Please.

Thank you.

SuperForest is a positivity blog that I absolutely love reading as they too subscribe to the notion that respect and compassion will transform our society. According to their Humanifesto, this transformation all begins with good manners – please and thank you.

Yesterday, the SuperForest community celebrated its 3 year anniversary of good vibes, strong connections, and influential actions. Thanks to SuperForester Carla, some of us got to be a part of the birthday present: a video version of the Humanifesto! It featured members of its community from all around the world – professors, designers, students, parents, activists, artists, … and the list goes on. Check out the video below to see what I mean:

Being a part of this great gift was one thing – being a part of this movement is something even better. Please share this with those in your life and find ways to incorporate respect and compassion to make a difference.

For the generations that will benefit from your good manners, thank you.

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The fanfare of this holiday season doesn’t have to take a toll on your wallet, or the environment. Here are some helpful tips to make this Christmas a little bit greener.

1. Take public transit (or walk) to go Christmas shopping. It may add a couple minutes to your trip, but it forces you to plan your route ahead of time. By doing so, you can actually save money by missing the shops you didn’t want to go to in the first place and by keeping that gas money in your wallet. Don’t forget the reusable bags – less bags to carry is always better.
2. Rent a Christmas tree. Two UBC Forestry alumni have created Evergrow, a hugely successful business here in Vancouver where you can get your very own potted, growing Christmas tree. Since it is still alive, you aren’t killing a tree by having one in your living room and it doesn’t dry out (meaning less of a fire hazard too). The price may be a little steep, but having it delivered and then picked up after the holidays may seal the deal for me.
3. Buy a reusable advent calendar. My favourite are the ones from Thomas Haas (see mine below). Wooden boxes with flaps to reveal a great choco delight every day. Steph got me hooked, and now, with a T.Haas open in Kitsilano, I can see this being a very tasty start to my day.



4. Re-gift it for a Secret Santa. To find great (cheap) gifts for your secret santa, try heading to your local Salvation Army. They are perfect to find that random gag gift or that board game you always wanted (which are now marked at 10% of their original price – great for meeting those price restrictions you usually get when buying for a secret santa). When you go to pick up a couple treasures, be sure to drop off some items for the next person to find. It’s only fair right?
5. Continue your favourite traditions. Whether it be decorating the Christmas tree with your friends, watching the Santa Claus parade, making snowmen with your family, or ordering in Chinese food on Christmas Eve, keep your holiday traditions alive. They create gathering points for friends and family to come together – regardless of generation.

Hope these help you have a great Christmas season … and many many more there after. I’d love to hear how you make the season more sustainable, so please share any extra tips you have in the comments below. Let’s get festive!

Pick of the post: Taylor Swift – Christmas Must Be Something More

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Talking about social impact usually involves mentioning the ripple analogy: you being the rock that is thrown into still water, and the ripples being the effects you made on others by your presence. We can’t see these effects, but others feel them. This was especially true for me today as I was participating in the first day of TD’s Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.

After volunteering out at UBC REC’s Day of the Longboat clinics, I spent some time with my good friend Kimmie picking up trash and garbage from the shore of Acadia Beach. This beach doesn’t have the same foot traffic as say Kits Beach or English Bay, so I was amazed when I found things like towels, golf balls, hub caps, candy wrappers, and old cigarette packs. It was clear that many of these things had been brought in with the tide.

Thumbs up for clean beaches!

To think, an overboard item from a boat out in the bay or a wrapper blown into the water from another beach resurfaced miles away in an entirely different location. Unlike the rock, which has one opportunity to make ripples, this trash made its impact in more than one region – harming ecosystems as it traveled with the tide along its path to the shore.

Facts on the Shoreline Cleanup bag

It is clear that our presence and actions impacts the lives of others – both positively and negatively. That being said, we can choose to have our actions create ripples or we can choose to leave a path. This, too, can be both negative and positive. You can choose to briefly harm your team’s effectiveness or consistently let them down. You can chose to jump into an activity once to leave your mark or be continually involved to really influence that community.

Leaving your mark is great. That single act created ripples of change.
But imagine if your rock never sank and it just continued to skim along the surface.
Your ripples would change the water.

What would you rather be known for: making ripples or creating pathways?

A pathway creater...

