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The Foundation Council
Leszek Balcerowicz - Chairman of the Council
Economist, former president of the National Bank of Poland (NBP), deputy prime minister and minister of finance in the first non-communist government of Poland after the Second World War; professor at the Warsaw School of Economics (WSE); Doctor Honoris Causa of numerous Polish and foreign universities; the recipient of prestigious awards and decorations in Poland and abroad, including Order of the White Eagle.
Michał Chałaczkiewicz - Council Member
Economist, member of the Society of Polish Economists (TEP). A graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics (WSE) in banking and finance; the winner of the first edition of Lesław A. Paga Scholarship. Currently working as Investment Director for Montagu Fund. The author of publications in the field of privatization in the financial sector.
Błażej Moder - Council Member
A graduate of the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the University of Lodz, with a major in international relations, and specialization in Euromarketing (class of 2006). A winner of the Marshal of Lodz Prize for the best thesis on the Lodz region. A Ph.D. student in economics at the Collegium of Socio-Economics, Warsaw School of Economics. Professionally involved with the public sector. A holder of scholarships of the Asia Europe Foundation, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Liberty Fund and others. Selected to participate in the program "40 under 40" for the years 2013-2014, which brings together young European leaders from different walks of life. A member of the Mont Pelerin Society.
Jeremi Mordasewicz - Council Member
Graduate of the Warsaw Technical University, academic lecturer, entrepreneur. Nowadays advisor to the Board of the Confederation Lewiatan, member of the Social Dialog Council, member of the supervisory boards: Dr Irena Eris S.A. and Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).
Arkadiusz Muś - Council Member
He is a Master of Law from the University of Silesia in Katowice. He started his business activity in 1992 by establishing PRESS GLASS SA company, which he has since developed into the European leader in the area of glass processing for construction industry. Till present day he remains the sole shareholder of the company. A board member of the Polish Business Roundtable untill 2018.
Currently also:
- the sole shareholder of Glass Systems Ltd with its main seat in United Kingdom,
- a shareholder and a member of the supervisory board of Euroglas Poland company as well as a business partner of Glas Trösch Holding AG with its main seat in Switzerland,
- the owner of Rosa Private Golf Club in Poland, a 18-hole championship class golf course in Konopiska near Czestochowa, Poland.
Ryszard Wojtkowski - Council Member
Founder and president of the Resource Partners fund. Entrepreneur and investor with experience in the public service. At the time of the breakthrough of 1989, he was the director of the cabinet of four prime ministers. Later, incl. President of Novartis Consumer Health International in Switzerland and Managing Partner of Enterprise Investors and The Carlyle Group. Currently, the chairman of the University Council of the University of Economics in Katowice and an expert of the Strategie 2050 Institute.
Jarosław Sroka - Council Member
Member of the Management Board of KI One.
An expert in the field of corporate communication and the media market. He has been associated with the Kulczyk Investments Group since October 2007.
Since July 2009, as a Member of the Management Board of Kulczyk Holding, he is responsible for supervising the areas of corporate communication, investor relations, marketing and public affairs. A graduate of the Institute of Journalism at the University of Warsaw. He also studied at the prestigious international school of business leaders IESE Business School at the University of Navarra in Barcelona and at the University of Banking and Insurance in Warsaw. A longtime journalist and editor-in-chief of leading Polish economic newspapers, incl. Gazeta Prawna, Puls Biznesu, Newsweek Polska weekly; he co-created the market of modern business media in Poland.
Member of the Information Governance Council at the Warsaw Stock Exchange and the Program Council of the Academy of Capital Market Leaders. Member of the POC Council and President of PGA Polska.
Former Council Members
Łukasz Wejchert
Tomasz Pasikowski
Lawyer and economist, member of the Society of Polish Economists (TEP). The deputy mayor (1990-1994) and the Mayor of Grudziądz (1995-1998). During years 1998 - 2001 Managing Director in The Ministry of Finance and during years 2001-2007 a member of the Board of the National Bank of Poland (NBP).
Tadeusz Syryjczyk
Doctor of Technical Science; Minister of Industry (1989-1994); Minister of Transport and Marine Economy (1998-2000); member of the Parliament (1998-2001); 2003 - 2007 representative of Poland in Board of Directors of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Since 1980 member of the Polish Information Processing Society (PTI). Co-founder and the president of Cracow Industrial Society. Author of numerous works and publications in the field of economic policy.
Jan Wejchert R.I.P.
A graduate of the Economics Faculty of the Warsaw University; President of ITI Group and Member of the Executive Committee. In 1991 appointed for member of US-Poland Action Commission headed by Prof. Zbigniew Brzeziński. The founder and the first president of the Polish Business Roundtable.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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/Lizzo Says ...
Lizzo Says She's Manifesting A Relationship With Drake
Rebel Nation | August 16, 2021
Lizzo is putting her cards on the table for a relationship with Drake even if it's a one time hookup.
Lizzo is anything but conventional, and when she does something, it's never without meaning. The artist's latest song with Cardi B is an example of Lizzo just stirring the conventional pot as she plays the game the way male rappers do.
It also seems that she's not only doing it to switch up the rules, but Lizzo is actually shooting her shots at Drake!
In an interview, the artist says her namedropping Drake was to switch things up as it's a common trope by male rappers. Drake, for example, is known for his namedropping women in his songs and has done so for a few women, including Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Serena Williams, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj, to name a few.
According to Lizzo, Drizzy Drake was mentioned in her new song to "flip the script on rappers name-dropping, fine women, something society has allowed.
Lizzo sings, "Last year, I thought I would los? it // Readin' s** on the internet // My smoothie cleanse and my diet // No, I ain't f** Drake yet (Ha)."
It might be shocking for fans, but Lizzo says she hasn't been able to manifest Drake into her bedroom. "You know what I haven't manifested yet," she said before adding, "F***ing Drake."
However, as funny as that sounds, Lizzo says she and Drake are cool outside of her song itself. The rapper is the source of many ruthless memes and has reacted hilariously in the past to being roasted, so we're sure that this might just be another hilarious reaction from him.
Lizzo, in the meantime, isn't letting up even though it's public news that he's now dating the mother of basketball star Amari Bailey's mother, Johanna Leia.
She tweeted at Drake, "Hey big head @Drake."
Drake hasn't responded yet, at least publicly.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
'We made a mistake': Oak Island Town Council apologizes after rushing, then reversing, paid parking program
By Ben Smart
Updated: Mar. 6, 2019 at 6:22 AM EST
OAK ISLAND, NC (WECT) - About 130 people packed Oak Island Town Hall on Tuesday night for a special meeting with most in attendance to discuss the debate over whether the town should implement paid parking by the beach.
The discussion about parking in Oak Island did not result in a vote or a decision Tuesday night, but residents shared perspectives with town council.
When asked by a show of hands, about half of the audience expressed support for a paid parking program while the other half did not support charging for beachside parking.
Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Winecoff began the parking discussion by apologizing for the council's quick decision and then reversal.
"You're taught growing up, if you make a mistake, you apologize, so we rushed trying to get this parking in before summer, and we made a mistake," said Winecoff. "I apologize to the citizens of Oak Island because it should be our job to make sure we do it the right way."
Days after selecting NC Parking to run Oak Island's paid parking program for the town's 1,100 spots, the board rescinded the offer after illegal drug charges came to light by one of the company leaders.
"He told us, and he told the people in the audience, that he got arrested for cocaine," Winecoff said. "That's a biggie for us because we know the drug problems down here in Brunswick County, and we felt that was not a good match for us so we rescinded that offer."
The council then discussed the need for parking reform in Oak Island, not only paid versus free parking, but also the issue of street-side parking.
Oak Island ordinance allows right-of-way parking for up to 72 hours.
Winecoff said the recent fire at the Ocean Crest Motel could have been even worse had the inferno happened during the daytime and in the summer, when streets are often packed with cars beside the road.
"The safety of the town is the most important thing," Winecoff said. "If that fire would have happened during the day, during the middle of summer, a lot of these streets you cannot get down because the traffic parked on both sides of them would prohibit fire trucks, ambulances getting through. It would have taken longer for our rescue to get through there."
About 15 members of the public then spoke to the council and room at large about their perspectives regarding parking in Oak Island.
Those in favor of implementing paid parking soon said they felt tourists should help pay for beach renourishment and other projects.
"I think the idea is good as long as we can collect the money from day trippers, and for it to not be for residents and taxpayers to have to pay," said Bettie Thorne, an Oak Island resident of 23 years. "We need the help for the beach renourishment. We do. Day trippers, God love them, but they don't pay any money to enjoy what we are paying to maintain."
Those opposed voiced concerns that not enough information has been provided. Residents were concerned only 200 of the island's 1,100 parking spots are allotted for residents, and they would have to pay for parking if all the resident spots are filled.
"I am against paid parking. The beach is free, parking should be free," said one resident.
A business owner on the island worried paid parking would drive tourists away when neighboring beach communities have free parking.
Other residents took a measured approach, supporting paid parking with certain restrictions like seasonal limits, special accommodations made for residents, and a guarantee the revenue would go to beach enhancement projects.
Council member John Bach emphasized the town cannot ignore the growing population and problems that parking pose, emphasizing the town must take action soon.
In 2020, Oak Island is facing a $20-40 million beach renourishment project, said council.
Council voted to approve a resolution opposing a state bill that would mandate county Alcoholic Beverage Control boards to merge into one. The measure would also privatize ABC sales.
Oak Island's resolution says these actions would take control away from local municipalities and negatively impact the town's revenues from ABC store sales.
"Local revenue from ABC stores operations is important to the Town of Oak Island," the resolution reads. "The Town of Oak Island desires to retain North Carolina's current control system for the sale of liquor and believes that privatizaion of liquor will lead to many adverse events."
Senate Bill 87, titled ABC Law Modernization/PED Study, would also allow ABC stores to operate on Sunday.


