Posts
Friday, April 18, 2008
Jim Connors and Hastings Mayor, Matt Rossen met with Tracy and Sherry Watson and myself at the hotel for breakfast. We discussed Senator Carlson's legislative bill, LB609, which was passed the day before. The Mayor was excited about this bill. He has been aware of the need for this in his city and it was very exciting for him. As the morning talk continued he offered free office space to "That's It, I'm Going to Grandma's!" I shared with Mayor Rossen about our new project: Make 2 Tell 2. This is a card program for our soldiers overseas. You make 2 cards and tell 2 people to do the same and send the cards to:
Make 2 Tell 2
991 road 325
Harvard, NE 68944
These are homemade cards we will send to our military people, letting them know they are being thought of and prayed for. Side note: We are now doing it for Christmas so please be sure to make your cards and send them to the address above.
At the end of our meeting Jim Connors stressed to me that I need to speak with confidence about the services and programs of "That's It, I'm Going to Grandma's!"
We departed from the hotel and moved on to meet with the Executive Director, Dianne Fowler of the Midland Area Agency on Aging. She was very supportive of "That's It, I'm Going to Grandma's!" and saw true value in bringing the generations together. She could see that it is rooted in and an advocate for "Money Follows the Person" and could be involved in the Nursing Home Transition Project. This is another area we are looking at to get involved in.
She immediately booked me on several of the board's agendas for their meetings to give a presentation!
From there we moved on to the Hastings Public Library, where we met with Library Director, Linda Rae. She was open to bringing new services to the Library. She was especially interested in a Financial Literacy Class. We discussed partnering to provide a class. We discussed several other possibilities with her.
Next we moved on to Grand Island, NE, 25 miles to the North.
There we went to the Center for Independent Living of Central Nebraska, Inc.
Ray Norris, the Executive Director shared with us the services they provide. Their biggest needs at this time are housing and transportation. He said coalitions need to be built. During our visit he offered me the use of their large boardroom at any time. He invited me to their next board meeting to give a presentation about "That's It, I'm Going to Grandma's!"
We moved on to our last destination for the day: Christian Resource Center, outside of Giltner, NE. This is the day camp where my pastor and his wife, Paul and Kathy Nauman, provide many resources for the youth of the surrounding area. They gave us several recommendations and offered their facilities for any classes that we may have.
Then it was a straight shot to our house to pick up my husband to head to a wonderful restaurant in the area for a great prime rib supper. On our way, we had to give them a tour of our great metropolis Harvard, NE, population 998. At the restaurant we discussed and shared with my husband the day's events.
"Just a farmer's wife" couldn't believe what all had transpired in a 10-hour day. First, being offered a free city office in a city that I am not even a resident of and then another offer to use a board room in another facility and another city! We were even offered classroom space not far from home! It was almost more than I could handle. Besides, it was an eye-opening and overwhelming opportunity to see what was ahead for "just a farmer's wife."
These are all possibilities that can happen when you are connected with the right people and desiring to make a difference in the lives of people.
The following quote sums up everything that has happened and will happen in the future for me:
"A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities." - William Arthur Ward (American dedicated scholar, author, editor, pastor and teacher)
Thanks, Sherry Watson , for showing me these possibilities.
Renita Farrall
Where are you on YOUR legacy adventure?
Showing posts with label grassroots organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label grassroots organization. Show all posts
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
We Interrupt This Posting for a Special Announcement:
Grandma’s Story received the ‘Blog of the Day Award’ on Sunday!
You see the button on the left hand side click on it and it will take you to the Blog of the Day website. It will explain to you how to nominate your favorite blog for the award.
This award was a complete surprise even though I knew my friend Connie Baum had nominated this website for the award. I never gave a thought that it would happen so it was a very pleasant surprise to see it when I got home from a rather eventful weekend.
Now it is time to pick up where we left off with the last post.
After our Hastings Chamber of Commerce 'After Hours' event. We continued on to a restaurant for supper-dinner, for most of you. Mr. Jim Connors joined Sherry and Tracy and my husband, Jerry and me.. While we were getting acquainted, Sherry asked me to share with Jim what my program was all about. I gave him my mind map and a couple of flyers that I had with me that explained it better then I could tell it.
He looked them over and then looked up from the table and looked me square in the eye and said, “Renita, do you know what you have here?” That scared me. I said, “I am not sure what you mean by that.” He proceeded to say “This is huge, this is what is needed, this is going to be big.” I was in awe. I was really scared. I thought, “What have I done? What has this “just a farmer’s wife” gotten herself into?” He then turned to me and asked me, “What can I do for you?”
Jim Connors is a man of high caliber, he is a businessman; he has done many things. I gulped several times and in a weak voice said “I feel like I am going to need a mentor.” Jim said “you’ve got it.” I was stunned beyond believe. Sherry gave me a hug.
