First Day in School: Growing Out of Dependency Essay

Looking back on a childhood filled with events and memories, I find it rather difficult to pick on that. It leaves me with the fabled â€Å"warm and fuzzy feelings†. As a kid who grew up from another country, I had a pleasure of learning different language and culture. I have to learn both Filipino and English. However, I have discovered that when reflecting on my childhood, it is not the difficult learning that come to mind, instead there are details from everyday doings; a deck of cards, a silver bank or an ice cream flavor. One memory that comes to mind belongs to a day with particular importance. It was my very first day of school. Learning something new can be a scary experience. The first 4 years of my life was spent at home mostly with my parents who were there every step of the way. My day started with a hearty breakfast prepared by Mom, who would patiently cook eggs, fried rice and spam. All of us would rush to the table and get ready for the day’s school or work. After breakfast, I would be the last child left behind with Mom. For 4 full years, my life was comfortable. It consisted of a routine, a structure of dependency which meant I didn’t have to worry about what to wear, when to eat and what time someone was going to give me a bath. It was 4 years built on knowing that my loving parents were there to protect me and my selfless siblings were there as well to pamper me, being the youngest in the family. Then one day, thinking that the morning was going to be how it’s always been, I thought wrong. Mom told me I was going to school. I initially thought, it was going to be fun, to be out of the house and break from the routine for a change. However, as soon as I got to the school in the midst of total strangers, I found my world crumbling. I tugged nervously at Mom and looked at her to say, this was not the place I want to be. She tugged back with confidence and escorted me to my classroom with my new teacher welcoming me with a smile along with the rest of the kids in the room. I remembered crying hard for the first time in my life as if my Mom was abandoning me for the rest of my life. What seemed to be the first 10 minutes felt like an eternity. My first day of school was a realization that my sheltered years of being around my parents and siblings are over. It signaled the day when I realized that my dependency on my family was over. It made me understand that at that very moment, I had to learn to be on my own, make friends with people I barely know and learn to stand up for myself. Before the day was over, it made me realize that there was something to look forward to when school was over. It was scary to be on my own for the first time. However, I found comfort in the fact that Mom would rescue me from the melancholy experience of my first day in school.

Gym Management System Essay

Introduction It is known that exercise is important. Exercise has a great impact in the body as it has all sorts of benefits. Physical activities are very helpful not only on making people fit but also on improving one’s personality. If they have a healthy body, they can be productive in daily life. Exercise increases the energy level. Through it delivers oxygen and nutrients to the whole body helping it to work more efficiently and boost endurance. It is also proven that regular exercise decreases the risk of health problems. Exercise can be fun. Physical activity releases chemicals in our brain called endorphins that are known to make you feel happier and relaxed. A thirty minute workout help improved moods and relieve stress. Doing physical activities are often great opportunity to socialize. Focus and motivation can be achieved to pursue goal which helps by going to the recreation center like going to gym to interacts and communicate with others. (http://primarychildrenshospitalblog.org/2012/06/12/10-reasons-why-exercise-is-important/). Fitness gym is one of the places they should visit to perform physical activities. This place has a facilities and equipments that you will use in our training session. There are trainers that give exercise programs and help you to become fit and strong. Every person in the world would like to have a perfect body. In order to have a healthy and a strong body, people would need to consider going to a gym to work out. What do such people expect of a gym? Certainly, patrons would expect a wide selection of equipment available in a gym. Patrons would enjoy well-educated staffs who know everything people want to know about working out. To provide a good quality of service to people, fitness gym should have an organized management system that will provide convenience to their staff to perform their work more efficiently.   The proposed system will give the list of exercises and it will keep records of gym members, attendance of gym employees, inventory and the payment of bills of the customers. This will help in monitoring daily activities in the gym. This proposed system will be helpful to customers because it will guide them in doing proper exercise and improve the productivity of business of gym owners that will provide an excellent service. http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/5886.html Statement of the Problem The main problem is how to create, design and develop a Gym Management System that will automate the manual process of registration, manual setting of workouts and training programs, manual transaction, manual encoding of attendance, Manual inventory of equipment’s and lastly the generation of reports. Specific Problem: How do the respondents asses the affectivity of the proposed system. 1.1 Functionality 1.2 Reliability 1.3 Usability 1.4 Maintainability 1.5 Portability Conceptual Framework Figure 1 Paradigm of the Study The conceptual framework the proposed Gym Management system starts in the automation of the manual process from registration and membership, manual setting of workouts and training programs, inventory and transactions and lastly is the generation of reports. The proposed system automates the  manual process to come up with the efficient and reliable system that will lessen the manual process. Scope and Delimitation of the Study The proposed system serves as the automated Gym Management System that systematize/manage the old process of registration, inventory and transactions of the Gym. This helps to speed up transaction and give more efficient and reliable data. The Gym Management system is designed in providing productivity in the gym and helps in keeping all the records of daily activity and transactions. This will be developed in Microsoft Visual basic 2010 and Sql Server as the database. Significance of the Study The proposed Gym Management System provides a significant improvement to the owner and its employee above the manual process of registration of new member, payment and inventory. The proposed system will help the following recipients: Gym Owners – The system will provide convenience. Because it keep the record of transactions to their clients, gym equipments and the attendance of employees working in the gym and it will be helpful in monitoring their business. Gym Staff/Personnel – Using an automated system will lessen the effort and avoid hassle in keeping the records. Clients – It will provide privacy on their personal information. They will not be confused on what workout they will do. The system will provide guidelines in performing exercises. Proponents – This system will give them ideas that they can use in their research related to this topic. Definition of Terms For better understanding of the study, the following terms were defined: Administrator – a person responsible for running a business, organization,etc (https://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=4DIVPbxDqHH8gffmoCIBg&gws_rd=ssl#q=administrator+definition). Exercise – activity requiring physical effort, carried out especially to sustain or improve health and fitness (https://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=fE5_VKqECuOJ8QfHgYGQDw&gws_rd=ssl#q=meaning+of+exercise). Fitness Gym – it’s a place which houses the equipment  for the used in physical exercise. It is also the main purpose to create an automated Gym Management System. (https://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=fE5_VKqECuOJ8QfHgYGQDw&gws_rd=ssl#q=meaning+of+Fitness+gym). Inventory – it’s a complete list of items such as property, goods in stock, or the contents of a building. This is also the key goal to automate this manual process. (https://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=85eDVJb8MYeK8Qfn24Aw&gws_rd=ssl#q=inventory+definition). SQL Server – SQL Server is Microsoft’s relational database management system (RDBMS). It is a full-featured database primarily designed to compete against competitors. This is the database used in developing the proposed study. http://www.techopedia.com/definition/1243/sql-server CHAPTER II This chapter presents a summary of related literature and studies which were reviewed and evaluate by the researcher for the conceptualization of the study. REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES GYM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ACADEMIC It gives us great pleasure to present the project on â€Å"Gym Management† prepared sincerely, punctually and with utmost efforts. The contents of this book are presented into many chapters, in order to ease reading. The project has been illustrated with precise data elucidated with neat System Flowchart, dataflow diagram, Entity-Relationship diagram and Use Case diagram that simplify in understanding the software. The project includes the software development tools like c#, crystal reports to present the software very precisely. Meticulous care has been taken to make this project perfect and useful in every respect. ABOUT EXISTING SYSTEM The present system is totally depending on manual data management for different activities such as maintaining details of customer, supplier, Students etc. They maintain Different registers for various activities such as storing and searching data which is tedious and time consuming task. In present system all transactions are done manually with pen and paper so the frequent updating is not possible. Also generating reports, bills accurately  is not possible with current system. There are various other problems for instance, if customer come for the inquiry of particular Parcel and if that Parcel is not available then it is difficult to remember about it. In short system is lacking facilities such as searching, deleting, and adding data efficiently and effectively. DRAWBACKS OF EXISTING SYSTEM It utilizes a large amount of space for customer and supplier transaction information in paper files, Sometime manual calculation may be incorrect thus, leading to the incorrect information A large amount of data cannot be viewed at a glance No reminder for customer and Purchaser. Sometime the calculation has to be done manually so it requires a lot of work. Updating is not performed that efficiently and may lead complications. No security as data can be misplaced or damaged. Lastly, it was not offers a user friendly work environment NEED FOR NEW SYSTEM Working with current system is quite tedious, complicated and time consuming task. It may lead errors .certain operations such as surfing searching, adding, removing, entries cannot be done efficiently. Maintaining different registers for various activities such as storing and searching data which is tedious and time consuming task. Generating reports, bills are much tedious task with new system. Hence the organization needs new system with enhanced features. Features such as automatic report generation, bill generation, computing complicated calculations, performing operations such as adding, deleting, updating and searching etc. System should be user friendly. PROPOSED SYSTEM We hereby are grateful to present our software project through this report.Our proposed system is compute based. Which provide various User interfaces (Forms) for various operations and hence interactive. The system is able to generate calculations , bills ,reports automatically. Operations such as adding, removing, searching customers, suppliers and employees can be done efficiently and effectively by proposed system. Adding Parcels category and unit wise is possible with the help of this system. System can  efficiently perform various transactions such as sales, purchase and maintain data after each transaction. In short proposed system is user-friendly. FEATURES OF NEW SYSTEM GUI : The proposed system provides better graphical user interface Search : Searching details about customer, supplier, employee, Parcel is comparatively easy Increase Work Speed : Due to automation of some part of system work speed would increase Less Paperwork : For the proposed system less paperwork is required Reduces Error : Due to computerization there are less possibilities of error Economical : Due to minimal errors and work delay proposed system can be economically beneficial to the company http://www.projectcorner.in/gym-management-system-academic-project-c-net-synopsis/ Gym Management System Project Gym management system project is a standalone user friendly software application developed in asp.net using C# programming language and MS access database. Main objective: Main idea behind developing this project is to manage different types of data in fitness center, gym. Using this software we can manage employee attendance details, members payments, daily attendance, present and absent days of employees and members. Along with these details gym equipment and payments details are also managed. Gym Management System Project Modules Description: Equipment module: In this module we can add, delete, modify gym equipment details like when it is purchased, license , expiry date..etc. Instructor Module: This is also called as employee module where instructor profile details, experience, present and absent details for every day are updated. We can add , modify and delete these details, Member Module: Details of members who are joined are maintained through this application. Members salary, present and absent days details, payment , due information are managed through this module. Billing: Billing module helps in generating bills for members, employees for every month and provide due  payment details and we can generate reports for monthly billing. http://projectseminar.org/asp-net/asp-net-c/gym-management-system-project/554/ CHAPTER III Methodology of the Study The proponent choose the System Development Life Cycle as the methodology to fasten up the software development process. Method of Study To guide the researchers in developing the study, the proponent use SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) to meet user requirements in their business goals. SDLC is a series of steps and phases for the development of software. The phases of SDLC used are: (1) Data Gathering; (2) Analysis (3) Design; (4) Coding; (5) Testing and Evaluation. Data Gathering Phase is a collection of information that will be use to develop the system. The proponent studied the data needed by observing and conducting an interview. And in Analysis Phase is a process of collecting factual data, understand the processes involved, identifying problems and recommending feasible suggestions for improving the system functioning. This involves studying the business processes, gathering operational data, understand the information flow, finding out bottlenecks and evolving solutions for overcoming the weaknesses of the system so as to achieve the organizational goals. (http://oer.nios.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Phases_of_S ystem_Development_Life_Cycle). In Design Phase is based on the user requirements and the detailed analysis of a new system, the new system must be designed. This is the phase of system designing.   The logical design produced during the analysis is turned into a physical design – a detailed description of what is needed to solve original problem (http://oer.nios.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Phases_of_System_Development_Life_Cycle). In Coding phase is a system design needs to be implemented to make it a workable system. This is also called the programming phase in which the programmer converts the program specifications into computer instructions, which we refer to as programs. It is an important stage where the defined procedures are transformed into control specifications by the help of a computer language  (http://oer.nios.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Phases_of_System_Development_Life_Cycle). In Testing and Evaluation Phase is actually implementing the new system into operations, a test run of the system is done removing all the bugs, if any. It is an important phase of a successful system. After codifying the whole programs of the system, a test plan should be developed and run on a given set of test data. The output of the test run should match the expected results (http://oer.nios.ac.in/wiki/index.php/Phases_of_System_Development_Life_Cycle). Models Used in Developing the Software Used Case Diagram – It will show the role of each user of the system. In this diagram, we will learn the significance of each respondent on the flow of the system. Activity Diagram – Activity diagrams are graphical representations of workflows of stepwise activities and actions with support for choice, iteration and concurrency. In the Unified Modeling Language, activity diagrams are intended to model both computational and organisational processes (i.e. workflows) (https://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=WBSEVMWnKyK8Qfkt4GwDg&gws_rd=ssl#q=activity+diagram+meaning). Database Schema – structure described in a formal language supported by the database management system (DBMS) and refers to the organization of data as a blueprint of how a database is constructed, divided into database tables in the case of Relational Databases (https://www.google.com.ph/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=WBSEVMWnKyK8Qfkt4GwDg&gws_rd=ssl#q=database+schema). Tools Used in Developing the Software Adobe Photoshop – it is a photo editing tool created by Adobe Systems Inc. The proponent used this software to enhance photos for the design of the Graphical User Interface of the system. Visual Basic 2010 – programming language created by Microsoft Company, the software that will be use to develop the proposed system. My SQL – is the world’s most popular open source database, enabling the cost-effective delivery of reliable, high-performance and scalable Web-based and embedded database applications (http://www.oracle.com/us/products/mysql/overview/index.html). Respondents of the Study The respondents of the study were IT specialist, Gym owners and clients who assessed the effectiveness of the product based on a set of criteria. The IT experts who will evaluate the system are IT people that have deep technical knowledge on the subject of this research. The Instrument A set of questionnaire was used in assessing the Gym Management system. Description The instrument called the Gym Management Assessment form is an assessment questionnaire. The items were categorized into the two factors: convenience and efficiency factors. Convenience factors were assessed based on three criteria: portability, security and maintainability. Efficiency factors, likewise, were assessed based on the three criteria of reliability, functionality and usability. Each criterion under each factor had 5 questions. Response Mode -Responses were categorized using a 5-point Liker Scale. Scale Description 5 -Strongly Agree 4 -Agree 3 -Moderately Agree 2 -Disagree 1 -Strongly Disagree Chapter IV Results and Discussion This chapter discussed the presentation, analysis and interpretation of all the data collected from the survey of the respondents as clearly stated in chapter 3. After reviewing, the method in this study, this chapter presented, analyzed and interpreted the data gathered from the survey questionnaire on UPHSD  Automated Clearance. Figure 1 illustrates the step-by-step development process that the proponent undertakes in developing the proposed system. Figure 2 Proposed System Development Flow These are the phases of system development strategy where both users and proponent engaged in the evaluation, design, and implementation. During the requirements planning and design phase, the proponents identify the objectives of the system and the information requirements arising from those objectives. These phase focused on reaching the project goals. During the first phase, the proponent is working with users intensely during the workshop to design the business or non-technical aspects of the system. As soon as these aspects are agreed upon and the systems are built and refined, a new system or part of the system are tested and then introduced to the Gym management. Use Case Diagram Use case diagrams are used to present a graphical overview of the functionality of a system.it is a type of static structure diagram that represents the user interactions with a system. This diagram portrays the different types of users and the various ways they interact with the system. In UML, the user is called actorand he can be human or an external system. The links between an actor and a use case are called associations. Use cases can be generalized, extended and included. Figure below contains the relationships and actors that illustrates and discussed the different set of structures of actions. Figure 3 Use Case Diagram Activity Diagram Figure Below exhibits thorough avctivity of registration of Gym Members and requires details to creat new account. Only the administrator can validate and verify the registration. Upon verification and approval new account is created. Figure 4 Activity Diagram Figure 5 Activity Diagram of User This figure shows the process flow of the User or the Gym Members. Once the user successfully logged on the system he/she can view the registration form, view of training programs, workouts, prices. He/she can also view his/her attendance. Figure 6 Activity Diagram for Administrator This figure illustrates the administrator different accessibility on the system. He/she plays a major role in this proposed system. He/ she will be the one who can access the registration of new members, viewing of the Attendance, work outs, trainings, transactions and also the generation of reports for this proposed system. Database Schema The figure below illustrates the database design and its entity relationship diagram of the different tables used in the database system. The diagram illustrates the one to one relationships among the table customers and customer transactions. The diagram demonstrates the relationship from one table to another. Figure 7 DataBase Schema Hardware Requirements This table below discussed the requirements of proposed system upon implementation. Category Specifications Architecture Dual Core Processor Processor Speed 1.10 GHz RAM 1gb Hard Drive 80 to 500 Gb sata Ethernet Adapter only supported ethernet adapter installed on computer Modem 56k Baud Rate Monitor Any Graphics Card Any Keyboard Any Mouse any Printer Any Chapter V Recommendations General recommendations The proponent brings up the significance of the proposed system along with the value of recommendations. The Gym Management System has attained its objectives. Thus the proponents recommend that the software must be implemented and can be adopted by any Gym or fitness business in reasons of it will allow the automation of manual process of membership registration, setting of workouts and training programs, viewing of attendance, transactions, inventory and generations of reports. This will speed up the manual process and gives effective, convenient and more reliable Gym Management System. The proponent chose the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodology to expedite the software development process. The SDLC provides structured  system development methodologies that guide the systems development effort toward quality systems that meet the user requirements and are delivered within time and budget. The traditional waterfall model has morphed into different methodologies that attempt to overcome some inherent weaknesses of this traditional model and other older models developed after the waterfall, which will be examined in the section below. This continued adaptation of the SDLC to meet current challenges in information systems development is expected to continue and is the crux of the validation of its continued relevance in information systems development. Some of these newer models include Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM), Rapid Application Development (RAD) Extreme Programming (XP) Spiral, Fountain, rapid prototyping, incremental, and synchronize and stabilize. http://www.ukessays.co.uk/essays/computer-sciences/an-essay-on-the-sdlc-model.php The proponents used the descriptive narrative survey method to gather data. Statistical research describes data and characteristics about population or phenomenon being studied. Descriptive research answer the question who, what, where, when, now. The proponent selected 20 Gym members to serves as respondents of the proposed system. Performance will be acceptable to the end users requirements and delivering the system fully functional.  The study used the following statistical treatment; the distribution shows the number of responses obtained for each statement or item in the questionnaire. Conclusion The proponents came up with the following conclusion based on the findings: Based on the surveys and questionnaire the respondents came up that the Gym Management System is more effective and convenient to use. Registration, the response of the respondents is very effective with the weighted mean of 4.31; Log In, the response of the respondents is very effective with the weighted mean of 3.97; User Friendly Features, the response of the respondents is very effective with the weighted mean of 3.97; Inventory of Items, the response of the respondents is very effective with the weighted mean of 3.97; Generation of reports, the response of the respondents is very effective with the weighted mean of 3.97;

