be interested in flying at a later time. Now needless to say, this is not exactly what I was expecting to hear, since the representative from the night before had assured me that I would have a seat available for me the next morning.

I am currently flying between NYC and LNK every other week from now until at least the end of the year as my company has asked me to build a team in Lincoln NE. I have chosen to fly Delta over United because I can avoid Chicago and the inevitable delays that come with going through that airport. However this experience has made me question whether that was a sound decision. The fact that you were proactive about the original flight should have been a great experience, and is commendable for you alerting me. However, your website while updated with the correct information immediately redirected me to another flight before I could even verify that is what I wanted to do. Thankfully I did not pick a flight that was leaving (at 4:25?) via Memphis, since I would never had made it to the airport for that flight. I should have been asked if this was the flight I wanted before I was rebooked. What if I was willing to go later and wanted to stay on the original flight? I had no option, it was just done.

At the airport, the people on the ground (and at your call center) had no idea that flight was in fact delayed, in fact I did check the website and it was not showing as being on time again when it was actually delayed (I subsequently received text messages from my travel agency confirming the delay after landing in MSP). Had the departure board at LGA shown this delay, my frustration would have been significantly less, and the cancelled flight from MSP to LNK would have just been a routine event that happens when you travel, but instead neither your website, your customer service representatives on the phone, nor the representatives in the airport knew anything about the delay and were therefore not able to help me make an informed decision about my travel plans. You started with something very good and positive, though stressful, and then exponentially compounded it by not informing the rest of your organization on this event.

I would like to know why I should choose to keep flying Delta over the next 6 months, and what you can do to keep me as a loyal customer based upon this experience.

Nanny's Gefilte Fish Recipe

2011-04-12T20:08:00.002-04:00

2.5 pounds of Pike 2.5 pounds of Whitefish Grind the fish Keep the Bones Wash Bones Boil Bones w Onion/Carrot salt and pepper – 30 S Strain the veggies, keep the water Grind 3 large onions finely Put fish in a bowl Add 3 ground onions Add some salt and pepper Add about 4 eggs Add matzah meal Form fish patties Cook fish balls for about 60 minutes on a low simmering boil

Letter to the Advocate: Questional Journalism

2011-04-03T21:55:00.001-04:00

I was appalled this morning when I read your lead article chastising the Stamford Public Schools Administration for submitting legitimate expenses for reimbursements. My initial reaction, based upon what I read on the front page, was that Dr Starr and his staff were going out for Steak dinners every weekend, then buying Starbucks coffees for the entire 5th floor and charging these back to the city. Then I realized after finding the rest of the story buried deep in the paper that the administration has submitted a grand total of $19k over the past 42 months. These legitimate expenses represent less than 0.00317% of the entire SPS budget over the same period of time, which begs the question of why is the Advocate flaunting this story as gross negligence or overindulgence, when in fact they are very reasonable expenses incurred by professionals who are in the business of supporting our schools and continuing to make our community great. Meanwhile further down on the same front page is a story about a real oversight by a different city department of over $700k that is going to have significant impact on the tax base this year. Why is the Advocate making freedom of information requests on this information and not spending their precious time and resources investigating more egregious issues within our city government? It feels like you are more interested in tabloid journalism and personality politics, rather than doing real investigating and reporting, to give us the subscribers the real facts so we can draw our own conclusions about what is really going on downtown.

My Opa - by Katy McCarthy (Age 14)

2011-03-13T08:10:00.000-04:00

I didn’t know my Opa for very long, but while I did know him, he was pretty great. He was always full of philosophical wisdom, such as, poop happens. Upon the news of his death, I had a bit of a conversation with myself, about everything I had ever done or ever known about him. It was the little things that were my Opa’s way of showing love that I kept coming back to.

Bedtime snack, our time, where we could sit and chat or not; algebra homework, where we would argue about the value of x and whether the answer to problem 36a was 42 or 24. His valiant attempts to teach me to sail, while I privately thought it was as boring as sin. His presence was always felt, even if he didn’t say anything, but when he said something, you better listen up, and on the whole, he was usually right. I remember every year at Hanukah we would get together to make something, the girls made one thing and the boys another. He would always give each kid a fair chance, even though some of us weren’t sure which end of a hammer was up. I tell you all of this as my own personal experiences with my Opa, as I knew very little about his childhood up until recently.

