If you’ve been following my other blogs, UKCBD: The Christian Bookshops Blog and SPCK/SSG: News, Notes & Info, then it won’t have escaped your notice that the Christian book trade here in the UK has been going through a wee bit of a crisis over the last couple of years.

On the former SPCK bookshops front, things seem to be approaching a sort of resolution as Peter Gotham, the Interim Manager appointed by the Charity Commission, has seized control of most of the shops (Durham being the most obvious exception) and is now advertising for the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust’s creditors — amongst others, the people whose goods Mssrs J Mark and Philip W Brewer failed to pay for — to submit their claims against the organisation. If that’s you, you need to pull your finger out because, as things stand, you only have until the close of business on 16 December 2009 to get your claims in.

By a bizarre coincidence of timing, that’s also about the time that we can expect to hear what’s likely to happen to the struggling IBS-STL UK empire — STL Distribution, the Wesley Owen bookshops and Authentic Media/Paternoster Press. According to Keith Danby’s latest trade update, the negotiations with Biblica’s “preferred bidders” are expected to “take us into the week commencing 14th December” and we can expect a further announcement “when the sale process comes to a conclusion”.

It’s a welcome update that has been largely hailed as good news: to quote the Church Mouse,

The vital part of that is that the offers are ‘covering all aspects of the business’. This is very encouraging. Book selling in the UK is a tough market for anyone, evidenced not just by STL’s experience, but also by Borders going into administration. Some had thought that Wesley Owen’s chances of redemption were low, but it seems there is hope.

A more disturbing note, however, is sounded by the following statement from Danby which appeared in Toby Cohen’s Religious Intelligence report, Financial disaster hits British media player, published last week, Thursday, 3rd December 2009:

We are not being forced to make this decision by any bank. We came to the decision after struggling on for 12/13 months that now was the time to give the opportunity for new investors, new thinking and leadership to do what was best for the continuity of the ministry and all of the stakeholders.

To me there seems to be more than a whiff of something peculiar here. Even looking at this in the best possible light, pulling the plug on your UK operations and telling not only your staff but also your business and ministry partners that if buyers are not found within a few weeks then the entire enterprise will go into administration seems a rather strange way to attract new investors.

Introducing this level of uncertainty into people’s lives and livelihoods during the most critical time of year for businesses — and what is often one of the most stressful times of year for families — is hardly the way to help to ensure continuity of ministry, let alone to offer reassurance to “the stakeholders”.

If providing “the opportunity for new investors, new thinking and leadership” to take things forward was the primary concern, then surely the way to proceed would have been to seek to sell IBS-STL UK as a going concern, not as a business that was for sale or bust?

If there was no pressure from the charity’s bankers, then why was it deemed appropriate to subject either the staff or the rest of the UK Christian book trade to the trauma that they and we have gone through since November 16th?

I do not for one moment dispute the immense effort that has been put into finding a buyer or buyers, or into securing the futures of as many of STL UK’s 490 employees as possible; but I do not believe that Biblica’s decision to pull out of its UK operations was made with the best interests of the UK Christian book trade — or even its own UK division — in mind. No doubt new investment, new thinking and new leadership will emerge: but for that we will owe no debt of gratitude to Biblica, only rather to those who have shown the courage and entrepreneurial spirit to pick up the pieces afterwards.

In a new trade update issued yesterday afternoon, Keith Danby has announced that STL UK’s “preferred bidders” have now been selected. The final outcome remains uncertain “until the due diligence process is concluded” but they

remain confident that one or more transactions will be concluded for various aspects of the business, thus ensuring a seamless continuation of supply to our many valued customers.

The sale or sales are expected to be concluded by the week commencing 14th December and a further announcement will be made “when the sale process comes to a conclusion.”

The announcement makes no specific mention of the future of the Wesley Owen bookshops or Authentic Media/Paternoster Publishing, but Danby concludes, “we are hopeful that the majority of the business will remain for the longer term.”

• Read the full announcement

UCB2GO - Service Suspended

During what should have been their busiest time of year, the run up to Christmas, UCB have suspended their online/mail order service, UCB2GO, due to concerns over STL’s ability to supply. The suspension came into effect on November 23rd and is expected to remain in place for a period of three months:

UCB2GO has recently been closely monitoring the activity of its main supplier ‘STL’, which has made several trade announcements over the last two months and which last week put itself up for sale due to trading difficulties.

So that we can ensure that no UCB2GO customer is disappointed with unfulfilled Christmas & New Year orders we have taken the decision to suspend operations at UCB2GO for a period of three months as from the 23rd November 2009. However we are confident that our supplier will ultimately find a way forward and we continue to pray for the staff and management of STL during this difficult time.

The statement goes on to reassure customers that if recently ordered items were in stock then they can still expect to receive them; payments for orders for items that were out of stock are being refunded (cheque) or not processed (credit/debit card).

• Thank you to Andrew Lacey, who commented on this yesterday.

Given that the collapse of IBS-STL UK has largely been attributed to its failed SAP implementation, the following timeline (which undoubtedly has a few gaps) may prove helpful in formulating the questions that should now be asked in order to ensure that a disaster like this doesn’t happen again. The fact that SAP was intended to be a global roll out but stopped here in the UK also raises questions: I reflect briefly upon some of these at the end.

October 2007: Groupsoft announces the start of SAP implementation in the UK, the first phase of a proposed “multi-country” roll out:

Groupsoft starts IBS-STL SAP Retail Project in UK

IBS-STL is one of the largest Bible and Christian literature ministries in the world – they translate the Bible into world languages that have 1 million or more speakes and distribute the Bible—and evangelism and discipleship literature—to people who might never learn about Christ any other way.

Groupsoft is implementing SAP Retail ECC 6.0 – across their multi-country distribution systems – in US, UK, South Africa, India and China.

23 October 2008: STL UK website and order processing suspended for SAP installation.

28 October 2008: SAP goes live.

3 November 2008: STL Blog: Apologies are offered as problems rapidly become evident. Delays in order despatch and tracking are acknowledged:

As planned the system went live last Tuesday and we were able to despatch some orders. Orders continued to be despatched everyday last week, although it wasn’t until Friday that we experienced a relatively trouble free day and were operating at anything near full capacity. We do continue to experience some issues which may cause some inconvenience, e.g. the interface with Fed Ex is not yet operational and we are unable to advise you exactly where your order is once it has left our Warehouse.

5 November 2008: STL Blog: “some technical difficulties with a small number of orders” acknowledged. Problems with carriage charges on backorders noted.

6 November 2008: I report briefly on the situation from a retailer’s perspective: STL: Back Online but not Back Up to Speed

7 November - 11 November - 12th November 2008: STL Blog: “problems in moving stock from bulk to live racking” blamed for delays in order processing.

14 November 2008: Timing isn’t the issue – Mark Hurley: Decision to ‘Go Live’ with SAP in the run up to Christmas 2008 is defended as having been taken “at the highest level”. Trade customers express dismay as orders remain unfulfilled.

19 November 2008: Steve Mitchell presents SAP Go Live to the Booksellers Association Christian Booksellers Group (BACBG). In an open letter to trade customers, Graham Sopp apologises for ongoing problems, although problems are attributed to “business process bottlenecks” rather than to the software itself:

We originally planned to implement the new system in August. However as the date approached, it became apparent that further testing of the new system was necessary before we could commence training people in how to use the system. We were faced with a choice of going live in late October or waiting until January 2009. Unfortunately, we would have faced immense difficulties in standing down our external project team of consultants for three months while we prepared to go live and then to re-assemble that team in January. After extensive testing of the system we were confident we could start with, at most, minor disruption. So we took the decision to go live in October.