Lake Allatoona Ecosystem Structure, Function, and Change

The major structural and functional dynamics (processes) of the Lake Allatoona ecosystem has gone through drastic changes over time. Georgia is one of the most authentically distinctly states in the country, composing through the heights and valleys of northern Georgia to a masses of acres of the rural areas in the southern areas; to the marshlands along the coastlines (gadnr. org). According to, researchers more than nine million people who dwells in Georgia, who often creates multiple contention for congenital resource administration. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is responsible for preserving and controlling the state’s natural resources, including air, and water quality, water quantity, fish and wildlife, forest management, and the ecosystems throughout the state (gadnr. org). There was a time when, Lake Allatoona longleaf pine forests ruled a massive section of the southern area landscape. An estimate of 90 million acres was abode to this ecosystem in southeastern America prior to the establishment of colonies. Particularly as a result of human activity and changed forestry customarily; the recent decrease of naturist fire, longleaf pine forests has been reduced to less than three million acres today. Researchers have established that 187 rare plant species are associated with the longleaf pine ecosystem (27 federally listed as harmful or endangered). Most of these species flourish in the understory of longleaf pine forests because they have acclimated to a regularly-burned environment (gadnr. org). Without fire, many of these species would be choked out by faster developing non-fire-adapted species and over population over the last several decades. How humans may have affected biogeochemical cycles in the Lake Allatoona ecosystem, comprised by impacts to the nitrogen, phosphorus, or carbon cycle. Due to increased population, construction of new roads being developed, and habitat fragmentation, flames regularly seen in southern forests have become drastically decreased. Today, if the Lake Allatoona forest is not burned consciously by humans, it most likely does not burn at all. The lack of fire has caused an abstract in longleaf pine ecosystem forest lands across the south. Today, longleaf pines are established for the most part in limited parcels of land diversifying the territory, rather than large massive forests across the south. There are nine Army Corps facility functioning on the campgrounds, thirteen Corps-operated areas, and on many ecosystem parks around various lakes controlled by city, county, or state agencies (USACE). Allatoona Lake continues to recognize as one of the frequently attended Army Corps lakes in the nation with more than Six million attendees each year. Understanding Lake Allatoona ecosystem structure and functioning has helped the forest industry to develop plans for its administration and restoration planning. The Georgia Department of Environmental Protection (EPD) established one of the most advanced approaches to watershed management and protection in the nation (epa. gov). The Lake Allatoona Watershed was initiated to implement a comprehensive evaluation of ecological (aquatic and physical habitat) and water resource conditions of the watershed. This was accomplished through strict sampling, analysis, coupled with linked watershed and reservoir casting to produce facts and assessments of known quality that will ultimately be used to make sound decisions That support sustainability of the area’s water resources (epa. gov). Environmental impacts were developed based upon the ability of a potential management alternative to increase and/or protect aquatic ecological habitat as well as meet water quality standards. Lake Allatoona ecosystem economic impacts were founded for various management options and were split into two main categories: (1) BMP costs as an indicator of direct economic impacts; and (2) land opportunity costs as an indicator of indirect economic impacts (epa. gov). Human native environment clarification, fragmentation, degradation, and abolition present the enormous harm to natural ecosystems and biodiversity and should be influenced by responsible and adequate accentuations for the future preservation of intact ecosystems. Such computations should be assembled through choices made by various stages of government (epa. gov). All segments of people should get involve to achieve and corporate wildlife and native plant conservation measures that conserve ecosystems and our wildlife inheritance for the coming generations. The implication of species interactions in Lake Allatoona ecosystems management and restoration. According to, the Georgia Forestry Commission, more than 24 million of Georgia's 37 million land-surface acres are forests, making it the extremely authoritative ecosystem in the state. Seen as one of the largest national forest in Georgia is; the Lake Allatoona National Forest is located the North Georgia area (gatech. edu). Wildlife species in North Georgia forests includes American bald eagles, and black bears just to name a few. Georgia's forests landscape are also home to many endangered plant species, such as the large-flowered skullcap, and the persistent trillium. Multinomial affiliations in Georgia, such as Georgia Forest Watch, have increased alertness on issues that threatens the entertainment of the state's forests lands (gatech. du). Astronomic amounts of fertilizers are applied to lawns near many of the ecosystems in Georgia. Excessive portions of phosphorus and nitrogen are the leading actuators of fertilizers to depart into surrounding ecosystems creating enormous amounts of algae growth. This has caused much decreasing of oxygen in our waters, harms aquatic life and disrupts human amusement activity. Native plants; also called genetic plants they ar e plants that have developed over many of years in a precised areas. The native plants have acclimated to the geography, hydrology, and tropics of that woodland (gatech. edu). Most of the native plants occur in regions, that is, many have unfolded concurrently with other exotics. As a consequence, an alliance of native exotic species provides a dwelling for a multitude of indigenous wildlife species such as songbirds, and butterflies throughout Lake Allatoona ecosystem (gatech. edu).References: Georgia Department of Natural Resources.  (2010).  Retrieved from http://www.gadnr.org Longleaf.  ().  Retrieved from http://www.sam.usace.army.milGreen acres Native plants.  (2011).  Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov Smart tech.  (2009).  Retrieved from http://smartech.gatech.edu