Sherry told me that Jim calls her “the most effective train wreck he has ever met” and she said “now you will join me with that.” We all had a good laugh over that.
We had a great meal and learned a ton of information from both Sherry and Jim.
After supper I rode with Sherry and Tracy back to the hotel to pick up my vehicle and Sherry turned to me and said “Renita do you know what you just did?” “NO!” I said.
She said you just received free mentorship from a man who charges $______ for his services to anyone else.” I was really shaking by that time. I knew then that I could not waste his time on frivolous stuff. I would need to glean much good information from him.
Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with what had happened from the whole day.
Here is the recap:
1. Meeting and having the Leading Grant Expert taking me around the Capitol City and introducing me to my Senator and teaching me how to gain information.
2. Meeting with the Mayor of Hastings, NE and the Hastings President of the Chamber of Commerce.
3. Meeting and being mentored by Jim Connors who is Managing Partner of the Governance and Goals Gurus Consulting Team and very influential in his area of expertise.
4. Learning that I have a tiger by the tail as far as ‘That’s It, I’m Going to Grandma’s!” is concerned.
5. Realizing that when you hobnob with the gurus you will learn from them and, hopefully--someday soon become one.
We still have one more day to learn about. So come back and expect to hear about another day with Leading Grant Expert Sherry Watson
Renita Farrall
Are you developing your legacy if not click here and get started.
You see the button on the left hand side click on it and it will take you to the Blog of the Day website. It will explain to you how to nominate your favorite blog for the award.
This award was a complete surprise even though I knew my friend Connie Baum had nominated this website for the award. I never gave a thought that it would happen so it was a very pleasant surprise to see it when I got home from a rather eventful weekend.
Now it is time to pick up where we left off with the last post.
After our Hastings Chamber of Commerce 'After Hours' event. We continued on to a restaurant for supper-dinner, for most of you. Mr. Jim Connors joined Sherry and Tracy and my husband, Jerry and me.. While we were getting acquainted, Sherry asked me to share with Jim what my program was all about. I gave him my mind map and a couple of flyers that I had with me that explained it better then I could tell it.
He looked them over and then looked up from the table and looked me square in the eye and said, “Renita, do you know what you have here?” That scared me. I said, “I am not sure what you mean by that.” He proceeded to say “This is huge, this is what is needed, this is going to be big.” I was in awe. I was really scared. I thought, “What have I done? What has this “just a farmer’s wife” gotten herself into?” He then turned to me and asked me, “What can I do for you?”
Jim Connors is a man of high caliber, he is a businessman; he has done many things. I gulped several times and in a weak voice said “I feel like I am going to need a mentor.” Jim said “you’ve got it.” I was stunned beyond believe. Sherry gave me a hug.
Sherry told me that Jim calls her “the most effective train wreck he has ever met” and she said “now you will join me with that.” We all had a good laugh over that.
We had a great meal and learned a ton of information from both Sherry and Jim.
After supper I rode with Sherry and Tracy back to the hotel to pick up my vehicle and Sherry turned to me and said “Renita do you know what you just did?” “NO!” I said.
She said you just received free mentorship from a man who charges $______ for his services to anyone else.” I was really shaking by that time. I knew then that I could not waste his time on frivolous stuff. I would need to glean much good information from him.
Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with what had happened from the whole day.
Here is the recap:
1. Meeting and having the Leading Grant Expert taking me around the Capitol City and introducing me to my Senator and teaching me how to gain information.
2. Meeting with the Mayor of Hastings, NE and the Hastings President of the Chamber of Commerce.
3. Meeting and being mentored by Jim Connors who is Managing Partner of the Governance and Goals Gurus Consulting Team and very influential in his area of expertise.
4. Learning that I have a tiger by the tail as far as ‘That’s It, I’m Going to Grandma’s!” is concerned.
5. Realizing that when you hobnob with the gurus you will learn from them and, hopefully--someday soon become one.
We still have one more day to learn about. So come back and expect to hear about another day with Leading Grant Expert Sherry Watson
Renita Farrall
Are you developing your legacy if not click here and get started.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Are YOU Determined?
"You cannot keep determined people from success. If you place stumbling blocks in their way, they will use them for stepping-stones and climb to new heights." -Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001)Saleswoman and entrepreneur
Dixie Brown personifies this quote. She is transforming those of us in her Mastermind group and who are determined to succeed. I can see all of us being determined enough to use the stumbling blocks to get to those new heights.
I would like to share with you what happened in the last half of April of 2008 with Sherry Watson.
When you are part of The Power of Grant Money program, as I am with many others, you get some really unique privileges. I will share one of those with you here.
I had reached the point in my grassroots nonprofit organization that it was time for Sherry to come to my state to show me what can make things really work. It is all about putting yourself out there and letting people know who you are and what your plans are, and asking them what you can do to help them, in other words, get yourself and your story in front of influential people and show them how you can also help them move forward.
