Wesley Owen

At this stage we still have no clear information about the future of the abandoned branches of Wesley Owen beyond the administrators’ statements issued before Christmas that they intend to continue trading “for the foreseeable future”:

Cash told The Bookseller the remaining stores would “continue to trade for the foreseeable future.” He added: “I am hoping that there will be a solution for the majority of the 26 stores… there is a healthy degree of interest.”

However, a resolution is not expected until the second week of January at the earliest. Cash explained: “While 14 of the retail outlets are now being operated by CLC and Koorong, we are keen to explore interest in the remaining 26 stores with a view to securing a future in the medium to long term. Each of the stores are currently continuing to trade under our control.”

- From: Competitors save 14 Wesley Owen branches
The Bookseller, 21/12/2009

Wesley Owen Link

In an attempt to make it easier to keep track of any developments or concerns on a branch by branch basis, I have now set up a dedicated Wesley Owen section on this blog — with separate pages for each branch being added over the next few days — where comments, prayer requests and other information may be posted. You’ll find the link in the navigation bar, top-right on every page, between “Updates” and “What’s On” as shown in the screenshot here. Please feel free to take advantage of these pages, and encourage the staff at the branches to look in and post their own messages if they so wish.

CLC

Good news has emerged about those working at the branches taken on by CLC: thank you to Phil Burnham, CLC’s UK Director, who left the following comment on New Year’s Day, confirming that CLC UK has amended its constitution to allow it to employ people and that the Wesley Owen staff have been taken on under TUPE regulations:

Hello and a very blessed New Year to one and all. I came across this Blogsite a couple of weeks ago and it’s been an interesting read.

Yes, CLC is still out there and is very much alive. Booksellers need to know that we are in a position to help them with their supply chain difficulties. Indeed, many have already contacted us and are now enjoying the benefits. Among other things, we offer same day despatch, competitive terms and good service. To open a trade account, email accounts.received AT clcwholesaleuk.com for further information.

To reply to a point raised by Phil Groom on Dec.19 re CLC’s staffing policy in taking over six WO shops, yes, there has been a change. In fact a big change. It just so happens that one of the amendments to our Constitution this past spring was to enable employment… Hmmmm, did the Lord know something at the time that we did not?

Phil was right in his observation when he wrote that CLC UK does/did not employ its staff. This means we can keep more bookshops open on the high street, and we can support international literature initiatives. Re UK volunteer workers, while CLC can cover some costs, other support comes from…. wherever the Lord provides. Some of our shop closures in recent years have been due to the lack of personnel. Since fulltime recruits were still being noticed by their absence, provision was made within constitutional changes to be able to employ people just in case, while at the same time we have continued recruiting along traditional lines, ie via part-funded volunteers. Little did we know what was over the rise in the road.

We have been greatly saddened in recent years to see so many other shops closing down and we have felt powerless to step in when asked at various times if we could do something. But with the trickle suddenly becoming a torrent we saw the need to act. While respecting our traditions and our values, we simply could not sit back any longer and watch yet more Christian bookshops close down because CLC doesn’t pay its workers. CLC has ministries in 56 other countries and was an employer everywhere else except in the UK. Even CLC USA have some employees. Like our colleagues over the pond we now have a hybrid system comprising both supported and paid staff. We have always been just as missionary minded and sacrificial in our outlook in those nations where salaries are paid as we are here in the UK in order that our purpose statement can be fulfilled. In short, CLC is now an employer in the UK too by taking over shops that have employees in them. TUPE regulations prevail in this sort of scenario. There is no alternative.

CLC UK has taken a huge step in all this. And though it is one that raises a whole load of issues for CLC as a mission, for our individual members, and even perhaps for some of our supporters, the leadership have taken it in full confidence and assurance of faith that it is the right thing to do before God and His Church at this time.
By the way, we still need those full time volunteers previously alluded to for a number of existing roles. And yes, they will need some personal financial and spiritual support……..

For more information on CLC, including my email address, please go to http://www.clc.org.uk

Phil Burnham, Director, CLC International (UK)

Don’t miss the 1st annual REFUGE Conference at Connection Life Church!!! I’m super excited about it because it’s going to be an awesome time with great worship and amazing speakers as well as equipping workshops.

THIS first year will be especially special as it doubles as a 10 Year Reunion for Strong Tower Youth Ministries.

That’s right, it’s been 10 years since Pastor Kevin & Kristie transitioned out of youth ministry and it’s time to bring the “old school” youth back together!

Enjoy original ST worship, some shared memories and lot’s of fun!!!