Most of the problems we have encountered over recent weeks are related to business process bottlenecks and are not directly related to software and, in fairness to the system team, could not have been anticipated by the extensive testing we carried out.

I report briefly on the BACBG meeting: STL: Light at the End of the Tunnel?

22 December 2008: STL Blog: In the face of continuing difficulties faced by trade customers, a detailed explanation and defence of the SAP implementation is offered: Why SAP and why now??

19 January 2009: Trade customers receive further apologies for delays in despatch along with the following explanation:

The reason for this is our team of consultants are still working on solving a number of bedding down issues in SAP where orders can get stuck in the system.

January/February 2009: Keith Danby takes control of UK operations and apologises for the problems caused by the UK SAP implementation. From Christian Marketplace, February 2009:

Asked about the recent difficulties which the trading arm of the charity had been experiencing in the UK, following the introduction of new systems at its warehousing operations in Carlisle, Danby said, “SAP has been a very big investment for IBS-STL. We made this investment because we believe this will ultimately give us a Global Enterprise System.”

With regards to the timing of the implementation he commented, “When we embarked on this project we wrote into the contract that we would not ‘go live’ during the autumn trading period. Originally, it was to be launched in the spring. Like all major computer projects, there was slippage and the revised date was then end of August which slipped to September and the finally to October. At one time we had over 20 SAP consultants working to keep deadlines.” He also stated, “It is important that you know that Graham [Sopp] was not asked to step down as CEO because of the SAP problems.”

Danby also made the point that had the system not gone live in October then the launch would have had to be held back to March 2009. “Delaying to March would mean the SAP consultants having to leave for 4-5 months … as they are all freelance consultants, getting them to come back as a team was regarded as unlikely.” The SAP software was successfully installed “and it works” said Danby, “but we encountered significant operational procedure problems”. He admitted that more time was needed for testing it with their operating procedures than had been anticipated.

“We have spent 21 years being committed to serving the UK Christian Retail trade”, he said. “We take failures like this very seriously and I say again we are deeply embarrassed and sorry.”

25 February 2009: STL Blog: Update given on returns, receiving and backorders:

Single line backorders are still occuring; however we have seen a substantial reduction in the incidence. Our team along with consultants from SAP are continuing to work on resolving the residual issues.

8 April 2009: STL Blog: Message from Keith Danby acknowledges ongoing unresolved issues “with the new IT system” and announces the appointment of Andrew Clyde as Director of IT with specific responsibility for SAP development work.

1 May 2009: STL Blog: Problems with SAP blamed for Invoices with 0% discount:

If for a new product a product group is selected on a discount matrix where no value is maintained then SAP will apply no trade discount to the order – the result on your invoice is 0% discount. So how could this happen? Well, SAP is not able to automatically check that for say a particular Authentic book the combination of product group and customer group is correct.

14 August 2009: STL Blog: Trade Announcement from Keith Danby states:

A number of factors including the SAP implementation have caused STL Distribution serious Supply Chain difficulties, which have resulted in severe cash flow problems.

16 November 2009: Biblica announces the sale of its UK operations and lays much of the blame for the crisis upon the problems with SAP. This is perhaps best summarised in Tania Mason’s report for Civil Society, Top-250 Christian charity to close, 18/11/2009:

David Young, the charity’s UK general manager, said the charity had been struggling financially for some time but the failed attempt to install an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in October 2008, that should have integrated all its warehousing, sales and customer services, was the nail in the coffin.

“We installed the accounting software a year earlier and on its own it worked fine, but the implementation of the ERP caused all kinds of problems with inventory and it was just as the recession hit. Those two things together gave us serious problems.”

They resulted in significant cashflow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in the charity’s distribution and retail units. [...]

[...] SAP is yet to respond to IBS-STL UK’s criticism of its ERP system. A spokeswoman told Civil Society: “They are still talking about and trying to get to grips with the problem.”

18 November 2009: STL Distribution USA issues a statement — cited at Christian Book Shop Talk — to counter rumours that its operations are also under threat, advising customers (amongst other things) that

The US organization has not attempted to install the SAP software, and our systems are not affected by the attempted installation in the UK.

Concluding Reflections

The fact that the USA division (and presumably the other international divisions mentioned in Groupsoft’s October 2007 announcement) has not attempted to install SAP raises at least two questions:

• At what point was the decision made to discontinue the global roll out?
• Why, at that point, was the UK implementation not halted?

To an outside observer — judging purely by the extent to which the blame for STL UK’s crisis has been placed on the SAP implementation failure — it appears that IBS-STL UK, its employees and trade partners seem more than anything else to be paying the price for drawing the short straw: for being unfortunate enough to be first in a roll out that was part of a much grander scheme. If the implementation had first been attempted in the USA, South Africa, China or India, would it now be one of those divisions fighting for survival instead of the UK?

Clearly other factors have been at play, not least the state of the economy, but the SAP implementation had to start somewhere and it is a tragedy that Biblica, in the end, did not have the necessary resources to support the division that drew that terrible short straw.

• UKCBD Blog: Posts tagged SAP
• Google Search: IBS-STL and SAP
• STL Blog: Posts mentioning SAP

In an interview posted by the Edinburgh Evening News (24/11/2009, cross posted at Scotsman.com), David Young, General Manager of IBS-STL, has acknowledged the possibility of the Wesley Owen chain being split if buyers can be found for individual branches or groups of shops:

He said he understood there had been “significant interest” from possible buyers but did not want to raise hopes.

However, the fact Edinburgh is one of the company’s biggest stores in terms of turnover and has a central location could make it a more attractive proposition than some other parts of the business.

Mr Young added: “We are really keen to sell as much as we can to secure the jobs.”

He said a potential buyer would not have to bid for the whole chain, but might be interested in individual shops or a cluster of shops. “We are taking the next few weeks to gauge the level of interest, then we hope to make some kind of announcement.”

• Read the full interview
• STL UK Crisis: Reports roundup

The limbo in which STL finds itself in the UK impacts more than just a book distributor and a couple of publisher imprints.   There’s also the issue of the 40 Wesley Owen bookstores, or as they say across the pond, bookshops.

To get an idea of the heat being generated by the discussion over there, you should visit The Christian Bookshops Blog — isn’t that name eerily similar to the one for this blog? — and in particular this post which indexes all of the recent discussion and mentions some of the options being considered.

In Canada, we’ve seen a 17-store chain and an 8-store chain impacted over the last eighteen months.   But never anything like this.   For Brits, the memory of the SPCK Bookshop chain debacle is all too fresh.  There are also reports that one supplier, Kingsway, has reclaimed all their inventory from the STL warehouse.

Wikipedia on STL

Complete list of 40 Wesley Owen locations

Christianity Today story

Church Times (UK) story

Having listed a few alternative links, The Christian Bookshops Blog linked above remains your best source to follow this story.

Whether or not the possibility of a group buyout for IBS-STL UK will even be considered by Biblica’s Board and Trustees remains to seen. As of this posting I am still awaiting detailed financial statements from the company, without which it is somewhat difficult to even begin to prepare anything remotely resembling a firm proposal for prospective investors to consider. My understanding, however, is that the level of interest from prospective buyers has exceeded Biblica’s expectations and that discussions with some are well underway: at this stage it appears that a consortium such as I have suggested may not be needed.