One very distinct memory was when he and my Mommom went on their trip around America. In our little apartment in Pittsford, I tracked their travels carefully on a U.S map as they sent me postcards. My Opa liked to travel, I think. And he gave really good hugs, great big belly hugs that squished you like a stress ball. I was the only one who could make him laugh by tickling his beard. He liked to travel and sail and build things, and a thousand other things I knew, but never really thought about He was smart and kind and couldn’t hold a grudge if he wanted to. His grandchildren, myself included, could do no wrong. We would take rides up the heavy side lair in his tractor, and pick raspberries. Even in the dead of winter, he was never cold. Even though I only got to know my Opa for 14 years, if you stretched out each moment with him, it would go on forever.

All of these things may not seem like much, but there are what made my Opa Opa, and it’s what I’ve got to hold onto of him, and while I’ll remember the stories and the pictures and the facts; this is what is going to stick. The things that made him Opa.

Memories of Opa - By Jacob Herz (age 9)

2011-03-13T08:09:00.000-04:00

I know nothing about Opa’s (Jim’s) childhood but I do know about him after I was born. Opa taught me two things: Sailing and building.

I started with sailing. When I first saw his boat it fascinated me. We drove to the nearest lake. We stepped into the sailboat and sailed off. I stayed near all the item’s so I could give them to Opa. We stayed for about a half an hour. I still remember it to this day.

Next was building. This was my favorite thing to do with him. The first thing I had built with him was a birdhouse. I also built a toolbox, a marble drop and a mini golf course. He also taught me how to use tools like a hammer to put a sign on the mailbox for a party and to take it off. He also taught me to use a drill to make holes in wood, so I could put screws into. I also like to get candy apples with Opa and practice driving the tractor in the driveway.

Shrek and Layers of an onion - Lisa Herz McCarthy

2011-03-13T08:08:00.003-04:00

When most people think of my father they don’t typically think of him, or generally relate him, to a cartoon character or worse yet a Disney character. I think my dad was most like Shrek. Not that he was an ogre, but he could be. Stubborn. Obstinate. Hard headed. Right. Certain of himself.

However, my dad had many layers. Like an onion. As a youth in Queens, he was active in Boy Scouts achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. It was in Boy Scouts that he met Bob Fromowitz. Little did they know that at the ripe age of 10 that this was the beginning of a nearly 60 year friendship. Through thick and thin, ups and downs, I don’t think either of them would change a thing. This is two layers of the onion.

After high school and graduating from Brooklyn Tech, he and Mom moved to Binghamton. I think it was not long after Dad met Bob, he met Mom. They, Mom & Dad, got married twice.

The first time was in December 1964 by a Justice of the Peace. Mom was a bit weary that it didn’t take and insisted on being married by a Rabbi, which they did in April 1965. They bought the property and built a house on Morgan Road. Mom has a picture of herself being incredibly pregnant with me. My arrival in May 1966. In March of 1969 Jeff arrived. More layers to the onion.

My father could not fathom my lack of concrete sequential thinking. My freshman year in high school, I took my New York State Regents exam in math. Logic was the subject. If p then q = who cares. I didn’t. I had an amazing math teacher that year who began to build a bridge between my father and I that I would not appreciate until many years later when the college I attended told me that unless I took statistics I would not graduate. For me this was a potential crushing defeat. So I registered for summer school to take just that stupid statistics class. I sat in the car, registration form in hand with a start date of the following Monday. I collected myself and called my father. Not only did he have the necessary calming effect on me, but during the first week we spoke by telephone almost every day. Those phone calls were tutorial in nature and help with my homework. Not once did we raise our voices. A sweetness to the onion.
Dad was a lifelong boater. He told me stories of being a Boy Scout and sailing in Sheepshead Bay. When we went to one of the Fromowitz boys bar mitzvah we stayed in a hot sheets hotel in or near sheepshead bay. The looks we got from the guy that checked us in. More layers to the onion.