————————————-
Start Time: Friday, May 28, 2010 at 7:00pm
End Time: Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 11:30am
Location: Connection Life Church | Salem, OR

Friday
5:30PM – Registration Opens
7:00PM – Opening Session

Saturday
9:00AM – General Session
10:30AM – Workshop #1
11:45PM – Lunch Break
1:30PM – Workshop #2
2:30PM – Special Strongtower Reunion Session (Open)
4:30PM – Dinner
6:00PM – General Session

Sunday
10:00AM – Closing Session
12:00PM – Strongtower Luncheon Event (Private – By Invitation Only)

—————————-
For inexpensive hotel accommodations, please contact Pastor Kevin.
Nice single suites as low as $38.95 nightly.
Book a full suite for your family at only $48.95 nightly.

This hotel is only a few blocks away from the church and the best value in Salem!
http://hotels.crosslandstudios.com/Reservations/SelectRoom.html?sid=6160ad8c-bc5a-4ff0-bab7-c5e26fc94e8b

To RSVP via Facebook, click here.

——————
Please share this post anywhere.

Press Release - Carlisle, 21st December 2009 (pdf, 102kb)

Details of the new ownership of IBS-STL UK’s three trading divisions have now been confirmed in an official press release issued today (full text below | pdf, 102kb) as follows:

• Authentic Music has been bought by Kingsway Communications.
• Authentic Book Publishing and 8 Wesley Owen Stores (Bath Birmingham, Bristol, Bromley, Coleraine, Derby, Glasgow and York ) have been sold to Koorong. Koorong has purchased all of the Authentic and Paternoster intellectual property and author contracts, the freehold properties in Glasgow and York, the Wesley Owen trading name, and the domain name, wesleyowen.com.
• STL Distribution has been purchased by John Ritchie Ltd, which has taken on all of the Carlisle properties, intends to retain Carlisle as a major base of operation and will continue to trade as STL Distribution.
• A further 6 Wesley Owen stores (Bolton, Cambridge, Coventry, Guildford, Kingston and Stockport) have been acquired by CLC International (UK).

The remaining Wesley Owen stores are in administration but will continue trading whilst discussions continue with local groups which have expressed interest in taking on branches in their areas. Other expressions of interest would be welcome:

The administrators are keen to secure future trading from as many of these premises as possible and would welcome any expressions of interest.

Reports Roundup (most recent first, updated 7.45pm, 23/12/2009)

• Biblica sale update – including departure of Gareth Russell from Authentic! Everything Christian, 23/12/2009
• IBS-STL announces sale of Authentic, STL and Wesley Owen stores: Christian Today, 23/12/2009
• Strong Future for Authentic Publishing: Tony Watkins, 23/12/2009
• Recession hits Wesley Owen: Dave Derbyshire, 22/12/2009
• IBS-STL UK sale details announced: Christian Retailing, 21/12/2009
• STL (UK) Broken Up and Purchased By Koorong, Kingsway, CLC and Others: Christian Book Shop Talk, 21/12/2009
• CLC take over Cambridge Wesley Owen Shop: Bishop’s Blog, 21/12/2009
• IBS-STL UK Trade Announcement: STL Blog, 21/12/2009; also posted in the STL Trade Email Archive and at wesleyowen.com
• IBS-STL UK to be broken up: Clem Jackson, Christian Marketplace, 21/12/2009 | Copy of Press Release (Word doc, 26kb)
• Competitors save 14 Wesley Owen branches: Victoria Gallagher, The Bookseller, 21/12/2009 | All Bookseller reports tagged ‘Wesley Owen’
• Press release outlines the future for Wesley Owen, STL and Authentic: Dave Walker, Church Times Blog, 21/12/2009

Full text of the press release follows:

Press Release: Carlisle December 21st 2009

The Board of Trustees and Senior Management of leading Carlisle-based Christian Charity, IBS-STL UK, formerly known as STL are pleased to announce the sale of two of its three trading divisions: Authentic Media and STL Distribution, as well as the sale of a significant number of its retail stores that comprise the third trading division: Wesley Owen.  A large number of jobs have been secured as a result of the sale and the Charity’s mission of ‘Advancing the Christian Faith’ will continue.

The management team has worked closely with the Baker Tilly Corporate Finance LLP over the last month to secure the sale of all or part of the Charity’s business units. Completion of the sale agreements is expected to be finalised by the weekend with the new owners taking control immediately thereafter. This is regarded as extremely good news and ends a period of uncertainty and anxiety for many of our employees.