A gingerbread man template with areas marked for split pins. This resource allows your pupils to make their very own moving gingerbread man and helps the story to come alive!
A collection of cut out images based on The Gingerbread Man.


text:
Derby Junction Football Club were an amateur football club in Derby, England. They were active in the 1880s and 1890s, notably being founder members of the Midland League in 1890 and FA Cup semi-finalists in 1888. They played at Derby Arboretum.

History

Derby Junction first developed as an old boys' team for Junction Street School, and were renamed Derby Junction Street in 1885, at some point dropping 'Street'. Reports suggest the team began playing at some point in the early 1880s, although the club claimed a foundation date of 1870. In 1882 the club's colours were red and navy blue thin stripes on the shirt with white shorts and navy socks, however by 1890 they had switched to a green shirt with a gold sash, white shorts, and green socks. They folded in 1895 as professionalism began to spread into the game.

Their run to the F.A. Cup semi-finals came in the 1887–88 season. They won all of their ties in the early rounds by one goal margins, received a bye in the fourth round, then beat Welsh side Chirk to secure their place in the last eight. They were drawn against the holders, Blackburn Rovers. The team spent a week at Matlock Baths to prepare for the tie, which was paid for by public subscription.  With a bumpy and icy pitch acting as a leveller, the Juncs pulled off an unexpected 2-1 win to reach the last four. Their run came to an end in the semi-finals when they lost to eventual winners West Bromwich Albion.

Full F.A. Cup Results
1884 - 1885:

1885 - 1886:

Note: The results archive on the official F.A. website shows Darwen as the home team for both the original tie and the replay.

1886 - 1887:

1887 - 1888:

1888 - 1889:

1889 - 1890:

1890 - 1891:

Source:

References

Defunct football clubs in Derbyshire
Sport in Derby
Association football clubs disestablished in 1895
1895 disestablishments in England
Defunct football clubs in England

