Sea Pines Resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina offers 'Escape ...

HILTON HEAD, S.C. -- The Sea Pines Resort -- Hilton Head's most celebrated family destination - is offering its "Escape Vacation" package featuring a bonus three-night return getaway for $99 when booked before Jan. 31.

The Escape Vacation special offers stays at the lauded Lowcountry destination from March 2 -- Sept. 6, 2013. This exceptional package (www.seapines.com/vacation-rentals/specials/escape.asp) features:

? Up to 15 percent off a choice of weekly home or villa rental
? $100 resort credit for golf, dining and activities
? Three-night "Escape Twice" return visit for $99
? Children under 12 eat free at the Harbour Town Grill and Surfside Outdoor Restaurant & Bar
? Free golf for kids 12 and under on Heron Point by Pete Dye and the Ocean Course with each paid adult round

"Our popular Escape Vacation package provides our guests the unique opportunity to enjoy two different getaways to our world-class resort," says John Munro, director of hospitality, sales and marketing. "With a host of accommodation options, multitude of family activities, three superb golf courses, numerous dining choices and miles of scenic Atlantic beaches, we offer an unparalleled vacation experience."

Moreover, the package highlights includes a complimentary beach family photo session; children under 12 cruising free on a dolphin ocean excursion; choice of a complimentary Eco-Adventure, two-person Sea Pines activity or visit to Coastal Discovery Museum at historic Honey Horn; complimentary access for two guests to the Harbour Town Lighthouse; unlimited use of fitness center equipment; two hours complimentary tennis per day at The Sea Pines Racquet Club; and free wireless internet access in all accommodations.

When booking the Escape Vacation package online or by calling (866.561.8802), enter or mention the promotion code: ESCAPE.

About The Sea Pines Resort
One of the true crown jewels of American golf, The Sea Pines Resort is home to legendary Harbour Town Golf Links (home of the PGA TOUR's RBC Heritage) designed by Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus, Heron Point by Pete Dye, and the Ocean Course. The resort's best-in-class collection of golf courses, amenities, meeting facilities and accommodations makes Sea Pines one of the most sought-after leisure and group destinations in America.

In addition to 54 holes of pure Lowcountry golf, Sea Pines features 23 clay tennis courts, Eco-Adventures, water sports, fine and casual dining, 14 miles of bike and walking trails, horseback riding and five miles of unspoiled beaches. Guests choose from an array of accommodations, including 300 villas, 100 rental homes and the luxurious 60-room Inn at Harbour Town, a Forbes Four-Star boutique hotel and Preferred Hotel Group member.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Buffalo Communications
Shane Sharp, 704.519.8381
ssharp@buffalocommunications.com

David Wood, 703.635.0577
dwood@buffalocommunications.com
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http://twitter.com/buffalocomm

Source: http://www.worldgolf.com/newswire/browse/73116-Sea-Pines-Resort-Offers-Family-Friendly-%E2%80%98Escape-Vacation%E2%80%99-Package

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Candidates consumed by debate preparations

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2012, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama wave to the audience during the first presidential debate at the University of Denver in Denver. The sixth "town hall" style presidential debate will bring Obama and Romney to Hofstra University on New York?s Long Island Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012. They?ll take questions from undecided voters selected by Gallup. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2012, file photo, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama wave to the audience during the first presidential debate at the University of Denver in Denver. The sixth "town hall" style presidential debate will bring Obama and Romney to Hofstra University on New York?s Long Island Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2012. They?ll take questions from undecided voters selected by Gallup. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

President Barack Obama makes phone calls to volunteers at an Organizing for America field office with Alexa Kissinger, left, and, Suzanne Stern, right, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney campaigns in front of The Golden Lamb Inn and Restaurant in Lebanon, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama makes phone calls to volunteers at an Obama campaign office with Suzanne Stern, right, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney picks up a baby as he campaigns at The Golden Lamb restaurant in Lebanon, Ohio, Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(AP) ? With the White House race barreling toward the finish, President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney were staying out of the spotlight Monday, underscoring the intense focus each campaign is placing on the second presidential debate.

Obama's campaign, seeking to rebound from a dismal first debate, promised a more energetic president would take the stage Tuesday at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Romney's team aimed to build on a commanding opening debate that gave the Republican new life in a White House race that had once appeared to be slipping away from him.

When the two candidates step back into the public eye at the debate, there will be exactly three weeks left until Election Day. But early voting is already underway in dozens of states, including some battlegrounds, giving the candidates little time to recover from any slipups.