The sale details are as follows;

• Authentic Music based in Milton Keynes has been bought by Kingsway Communications operating from Eastbourne.
• Authentic Book Publishing and 8 Wesley Owen Stores (Bath Birmingham, Bristol, Bromley, Coleraine, Derby, Glasgow and York ) have been sold to Koorong, which is owned by the Bootes family. Based in Sydney, Koorong has 18 stores operating successfully throughout Australia. It has purchased all of the Authentic and Paternoster intellectual property and author contracts, the freehold properties in Glasgow and York, the Wesley Owen trading name, and the domain name, wesleyowen.com.  They plan to continue to operate from the Milton Keynes area.
• STL Distribution has been purchased by John Ritchie Ltd a rapidly expanding book publisher and distributor based in Kilmarnock, Scotland. John Ritchie Ltd has purchased all of the Carlisle properties and intends to retain Carlisle as a major base of operation. The business will continue to trade as STL Distribution. John Ritchie Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Lord’s Work Trust which has substantial resources and supports Christian outreach and projects around the world.  All profits from the business are returned to the Trust.
• A further 6 Wesley Owen stores (Bolton, Cambridge, Coventry, Guildford, Kingston and Stockport) have been acquired by CLC International (UK) whose head office is in Alresford, Hampshire, and whose stores operate as CLC Bookshops.
• There are ongoing discussions with a number of local groups interested in retaining their local Christian Bookshop.  This may take some time to progress. In the meantime the administrators are continuing to trade from each of the remaining 26 stores. The administrators are keen to secure future trading from as many of these premises as possible and would welcome any expressions of interest.

In each case the new owners will purchase the assets of the parts of the business; no one is taking over responsibility for the IBS-STL UK charity which regrettably will be put into Administration for an orderly wind down.

Commenting on the sales, Keith Danby Chief Executive said, “I am delighted with the developments. I could not have imagined 5 weeks ago such a positive outcome. All along we have had three goals in mind; the continuity of the distribution of Christian resources, safeguarding as many jobs as possible, and finding purchasers who would invest in the businesses and take them to a new level. We believe all of the purchasers fit these aspirations and we wish them every success going forward.”

Danby went on to pay tribute to all the staff, saying, “this has been a very difficult time for all of our staff around the country. Some have worked for the Charity for almost 20 years. They are dedicated, hardworking and passionate about the mission of the Charity. It has been a very difficult year for everyone and the uncertainty of the last month has created extraordinary anxiety for people with families, financial commitments and obligations yet they have continued to fight for the survival of the company and done their very best to keep going.”

Michael Fitch, Chairman of the Board of Trustees also stated his delight, “the work of Authentic, STL Distribution and Wesley Owen is very important in advancing the Christian faith in the UK and we are delighted that this work will continue under the ownership of these high calibre operators. I want to also thank all of the employees for their hard work under difficult circumstances”.

Ken Munro, CEO of John Ritchie Ltd, emphasised the importance of continuity in the existing business and his confidence with regard to the future prospects of the newly extended group.  “Our immediate goal is to quickly return the business to the levels of service and stability that STL Distribution customers have enjoyed over many years.  We will achieve this building on the existing team and infra-structure as the foundation of our future success”. He added “I am confident that this significant acquisition for John Ritchie Ltd will ultimately support and strengthen the CBC trade in the UK, and trust that the future prosperity of the business will make a significant contribution to the on-going mission and objectives of our parent Trust”.

Russell Cash, Partner at Baker Tilly Restructuring & Recovery in Manchester, said, “We are delighted that such a successful outcome has been achieved. We have worked closely with a number of people within the business over several weeks and have been impressed with the commitment and attitude displayed by everybody we have encountered. I am particularly pleased that so many jobs have been preserved and I wish everybody connected all the very best for the future”

“The sales which have been secured are to parties who are well placed, and extremely keen, to continue to operate the business within the traditional core values adopted by IBS-STL over many years.

“Whilst 14 of the retail outlets are now being operated by CLC and Koorong, we are keen to explore interest in the remaining 26 stores with a view to securing a future in the medium to long term. Each of the stores are currently continuing to trade under our control”

Phil Burnham, CLC’s National Director, said, “CLC’s acquisition of these bookshops, whilst presenting us with a number of challenges in the short term, also give us the opportunity to further fulfil our purpose statement. We are committed to keeping these six Christian witness and resource centres open on the high street. In the light of so many bookshop closures throughout this year CLC considered it necessary to act. While on the one hand I wish that we at CLC could have done more, to have done nothing would have filled us with remorse. We continue to pray for our colleagues in the trade and at IBS-STL, each affected to a greater or lesser degree by the recent unfortunate events”.

Ends

36 members of CAW Local 252, went on strike on Nov 22nd 09, after the
employer refused to withdraw concessionary demands off the table. Such
as ;

Phasing out sick days

Overtime Premium after 40 hours rather than after 8 hours as it is
currently paid out.

New hire rates to be $5 an our less with no move to top rate ( two tier)
etc.

Our members would appreciate assistance for a Third Party Mass Info
Picket to take place on Tuesday Dec. 15th 09. At 6 AM The address is :
BRANNON STEEL
12 Tilbury Cres
Brampton
Off Orenda Rd / west of West Dr.

Seven hundred and fifty (750) government employees, most of which were full-time with benefits and pension plans. How many Serco DES employees are currently on strike? Well, after imposing a 15% pay cut and taking away their pensions, Serco DES has whittled down its workforce to about five hundred (500). However, they haven’t stopped there. They’ve turned formerly good jobs into marginal employment: 50% of Serco DES employees are now part-time with no benefits, with no guaranteed number of hours each week, and Serco DES is seeking to convert more employees into part-timers.