So, now a boating story. One summer, I don’t remember how old Jeff and I were, but I was old enough to drive. Jeff and I had gone to school on Friday and I was allowed to drive us to school. We went to school packed to go to the lake for the weekend. There was a rendezvous at Troy’s Marina. Our directions were, go to school (and yes Mom probably checked to make sure we arrived at school and were there all day) then go to Johnsons boat yard right after school. We were to take the boat to the north end of the lake and the parental units would drive to Troys after work and join the festivities. Jeff and I made ready the USS Ragtime, motored out the channel, hoisted sails and beat feet up the lake. It was an awesome day for a sail and were smoking up the lake. Well, ok, for Cayuga Lake we were really steaming along. We took the crook at Ma Fords and set course for Milligan station. As we approached this bend in the lake we noticed a change in the forecast. We took appropriate measures to sail through the rain and increased wind we correctly anticipated as we sailed into crumby weather. The weather cleared, we shook out the sails and continued on.

As we approached Troy’s Marina, we radioed ashore, Mom and Dad were motored out to help us anchor. Then we were all transported ashore for the bar-b-cue and other festivities. Bedtime rolls around and we are motored back to Ragtime. We ready for bed and the Ogre bellowed. Of all the things that could have gone wrong trusting 2 teen agers to transport Dad’s second largest investment the length of Cayuga Lake it was his window that we forgot to close during this torrential rain storm. More layers to the onion.

As sure as I am standing here sharing but a few stories of a man with you, I am just as sure you have your own stories of an Ogre and an onion. Boy scouts, work, power squadron, supporter of academic endeavors, supporter of our athletic activities, participant in a multitude of ways at Temple Concord, mental and emotional strength, optimism. Synonyms for more layers to the onion that was my father. Character traits in a man, of a man, who tried, with much success, to share with his wife and instill in his children. In the coming days, weeks and months, please share your stories, recollections and memories with us. Stories of the essence of who my father is, was and wanted to be. For in the future Mom, Jeff, Nancy and I will need to be as diligent as he was in passing these characteristics on to our children.

Eulogy for Jim Herz

2011-03-11T11:45:00.001-05:00

I hope I can get through this, like my father I have a hard exterior, but we are actually soft and mushy on this inside. I am doubting it very much, but here are two quotes that will help me get started:

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” - Gandhi

“Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might,and when you laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.” - William Sorayan

As I am standing here, that I have not been on this bima since I was bar Mitzvah’d. For those of you that were not here, just remember I did not make that invite list. For those of you that were here then, what took you so long to come back?

Seriously, it is both the happy and the sad moments that most often brings us together.

It was on that March day, 29 years ago, when my parents stood here and delivered their first serious talk to me. It was not about the birds and the bees; I am still waiting for that discussion, but rather about how they felt about me on that special day. When they finished, they handed me a type written copy of their heartfelt words they had just delivered so I would always have a copy. As a typical 13 year old boy, I did not comprehend or understand the message. I was probably thinking about girls, or if I would be able to sneak a drink at the bar at the reception afterwards. Unfortunately within a few short months that hard copy disappeared too. Their words were eventually erased from my memory forever. I looked for the speech occasionally through the years before I went to college and moved out of the house on Morgan Road, but to no avail. Remember, this was before the digital age, when there were no flash drives or hard drives, or writable floppy disks to store those words forever. Today, as I stand here again, I wish I had a copy of those words to remind me of their thoughts on that day as I stand here again remembering my father. Here is what I would like to think they said: I am a man now, they are so proud of me for what I had just accomplished. They told me how the future was wide open for me. I should seek out opportunities and know that the world was my oyster (Am I even allowed to talk about shellfish in synagogue?). I now stand before you, his family, his friends and his community to say goodbye. Too sudden! Too soon!

It was just over 60 hours ago that Nancy and I received the call I think all of us dread. At that moment, as we were more stunned and shocked to comprehend what had just occurred, I realized that I would need to come back and speak again. To talk about my father in the past tense before it seemed to be his time. Just a few weeks back in January, before they went to Panama he talked about how he was having the time of his life, how he wanted to travel now while he was still healthy, since one never knows what the future holds. When he got back, there was an unbridled enthusiasm in his voice about going to visit Lisa and Katy in Vermont and visit my family in CT this week. In fact my parents were supposed to be in their car travelling down I-91 right now. No one expected us to be here, not now.