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Bringing a wealth of experience and expertise to how you can master non-profit consulting is today's guest Douglas Nelson, managing director for the Discovery Group. Douglas shares the value of consistent action when it comes to getting organizations to govern themselves better, work together, and create alignment in their organization. Douglas shares the challenges, obstacles, and the learning curve that he faced when getting started in the consulting business to building a successful and growing firm. He also shares an effective approach to creating conversations with ideal clients and how to build a pipeline of opportunities for your consulting business.
I'm very excited to have Doug Nelson joining us. Doug, welcome.
Doug, tell us what you do and what your area of expertise is.
I'm the Managing Director of The Discovery Group. We're a boutique consultancy-based in Vancouver, British Columbia. We work with not-for-profit boards, senior management teams on aligning governance, planning, and performance. We help organizations identify where they have opportunities to be doing a better job in terms of driving dollars to a mission, performing against their mission, and reporting back to those that support them on how well they're doing in their work.
I've had the pleasure of just watching your consulting business achieve and continue to grow significantly. Take us back though. Before starting your own consulting business, what was your role and career path?
I had been involved in the not-for-profit or social profit sector for my entire career. It started in university fundraising and moved into healthcare later on. I was CEO of the BC Cancer Foundation and then a large hospital in San Francisco. I got to the point where I realized there's got to be a better way for organizations to govern themselves. A lot of boards or CEOs spend about 25% to 45% of their time just managing their boards. That's the time they're not spending on raising money or working with clients or constituents not delivering on the mission. There's got to be a better way that organizations construct with themselves and how they can work together. I set out on a little bit of a journey to talk to as many of my colleagues as I could both in the United States and Canada about what was working for them, what didn't work for them. What I heard back consistently was it was hard to get alignment so that the board was talking about the same things. The management team was talking and the rest of the organization was working on any given Wednesday. I worked to develop a suite of tools to help organizations find that alignment and hold onto it.
That's great that you solicited that feedback from the potential end user ideal clients. Very often consultants have these ideas coming off their corporate career of what the market might want, but they haven't taken the time to validate whether or not that need really exists and if it is in fact a problem. It's great that you not only had this idea but then through conversations, that was a reaffirm for you. You're bringing a wealth of experience and expertise clearly to start your consulting business when you got your start. What type of challenges or obstacles did you face when you first got started?
I'd never been a consultant before. It was a very steep learning curve moving from having been CEO with a couple of different organizations and then moving out and starting The Discovery Group with myself and one other partner. We've added a couple of staff along the way. The learning curve was learning how to have a conversation with clients, how to make sure to be picking up the phone and having those conversations with potential clients and matching the sales funnel to the delivery. When the sales funnel was working particularly well, we were taking on a lot of clients and some deep engaging work. We realized that we just needed more hours in the day. It's been a steep learning curve to keep the business moving and coming in and then deliver it at the level that our clients expect of us.
I have a clear idea about the value that I wanted to deliver for clients. I've been spoken to so many colleagues about what they saw as problems in their organizations. Along the way, I was asking them what they found was successful in working with consultants. What they liked, what they didn't like, and where they've drawn value when they decided to hire consultants. I had a sense of what we wanted to deliver, the conversations we wanted to have with boards and CEOs and other organizations. What was keeping me up at night was how to get to have those conversations. What I found most effective was the discipline of just doing it on a consistent basis. Picking up the phone, sure sending some emails, and sure using LinkedIn.
For the most part, it's picking up the phone and calling people either in my direct network or people that had referred me on and telling them about The Discovery Group, what we're trying to do and asking them if they had similar problems. There were lots of days when I didn't want to pick up the phone. It was either client work to do or I wasn't feeling it, or I was nervous, and I didn't want to get rejected. Knowing that it was my discipline, it was my practice to do that every day or every week. Every Tuesday morning was what I set aside for myself to make sure and make those calls. All of us in the group continue to make those calls. We have our Tuesday morning call outs and everybody does their calls either to check with existing clients or past clients or to identify and continue to build relationships with potential clients.
You've done a terrific job of that. I know one of the things that we talked on is in terms of strategy for you that you've executed on so well here, Doug. A lot of people maybe know that they should be being more consistent with their marketing or just taking more consistent action around their outreach, but yet they still don't do it. What do you think for you and also for your team, as your company has grown, has been the driver? Was it just simply a decision of, "Starting now, we're going to do this?" Is it not a question of not doing it, it's just going to happen? Was there some other driver that became alive within you that helped you and compelled you to ensure that it happens consistently?
There are two answers to the question. The first answer is, my monkey brain was very aware that without clients, the business wasn't going to work. The bank would get grouchy about not getting their mortgage payment and the children would be hungry and those kinds of things. There was that base fear of wanting and needing to be successful. Once we got started, it was the value that we wanted to bring to our clients. We've identified what we believe to be a real problem across the social profit sector in Canada and the United States, which is the alignment of boards and their management teams. This outreach is an opportunity to hear the stories of other organizations, hear other CEOs and board chairs and board members are seeing in their organizations. Even if we're not moving those organizations forward as potential clients or it's going be a long time before they're a client, we're hearing their story. We can apply that learning those situations to our existing clients and add a greater depth of experience than we otherwise would be able to do.
It just comes back to this just has to be something we do. This is something I have to do. There have been potential clients that I know I should call that I've put off for a couple of weeks because I'm not sure how I want to approach it or I'm not sure where to start. Every time I invest the energy and coming up with an excuse to not call that one client or potential client, I'm reminded, "You're wasting time. Just pick up the phone and it's going to go better than you think. You'll know the answer and then you can react what you learn." It is a consistent discipline that I have to keep coaching myself and coaching my team to make sure that we continue to do.
Making this as tactical and invaluable for everyone, how do you approach those phone calls? What have you learned? What have you found to work best to call prospective clients and be able to move that conversation forward?
At the very basic levels of tactics on the monitor in my office. I have a sticky note with the number four on it. It's there all the time. That's the number of potential clients that I want to talk to every week. It's not past clients, but this is the number of new outreaches that I want to make every week and my week isn't over until I've done all of those things. I'm mindful that nobody wants to get a call from me at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, so I got to do it earlier in the week. That's the first thing. The second is, making sure that I understand where the organization is, what their governance structure is. Organizations will tell you that. There's a lot of information available about how small profit organizations are doing in terms of their finances, how they're structured, who's on their board and those things.
You're doing some research before you make those phone calls.
Understanding where they might be in their development cycle. Organizations with new CEOs tend to be very open to change and trying to understand how they can make the organization work better. Once the organizations are into their growth curve and they're focused on execution, we can certainly add value around the margins there. We find that a lot of those clients, a lot of those organizations need to be focusing just on delivering on the plan that they have. We can help them tweak that plan and help them align their board. The other place that we find the organizations in need of our help or open to the conversation is where there's been a long-term CEO. Maybe in the last 36 to twelve months or shorter at the retirement or leaving the organization that's when the board is usually starting to ask more tactical operational questions about how the organization is performing and how it might perform better. Understanding the stage of where the organization is at in terms of its leadership is an important thing for our work and the conversations that we want to have with them to be able to show how we might add value for them.
Do you make that phone call and then ask them those questions or are you making the phone call more with the mindset of getting yourself on their radar? What's the approach that you're taking in terms of the actual conversation you're having with them?
We can only be making educated guesses about where organizations are in their stage. Having that, but then asking questions with the CEO about what issues they're facing as it relates to their board, their strategic plan, and the performance of the organization. Within the first three or four minutes, most CEOs will give strong clues about what issues are giving them pain. Just digging into those and asking questions about how they're approaching it. Being a CEO, I know those jobs are particularly lonely. You can't be as worried or concerned as you may be feeling to your CFO or to your chief of marketing or head of fundraising. You can't admit the vulnerability and all the things you don't know to your board chair because they're your boss. One of the things that we spend a lot of our time with is acting as that strategic thinking partner with CEOs to help them position themselves with respect to the board and position the board itself. Drive that change that they're trying to make in the organization right through the organization.
Doug, I know you've shared with me that your average engagement and consulting project value has increased. People always want to earn more, but they're often not sure how to achieve that. How do things look for you now compared to before in terms of your engagements? How have you been able to create more value, but also being able to extract higher levels of compensation and value for your consulting business as well?
There are two things. One is the steep learning curve of learning how to be a consultant. Now that we've taken on a team, we have responsibilities to be able to make payroll and those things. Learning how to do this work better has been a big part of it. Focus on understanding the challenges our clients are facing and the value that we can give to them. A lot of it has been our own confidence or my own confidence in being able to say the cost of this project will be X instead of Y. What I've come to understand and what I've learned is that when you're asking questions about what's challenging for CEOs and for board chairs, the cost is always going to be less than the problem. The fee is always going to be less than the problem they're trying to solve and significantly so. Just having the confidence to say what the value of the consulting is going to be and saying it with a straight face and sincerity. We've seen our average engagement nearly double as a result of that.
We say this to all of our clients and it's true across the social profit sector. It's true across every business sector. Your results will follow your investments. We need to put the money in before you see the result. The basic common sense. This scarcity mindset of being new at consulting was hard for me to follow my own advice and take that step to invest. We had a couple of clients that required very specialized services of legal nature. We were talking to some organizations about merging and we needed to bring that expertise into the team to be able to answer those more legalistic bureaucratic problems for those clients. What our clients demanded of us helped make that jump easier. For me, the biggest struggle that I've had since we launched the group was when to take that next step. When to add the support to make everybody able to focus more on driving value for our clients? We've decided to do that because our clients have required more of our time, but we have consistently invested just before it was a crisis. The advice that we give with our clients and we know it in our sector, I think it's true across all businesses is that the results follow the investments. You can't expect to grow and then invest. You have to invest first before you can grow. It's hard to follow as a small shop and starting out, but we've managed to keep a focus on that, and it's worked out well so far.
That's my experience as well. I know for us when the first consulting business we started and even later on in other consulting businesses, there's a lot of concern or hesitation around making big investments. Sometimes it's scary but doing that is what's the greatest breakthroughs for us and for many others too. That's good advice.
Looking back, we could have added months. The planning that we've been doing at the start of 2019 here is to make sure that we are investing even earlier as we go forward. As we grow this year, we're going to be investing before the pressure starts to build. The opportunity to work with clients who need our services is there so we're going to focus on that.
One conversation that has come up is the question for consulting firms that have teams, whether to work in one physical location together or spread out in a virtual office. You have a physical office. Your team works there. What's been your reasoning for that? What is the reason for having that verse going virtual?
One of our teammates is virtual but for the most part, I liked the sense of team. Our clients work as teams both as boards and as their senior management teams. A lot of our best thinking happens out loud and in a group. We come together and spend a lot of time with the whiteboard. We're taking notes on defining the problems that our clients are facing and then a path forward to help them manage that. It's how I work best on a team and in a team and it matches the reality of most of our clients.
It's a good insight and it's not one that is necessarily right for everyone. There are some people in some situations where the virtual setup will be better for them and others being all in one place. For me, having a dedicated space is critical. When my daughter was young, there's no way I could work from home anymore. It's just what I had done, but our team is all virtual. It works well for us based on our lifestyles and the way that we run things. Having a dedicated quiet space to concentrate is certainly important for me as well. I have an office outside of the house. I know many others having that team all in one place is the key.
The important thing for everyone is to figure out what's right for you in the way that you work is going to help you to perform at the highest levels. The other question I had here for you, Doug, is that you work in the nonprofit sector with boards and leaders. Sometimes people believe that there's no money in nonprofit. You've clearly proved that wrong. I know your business is doing very well. Even for those that are not in the nonprofit sector, they might be in an industry or a sector where they just find it hard to create a lot of value and earn higher fees. What would you say to them? What's been your experience with that?
The not-for-profit sector or the social profit sector is one of the fastest growing parts of the economy in both the United States and Canada. There are now career programs that people are going to university in order to get into the sector. It really is emerging as an economic force. One of the things that's changing in the sector is it used to be that thinking it's not well for the not-for-profit so being nice is good enough. The reality is the organizations, some of them run on a shoestring, some of them slightly more than that. Nobody's running the fat budgets at all anywhere in the sector. The organizations that are successful have a real discipline about where they invest the resources both in terms of their staffs and the programming and the consultants that they hire. That rigor serves us at The Discovery Group very well. We want to show that investing with us in the work that we're going to do with them is a part of that diligence that they show with the dollars that they have to invest.
The other part of it is there is a real working with boards. There's a difference between social profit boards and for-profit boards particularly public companies. At the social profit boards, individuals come to them because they want to give back. They want to be part of something bigger than themselves and they want to do good. The real opportunity for social profit organizations is to get the professional experience and the personal wisdom out of as many of the board members as much as possible. Too often in this sector, we have people sitting around the table listening to reports and then asking a couple of questions. They don't think about the organization again for another three months when the next board meeting comes up.
Part of being aligned is helping get the very best strategic expertise out of boards as possible. That's how you set up the meetings, the kind of conversations with CEOs in between meetings with board members, how you structure the meetings. All of that contributes to maximizing the value out of your board, which allows the organizations to be more successful when they're running on a day-to-day basis. Our job is to help the CEOs and the boards to identify those opportunities to maximize the strategic time and minimize listening to financial reports.
Even if you're not working in the same space or a space that you feel is anything close to being similar, just take what you've heard if you need to reread and apply the similarities. There are always similarities. There are always things that you can take from one industry or one sector and bring it to another. You start seeing exponential gains or benefits because it's a different perspective. It's a different way of thinking. Apply that critical thinking to everything that you're hearing here. Doug, I want to thank you for coming on sharing some of your journey and best practices with us. A lot to be gained from implementing. I know it's been a real pleasure watching your business grow. I'm sure that as others implement some of the ideas and best practices that you've shared here or at least the mindsets and the discipline, they will see benefit from that too. One question here for you though, before we wind down and it's something that I haven't asked, but I figure I might as well test it out on you. What are you most excited about in your business in 2019?
I'm excited to continue helping organizations find the better way forward. We talk about helping organizations to become exceptional. The more clients and organizations that we're working with, we're seeing more and more how organizations are able to increase what the dollars that they're raising, to live more against the mission. I'm excited to see what 2019 brings in terms of the number of organizations that we get to help become truly exceptional in the space.
Doug, for those who want to learn more about your work, where should they go?
You can find me at the website TheDiscoveryGroup.ca or on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn regularly, so look me up there and connect there. I'm happy to talk to anybody who's interested and who's been starting their own consultancy or certainly anybody in the social profit sector. Michael, you have been a tremendous asset in helping us in our adventure. I want to thank you very much for all that you do to help us find our way.
Doug, thank you. It's been a real honor and pleasure for me as well. If you want to connect with Doug and I certainly recommend that you do. He's a great guy. He accomplished a lot. He's wicked smart. I would take him up on his offer there. You can go to Doug's LinkedIn profile and also his website. Check them on TheDiscoveryGroup.ca. Doug, thanks so much for coming on.


text:
Q: Template class and a private function that has no parameters I have made a template class, and I am defining a private function in that class that have no argument. But it gives some error:
there are no arguments to 'tail' that depend on a template parameter, so a declaration of 'tail' must be available.