So out of the original 750 good jobs, 250 have been lost entirely. Of the remaining 500, the company has marginalized 250. That means that only a third of the original jobs remain. So, did the Conservative government succeed in creating a climate for job creation? Clearly not. The privatization of driver testing in Ontario has decimated hundreds of jobs in the province.

Which brings us to the public interest. With hundreds of jobs eliminated and marginalized, the province and the communities where these workers work(ed) have seen a decline in tax revenues. Local economies will have seen a decline proportionate to the decline in spending power of these workers. The ripple effects of job loss and job marginalization in communities are widespread. Is that in the public interest?

Hillsong Church's City Campus in Sydney's Waterloo area

It would be a phenomenon that I would observe in many others places on these travels – Redding, Seattle, New York – but I saw experienced and saw it at work first at Hillsong Church Sydney. It was not new to me, but often it seems to make a real difference seeing things work in the flesh compared to reading about them in a book, or hearing them described in a seminar.

What I saw was simply this – Hillsong Church, like many others, is evangelizing and growing most effectively through a campus strategy. What I mean by this is that the church does not seek to grow one meeting in one place by trying to make that meeting serve all kinds of needs, and overcome all the multiplicity of cross-cultural mission issues that are commonly found in any cosmopolitan metropolis these days. Neither does the church just seek larger meeting places in order to accommodate more people. Certainly it can already accommodate thousands. But even a mega-church needs to keep advancing and growing in order to fulfill the great commission, and Hillsong does not look to do this through just seeking to attract more people to its current services. No, instead the church seeks to reach and serve as many people as possible by providing as many options as possible for as many people as possible to experience the presence of God in a church service, hear the Gospel, be included in a spiritual community, feel like they belong, engage, etc.

This is achieved through establishing fresh congregations or campuses. Depending on how you define your terminology, these refer to different times and locations of services. I tend to mean the following by these terms:

campus = a separate geographical venue or location for a church gathering

congregation = a particular group of people meeting at a specific time

Hillsong has been innovative and flexible with its strategy in these areas over the years. Obviously because it sees itself as a city church and thereby reaches out to a cosmopolitan area inhabited by multiple millions, there are many differences between the manner in which this church goes about things and the way in which we might do things as a church on a rock inhabited by 65,000 people. There would still be marked differences if we were comparing it to a city of perhaps 500,000. Nevertheless there are, I believe, fundamental principles at work which can speak to us in Guernsey and indeed into every situation if we are teachable and wise.

Most days I spent meeting a pastor or leader responsible for a particular area of ministry, training or pastoral oversight. Some had been in leadership, indeed in membership at Hillsong Church for only a few years, others virtually since the beginning in the early 1980s. There was nevertheless a clear picture which emerged from my conversations with each of them. I was seeking answers to the questions I had formulated long before I set out on this time away, and we spent time at each meeting talking through some of these issues. (See blog entry Tempus Fugit for details of these questions.)

There are two specific strategies which seemed to help answer my questions at Hillsong. As my time spent there developed the Lord seemed to anoint both of these phenomena particularly in my thinking so that I would say they both became a revelation to me of God speaking directly to my heart for revival and church growth. I will talk about the second of these in the next post. Here I will cover the campus strategy. Certainly this strategy at Hillsong impinges upon the first three of my questions. Right from the very start, it was seemingly in Hillsong’s DNA to establish campuses in order to reach people who would otherwise struggle to come regularly to church or feel part of a community, and catch them up in the vision and mission of the church. A campus in this sense is not an independent church, although it may look different on the surface in size and make-up. It is one in mission.  As mentioned in a previous post, the Hills

Old Logo of Hills Christian Life Centre

Christian Life Centre (as Hillsong was originally called) was established in the Northern Suburbs of the city by Sydney Christian Life Centre (SCLC – now the city campus of Hillsong Church) largely because there was a massive suburban housing development taking place in the late 70s and 80s; in order to reach the many thousands of people moving into these new towns and estates, the leaders of SCLC at the time realized they needed to establish a presence right there in the centre of things. You don’t have to get terribly spiritual to think through this, although it is clearly what happened in the days of the early church, as you discover in the book of Acts – when people moved out of Jerusalem into the surrounding areas, even when the reason was persecution, they took the Gospel and therefore the Church with them. Other expressions of human community and activity also establish and reestablish and develop themselves in this way, e.g. schools, sports clubs, societies, associations, super-markets, banks, shopping malls, even offices, work-places and government agencies.