For those of you that don’t know, my father and I have spent a great deal of time building upon the family tree that was originally created by his mother before she passed away. He was actually in the process of writing his autobiography to be included in the family tree. Luckily he was able to complete his life’s story right up until he got married, so we will all always have that as a reference point for his formative years. Unfortunately it now up to my mother to complete this work, in what will inevitably be considered the unauthorized biography of Jim Herz.

In doing this genealogical research, we had recently become acquainted with a distant cousin who was going to be visiting family here in the US and Canada in June. When he expressed an interest in meeting with us, I suggested we meet at my parent’s house here in Binghamton. My father then started to reach out to all descendents of his great-grandfather in order to invite them to this cousin club gathering. He put together the list and wrote the letter inviting them to come to here, and to be reacquainted. He spoke with many of them directly asking if they had updates on distant cousins that he had fallen out of touch with and to just to catch up with others. It is sadly ironic that he was able to reestablish some of these links before this occurred. It was important to him that as the oldest living male in the Herz family to have this opportunity to bring the extended family back together.

Just like his Uncle Erich he also felt a great sense of pride knowing he now has two grandsons, Jacob and Owen who can carry on the Herz name for at least another generation. I know (As you heard) Jacob is very sad today as he was planning on coming here this summer to learn how to sail and do woodwork in Opa’s shop. Owen and I will now have an unfortunate link in that both of our Opa’s passed away when we were too young to remember and sadly will have little or know remembrance of our grandfathers beyond stories and pictures. Owen still does not understand what has happened as each day has woken up and asked where Opa was.

Now his granddaughters are a completely different story. Both Katy and Mollie were the apple of his eye. He viewed them both as his angels, his princesses. Although he would not admit it, he loved going to their dance recitals and watching them perform. He enjoyed giving them a little more dessert after dinner, or to defend them if they were misbehaving, which of course rarely happened. This was certainly no behavior which Lisa or I ever witnessed when we were children. He finally seemed to be comfortable in his role of grandfather.

When I was a kid, Dad did not come to many of my sporting events. He always seemed to be working, if not at Singer Link, then for one of the many organizations where he dedicated his time and efforts. He never sat still, was always involved in something. Organizations include the Temple, the Fire Company, the Jewish Cemetery, the Power Squadron, Ham Radio, and most recently building the Center for Innovative Technology including rebuilding one of the original the Blue Box simulators.

As a kid, I always resented that he spent more time at work than with his family. I would wonder why he couldn’t spend more time and being a more involved father. What I now realize, as a father myself, is that it is not always easy to make that choice. We have professional responsibilities that too often conflict or overtake our personal responsibilities. It is a balance that is too often weighs in the direction of work. As I have grown older, and maybe more wise, I have come to realize that I may not have always agreed with the choices he made, but I certainly understand why he made those choices. He was motivated to build the best home life he could for the entire family. He provided us the opportunity to go sailing all summer long on Cayuga Lake, vacations on Lake Ontario and bareboat charters in the Virgin Islands. He put Lisa and I through college. He made a choice and it was the right choice for all of us, in his own way he has always put family first. I may not have always agreed, but I certainly understand that now more than ever.

What is most amazing to me is that he was married at 23 and a father at 24. Honestly, I can still barely take care of myself to this day and most certainly was not ready for a wife and kids when I was 24. Thank goodness I found Nancy or I might still be wondering around, unable to match my clothes or send thank you notes.

He never watched sports on TV. I only have two recollections of him watching TV and they both involve perhaps the two best World Series moments in recent history. In 1986, we were sitting in our living room; I think we were rooting for the Mets, as I could never see myself rooting for the Red Sox. When the ball dribbled between Buckner’s legs, my father actually jumped out of his chair and started celebrating, something I do all the time when the Yankees, or Steelers or Rangers score, but it was not something I have never seen him do before or since. Then in 1991, we were at a cousin’s bar mitzvah and staying in the basement of their house. So we turned on Game 7 and watched Jack Morris battle Jon Smoltz through 10 shutout innings in one of the best pitching duels ever. I will always cherish and remember those two games for the rest of my life, not because the Mets or the Twins won in the end but because I got to watch them and make a lifelong memory with my Dad.