Nonetheless, in response to several queries, here is a rough guide to how I would envisage a new business taking shape under a trade/community shared ownership model. This is emphatically not a business plan: it is very much preliminary thinking and all input, for, against or otherwise, is very welcome.

• Freedom of speech, including the use of blogs and social media, will be actively encouraged at all levels.
• SAP will be subjected to intense scrutiny and, given the experience to date, most likely scrapped, to be replaced by a tried and tested system licensed from another wholesaler.

Looking at the three divisions…

1. Wesley Owen
The chain itself would cease to exist. The shops would be rebranded and refocused on their local communities, with consortia of local churches and/or other Christian groups each taking responsibility for their own local branch, with an emphasis upon developing the shop as a social/community hub. Branch managers and staff would be responsible for stock selection with each shop aiming to become self-sufficient within a pre-agreed period.

• Please see Matt Wardman’s post New Ways of Being Bookshop and the appendix of related discussions for some ideas on how this might be taken forward.

2. STL Distribution
The distribution division would be owned and operated by its employees, retailers, publishers and other investors working together. My vision would be for it to be run by a democratic board drawn from amongst the investors and answerable to their fellow investors: a genuine shared ownership company operated by the very people for whom it exists.

• To help tackle the debts, I invite publishers to consider writing off some or all of the amounts owed to them in exchange for part ownership.
• Retailers investing in the operation would be offered preferential trade terms.

3. Authentic Media and Paternoster Press
The publishing division would be offered for sale to other Christian publishing houses, possibly splitting into three segments: music, popular books and academic books. I do not expect, however, this to be an issue as I would be surprised if Biblica have not already found a buyer (or buyers) for this division.

Wrapping Up
Thank you to all those who have contributed to the discussions so far: please keep your comments and suggestions coming. As previously stated, this is not a business plan, although I hope that it might form the foundation for one. At present the ball remains in Biblica’s court…

Figured a roundup of reports on / responses to the STL UK crisis might be useful. Reports marked * are largely nothing more than re-runs of the official press release with minimal or no additional comment. No doubt there are a few I’ve missed and more will emerge as the tragedy unfolds — but as I’ve said, I truly don’t think it needs to be a tragedy: despite the sceptics’ voices, I still believe that there are more than enough of us to save the day if only we will stand together.

I may be a tad crazy but I’m not crazy enough to think the entire edifice can be saved intact: it will have to be split up into smaller parts, with local Christian groups pooling resources to support specific branches of Wesley Owen, rebranded and refocused to serve their local communities. Kudos to the Bishop of Willesden, Pete Broadbent: he’s written to clergy in his area to see whether they can do something to keep the Harrow branch open. Do we have similar initiatives elsewhere in the country?

It’s also clear that some very hard questions need to be asked about the SAP implementation: why was it allowed to go so badly wrong? Why was it done as an all-or-nothing no-way-back project? We seem to be looking at some very serious high-level incompetence here and one of the first things whoever takes over the business will need to do is take a long, hard at this — then most likely scrap the system and start again.

An intriguing paragraph in the Civil Society report seems to offer a possible ray of hope for any parts of the business for which no buyer is found:

The corporate finance division of Baker Tilly is marketing the operations of the charity to a number of interested parties and hopes to complete negotiations for the sales or potential closures within the next few weeks. Young said that if buyers are not found for all parts of the business, Biblica may step in and buy the rest, but “ultimately IBS-STL UK will be wound up”.

Looking beyond Wesley Owen for a moment, all the shops that signed up to STL’s ‘Crown Books’ scheme now need to urgently rethink their ops.

Finally for now, for those who may have missed yesterday’s brief note: news has emerged of at least one publisher, Kingsway, pulling their stock out of STL’s Carlisle warehouse, returning it to their HQ in Eastbourne. I have requested further information from Kingsway: what happens, for instance, to retailers’ outstanding orders? No doubt an official announcement will be forthcoming.

Update, 24/11/2009: John Paculabo from Kingsway states:

As we approach certain timelines in our agreement, there are decisions that Kingsway will take irrespective of whether STL find a buyer or not, and currently these relate to foreign distribution.

STL remain our trade distributor, however in the today’s climate this poses a number of questions going forward, needless to say we are aware of thecomutations and possible implications.

I can assure you that Kingsway has not removed all of its stock from STL.

Reports and Responses | Google News Search: Wesley Owen
Reports marked * are largely nothing more than re-runs of the official press release. Most recent first, list updated 06/12/2009:

• Biblica and STL UK: A Strange Way to Attract Investors? Phil’s Boring Blog, 06/12/2009
• Has a buyer been found for Wesley Owen? Sacred Fish Project, 05/12/2009
• Buyer for Wesley Owen? Church Mouse, 05/12/2009
• Credit card giant axes 350 jobs in Glasgow: Evening Times, 04/12/2009
• More change on the book block: Cupblog, 04/12/2009
• 500 staff face axe as religious book shops up for sale: Herald Scotland, 04/12/2009
• Future of Worthing Christian bookshop in doubt : Worthing Herald, 03/12/2009
• Financial disaster hits British media player: Religious Intelligence, 03/12/2009
• Wesley Owen to close!! Fat Prophet, 29/11/2009
• World of Youth Ministry: Youth Blog, 25/11/2009
• Bookshop staff face losing jobs: Edinburgh Evening News; cross posted at Scotsman.com, 24/11/2009
• Imagine 40 Christian Bookstores Hanging in the Balance: STL (UK): Christian Book Shop Talk, 24/11/2009
• Some random thoughts on UK Christian Bookselling: Eddie Olliffe, 24/11/2009
• May you write through interesting times…: Nick Page, 24/11/2009
• Wesley Owen: Hilton Church Blog, 24/11/2009
• IBS-STL an opportunity? Neil Brighton, Distinct Reflections, 21/11/2009
• Church Times – IBS-STL decides to ‘exit the business’: Mike Tea, 20/11/2009
• The fate of books: Chris Walley, 20/11/2009
• Christian Bookshops crisis: Maggi Dawn, 20/11/2009
• ‘Missional Thinking’ about Christian Stores: Christian Retailing, 20/11/2009
• IBS-STL UK up for sale: Christian Retailing, 20/11/2009
• More on IBS-STL: The Bible Society plans to gather the Christian book trade in January: Church Times Blog, 20/11/2009
• Wesley Owen faces closure as IBS-STL decides to ‘exit the business’: Scottish Christian News Monitor, cross posted from Church Times
• IBS-STL decides to ‘exit the business’: Church Times, 20/11/2009
• Christian charity forced to put Wesley Owen on the block: The Bookseller, 20/11/2009
• * Wesley Owen & STL Distribution & Authentic Media – up for sale: New Christian Music, 20/11/2009
• Wesley Owen Glasgow: GadgetVicar, 19/11/2009
• Book giant to sell all UK businesses: Baptist Times, 19/11/2009
• Charity Closing over IT Problems: Agile CIO, 19/11/2009
• From Dream to Nightmare to – where do we go from here? Phil’s Boring Blog, 19/11/2009
• Nostalgia isn’t the source of missional thinking: Simon Jones, A Sideways Glance, 19/11/2009
• STL: Bishop’s Blog, 19/11/2009
• Wesley Owen: Custardy, 18/11/2009
• * Bible charity IBS-STL UK puts its commercial side up for sale: Third Sector, 18/11/2009
• Christian book and bible charity IBS-STL UK is looking for a buyer for its commercial operations after a “succession of financial problems”: eChurchWebsites, 18/11/2009
• Nicky Lee seller put on market: Lovereading, 18/11/2009
• * IBS-STL to sell Authentic Media, Wesley Owen: Christian Today, 18/11/2009
• STL UK Operations at Risk: Computer System Blamed: Christian Book Shop Talk, 18/11/2009
• Top-250 Christian charity to close: Civil Society, 18/11/2009
• * Christian book and Bible charity to sell operations: Inspire Magazine (undated)
• IBS-STL up for sale… Not sure who will buy…: James Doc, 17/11/2009
• Charity put up for sale: Hannah Lomas, ITV Lookaround: Border Regional News (Video), 17/11/2009
• Wesley Owen/STL/Authentic up for sale: Strangers and Aliens, 17/11/2009
• Farewell Wesley Owen? The Church Mouse, 17/11/2009 | Cross posted on Facebook
• Good Bye Wesley Owen? The Sacred Fish Project, 17/11/2009
• Missional thinking about the high street: Simon Jones, A Sideways Glance, 17/11/2009
• One hundred and fifty jobs at risk at Cumbria Bible Firm: News & Star, Carlisle, 17/11/2009 | Cross posted at Cumberland News
• * STL To Be Sold: Cross Rhythms, 17/11/2009
• The end of Christian Bookshops? Clayboy, 17/11/2009
• Wesley Owen: The end? Ship of Fools, discussion started 17/11/2009
• Uber tired…: Paul Kercal, 16/11/2009
• * IBS-STL UK Announces Plan to Sell UK Operations: Christian Marketplace, 16/11/2009
• * Leading Bible distributor collapses: Religious Intelligence, 16/11/2009
• * Leading Christian Charity IBS-STL UK Announces Plans To Sell Operations Due To Financial Challenges: BiblicalStudies.org.uk, 16/11/2009
• * Leading Christian Charity IBS-STL UK Announces Plans to Sell Operations due to Financial Challenges: Sloppynoodle.com, 16/11/2009
• Send the Light up for sale: Everything Christian, 16/11/2009
• STL, selling up…….: Supersimbo, 16/11/2009
• STL’s UK businesses for sale: Wesley Owen bookshops, Authentic Media, STL Distribution: Church Times Blog, 16/11/2009
• STL UK puts up the ‘For Sale’ sign: who will buy? SPCK/SSG, 16/11/2009
• Wesley Owen for sale: Premier Christian Community, 16/11/2009