Certainly there are some people who are willing to travel or drive (if they can afford to) through miles of suburban traffic and past many alternatives in order to get their child to the right school. However for the vast majority this is not a viable option. As a result, schools, clubs, shops, etc. get established near where people live and work because these institutions are people-focused, community-dependent, and empower people to make the choice to use them. The church of Jesus is God-focused and therefore also people focused and people-empowering, because God so loved the world He did not wait for the world to come to Him (we could not!) He took the initiative and came to us. And wherever the church of Jesus exists it should empower people to experience God – it should give those who currently do not or cannot experience the presence of God and the family of God the opportunity of choosing to do so. The church is a community within the community, a city within the city, for the glory of God and extension of His Kingdom.

Jesus modelled this principle by going from village to village and town to town preaching the message of the Kingdom of Heaven; he did not expect everyone to come to Nazareth Community Church! In fact more than that, he trained and appointed the Twelve also to go about preaching the Good News into more regions beyond. So I’m saying there is a pattern to follow here based on a missional principle. You can even discover in the New Testament what happens when this is not the focus of attention – it took persecution and the raising up of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch to refocus Christians on the as yet unreached – to get on with the very last instructions of the Lord here on earth – Matt 28; the Jerusalem church and leadership seemed somewhat caught up in their own little ‘Jewish world’ to begin with. We must remember that the ‘ends of the earth’ start at the ends of our streets!

As a local church Hillsong has established multiple campuses and congregations in the city (even now into Brisbane which is nearly 1000km/600 miles away). It is true that its City and Brisbane campuses are effectively adoptions of existing churches, but the principle remains. Additionally Hillsong has over a dozen other campuses meeting in school halls and other rented buildings each weekend. Hillsong Church does not call these campuses – although they fit my definition – instead these are referred to as extension services and are aimed at local communities of various ethnic, national, cultural or language backgrounds. These communities often link with either the Hills Campus or City Campus for Sunday evening services (which are not duplicates of the Sunday morning services).

The advantage of a campus philosophy is that in this way resources and can be shared and you are not so dependent on raising up all the additional infrastructure you need to make church happen in each location. Key ministries can be shared, training can be shared, funding can be shared, there is better stewardship, things can be done in bulk, there are more opportunities to serve, be an apprentice, strengths can be shared and weaknesses covered more easily. Hillsong have developed these strengths in every area and continue to do so. By using common ministry models in a manner which might be described in the world of commerce as branding they create a larger net to work with, eg. their women’s ministry – Sisterhood and its annual Colour Conference, their various children and youth ministries – Hillsong Kids (primary school age), Fuel (school years 7-9), Wildlife (years 10-12), Powerhouse (ages 18-25), Frontline (25-35), can all be resources and developed centrally, hold joint camps, events and training;  a small success can be celebrated and enjoyed by all, creative excellence can be achieved, a broader group of people are reached, and costs are kept to a minimum, particularly in areas such as children’s curriculum development, and event promotion.

Chris with Nathan McLean, Children's Pastor

Although it may not be visible unless you search hard and deliberately for it, much is made of the use of technology, especially information on databases, communication using IT, and a standardized method of integration and follow-up of all newcomers. I was given a glimpse into how this works and I must say it looks excellent, especially from a pastoral perspective, and especially too for the purpose of minimising communication and information failures as the church grows. It is inappropriate to go into great detail here; suffice to say that there is a clear understanding of how membership is expressed – not by a signing on the dotted line attitude, nor by having completed a course, certainly not by giving a tithe, although none of these things are despised in themselves. Rather, the pastors and key leaders see membership expressed in various degrees from simply regularly attending a worship service, belonging to a Connect Group (home groups which meet fortnightly), or serving in a ministry area, and then right the way through to becoming a pastor or key leader. This flexible, grace-focused paradigm helps the leadership “correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” as they watch over the growing flock of God in accordance with the teaching of Paul in 2 Tim 4:2.

Teaching at Centre Learning Community, State College. I popped along to their living history museum yesterday, showcasing the pupils’ work over the last semester. Becca came with me, and was quite jealous that she’d never had a school like it; it raised issues about how achievement and skills are recognised and developed.

This was the first school I visited and my first choice (not that we were given preferences), so I’m pleased to have it. It will be a challenge, given that I’m working with the oldest group I’ll be qualified to teach once I graduate and that their skills in certain areas are way ahead of mine, specifically their visually creative work and their technology skills.

Still, bring it on I say…

Keep Our Communities Safe!

A backbench Conservative Member of Parliament’s plan to dismantle the registration of rifles and shotguns in Canada became closer to reality on November 4.

That’s when 20 opposition MPs joined with the entire government caucus to send Bill C-391 (which would change the Criminal Code and repeal the long gun registry) to a committee for study before being brought back for a final vote. It was a big setback for public safety.

Heading into the final steps of the law-making process with a 27-vote lead gives C-391 a good chance of succeeding. If that happens, registration of rifles and shotguns would stop and the government would delete the nearly 8 million firearms records used today by police and other law enforcement officials.