Pick of the post: Colbie Caillat – I Won’t

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The sun is out – and so is my list of great summer adventures for 2009! Be them complicated or easy, free or a little pricey, these are the things I’m looking forward to doing from now until Sept 1st.

Disclaimer: the drinks on the patios, ice creams on the beach, bike rides, good hikes, and Bikrams sessions were left out because those are simply summer staples.

1. Go on a European adventure (care of AESU). A little backstage pass to London’s Globe Theatre, a bike ride in the Dutch countryside of Amsterdam, and a little cultural excursion in Versailles… all in a days work.
2. Run around Vancouver in my underwear – for the Underwear Affair that raises money for cancers below the belt of course!

3. Have a night filled with good tunes and new art creations at Raw Canvas. Thanks to Eileen for the recommendation.
4. Go kayaking on the ocean. I could spend all day on the water!

5. Catch the action at Luminato – Toronto’s Festival of Art and Creativity. Plus, I am craving a backbacon sandwich from the St. Lawrence Market in a big way right now…
6. Test out the gyros at Kits’ Greek Day festival.
7. Head to the island to celebrate Meg & Paul’s wedding. (Every summer, another wedding – is this a sign of getting old?)

8. Check out a new piece at a film festival. Don’t know which one yet, but this seems like a fun thing to do, yah?
9. Go camping for my birthday. (Note: REAL camping this time….)

10. Enjoy The Fray‘s concert at Thunderbird Stadium. Get tickets here. (It’s the closest thing to a Jason Mraz concert I could find this summer…)
11. Support local theatre (and Amy Tipton) by heading to Theatre Under the Stars to see their rendition of Annie.

12. Try out 3 new restaurants in Vancouver that I haven’t gone to before. We have so much good food in this city that I want to make an effort to explore it more this summer.
13. Go strawberry (or any berry) picking in one of the Valley’s fantastic farms. Thanks to my sis and Vancouver Farmers Markets (@VanMarkets) for the great recommendations.

14. Have a season finale party of So You Think You Can Dance – easily the best show to watch this summer.
15. Be race support for my sis as she completes the Penticton Ironman at the end of August! What a way to end it all off!

And, of course, every good adventure needs company. See one that catches your eye? Let me know and we’ll make this a summer to remember! Suggestions for other adventures (or enhancements to the aforementioned) are also always appreciated.

Here we go!

Pick of the post: Kanye West – Paranoid (Pocketknife’s House Remix)

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365 days. 1100 miles. $93,000+. And countless running shoes. That’s how Run For One Planet measured this past year.

Matt Hill and Steph Tait have finally returned after a year of running a marathon a day around North America, raising awareness of how to live a more sustainable life.

It honestly seems like yesterday when we were planning their Barn Burner fundraiser. Everyone was so excited, Matt and Steph were full of energy, and we were pumped for the tour to begin.

Yesterday, their official homecoming, was just like when they left. Matt and Steph looked so strong and were in the same high spirits as when they left a year ago. As many reporters would note, they were down right chipper! Steph told me the last marathon in Vancouver was the easiest one because they knew the street names and had tons of great people running with them. Always an easy way to stay chipper!

Steph (sis) and I went down to welcome them home at EP!C and finally get an insider look at this eco-RV we had heard so much about. It was great to see their smiling faces and hear that May 8th is officially Run For One Planet Day in Vancouver. Truly amazing!

Hill and Tait, you have inspired thousands of “pint-sized eco-warriors” on your school visits and many more keg-sized ones throughout your journey. You truly demonstrated the power of a big dream, strong determination, and the belief that everyone can make a difference. You should be SO proud of yourselves. I know I am!

Congrats and welcome home!

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UBC Public Affairs is launching UBC’s new brand in the fall, redesigning UBC’s website, and creating a social media component for the new brand launch. … … We’ve all heard this before. Talk about “using social media” with no real follow-up – just talk about all the risks, why it isn’t appropriate, and trouble defining who is responsible.

Well, they just had to go ahead and prove me wrong! They brought in Social Signal today for a full-day workshop with units from across campus to talk about what social media (not just social networking) would be appropriate and beneficial for prospective students, current students, alumni and donors. (Further discussions with other campus units and members of those audiences need to occur obviously, but at least this spurred some great initial brainstorming).

