Volleyball Referee Personality Types

Fighter

A fighter wants to win. This type of referee doesn't want to lose an argument for fear of looking bad. A fighter needs to have the last word.

Pacifist

A pacifist avoids conflicts. This type of referee will tend to avoid eye contact with coaches in order to avoid any possible conflict that could come about. Not communicating effectively with coaches and captains will often lead to problems. Simple issues such as a quick explanation of a call could have easily been prevented a quick response.

Dictator

A dictator is all about their power. This type of referee will tend to get involved in the match and bring attention to them. No issue is too small. If there's a chance to show everyone who's in charge, they'll usually take it.

No one else can be right. Dictators usually won't admit when they've made a mistake. This type of referee won't listen to others and no one else has a good point.

Facilitator

A facilitator helps to collaborate and achieve synergy. This type of referee isn't interested in taking sides or expressing a point of view. This type of referee is approachable and there is a give and take. For instance, this referee will answer questions and listen when appropriate. The best facilitators are highly respected. Their appearance is calm and unemotional.

Do you respond to coaches and captains in an effective way? What you first think to say isn't always the best way to respond. Consider what to say before you respond. Also, it's very important to always have an answer.

The following are examples of how to respond to coaches. See if you can figure out which are good responses and which ones are going to cause problems.

1. Is that the correct score?

Yep coach, you're getting blown out by that much!

Let me check it out for you.

2. How many timeouts do you have left?

Not nearly enough!

Same number as the last time you asked me two minutes ago!

Coach, you have one left.

3. How many subs have I used?

You're down by so much it doesn't matter!

Coach you have used 7 subs.

4. Who is the next server?

Whoever gets the ball in!

The player that was just in right front.

Let me check that for you coach. Correct server is 12.

5. May I have a line up check?

Great call coach! They are so messed up I don't know where they are supposed to be either!

Just the next server or the whole team?

6. What did the first referee just call?

I have no idea, but give me a moment and I'm sure I can make something up!

Coach, the call was an illegal attack off your libero.

7. What part of my player was in the net?

Does it matter? She won't admit it, and you won't believe me anyway!

Coach, she hit the top of the tape with her arms as she attempted to block the ball.

8. Is the first referee going to call any ball handling?

Apparently there won't be. There have been about 5 calls I would have made by now!

The referee has been very consistent with his calls and will continue to strive for consistency.

9. Do sanctions carry over to the next set?

Let's find out!

Yep and you're working my last nerve so watch it!

Yes coach, sanctions carry through the entire match.

10. Wasn't their blocker over the net?

No, your team is just passing that poorly.

Coach, the ball was in the plane of the net when it was touched.

Small Business Marketing Review - The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR

In earlier articles we've reviewed Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout and later The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries. Since our current theme is building your brand through good relations with the press, it seemed an opportune time to feature a book that stresses the importance of public relations: The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR by Al and Laura Ries

Please note: this book isn't a step-by-step instruction manual. Rather, it is a series of mini case-studies built around this theme: use PR to build your brand, and then once the brand is established employ advertising to keep the brand in front of the customer.

As the authors state in the introduction: "You can't launch a new brand with advertising because advertising has no credibility. It's the self-serving voice of a company anxious to make a sale."

It is wrong to say that this is an "anti-advertising" book. Rather, Ries and Ries stress that the PR campaign and the Advertising campaign need to work in conjunction--but that one needs to put the ad campaign in its proper place. The advertising is best used once the brand has been built, once there's not as much news that's truly new about the brand anymore. Chapter 21 "Maintaining the Brand" illustrates this and offers some tips for you if you have a mature brand.

For the small business marketer looking for new ideas, this is a book filled with "what not to do" stories. It's a worthwhile education in marketing just to read through all the unseen multi-million dollar minefields that big corporations have blundered into with their ad campaigns.