Police use those records to keep themselves and our communities safe. Statistics show that gun registry information is accessed as often as 10,000 times a day. Statistics also show a 50% drop in gun-related spousal homicides since records started being kept.

We can still turn things around.

People who think it’s a good idea to keep track of weapons like rifles and shotguns for the sake of public safety need to have their voices heard. That’s the only way to get at least 14 MPs to change their minds about C-391 and stop it from happening.

If your MP is a Conservative, your voice is especially important. That’s because the Conservative Party has a history of strong support for public safety and the police.

It doesn’t make sense that so many Conservative MPs who represent communities where the police say they need the gun registry, and where public support for keeping track of guns remains strong, voted in favour of C-391. They clearly need to hear more about this from the people they represent.

Which is why we’re asking for your help today. We need to convince a few MPs to change their minds about C-391, and vote NO when it returns to the House of Commons for final approval.

You can help us make this happen.

Forward this message to 20 of your friends.
Ask them to do the same.
Join our Facebook page.
Tell all your Facebook friends about it.
Send a post card to the Prime Minister
about how gun control is an important part of any plan to reduce violence against women.

Tell them the law is working. Tell them that gun-related spousal homicide is down 50% since the gun registry was started. Tell them to keep our communities safe. Tell them to vote against C-391 (if you really want to get their attention, add that you won’t vote for anyone who votes in favour of C-391 come the next election).
We know there are more Canadians who support having rifles and shotguns registered for public safety than who want to see this important policing tool dismantled and all of its records destroyed.

That’s why it’s still possible to turn things around and win this one for public safety.

- – - – - – - – -

Priority registration has begun at CLC! 

Online Life Span Development is completely full and cannot accept any more students.  We will not be opening any additional sections for spring so please register for a face to face section.

CLC Interlibrary Loan Roundtable – East

http://www.ctlibrarians.org/events/roundtables/rt_illeast.shtml

Chairs: Kim Farrington, Elihu Burritt Library, CCSU

Gail Avino, Hall Memorial Library, Ellington

Register online now!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Old Lyme – Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library (directions)

9:30 Coffee / 10:00 Meeting

Join your colleagues as we discuss the latest in ILL news….Register online now!

Today’s message was captured by and shared at FlipShare.com.

Click to watch…
H1N1 – Key #2 – Part 1

H1N1 – Key #2 – Part 2

H1N1 – Key #2 – Part 3

Chris & Jonathan at Balmoral Beach, Sydney. Chris is trying desperately to look as cool as Jon, bless!

It was so good to have Chris Parkes – our Guern in Oz – to plan and arrange for us a week visiting Hillsong Church in Sydney Australia. Chris has been studying at their ministry training college and working in the church there for over three years now. He is coming to the end of his Degree course having previously completed what can be best described as a Diploma in Ministry during his initial year in Sydney.

The 4000-seat convention centre at Hillsong's main campus where several services are held each weekend.

Hillsong is well known in most of Charisendom if not the wider Evangelical world, firstly for its prolific worship and song-writing output as a community which began dramatically to influence beyond its Sydney based church in the early 90s with songs like This is My Desire and Shout to the Lord. Since then the trickle has turned into a torrent of wonderful, catchy, Jesus-centred worship songs of which you’re now very likely to find peppering song set-lists from Littlehampton to Little Wanganui.

We arrived in Sydney late at night and were met at the airport by Kim Drew, a lovely South African friend who used to live in Guernsey. Kim attended an Alpha course we were running a couple of years ago after which she joined our church but sadly only for a few months before her husband Colin’s job moved them and their family to Australia.

Colin & Kim Drew

I had never met Colin nor their children, and so it was very gracious and generous of them both to have us to stay, initially for three nights, but in the end, as other accommodation fell through, for a whole week! It was thoroughly fortuitous also that the Drews live in Cherrybrook, a suburb of North West Sydney which is about 10 minutes drive from the main Hillsong Campus in Baulkham Hills.

This massive suburban district North West of the city is one residential new-town after another, and is collectively known as ‘the Hills’ district because so many of the residential clusters in this region have the word ‘hill’ in their title, and also because… well, they’re hilly, I guess. Anyhow this is the reason the church has the name ‘Hillsong’, it was originally founded in the early 80s as The Hills Christian Life Centre. As an affiliated Assemblies of God church (in Australia the denomination is known collectively as Australian Christian Churches) it was part of a generic “Christian Life Centre” movement in the AoG which was a kind of renewal and restoration movement and as such influenced Europe also.

Brian & Bobbie Houston

Hillsong thus started off life as a kind of suburban church plant from the Christian Life Centre in downtown Sydney which has now somewhat ironically become the city campus of Hillsong Church. Brian and Bobby Houston, the senior leadership couple in Hillsong Church are a bubbly, trendy, fatherly-motherly couple who set the tone for much of the culture in this massive church of over 20,000 people. It was Brian’s father who was the pastor of the original Sydney Christian Life Centre which is now the Hillsong city campus.