Much of the pressure in the coming debate will be on Obama, who aides acknowledge showed up at the first face-off with less practice ? and far less energy ? than they had wanted. The president and a team of advisers are seeking to regain focus with an intense, three-day "debate camp" at a golf resort in Williamsburg, Va.

"It is going great," Obama said of his preparations Sunday, while taking a brief break to greet volunteers at a nearby campaign office.

Romney, who has made no secret of the huge priority his campaign puts on the debates, was practicing Monday near his home in Massachusetts.

Romney's advisers suggested the Republican nominee would continue to moderate his message ? in tone, if not substance ? as he did in the Oct. 3 meeting to help broaden his appeal to the narrow slice of undecided voters. In recent days, Romney has promised his tax plan would not benefit the wealthy, emphasized his work with Democrats as Massachusetts governor and downplayed plans to curtail women's abortion rights.

Democrats were dismayed that Obama didn't more aggressively call out Romney's move to the center during the first debate. Since then, the president has been more forceful in doing so on the campaign trail and in television ads.

During debate preparations, aides are working on tailoring that message to a debate format. And they're working on balancing aggressive tactics with the debate's town-hall format, which often requires candidates to show a connection with questioners from the audience.

Romney aides suggested the former Massachusetts governor would be prepared regardless of Obama's adjustments.

"The president can change his style," Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said on "Fox News Sunday." ''He can change his tactics. He can't change his record."

The Obama campaign released a new TV ad on Monday featuring factory workers lauding the president's record on job creation.

"We have a whole second shift that we brought in, new employees, and we have a future at our plant now," says a woman in the ad titled "Main Street." It will air in Colorado, Iowa, Nevada and Virginia, all key battleground states.

___

Obama ad: http://tinyurl.com/ck3oblq

___

Peoples reported from Belmont, Mass.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Follow Steve Peoples at https://twitter.com/sppeoples

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-10-15-Presidential%20Campaign/id-f19e24379a264ce08b2399fe70e5f26e

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How Old Should Kids Be Before You Get A Video Game Console ...

kidsvideogame 300x248 Our Boys Dont Play Video Games. Are We Weird?My son has made best friends with our backyard neighbors. We?re constantly tossing the boys back and forth over the fence. This weekend we discovered a secret about our backyard neighbors ? they have a video game console.

Like many parents of this generation, I grew up with a gaming console at home. The ever awesome?Intellivision. But that was it for console gaming in my life, a 5 year span in the mid-80s. I owned a PS2 for a month before tossing it after I spent an entire 48 hour period in my living room playing Metal Gear Solid.

So playing a little Wii Tennis at his buddy?s place was my son?s first introduction to console gaming. I had thought I would get a gaming system when the youngest was closer to 5 (he?s now 3), but I?m starting to wonder ? are we weird for not having a video game system?

All is not lost for my sons. ?We have 2 iPads and my old iPhone 3 has become their de facto iPod Touch. So they can game all they want, but it?s not the big intense, and immersive console gaming.

My boys play mostly cartoon games, Angry Birds, Bad Piggies, do puzzles, math and reading games on iOS. ?There are no first person shooters, there are no war games, there is nothing involving weapons. ?Good luck trying to find a console system that avoids that genre. ?I?m trying to raise my kids with an understanding that guns are not toys, so tossing them in the basement with Halo 3 for an afternoon would defeat the purpose.

I always thought a gaming console would be something we would get when both our boys were into grade school, but my wife has said ?No!???Still, we don?t have a problem with him hopping the fence on a rainy day to go and play in his friend?s basement.

What kind of counter-culture hippies are we?! We don?t take our boys to McDonalds, we don?t have tv screens in our SUV, I will never take them to Church, and they don?t play video games.

Am I ?depriving? my kids of a piece of youth culture by not having a console gaming system?

Follow Buzz on Facebook or @dadcamp
Read more at DadCAMP or The Blog According to Buzz.

Get more DadCAMP on Kid Scoop:

How To Get Rid Of The Switch Witch?s Halloween Haul
First World Kid Problems
What Do You Do When Your Kids Are At Activities?
What Can Happen If You Enter Your Kids In A Photo Contest
The Biggest Mistake People Make Shooting Video
The Absolute Worst Things About Being A Parent

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 Our Boys Dont Play Video Games. Are We Weird?