One of the exercises that Alex Samuel and Rob Cottingham did a great job at was getting us to think about what UBC “rocked” at. We want to highlight those, right? I jotted down some of my favourites from the discussion because I thought they were either very accurate (or just witty). This is obviously not the final (or official) list.

UBC ROCKS AT….

1. Research. The international rankings speak for themselves.
2. Intramural athetics and events. UBC REC has the biggest and best intramural recreation program in North America.
3. Having intelligent undergraduate and graduate students. The profs aren’t the only bright ones!
4. “One university, two campuses.” UBC Vancouver, UBC Okanogan, UBC Robson Square, Great Northern Way campus (…. I count 4. Further integration/promotion is definitely needed).
5. Sustainability. The UBC Farm, Botanical Gardens, AMS’ lighter footprint, Sustainability Office, etc
   
6. Being a great employer. One of “BC’s top 50″ and “Canada’s best diversity employers” in fact.
7. Working in silos. (haha)
   
8. Fundraising. $135 million raised last year for student scholarships, research chairs, facilities, etc.
   
9. Helping students lead initiatives/programs. I think of Residence Life, UBC REC, Peer Programs, and all the conferences that UBC hosts that are all organized and run by students.
10. Providing many resources and services to help students succeed socially and academically. (Letting them know about all of them, however, is not a strength)
    
11. Community Service. Humanitities 101 and the Learning Exchange come to mind.
12. International opportunities. Research, volunteering, exchanges, or just meeting students from tons of different countries on campus.

Teaching was also thrown out as strengths but, even though UBC is working on it and putting energy and resources to improving it (like LEAD and the Carl Wieman Initiative), it wasn’t considered a current strength. Valid.

All that being said, I gotta love UBC for being willing to put itself out there. UBC publishes not only the great, but the not so great as well. And to be honest, as a continuing student, a current staff member, and a proud alumnus, I know that the reputation of UBC is one that will always reflect on me – so I’d rather contribute to making it better than on complaining about how it sucks. No one wants to study at, work for, or graduate from a crappy university.

Good news – you can help UBC rock. Make the decision to make it better. And then do it.
Start by commenting here.

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Chris Guillebeau, author of 279 Days to Overnight Success, writes: “Whenever anyone talks about creating success for themselves or someone else, the first question you should ask is, “What does success look like?” In other words, how is it measured?”

His definition success for his writing career is that he can now introduce himself to strangers as “a writer.” This would mean that a struggling performer would know they are successful when they can call themselves “an actor.” This got me thinking about what title I would want to introduce myself as in the future. I narrowed it down to my top 5:

1. Dream Champion. Inspired by Cameron Harold, I think it would be amazing to be responsible for helping making people’s dreams come true. However trivial or extravagant, each dream deserves to be fulfilled.
2. Virtual Relations Manager. Think a mix between Obama’s campaign manager and an online ombudsmen / connector. I would enrich customers’ connections with the organization online while providing a point person that can help them navigate their interaction with the organization and its many departments.
3. VP Experience. I’d bring together HR, Marketing/Communications, and Customer Service/Client Support to create meaningful and consistent “touch points” for the current and prospective staff and customer base. It would take customer service and employee satisfaction to a whole new level by making their experience with the organization both personally enriching and strategically purposeful.
4. CEO – Community Engagement Officer. A job responsible for incorporating philanthropic endeavours with professional development opportunities for the staff team. Reaching out into the local and international community to provide social and financial capital, while enriching the lives of organization’s staff and those that live next door.
5. Matt Corker. … … My own name. Period. A title unique to me as no one else can be “Matt Corker” in an organization. Your own name is a title of success in itself! So embrace your true abilities and passions and don’t let your job title restrict your potential to be great!

Pick of the post: Jenny Owen Youngs – Voice on Tape (listen here)

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This past week, my sister told me that I was blogged about by one of her favourite Vancouver bloggers Kasia Fink. In her blog post, Kasia passed on the “Love Ya Blog” award to me, which has been circulating through the blogosphere. It’s essentially an awesome shout out to 8 great blogs she reads. (Sidenote: I am always surprised when I find out that people read my blog. It’s just so flattering!) So, to pass on the love and good spirit, here are 8 blogs I subscribe to that I love reading every day. Check them out – they rock my socks!