Providing an overview of an organizational position of human resources Essay

Providing an overview of an organizational position of human resources as a staff or support function - Essay Example Hernandez and OConnor (2010) argue that in many health care organizations, persons heading the HR normally report to the top executives. In small healthcare organizations there will be no second level of executive management and therefore the HR will report directly to the CEO. As a staff or support function, the HR facilitates the work, striving to obtain the overall effectiveness and efficiency. Staff operations supports and enhance the work of an organizations through making it possible to continue producing products or provision of services. Staff areas in a health care organization are HR, housekeeping, finance, and maintenance. None of these areas provide direct services to the patients, but if they are not performed, the patient will experience both losses in quality and inefficiencies. The primarily role of the staff or support is to maintain the organization’s service environment and capability, making the line operations to continue operating in an optimal manner. Human resource services of any healthcare entity are provided through acquisition of staffs by HR planning, effective recruitment and selection, development of the employees through training, organizational change and developments, and carrier developments. Additionally, HR motivates the employees through performance appraisals, job satisfaction, provision of good working environments, and reward systems. According to Shi (2007) HR services are provided through maintenance such as provision of benefits, working conditions and services that may commit employees to the organizations. HR may be an organization’s expert and official voice regarding personnel policies, compensation, and benefits, and many of the legalities concerning employments. Human resource managers working in a health care organizations therefore provide service, assistance, guidance, and whatever other services that may be deemed appropriate according to the needs of the

Complaints against the Police Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Complaints against the Police - Essay Example With regard to the budding growth of the concern, the essay also tends to provide a proposal for change policy that leads to increasing policing crimes. In this context, the proposal for a change in policing policy includes a set of effective recommendations that can enable policymakers to reduce different potential issues. Acts of corruption, brutality, and bribery by the people with legislative power have long been witnessed to radically weaken the public faith on the governments. However, the loss of public faith is often regarded to be acute when the legislative acts involved with the police. This is owing to the fact that public, irrespective of their locations relies upon the law enforcement officers in order to uphold legal commandments and ensure adequate protection of the communities and provide assistance when needed. With due regards to various law enforcement reports and analysis, police officers are often considered as the most visible governmental arm for the communities or the citizens. They are often considered to be a yardstick through, which they measure their appropriate authority. The illegal acts performed by the police officers often lead them, to be dishonored not only by himself, but the practices also disgrace the entire legal environment along with the judicial system that he/ she represents (Williams, 2002). Unfortunately, to the growing concern of police officer complaints, there is a number of crucial factors that lead or enable them to commit unethical or illegal practices. In this regard, the organizational culture is often regarded as one of the major aspects that encourage police officers to commit different types of corruption-related acts. Those acts often recognize to be practiced in the form of monetary bribes, misuse of their authorities, or concealing numerous criminal activities.

Critically examine the effect of organisational structure and Essay

Critically examine the effect of organisational structure and operating techniques on the competitiveness of an organisation - Essay Example that an organization can either be formally aligned in its ways and means of doing things and different processes or the same might just be in a way informal in quite a few of its activities and tasks. The manner in which it runs across this paradigm is something that needs to be studied in depth before we reach further consensus on their purposes and the kind of achievements that they have had. As we talk about an organization, we see that within it the communication can flow in one of three ways or in all the three directions. This means that these three directions pave the way for the ease of communication and there are as such no barriers to arise from the whole equation. The first communication flow is from top to bottom, which means that the communication starts from the top management and goes down towards the middle and lower management. It ensures that the instructions are easily made comprehensible for all and sundry who are within the middle and lower cadres and there are as such no discrepancies arising from this form of communication flow. The second form could be the one that starts from the lower or middle management and goes up towards the top management. A common example of this kind of communication flow is in the type of protests and rallies that arise at the lower level and the lower management wants to make sure that their voice gets heard courtesy the top cadre of the organization. The third communication flow could be in the kind of peer to peer communication and interaction. This means that the employees and the workers at the same level communicate within their own capacities and as such there are no hindrances arising from the whole communication matrix. Apart from this, within an organization the communication also flows in a formal as well as an informal manner. Where the communication is more formal and sophisticated, the interaction is usually done through paper and written requests whereas the informal talk is also called

The Fifth Amendment Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Fifth Amendment - Coursework Example If the government is not limited in this aspect, it will be easy for them to â€Å"force (coerce) people to answer questions that would cause them to look guilty of a crime† (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 324). The government's limitations on this matter is even emphasized when â€Å"By the middle of the 18th century, English courts began to limit the admissibility of confessions† (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 326). This is to prevent the occurrences of â€Å"confessions...obtained by any manner, including force or the threat of force† (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 326). Not limiting the government's ability to how and when it asks questions opens an avenue for abuse and arbitrary actions. How do you feel about police â€Å"encouraging† suspects to talk by threatening or using physical force or otherwise intimidating them? Despite arguments that the ends can justify the means, one has to keep in mind that regardless of the motivation, individual rights should be, first and foremost, protected, because, personally speaking, it cannot be said that a government can protect the rights of a nation if that government is unable to first protect the rights of the individual. I truly cannot see how justice can be served if the foundation of such â€Å"justice† is already unjust. ... s could mean that if done properly, interrogation techniques can do the job already, so there is really no need to apply force or the threat of force. In the rest of the cases, a more diligent police work --- like searching for physical evidences --- could work in areas where interrogation did not provide much help. Does the Miranda decision impede police work? It is said that â€Å"because of [the] Miranda, substantial numbers of criminal convictions are lost each year† and that it â€Å"may be the single most damaging blow to the nation's crime fighting ability in the past half century† (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 330). However, it is also said that: Miranda...changed the analysis of the Fifth Amendment protection against self- incrimination from a totality of the circumstances test for voluntariness to whether those subjected to a custodial interrogation by police were advised of their rights...[but] Miranda has not completely displaced the due process/voluntariness st andard. (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 331) Therefore, the Miranda may have made police work tougher, but it does not absolutely impede police work. This is because â€Å"When a Miranda violation cannot be used to support an attack, voluntariness still can† (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 331). Would a different result occur, given exactly the same circumstances of an interrogation, for what a private security officer could do as opposed to what a city police officer must do? Private security officers such as security guards or even rent-a-cops â€Å"are not required to advise suspects of their Miranda rights† (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 360). City police officers are required to issue the Miranda warning to â€Å"individuals they had in custody, before questioning them† (Harr, Hess, and Orthmann 331). This could

Eassy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Eassy - Essay Example This paper shall compare non-profit and profit healthcare organizations particularly focusing on the following aspects of these organizations: mission and purpose, organizational structure and scope, governance and oversight, leadership styles, expectations and accountability, compensation practices, strategic planning and budgeting processes, stewardship and fiscal responsibility, ethical challenges and dilemmas, investor relations, community benefit, social responsibility and stakeholder responsibility, potential impact of health reform on organizational initiatives, environment and organizational culture, and performance improvement and effectiveness – quality measures and indicators. These parameters shall provide a clear picture of distinctions in the application of these two types of organizations. Discussion The main distinction between the profit and the non-profit organizations is that one organization is driven by profit and the other is not driven by profit. More sp ecific differences shall be discussed below. Mission and Purpose Non-profit healthcare organizations have basically an altruistic and non-monetary mission and purpose. Drucker (in Cox, p. ... 2). The mission of non-profit health organizations is not to maximize profits, but to serve the members of the community where it is physically located, providing the members of the community the best healthcare services they can offer (Cleverley, et.al., p. 8). On the other hand, for profit organizations have more financially-related purposes. Its goal of earning profits is mostly sought for distribution to its investor-owners or for reinvestment to the organization for the long-term benefit of these investors (Cleverley, et.al., p. 8). In effect, for profit organizations are usually owned by investors, whereas non-profit organizations are owned by entire communities; and while non-profit organizations seek to benefit the community, the for-profit healthcare organizations aim to benefit its owners and investors. Money contributed to the organization are given with the hope of doubling or earning more profits, whereas, money given or invested to nonprofit organizations are not expect ed to make profits, but they are expected to serve the larger community. The growth in the organization is actually stated in terms of growth, efficiency, and quality; whereas, the mission for non-profit organizations are stated in terms of charity and community service, alongside growth (Gray and Institute of Medicine, p. 6). Organizational Structure and Scope Organizational structures specify the roles and responsibilities of individuals which are tasked with pursuing and fulfilling the goals of the organization (Zietlow, et.al., p. 5). Assigned individuals include the board of directors/board of trustees, committees, staff, officers, outside contractors,