Also instructive for the chief marketer, is the story of how Ries and Trout were able to build the Positioning brand (pp. 109, 138). Although much of the book concentrates on what big companies have done wrong in advertising, here is an example of how a small company did it right. If you read closely, there is valuable instruction from a small business brand that has created and maintained a place in the marketing and business lexicon for thirty plus years--all the while maintaining a steady stream of titles on bookseller's shelves.

The story of how they built the positioning brand is really the best case study of a successful brand in the book. Like many of the best marketing books, The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR introduces us to ideas--ideas that we can then take and incorporate into our own small business.

Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.

© 2006 Marketing Hawks

Federal Grants For the Disabled - Giving Them More Than What They Deserve

To apply for federal grants for the disabled, you should know that federal grants are authorized financial support handed out by the federal government agency which is mostly approved by US law. The reason for this grant is to boost federal assistance performance, increase its delivery services, and promote participation from delivering agencies.

These grants mostly accommodate those who have disabilities which can range from mild to severe developmental conditions. Note that if a person is under the age of 22 and is afflicted with mental and physical disabilities, then he or she is categorized as having developmental disability. People with these conditions lack the ability to care for themselves as well as financial stability. The federal government has set up plenty of funding programs just for this reason alone. To help the disabled, local agencies, state governments, and other private establishments are deemed liable to offer generous support for them.

Monetary assistance is not the only thing that is included in the federal grants for the disabled but also the requirement to help the disabled have a much more meaningful life. The government has devised programs to make the disabled raise their own productivity. These grants also feature treatment, education, and employment for the disabled.

Actually, these grants have incorporated program levels which take into consideration the needs and desires of the developmentally challenged. These programs feature protection, advocacy, and university affiliated programs for the disabled.

Indeed, the federal developmental programs supply grants based on the financial needs of the disabled. More than giving out funds, it takes into account different issues like employment, social, education, and creative ability, along with legal matters pertaining to human rights of disabled individuals. It also covers early intervention, community activities, and other various needs that should be accounted for in dealing with the disabled.

We Miss the Eloquence and Logic of Milton Friedman Now More Than Ever

One of the signal economic thinkers of the 20th century was the Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman. His many books and papers, interviews and television specials have left us a valuable trove of thoughts and observations that should serve as guideposts during our current difficult economic times. His death has left a void that no contemporary thinker has been able to fill. That is most unfortunate, especially now.

Recently, I revisited my copy of Professor Friedman's signature work, Free to Choose. It is still as pertinent, fresh and poignant, as it was the day it was first published. His reasoned defense of economic and personal freedom, strictly limited government and the rule of law need to be reviewed and protected fiercely by each citizen that values these sacred rights.

"Thank heavens we do not get all of the government that we are made to pay for", stated Professor Friedman in one of his most oft quoted observations. The simple, but powerful clarity of these 17 words serve as testament to the deep understanding and concern he possessed about the ever-expanding role of centrally planned, distant government and the excessive price we pay for it. We see the detritus of insatiable government in every aspect of our lives, and yet, we seem incapable of slowing, preferably stopping the rapid growth of this corrupt, inefficient monster.

The Federal Government is nearing a 3 trillion dollar annual budget. No one really knows the exact amount of deficit spending we incur each year, but it is massive and growing. The more revenue the government realizes, the faster spending increases. We have un-funded liabilities of somewhere around $53 trillion for Medicare and Medicaid, and $25 trillion for Social Security. These are just estimates; no one can state the absolute accurate numbers. And, remember the government refers to these obligations as "un-funded liabilities", not debt as private citizens and industry would be required to report and account for.

In 1976, President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education. Before then, education was largely a local affair. This boondoggle has grown massively since its inception in employees, budget, programs and un-funded mandates. Less than 7% of the $60 Billion annual budget for the DOE is returned to state and local schools as grants. The rest is consumed in "bureaucracy heaven". Can anyone seriously argue that public school performance has improved since we were blessed with the Department of Education and the thousands of theoreticians, consultants and knowledge brokers that this cesspool supports? You can actually graph the decline of graduation rates, the increase in truancy, lowered standardized test scores and achievement tests from the date we were blessed with the DOE.