1. Superforest – An awesome blog about sustainable human achievements with a humanifesto about how good manners will save this world.
   
2. Good Morning Fabulous – Despite my obvious bias towards the writer, Steph Corker Irwin lives a blissed out life and writes about how you can be fabulous too.
3. Brains on Fire – This company helps organizations build movements around who they are and why they’re here. When’s the last time you set your brain on fire?
4. Social Squared – Jess Sloss is another proud BC boy that applied for Seth’s MBA program. When he’s not working at the local mountains, he writes about social media and internet marketing.
   
5. UBC Blog Squad – A group of undergraduate and graduate students who blog about life at the University of British Columbia. My favourite of the bloggers is Pheobe Yu (1st year Commerce) – who I actually met one day on campus. It was kind of surreal!
6. Seth Godin – Purple cows, tribes, and meatball sundaes. It’s a whole new look on marketing, leadership, and design that is sure to inspire.
7. Run for One Planet – There is no better way to follow Matt Hill and Steph Tait as they run a marathon a day across the US and Canada, raising awareness for sustainable living options. 7 more weeks and they are home in Vancouver!
8. Slow Leadership – In an age of instant and constant conenction, I read a couple posts by these folks to remind myself to breathe, relax and love my life and work more each day.

Many of my good friends have also started blogging, so I feel that my next 8 should feature the bloggers I get to hang out with in real life! I can’t seem to get enough of them!

Which blogs would you pass on the “Love Ya Blog” award to?

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I had the good fortune of being asked to speak at the opening ceremonies of Enterprise 2009 this morning in order to “break the ice” and “get the delegates comfortable with networking with each other.” (I don’t think they realized that I HATE networking so my 30 minutes of fun were focused on two things I do to ensure I make a great connection rather than just meet a new contact – but that’s a whole other blog post).

The reason I was so compelled to write today was that the opening keynote was Brian Scudamore, Founder and CEO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK – a company he started when he was 18 and is now dubbed one of the fastest growing companies in North America. He spoke about how three things led him to where he is today: Systems, People, and Vision.

The second factor really resonated well with me – people. Why? I can’t even begin to count the number of value statements I have read that “focus on people” or “put people first,” but don’t even come close to living up to those expectations. Brian’s story was different though.

Even though they have received multiple awards for their dedication to their staff, they have continued to ask all of their employees one simple question: What can we do to make working here more enjoyable? To no surprise, in my opinion, the most recent response was “more vacation time – 3 weeks isn’t enough.”

So what did Brian do? He sat down with his team and listened. Listened to both their requests and to why they would want more vacation time. To spend more time with their families. Check. So what did Brian do? Gave them 5 weeks vacation! He truly surpassed their ask for more vacation. He also encourages his employees to take at least 2 or 3 of those weeks consecutively so they can really have some quality time with family and friends.

But more importantly than simply listening to his people and implementing the ideas they suggest, is that he leads by example. He takes all of his vacation time each year (yes, even the 3 week consecutive period) to show his employees that a) it’s possible and b) he truly believes in his mantra of “it’s all about people.”

A vision is nice. Written words are great. But actions that are aligned to your vision/mantra will remain far superior than anything else. Don’t just say it, be it.

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I was able to attend an incredible event on the weekend called Terry Talks. It brought together UBC students, staff, faculty, and alumni to discuss global issues with a perspective from both the arts and the sciences. If there is one thing I enjoy more than engaging in intellectual conversations, it’s listening to people speak on what they are passionate about! A good presentation becomes great when the presenter is able to engage you with their own interest level and energy.

Interesting things I learned from the day included:
- Studio 801 is doing some incredible work at 29 W Hastings
- 1:10 people in BC are food insecure, hence the growing need for urban farming
- There are drugs that can cure AIDS, but not the HIV virus. The issue is that they are too expensive to be bought by those who need them most. With the help of UAEM, the price for the anti retrol virus dropped from $15,000 to $350!

These inspiring/thought provoking pieces of information were just some of the tidbits of knowledge that made me walk away from the event wanting to grow my own veggies (or join the community garden at Davie and Burrard) and help Geoff’s wish come true.

Kudos to you Terry Team for putting on an incredible event.

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