here 'tail()' is the function.
Here is some part of the code.
    template <class t = int>
    class circular_list
    {
        node<t> *rear;

        node *tail()
        {
            while (rear->next != NULL)
            {
                rear = rear->next;
            }
            return rear;
        }

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Easy peasy, second day of new qigong practice! I am counting it as a "New" because it is the first habit I have chosen to create as a result of "30 Days New" practice. That's a first, which is just as good as a "New" to me.
Day 12 Results – Sense of peace and calm while doing the practice, and curiosity as to what it will add to my life.
Day thirteen turned out to be very lucky for me. Today I meditated for an hour. It seemed like about 3 hours, but no matter, I did it!
I have been wanting to try meditate on my own for an hour for more than a decade. (Who knows why it took me so long, but seriously not important at the moment.) I use a variety of 25-30 minute guided meditations, including Yoga Nidra and self-hypnosis, both are very satisfying and I will continue to use them, but excited that today I took the leap to 60 minutes on my own.
I can't honestly say I loved meditating for an hour and it was not an earth shattering experience, but it took commitment and a great deal of patience. I like that. I also like that since I have meditated for an hour, 30 minutes on my own is much less daunting. I know I can do it regularly and that makes me very happy.
Day 13 Results – Sense of accomplishment, mixed with pride and the overwhelming urge to give myself a sticker of some kind! Woo-hoo, I gave it a try and I did it!
Wednesday, June 25 was Day 1 of my "30 Days New" – for 30 days I am doing something new or something I used to do, but haven't done in ages. You can read why I got started here.
Today I painted in the backyard. I love painting, but I always feel that whatever I do isn't good enough. I try now and then, but after a day or so I drop it. Pretty silly, I know, but the truth is, when it comes to art, I hold myself to some very silly standards!
Today I reminded myself, once again that it is about the process not the outcome.
Besides, I was having too much fun siting in the sun, straw hat tilted on my head, pretending to be a Monet protégé to let a few negative thoughts keep me from my goal.
Day 3 Results: An hour of fun in the fresh air, with a sassy side of artistic day dreams, topped off with a hatful of confidence and courage knowing I was enjoying the life I really wanted – – less judgement and more creativity and fun!
I encourage you to start something new or return to something old; to gently calm any critical voices that may arise and to enjoy an hour or two, or even just a few minute, of courage and creativity.
PS I am excited about tomorrow, and I don't even have a clue what will be new!