Total reward approach to compensation and timeline Research Paper

Total reward approach to compensation and timeline - Research Paper Example Further, compensating the employees’ efforts remains a basic and foundational concept in employees’ retention and motivation. To ensure a comprehensive and fool proof operation of these types of compensations that are besides the salaries, most companies have established systems that recognize what is to be rewarded and how the process is supposed to take place (Kowalewski, College, & Phillips, 2012). These programs are called total rewards programs and are meant to direct the organization on how the employees are to be rewarded to ensure efficient motivation and maximum retention of the employees. The rewards program encompasses all things and activities that the employer regards as motivating from the employees point of view and which are valuable to the general and specific welfare of the employees. Although they include both monetary and non-monetary commodities, the financial and related rewards are the most notable and the foundation of rewards system in an organization settings. Most companies recognize four categories of rewards (Burris, 2012). There are the membership and seniority-based rewards, work status-based, competency-based and performance based rewards. The established system dictates what type of reward is to apply in each employee’s case and how these rewards are to be executed. This paper is aimed at designing a total rewards system based on Coca-Cola Company’s system. By exploring in details the total rewards system of the company, this paper will provide an insight on the basic contained in a specific system. To arrive at this design, the paper will first look into the company and its main objectives, missions and vision and an analysis of the reward system. It is from this analysis that the design will be developed. The Coca-Cola Company is undoubtedly the world largest manufacturer of beverages and soft drinks. It has been ranked the world’s number one brand on several occasions. Since 1889,

Critical Analysis and Reflection of Cases in the West Yorkshire Essay

Critical Analysis and Reflection of Cases in the West Yorkshire Jurisdiction - Essay Example In terms of completing a particular task of enforcing the law, like other police staff forces, the Yorkshire police force tries to implement all the necessary ethical and lawful guidelines altogether as they put themselves into a particular situation that might not be that easy for just anyone to be under. In the context of this discussion, a practical presentation on how the police force carefully yet strongly implements the systems of the law in the community shall be tackled in an aim to show how important the responsibilities of the said officers in the society are. A repeat offender was caught in the possession of five cannabis plants. These plants were processed for growth through a hydraulic set up. The 26-year-old man producer of drug has been in the watch list of the police as he has long been accused of possession and distribution of drugs for at least 26 previous convictions. These convictions prove the operation of the man and are further proven by the seen evidences in his home. Besides that, the convicted man has also been reported to have a 1000 in his pocket amidst the fact that he does not have a job. He was also seen with a young girl aged 18 who was doubted to have been using the drug along with the 26 year old man. She was rather asked some questions and sworn that she did not know about the ongoing procedures of producing drugs in the house. Given all t Given all the substantial evidences, the need to capture the man is essential. The informant who is the man's mother is asked to go back as she was found clean of the course of her son and was appointed to stay with her grandchild. Legalization, policy and Guidelines Section 23 of PACE allowed the search of the premises of the arrested person at the time of arrest without a warrant1. Subsection 1 says that a constable is allowed to search a person when he is arrested in a place, which is not the police station especially if he poses a danger to himself or others. The search is meant to uncover any thing that he might use to escape custody or which might be evidence in the crime. Subsection 2b allows the search of premises in which he was arrested. The powers do not allow the constable to unclothe or remove any clothes to achieve the purpose of discovering evidence. Moreover, this section does not allow a police officer to return to a site and examine the premises for evidence to corroborate the earlier arrest as he then requires permission from the inspector. Changes have been made in the trigger powers validated by Section 32. Search of the person and premises are allowed only in indictable offences as per the revisions from the midnight of Dece mber 31st 2005 in which the searching of premises and seizing of property are concerned2. The PACE (Police and Criminal Evidence Act, 1984) Section 18 was used for searching the premises of the girl's house and the house that both of the arrested rented for two days. This section of law allows the constable to enter and search the premises occupied or controlled by the person arrested and that relates to the offence, after the arrest3. A permission from the officer of the rank of Inspector of Police is required if the searches are done after the arrested are taken to the police station. This

Critical Issues In Policing Essay Example for Free

Critical Issues In Policing Essay Abstract There is an abundance of issues when concerning policing. In this paper the following things will be discussed: the dangers of policing, less-than-lethal-weapons, technology used in policing, and police corruption and how it relates to this paper. Critical Issues in Policing Policing has grown in possibly the most positive and beneficial direction since the beginning of time. It is a constant grueling and agonizing pace at some times but in all reality that is what makes it even more beneficial because the officers, supervisors and the community are taking their time in making sure they are establishing a proper balance of needs. In all of this time they have continually figured out ways to reduce crime, protect citizens and the community while putting themselves at the risk of danger and death. As the technology continues to rises as time goes on and the changes in society the law enforcement will become an unpredictable turn of events. The realistic view is that there has been a lot of things to change and keep up with but some of the biggest changes in the policing area have been changes in how they deal with recruitment, gender and racial equality, better education, dangers, technology, less than lethal weapons, and Dangers of Policing While working in or at a job or in a position where you have to protect people or even the whole community, your job will be filled with a huge number of risks and dangers. Policing involves a number of dangers, and the officers that are there to serve and protect face different dangers every  day. Some of the dangers that are an issue in policing are the risk of physical injury and or death of an officer, automobile crashes, the mental and emotional stress not only of the job but of the balance between the job and personal lives. They have to deal with the elements of Mother Nature, with extreme temperature changes which involve heat stroke and or hypothermia. They also have to worry about the lack of proper nutrition, and also the exposure to contagious diseases, such as AIDS or Hepatitis. The final and most severe aspect of most of the dangers in policing is the threats of violence to themselves and their families. I can’t imagine that these thoughts don’t play a r ole in the thoughts of a police officer’s mind every time they get ready to do their job every day, it would also have an effect on how they do their jobs. There really is only one positive that someone can see out of the dangers that these officers expose themselves to on a daily basis. It is with hope and faith that having so many dangers keeps these officers prepared, attentive, and conscious of everything around them and how cautiously and carefully they do their jobs. Looking into the issues of policing we need to help improve officer safety with more effective and possibly even more equipped cars, more effective firearms, and the better invention of less lethal weapons for our officers to use when they are in the streets battling and fighting with criminals. There is no doubt that we also need to have better communication with the entire police force and other agencies, but that will come in time as everything else evolves. I think that another good way to combat the dangers in policing is that our government heads mandate it that no officer is allowed to work the beat alone. Although it is an understanding that extra patrol costs money, there is no single person that can put a price on another person’s safety or life. Driving is a huge concern for officers because not only are they having to concentrate on how they operate a car they are also having to be aware and almost have to predict in some instances what the person next to them is going to do. Now getting to the health aspects of dangers in policing, the reality of this is that the equipment that they wear can sometimes weigh more than most two month old babies and it puts quite a lot of stress on their lower extremities such as hips, knees, and feet. They also get in and out of vehicles up to hundreds of times in one day and so they risk the wear and tear on their joints and tissue. They also have to  deal with people who have various communicable diseases such as AIDS, HIV or hepatitis. They are constantly dealing with people spitting or urinating on them or by them. Part of that health is the mental and physical aspects of it, the job alone can be a hard, tiring and exhausting day to day job, then a lot of these officers go home to another life, a wife, kids, pets all of which demand even more from these people that have just spent hours out there protecting citizens and a community from criminals and terrorists. Less-than-lethal weapons These are weapons that officers use to protect themselves from a distance, they usually use them as a distraction, to disorient or incapacitate a suspect or known criminal. It is not considered to be a deadly weapon although if used in the wrong manner could cause death. There are a variety of options in relation to less than lethal weapons such as chemical agents, electrical weapons, projectile weapons, and pepper spray. It would seem that out of these options a taser is something that is more common among officers and agencies, although this is not a lethal weapon used with force it could cause death or serious injury. Less than lethal weapons are a positive thing for officers to be able to use. If an officer is alone and cannot get control of a person and they are being resistant or violent then they have another option than to just use their lethal weapon. It is a great alternative to a deadly weapon choice and usually helps the officer protect himself just as good in most cases. Without the assistance that officers have with less than lethal weapons most officers wouldn’t feel as secure in certain situations and they can also avoid someone being seriously injured or even shot to death. Technology used in policing When it comes to technology, it is and will continue to be one of the most growing and evolving parts of policing. There are what seem to be millions of types of technology that police officers use are, crime lights, lasers, crime mapping, global positioning systems. (The Future Is Here: Technology in Police Departments, 2003-2014). One example that the officers use is dashboard cameras. These cameras are mounted inside police cars and they videotape images that happen in front of the police car and outside of the  police car, they are not a new form of technology but they are as usual coming out with newer and better imaging and sound recordings and the angles at which they can be set can now be changed to view different angles. The cameras are beneficial to not only help catch criminals but they also have been used to catch police officers that are using criminal behavior. Another example is RADAR/LIDAR-Radar is a system in which they use for detecting the direction or distance, even the speed of objects by sending out pulses or waves that reflect off the article and back to the starting place. LIDAR is the light detection and ranging that is yet another acronym to describe the technology used in LTI’s family of Lasers. This technology allows for more information and communication to be more accurate and instant among police organizations and their police officers, command centers and citizens even. They are benefiting from technology because they have better chances to identify perpetrators through a higher technology base such as AFIS, they also can collect data through the DNA analysis. Police Corruption I think that there is one critical issue in policing that needs more attention and it is about police corruption. Police corruptions are abuses of police authority. (Police Corruption and Misconduct, 2014. There are multiple example of police corruption but one example would be an officer allowing someone to keep trafficking drugs as long as they receive something in return for letting them traffic them across state lines. It has been a part of society since the beginning of time and it will probably find a way and spot into the future of policing. The thing that drives police officers to commit such corruption is usually greed or personal gain. The prevention of corruption is a hard one to deal with, there is always going to be one officer somewhere out there that is going to want more than they have. They are not blamed for doing anything but action on those decisions that they have made when they are tempted by such corruptive things. It is a critical issue because citizens are suppose to put their life and trust in these officers hands and if they can’t make good decisions for themselves then how can one trust they will make good decisions when it comes to the community. Conclusion The best way to improve the concerns we have about safety is to have constant and reoccurring training that way we are keeping our officers up to date about any and all dangers that they may have to deal with in their fields that they go out and work in everyday. I also believe that we have to try and stay ahead of the criminals when it comes to technology; they have the ability to use this as something to better the amount of violence and crime. Without police forces being able to use the same technology we will fall behind on crime prevention and the reality of the situation is that policing will not ever be effective in catching these criminals is we are continually a step behind them. References Police Corruption and Misconduct. (2014). Retrieved from http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Police+Corruption+and+Misconduct The Future Is Here: Technology in Police Departments. (2003-2014). Retrieved from http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?article_id=1527fuseaction=displayissue_id=62008

Dont Change the World Essay Example for Free

Dont Change the World Essay Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows’ skin, and would cost a huge amount of money. Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, â€Å"Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet?†The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a â€Å"shoe† for himself.There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story: to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself your heart; and not the world. The Travelers and the Plane Tree Two men were walking along one summer day. Soon it became too hot to go any further and, seeing a large plane tree nearby, they threw themselves on the ground to rest in its shade.Gazing up into the branches one man said to the other: â€Å"What a useless tree this is. It does not have fruit or nuts that we can eat and we cannot even use its wood for anything.†Ã¢â‚¬Å"Don’t be so ungrateful,† rustled the tree in reply. â€Å"I am being extremely useful to you at this very moment, shielding you from the hot sun. And you call me a good-for-nothing!†All of God’s creations have a good purpose. Islam teaches us that we should never belittle Allah’s blessings.