Remember, we were dealing with "just a farmers wife." Sherry came on a Wednesday. She and her husband like to stay in the same town as their client. Not in Harvard, the hotel collapsed in the spring of 1973. They stayed in a nearby town called Hastings. On Thursday I met them at the motel for breakfast. We then proceeded to Lincoln, the State Capitol, to meet with different agencies. Our first stop was at the Agency on Aging for the State of Nebraska. That was very impressive. The gentleman that we met with was very informative and gave Sherry a lot of information. I, on the other hand, had no clue what questions to ask. I just sat there and let Sherry do the talking and the asking. This was a learning time for the student. She was teaching me by example the whole time.
Next we go over to the Capitol building. How long has it been since you have been to your State Capitol? I was probably in the 4th grade the last time I visited. I just didn't think that that was 'my thing'-aside from admiring the beautiful arthitecture. It was there we met with Senator Tom Carlson, who represents our district. I remembered meeting him while he was campaigning for office. I was sitting outside with my dad when he came to the Assisted Living, where my parents lived at the time. He introduced himself to us and told us what he was doing.
The day in April we visited our landmark Capitol building, happened to be one of the most historic days in Nebraska's history. We were informed when we got to Senator Carlson's office that his bill LB 609 had just past! We had no clue as to what that bill was about.
I'll tell you more about that later...
The the next thing we learned was that this was the day that "Term Limits" was started. That meant 3 of Nebraska's State Senators would be ousted because the public voted for the "Term Limits" bill. That didn't mean much at the time, but as our stay continued, I learned a lot about our government and how it runs. One of the senators who was affected by this passage was Senator Ernie Chambers from Omaha. Senator Chambers served our state for 38 years. He has been a very out spoken senator, to say the least. I was under the impression that no one liked him, especially the other senators. What I learned on that eventful day was that he had the respect of all the people in the state capital. I was in total shock. We went to see his office but it was locked.
By that time it was noon and we found a wonderful place to eat in the Haymarket. We rested and planned our afternoon.
After lunch we moved on to the League of Human Dignity. I learned that Sherry worked with the gentleman who started this nonprofit organization. Sherry and Mark Schultz worked on many of the handicap issues along with others that are in place today.
Since Mark wasn't in the office at the time that we were in Lincoln, Sherry accepted the invitation to visit with his assistant. I wanted to be a professional person by this time and found that that was getting more impossible as the assistant droned on... the heat in the little office was making us all sleepy. With 4 of us in there, combined with the fact that we had just came from lunch was not good. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the assistant volunteered to get some material for us to look at and then we all woke up, ran for the coffee and had a good laugh because we all had our own story of how we tried to stay awake. Tracy, I did see you almost fall off your chair though!
I was really learning from Sherry, she shared with me about the different structures of buildings and how you can get money to help with your offices and sometimes your office space just shows up out of the clear blue if people know and like what you are doing. She got her office space from the Railroad Company, for her first nonprofit, when they were merging with another and they were closing the office there. They gave it to her for $1! Everything was left as is. She had all the trimmings. So, you never know how it will come.
From there we started our trek home. This was where Sherry and I were able to read through the material that we had picked up along the way and start digesting it. Did I mention we were being chaperoned by Sherry's husband Tracy?
We started reading through the brochure of Senator Tom Carlson about LB 609. As I was reading, I couldn't believe my eyes. I said to Sherry, "this is everything that I want to do!" We started picking through it and found out that there is a grant connected to it! It as been working in other towns so we got more excited! Sherry shared with me how we need to work closely with Senator Carlson's office to get out there and help him to get the people informed.
The whole legislative bill was centered around Building Entrepreneurial Communities. This will support economically depressed rural areas of Nebraska. I had no idea there was anyone else out there thinking about the same thing.
From there we got back to Hastings and proceeded to the Hastings Chamber of Commerce 'After Hours' event. We met up with Mr. Jim Connors who is a Managing Partner of the Governance and Goals Gurus Consulting Team. At the social he introduced us to the President of the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor of Hastings, Matt Rossen. Jim arranged for us to meet the next morning with the Mayor Rossen to discuss possibilities of LB609.
All the stumbling blocks that I had to go across has been well worth it to this point.
Stay tune for the next post because we aren't finished yet we still have supper and the next day to start defining who That's It, I'm Going to Grandma's! will become.
That's It,
Renita Farrall
Are you planning your legacy?
Dixie Brown personifies this quote. She is transforming those of us in her Mastermind group and who are determined to succeed. I can see all of us being determined enough to use the stumbling blocks to get to those new heights.
I would like to share with you what happened in the last half of April of 2008 with Sherry Watson.