Source: http://blogs.babble.com/kid-scoop/2012/10/15/our-boys-dont-play-video-games-are-we-weird/

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CITY OF PHILADELPHIA RECOGNIZED FOR CITIZEN ...

Philadelphia, October 12, 2012 ??The City of Philadelphia has recently won a series of national awards recognizing its best practices and creative engagement with citizens. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) awarded the PhillyRising Collaborative its Special Recognition for Community Oriented Governance.? The Public Technology Institute (PTI), a national technology organization that supports local governments, named Philadelphia as a ?2012-2014 Designated Citizen-Engaged Community? because of the 311 call center?s success.? The White House also recognized Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid and the Office of Innovation and Technology as Local Innovation Champions of Change.

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?The City of Philadelphia is actively engaging residents in new ways because we want people to see government as a resource and partner to make our city a better place to live, work and play,? said Mayor Michael A. Nutter. ?All of these honors demonstrate a commitment to transforming how City government interacts with Philadelphians.?

?

Deputy Mayor for Administration and Coordination and Managing Director Rich Negrin said, ?We are constantly working to enhance the City?s interactions with residents. PhillyRising does this by asking residents how government can provide the tools to improve their neighborhoods. The Philly311 contact center, and now mobile app, has put city government services literally at citizens? fingertips. Our innovation team with the leadership of Chief Information Officer Adel Ebeid is continuously working on the next and best practices for interacting with constituents.?

?

On Aug. 31, IACP announced that the City?s PhillyRising Collaborative received the 2012 IACP/Cisco Systems Community Policing Award ? Special Recognition for Community Oriented Governance. The award recognizes outstanding community policing initiatives by law enforcement agencies worldwide.? IACP recognized PhillyRising as being the ?next step? in community policing, in which representatives across government work to build trust between the community and City agencies, particularly the Philadelphia Police Department.?

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?It is an honor to receive this award on behalf of my colleagues in the City and our partners on the ground in the community,? said Deputy Managing Director John L. Farrell, Director of the PhillyRising Collaborative.

?

On Sept. 27, PTI named Philadelphia one of the 2012-2014 Citizen Engaged Communities. PTI?created the annual designation program to recognize excellence in multi-channel contact centers and best practices for the use of Citizen Relationship/Records Management (CRM) systems, 311 services, web portal technology, telephone systems and mobile communications infrastructure. Philly 311 received the designation for its proficient and high performing multi-channel contact center because it uses citizen feedback tools to improve services, utilizes Service Level Agreements with departments, has a current, centralized knowledge base, allows online service requests and tracks performance metrics.

?

Rosetta Carrington Lue, the City?s Chief Customer Service Officer and 311 Contact Center Director, said ?One of the primary strategic objectives the Mayor set forth is for the City of Philadelphia to become a national customer service leader in government. For the 311 Contact Center to be nationally recognized for a third time as a designated citizen-engaged community is a huge accomplishment. The 311 staff and I thank PTI for acknowledging our commitment to the City?s Vision.?

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On Sept. 25, the White House named Chief Innovation Officer Adel Ebeid a Local Champion of Change for leading Philadelphia?s innovation strategy to advance the City?s digital quality of life. Ebeid has led the effort to have City government partner with community organizations, higher learning institutions and residents to positively influence social outcomes in underserved neighborhoods. Two Philadelphia programs, Philly KEYSPOTS and PhillyRising, employ this civic collaboration model for planning and implementation and serve as working models for innovative government.

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?Philadelphia was honored to participate in the Champions of Change ceremony at the White House and highlight our efforts at re-casting the role of government through community engagement and civic collaboration,? said Mr. Ebeid. ?Philadelphia?s tremendous community assets link and further develop physical, human and community infrastructures in order to provide residents with tools and support so that they may realize their vision for family and community.?

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About IACP:

The International Association of Chiefs of Police is a dynamic organization that serves as the professional voice of law enforcement. Building on our past success, the IACP addresses cutting edge issues confronting law enforcement though advocacy, programs and research, as well as training and other professional services. IACP is a comprehensive professional organization that supports the law enforcement leaders of today and develops the leaders of tomorrow.

?

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Source: http://cityofphiladelphia.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/city-of-philadelphia-recognized-for-citizen-engagement-practices/

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In a Broken Student Aid System, Colleges Are Part of the Problem

Editor?s Note: This post was written by Jeff Selingo, a member of Education Sector?s K20 Task Force. Selingo, editor at large of The Chronicle of Higher Education, will be blogging regularly on The Quick & the Ed.