Late last night, Saina Veigel left the following comment on my post A Modest Proposal to Save STL. Please read it and reflect on the possibilities this model could open up for us here in the UK:

Hello fellow Christian merchants in the UK!

I am/was a Christian book merchant from Germany and I failed miserably with my online bookstore because only the big online stores find costumers AND make a profit online nowadays in Germany. The competition is VERY TOUGH – even online!

I offered secular and Christian books with a charity-scheme but still didn’t succeed. I just closed my shop down in September 2009 after 1,5 years. You have to be part of a chain or of a “book merchants buying co-operative” to survive.

But I may have some interesting information for you:

Our biggest German Christian wholesaler “Hänssler” faced severe difficulties a few years ago and they formed a co-operative – or more precisely: they started a TRUST/BENEFICENCE. In this case Christian publishing houses/media companies pitched in to save the wholesaler (I don’t know the details though).

Now – many Christian publishers stand as a team together but, everyone remains independent at the same time. Get some information and advice from Frieder Trommer in Germany, if you can. This trust helps the Christian book trade. I don’t know how it works but it seems to work REALLY WELL. The TRUST’s website is: http://www.stiftung-christliche-medien.de/

• English translation courtesy of Google’s translation tools

Churches and Selling Books …

I personally don’t believe that churches can function as “alternative bookshops”. They are not trained to do so. They will mess it up. Booktables in churches are successful here but the whole approach has its limits. You can only use volunteers up to a certain point. You can’t expect the church to run a business. Selling Christian books IS a business – even though it is also a ministry. Business has to remain business. If it were to be a pure ministry one would have to ask for book donations instead and then you don’t have a business anymore. It just doesn’t work.

I am half British and half German. I always felt that English Christians are better off because they have so many more Christian titles to choose from. So much variety in Christian literature!

I really hope that the British Christians will wake up to the fact that what they have is precious and rare (compared to the rest of the world).

Wish you all much wisdom, God’s grace and a wonderful miraculous “solution”.

Best wishes, Saina

By working together, I believe that we can save STL – Wesley Owen – Authentic Media. We do not need a white knight in shining armour to ride to the rescue: we need, rather, to learn to trust one another and work together.

Unless you have been living under a rock the last days you have probably heard about Kurt Greenbaum, the journalist and blogger who got someone to resign from his job because of an innocent word posted as a comment.
You can read a very brief recap at a website called: “Kurt Greenbaum Is A Pussy!“

I am not going to retell a story that has been perfectly summed up at ‘Kurt Greenbaum Is A Pussy!’ and that has probably been repeated over and over again in different online forums. At the moment I am more interested in exploring if the online vigilance directed at him is acceptable or as low as what he did to the person who lost his job.

I do have to be a bit brief, so bear with me. Greenbaum got offended by the word ‘Pussy’, tracked down the poster which resulted with him losing his job and then gloating about it.
That is of course the short story of the whole brouhaha.

Being a journalist, a blogger and wearing the title; Director of Social Media, he seems to be absolutely clueless what goes on online. I am not shocked at all about what has happened. People have tracked down all is publicly available information and posted it online.
Based on some comments, people have contacted his boss and even his home.

This is of course a typical example of how a mob works. They see something they disagree with it and retaliate how they see fit, regardless if it is legal or not.
Keep in mind that Greenbaum asked: “What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever eaten? And did you like it?” Most people who have been online for a while know that at least one person will post something juvenile.
So is this as bad as what Greenbaum did to this poor guy who probably just wanted to be silly?

Let us compare what has happened to these two.
The Pussy-Guy posted anonymously and obviously in jest; not thinking he would lose his job OR that Greenbaum would violate his own ToS regarding sharing personal information with a third-party.
Greenbaum gloats about getting the Pussy-Guy resigned and also calling him a jackass (which some find offensive); which results in a majority of people trying to explain to him that what he did was extremely rude, and people collects and repost publicly available information online. With this information readily available people start to contact him.

Personally I honestly don’t see anything wrong with what has happened with Greenbaum. He made the bed and he should now lie in it too. It is of course almost like a ‘eye for an eye’ revenge against Greenbaum; but how else could this have been dealt with?
People are probably giving him and his boss a lot of grief at the moment, but personally I don’t see how that iss any worse or comparable to someone losing their job. Especially when the economy in the USA is not so good at the moment.

I can also only assume that it is not just how Greenbaum handled this incident, but how the state of privacy is at the moment. Online it has been assumed that if you use a pseudonym you should have some level of privacy. You will never have 100% privacy; unless you get offline and live in the woods, but you have probably some type of paper-trail since your were born anyway. Privacy is still something you don’t try to take from someone, and this is what Greenbaum did. Privacy is becoming more and more of a luxury item, so when someone tries to limit your privacy and anonymity more, people get angry; and that is what happened here. Greenbaum couldn’t respect the ToS privacy part and people just saw red.
Of course, gloating about having someone resigned from their job isn’t really that popular either.

