Still Writing

Now seems like as good as any time to do some more writing.

To my knowledge it is Tuesday night. I'm not sure if the population of Madison knows this. Should there be lines at 11:50 pm? I would say no. On an unrelated note if you are going to send a text to the wrong number it is a good idea for it to be three time zones earlier so at least you are not waking them up.

What I learned today. I learned that if you only have 1 hour worth of material it is probably a good idea not two make 3 hours worth of slides. Especially if you are not even going to use them. I find it very annoying when presenters skip over the slides they have prepared. Now on the plus side I did have time to make flash cards on their material during the presentation so that is good. What I also learned is that I should write at an eighth grade level because heaven forbid we expect people to learn how to read and think at a higher level. I understand it is difficult but no one said that life would be easy. If life was easy we would not have to work every day.

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹ By the sweat of your brow
    you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
    since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
    and to dust you will return.”

One more day of class and then the exam. I hope my flash cards pan out. It is a multiple choice test so how hard can it be. Time will tell.

Day 4.5

So you are saying to yourself Tim I check 1.5 days ago and you posted nothing what is the story morning glory. The story is that I am busy with class. This is a great learning adventure. Based on business cards I have met 20 people out of 97 but I would say that it is closer to 40. The trick is keeping everyone's name straight. That is the beauty of name tags. As I tell my tellers (quote) "You use the tricks to find out what their name is and then you use their name." Remembering names is easy. You just have to use them. Most people love to hear their name (they may not realize this but when you use it they appreciate it). It also works to remember facts about them like where they are from or something that has happened in their life. Sometimes you have to use associations like "Hey you look like my grandma's pastor, I will call you pastor Jon." If you try, names are easy to remember. It's like shooting a free-throw. You envision the ball going through the hoop and you use positive talk to reinforce your abilities. If you say, "I am bad at remembering names" then you will be bad at remembering names. If you say, "I am good at remembering names and this is how I do it..." then you will be good at remembering names.

Tonight I met:
Paul (half Irish)
Jeff (CEO from Cleveland)
Jane (not Liz, this is an inside joke with myself)
Hannah (from Colorado)

It always pays to be positive.

CUNA Management School Day 2.5

Apparently I am on a writing streak (you be the judge I am writing on consecutive days).

So day two.five we go up to the Dells and do a challenge day to improve our relationships. It was good and very hot. Climbed the wall, walked on ropes, rolled tennis ball down pipes, traversed islands, wrote a letter for future me (hello God loves you), and got nominated for class officer (we will see how the votes play out). What a great group of people to do this with. It was an excellent way to delve deeper in the relationship building at the school. It also reiterated for me the CU difference. We come from a diverse background of many different CU's but work together as a team. I would like to see a bunch of bankers do that. I hope future me likes the note.

People I have met (only first names and no CU' names):
My Stanford Bank Team:
Justin
Doreen
Shanon
Dia
and Myself of course


Carmen
Val
Kassi (Pronounced Casey and it may be misspelled anyway)
Brian
Mike
Rich
Rich
Bob
Ed
Heather
Josh
Tim (not me and not the other tim)
Beth
Nicole
Amanda
Lenord
Tina
Brittnay
Shannon (different then above)
Trish
Amelda
Chris
Joel
Jason
Noel
Josh (there is more than one)
Damon
Stephanie  

There are 98 in my class including myself so for day 2.5 not a bad start.

People not in my class:
John
Jeff
Eric
Meghann


That is all for day 2.5. A good day with great new experiences.

CUNA Management School

I'm am in Madison for two weeks for CUNA Management School. Day 1.5 down. So far a lot of good information. We have started the Stanford Bank game (but we are running CU's so they should probably rename it). So far after 1 quarter and only making 1 page worth of 3 pages of decisions we are in 2nd to last place for our peer group. The good news is that we made 3 pages worth of decisions for this next quarter today. Also we grew where we were expecting to grow and shrunk where we wanted to shrink so we are going in the right direction. It may take a few quarters for our plan to work. Hopefully we are really in a declining rate environment otherwise we will have to pick up some more long term CD's to balance our portfolio.

Some quick CU History:

• F Hermann Schulze-Delitzch promoted Co-op principals in Deutschland in the 1840s
• Friedrich W Raiffeisen is known as the father of the Credit Union movement (also in Deutschland)
• Louise McCarren Herring is known as the mother of the Credit Union movement and organized more than 500 Credit Unions
• Edward Filene (creator of Filene's basement) was a Boston merchant and founder of the U.S. Credit Union movement
• Roy F Bergengren grew Credit Unions in the U.S. from 199 to 3372

If you are good tomorrow I may tell you about the difference between a bank and a Credit Union (hint CU's are better for people).

Week in Review

It has been a week and you are saying to yourself no new writings. Well that is not true. I started one but need to put some polish on it before posting it. It has to do with tithing. Trust me it is decent. I mean not too bad at all but not postable yet. I have also written some stuff on Facebook and MySpace so that must count for something. I think that I may have even Tweeted something deep (https://twitter.com/timpbart).

This past week moved at a normal pace. I would say that it felt like about 166 hours so far give or take. I accomplished what I needed to at work and I am now ready for the next two weeks.

I feel that I should also provide some useful information so here is the list of countries AmericInn recognizes:

Afghanistan
Aland Islands
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Cocos Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Congo - Brazzaville
Congo - Kinshasa
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Ivory Coast
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, North
Korea, South
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Libya
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macao
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia
Moldova
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
Northern Mariana Islands
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestinian Territory
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Reunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Barthelemy
Saint Helena
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome and Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Serbia and Montenegro
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Somalia
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sudan
Suriname
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syrian Arab Republic
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks and Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Uruguay
USA
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands, British
Virgin Islands, U.S.
Wallis and Futuna
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

246 in all. If you are feeling bored search out one of them on the internet and learn more. I'm not sure if this is better writing but it is a work in progress.

The Start of My New Writing Adventure

I have been thinking in my head for a while that I really need to commit to writing more. This is the beginning of that commitment. I have a lot of great ideas in my head and need to start putting them somewhere. (Note: if you see an idea that you like feel free to offer me money and I may allow you to use it).

I am constantly coming up with inventions but have no technical expertise outside of wood working and minor home improvement projects. This makes inventing tough. I'm pretty sure I need to commit more time to this also and less the the TV. The problem with that is when I am tired I revert to watching the BoobTube instead of doing something. I know that if I make myself do something I will not be tired. So consider this my commitment to do something vs vegging out on the couch.

This has been a profound first attempt at writing again. I'm glad to share this with the world and cannot wait for lots of input. For the time being I will call this good and make better plans for my next writing endeavor.

Running

I have been running for as long as I can remember. Well that is not entirely true. If I think real hard and I count on my fingers I can think of when I started running. It must have been 5th grade. My Aunt Helen was a runner and I really liked my Uncle Darrell & Aunt Helen (well I still do like them, heck I just live down the block from them). They were my motivation for running. They even gave me a great running book that had a tracking calendar and everything. I even used if for a while. 

Running was easy when I was young because the subdivision that I lived in was a square mile. So all I had to do was run down to one end of the subdivision and back and that was two miles. Like I said easy. It was my goal when I was young to run around the entire subdivision (4 whole miles). I did it a couple of times and I was so tired when I was done. Now look at this year I ran in 3 half marathons and a 10k. It has been a good year. Anyway I just felt like writing about running for a while.