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Tag archive: LGBTQ Archives - Horror Writers Association [ 40 ]
Transgender Awareness Week: "Pronouns" by Pretty Frankenstein
Catching Up With Grey Star of Pretty Frankenstein
Pretty Frankenstein is a Queer alternative group from the San Francisco Bay Area/East Bay, fronted by trans activist/performer Grey Starr. Over the years they've performed many iconic venues like The Fillmore SF, Bottom of the Hill, Uptown, etc, and they've been featured on various radio stations and in publications like EBX and Spooky Little Halloween magazine! They love all things horror and bring Halloween to every show they play.
You can find them online at @prettyfrankenstein3176 on Youtube, @prettyfrankensteinband on Tik-Tok, @prettyfrankensteinband on Instagram, and at their website …
Transgender Awareness: My Gender is a Chainsaw by Jef Rouner
My Gender is a Chainsaw
Gender is a construct. You know, like those killer robots in Chopping Mall. And just like them, it has sharp edges.
It took me forty years to figure out what gender I was, and frankly the question is still far from answered. I recently settled simply on "not cis," and when people ask me my pronouns I answer "he/him will do." It's not me being a melodramatic pain in the ass… well, not JUST that. The mystery and ambiguity of that label brings me back to the gender heroes of my adolescence: …
Transgender Awareness Week: Catching up with Larissa Glasser
Catching Up With Larissa Glasser
Larissa Glasser is a librarian-archivist from New England. She writes dark fiction centered on the lives of trans women, library science, and heavy metal. Her work is available in Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology (William Morrow), Tragedy Queens: stories inspired by Lana Del Rey and Sylvia Plath (Clash Books), and Transcendent 3: The Year's Best Transgender Themed Speculative Fiction (Lethe Press). Her debut novella F4 is available from Eraserhead Press. She is on Twitter @larissaeglasser
What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, …
Transgender Awareness Week: Catching up with Britney Everlong
Copyright 2022 The House of Everlong
Britney Everlong began writing at an early age, her first book being "The Whatchamacallit", written at the age of nine. It would be some time before her first published work, "Pegasus Bay", would come to pass, at the age of eighteen. Now, Britney is a writer, mother, free thinker, occasional actress, lover of music, and all-around weird lady who enjoys writing horror and sci-fi stories in her spare time.
What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, or other exciting professional news you'd …
Transgender Awareness Week: Catching up with Ridley Harker
Ridley Harker is a gay, transgender author and editor from St. Louis, Missouri. His debut queer body horror novel, Parasite, is available now from Ninestar Press and Amazon. Ridley lives in the Middle of Nowhere with his two dogs, a grumpy old snake, and a host of pet tarantulas. He is currently working on his MFA in Creative Writing. Visit his website at www.ridleyharker.com, and follow him on Twitter @RidleyHarker.
What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, or other exciting professional news you'd like to share …
Transgender Awareness Week: Catching Up with Hailey Piper
Catching Up With Allison Church
Catching Up with Hailey Piper
Hailey Piper is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Queen of Teeth, The Worm and His Kings, No Gods for Drowning, Unfortunate Elements of My Anatomy, and other books of dark fiction. She is an active member of the HWA, with over ninety short stories appearing in Pseudopod, Vastarien, Cosmic Horror Monthly, and other publications. She lives with her wife in Maryland, where their mad science experiments are secret. Find Hailey at www.haileypiper.com or on Twitter via @HaileyPiperSays.
What is the latest in your world as a writer?
Transgender Awareness Week: Catching Up with Allison Church
Allison Church (a.k.a. DONALD ALLEN KIRCH) is a Transgender Author who lives in the Midwest of the United States. She is an avid lover of horror, science fiction, and fantasy and will challenge ANYONE on her knowledge of TV "pop" culture. A die-hard fan of "Star Trek," "Babylon 5," and "Doctor Who," she does not believe in the "NO Win" scenario! She LOVES everything about the Paranormal!
What is the latest in your world as a writer? Do you have any new writing news, upcoming projects, or other exciting professional news you'd like to share
A Point of Pride: Interview with Aaron Dries
Author, artist, and filmmaker, Aaron Dries was born and raised in New South Wales,
Australia. His novels include the award-winning House of Sighs, The Fallen Boys, A Place for Sinners, Where the Dead Go to Die (with Mark Allan Gunnells), and the novellas The Sound of his Bones Breaking, And the Night Growled Back, and the highly acclaimed Dirty Heads. Cut to Care, released in 2022, is his first collection of short stories. Aaron Dries is one host of the popular podcast, Let the Cat In, also co-founded Elsewhere Productions, and is a member of both the Australasian Horror Writers …
A Point of Pride: Interview with Ridley Harker
Ridley Harker is a gay, transgender author and editor from St. Louis, Missouri. His debut queer body horror novel, Parasite, is available from Ninestar Press in June 2022. He was also featured in the transgender and non-binary gothic horror anthology Listen (Ninestar Press, October 2022). Ridley currently lives in the Middle of Nowhere with his two dogs, a grumpy old snake, and a host of pet tarantulas. Please visit his website at www.ridleyharker.com, and follow him on Twitter @RidleyHarker.
What inspired you to start writing?
I wrote my first 'book' in pre-kindergarten. It was about an unseen monster …
A Point of Pride: Interview with Mark Allan Gunnells
Mark Allan Gunnells loves to tell stories. He has since he was a kid, penning one-page tales that were Twilight Zone knockoffs. He likes to think he has gotten a little better since then. He loves reader feedback, and above all he loves telling stories. He lives in Greer, SC, with his husband Craig A. Metcalf.
Honestly, my desire to make up stories and write them down goes back so far I can't say exactly what initially sparked it. I think I just fell in love with stories, and once I realized they were …
A Point of Pride: Interview with Damian Serbu
Damian Serbu is an author of gay horror/speculative fiction. After over twenty years of teaching history at the collegiate level, he now writes full time. He lives in the Chicagoland area with his husband and two dogs. You can find him at www.DamianSerbu.com, or keep up with his latest ramblings at https://twitter.com/DamianSerbu and https://www.facebook.com/damian.serbu.
I was inspired to write because of the stories running around in my head! For as long as I can remember, I created fictional narratives and characters in my mind. I found the process exciting and a release …
A Point of Pride: Interview with Briana Morgan
Briana Morgan (she/her) a queer, disabled horror author and playwright. Her books include The Reyes Incident, Mouth Full of Ashes, The Tricker-Treater and Other Stories, Unboxed: A Play, and more. She's also a member of the Horror Writers Association. When not writing, you can find her watching horror movies, reading disturbing books, or playing video games.
My grandfather was a storyteller. Whenever he visited us, he'd tell my brother and me all kinds of stories—some recounted from legends and family history, but most of them made-up off the top of his head.
He also …
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Can Trump and the United Nations Just Get Along?
Report World
September 14, 2017 — Richard Gowan
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Richard Gowan
1Trump's Limited Impact at the UN So Far
2Trump's Failed Offensives
3Donald Trump, UN Reformer?
4Troubles Ahead
Leaders from the United Nations' 193 member states will convene in New York September 19–25 for the opening of the seventy-second session of the UN General Assembly.
President Trump, who has widely criticized the global body for inefficiency and proposed slashing U.S. contributions, is holding a meeting on UN reform with other leaders on the eve of the General Assembly.
Two major diplomatic flashpoints may determine the future of UN action: the Iranian nuclear deal and the rising tensions with North Korea. Both have the potential to split the Security Council decisively, with China and Russia refusing support to the United States.
U.S. ambassador Nikki Haley has won praise as one of Trump's steadier and more internationalist appointees and has developed a good working relationship with new Secretary-General António Guterres, who is also intent on UN reform.
What has Donald Trump done to the United Nations? In the run-up to his inauguration in January, the president threatened to wreak havoc on the organization. Angered by a December 2016 Security Council resolution criticizing Israeli settlement-building in the Occupied Territories, on which the Obama administration abstained, the president-elect darkly warned on Twitter that, "as to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th." During his turbulent tenure so far, Trump has veered from threatening major financial cuts on UN operations to using the Security Council as a centerpiece of his North Korea policy.
As to the U.N., things will be different after Jan. 20th.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2016
The administration's erratic approach to using and abusing the UN has demonstrated little coherent strategic logic. As in most policy areas, it is clear that opposing factions in the White House have nursed very different views of multilateral issues such as the Paris climate change agreement. And while the U.S. ambassador in New York, Nikki Haley, has won praise as one of the steadier hands and more internationalist voices on Trump's team, her influence over the White House has oscillated markedly.
Meanwhile, the UN has a new secretary-general, António Guterres, who is bent on making the organization leaner and more efficient—and whose reform agenda unexpectedly overlaps with the president's. There is a chance, though certainly no guarantee, that Guterres and Haley may be able to translate Trump's anti-UN tirades into a constructive modernization agenda. With the president preparing to address the UN General Assembly for the first time this month, what is the future of the U.S.-UN relationship?
Trump's Limited Impact at the UN So Far
It is hard to draw up a reckoning of the Trump administration's engagement with the UN system to date. Yet three overarching points appear clear. The first is that the UN has proved far more resilient to American pressure than the incoming president may have expected. U.S. diplomatic offensives on issues ranging from the Paris deal to cutting the costs of blue helmet peacekeeping have sputtered out with surprisingly limited effects.
Second, Trump and his advisers have gradually come to see the value of the UN to U.S. interests, even if they are often still loathe to admit this. If the most dramatic example of this has been the administration's embrace of Security Council diplomacy as a means to limiting the Korean crisis, the United States has acknowledged the organization's utility in other trouble-spots.Having trumpeted potentially severe cuts to American contributions to UN aid agencies in its first month in office, for example, the administration has pledged almost $2 billion to efforts to stem the famines plaguing Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen, although the U.S. system has been slow to get the money to the UN in some cases.1
Third, with each flawed foray against the UN, the Trump administration has ceded some of its influence in New York to other powers. In particular, there has been talk of the United States passing leadership on multilateral issues to China.2 This has sometimes been overblown, but Beijing now plays a lynchpin role on at least two issues—North Korea and climate diplomacy—that will be crucial to the UN's credibility.
Reflecting the administration's grudging but growing recognition of the UN's significance, Trump will convene, on the eve of the General Assembly, a meeting with other leaders on reforming the organization that will focus on a remarkably technical set of issues.3 Rather than dwell on the supposed iniquities of globalism, the president will corral his foreign counterparts to declare their full support for Secretary-General Guterres, who has laid out a series of plans to streamline the organization's bureaucracy since taking office in January. Whereas Trump has lambasted the UN in crude terms, Guterres has looked closely at the system's inner workings, and sees a lot of room to trim the bureaucracy.
António Guterres (at podium), Secretary-General of the United Nations, speaks to the 59th plenary of the seventy-first session of the General Assembly, after taking the oath of office for his five-year term, which began on 1 January 2017. Source: United Nations Photo/Flickr.
Guterres's proposals are not uncontroversial. Some non-Western diplomats worry that the secretary-general is simply looking for ways to deliver cost savings for the United States and other big contributors to the UN budget. Yet the mere idea of Trump leading a session on topics such as the role of the United Nations in providing a platform for partnerships that would enable global sustainable development would have seemed quite ridiculous in January.
It is inadvisable to read too much into any announced Trump administration policy initiative. It is quite possible that the president will talk supportively about UN reform one day, only to fire off some tweets attacking it the next morning. There will be more battles over U.S. contributions to the UN budget. But amid the foreign policy chaos that characterizes the Trump era, it is at least possible that the administration is settling on a workable—or even mutually profitable—relationship with the UN. This would not be the first time that a highly assertive Republican administration has shifted to a more positive attitude to multilateralism in light of experience. Having fallen out with the Security Council and then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan over Iraq in 2003, President Bush and his advisers worked hard to rebuild ties in their final years in office.
Yet if there is a chance that the Trump administration will learn to live with, if not love, multilateralism, there is also a danger that it will end up in a diplomatic car crash in New York. If the Korean crisis escalates toward war, the Security Council may split decisively as it did over Iraq—with China and Russia refusing diplomatic support to Washington—doing profound damage to UN diplomacy. Trump and his advisers also still appear intent on finding ways to undermine the Iranian nuclear deal, which could similarly split the Security Council. Less dramatically but still corrosively, the administration has made a priority of protecting Israel against criticism at the UN, an issue on which other states will not compromise easily.
U.S.-UN relations thus still rest on an uneasy basis. The next three sections of this report ask (1) why the UN has proved resilient in the face of Trump to date; (2) whether Trump's support for the Guterres reform agenda could unexpectedly have a positive impact on the UN system; and (3) how broader international tensions, above all the Korean crisis, could still throw U.S.-UN relations into a tailspin.
Trump's Failed Offensives
While Donald Trump was frequently dismissive of the UN on the campaign trail in 2015 and 2016, he never developed a coherent plan to weaken multilateral diplomacy. His one firm pledge (in common with a number of his Republican opponents) was to pull the United States out of the Paris climate change agreement. More generically, he attacked the UN for eating up U.S. resources and criticizing Israel,4 but he devoted far less detailed criticism to the UN than to either NATO or America's Asian alliances.
After his election, Trump reassured internationalists by picking the mainstream but inexperienced Nikki Haley to represent the United States in New York. Trump's negative attitude to the UN only crystallized after the Security Council on December 23 passed a resolution—tacitly backed by the Obama administration—calling on Israel to halt building settlements in the Occupied Territories. Egged on by congressional Republicans calling for steps as severe as totally defunding the UN, Trump promised to target the organization upon entering the White House. Yet he still had no clear strategy for doing so, and he reassured Guterres that he still saw "great potential" in the UN in a phone call at the start of the new year.5
The early months of the Trump administration were a mix of calm and chaos on the UN front. While the White House leaked plans for notional cuts of 40 percent or more to UN budgets,6 Ambassador Haley quickly moved to reassure her main foreign counterparts that she was not a wrecker. On many issues, especially the peacekeeping operations that occupy much of the Security Council's time, the U.S. mission to the UN stuck to pre-existing lines. Haley also made an early imprint on administration policy by taking a hard line with Russia over Ukraine and Syria in the Security Council, off-setting Trump's softer approach to Moscow.7
Although Haley made some early attempts to keep the UN in line—such as clumsily nixing a proposal by Guterres to make former Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad his representative in Libya in February8—the real pressure began when the administration released its "skinny" budget confirming its intent to slash large amounts of funding to the UN in March. In the months that followed, the United States launched a series of diplomatic offensives on different parts of the UN system, albeit still without much sign of a clear strategy. The president announced his intention to withdraw from the Paris Accord at the beginning of June.9 Haley led a concerted push to cut $1 billion from the UN peacekeeping budget through the second quarter of the year.10 She also visited Geneva to warn the Human Rights Council that the United States would walk away from the body (which the Obama administration had cultivated as a space to talk about crises such as Syria and thematic issues such as LGBTQ rights) unless it took steps to block abusive governments from membership and devoted less of its energy to criticizing Israel.11
Nikki Haley, Permanent Representative of the United Sates of America to the United Nations in New York at a 35th Session of the Human Rights Council. 6 June 2017. Source: U.S. Mission Photo / Flickr.
Yet the net results of these initiatives has been underwhelming. Trump's announcement on the Paris Accords backfired as a host of U.S. businessmen, politicians, and civic leaders stepped up to announce their continued support for the treaty. While some observers had thought that major energy producers such as Saudi Arabia might follow the United States out of the agreement, none did so. Instead, Trump was ostentatiously isolated by the leaders of other major economies at the G20 summit in June on the issue.12 Visiting Paris in July, the president indicated some discomfort by hinting the United States could stay in the deal.
In New York, meanwhile, Haley found it harder to impose budget cuts on blue helmet operations than she had hoped. The ambassador's advisers had initially favored strong-arm tactics—such as a threat to veto the renewal of the long-running UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) unless the Security Council agreed to major personnel cuts13—but other major powers pushed back with more detailed arguments about the costs and risks involved. European diplomats, with France playing a particularly prominent role, took a grip on the annual peacekeeping budget talks in May and June. The United States ultimately had to accept cost savings of $500 million rather than $1 billion, and even these were largely due to savings from blue helmet missions, such as in Haiti, that were already shrinking.14
The Trump administration's bluntest efforts to assert itself at the UN seem to have the unintended effect of uniting other governments to defend the system.
This was only a one-year settlement, and Haley has repeatedly tussled with the French over peacekeeping issues in the Security Council. Yet diplomatic observers in New York infer that the ambassador, who has political ambitions reaching far beyond the UN, does not wish to be associated with any financial cuts to UN missions that would put large numbers of lives at risk. While the United States continues to press for changes in the Human Rights Council, and may succeed in persuading more democracies to run for seats there, the Trump administration's bluntest efforts to assert itself at the UN seem to have the unintended effect of uniting other governments to defend the system.
Donald Trump, UN Reformer?
If Trump and Haley cannot bludgeon the UN system into submission, could the United States work with it to improve its performance and save money? There are reasons to think that this notion, which could only seem outlandish at the start of the Trump era, might just work. While Trump has spent 2017 attacking the UN from the outside, Secretary-General Guterres has been quietly liaising with Haley on how to fix it from within.
Trump and Guterres make unlikely political bedfellows. Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister and UN High Commissioner for Refugees, is a lifelong socialist and intellectual with a penchant for quoting obscure European philosophers. But he has been almost as critical of the organization he now manages as Trump has been. Both before and since taking office, he has portrayed the UN system as bloated and poorly designed to address current humanitarian crises, wars and development challenges.
Almost every new UN chief starts the job talking about the need for reform. As early as 1953, the second secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld was worried that the organization's secretariat was growing too large. Guterres' immediate predecessor, Ban Ki-moon, regularly grumbled that the system was not responsive to his demands. But Guterres now faces an especially severe set of organizational challenges.
Humanitarian agencies, which Guterres described as "broke and failing" in 2015,15 are struggling to assist record numbers of displaced persons and refugees worldwide. The UN calculates that it needs over $23 billion to cover its humanitarian operations in 2017, a record.16 Blue helmet peace operations in conflict zones such as South Sudan and Mali lack the political heft and military strength to ensure stability. The UN development system, once the strongest part of the institution, has become increasingly irrelevant.
In recent months, Guterres has rolled out a series of reform proposals with a common emphasis on simplifying the UN bureaucracy and letting it focus on solving urgent problems—such as preventing emerging conflicts—more flexibly than it can today. Major features of his reform agenda include:
streamlining the UN development system by shrinking the number of UN offices—of which there are around 1,400 worldwide—and creating clearer lines of accountability to New York;17
shaking up UN management systems, which currently prioritize process over results, to give UN officials and peacekeepers on the ground greater leeway to act creatively; and
reorganizing the political and peacekeeping departments at UN headquarters to improve planning and oversight for peace operations and mediators.18
Although the details of these reforms are complex, Guterres insists that they will all help sharpen focus on delivering services to the vulnerable in poor countries and war zones by cutting back bureaucracy. Perhaps not coincidentally, they will also strengthen his own office's ability to direct events on the ground.
Guterres is also open about the fact that he believes that the UN should aim to cut back its operational activities in cases where it has little chance of success. He is particularly skeptical of the value of large, open-ended UN peacekeeping operations such as MONUSCO, and has signaled that he would prefer the African Union to take on more military stabilization duties on the continent in future. In this, his thinking has paralleled that of Haley, who has questioned the value of keeping large numbers of blue helmets in countries such as the Congo and South Sudan, where repressive governments view the UN as a foe.
Many UN officials fear that Guterres, who has sometimes seemed aloof from his staff, also intends to curry favor with the Trump administration by cutting personnel in the name of reform. Representatives of developing countries, which remain a powerful bloc in New York, worry that the secretary-general's plans to strengthen his control over the UN system would reduce their own influence over the institution.
It is not fair to say that Guterres is simply looking for ways to satisfy Trump. He had talked about the need to revitalize the organization extensively before becoming secretary-general,19 and probably planned to work on overhauling it with a sympathetic Clinton administration. Nonetheless, he has inevitably been cognizant of the need to work with Trump as best he can. In addition to looking for ways to streamline the UN system, he has been unusually outspoken in defense of Israel for a secretary-general. But while he has been critical of some of the Trump administration's most egregious domestic legislation such as its Muslim travel ban, he has left other UN officials, such as High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid bin Ra'ad, to deliver the strongest messages.20 (Guterres has in fact been quiet on human rights issues much more generally21 and seems to believe that hectoring governments over their records is counter-productive.)
Guterres dropped his guard around Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement, warning that that the United States risked creating a geostrategic vacuum22 that other powers (implicitly China) would fill. But while the secretary-general has carefully courted Beijing, praising its contributions to international development, he underlined that he hoped the United States would not disengage from the international system.
Guterres has focused on building a personal relationship with Haley to offset the Trump administration's initial hostility.
In the meantime, diplomats and UN officials confirm that Guterres has focused on building a personal relationship with Haley to offset the Trump administration's initial hostility. His public overtures to the ambassador have ranged from giving a university commencement speech in her home state of South Carolina in May to joining her for a round of congressional meetings to discuss the UN budget in June.
This courtship seems to have paid off. Haley has given increasingly forceful support to his emerging reform agenda. This includes laying the groundwork for this month's leaders' meeting with Trump, which will endorse a political statement (negotiated with a like-minded group of states such as Britain) that will "declare our confidence in the UN Secretary-General's reform initiatives and encourage him to lead organizational reform."23The Guterres agenda and the reconceived Trump agenda for the UN appear to be converging.
This does not mean that Guterres and Trump will get everything they want. The mere fact that the secretary-general's reform proposals have such overt U.S. backing is liable to make a lot of other countries more suspicious of them. Kacie Candela, a journalist who has followed planning for Trump's reform meeting especially closely, warns that many non-Western diplomats are unhappy24 that they were not consulted well in advance. Russian commentators, wary of a U.S. power grab, have thrown a good deal of shade at the entire enterprise.25
And while Trump and Haley may approve of the general direction of the Guterres agenda, Washington and its allies may quibble with some decisive details. The secretary-general would, for example, like big financial donors to place fewer conditions on how their money is used by UN agencies and commit to predictable, multi-year funding rather than dole out cash on a case-by-case basis. Neither the United States nor other big funders are minded to give up their leverage over the UN this way.
Nonetheless, Guterres and Haley seem to have hit upon a strategy for containing and channeling Trump's anti-multilateral tendencies into something like a coherent plan for UN reform. If the plan comes together, it could offer a pathway to gradually rationalizing the UN's portfolio of aid, security, and development activities without causing the major disruptions that Trump originally threatened to impose.
In the medium term, a more efficient UN could also still be an asset for the Trump administration in dealing with many of the knotty issues on its agenda. The Iraqi government and U.S. forces have already relied heavily on UN humanitarian workers in getting aid to Mosul, and the organization is likely to have a long-term (if politically tortuous) role in the reconstruction of Syria. The president has insisted that he does not want America to get involved in "nation building" again.26 The UN may have to pick up the slack.
It would be ironic if Trump, the ostensible bane of the UN system, turns out be a catalyst for its constructive reform. But even if the president is edging toward rapprochement with the UN, there is a high likelihood that international crises and tensions will ultimately throw U.S.–UN relations into disarray.
Troubles Ahead
There are still multiple potential causes for new tensions between the UN and the Trump administration. The UN's treatment of Israel is likely to be a constant source of friction, despite Secretary-General Guterres's efforts to build better relations with Tel Aviv. Having threatened to boycott the Human Rights Council if it does not cut back its criticism of Israel,27 the United States may find it necessary to carry through its threat if non-Western states refuse to deal. This would curtail American influence over UN talk in Geneva, most likely meaning that the Human Rights Council would become more rather than less negative toward Israel. But if this would be an irritant, it would not necessarily have a major impact on America's standing in the Security Council and UN headquarters in New York, which often pays little attention to Geneva.
The real dangers to U.S.–UN relations lie in Iran and North Korea. The Trump administration appears intent on finding reasons to unpick the Iranian nuclear deal, which the Security Council endorsed in a resolution in 2015. Haley has been active on this front, calling on the Security Council to spend more time talking about Iranian activities in the Middle East and visiting the International Atomic Energy Agency to quiz officials about Tehran's fulfilment of its nuclear commitments.28 To date, the ambassador has not managed to hunt down any evidence that Iran is not fulfilling its promises, but has claimed that President Trump has grounds to accuse Iran of noncompliance.29 If Washington continues to pursue the issue, the Security Council could become bogged down in long debates over the agreement, pitting the United States against China and Russia and perhaps even its European allies on how to deal with Iran.
Whereas the Obama administration focused a large amount of time in the Security Council on Syria and African issues, Korea has leapfrogged these to become the defining crisis for the organization for the foreseeable future.
Nonetheless, there is an even more immediate risk that the Security Council will divide over how to deal with North Korea,30 pitching Washington against Beijing. China and the United States have long tried to maintain a common front over North Korea's nuclear and missile programs at the Security Council, even if there have been doubts about Beijing's implementation of UN sanctions, but Pyongyang's surge in missile tests and nuclear threats in the first half of 2017 hugely raised the diplomatic stakes. Whereas the Obama administration focused a large amount of time in the Security Council on Syria and African issues, Korea has leapfrogged these to become the defining crisis for the organization for the foreseeable future.
The administration pulled off a genuine diplomatic success in early August when it persuaded China and the rest of the Council to sign on to a resolution imposing a new set of sanctions against North Korea, calculated to cut off $1 billion in foreign earnings. The president distracted from this with unscripted comments about visiting "fire and fury" on Pyongyang shortly afterwards. It was nonetheless striking that an administration that entered office bad-mouthing the UN now turned to it for support on the single greatest international security threat that it faces. In doing so, the United States also flagged its dependence on China to find a peaceful solution to the Korean situation in the absence of other options.
Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!
Simply put, the UN's future credibility as a mechanism to regulate international peace and security now primarily rests on its ability (or inability) to help guide the situation over North Korea away from constant crisis and potential military conflict. This in turn rests on China's capacity and will to enforce the Security Council's decisions. While the Trump administration has done well to persuade Beijing to play this role, the Korean crisis has essentially affirmed China's position as a crucial player in UN affairs. But it is not clear that Beijing, although disturbed by Pyongyang's actions, will continue to cooperate with the United States indefinitely. Washington called for even more stringent sanctions on Pyongyang after its September nuclear test, but had to settle for a weaker although still significant package to keep Chinese support.
If the United States appears on course for war with North Korea, China, Russia, and a significant number of other Security Council members are unlikely to back it. A big power crisis could very rapidly undercut the U.S.–UN rapprochement that Guterres has attempted to engineer with Haley. While Guterres has offered to mediate in the Korean situation, he has little if any leverage over the crisis. If the Security Council breaks down over North Korea or Iran, President Trump would be unlikely to invest any more time or capital in the minutiae of UN reform.
President Trump's early attempts to undermine the UN may have been haphazard and unsuccessful. There may be a window for him to make an unexpectedly productive contribution to making the UN a little more effective. But the UN and perhaps even the president are at the mercy of events: the future of international cooperation may now be shaped by decisions in Pyongyang and Beijing, not New York.
Andrea Shalal, "At G20 summit, Trump pledges $639 million in aid to four countries," Reuters, July 8, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-germany-famine/at-g20-summit-trump-pledges-639-million-in-aid-to-four-countries-idUSKBN19T0LC.
Richard Gowan, "The U.N. Is Giving up on Trump The United Nations is losing hope that it can influence President Trump—and is threatening to activate Plan B instead," Politico, June 27, 2017, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/27/united-nations-donald-trump-antonio-guterres-china-215315.
Michelle Nichols, "Trump to host Sept. 18 meeting of world leaders on U.N. reform," Reuters, September 1, 2017, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-reform-trump/trump-to-host-sept-18-meeting-of-world-leaders-on-u-n-reform-idUSKCN1BC5SP.
Sarah Begley, "Read Donald Trump's Speech to AIPAC," TIME, March 21, 2016, https://www.time.com/4267058/donald-trump-aipac-speech-transcript/.
Michelle Nichols, "After disparaging United Nations, Trump and new U.N. chief talk," January 4, 2017, Reuters, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-un/after-disparaging-united-nations-trump-and-new-u-n-chief-talk-idUSKBN14O1ZA.
Max Fisher, "Trump Prepares Orders Aiming at Global Funding and Treaties," New York Times, January 25, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/united-nations-trump-administration.html.
Richard Gowan, "End Times Diplomacy at the UN?" Journal of International Affairs, July 11, 2017, https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/end-times-diplomacy-un.
Colum Lynch, "Diplomats: Nikki Haley Greenlighted U.N.'s Hiring of Salam Fayyad Before She Blocked It," February 11, 2017, https://www.foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/11/diplomats-nikki-haley-greenlighted-u-n-s-hiring-of-salam-fayyad-before-she-blocked-it/.
"Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord," The White House, June 01, 2017, https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/06/01/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord.
Colum Lynch, "Trump Administration Eyes $1 Billion Cut to U.N. Peacekeeping," Foreign Policy, March 23, 2017, http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/23/trump-administration-eyes-1-billion-in-cuts-to-u-n-peacekeeping/.
Nick Cumming-Bruce and Somini Sengupta, "In Geneva Speeches, Nikki Haley Casts U.S. as Rights Champion," New York Times, June 6, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/world/europe/united-nations-trump-human-rights.html.
Angela Dewan and Stephanie Halasz, "G20 closes with rebuke to Trump's climate change stance," CNN, July 9, 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/07/08/europe/g20-merkel-trump-communique/index.html.
Colum Lynch, "Nikki Haley Threatened to Withhold Backing for U.N.'s Congo Mission, Then Blinked," Foreign Policy, March 30, 2017, https://www.foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/30/nikki-haley-threatened-to-withhold-backing-for-u-n-s-congo-mission-then-blinked/.
Fred Carver, "UN Peacekeeping: Big Budget Cuts but at What Cost?" PassBlue, August 17, 2017, www.passblue.com/2017/08/17/un-peacekeeping-big-budget-cuts-but-at-what-cost/.
"UN agencies 'broke and failing' in face of ever-growing refugee crisis," Guardian, September 6, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/06/refugee-crisis-un-agencies-broke-failing.
"Humanitarian Appeal 2017 climbs to $23.5 billion as record 141 million people need assistance," OCHA, June 21, 2017, www.unocha.org/story/humanitarian-appeal-2017-climbs-235-billion-record-141-million-people-need-assistance.
Sarah Cliffe, "The SG's report on UN Development System reform—5 key ideas and 5 questions," NYU Center on International Cooperation, July 10, 2017, cic.nyu.edu/publications/sg-report-un-development-system-reform-5-key-ideas-5-questions.
At the time of writing, the precise details of this third basket of reforms are not public.
"Secretary-General-designate António Guterres' remarks to the General Assembly on taking the oath of office," UN Secretary-General, December 12, 2016, https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/speeches/2016-12-12/secretary-general-designate-antónio-guterres-oath-office-speech.
Kim Ghattas, "The Arab Prince Standing Up to Trump," Foreign Policy, May 2, 2017, https://www.foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/02/the-arab-prince-standing-up-to-trump/.
Bertrand G. Ramcharan, "The missing human rights chapter in Secretary-General Guterres' strategic priorities," Universal Rights Group, August 30, 2017, www.universal-rights.org/blog/missing-human-rights-chapter-secretary-general-guterres-strategic-priorities/.
Richard Roth, "UN leader warns US against disengagement from world," CNN, June 20, 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/06/20/politics/antonio-guterres-un-donald-trump/index.html.
Kacie Candela, "Trump to Force UN Reform Agenda at General Assembly Session in September," PassBlue, August 30, 2017, www.passblue.com/2017/08/30/trump-to-force-un-reform-agenda-at-general-assembly-session-in-september/.
"Divided Nations? Trump's Attempts to Reform UN Could Damage World Security," Sputnik, September 3, 2017, https://sputniknews.com/politics/201709031057049707-trump-un-reform-prospects-analysis/.
Spencer Ackerman, "Trump: New Afghanistan Strategy Is 'Killing Terrorists,' Not 'Nation-Building,'" Daily Beast, August 21, 2017, www.thedailybeast.com/trump-new-afghanistan-strategy-is-killing-terrorists-not-nation-building.
Ted Piccone and Jesse Kornbluth, "The Geneva Shuffle: Shifting U.S. Engagement at the UN Human Rights Council," HuffingtonPost, September 7, 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-geneva-shuffle-shifting-us-engagement-at-the_us_59b1be51e4b0d0c16bb52b44.
Shadia Nasralla, "U.N. nuclear watchdog chief says Iran playing by the rules," Reuters, September 11, 2017, https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-iran-nuclear-iaea/u-n-nuclear-watchdog-chief-says-iran-playing-by-the-rules-idUKKCN1BM1AB.
Nicole Gaouette, Elise Labott, and Laura Koran, "Haley lays out case for US to leave Iran deal," CNN, September 5, 2017, www.cnn.com/2017/09/05/politics/haley-iran-nuclear-deal/index.html.
Aaron Blake, "Trump's big win at the United Nations," Washington Post, August 7, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/08/07/trumps-big-win-at-the-united-nations/?utm_term=.af9264133d17.
Tags: united nations, Trump administration, António Guterres, Nikki Haley, Human Rights Council
Richard Gowan, Contributor
Richard Gowan is an expert on the United Nations based in New York. He teaches conflict resolution at Columbia University's School of Internal and Public Affairs and is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. He was previously research director at NYU's Center on International Cooperation, and remains a non-resident fellow. He writes a weekly column for World Politics Review and has also written for publications including The American Interest and Politico.
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State of the MUD - Aug 2015 - 15 years of KotL!
That is not an insignificant amount of time. A lot of hours have gone into building, coding, paying the bills, reading the notes, developing characters and watching stories play out - from imm to player and back again. We still have a handful of players such as Daklore or Sephrenia who were on our prior MUD, Realm of the Crystal Dragon (RCD). It was a fun game that was made better by the players who occupied it. When things started to fall apart around the owners of the game, Tear and Volo, my wife and I realized that we had simply outgrown RCD. We had our own ideas we wanted to implement. We wanted to treat players in a different way. Some of those things we got right almost immediately, many of them we didn't, but we were willing to learn and adapt as needed.
Of course things were never perfect - and really no game is. Everyone wants different things from their gaming experience, and I learned a long time ago that there was never making everyone happy, but all in all I have been quite happy with what we produced over the years. Over a hundred areas, tons of original code and some pretty memorable characters and stories over the years - some I participated in, many I just sat back, grabbed some popcorn so to speak, and watched them evolve.
Lots of things have changed since we first started. The people on the staff. The players playing the game. Races, religions, Armengar - it was always an interesting balance of wanting to create more and new content while going back on to improve the existing stuff. If we were working from the ground up once again, I imagine we would do things quite a bit differently (the number of Scattered Ashes conversations Thalia and I have had over the years are numerous). Heck, we nearly went in a completely different direction back when Farnite was looking at making a PvP heavy MUD based on Godwars code set in the time of the Dragon-Kalchi War.
Fifteen years. For some perspective - my oldest kid is 19. My son is 16. My youngest? Yup, she's 13. The MUD is older than one of my teenage kids.
My hope this upcoming weekend is to get some advertisement out there in a few players to announce the 15 years, maybe rope in some new players and maybe as a result we will see some things pick up. Of course there are multiple reasons why new players stick it out or leave. Some if it is the writing in the newbie zone - or even color combinations (one player many years ago logged out after about five rooms and cussed me out on open channels for giving them a headache because it looked like someone threw up Skittles all over our MUD). Everyone's different - you can't make 'em all happy - but I much prefer when people are in fact happy and enjoying their time here. The biggest reason why a player is likely to stay or go is their interactions with other players.
MUDs are a social experience - so treat each other well. We don't all always get along, and that's fine - but how it gets handled is important as well. I think the game tends to make a good impression on new players more often than not, but existing players and staff (myself absolutely included) play a part in keeping them coming back. I don't imagine we'll ever see those 50+ a night player lists (unless I cheat again like I did a couple of years ago and log in every one of mine and Gillian's 100ish characters), but we can enjoy the people we do have when they have the time to play.
I can honestly say that fifteen years of running Kingdoms of the Lost has been a great overall experience for me. I don't personally have the time to sink four, six, nine hours a day into building, coding and socializing on the site, but it has been a near-daily part of my life for a decade and a half now. I have met a lot of really nice, interesting people. I have learned how to code (badly I might add - thank you for fixing it all, Thalia!). I had a chance to spend a lot of time writing my own stories and reading those of others. I am definitely not the same guy I was at 24 years old when Gilly and I decided it was time to try and make our own MUD, but I am undoubtedly better for the experience.
Thank you to all of you. Kingdoms of the Lost is the sum of its parts - the people who play it, those who help to build it, individuals who code it. I look forward to seeing you around!