As most people who don’t like Greenbaum now I also hope he loses his job. Of course, I honestly don’t see that happen now, but at least he will have a really bad reputation online and remembered as the jackass who got someone fired for posting the word ‘pussy’ online and later gloating about it.

This is my lousy two cents about this.
Kurt Greenbaum, you sir are a pussy!

Matt Wardman writes:

Following recent posts by Phil Groom about the crisis in the STL Distribution company on the SPCK News Site and here at the Christian Bookshops Blog, I thought I’d run a few reflections up the flagpole.

I have no involvement in bookselling, apart from loving and buying books, but, like the Mouse, I have tried to listen throughout the last 2 years of supporting the campaign to scrutinise the rundown of the former-SPCK bookshop chain.

Where are we?
Some parts of Christian Bookselling is now in chaos – obviously. SPCK will not be back as a bookshop chain, and that has taken away a good deal of infrastructure and resources (did I really write that 2 years ago? – it’s the original Radio 4 interview) upon which many other activities and smaller projects used to rely.

Now, events at STL are putting a question mark over the future, or at least the nature, of the trade’s distribution backbone as well. I won’t say more about STL because I’m not in the loop and I’ll get it wrong.

Further, I remember Phil’s comments on the Christian Booksellers’ Convention at this time last year:

Perhaps I am unduly pessimistic in regarding Bible Society’s acquisition of CBC, the Christian Booksellers Convention, as an effective obituary notice for CBC. Perhaps merging CBC with CRE, the Christian Resources Exhibition, is not so much the end of an era as the beginning of a new one. …

This, quite simply, makes it a non-starter for a retailer focused trade event. We are already faced with online competition from our suppliers: are we also expected to smile sweetly and welcome direct, face-to-face competition as those same suppliers offer our customers deals to walk away with that we will never be able to match because those suppliers will not offer us terms that will make such deals possible?

Putting these insights together leads me to think that an important need at this time is to place the retailer back at the heart of the dialogue, and look for ways to survive in a very difficult environment.

The SPCK Experience
The “former-SPCK” position is that we have lost 25 bookshops, but with a variety of successful (or at least “working”) models emerging to fill the gaps in a surprisingly large number of places.

1. Independent bookshop in (and supported by) a Church in Cardiff.
2. Bookshop in a former church combined with Cafe in Norwich.
3. Market-stalls – Birmingham and, I think, Worcester.
4. Combined Christian/Secular bookshop in an indoor market, including a wide range of other products in Lincoln.
5. Completely new bookshop, filling a similar space in the market, but with a local focus

And these are simply a few examples off the top of my head.

In addition, there continue to be other places where there may be an opportunity for a new project and an existing customer base / supporting community which would support such projects.

I’m saying “look how well these people are doing”; I’m saying “it can be made to work, even now, in the middle of a recession”.

What is working?
Having watched, written and campaigned about the dismantling of the SPCK network over a 2 year period, I’d note the following factors:

1. The foundation of a loyal customer base – which can come from local churches, being a unique supplier of “product x”, engaging people via a blog, or on the ground (what about a Craft Table), or from an existing community seeking a new bookshop after the local SPCK vanished.
2. Wider range of products. This can be Christian non-book products; but it can also be by treating Christian books as a specialist category within a non-specialist shop.
3. Form of incorporation. As a comparison, the OXFAM Bookshop chain receives an annual subsidy of well in excess of one million pounds simply from the reduction business rates for charity properties.
4. Online trading. Some places do this successfully, but I don’t have case studies.
5. Certain churches have even used this as a strategy to support themselves, for example the Bradford-based Harvestime organisation.
6. Creative cost-sharing/reduction with other organisations.
7. Putting something “upstairs”; OXFAM tend to do it with other specialist franchises, such as secondhand wedding dresses.
8. Collaborating with other local independent businesses in the traditional way.

I’d acknowledge that there is nothing fundamentally new here, and that many bookshops already do some or all of these.

They all have these points in common: innovation, flexibility and different tactics in each place.

Reframing the Dialogue around Retailers
These are my key suggestions as to current needs and opportunities:

1. A lack of focus on the retailer the traditional trade events.
2. A need for innovation.
3. Intense economic and other pressures.
4. Recent accounts of what others are doing successfully (or equally importantly, not successfully), how, and in what context.

I wonder whether some type of event deliberately aimed at helping retailers learn from others’ experience and to share successes and failures would be beneficial at this point.

Wrapping Up
I’ll stop there for now, and may add some more thoughts later.

What do you think?

• Facebook Discussion

It seems only a short while ago that I posted about daring to dream. But sometimes dreams turn to nightmares and the whole world comes crashing in.

It’s not my dream I’m talking about this time: it’s the hopes and dreams of my friends and colleagues in the Christian book trade, particularly those working for STL, Wesley Owen and Authentic Media. Because everything fell apart around their ears this week as their parent company, Biblica, decided to pull the plug on their UK operations.

The announcement was made on Monday and you can read it in full over on the UKCBD blog as well as a whole host of other places including Christian Marketplace, the Church Times blog and STL’s own blog. It’s a sad story of incompetence in high places as some buffoons — they called them “IT consultants” — took STL UK on a one-way journey into a new software system called SAP back in October last year. Unfortunately it didn’t work and everything went pear-shaped in the warehouses, shops weren’t being supplied with goods, customers walked away and cash flow trickled down to … well, not quite zilch, but to the point where they couldn’t pay their suppliers so their suppliers stopped supplying which meant more bookshops weren’t being supplied … and I think you can see where this is going. Very, very sad: add a downturn in the economy and crunch, down comes the entire edifice.

The plan  is to find a buyer “within the next few weeks”, otherwise things start closing down. Unpleasant for all concerned, to put it mildly.

I’m spearheading a blog campaign to stage a trade/community buyout which has generated a certain amount of interest, but whether or not the level of interest will be sufficient remains to be seen. At the moment I’m waiting for the latest accounts and financial reports from the company, which I requested on Tuesday. No response yet from either Biblica or Baker Tilly, the company contracted to handle negotiations.

So time will tell. We watch and wait. Please pray, please take a look at the discussions so far, throw in your own ideas, pray some more, think about whether or not you’d like to become part of a buyers’ consortium — let me know as soon as possible if so, please — then pray some more.

Some interesting ideas over at Clayboy’s place: head across and throw in your own thoughts there too, please; and watch this space…

Ok. In case you’re not sure, Wesley Owen is a chain of Christian bookshops that are owned by a company called IBS-STL (used to just be called STL). IBS-STL also deal with alot of Publishing and Distribution of many Christian books and CDs.

So the below announcement is quite big news really:

LEADING CHRISTIAN CHARITY IBS-STL UK ANNOUNCES PLANS TO
SELL OPERATIONS DUE TO FINANCIAL CHALLENGES

Leading Christian book and Bible charity IBS-STL UK today announced that it has appointed Baker Tilly Corporate Finance LLP to pursue the sale of its operations.

The move has come after a succession of financial problems, in particular the failed implementation of a new SAP computer system in October 2008, the effects of which were exacerbated by the economic downturn. These have caused significant cash flow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in its distribution and retail units. They have culminated in the decision to exit the business.