Chris (Parkesy to his friends) lived only a few minutes drive from Colin and Kim’s place too, so he was able to pick us up each day and taxi us around which was just great. Chris is fully engaged in Hillsong Church and loves all that he does there, which includes the theological degree course that he’s been on the past few years, but this is only part of the picture. When I say fully engaged I mean fully. Chris is also a Connect Group Leader (i.e. home-group leader), and as one of the Powerhouse leaders (no, not primary kids for any Rockers reading this, in Hillsong this means young people aged 18-25) he also oversees a Tribe which consists of around 400 people – a collection of around 40 Connect Groups, and of course he is involved with leading and serving at at least two weekend services, as well as the Powerhouse midweek service!

Chris does all this voluntarily as thousands of others do, but he also does a small part-time paid job for roughly two days a week in Hillsong’s international conference office which is often manned 24 hours a day. So together with college lectures, study and course-work, Chris has a pretty full week! But as with so many we met who are equally full-on engaged in church life, Chris loves Jesus full-on too, inside-out, enjoys everything he does, takes responsibility seriously, wants the world to see the glory and excellence of the Lord Jesus through the church and seems thoroughly satisfied! What a joy it was to be with Chris and so many others like him at Hillsong all week. It does your soul good to be with such energetic, uncynical, Jesus-centred people who love and enjoy God, love loving people with the love God gives, and love the abundant life he has given us fully too!

This was the overriding theme weaving through our Hillsong experience in Sydney – we felt so welcome from the moment we arrived, we met such genuine lovers of Jesus who took time and effort to make us welcome all week and clearly enjoyed doing so, and we met people whose lives have been transformed through being wonderfully ’sucked in’ by this welcoming unworldly love and have thereby met Jesus. As one guy, now a youth leader, expressed it to me – “I know now that the Saviour sought me out and found me through the overwhelming love and joy of this powerful community of friends called Hillsong”.

Wow! And double wow!

As we talked together and prayed at the end of our time at Hillsong Judith tearfully summed it up like this, “I don’t think I have ever met so many genuine, uncynical, loving, passionate people!”

Il cielo sotto la polvere è anche sopra a Berlino

Il lungometraggio ha vinto il premio europeo Cevma 2008 (Christian European Visual Media Association) è arrivato in finale all’Orlando Film Festival (Florida) e ha recentemente ricevuto il premio “Miglior Film Internazionale” al concorso ICVM (International Christian Visual Media) tenutosi a Denver (Colorado).

Adesso è stato doppiato in tedesco ed è distribuito in Germania, Austria e Svizzera tedesca.

Nella Svizzera italiana è la CLC che si occupa della distribuzione.

Ma si avvicina anche il momento in cui potremo finalmente goderci la proiezione in tv.

Sarà la TBN Italiana a mandare in onda il film in anteprima domenica 29 novembre alle 21.30.

Si stanno definendo accordi per una proiezione che possa coinvolgere contemporaneamente altri Paesi. Ma, non vogliamo anticiparvi troppo!

Per ora, godetevi il trailer in tedesco.

SCM Hänssler Scegli Gesù Shop

]]> http://blogbeckett.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/2009-and-the-changing-face-of-our-hobby/ Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:21:43 +0000 Tracy Hackler http://blogbeckett.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/2009-and-the-changing-face-of-our-hobby/ http://jenntec.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/leaderdev_prep/ Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:46:32 +0000 jenntec http://jenntec.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/leaderdev_prep/

Have you ever been here before?

• Starting a massive project
• Little support (in other words, on your own)
• From scratch (pretty much)
• Variable buy-in from stakeholders

Technically, I designed a Leadership program two years ago for the same audience, but it was a band-aid, and we knew that going in.  While some of the material is going to be transferrable, much of it is pretty useless.

So, before I jumped in and started designing one of the most important training programs in this particular organization, I reached out to some resources to help myself prepare.

Here’s my introductory list:

ASTD Creating Leadership Development Programs – Elaine Biech is an amazing writer and facilitator.

Corporate Leadership Council – Research and benchmarking.  Perfect for best practices.

Center for Creative Leadership – I also use this organization for research.  But I understand they have some phenomenal products.

After equipping myself with some  best practices and tools, I am ready for the next phase.  In the next post, I will discuss my analysis methods.

In the meantime, I would love to get some feedback on your favorite leadership development resources!

From BenZinGa

The Executive Council of the Canadian Labour Congress is asking workers who belong to its affiliated unions not to visit the Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa-Gatineau until striking workers have secured a fair collective agreement.

The CLC’s Executive Council, meeting in Ottawa, passed a resolution saying in part that the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (CMCC) “has blatantly abandoned that responsibility by failing to negotiate a fair collective agreement with its workforce.”