The government enjoys natural monopolies in many areas. The Postal Service, the Passport Office, AMTRACK, The FAA, and so many more government agencies provide we citizens with one stop shopping. In every case, the result is subsidy, waste, and mismanagement. Waiting up to 90 days to receive a passport is ridiculous. The Postal Service and AMTRACK require subsidies every year, while FedEx, UPS, and the railroads make billions of dollars in profit each year. Why would any thinking person believe that government should be expanded into even more areas of our lives.

Thomas Jefferson, a soul brother to Milton Friedman said, "He is governed best who is governed least". And yet, an ever-growing segment of our citizenry constantly seeks to redress perceived grievances and personally poor decision making by petitioning politicians for outcomes favorable to their desires. We know with absolute certainty that government is too large, inefficient, duplicitous and wasteful to solve problems.

Government is not in business to solve problems: it is in business to institutionalize problems! Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Welfare, Food Stamps have all grown exponentially. The problems these programs, and many others, were supposed to address have grown even more exponentially. Bureaucracies are not in the business of solving problems and shrinking, then going out of business as they successfully complete their mission. The very core of the nature of a bureaucracy is to grow insatiably.

As more citizens abdicate their personal responsibilities and seek government support, there are all too many politicians, lobbyists, issue advocates and social engineers ready to comply and satisfy this sycophancy. We see many people campaigning for a government takeover of the health care system. When government provides free health care: that is when health care will get really expensive! How in the world can so many people, be so blind about so much.

My Company provides consulting services to inventors, small businesses and entrepreneurs bootstrapping businesses. By their very nature, these people are fearless, independent, creative and driven. They seek to take advantage of the amazing opportunities available to every citizen of the United States, if only they would take advantage of these possibilities. To a person, successful entrepreneurs do not understand, and usually despise government dependency. Simply being a citizen of this great country is the equivalent of winning the geographic lottery.

President John Kennedy famously stated, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country"? The growing sentiment today seems to infer, ask not what you can do for your country; ask what your country can do for you? John Kennedy, Milton Friedman and Thomas Jefferson are symbolic personages of a sentiment that must be revived. Every citizen must contribute to the public good, but the government must get out of the way and let the populace live and prosper by the dint of their own efforts. Downsizing this albatross is in order, and quickly!

7 Useful Guidelines for Skinny Guys on How to Build Muscle Fast

Here are the best and the most useful guidelines to follow, to assure your way on how to get muscle fast for skinny guys. Read and explore the options that are available for you.

1. Do Compound Exercises

Building muscles fast with compound exercises is relatively fast and simple. Compound exercises are routines that work on developing two or more muscle groups. These exercises promote fast muscle growth. You can perform compound exercises like deadlifts, squats and bench press, which are essentially designed to enhance and develop muscles on multiple areas on your body. With compound exercises, you are sure to see fast outcomes on muscle building.

2. Focus on the Ideal Rep Range

Muscle building deals with progressive muscle exercises and routines. If you are starting on muscle building, you have to do the basic muscle building exercises. Avoid intensive exercises right away because this will harm your muscles. You have to condition your muscles progressively. An 8-10 repetition range is perfect range to start with. This range has the ideal combination of power and intensity for effective muscle growth and weight loss. Once you move forward to higher muscle building exercise and acquire steady muscles, you may increase your rep range.

3. Weight loads must be worked with Progressively

Your body is not equipped to demanding weight loads if it doesn't start in bearing little weight loads then start to progress in time. If you force your body with too much weight loads, your body will react negatively and will lead only to exhaustion. On the other hand, if you prepare your body to different weight loads by increasing them little by little, you will actually see your body balancing everything. Progressively weight loads is essential to muscle building since it prepares your muscles one at a time to exercises that impacts muscle improvement.