Chalk up yet another way families are being tapped out to pay for college: parent loans.

The amount of money distributed by the federal government through its main loan program for parents, the Plus loan, has more than doubled to $10.6 billion since 2000. Nearly twice as many borrowers are also taking out loans, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education and ProPublica. The Parent PLUS Loan, with an interest rate close to 8 percent, is essentially the last choice for parents desperate to send their sons and daughters to their first-choice school.

Families are looking under the couch cushions for pennies to pay for college these days, and higher-education institutions are searching every corner of campus for new revenue sources to finance their rising costs. The situation meets the definition of an unsustainable model for the future?for students, parents, and colleges.

In debates over college affordability, much is made about the cost side of the equation. But even if we find a magic-bullet solution, it?s unlikely to cut tuition prices in half overnight. We?ll still need to figure out how to pay the annual tuition bills with financial aid.

But the financial-aid system we currently have in place is severely broken. State and federal governments continue to pour money into the system even though we know little about what students actually learn for those dollars, if they finish at all. Institutions, especially private colleges, waste money on merit aid in a prestige race to pursue top-ranked students who would probably be better off at more selective schools and would likely go to college no matter how much aid they get.

To some colleges, financial aid has become little more than a marketing tool to fill a class. I saw that on full display last spring when I met with a small group of high-school seniors and their parents at a high school in Florida. It was a little more than week before the May deadline when they had to commit to a college, and they had brought their financial-aid offers from colleges so they could review them with counselors.

As a counselor went through the offers with one student and his mother, he glanced at his own homemade cheat sheet, and I quickly discovered why. Deciphering financial aid letters is almost impossible. Each uses different formats, difficult-to-understand abbreviations or mixes together loans and grants, blurring the lines between the two and creating confusion. The worst offenders suggest students are getting a great deal.

But no one polices these practices. Unlike when we buy a car or a house or sign up for a credit card, there are no standardized disclosure forms schools are required to hand out. The Obama administration has proposed a shopping sheet that all colleges should be required to use when they notify students about their aid packages. Ten colleges and universities have already committed to the model format.

While a good start, the biggest problem with the financial-aid system is timing. The college search starts as early as middle school for some students these days. By the time they reach their junior year of high school they often have their hearts set on a particular campus.

Families know little about what they will actually pay for college and, more important, exactly how they will finance it until a few weeks before a final decision needs to be made. During this period?March and April of the senior year of high school?the sales rhetoric from colleges turns to cold-blooded financial reality. Under pressure, families sometimes make bad financial decisions: students because they don?t know any better and parents because they don?t want to disappoint their sons and daughters.

It?s clear to me that the needed reforms for student financial-aid are unfortunately not going to come from higher education. Many financial-aid officials remain opposed to the model letter, as well as many other regulations.

Last week, I spoke to the annual meeting of the New York State association of college financial-aid advisors last week and several of them told me that they already feel over-regulated. A few said that even if they feel students are over-borrowing or a bad financial fit for the institution they feel unable to say anything because they work for the institution, not the families. Instead of being resources for students and parents, financial-aid offices at colleges have become just another cog in the wheel that brings students in the door.

Source: http://www.quickanded.com/2012/10/in-a-broken-student-aid-system-colleges-are-part-of-the-problem.html

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Tremor shakes buildings in Guatemala City: witness

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tremor-shakes-buildings-guatemala-city-witness-180213494.html

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Hands-on with the first SmartGlass app, Dance Central 3's Party Time DJ

Smartglass functionality arrives on Xbox 360 with Dance Central 3 tomorrow, we go handson

Since getting outed just head of Microsoft's big reveal, Xbox 360's SmartGlass has been under wraps. When Xbox Live VP Marc Whitten officially introduced SmartGlass soon after at E3 2012, we learned a teensy bit more -- tablets and smartphones (Android, Windows Phone 8, and iOS, even) would get second-screen functionality via an upcoming free application -- and got some hands-on time with it. That application has yet to launch, but Dance Central 3's SmartGlass functionality is already here. Well, almost here -- the game becomes publicly available tomorrow, and the app won't launch for a few weeks still -- but we got our hands on Dance Central 3's SmartGlass companion app a bit early at a New York City review event last week.