For the past five weeks, 420 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada have been on strike at the museums to secure a collective agreement that would change the museum’s employment practices: 38% of the workforce is employed on a temporary basis, and museum workers are being paid 30% less on average than other federal government museum workers doing the same or similar jobs.

The CLC is also calling upon the government of Canada to force the museum “to negotiate a collective agreement that ends the precarious work practices used by the Corporation.”

Saturday, November 7th // 8:00AM – 9:00AM
Calling all men of all ages.  Join us for breakfast and the Word at HomeTown Buffet on Lancaster DR NE.   As iron sharpens iron, let us join together to eat, to share and to pray as we build each other up in Christ. All ages welcome!  Bring your Bible.

*I believe the breakfast special is only $4.99 at this time.

Este pasado 17 de Octubre se llevo a cabo en la quinta edición del evento Comagon la eliminatoria nacional del Concurso Latinoamericano de Cosplay CLC 2009.

La pareja ganadora está integrada por Paula y Abigail de la capital mexicana. Ellas representarán a México en la final, la cual esta edición se realizará en San Paulo, Brasil el 17 de Enero 2010 portando sus trajes de Uruha y Suu del manga de CLAMP Clover.

Abigail - Paty - Paula

A pesar de tener pocas parejas participando en esta eliminatoria, la  calidad en los trajes y la creatividad de los perfomances no falto.

El cine foro del “Refugio”, donde se realizo Comagon V, fue el espacio perfecto paraqué los cosplayers  se desplayaran al cien.

Ganadores del CLC Mexico y Paty

I wrote a story recently about OU getting tougher on trademark enforcement.

As an extra bit of info, the Collegiate Licensing Company seized 800 pieces of merchandise that infringed on OU’s trademarks. Those seizures came at big events, such as the OU-Texas game, the BCS National Title game and the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. Thanks to both Renata Hays, director of licensing for the OU Athletic Department, and Trica Hornsby, a media relations manager at CLC, for the info.

OU Athletics pulled in 4 percent of its total revenue from licensing and trademarks in 2008-09’s fiscal year, or about $3.16 million of a $79.1 million budget. That may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but that total is up from about $2.75 million in 2007-08, $2.65 million in 2006-07 and $2.54 million in 2005-06. So, it makes some sense for OU to be sure trademark infringement doesn’t become an issue. It might be easier for OU to roll out its enforcement program, when abuse of OU’s trademark will be less of a problem (towards the bottom) than it might have been in recent years when OU was better on the football field.

I missed the Wordless Wednesday

I have nothing for the Blog Action Day 09

Instead, I’ll provide a little humor today

More Breastfeeding would help the planet anyway!

More Breastfeeding Cartoons by Neil

Enjoy!

Today the whole class went to Blackpool CLC.  Each child had access to a Mac.  In the morning we worked on a Victorian Chimney Sweep Project, were we created a story using Kar2ouche and the Victorian element within it.  We dragged and dropped backgrounds, characters and added speech bubbles, thought bubbles and pieces of text to create our stories.  It was a wonderful opportunity to allow us all to create our own piece of work.

Examples of our Kartouche stories are below

Jade P – Victorian Chinmey Sweep from MeresidePrimary on Vimeo.

Lee R – Victorian Chimney Sweep from MeresidePrimary on Vimeo.

Ryain – Victorian Chimney Sweep from MeresidePrimary on Vimeo.

Mrs G & Mrs N Victorian Chimney Sweep from MeresidePrimary on Vimeo.

This afternoon – we took a voice recording that we did this morning using Audacity.  We had to write a paragraph about being a rich or poor child in Victorian times.  This linked to the work we have done in class, creating posters on rich and poor children.  That audio file is then attached to our picture and we make them talk !!!

Here are some examples of our Crazy Talk pictures (once Mr Sale has converted them!!)

Mr Barman delivered the converted files today (21/10/09) click on your to show what you did!!

Abi Hall Crazy Talk from MeresidePrimary on Vimeo.

Após a publicação de notícias que apontavam para o fim da produção do Mercedes-Benz CLC na fábrica de Juiz de Fora (MG), a fabricante alemã tomou algumas providências. A diretoria da planta mineira convocou os funcionários para comunicar a situação. De acordo com eles, o modelo não será transferido para a Alemanha – nem descontinuado. A informação é do blog Autos Segredos.

Em comunicado oficial, a Mercedes-Benz informou aos seus operários que a produção do CLC segue firme na unidade brasileira. O modelo deve continuar em linha principalmente para os mercados emergentes. Na Alemanha será produzida a versão cupê do Classe C, segundo a empresa. Vale lembrar, no entanto, que o CLC é uma reestilização feita sobre o antigo C SportsCoupé – sim, o antigo derivado cupê da última geração do sedã.

E agora?

Check out this great new blog on Soviet and Russian History.  The blog was created by College of Lake County’s own Derek Shouba, Associate Dean of Biological and Health Sciences!