Good morning, everyone! Nice to see you again here in the website! Today, you will see outstanding copy Breitling Avenger AB01901A watches, which are designed for men.
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The page provides the exchange rate of 15 British Pound Sterling (GBP) to Russian Ruble (RUB), sale and conversion rate. Moreover, we added the list of the most popular conversions for visualization and the history table with exchange rate diagram for 15 British Pound Sterling (GBP) to Russian Ruble (RUB) from Friday, 26/04/2019 till Friday, 19/04/2019. Latest update of 15 British Pound Sterling (GBP) exchange rate.
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Wrapping Cars offers an expert Car Wrap service to individuals and businesses, with options to suit any budget for everyone. With a fully fitted workshop, we have expert staff helping clients to save time and money. At Wrapping cars London we offer top quality vehicle wraps, including window tinting and Vehicle Branding. Superbly finished, the cars are perfect, have a brand new look and always shine.


Community Impact: That's the goal of Volunteer Pulaski!
Volunteer Pulaski! is currently recruiting new volunteers for community projects in the Pulaski area. Prospective volunteers may reside outside of the County or Town of Pulaski, but placement assignments are directed to Pulaski area activities. Positions offer a flexible schedule and can be short term, one- time special events, or weekly volunteer assignments. Volunteers can get involved by assisting with mailings, delivering supplies, making phone calls, driving someone to an appointment, light home repair, grocery shopping, running short errands, heavy lifting, light yard work/mowing, paper shredding, and data entry. Volunteers also are able to work with many populations in the greater Pulaski community, including youth and seniors.
If you want to volunteer some of your time to impact your local community, Volunteer Pulaski! would enjoy the opportunity to meet you. The program has set a recruitment goal of adding fifteen new volunteers this year.
Volunteer Pulaski! is funded by the County of Pulaski and the Town of Pulaski and is housed at the New River Valley Agency on Aging. To learn more about becoming a volunteer, please call or email Shannon Cook, Program Director, at 540.980.7720 or volunteerpulaski@nrvaoa.org.