Being the first SmartGlass application to launch has its advantages, such as setting the bar. By no means is Dance Central 3's SmartGlass application a thorough, necessary accompaniment (for a game that already requires Kinect, that's probably a good choice), but it does add some neat side fun for friends waiting in the wings to get their respective grooves on. "Party Time DJ" allows friends -- employing their iOS, Droid, or WP8 tablet/smartphone, via the Xbox SmartGlass app -- to queue up the next song in the game's neverending "Party Time" mode, or create a playlist. They can also queue downloadable tracks to the Xbox 360 (which thankfully requires approval on the 360 prior to purchase), or swap difficulty settings. Sadly, though the opportunity for real-time griefing presents itself rather clearly here, developer Harmonix chose not to allow song-swapping or difficulty changes mid-song. "Because it would kill them," Harmonix rep Nick Chester told us.

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US Drops Gaza Scholarships After Israel Travel Ban

JERUSALEM ? Amal Ashour, 18, loves Shakespeare and American pop music. One of the brightest students in the Gaza Strip, she studied her senior year of high school in Minnesota through a U.S.-government funded program.

She had planned to study English literature this fall at a university in the West Bank through another U.S.-sponsored program, but just a month before school started, she was informed the scholarship was no longer available.

"When you live in Gaza, you're a pawn in a greater political game," she said in a telephone interview. "There's nothing we can do about it." She is now enrolled at Islamic University, a stronghold of Gaza's ruling Islamic militant Hamas.

Under Israeli pressure, U.S. officials have quietly canceled a two-year-old scholarship program for students in the Gaza Strip, undercutting one of the few American outreach programs to people in the Hamas-ruled territory. The program now faces an uncertain future, just two years after being launched with great fanfare by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during a visit to the region.

The program offers about 30 scholarships to promising but financially challenged Palestinian high school seniors from Gaza and the West Bank to study in local Palestinian universities.

It is a rare opportunity for gifted students in Gaza, which has been constrained by an Israeli blockade since Hamas seized power five years ago. The blockade has made it harder for Palestinians to travel abroad. Both Israel and the U.S. consider Hamas a terrorist group because of its hundreds of attacks against Israelis, including suicide bombings, and frequent rocket attacks from Gaza.

After allowing the scholarship program to proceed in 2010, Israel this year refused to give permits for the Gaza students to travel to the West Bank. Hamas' rival, the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, governs the West Bank.

Citing security reasons, Israel bans most Gazans from traveling to Israel or the West Bank. Exceptions are made for about 5,000 humanitarian cases each month.

Education is not considered a humanitarian concern. Israeli officials claim that West Bank universities are breeding grounds for militant groups like Hamas. Last month, Israel's Supreme Court upheld this travel ban on students.

Israeli military spokesman Guy Inbar said the policy is part of Israel's struggle against Hamas, an Iranian-backed group committed to Israel's destruction.

"Hamas makes great efforts to establish new affiliates of the terrorist infrastructure from Gaza to the West Bank, and to transfer knowledge to strengthen the existing infrastructure in the West Bank today," Inbar said. He noted that nearly 300 Gaza students have been able to leave the region to study abroad since 2010.

The Palestinians seek to turn Gaza and the West Bank, located on opposite sides of Israel, into an independent state. But since the Hamas takeover, the Palestinians have been torn between rival governments, and Israel has treated them separately. Israel maintains relations with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, while branding Hamas-run Gaza a hostile territory. Repeated attempts by the Palestinian rivals to reconcile have failed.

In a statement, the American consulate in Jerusalem said it decided not to grant the scholarships over the summer after Israel said it would not permit the students to travel. "Because of the timing and risk of losing funding, available scholarships were awarded to other applicants," it said. "We hope to include Gazan students in future programs."

The scholarship program, administered by the nonprofit group Amideast, is one of the few contacts between the U.S. and Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Sari Bashi, director of Gisha, an Israeli advocacy group dedicated to increasing the free movement of Palestinians, said the case reflected U.S. unwillingness to confront a strong ally.

"It's unfortunate and telling that the U.S. government cannot convince its closest ally in the region to allow its scholarship holders to travel from Gaza to Palestinian universities in the West Bank, for fear of clashing or making a diplomatic issue," she said.

Hamas, meanwhile, has also jumped in. Last year, it barred seven high school students from traveling to the United States for a year of study under a U.S. program, citing worries over their supervision.

Ashour said students like her are caught in the political battle and stand to lose the most.

