LinkedIn, negotiating, & other stuff

Dear friends,

Here are the upcoming Ask Liz Ryan and Stay Sharp! seminars:

Wednesday evening, October 28, 2009, 6:15 p.m. Teleseminar: Job Search Essentials with Liz Ryan (virtual event). Cost: $10.00 Registration: http://asklizryanjobsearch.eventbrite.com

Thursday, October 29, 2009, 9:00 a.m. Stay Sharp! Seminar, Eggcredible Cafe, 5397 South Boulder Road, Boulder. Liz Ryan presents "Using LinkedIn: What Entrepreneurs, Consultants and
Job-Seekers Need to Know." Cost: $25.00 Registration: http://usinglinkedin.eventbrite.com

Friday, October 30, 2009, 9:00 a.m. Stay Sharp! Seminar, Eggcredible Cafe, 5397 South Boulder Road, Boulder. Attorney Joyce Colson presents "Ten Tips for Negotiating the Sale,
the Job, The Deal." Cost: $25.00 Registration: http://www.asklizryan.com/staysharp.html

Friday, November 6, 2009, 9:00 a.m. Stay Sharp! Seminar, Eggcredible Cafe, 5397 South Boulder Road, Boulder. Liz Ryan presents "Consulting and Contracting for the Rest of Us: Zeroing
in on Your Consulting Value and Brand and Reaching Your Market." Cost: $25.00 Registration: http://www.asklizryan.com/staysharp.html

Friday, November 13, 2009, 9:00 a.m. Stay Sharp! Seminar, Eggcredible Cafe, 5397 South Boulder Road, Boulder. Dave Taylor presents "Getting the Hang of Facebook." Cost: $25.00
Registration: http://www.asklizryan.com/staysharp.html

Friday, November 20, 2009, 9:00 a.m. Stay Sharp! Seminar, Eggcredible Cafe, 5397 South Boulder Road, Boulder. Jeff Finkelstein presents "12 Critical Strategies For Effective Email Communication: How to Make Sure Your Emails Are Read." Cost: $25.00 Registration: http://www.asklizryan.com/staysharp.html

Questions? Please write to Jackie Marrinan at jackie@asklizryan.com

Thanks! Liz

Liz Ryan
www.asklizryan.com

"Building Your Online Soapbox" Friday October 9 in Boulder

BUILDING YOUR ONLINE SOAPBOX: Personal Branding for Your Business or Your Job Search

Boulder, Colorado, October 5, 2009 -- National career-advice and social-media expert Liz Ryan presents the seminar, "Building Your Online Soapbox: Personal Branding for Your Business or Your Job Search" on Friday, October 9 from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m.
at the Eggcredible Cafe in South Boulder, in the third of a weekly series of business seminars featuring national experts based in Colorado, sharing practical business advice in a casual wisdom-over-breakfast setting.

Liz will help entrepreneurs, service providers, corporate folks and job-seekers wade through the jungle of social-networking sites and tools from LinkedIn and Facebook to Twitter, blogs, podcasts and online communities, understanding which tools are most critical for a business-growth or job-search endeavor and how to leverage social media tools to build visibility, credibility and community online. Liz Ryan is a former Fortune 500 HR executive and a syndicated columnist whose career and social-networking advice reaches 50 million readers per month. She is the author of "Happy About Online Networking The Virtual-ly Simple Way to Build Professional Relationships" and the founder and leader of the 25,000-person Ask Liz Ryan online community.

"Building Your Online Soapbox" will be offered at the Eggcredible Cafe, 5397 South Boulder Road, Boulder, and will cost $25.00 to attend. Register online at http://www.asklizryan.com/staysharp.html or write to Jackie Marrinan, Member Services Manager for Ask Liz Ryan, at jackie@asklizryan.com.

Boulder Burn

I've been casting my local networking net a bit wider lately. It's been bugging me for awhile that I travel all over the country on a regular basis and yet I don't get past downtown Denver more often than every six months or so (excepting the occasional trip to the Tech Center). I wanted to see what was up outside of my ecosystem northwest of Denver, so I ventured forth. And here's what I found.

It matters a lot where you hail from, around here. Back in Chicago, it was obvious that you weren't poverty-stricken if you lived in Kenilworth and people would assume you were a first-generation immigrant if you lived in Bensenville or in the Belmont-Central neighborhood. But every city has those bits of baggage attached to various neighborhoods. Here in Denver, there's more at stake based on your neighborhood than just your income. There's a lot of zip-code-related judgment going on.

