Ah Yes - the Pictures

Well I didn't want to go all Daddy on ya - but it was requested and so I shall comply.

We are already amassing quite a collection of photos - and while I'm slowly putting them online (email me and I can send you the info on our entire album) - I thought I'd put the top 15 photos of baby girl.

Daddy’s Top 15 Pictures Of Victoria

View more presentations or upload your own.

Thanks for reading,
bob

Redefining Young Association Professional

Now that I'm in marketing, I have to say that I'm pretty disappointed that I never clearly defined my niche within the blogoclump. I wrote on everything and anything - which some can pull it off - me I have trouble just keeping up with this blog. So I'm going to focus my attention on the following areas:

1. YAP Perspective - this isn't about age, it's about position. Somethings are significantly more difficult to do when you're not a CEO/exec - its also much easier to do others.
2. Marketing - Now that I'm in marketing - I feel its only right that I focus more on my craft (I was never passionate enough in training I guess) - and this is both new age (social media) and traditional - because to be honest, I have a larger knowledge gap when it comes to traditional marketing
3. Moving Beyond YAP, i.e. moving up the career latter. I'm hoping this stirs up some good discussion as I'm told I'm totally on par with my ideas or way off.
4. Nothing to do with associations (I'm more than just a young association professional, so I may let my outside life slip in when relevant).
5. Blogging - this is where I'll comment on blogging and other posts - I'm really behind but I'm ready to get back in it

That's it - 5 tags - and if it doesn't fit in one of these, then I'll edit this post to make sure I'm being accurate (after all - if I set this is stone - I'd be doomed to sink in the ocean of change)

Thanks for reading,
bob

P.S. - thanks Jeff for the challenge of 10 posts a month (wish me luck)
P.S.S. - and don't forget - if you want to blog but don't want to take the full leap, let me know. You can blog here for free (I need the content). I'm actually trying to work up a system where anyone can post a full blog post on here - now how's that for giving up control.

2 out of 3 - time for a bit of a break

There are 3 life altering events that every young professional will undergo:

• New job
• New house/apartment, etc.
• New Baby

I got two out of the three - and, well I'm not planning to move - which means the next couple weeks/months are going to be crazy. I just recently found out my wife is pregnant (she's due at the end of November) and I've recently branched out from training into marketing, adding a new skill set for my association journey.

With that in mind, I'm taking another short spring break from blogging to pick up my new duties in marketing as well as to assist Heather and be there for her. I plan to get back to blogging around the second week of June. Thanks for reading and wish me luck, I'm going to need it,

Until the next post, stay young,
bob

P.S. You could take my old job. Here's the description: http://asi.careerhq.org/jobdetail.cfm?job=2890355 and you never know, we could be coworkers

A slight tangent - more than age

First and foremost - thanks to Lindy, carterv and rees for great comments from my last post - I definitely plan to build off of those comments - however I saw an interesting post by Maddie that stirred up some controversy that I wanted to weigh in on.

The way I see it - there's only 3 ages that matter:

16 - you can drive
18 -you can vote
21 - you can drink
(feel free to let me know if I missed any)

Every other age is just a mindset. Other than social security (I didn't mention this because you could retire earlier with proper investments) - there is no other age that changes anything about life. What affects life is the choices we make and the actions we take. So why would anyone really try to put a number on young? I don't recall any magic transition.

Good example - my grandfather who is 65 still kicks the crap out of me (I'm 25) when we play tennis on Saturday mornings. As far as I'm concerned, he's still young. On the other end, the creator of facebook is 23 and a billionaire - does that make him old?

Maybe it's the mindset of associations - in vs. out, member vs. non-member, membership A vs. Membership B vs. Membership C - that causes us to have a tendency to formally group everyone into exclusive groups.

As far as I'm concerned, your as young as you let your self be (I don't know the age of the other YAP admins - its useless info - I have too much else taking up my gray matter).

Thanks for reading,
bob

Podcasting on the way home

I spend about an hour each way to and from work. So I got to thinking, why not use this time a bit more constructively.

Thus the first carpod (I meant to say carcast in my speal but future efforts to rerecord didn't turn out so well.)

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I tried to keep it short (under 3 minutes) and it's a lot of nothing right now. I was more interested in how it sounded and how well I could speak while also driving - kids don't try this at home - though it is hands free.

I'll keep playing around, but any feedback is appreciated,

Thanks for reading (and listening),
Bob

P.S. - It needs some work but it's time hopefully better spent than listening to the same 5 songs on the radio.

Nothing to Do with Associations - Vol. 1

Two posts back to back - alright!

One of the great things about a blog is the fact that there is a real opportunity to meet new individuals and really put yourself out there. Well today is the first of many Nothing to Do With Associations Post - where I put up randomness that may not necessarily continue any particular conversation. Hey - it may make the blog too goofy, or it could make it more approachable - only time will tell.

Anyways - with all the talk of social media and web2.0 and using new technologies to form new connections, I simply invite anyone with an XBOX360 and either Halo 3 or Madden Football to say hey next time your on the world of XBOX live. My screen name is Scary as Hell (though I am terrible).

And when we do meet face to face at an association event, instead of saying to me - "Hey I saw you on facebook or read your blog or saw you speak at the last event," (Which all I can really say is Thanks) you can say - "Man I kicked the crap out of you in Madden." Then I can guess which of the hundreds of online players you could be. I mean that instantly breaks down the barrier to communication, I'll laugh and we'll have a conversation started. Because in the end that's what Web2.0 is really about - it's about making connections online to help spur interactions face to face. (Maybe someday they'll be a Madden tournament before an association event. Attendees play online before the event with the final show down at the conference. It's fun, it connects - but it doesn't really have much to do with associations :)

enjoy the weekend and I hope to continue this momentum on Monday.

Thanks for reading and have a nice weekend,
Bob