Police Should Not Have Unlimited Power Criminology Essay

Police Should Not Have Unlimited Power Criminology Essay Corruption of authority is when an officer receives some form of material gain by virtue of their position as a police officer without violating the law. Police may use their authority to get some extra income when dealing with criminal. It is most commonly happen when police dealing with traffic offenders or maybe a murder. Police may receive some pocket money, when the traffic offenders are trying to escape from traffic tickets. It happens every day in our real life. Bribery will be happen if the murder criminal is a richer, they can even escaped arrested with money. So when bribery is happen, the richer criminals do not need to be punished by law. The truth cannot be found, the victim cannot find the murderer. The unsolved crime is gradually increased. Favoritism and nepotism also is the reason may cause innocent. Police may actually protect the people they would like to protect, such as their family even they are likely to be criminals. The fabrication and destruction of evidence may happen due to escape legal of sanctions. With such behavior, is often result more victims and more innocent events. This is actually unfair to the public. These are also the reason why we still have lot of unsolved crime in our country. Police are human, human are prone to error. Unlimited power means police dont have to abbey the law or the constitution. Meaning they are allow to do absolutely anything to the suspects of the crime. There is now the era of numerous incidents of police brutality against criminal suspects resulting in serious injuries and deaths. The police may use abuse on the suspects who may actually innocent. There have been several cases involving. This was certainly the case in the deaths of three innocent school boys who were shot dead by the police. The police said they ignored orders to surrender and opened fire at police personnel. It was great suspicion of foul play, because there is no witnesses, no police cars with bullet shots, no wounded policemen. Where there is a death by police shooting, the authority alleges that the deceased attacked and the police acted in self defense. Families of those shot dead have often protested that the deceased had no history or track record of any crimina l activity, again raising questions about the veracity of police claims. The police may assume the things they do to be helping society, such acts may include violence towards the suspect. However, the victim may feel unfair, but still, since the right is given to the police, they are not responsible in inflicting damages to the victim. A string of vicious murders by the police on suspects have left the nation loathe and distrust the police for the police force. It is very difficult to believe that these deaths are caused by the very institution is supposed to protect and preserve justice, even to those who are suspected individuals. This is not the usual situation of having to put up with police corruption, misconduct, mistreatment and heavy-handedness as part of our life everyday life. It will continue to happen as long as the police have the discretion and unlimited power in their hands to interpret as they like the Federal Constitution. Social unrest may also occur due to the police having unlimited powers, the victim may feel unfair due to police corruption. Riots might happen due to the seeking of justice for the victim may result. Social unrest may cause our country political unstable. Social unrest not only will cause the loss of many innocent lives, it will also in the drop of our economic level, Foreign investors will no longer take interest in investing in a country with internal conflicts. Such an incident is similar to that of the 1992 Los Angeles riots which were sparked when the jury acquitted four police officers accused in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King when he resisted arrest. Looting, assault, arson and even murder occurred. The country took a long time to settle the unrest, resulting in loss of revenue for the country. This shows how a country can adversely affected due to unlimited powers given to the police, this all actually can be avoid. It is important to the government to overlook the effect of giving such right to the police before doing so ensure best to the country and its people. In my opinion, police should not have unlimited power when dealing with crime. Although the police have ether assumed or have been assigned responsibility for dealing with many more of complex crime and social problem, but their job is to service people. The mission of police is to control crime, we expect them to perform, a crime control role. They should not be giving authority to judge a criminal. Their job is to find out the criminal and left them to legal sanctions.

Balancing A Career and A Family Essay -- Parenting Working Family Essa

Balancing A Career and A Family Abstract Regardless of where they are in their careers, working mothers have a tough time achieving balance between work and family. Generally, women take on or are given more responsibility for their homes than are men, leading to frustration and exhaustion. In this paper we will address some of the issues involved in balancing career and family. This paper will provide some solutions for the most common problems arising from todays busy schedules, and provide some insight on how to make the most of your time. The Scales of Life Working all day and then coming home to a young child can be difficult, at best. After putting all one’s energy into doing his/her job well -- answering to a boss's, co-workers', clients', and/or employees' demands. The last thing a parent may feel like doing is answering to their child's. However, these thoughts just make people feel guilty. These and other problems are more common in today’s households than society may realize. The stresses people face in the workplace today are far more demanding than they were during their parents careers. Today’s workforce is made up of just as many women as men, and in many cases, both parents have careers which leaves little in the way of quality time for children, and/or social time for adults. This essay will explore some solutions that others have used to change their lives, and careers for the better. One of the most common reasons for high levels of stress in families today, is caused by dissatisfaction and/or tension in the workplace. People have often heard the addage â€Å"Leave your Job at the Office†, but how many are capable of just turning things off, when they leave for the day? Not many, and becau... ...ven many the freedom from debt that allowed them to return to school or pursue a new, sometimes lower paying, yet less stressful occupation. Financial counseling is another alternative that has helped many to understand the nature of their debts, and gain control of them so that lower wages or new careers became a possibility. These and many other stress alternatives are available to most everyone, but it’s up to each individual to make a conscience decision to improve their lives, only then can they start down that road into the unknown; which for most, has been a very liberating journey. References 1. The Career Journal (2001). Stress in the Workplace: The Silent Danger. Career Journal. Retrieved February 1, 2001. From http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/change/20030225 2. Oldenburg, Ray (1989). The Problem of Place in America Pub Group West.

Dewar’s leader in U.S. Scotch whisky industry Essay -- Business and Ma

Dewar’s leader in U.S. Scotch whisky industry 1. Situational Analysis 1.1 SWOT Analysis Strengths - Dewar’s leader in U.S. Scotch whisky industry, with a market share of 15%. - Past success with the advertising campaigns in maintaining a positive image for Dewar’s among Scotch drinkers. - Strong research and development. - Backup from United Distillers, which is an International leader in the Scotch whisky and Gin markets, and one of the most profitable spirit’s Company in the world. - Dewar’s is positioned as a premium and prestigious blend of Scotch whisky. - Schieffelin & Somerst, distributor of Dewar’s within U.S, is the product of a Joint Venture with Moet Hmessy Louis Vuitton, allowing cost reduction. Weaknesses - Lack of promotional strategies to attract new customers. - Targeting a segment market that is not growing. - Slow reactions. Opportunities - US, the largest liquor market in the world (13% market share) with high profit margins. - Young adults’ good attitude towards the consumption of withe spirits. - Social acceptance of mixed drinks. Threats - Sales in Industry of liquor and withe spirits with a negative growth. - Scotch whisky in the declining stage of product cycle. - Mature target market consuming less Scotch whisky. - Growing social resistance and regulations of liquor consumption in the U.S. - Shift of consumer preference towards lighter alcohol beverages, such as wine and beer. - Risk of becoming over analytical and moving to slowly when implementing the repositioning strategy. 1.2 US Scotch whisky Industry Analysis. Both the industry of liquor and the industry of distilled spirits had suffered a reduction in consumption since 1978. This represents 15 years of constant negative growth. Some of the factors that had caused this phenomenon are the growing of social, regulatory and legal restrictions over drinking. Also, drinking preferences have shifted towards lighter alcohol beverages, such as wine and beer. The Scotch industry has suffered an even greater decline due to the fact that its target market is drinking much less. It has become the distilled spirit with lower consumption per-capita. Mature customers are not loyal to a brand, they are lower priced oriented. If all these factors remain the same, ... ...f the campaigns. 3. Analysis and evaluation of options Three strategies have been developed in order to help managers to take the last decisions in the release of the campaign. Strategy 1 Implementation just of the maintenance campaign directed to mature adults. Strategy 2 Implementing truths and maintenance campaigns at the same time. Strategy 3 Line extension 4. Recommended course of action The most realistic, and practical option that I can recommend to the manager is the second one. She already had researched and developed a big campaign that in just two moths is supposed to be released. We just hope that no changes in the perception of the mature audience will be produced due the expose to both campaigns. Also in terms of lees cost and almost immediate effect in profits, the best choice is the second one. But let's say if there is no budget or time constrains the best option for me is the third one. Keeping each segment with different products it makes it easier to target the audiences. When this young adults reach certain age they will immediate cross the bridge to Dewar’s classic bottle, giving a more serious and respectful image.

Roy Wilkins and the NAACP: A Life Dedicated to the Civil Rights Movemen

The life of Roy Wilkins is a story of one of the greatest civil rights leaders the United States has ever known. He was an underdog that came from poor beginnings to become a leader of the NAACP, for twenty-two years. A true example of what someone can do if they put their minds to it, no matter what color they are. To begin the journey through Roy Wilkins life, we will start with a little biographical information. Roy was born in St. Louis, Mo. On August 30, 1901, as the grandson of a slave. His mother died when he was three years old, so he and his sister were sent to live with their Aunt and Uncle in St. Paul, Mn. There they raised him in a low-income, integrated community. Although he was poor, he did attend integrated public schools in the city. After graduating high school, Roy worked his way through the University of Minnesota, where he majored in sociology and minored in journalism. He had various jobs to put himself through college. He worked as a redcap (a baggage porter), waiter, stockyard laborer, and a night editor. While in college he worked as the night editor (to help pay his way through) of the Minnesota Daily, the school paper and a black weekly, the St. Paul Appeal. After working all these odd jobs he managed to put himself through college. After graduation, he took a position as a journalist for the Kansas City Call, a black weekly paper. He stayed there for seven years, acting as managing editor from 1923 until 1931. Although the job at the Call was good, he left it in 1931 to join the NAACP as Assistant Executive Secretary, under Walter White, who was Executive Secretary at the time. In his new job, his first assignment was to investigate discrimination on a federally funded flood project in Mississippi, in 1932. Due to his findings of discrimination at that project, he was successful in getting Congress to take action to stop its practices there. After a couple of years as Whites assistant, in 1934 Wilkins seceded W. E. B. DuBois as editor of the NAACPï€ ½s magazine, the Crisis. In that same year, he suffered the first arrest of his civil rights career. During a protest at the Attorney Generalï€ ½s office in Washington, D.C., they were there protesting to get the National Conference of Crime to add ï   Lynching ï â‚¬ to their agenda of topics. He served as a consultant to the ... ...eir career after his. In a turbulent world, his non-violent means of gaining rights for blacks was a calming one. Works Cited: African-American History. ï  Roy Wilkins (1901-1981).ï â‚¬ [http://www.triadntr.net/~rdavis/wilkins.htm](Mar. 27, 2000). Altman, Susan. The Encyclopedia of African-American Heritage. New York: Facts on File, Inc.,, 1997. Collierï€ ½s Encyclopedia. New York: P. F. Collier, 1996. Encyclopedia Americana, International Version. Danbury, Conn.: Grolier Inc., 1999. Encyclopedia of Black America. ed., W. Agustus Low, ass. ed., Virgil A. Clift. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1981. Hornsby, Alton, Jr. Chronology of African American History, 2nd edition. From 1492 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1997. Ploski, Henry A. and Williams, James. editors, The Negro Almanac, A Reference work on the African American, 5th edition. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1989. The African American Almanac, 7th edition. ed., L. Mpho Mabanda. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1997. The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1973. The World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc., 2000.