The fun part about networking around Denver is noticing folks' reactions when you say "I live in Boulder." Some people have no reaction at all. Others immediately see you through freak-colored glasses. "Really, what made you choose Boulder?" is a question I get asked a lot. I say, "All the boulders there." I have had people say "I didn't know there were businesspeople in Boulder." Or they assume that your business is in the realm of hash pipes or organic tea towels.

There are plenty of people around who believe that if you live in Boulder you must be an anarchist vegan. You must worship prairie dogs and other creatures and be a Buddhist, and clothe your children in natural fibers. One man asked me "Did you know what Boulder was like before you moved there?" I asked him "In what respect?" It was cat-and-mouse. He didn't want to say "Did you know it was so earthy-crunchy?" because he didn't want to offend me in case I was that way too.

People hate Boulder because it's so lefty, or because it's so yuppified. People hate Boulderites because they dress like they're entering the Tour de France when they go out to get a quart of milk, or because of their $800 strollers, or because they look like they slept in a dumpster. The good thing about living in Boulder is that there are all sorts of people around ready to hate you for a wide variety of reasons. I've never lived in a hateable spot like Boulder before, so it's kind of novel. I enjoy asking people "What exactly bothers you about Boulder?" The answers vary a ton. To me, it seems fear-based. Isn't contempt the flip side of fear?

Here are some of my favorite reasons people give for hating Boulder:

1) People in Boulder would drive past an abortion clinic to save a prairie dog.
2) I hate Boulder because people there think the rest of the people in the state are ignorant.
3) Boulder people built that Green Belt to keep people from other towns out.
4) Boulder is anti-growth and that is anti-Colorado.

My husband says "You should tell people you live in Boulder County." Well, what good is that going to do? For Pete's sake, I live on a city street in Boulder one mile from Pearl Street Mall. Anyway, if you hate Boulder and you'll hate me by extension, I'd rather know it than try to hide behind the county.

Plus, I am not one hundred percent standard-issue Boulder. I get acrylic nails and I have highlights in my hair. I wear makeup more than half the time. And my kids eat junk food from time to time and they get to watch TV. So right away I'm out of the spec.

But I'm proud to be a Boulderite, with all the baggage attached. I could have moved to Highlands Ranch or Greeley or anywhere, but I picked the lefty Republic. If someone's going to judge me on that basis, do I really care to know him or her?

The 25 Douchiest Colleges: CU is Number Ten!

Here is the article, which cracked me up.

Superintendent King on Classroom Fees

Yesterday three of my kids started school. Last night came the barrage of forms to be filled out and requests for special fees. I wrote to Superintendent Chris King about the fees issue. Here is my note to him, and his reply (received this morning: fast!).
Cheers,
Liz

----------------------------------------------------------
Dear Superintendent King,

Congratulations on the start of the new school year. I would love to get your thoughts on a start-of-school issue.

I have five kids in BVSD schools and some questions about fees.

I completely understand and am happy to pay fees for my kids' extracurricular activities and special for-credit classes like marching band. I'm concerned, though, about what seem to be mandatory fees for 'regular' classes like art and science. No mention was made when the kids signed up for class last Spring, about these special fees, and some of the classes are required. I'm not comfortable with the slew of requests/demands for fees, ranging from nine to twenty-five dollars, from my children's classroom teachers. I have
a few questions related to these fees:

1) Are they voluntary, or mandatory?

2) Do the individual teachers set the fees?

3) Is there an accounting of the cash and checks that are received, the expenditures that are made and any funds remaining at the end of the term?

4) If a parent (me, for instance) chooses to opt out of the classroom fee, what happens?

Thanks very much in advance for your help. I am very sensitive to budget pressure and all of the other constraints within which our teachers and administrators operate, but I'm also not comfortable spending fifty or more dollars per child in addition to what I've already spent on school supplies, uniforms, semi-voluntary school fundraising donations and other expenses.

yours,

Liz Ryan

SUPERINTENDENT CHRIS KING REPLIES:

Hi Liz:

Fees are voluntary in most cases. Many classes ask for donations, as opposed to fees, and you should know clearly when you are being asked for a donation versus a fee.

Fees can be charged for consumable materials, but you should have the choice of not buying the consumables and still participating fully in the class. These consumables should always be optional.