"When I studied in America, I loved how you could travel from state to state without any borders. You live your life," she said. "I can't leave Gaza. Everyone ? Hamas, Israel, everyone ? is controlling us. We are just students. We don't have anything to do with politics."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/15/us-drops-gaza-scholarship_0_n_1967987.html

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Quid Pro Bono: VeryNice and the Business of Volunteering - Ecademy

All too often, corporate citizenship is an afterthought. ?Sure, Fortune 500 companies frequently offer employee volunteer programs and matching gifts, and contribute pro bono work on a massive scale. However, incorporating corporate social responsibility as a way of life rather than just treating it as an extracurricular activity is more often the exception rather than the rule. And oftentimes, smaller companies assume they simply can't make the same impact as the big boys.

On both counts, Matthew Manos of design consultancy VeryNice believes he's found answers.

At VeryNice, pro bono work isn't something that employees do off the clock, with or without incentives. Rather, it's just business as usual. In fact, the company contributes half of its time to pro bono design work for nonprofits. When Manos started the company at the tender age of 19, while still in college, it existed only to provide pro bono design work. While the realities of paying bills in the world caused Manos to rethink his business model, he did not let go of his desire to provide services at no cost.

"Usually corporate philanthropy is a one-shot deal," says Manos, "like a marathon or what have you." Manos appreciates the impulse, but wants his company to be all about finding ways to finance its own pro bono projects. Inspired by Toms Shoes' "One For One" campaign, which provides a pair of shoes to someone in need for every pair purchased by a consumer, Manos set about creating a business model with room to provide services to nonprofits free of charge. Indeed, this is the raison d'?tre of VeryNice. ?Everything it does facilitates giving back, rather than giving back being a side project.

Manos is hardly alone with his prioritization of skills based volunteering. ?Indeed, VeryNice is a pledge company with A Billion + Change, a national campaign to mobilize billions of dollars of pro bono and skills-based services from corporate America by 2013. ?Launched by the Corporation for National and Community Service in 2008, A Billion + Change has already secured nearly $1.8 billion in corporate pledges and 12 million hours of time and talent to pro bono programs. ?The campaign's increasing success highlights how the pro bono movement is sweeping the country, as savvy businesses turn to skills-based volunteering as a way to impact their communities while engaging their employees.

The most common way for businesses to give to the non-profit community is through donations, but the need for volunteering is acute. ?And Manos knew that skills-based volunteering would be a more helpful organizing principle for his business than "day and done" volunteering, benefiting nonprofits in far more substantial ways and also serving as a more rewarding experience for volunteers. ?"I read in Harvard Business Review that nonprofits spend $8 billion each year on services," Manos says, "That was a big shocker and the starting point for figuring out how to alleviate some of those expenses."

So how does Manos build his business model around giving back? He sums it up in a single word: "volume."

Armed with his desire to do good, Manos sought out the ultimate in fundraising ideas: a way to make volunteering and service the cornerstone of his business. He eventually came up with an algorithm that showed him the path to realizing his goal. "I figured out that I could give away half of my efforts and still make the same profits as a standard design firm... provided that I was able to get twice as much work." While this is a challenge, it's one that VeryNice has been able to rise to thus far.

There are other challenges as well. ?Employee engagement is a must when so much of a company's work product is given away. The company collaborates extensively with volunteers to ensure that the services offered are as high-value as possible to both the non-profit and volunteer. ?"We want to give the same attention to a pro bono project as any other, but you can't be as assertive with volunteers as you can be with salaried employees," Manos explains. His solution is to work closely with volunteers in a very hands on way, rather than just delegating assignments and walking away.

No one said that it would be easy, but if anyone is up to the task, it's Manos. With four regular employees, only two of whom are full time, VeryNice has limited resources to move the needle on causes. But his enormous energy and focus provides a template for how smaller businesses can make a big impact. Indeed, despite his company's modest size, community service isn't just a PR tool for Manos, but an imperative business priority. "From my perspective, it's an obligation to give back using whatever skills you have," he says.

VeryNice's small-business success in making a big impact is why A Billion + Change is including Manos in its first campaign event on the west coast, "Envisioning?the Future of Corporate Service: A Discussion on Corporate Pro Bono and Skills-based Volunteerism" on Oct. 1, 2012 at the California Endowment. ?Leaders in policy, academia, industry and civic engagement will gather at this Los Angeles event to showcase how innovative businesses are shaping the future of corporate service to tackle the major challenges of the 21st century.

A list of pledge companies, and information about how to take the A Billion + Change pledge, is available at www.abillionpluschange.org.

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Source: http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=181280

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