4. Workout sessions are best within 30 to 1 hour

Building Muscles is all about discipline. It is not about over-training and bombarding yourself with too much exercise for a guaranteed faster muscle progress. There is a need for you to set a boundary on your workout sessions to allow the muscles to rest and for your energy to last. Too much training directs you to acquire a release of hormone called cortisol, a hormone that damages muscle fibres so as to create more energy or fuel to your body. This will result to a poor performance and a decline on your physical strength.

5. Eat 4-6 times Small Frequent Meals a Day

Your body will break down the foods that you eat two hours after you finish eating your meals. It is advisable that you eat 4-6 small frequents meals daily to supply your body with the needed energy. Aside from that, you are to supply the body with the right nutrients to repair the tissues damaged during the exercises and to allow the building of new tissues.

6. Plan on the Perfect Diet

Plan your meals according to the accurate ratio of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. You can follow these formulas

• Protein

Active individuals have the required RDA for proteins within 0.75 - 80 grams per pound of body weight.

Weight in lbs * 0.80 = required protein ingestion per day

• Calories

To have the desired results, it is crucial to weigh yourself once a week.

Total body weight *20= total calories required daily

• Carbohydrates

Carbohydrates are your energy source. 60% of your total caloric intake comes from carbohydrates. You also have to bear in mind that a gram of carbohydrate has a ratio of approximately 4 calories.

Total amount of calories required daily *0.60/4 = your required carbohydrate intake.

• Fats

Fats consist of only 30% of your total caloric intake and the gram of fats you have at most should be at 9 calories.

Total amount of calories required daily * 0.30/9 = fat requirements

7. Allow your Muscles to Rest

Building your body requires your muscles to take a break. Taking a break on every exercise routine ensures faster muscle development. You should sleep for about 8 hours per day to let your muscles repair and build new muscles. Avoid over exercise to avoid damaging the body and to attain fully developed muscles even quicker.

Photonic and LED Light Innovation Applications and Commercial Opportunities

Many innovators, inventors and high-tech LED light companies are looking for more applications for their lighting systems. There are many state-of-the-art type applications such as flat panel instrument panels in aircraft, and their technology is much needed and appreciated by the industry. The ability to modify the color, brightness, etc. is a godsend for pilots.

Still, most of the application that people really want are indeed, low tech uses of their high-tech equipment and this can hurt the inventor's or innovator's psyche, but they must understand something. Well you know you have to give the humans the "bells and whistles" they really like that stuff!

If something blinks, makes noise, it makes humans happy. Just like dogs like squeaky toys. Or chimpanzees are enamored with games that have blinking lights. It is something that gives sensations to their senses, drives curiosity. Just look how people sit in front of silly slot machines at the casino and feed it "real money" I mean come on, it's the lights!

Yay! They just love it, so sometimes you just have to give people what they want, not what they need. You see, often enough, they don't want what they need, they want what they desire, that's what they are willing to pay for.

So unless what you make solves some major dilemma on their climb of Maslow's pyramid, then stick to the simple stuff. Besides, you have to admit, it's cool to put on events like the festival of lights for people to see. You know, like when the Fourth of July Celebration is happening everyone goes "oooh and awe" that's just how people are. Oh humans like shiny metals and rocks that reflect lights too. Just smile and think on it from a philosophical perspective.

Camping For Fun

Camping for fun is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and relax. But before going camping you will need to purchase camping equipment one of the better places to get the gear you need is at camping world.

To go camping does not have to cost a arm and a leg. With the basics found in your home you could go today. Lets see first you will need some type of shelter a plastic trap 8 by 10 will make a good tent some rope 50 ft will be lots the ¼ inch nylon rope will work. Tie the rope between two trees and place the tarp over the rope. Stake down each side of the tarp with screw driver numbers need 6 to 8 I buy them at flea markets and garage sales. If you have a second tarp place it on the ground under the tarp tent be sure not to place the ground tarp outside the tent if you do any rain water may flow in on the ground tarp and you may get wet.