When you are part of The Power of Grant Money program, as I am with many others, you get some really unique privileges. I will share one of those with you here.
I had reached the point in my grassroots nonprofit organization that it was time for Sherry to come to my state to show me what can make things really work. It is all about putting yourself out there and letting people know who you are and what your plans are, and asking them what you can do to help them, in other words, get yourself and your story in front of influential people and show them how you can also help them move forward.
Remember, we were dealing with "just a farmers wife." Sherry came on a Wednesday. She and her husband like to stay in the same town as their client. Not in Harvard, the hotel collapsed in the spring of 1973. They stayed in a nearby town called Hastings. On Thursday I met them at the motel for breakfast. We then proceeded to Lincoln, the State Capitol, to meet with different agencies. Our first stop was at the Agency on Aging for the State of Nebraska. That was very impressive. The gentleman that we met with was very informative and gave Sherry a lot of information. I, on the other hand, had no clue what questions to ask. I just sat there and let Sherry do the talking and the asking. This was a learning time for the student. She was teaching me by example the whole time.
Next we go over to the Capitol building. How long has it been since you have been to your State Capitol? I was probably in the 4th grade the last time I visited. I just didn't think that that was 'my thing'-aside from admiring the beautiful arthitecture. It was there we met with Senator Tom Carlson, who represents our district. I remembered meeting him while he was campaigning for office. I was sitting outside with my dad when he came to the Assisted Living, where my parents lived at the time. He introduced himself to us and told us what he was doing.
The day in April we visited our landmark Capitol building, happened to be one of the most historic days in Nebraska's history. We were informed when we got to Senator Carlson's office that his bill LB 609 had just past! We had no clue as to what that bill was about.
I'll tell you more about that later...
The the next thing we learned was that this was the day that "Term Limits" was started. That meant 3 of Nebraska's State Senators would be ousted because the public voted for the "Term Limits" bill. That didn't mean much at the time, but as our stay continued, I learned a lot about our government and how it runs. One of the senators who was affected by this passage was Senator Ernie Chambers from Omaha. Senator Chambers served our state for 38 years. He has been a very out spoken senator, to say the least. I was under the impression that no one liked him, especially the other senators. What I learned on that eventful day was that he had the respect of all the people in the state capital. I was in total shock. We went to see his office but it was locked.
By that time it was noon and we found a wonderful place to eat in the Haymarket. We rested and planned our afternoon.
After lunch we moved on to the League of Human Dignity. I learned that Sherry worked with the gentleman who started this nonprofit organization. Sherry and Mark Schultz worked on many of the handicap issues along with others that are in place today.
Since Mark wasn't in the office at the time that we were in Lincoln, Sherry accepted the invitation to visit with his assistant. I wanted to be a professional person by this time and found that that was getting more impossible as the assistant droned on... the heat in the little office was making us all sleepy. With 4 of us in there, combined with the fact that we had just came from lunch was not good. Finally, after what seemed like hours, the assistant volunteered to get some material for us to look at and then we all woke up, ran for the coffee and had a good laugh because we all had our own story of how we tried to stay awake. Tracy, I did see you almost fall off your chair though!
I was really learning from Sherry, she shared with me about the different structures of buildings and how you can get money to help with your offices and sometimes your office space just shows up out of the clear blue if people know and like what you are doing. She got her office space from the Railroad Company, for her first nonprofit, when they were merging with another and they were closing the office there. They gave it to her for $1! Everything was left as is. She had all the trimmings. So, you never know how it will come.
From there we started our trek home. This was where Sherry and I were able to read through the material that we had picked up along the way and start digesting it. Did I mention we were being chaperoned by Sherry's husband Tracy?
We started reading through the brochure of Senator Tom Carlson about LB 609. As I was reading, I couldn't believe my eyes. I said to Sherry, "this is everything that I want to do!" We started picking through it and found out that there is a grant connected to it! It as been working in other towns so we got more excited! Sherry shared with me how we need to work closely with Senator Carlson's office to get out there and help him to get the people informed.
The whole legislative bill was centered around Building Entrepreneurial Communities. This will support economically depressed rural areas of Nebraska. I had no idea there was anyone else out there thinking about the same thing.
From there we got back to Hastings and proceeded to the Hastings Chamber of Commerce 'After Hours' event. We met up with Mr. Jim Connors who is a Managing Partner of the Governance and Goals Gurus Consulting Team. At the social he introduced us to the President of the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor of Hastings, Matt Rossen. Jim arranged for us to meet the next morning with the Mayor Rossen to discuss possibilities of LB609.
All the stumbling blocks that I had to go across has been well worth it to this point.
Stay tune for the next post because we aren't finished yet we still have supper and the next day to start defining who That's It, I'm Going to Grandma's! will become.
That's It,
Renita Farrall
Are you planning your legacy?
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