Read More

Quite sad really that “in this current economic climate”, STL decided to launch a new computer system on the lead up to last Christmas. Which, if its important enough to mention in the above statment, I would guess didn’t really help during the Christmas season. Christmas being a time that I imagine Christian bookshops being quite busy. Again I’m guessing.

Now what departments of STL being sold, obviously depends on the exact nature of the accounting issue, but it does look like its a sell out may well be possible. We can only all hope it doesn’t all go down the same route of the SPCK / SSTG saga.

Other pages of interest:

• STL Distribution
• Christian Bookshops Blog
• The Church Mouse
• Church Times Blog

IBS-STL UK Announces Plans to Sell Operations

Phil Groom writes:

In a press release issued earlier today, STL UK, the UK and Europe’s major distributor of Christian books and related products, have announced that their business is being put up for sale by their USA owners, Biblica. This decision comes in the wake of ongoing cashflow and stock movement difficulties faced by the organisation since an unsuccessful IT systems upgrade in October last year: combined with the current economic climate, the financial stress has become unsustainable.

This represents the biggest shake up in the Christian book trade for well over a decade, the SPCK/SSG debacle not withstanding, and not only puts STL’s 490 employees at risk of losing their jobs but also risks seriously undermining those hundreds of Christian retailers and suppliers who have become dependent upon STL for their supply chain.

I personally believe that this development does not need to be a disaster and at the weekend I put forward what I have called A Modest Proposal to Save STL UK. There are thousands of people whose livelihoods are likely to be disrupted if STL’s future is not secured: all the employees at Authentic Media and Paternoster Publishing; everyone at STL Distribution; all those working for Wesley Owen; and all the retailers and suppliers I’ve already mentioned. But if we stand together, between us I believe that we could stage a trade buy-out and take over the business as a shared ownership company.

But there is no reason why others — churches and other Christian organisations — couldn’t get involved. We have the means, if we have the will.

If you believe the idea of such a buy-out has merit, please spread the word amongst your friends and churches; if you have any other suggestions for a way forward, please speak out; and please pray for all those whose livelihoods are now under threat.

The UK Christian book trade and the church itself failed when SPCK hit hard times back in 2006. Many people’s lives were ruined and many are still picking up the pieces. It would be a tragedy beyond belief to see that failure repeated with Wesley Owen and its associated companies.

Related Posts

• IBS-STL UK Trade Communication: STL Blog, 16/11/2009
• Send the Light up for sale: Everything Christian, 16/11/2009
• STL’s UK businesses for sale: Wesley Owen bookshops, Authentic Media, STL Distribution: Church Times Blog, 16/11/2009

IBS-STL UK Announces Plans to Sell Operations

In a press release (full text below or pdf, 86kb) issued at lunchtime today, Biblica announced that they were finally pulling out of their UK operations and putting the division up for sale. In the press release, Keith Danby, Global CEO, is quoted saying,

Given the severe financial and operational strains we have experienced, the Board of Trustees and management team believe a sale or exit from all or parts of certain operations is a prudent and necessary step. Whilst a difficult decision, we are focused on finding a solution to continue the important work of IBS-STL UK, to secure the jobs of the 490 people employed in our ministry, and to fulfill our financial obligations to our suppliers and creditors. We are working diligently and praying vigilantly for a successful outcome.

Blame for the company’s difficulties is laid firmly at the door of last year’s unsuccessful IT systems upgrade which, combined with the current economic climate, resulted in unsustainable cash flow and stock movement difficulties:

The move has come after a succession of financial problems, in particular the failed implementation of a new SAP computer system in October 2008, the effects of which were exacerbated by the economic downturn. These have caused significant cash flow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in its distribution and retail units. They have culminated in the decision to exit the business.

This decision comes in the wake of repeated reassurances from Danby that there was “no immediate crisis within the company” (August 2009) and that there was “a sustainable business ministry model going forward” (September 2009).

One possible way forward, proposed here on Saturday, would be a trade buy-out: if enough of us are willing to stand together then between us we could take the business on as a shared ownership company. But who will stand? Who will rise to the challenge?

Full Press Release
(or download pdf, 86kb – includes Notes to Editors and contact info for media and other enquiries)

LEADING CHRISTIAN CHARITY IBS-STL UK ANNOUNCES PLANS TO SELL OPERATIONS DUE TO FINANCIAL CHALLENGES

Leading Christian book and Bible charity IBS-STL UK today announced that it has appointed Baker Tilly Corporate Finance LLP to pursue the sale of its operations.

The move has come after a succession of financial problems, in particular the failed implementation of a new SAP computer system in October 2008, the effects of which were exacerbated by the economic downturn. These have caused significant cash flow pressures, excess stock, and supply chain and service difficulties in its distribution and retail units. They have culminated in the decision to exit the business.

IBS-STL UK convened an emergency task force led by Global President of Biblica and former CEO of STL, Keith Danby, which has been in constant dialogue with its suppliers and bankers. It had also engaged restructuring and business process consultants in an attempt to resolve the systems and financial challenges.

Danby said: “Given the severe financial and operational strains we have experienced, the Board of Trustees and management team believe a sale or exit from all or parts of certain operations is a prudent and necessary step. Whilst a difficult decision, we are focused on finding a solution to continue the important work of IBS-STL UK, to secure the jobs of the 490 people employed in our ministry, and to fulfill our financial obligations to our suppliers and creditors. We are working diligently and praying vigilantly for a successful outcome.”

The corporate finance division of Baker Tilly is actively marketing the operations of the charity to a number of interested parties and is hopeful it will complete negotiations for the sales or potential closures within the next few weeks. IBS-STL UK was founded in 1962 and has grown to become a major UK charity.

IBS-STL UK has three trading divisions; Authentic Media, a book and music publisher; STL Distribution, a distributor of Christian resources and Wesley Owen Books and Music, a retailer with 40 shops in the UK. IBS-STL UK is part of Biblica, a global Bible translation, publishing, distribution and outreach ministry serving more than 100 countries with books, Bibles and other Christian resources. Biblica said the planned sale of the UK operations will not impact its other global operations and donor funds supporting Biblica’s worldwide outreach ministries will not be affected.

Michael Fitch, Chairman of the IBS-STL UK Board of Trustees, concluded: “We continue to believe strongly in the power of God’s Word and Christian resources to change peoples’ lives. We are praying that we can pass the torch on to other likeminded organisations so that our UK staff, suppliers and ministry partners can carry our work forward.”

• Discuss here, on facebook or on the STL Blog

Boy did I have an eventful weekend! It would probably be safe to say that almost everything that could have happened actually did happen. After a very stressful and busy week, I was finally finished with everything and ready to go out on Thursday night. Now I’m not going to go into details about Thursday but it was an emotional roller coaster of a night. I awoke Friday morning feeling terrible and confused. So naturally, I went to go visit Dunc. After arriving at her house, Carter and Jordan decided to join us and our afternoon vaguely resembled a scene from a movie: girls crying and comforting each other and jabbering worthlessly about the boys who are making them miserable, the family members who don’t understand anything, and of course, everyone’s favorite “problem” to hear: everyone just likes me too much! Yes, it was indeed a pathetic afternoon. But after all this nonsense was out of the way, Dunc proposed a wonderful idea: we (as in Dunc and me) should go to St. Louis on Saturday. “Hmm,” I pondered, “that may be just exactly what I need!”