When I first started thinking about getting up here today, about 1 am Wednesday morning, my mind was absolutely blank. What was I going to say? Others in this position often have time to prepare, to think and plan. Not us. I wish I had more time, not to think about what I would say if this happened in the future, but rather more time to spend time with him, to go sailing, to have another Thanksgiving celebration, to allow Katy and my kids more time to enjoy their Opa. Instead there was no warning, no signal, just bam, lights out and it was over. He had no apparent suffering and no pain, which is good and I am incredibly thankful for that. It is the way he always wanted to go, but not now. He was not ready. We were certainly not ready. Not when he still had so much more to give to his family, to his friends, and to his community.

For those of you that know me, I have always treated sickness and death with humor, as a way to deflect the seriousness of the situation with the assumption that “if I ignored it, it might just go away” or “why deal with it now if I can deal with it later”. This outlook probably stems from the auto accident that killed 3 of our grandparents on Hanukah just over 32 years ago. I was essentially allowed to ignore the funeral, sitting in the car, playing on my electronic football game while the graveside service occurred just outside my door. Maybe I don’t know how to grieve. Rabbi Barbara has told me that I need to grieve and maybe I will, or maybe I am. I don’t know. People have called and asked how I am doing and I respond “I am fine”. Honestly, I would have preferred to be at work today, how often do you hear that? But now I must deal with it. We must help each other through this difficult time. We must say Goodbye to my Dad, but more important we must also figure out how to move forward without him and that may be more difficult.

Here is a poem a friend of mine sent to me when her father passed away

I am standing on the sea shore,
A ship sails in the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades on the horizon and someone at my side says:
"She is gone."
Gone! Where?
Gone from my sight - that is all.
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me,
not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says,
"She is gone",
There are others who
are watching her coming, and other voices take up a glad shout:
"There she comes"
- and that is dying. An horizon and just the limit of our sight.
Lift us up, so that we may see further.

Jim Herz Obituary

2011-03-10T11:20:00.002-05:00

James Herz of Binghamton

Jim Herz, of Binghamton, passed away suddenly Wednesday March 8th, 2011, at his home. Born May 8th, 1942, the son of German immigrants who escaped the Holocaust.

Jim graduated from Brooklyn Tech; he worked as a program manager for Singer Link, Corp. and retired after 33 years of service. Jim was very active in the community, his talents and interests were truly diversified, as he was an active member of the Boy Scouts of America and obtained the rank of Eagle Scout, a past commander of the Susquenango Power Squadron, a past President of Temple Concord, Head of the Westlawn Cemetery, Past Chairman of the Town of Binghamton Planning Board, member of the Town of Binghamton Volunteer Fire Company, as well as an avid sailor and bird watcher.

Surviving Jim are his loving wife Carol Herz, his daughter Lisa McCarthy, son and daughter in law, Jeff and Nancy Herz and his grandchildren Katy McCarthy, Jacob, Mollie, and Owen Herz.

Funeral Services will be held at Temple Concord 9 Riverside Drive on Friday March 11th at 12:00 noon with Rabbi Barbara Goldman-Wartell officiating. Shiva will be observed at 7:00 p.m. at the Herz home Saturday and Sunday.

Those wishing to make direct memorial donations in Jim’s name to either Temple Concord, 9 Riverside Drive Binghamton, NY 13905 or Town of Binghamton Volunteer Fire Company PO Box # 154 Hawleyton Road Binghamton NY 13903.

Dad

2011-03-09T02:17:00.001-05:00

Goodbye Dad

2011-03-09T02:09:00.000-05:00

Dad with Owen March 2010

Goodbye Dad, I will miss you

What Baseball team should I root for?

2011-03-04T08:38:00.001-05:00

Courtesy of http://cdn3.sbnation.com/imported_assets/666055/ibd_baseball_flowchart.jpg