Fee amounts are set by the Board of Education. Teachers recommend an amount, which needs to be fair market value, and the board approves the amount. For example, a teacher can't decide to charge a flat rate – say $20 – for classroom materials. The materials must be itemized and the amount needs to reflect what the items actually cost.

You should be able to opt out of fees and donations with no consequence. In some cases (like art) you may have fewer materials to work with or materials that are not as nice, but you should still be able to take the class, earn an A, and otherwise participate fully.

Michele Deberry, director of activities, oversees the fee process. If your experience with fees is different than what I have described, please let your principal and Michele know. I am copying her.

Best,

Chris K

A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square

Here is me singing "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square." :-) Liz

The Ten Most Annoying Things About Boulder, Colorado

I love my town, I don't want to live anywhere else. But seriously. I was just on Yelp! reviewing restaurants and I mean, the way people gush about the most mediocre places around here, you think, "Have you ever eaten food anywhere else?" Anyway, here are my top ten most irritating things about our town. Leave a comment and tell me which one(s) I forgot.

THEY-WERE-HERE-FIRSTERS

I haven't come across anything in Boulder more annoying than the people who bleat, "They were here first!" whenever the subject turns to mountain lions or bears. Funny, you never hear them talk about how viruses or roaches were here first - seems to me those guys were around even before the mountain lions and bears. Yeah, there were animals here, and now they've had to move because we arrived and we don't want them to eat us. Some say there are more cougars in the U.S. now than there have ever been before. Makes sense - no wolves in Colorado anymore. The TWHF people top my list for the most annoying thing about Boulder. Are people "things?" These people are.

THE DOG PEOPLE

Then you've got the dog people. I don't mean people with dogs. We have dogs. I mean Dog People who can't understand why you don't want Bailey and Denali jumping all over you. Or biting you.

THE ETHNIC FOOD

If you've spent time in a place where people love to eat, you won't be able to eat out at all in Boulder. You definitely won't be able to eat the ethnic food.

THE ARCHITECTURE

We have some fantastic modern buildings here, and two neighborhoods of wonderful old homes. The rest of it is Mountain Modern, just like what the Brady Bunch's dad would build if he had the urge to move to Colorado. Way cool seventies open staircases and huge pieces of dangerous single-pane glass separated by plug-ugly mahogany-stained pine mullions that would choke a horse. Shoot me in the face, please.

THE YUPPITUDE

My Yelp! list "Places That are Too Boulder-y Even for Boulder" lists some of my least favorite fleece-and-spandex emporia, see-and-be-seen coffee spots and other annoying restaurants and retailers. But you don't need my list; you can spot these joints a mile away, and the people who belong in them.

THE AGGRESSIVE CYCLISTS

You know what's an oxymoron? A badass bicyclist. Between the mincey little shoes and the spandex splattered with all the people who'd been your sponsors if you had sponsors, you just don't look tough. That doesn't stop Boulder cyclists from shooting motorists the evil cyclist eye (Oh stop! I'm quaking in my boots) when we don't defer to them blasting through red lights, smashing through an intersection we were just about to turn into (I didn't see that guy in my side mirror! No shiz, he's coming downhill at 50 mph in a 25 mph zone) and generally trying to throw their pathetic macho-biker weight around.

THE CRUNCHERS

"Do you know what's IN that?" says a mom to me at the grocery store while I'm buying organic yogurt. "It's got food coloring and all sorts of bad things. It's basically pudding!" "Oh yes, pudding," I say. "I need some pudding. Do you know where the pudding is?"

BVSD

Love the schools, hate the district. Bad decisions fly out of that place like bats from one of those caves where all the bats live -- you get the idea. Great teachers, great principals, awful, braindead policies and communication from BVSD at every turn.

THE McMANSIONS

We moved out of our last house because someone threw up (wow, that was unintentional but apt) one of those 5000 sf soulless things across the street. I'm not saying I want anyone to legislate taste, I'm just venting. When your house looks like a huge garage with turrets and cupolas, you've lost the taste test.

THE NAMES OF THINGS

The two best names around here are Gunbarrel and Left Hand Canyon. The rest of it is Boulder Canyon, Boulder Creek, Boulder Falls, East Boulder Rec Center, South Boulder Rec Center, North Boulder Rec Center, Boulder Library, the Bolder Boulder (gag me), North Boulder Park, and so on. I like the Hop, Skip and Jump. That's clever.