Analysis of “Pleasantville” Essay

The film ‘Pleasantville’ is about two modern teenagers, David and his sister Jennifer, somehow being transported into the television, ending up in Pleasantville – a 1950s black and white sitcoms. David knows that they have to act like the ‘real’ characters as he definitely knows the world well, but soon he realises that it is impossible – that change is inevitable, which is the main theme of the movie. The two characters from the modern world have the role of bringing ‘evil’ knowledge to the citizen of Pleasantville. They brought changes to the town, adding colours to it. Change is an important element in this film. It shows that change is inevitable by introducing two characters into a never-changing world. Both are uneasy when they arrive. However, Jennifer threatens to rebel and states that â€Å"no one is happy in a poodle skirt and sweater set†. The citizen of Pleasantville have only learned about the geography of two streets, the firemen have never seen a fire, and sex and double beds do not even exist. They live their lives according to their routines. â€Å"Where is my dinner?† Mr Parker asks when he is surprised that the dinner is not ready for in at quarter to six. Though, the curiosities of the people living in Pleasantville lead them to change. â€Å"What is outside Pleasantville?† some ask. The people of Pleasantville are no longer innocent, and they are ready to change. This is shown by the shifting of people from black and white to colour. The people can only gain colours when they break their barriers, discovering the missing element in their lives. Some gain colour from having sex, Mary-Sue gains colour from reading books and Bud gains colour from getting into a fight. Pleasantville is no longer Pleasantville. The basketball team starts missing shots, and colours can be seen everywhere. Bud is horrified when he sees the changes, but soon realises that it is hardly life when all people do is to follow the robotic routines. Not all people react pleasantly with the changes. A committee is set up to limit the use of colours, kinds of music and books, and shutting down Lover’s Lane. The film comments on censorship and the social discriminations  base on racial background. The plot of Pleasantville is relatively simple – two real people being sucked into an unreal world. However, it makes allusion to the real world, such as segregation and censorship. It also deliver its message successfully, that change is inevitable. The scenes where the black and white tree bursting into bright orange flame, and the Lover’s Lane as Eden, have strong visual impact on the audience, and allows the audience to re-evaluate our society.

Blaise Thomas “Tom” Golisano Essay

Blaise Thomas â€Å"Tom† Golisano is the founder of Paychex, the second-largest payroll processor in the United States. He also owns the Buffalo Sabres hockey team. He ran for governor of New York in 1994, 1998, and 2002. He lost all three elections but surprisingly defeated incumbent New York Governor George Pataki in the hotly contested 2002 elections. The founder of Paychex built a high-performing organization on an unconventional premise at the time: Hire people with the right attitude and then teach them the skills to do the job. But rapid growth in the 1990s showed Paychex that it needed a more systematic approach to reliably execute this philosophy throughout its geographically dispersed operations, especially at the important front line of customer service. The resulting solution  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  one that includes more sophisticated hiring practices, more extensive training and development, and multiple reinforcement mechanisms  Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚  still serves the company well today. He stands for good government, political reform and fair play.   In January 31, 2006 he announced his decision to no longer run for public office due to personal and professional reasons.   He is involved in many business interests, and will continue to remain active in Paychex and other entrepreneurial ventures.   He also said he will continue his philanthropic activity. He is still committed to the economic development of New York, as well as promoting responsible government. He has received many awards for his prowess in business: David T. Kearns Medal of Distinction – recognizing significant achievements in business, public service and education, by the University of Rochester’s William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration Rochester Business Hall of Fame (2001) The 1987 Herbert W. VandenBrul Entrepreneurial Award, presented by Rochester Institute of Technology’s College of Business â€Å"Master Entrepreneur† award in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year awards competition for Western New York Humanitarian of the Year Award, presented by the Boy’s Town of Italy, and the Commerce and Industry Award of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. Outstanding Alumni Award from the American Association of Community Colleges He has been actively involved in a great deal of charitable work. In 1984, he founded the B. Thomas Golisano Foundation. His foundation awards grants to organizations dedicated to providing opportunities for those with disabilities and offering support to their families. In 2002, The University of Rochester re-named their pediatric hospital Golisano Children’s Hospital where he donated $14 million in March 6, 2006 as well as $6 million to Bishop Kearney High School and Our Lady of Mercy. Reference: Edited by Investor’s Business Daily. â€Å"Profiles in Business Success 51 Top Leaders and How They Achieved Greatness.†. New York: McGraw-Hill p. 50. Retrieved from the web:   http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Golisano   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     http://www.golisano.com http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgin/abstract/109792492/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&RETRY=0

Characters- No Sugar Essay

Through the characters names all the aboriginal names are given Christian names while the white characters almost without exception are given titles and surnames. This humanizes the aboriginal characters and dehumanizes the white characters while highlighting their position of power. White characters are demonized by their actions as well as their names, they refer to going back to the Tasmanian solution (pg44), showing that they have no regard for the aboriginal’s lives. JP: Racist- he refers to the aboriginal people as natives, and sees them as people who don’t belong.. We Repelled by his cruel treatment towards the Aborigines. Impatient, self-centred- (interrupting) Look, I’m not interested in what you had for dinner. If you’ve got an explanation, just tell me what it is. Frank- The only white character, Frank brown is the only one who has a real relationship with the aboriginals and he is the only one of the white characters who’s afforded a white name. He’s accused of supplying liquor to jimmy. Millie- Persists and does what she believes is right. ‘Stereotypical women’ and caring mother to her children. Supportive mother, takes care of her child when she’s sick- My girls in hospital, we need blankets. Jimmy- Aboriginal, lack of education- â€Å"sorry sir I was on the shit bucket†¦toilet, got guts ache. Impatient and persistent- will not give up on seeing Mr Neville. Says what he thinks –‘You know one thing about Fremantle gaol even some of them screws are polite- not like this place. Native protector  couldn’t protect my dog from fleas. Neville- Racist Believes aboriginals do not and should not have the same power and allowances as white people. Ignorant and Disrespectful: Munday let me give you some advice sugar catches more flies then vinegar. Although reats white people with respect. E.g. Miss Dunn Gran and Jimmy: These are the two characters evolve in the passage through their actions and behaviour . Gran becomes a more noble character and appears benevolent in relation to her family. The Aboriginal family and particularly gran are shown to have extremely strong bonds and care about each other deeply, this is even more noticeable when compared to the indifference of the white chracters This contrasted to jimmy’s behaviour of false sincerity and respect for the white individuals reaffirms gran’s intelligence of character. She delveopes and becomes more of a realistic character who’s clearly has her best family’s interest at heart.

Flexible Workers Essay

The term flexible working means Flexible working’ is a phrase that describes any working pattern adapted to suit workers needs. Flexibility is the The ability of an organisation to adapt the size, composition, responsiveness and cost of the people inputs required to achieve organisational objectives (Pilbeam and Corbridge, 2010). There are different forms of flexibility which are numerical flexibility, functional flexibility, financial flexibility, locational flexibility and temporal flexibility. Numerical flexibility is where employers can change the size of their workforce as their labour requirements change. Functional flexibility is the ability of an organization to move employees to other duties or responsibilities within the company. Locational flexibility is that employees can work from home instead of coming to the office. Types of temporal flexibility are Part time working, home working, job Sharing, term time working, annual Hours Zero hours, 9 day fortnight/compressed hours. The table below shows that â€Å"Between 2006 and 2011 there was a general increase across all modes of flexible working (Table 2). Teleworking (TN0910050S) saw the greatest rise, being offered by 14% of employers in 2006 and 59% in 2011. This echoes trends in flexible working observed in the UK as well as the rest of Europe (EU1101011D). The popularity of teleworking has been boosted by improvements in information communication technologies (ICT) and its attractiveness to the smallest companies (69% offer this form of flexible working)†. (ewco 2011) Source: CBI/Harvey Nash (2011) â€Å"The Third Work-Life Balance Employer Survey found that the vast majority (92 per cent) of employers would consider a request to change a working pattern from any employee despite legislation only requiring employers to do so from some employees. Amongst those employers where a request had been made in the previous 12 months, just nine per cent said they had turned down any requests. The survey reported that employers continue to hold predominantly positive attitudes towards work-life balance and to perceive its benefits for employees and workplaces alike, although it is clear that most employers feel that the implementation of flexible working practices is not always easy, and should not be expected by employees where it would cause disruption to the business (Family Friendly Working Hours Taskforce 2008). The Atkinson’s Flexible Firm Model is a technique used by the managers of a company to organize the work place with the help of different forms of flexibility to efficiently make full use of its work force. The model is based on the principle of dividing the work force into core and peripheral groups. The core group consists of workers that are vital to the company, the work force is functionally flexible and are very difficult to replace because of some special skills, knowledge about a product or market and experience in the field. The peripheral group consists of workers who are numerically flexible. This because of the worker in this group can be replaced easily, the supply in labour market is high, they were only needed for a specific task or they might be only needed in the peak time of a business. For a worker it is better to be of the core than the periphery as they would have job security, improved conditions of work and a better pay rate as they cannot be replaced easily. The model also shows how important can the external workers be for the business. For example sub contracted workers like the cleaning staff of an airline are not core part of the company but they are important in running of the business (oxford human resource management). According to BT Case study,† BT demonstrates the power of flexible working as it has adapted the way it manages people and the way they work to stay competitive and responsive. The company has what is believed to be one of the largest flexible working projects in Europe – the BT Work style project. Flexible working is available to almost everyone in BT, and BT now has over 70,000 flexible workers ,from senior managers to contact centre staff. At BT, flexible working is business as usual. Already seven out of 10 people work flexibly and nearly 10% are home based. It has saved the company millions in terms of increased productivity and cut costs. It has also motivated our people and released more potential. † Sir Christopher Bland, Chairman, BT Group (BT group). Flexible working both meets the needs of employees and improves companies’ capacity to serve customers – to optimise communications, reduce response times, improve service and support, and contribute to the overall customer experience – and, in doing so, it secures competitive advantage. See figure 1 below This clearly shows that BT has used flexible working and gained a lot from it, BT used compressed hours to lengthen engineers’ days which led to high level of job completion & customer satisfaction and engineers enjoyed half day off a week which creates motivation among the employees. : British gas has been using flexible working for a long time and it has been their key element in business strategy. British gas offers its employees different types of flexible working which has enabled the company to offer 24 hour service for its customers. British gas flexible working provisions include allowing university students to study, letting people work longer or shorter hours, part-time and full-time roles, flexible hours to allow for childcare, and remote working and they also support home working for some employees. Benefits of offering flexible working for British Gas are that they want to attract and retain the best talent, regardless of background and responsibilities and they want a diverse workforce that reflects community and customer base. Offering flexible working increases employee’s loyalty the brand and provides a better environment to work. British Gas has been chosen as one of the Top 50 Great Places to Work for the 3rd year running rising four places to number 26 in the list (British Gas 2012). Marks and spencer revised their working in February 2010 to give greater emphasis to the requirement for line managers to give all formal flexible working requests due consideration, and agree those requests that are beneficial to both company and the employee. Marks and spencer currently supports these types of flexible working, part-time working, job-sharing, term-time working and home working on a part-time basis depending on the job, flexible retirement options and career leave of up to nine unpaid months to study. Marks and spencer are committed to employee engagement and believe that flexible working contributes to their levels of engagement. Other benefits include attraction of the best talent, retention of our existing talent, and productivity across the business, motivation to give great service increased morale. All these factors lead to better quality service being offered to its customers. (Marks and Spencer plc 2013). Accenture offers the following flexible working provisions flexible hours’ reconfiguration of existing hours over contractual number of days, part-time working, and job-sharing, home-enabled working leave of absence policy: allowing employees to take unpaid leave to pursue activities outside of the working environment. The company also makes full use of multiple flexible working arrangements simultaneously, and any type of flexible working is available to each level f employees. (CIPD 2012) Accenture has seven business reasons to create a more flexible, supportive work environment which are to attract and retain a broad range of talented people, to raise morale and increase job satisfaction, to increase productivity and improve business results to enhance commitment and engagement and to cut health care costs and last to attract investors. More than 80% of Accenture e mployees say that achieving work–life balance is important. Fifty-two per cent of Accenture UK employees also said they are already working flexibly at Accenture and these 52% show increased levels of engagement (2013 Accenture). Companies offer flexibility to its workers as they are benefited from it but there are some draw backs as well like some employers that offer flexible working are doing it on case by case basis rather than making it general work practice, an employee that needs flexible working can come to the employer but it is up to the employer to agree or disagree. When the employer approves or disapproves the employees request it creates internal conflict among employees. If an employee finds it unfair that some employees can work flexibly and some cannot, they feel that some workers are preferred more over them which creates conflict and it leads to de-motivated workers causing the standard of work done by them to be less efficient. Although companies with flextime often use core hours to encourage teamwork, employees that work inconsistent schedules cannot spend as much time in collaboration with co-workers as employees that work the same hours. Employees may only have a few hours a day for this collaboration. In some workplaces, work team communication takes place in an ongoing and spontaneous fashion that is hard to limit to just a few hours. Flextime can slow down the pace of work team production because of this restricted collaboration (Kokemuller 2013). The costs involved in administering flexible are also high which restricts small businesses to adapt it. Employees will not be in work at certain times and therefore it may not be suitable for organisations where continuous cover is necessary. Another disadvantage is that if the offices are open for a longer period, it may lead to increased costs for lighting and heating. Following are the barriers that businesses have to face to create a flexible working condition for its employees Operational pressures, customer/service requirements, line managers’ ability to effectively manage flexible workers, line management attitudes, accommodating employee requests for flexibility and financial constraints. Operational pressures: one of the drawbacks is operational pressure which causes stress (CIPD, 2012).? Communication problems: communication problems can hinder productivity with flexible working because relevant information doesn’t get to the employee (CIPD, 2012). Customer and service requirement: when there is high service requirement where staff need to deal with customers it makes flexibility almost impossible (CIPD, 2006). Flexible working is an important aspect in business as there are many benefits. Flexible working is now being practiced by large companies and it has increased significantly. We have seen that how companies like British Gas, Marks and Spencer and Accenture have used flexible working to define its business. Companies have benefited by getting efficient staff, increased productivity and higher levels of motivation of its workers. There are some barriers and one of the main reasons is operational pressure. Thus today use of flexible working is very important for a company’s success. However there are some drawbacks as well like companies have to face increased costs which restrict small businesses to adapt to flexible working. oth employee and employer are benefited from it, advantages of flexible working to employees are Opportunity to achieve a work life balance, increased satisfaction and higher motivation levels. Whereas the benefits to employers are higher productivity, along with improved customer service, reduced absenteeism, lower staff turnover, improved recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce, raised motivation/engagement and enhanc ed employer branding as employer of choice. Thus we can see that the benefits of working flexibly can benefit the company and it is also good for its workers.