OK we have a shelter now we need bedding you have blankets and pillow on you bed at home so use them they will wash up. If you have no air mattress then use two folded blanket placed on the tarp them make up you bed on top of them. Sleeping is now taken care.

We have some place to sleep now what about cooking. You have pots and pans in the kitchen. Us the fry pan , small 1 qt pot 3 qt pot and the biggest pot you have great for heating up water. If you have a tea kettle made of metal take it. Most campsite have a fire pit with a steel grill to set the pots on. If there is a campfire ban in place you can use a portable barbecue. Take the utensils from the kitchen if you have bbq tools take them.

Not doing to bad we have a place to cook and to sleep. If you have kids you will need a few more tarps and make them up a tent beside yours. Take you deck chair to sit on if you have no chairs then when you get to the camp site look for log blocks they make great chairs can be found at the wood pile.

Your chuck box can be a cardboard box with a lid or folding flaps. Put you dry goods in to this box salt, pepper, cereal, potatoes, and whatever else you remove from the kitchen cupboard. Can goods beans, canned fruits, Kraft dinner you get the idea.

Your cooler can be another cardboard box but this one you will line with a trash bag. Place the bag in the box and position it in the corner with the excess fold over the top of the box on the outside. You will need ice to keep the frozen foods cool. Save up you milk containers plastic works best wash out and fill ¾ full of water an place in the freezer. When you have a few frozen containers you now have the ice that will keep your food cold.

Place at least two in the bottom of you ice box then place the frozen meats, milk, juice into the box. You should place vegetables on top if there is room place a third frozen milk jug at the top of the box. You will need a lid for the ice box take another box and fold the flaps inside and slide the box over the top of you food box. Remember to keep this ice box out of the sun and you will find the ice will last about 4 to 5 days.

Other things to bring candles will work if you do not have a flash light but be very careful as a candle can start you tent bedding on fire and will cause a forest fire so never leave a candle un attended. A roll of tin foil will be needed - the thicker the better - works very well for cooking in. Bring a plastic pail to carry water in. A plastic basin will work to do dishes and wash up little dirty faces and hands.

There are many things you have in the house that will make the camping trip fun use you imagination. And get out and explore the parks and lakes in your area...

How to Select a Property Manager

Because of the current economic climate, property managers are popping up all over the nation. Some just got their license, some have been listing and selling for a living, and most don't have a clue what they are getting into. If you are considering hiring a property manager you need to understand the issues. What you don't know can hurt you! Here are some things to think about before you make the decision, "Who can I trust to manage my rental property?"

First, there are thousands of good realtors in this country that make great listing (buyer's) agents but are currently starving and looking for ways to supplement their incomes. As properties sit on the market longer and longer customers are asking their listing agents, "Can you rent it?" Realtors who are accustomed to saying "no" to that question are starting to say "yes" and enter a world they are neither trained for nor familiar with. These well-intentioned agents have the license to manage rentals but their skills are not developed in this unique field and it will take them a while to figure things out. Property management is very different than what they are use to and it can cost you plenty of your own hard-earned money to be part of their learning curve.

Next, Property managers must be licensed by the real estate regulatory agency of their state. There are lots of well-intended entrepreneurs running property management businesses out of their homes without a license. This has become a cottage industry, much like the listing and selling business, and it takes almost no capital to get into the management business. They manage properties for others for a fee but are not licensed to do so. This means they are not under the scrutiny and control of the regulatory system created by the states to protect the public from dishonest managers. They typically are not holding other's money in a trust account registered with the agency and you have no one to report them to when they mismanage the property, the money, or you. If they steal from you there is no place for you to go for help, as there is no regulatory authority with jurisdiction over the unlicensed manager. You are on your own with unlicensed managers so be on your guard.