And so Saturday the adventure began! After Dunc graciously filled my car with gas and a quick stop at McDonald’s to perform our road trip ritual of purchasing large diet cokes and french fries to start off the drive, we headed east. And Dunc’s good ideas didn’t stop there, either. “Kristen,” she said, “you’ve never been to a Blues game before — let’s go tonight!” And so that is what we did. After arriving at Dunc’s parent’s house in St. Louis, we quickly showered and dressed ourselves before enjoying a good home cooked meal made by none other than Mrs. Duncan herself. She kindly accommodated her daughter’s food allergy ridden friend by preparing gluten-dairy-free choices, as well, which was another delight. And then Dunc and I were off to the Scottstrade Center where I was about to see my first ever NHL hockey game.

Now I’m not much of a fan of watching sports. American football and baseball bore me. Soccer is exciting but after living in Europe, my heart belongs to a European team. Basketball is ok, I guess. But my point is I’m not particularly inclined to purchase tickets and sit through an entire game. I’d rather just go to a bar and at least get drunk while I’m watching it. But hockey was a different story. I can’t think of anything that sounds more appealing to me at this moment than watching a bunch of big, beautiful, graceful, athletic men in their early twenties getting very physical with each other in the most masculine way possible. Even though the Blues (our team) lost, the game was well played and a lot of fun.

And the good news didn’t stop there! After the game one of the Blues’ star players, TJ Oshie (aka Dunc’s “celebrity” crush) was doing a radio show at OB Clark’s. So naturally, we had to go since there was a 90% chance we would meet this fellow. And who knew? Maybe his teammate/roommate, Patrik Berglund, the 21 year old 6′4 Swedish player on the team, would join him? Unfortunately (but maybe not) for me, Berglund was a no show. However, we did have the opportunity to meet Oshie and get a couple of pictures with him. Of course by the time he arrived I had already sucked down a couple of rum and diets and was a little loose with my language. Don’t worry, I didn’t say anything inappropriate, but I did talk a little too much maybe. I blame it on Oshie for looking exactly like Mike. Naturally, I had to tell him he looked exactly like my friend and then continued to run my mouth and talk to him like I was talking to Mike (not a professional athlete). I also blame it on Dunc for being too nervous to speak herself. However, I think she owes me: while she gave the appearance of being calm, collected, and put together, I was the hot mess with my red lipstick, big Texas hair, and word diarrhea. Oshie ended up leaving the bar around 12:45 and we didn’t stay too long afterwards. We’ll be returning to St. Louis this Friday, though, and maybe if we’re lucky we’ll have a little chance encounter with some of the players. Oh, and did I mention Dunc’s friend Kevin works for the Blues and knows the players? Well…he does…so hopefully the odds are in our favor.

Sunday was relatively uneventful. Our mini-adventure ended at the end of Saturday night. It was nice to spend the day in St. Louis though. Dunc and I went to Barnes and Nobles and had a relatively productive day catching up on some work we had to do.

Until next week’s St. Louis-Houston-Weimer adventure!

1. Kenapa STP perlu dimonitor? (emank kenapa?)

2. Factor penting pada stl:

• keandalan system
• pemeliharaan system
• efisiensi penggunaan bahan bakar pembangkit tenaga lstrik
• permintaan pada event khusus
• pertukaran tenaga listrik antar perusahaan

3. Fungsi super visi dan control pada pada stl (menurut torsten cegral)

• Data acuition
• Monitoring dan even processing
• Control function
• Time tagged data
• Disturbance data colletion and analysis
• Report and calculation

4. Tugas utama system scada

• Pengambilan data dari rtu
• Memonitor data yang terkumpul dari lapangan mel. RTU
• Melaksanakan computasi aritmatik/logical terhadap data yang terkumpul dan dimasukan oleh operator
• Menampilkan data pada VDU(mnitor)dan mimic diagram dan mencetakdata printer pada printer/plotter
• Mengeksekusi perintah dan komando terhadp jaringan listrik yang dikendalikan
• Memonitor dan mengendalikan dirinya sendiri

5. komponen utama HLU SCADA? (emang apaan?)

6. sebutkan 3 komponen yang tergolong dalam subsistem

• front –end sub system (fes)
• communication network
• remote terminal unit

7. komponen-komponen  pada RTU (gambarkan konfigurasinya)

8. fungsi front-end system

• menangani komunikasi dengan RTU
• memonitor dan mengendalikan jaringankomunikasi RTU
• mengurangi beban kerja monitor utama

9. persyaratan yang diminta pengguna RTU

RTU harus diberi fasilitas untuk mencatat perubahan status yang terjadi  pada alat2 penting tertentu secara berurutan

We all know that STL UK (or Biblica or whatever they’re calling themselves these days) are in deep doodah. That’s not rumour, it’s fact as stated by the man himself, Keith Danby, in his miscellaneous missives to the trade with repeated references to financial difficulties and ongoing consultations with bankers and others.

There are some signs of hope, of an improved cash flow: one supplier I spoke to this week told me that their account, six months overdue, had at last been paid. Other sources, however, tell me about supplier accounts being put on hold due to non-payment; and I know, from my own experience of having to source goods elsewhere, that warehouse stocks are not what they ought to be, especially at this time of year.

What we don’t know, of course, because they’re not telling us, is how deep STL UK’s financial crisis runs: hundreds of thousands, or millions? If the former — perhaps even if the latter — then I suggest that, if we’re prepared to act together, between us we have the power to rescue them.

UKCBD alone lists more than 600 Christian retailers, most of them actively trading, most of them STL UK trade account holders. Then there are the many church and other account holders as well as all the suppliers: that’s thousands of us who stand — to put it mildly — to be massively inconvenienced if STL UK goes to the wall.

My proposal, modest though it is, is simply this: we buy them out. Between us, we pay off STL UK’s debts — or enough of those debts to make their bankers do a double-take — and take them over as a shared-ownership company. Careful plans, terms and conditions would need to be drawn up, of course; but amongst us, surely, we have the expertise for that.

If as few as 1,000 of us contributed as little as £100 each, that would be £100,000. I think that, however, is a very conservative estimate of the amount we could raise: there are far more than 1,000 of us whose own businesses and livelihoods stand to suffer immensely if STL UK cease trading; and whilst some of us would struggle to find £100, many of us could contribute significantly more than that to a trade buy-out.

We’ve prayed together. The time has come, I think, for us to act together: to put our money where our mouths are and recognise that we ourselves may be God’s answer to those prayers.

Too little too late, I hear you say. Maybe so: the winds of change are blowing in our industry as more and more business is being conducted online; but let’s not allow the Christian book and retail trade in the UK to go down in history as blown away by an errant trade wind when we could have saved it had we only been blown along by the Spirit of God…

Appendix: Biblica Financial Reports

• IBS-STL UK Financial Statements Feb 2008 (pdf, 369kb)
• Biblica USA Accountants’ Reports and Consolidated Financial Statements, Feb 2008 / 2009 (pdf, 1.4MB)
• For more, Google search biblica.com for ‘financials’

December 7th, the day we have all been waiting for.  After almost two years without a highway, we will finally be able to get back to normal transportation.  The Missouri Department of Transportation is opening Highway 40 on December 7, 2010 and planning on having a party on the highway on December 6th.  Official ribbon cutting will occur at 3:00 pm on the 6th.