text:
Q: How to set the document language in ODT? Help needed for developing the pandoc tool, namely ODT generation -- https://github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/1667#issuecomment-310770083:

Does anyone know what needs to be done to set the document language in ODT?

A: The German Wikipedia entry for OpenDocument has an example[1] for explaining the ODT format. In the meta.xml file there, you can see the language specified (as German) by
        <dc:language>de-DE</dc:language>

...hope that helps.

[1] Permanent link:
https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=OpenDocument&oldid=166672125#meta.xml-Datei


These cold liquid applied systems are designed for use on all structures ranging from high traffic public access walkways to domestic balconies and terraces. With fast curing times and compatibility with virtually all substrates including asphalt, these systems allow the waterproofing and surfacing of even public areas to be carried out with minimal disruption and impact on users.
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Bible belonging to William Burnes, containing the names and birthdates of his children.
Bibles form key building blocks throughout the life of Scotland's Bard. His father William was an extremely religious man, and Burns credits him with the inspiration for the 'priest-like father' described in the Cotter's Saturday Night. This religious upbringing, especially when mixed with William's fierce desire to see his children receive a good education, would have had a huge impact on the young Bard, although as we see in other poems he didn't always agree with the views of the Kirk itself!
However, this Bible did not just have religious significance. William wrote the names and birthdates of his and Agnes's children inside the front cover, creating a touching memento for themselves and leaving a lasting legacy for Burns's followers in the absence of a birth certificate.
This tradition was later carried on by Robert in his own family Bible, inscribing the names of himself, Jean Armour and eight of their nine children within it. His youngest son, Maxwell, was born on the day of the poet's funeral and so was not entered by the poet himself.
Bibles featured at other key moments in the life of the Bard. This Bible was published by the same printer as published Burns's Kilmarnock edition, and the book would have played a key role in the Masonic rituals young Robert took part in after he joined the Freemasons.
However, it is perhaps this Bible that was the most poignant to Burns himself. As the poet was gathering together subscriptions to support his first volume of poetry in 1786, he began an intense love affair with 'Highland Mary', probably a woman called Margaret Campbell. The Bard presented Mary with this two volume Bible, which some believe may have equated to a form of marriage vow. Inside the volume is Robert Burns's Masonic mark, the words 'Robert Burns Mossgavill' and some Bible verses in the poet's handwriting. A lock of hair which is thought to be Highland Mary's was also found in the volume.
However, the affair was destined to be short-lived. Soon after receiving the Bible, Margaret set out to Greenock to visit her family, and died shortly afterwards, possibly while giving birth to Burns's child. In many roles, be it recording birthdays, forming the centrepiece of ritual, or constituting a heartfelt gift to a lover, the 'Christian volume' (The Cotter's Saturday Night) really did constitute a theme in the life of Robert Burns, and features prominently in RBBM's collections.
This entry was posted in Object Focus and tagged Bible, Highland Mary, John Wilson, Kilmarnock, Object Focus, Robert Burns, William Burnes.