Spirit Bound Chapter One

THERE'S A BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN death threats and love letters–even if the person writing the death threats still claims to actually love you. Of course, considering I once tried to kill someone I loved, maybe I had no right to judge. Today's letter had been perfectly timed, not that I should have expected any less. I'd read it four times so far, and even though I was running late, I couldn't help but read it a fifth time. My dearest Rose, One of the few downsides to being awakened is that we no longer require sleep; therefore we also no longer dream. It's a shame, because if I could dream, I know I'd dream about you. I'd dream about the way you smell and how your dark hair feels like silk between my fingers. I'd dream about the smoothness of your skin and the fierceness of your lips when we kiss. Without dreams, I have to be content with my own imagination–which is almost as good. I can picture all of those things perfectly, as well as how it'll be when I take your life from this world. It's something I regret having to do, but you've made my choice inevitable. Your refusal to join me in eternal life and love leaves no other course of action, and I can't allow someone as dangerous as you to live. Besides, even if I forced your awakening, you now have so many enemies among the Strigoi that one of them would kill you. If you must die, it'll be by my hand. No one else's. Nonetheless, I wish you well today as you take your trials–not that you need any luck. If they're actually making you take them, it's a waste of everyone's time. You're the best in that group, and by this evening you'll wear your promise mark. Of course, that means you'll be all that much more of a challenge when we meet again–which I'll definitely enjoy. And we will be meeting again. With graduation, you'll be turned out of the Academy, and once you're outside the wards, I'll find you. There is no place in this world you can hide from me. I'm watching. Love, Dimitri Despite his â€Å"warm wishes† I didn't really find the letter inspiring as I tossed it onto my bed and blearily left the room. I tried not to let his words get to me, though it was kind of impossible to not be creeped out by something like that. There is no place in this world you can hide from me. I didn't doubt it. I knew Dimitri had spies. Since my former instructor-turned-lover had been turned into an evil, undead vampire, he'd also become a sort of leader among them–something I'd helped speed along when I killed off his former boss. I suspected a lot of his spies were humans, watching for me to step outside my school's borders. No Strigoi could have stayed on a twenty-four-hour stakeout. Humans could, and I'd recently learned that plenty of humans were willing to serve the Strigoi in exchange for the promise of being turned someday. Those humans considered eternal life worth corrupting their souls and killing off others to survive. Those humans made me sick. But the humans weren't what made my steps falter as I walked through grass that had turned bright green with summer's touch. It was Dimitri. Always Dimitri. Dimitri, the man I'd loved. Dimitri, the Strigoi I wanted to save. Dimitri, the monster I'd most likely have to kill. The love we'd shared always burned within me, no matter how often I told myself to move on, no matter how much the world did think I'd moved on. He was always with me, always on my mind, always making me question myself. â€Å"You look like you're ready to face an army.† I shifted out of my dark thoughts. I'd been so fixated on Dimitri and his letter that I'd been walking across campus, oblivious to the world, and hadn't noticed my best friend, Lissa, falling into step with me, a teasing smile on her face. Her catching me by surprise was a rarity because we shared a psychic bond, one that always kept me aware of her presence and feelings. I had to be pretty distracted to not notice her, and if ever there was a distraction, it was someone wanting to kill me. I gave Lissa what I hoped was a convincing smile. She knew what had happened to Dimitri and how he was now waiting to kill me after I'd tried–and failed–to kill him. Nonetheless, the letters I got from him every week worried her, and she had enough to deal with in her life without my undead stalker to add to the list. â€Å"I kind of am facing an army,† I pointed out. It was early evening, but late summer still found the sun up in the Montana sky, bathing us in golden light as we walked. I loved it, but as a Moroi–a peaceful, living vampire–Lissa would eventually grow weak and uncomfortable in it. She laughed and tossed her platinum hair over one shoulder. The sun lit up the pale color into angelic brilliance. â€Å"I suppose. I didn't think you'd really be all that worried.† I could understand her reasoning. Even Dimitri had said these would be a waste of my time. After all, I'd gone to Russia to search for him and had faced real Strigoi–killing a number of them on my own. Maybe I shouldn't have been afraid of the upcoming tests, but all the fanfare and expectation suddenly pressed in upon me. My heart rate increased. What if I couldn't do it? What if I wasn't as good as I thought I was? The guardians who would challenge me out here might not be true Strigoi, but they were skilled and had been fighting a lot longer than me. Arrogance could get me into a lot of trouble, and if I failed, I'd be doing it in front of all the people who cared about me. All the people who had such faith in me. One other thing also concerned me. â€Å"I'm worried about how these grades will affect my future,† I said. That was the truth. The trials were the final exam for a novice guardian like me. They ensured I could graduate from St. Vladimir's Academy and take my place with true guardians who defended Moroi from the Strigoi. The trials pretty much decided which Moroi a guardian would be assigned to. Through our bond, I felt Lissa's compassion–and her worry. â€Å"Alberta thinks there's a good chance we can stay together–that you'll still be my guardian.† I grimaced. â€Å"I think Alberta was saying that to keep me in school.† I'd dropped out to hunt Dimitri a few months ago and then returned–something that didn't look good on my academic record. There was also the small fact that the Moroi queen, Tatiana, hated me and would probably be going out of her way to influence my assignment–but that was another story. â€Å"I think Alberta knows the only way they'd let me protect you is if I was the last guardian on earth. And even then, my odds would still be pretty slim.† Ahead of us, the roar of a crowd grew loud. One of the school's many sports fields had been transformed into an arena on par with something from Roman gladiatorial days. The bleachers had been built up, expanded from simple wooden seats to luxuriously cushioned benches with awnings to shade the Moroi from the sun. Banners surrounded the field, their bright colors visible from here as they whipped in the wind. I couldn't see them yet, but I knew there would be some type of barracks built near the stadium's entrance where novices waited, nerves on edge. The field itself would have turned into an obstacle course of dangerous tests. And from the sound of those deafening cheers, plenty were already there to witness this event. â€Å"I'm not giving up hope,† Lissa said. Through the bond, I knew she meant it. It was one of the wonderful things about her–a steadfast faith and optimism that weathered the most terrible ordeals. It was a sharp contrast to my recent cynicism. â€Å"And I've got something that might help you out today.† She came to a stop and reached into her jeans pocket, producing a small silver ring scattered with tiny stones that looked like peridots. I didn't need any bond to understand what she was offering. â€Å"Oh, Liss†¦ I don't know. I don't want any, um, unfair advantage.† Lissa rolled her eyes. â€Å"That's not the problem, and you know it. This one's fine, I swear.† The ring she offered me was a charm, infused with the rare type of magic she wielded. All Moroi had control of one of five elements: earth, air, water, fire, or spirit. Spirit was the rarest–so rare, it had been forgotten over the centuries. Then Lissa and a few others had recently surfaced with it. Unlike the other elements, which were more physical in nature, spirit was tied into the mind and all sorts of psychic phenomena. No one fully understood it. Making charms with spirit was something Lissa had only recently begun to experiment with–and she wasn't very good at it. Her best spirit ability was healing, so she kept trying to make healing charms. The last one had been a bracelet that singed my arm. â€Å"This one works. Only a little, but it'll help keep the darkness away during the trial.† She spoke lightly, but we both knew the seriousness of her words. With all of spirit's gifts came a cost: a darkness that showed itself now as anger and confusion, and eventually led to insanity. Darkness that sometimes bled over into me through our bond. Lissa and I had been told that with charms and her healing, we could fight it off. That was also something we had yet to master. I gave her a faint smile, moved by her concern, and accepted the ring. It didn't scald my hand, which I took as a promising sign. It was tiny and only fit on my pinky. I felt nothing whatsoever as it slid on. Sometimes that happened with healing charms. Or it could mean the ring was completely ineffectual. Either way, no harm done. â€Å"Thanks,† I said. I felt delight sweep through her, and we continued walking. I held my hand out before me, admiring the way the green stones glittered. Jewelry wasn't a great idea in the kind of physical ordeals I'd be facing, but I would have gloves on to cover it. â€Å"Hard to believe that after this, we'll be done here and out in the real world,† I mused aloud, not really considering my words. Beside me, Lissa stiffened, and I immediately regretted speaking. â€Å"Being out in the real world† meant Lissa and I were going to undertake a task she'd–unhappily–promised to help me with a couple months ago. While in Siberia, I'd learned there might be a way to restore Dimitri back to being a dhampir like me. It was a long shot–possibly a lie–and considering the way he was fixated on killing me, I had no illusions that I would have any other choice but to kill him if it came down to him or me. But if there was a way I might save him before that happened, I had to find out. Unfortunately, the only lead we had to making this miracle come true was through a criminal. Not just any criminal either: Victor Dashkov, a royal Moroi who had tortured Lissa and committed all sorts of other atrocities that had made our lives hell. Justice had been served, and Victor was locked away in prison, which complicated things. We'd learned that so long as he was destined for a life behind bars, he saw no reason to share what he knew about his half-brother–the only person who had once allegedly saved a Strigoi. I'd decided–possibly illogically–that Victor might give up the information if we offered him the one thing no one else could: freedom. This idea was not foolproof, for a number of reasons. First, I didn't know if it would work. That was kind of a big thing. Second, I had no idea how to stage a prison break, let alone where his prison even was. And finally, there was the fact that we would be releasing our mortal enemy. That was devastating enough to me, let alone Lissa. Yet as much as the idea troubled her–and believe me, it did–she'd firmly sworn she would help me. I'd offered to free her from the promise dozens of times in the last couple months, but she'd stood firm. Of course, considering we had no way to even find the prison, her promise might not matter in the end. I tried to fill the awkward silence between us, explaining instead that I'd really meant we'd be able to celebrate her birthday in style next week. My attempts were interrupted by Stan, one of my longtime instructors. â€Å"Hathaway!† he barked, coming from the direction of the field. â€Å"Nice of you to join us. Get in there now!† Thoughts of Victor vanished from Lissa's mind. Lissa gave me a quick hug. â€Å"Good luck,† she whispered. â€Å"Not that you need it.† Stan's expression told me that this ten-second goodbye was ten seconds too long. I gave Lissa a grin by way of thanks, and then she headed off to find our friends in the stands while I scurried after Stan. â€Å"You're lucky you aren't one of the first ones,† he growled. â€Å"People were even making bets about whether you'd show.† â€Å"Really?† I asked cheerfully. â€Å"What kind of odds are there on that? Because I can still change my mind and put down my own bet. Make a little pocket money.† His narrowed eyes shot me a warning that needed no words as we entered the waiting area adjacent to the field, across from the stands. It had always amazed me in past years how much work went into these trials, and I was no less impressed now as I saw it up close. The barrack that novices waited in was constructed out of wood, complete with a roof. The structure looked as though it had been part of the stadium forever. It had been built with remarkable speed and would be taken down equally quickly once the trials were over. A doorway about three people wide gave a partial glimpse onto the field, where one of my classmates was waiting anxiously for her name to be called. All sorts of obstacles were set up there, challenges to test balance and coordination while still having to battle and elude the adult guardians who would be lurking around objects and corners. Wooden walls had been constructed on one end of the field, creating a dark and confusing maze. Nets and shaky platforms hung across other areas, designed to test just how well we could fight under difficult conditions. A few of the other novices crowded the doorway, hoping to get an advantage by watching those who went ahead of them. Not me. I would go in there blind, content to take on whatever they threw before me. Studying the course now would simply make me overthink and panic. Calm was what I needed now. So I leaned against one of the barrack walls and watched those around me. It appeared that I really had been the last to show up, and I wondered if people had actually lost money betting on me. Some of my classmates whispered in clusters. Some were doing stretches and warm-up exercises. Others stood with instructors who had been mentors. Those teachers spoke intently to their students, giving last-minute words of advice. I kept hearing words like focus and calm down. Seeing the instructors made my heart clench. Not so long ago, that was how I'd pictured this day. I'd imagined Dimitri and me standing together, with him telling me to take this seriously and not to lose my cool when I was out on the field. Alberta had done a fair amount of mentoring for me since I'd returned from Russia, but as captain, she was out on the field herself now, busy with all sorts of responsibilities. She had no time to come in here and hold my hand. Friends of mine who might have offered comfort–Eddie, Meredith, and others–were wrapped up in their own fears. I was alone. Without her or Dimitri–or, well, anyone–I felt a surprising ache of loneliness flow through me. This wasn't right. I shouldn't have been alone. Dimitri should have been here with me. That's how it was supposed to have been. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to pretend he was really there, only inches away as we spoke. â€Å"Don't worry, comrade. I can do this blindfolded. Hell, maybe I actually will. Do you have anything I can use? If you're nice to me, I'll even let you tie it on.† Since this fantasy would have taken place after we'd slept together, there was a strong possibility that he would have later helped me take off that blindfold–among other things. I could perfectly picture the exasperated shake of his head that would earn me. â€Å"Rose, I swear, sometimes it feels like every day with you is my own personal trial.† But I knew he'd smile anyway, and the look of pride and encouragement he'd give me as I headed toward the field would be all I needed to get through the tests– â€Å"Are you meditating?† I opened my eyes, astonished at the voice. â€Å"Mom? What are you doing here?† My mother, Janine Hathaway, stood in front of me. She was just a few inches shorter than me but had enough fight in her for someone twice my size. The dangerous look on her tanned face dared anyone to bring on a challenge. She gave me a wry smile and put one hand on her hip. â€Å"Did you honestly think I wouldn't come to watch you?† â€Å"I don't know,† I admitted, feeling kind of guilty for doubting her. She and I hadn't had much contact over the years, and it was only recent events–most of them bad–that had begun to reestablish our connection. Most of the time, I still didn't know how to feel about her. I oscillated between a little girl's need for her absent mother and a teenager's resentment over abandonment. I also wasn't entirely sure if I'd forgiven her for the time she â€Å"accidentally† punched me in a mock fight. â€Å"I figured you'd have, you know, more important things to do.† â€Å"There's no way I could miss this.† She inclined her head toward the stands, making her auburn curls sway. â€Å"Neither could your father.† â€Å"What?† I hurried toward the doorway and peered out onto the fields. My view of the stands wasn't fantastic, thanks to all the obstacles on the field, but it was good enough. There he was: Abe Mazur. He was easy to spot, with his black beard and mustache, as well as the emerald green scarf knotted over his dress shirt. I could even barely make out the glint of his gold earring. He had to be melting in this heat, but I figured it would take more than a little sweat for him to tame down his flashy fashion sense. If my relationship with my mother was sketchy, my relationship with my father was practically nonexistent. I'd met him back in May, and even then, it wasn't until after I'd gotten back that I found out I was his daughter. All dhampirs had one Moroi parent, and he was mine. I still wasn't sure how I felt about him. Most of his background remained a mystery, but there were plenty of rumors that he was involved with illegal business. People also acted like he was the kneecap-breaking type, and though I'd seen little evidence of this, I didn't find it surprising. In Russia, they called him Zmey: the serpent. While I stared at him in astonishment, my mom strolled over to my side. â€Å"He'll be happy you made it in time,† she said. â€Å"He's running some big wager on whether you'd show. He put his money on you, if that makes you feel any better.† I groaned. â€Å"Of course. Of course he'd be the bookie behind the pool. I should have known as soon as–† My jaw dropped. â€Å"Is he talking to Adrian?† Yup. Sitting beside Abe was Adrian Ivashkov–my more-or-less boyfriend. Adrian was a royal Moroi–and another spirit user like Lissa. He'd been crazy about me (and often just crazy) ever since we first met, but I'd had eyes only for Dimitri. After the failure in Russia, I'd returned and promised to give Adrian a shot. To my surprise, things had been†¦ good between us. Great, even. He'd written me up a proposal of why dating him was a sound decision. It had included things like â€Å"I'll give up cigarettes unless I really, really need one† and â€Å"I'll unleash romantic surprises every week, such as: an impromptu picnic, roses, or a trip to Paris–but not actually any of those things because now they're not surprises.† Being with him wasn't like it had been with Dimitri, but then, I supposed, no two relationships could ever be exactly alike. They were different men, after all. I still woke up all the time, aching over the loss of Dimitri and our love. I tormented myself over my failure to kill him in Siberia and free him from his undead state. Still, that despair didn't mean my romantic life was over–something it had taken me a while to accept. Moving on was hard, but Adrian did make me happy. And for now, that was enough. But that didn't necessarily mean I wanted him cozying up to my pirate mobster father either. â€Å"He's a bad influence!† I protested. My mother snorted. â€Å"I doubt Adrian will influence Abe that much.† â€Å"Not Adrian! Abe. Adrian's trying to be on good behavior. Abe will mess everything up.† Along with smoking, Adrian had sworn he'd quit drinking and other vices in his dating proposal. I squinted at him and Abe across the crowded stands, trying to figure out what topic could be so interesting. â€Å"What are they talking about?† â€Å"I think that's the least of your problems right now.† Janine Hathaway was nothing if not practical. â€Å"Worry less about them and more about that field.† â€Å"Do you think they're talking about me?† â€Å"Rose!† My mother gave me a light punch on the arm, and I dragged my eyes back to her. â€Å"You have to take this seriously. Keep calm, and don't get distracted.† Her words were so like what I'd imagined Dimitri saying that a small smile crept onto my face. I wasn't alone out here after all. â€Å"What's so funny?† she asked warily. â€Å"Nothing,† I said, giving her a hug. She was stiff at first and then relaxed, actually hugging me back briefly before stepping away. â€Å"I'm glad you're here.† My mother wasn't the overly affectionate type, and I'd caught her off guard. â€Å"Well,† she said, obviously flustered, â€Å"I told you I wouldn't miss this.† I glanced back at the stands. â€Å"Abe, on the other hand, I'm not so sure of.† Or†¦ wait. An odd idea came to me. No, not so odd, actually. Shady or not, Abe had connections–ones extensive enough to slip a message to Victor Dashkov in prison. Abe had been the one to ask for info about Robert Doru, Victor's spirit-wielding brother, as a favor to me. When Victor had sent back the message saying he had no reason to help Abe with what he needed, I'd promptly written off my father's assistance and jumped to my prison-break idea. But now– â€Å"Rosemarie Hathaway!† It was Alberta who called me, her voice ringing loud and clear. It was like a trumpet, a call to battle. All thoughts of Abe and Adrian–and yes, even Dimitri–vanished from my mind. I think my mother wished me good luck, but the exact wording was lost on me as I strode toward Alberta and the field. Adrenaline surged through me. All my attention was now on what lay ahead: the test that would finally make me a guardian.