MoDOT spent half a billion dollars to improve the crumbling Highway “Faurty,” rebuilding 29 bridges and interchanges between Ballas and Kingshighway – a total of 10 miles, and will have finished construction early. 

Pete Rahn, the director of M0DOT said, on a humurous note, that “[we] will no longer be the only state in the country with an interstate highway that terminates in a Target parking lot” (stltoday.com).  New ramps will now allow a smooth transition from highway 40 to I-170.  In addition, the Hanley overpass will hopefully help with traffic from Eager Road.

For more information, read this article at stltoday.com.

I saw this little fella while on a walk yesterday with co-workers in downtown St. Louis clinging to a building. How cool is he?

I also thought it appropriate to share a favorite DH Lawrence poem. Though I don’t agree with the poet’s hatred or distaste for bats, I don’t think anyone has ever captured the essence of the creature more eloquently or in a more tangible way ::

Bat

At evening, sitting on this terrace,

When the sun from the west, beyond Pisa, beyond the mountains of Carrara

Departs, and the world is taken by surprise …

When the tired flower of Florence is in gloom beneath the glowing

Brown hills surrounding …

When under the arches of the Ponte Vecchio

A green light enters against stream, flush from the west,

Against the current of obscure Arno …

Look up, and you see things flying

Between the day and the night;

Swallows with spools of dark thread sewing the shadows together.

A circle swoop, and a quick parabola under the bridge arches

Where light pushes through;

A sudden turning upon itself of a thing in the air.

A dip to the water.

And you think:

‘The swallows are flying so late!’

Swallows?

Dark air-life looping

Yet missing the pure loop …

A twitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight

And serrated wings against the sky,

Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light,

And falling back.

Never swallows!

Bats!

The swallows are gone.

At a wavering instant the swallows gave way to bats

By the Ponte Vecchio …

Changing guard.

Bats, and an uneasy creeping in one’s scalp

As the bats swoop overhead!

Flying madly.

Pipistrello!

Black piper on an infinitesimal pipe.

Little lumps that fly in air and have voices indefinite, wildly vindictive;

Wings like bits of umbrella.

Bats!

Creatures that hang themselves up like an old rag, to sleep;

And disgustingly upside down.

Hanging upside down like rows of disgusting old rags

And grinning in their sleep.

Bats!

Not for me!

Bat

At evening, sitting on this terrace,

When the sun from the west, beyond Pisa, beyond the mountains of Carrara
Departs, and the world is taken by surprise …

And grinning in their sleep.

When the tired flower of Florence is in gloom beneath the glowing
Brown hills surrounding ..

When under the arches of the Ponte Vecchio

A green light enters against stream, flush from the west,
Against the current of obscure Arno ..

Look up, and you see things flying
Between the day and the night;
Swallows with spools of dark thread sewing the shadows together.

A circle swoop, and a quick parabola under the bridge arches

Where light pushes through;
A sudden turning upon itself of a thing in the air.
A dip to the water.

And you think:
‘The swallows are flying so late!’

Swallows?

Dark air-life looping
Yet missing the pure loop …
A twitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight
And serrated wings against the sky,
Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light,
And falling back.

Never swallows!
Bats!
The swallows are gone.

At a wavering instant the swallows gave way to bats
By the Ponte Vecchio …
Changing guard.

Bats, and an uneasy creeping in one’s scalp
As the bats swoop overhead!
Flying madly.

Pipistrello!
Black piper on an infinitesimal pipe.
Little lumps that fly in air and have voices indefinite, wildly vindictive;

Wings like bits of umbrella.

Bats!

Creatures that hang themselves up like an old rag, to sleep;
And disgustingly upside down.

Hanging upside down like rows of disgusting old rags
And grinning in their sleep.

Bats!

Not for me!

Come on, Mr. Lawrence, it’s not THAT bad, is it? Happy Halloween season!

- - – – – – – – – - - – – – – – – – – - - – – – – – – – – - - – – – -

]]> http://pebondestad.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/tora-ust%c3%b8-pa-isen/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:42:16 +0000 PEBondestad http://pebondestad.wordpress.com/2009/10/21/tora-ust%c3%b8-pa-isen/

“Studentene, studentene, studentene…” sa statsråd Tora Aasland fra talerstolen på landsmøtet til Studentenes Landsforbund i 2008.
Lurer på hva hun tenkte med det utspillet, for å høre på oss har hun ikke gjort. Tenker hun i det hele tatt på studentene når hun tar avgjørelsene sine?

Da Djupedal ble byttet ut, og Kunnskapsdepartementet ble delt mellom to statsråder var det mange som fikk forhåpninger om en bedre tid for høyere utdanning. Men det berømmelige hvileskjæret ble så vidt dekket inn før Tora viser seg veldig ustø på isen igjen.

Studentene ønsket økning av basisbevilgningene med 1 mrd.
Statsbudsjettet avslører at det ikke kommer et rødt øre mer i basisbevilgninger. På toppen av det hele inndras det midler som ble tildelt i revidert budsjett i 2008 og 2009. Disse midlene er økte midler etter hvileskjæret samt midler i forbindelse med den såkalte “krisepakken”.

Studentene ønsket 11 måneders studiestøtte.
Dette er et punkt alle partiene er enige om, men det ser ut til at viljen til å love(eller var det lyve) er større enn viljen til å innføre. I statsbudsjettet var det som forventet ikke en økning til 11 måneder, men det var forventet en indeksregulering av studiestøtten. Reguleringen endte på latterlige 1,6%, noe som tilsvarer 140,- i måneden for studentene. Til sammenlikning forventes det en generell lønnsvekst på 3,5% i 2010. Større lønnsvekst ellers i samfunnet fører til en prisvekst på varer og tjenester som er høyere enn 1,6%, noe som igjen betyr at studentene faller ytterligere tilbake og lenger under fattigdomsgrensen.
Jeg skulle likt å se Aasland forklare den svake økningen på 1,6% i studiestøtten når folketrygdens grunnbeløp (G) ble justert opp med 4, 2%(!)

Studentene ønsket minst 1000 nye studentboliger, samt en økning i tilskuddssatsene
Siden studentene kom med dette kravet er det blitt kjent at veksten i studenttallet i Norge vil være betydelig de neste årene, med opp mot 80.000 flere studenter innen denne stortingsperioden er omme. Dette tilsier at behovet for studentboliger øker i tilsvarende grad. 1000 nye studentboliger i året er ikke nok.
I statsbudsettet ligger det 1000 nye studentboliger, men ingen økning av tilskuddssatsene.

2500 nye studieplasser…
… ble innvilget over årets statsbudsjett, men hva hjelper det når de eksisterende plassene ikke er fullfinansiert, og vi ikke har bolig til disse ekstra kroppene?
En økning av antall studenter som ikke er fullfinansierte via basisbevilgningen vil tilføye nok et sugerør i den nokså slunkne pengesekken til institusjonene. Og hva er det som kuttes når budsjettet blir stramt? Studiekvaliteten går ned blant annet som følge av færre lærerstyrte timer og færre laboratorieøvninger. Dårligere studiekvalitet fører igjen til dårligere studenter, som taper i konkurransen mot studenter fra andre land. 
“Kunnskapsnasjonen Norge” ligger som et Soria Moria slott i det fjerne. Alle ønsker seg dit, men ingen makter å finne veien.

Kilder: StL, Regjeringens nettsider, St.prop 1 (2009-2010)