Lastly, they should manage rentals as a primary business, not as a sideline to another business. Many real estate agents hold themselves out as property managers when their real business is listing and selling. Lots of real estate agents manage a few rentals as a sideline to their brokerage business and these businesses naturally compete for their attention. There are plenty of mom and pop property management businesses in every town and the owner of a rental property needs to consider the shortcomings of these sideline operations. Property management needs the total focus and attention of a manager because it's demanding and more complicated than it looks. If they are listing and selling homes for a living, and managing a few houses on the side, make sure they have plenty of extra staff doing the managing. The big dollars they get selling houses will distract them from the "nickel dime" business of managing rentals. There is a natural conflict of interest between these businesses and you don't want them competing for your attention as a landlord. You do not want them having to decide, "do I show a house for sale today, or show a house for rent?" The sale option will always win out because the potential reward is much greater. Find somebody who is focusing on the management business for a living. "I do both" is the wrong answer.

Don't Let Interest Rates Fool You

Albert Einstein has referred to interest as the eighth wonder of the world, the greates invention of the human race, and the most powerful force in the universe.

Why is this so? Interest has three major functions in finance. It is the surcharge placed on the repayment of borrowed money or goods; it is the return which is derived from investments; and interest also refers to a person's right or claim to a corporation, such as that of a creditor or owner.

In economics, interest is referred to as rent on money. Rent, or economic rent, is further defined as a payment to a factor of production (land, labor, and capital goods).

Like any other form of rental, interest rates constantly change to reflect market conditions. Interest rate is the percentage by which balances grow, and the initial balance is referred to as the principal. Interest rates have remarkable effects on finance and economics, thus, they are the most watched market indicators.

History suggests that the Sumerian civilization is the first to have developed a structural credit system based on grain and silver, the two main commodities. Before the advent of coins, Sumerians practiced a credit system where loans were made in the form of metals based on their weights.

Loans of grain and silver made trading possible. Silver was used by towns, and the country economies used grain.

As proof to this historical claim, archaeologists have uncovered metal pieces believed to be used in trade in Troy, Minoan, and Mycenaean civilizations. They have also found similar items in Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, and Persia.

Today, credit has changed into an entirely new system. Banks, individuals, and other financing institutions have developed their own system of collecting interest for the repayment of borrowed money, or debt.

This practice; however, is considered usury by religious orders such as the Jewish and Christian. In Islam, a special type of banking is practiced, which is consistent with Islamic laws, such that the collection and repayment of interest is prohibited. There are Islamic banks which cater to this specific banking system.

Interest accumulates in two ways: by growing linearly with time (simple interest), and by growing exponentially over time (compound interest). Simple interest, the method by which interest accumulate linearly with time, is seldom practiced because the interest earned by the money previously is assumed to have remained in the account.

When this happens, the amount of money which is subject to interest increases because the previous interest remained with the capital money.

With compound interest, outstanding balances, which may include the principal and other add-on amounts, balance grow exponentially through time. This means that periodically, the total balance grows by percentages of the total of the principal and the interest paid in previous periods.

In this mode of interest, the rate of compounding influences the whole amount of interest which is paid over the duration of the loan. The growth function in compound interest is an exponential function with regards to time.

Today, there are two general types of interest rates for debt instruments. Debt instruments are also called income streams, which pertains to the stream of income for the person who lends money.

There are a number of debt instruments such as business-based, collateral-based, consumer-based, contingency-based, government-based, and insurance-based instruments. These interest rates are fixed-rate and variable rate.

Fixed-rate instruments, the more common between the two, have fixed value throughout the instrument's duration. This interest rate is usually used in bonds.

Variable-rate instruments are typically attached to an index which floats according to the economic conditions such as prime rate (interest rate given by lenders to customers who are considered trustworthy) and CPI or consumer price index (statistical measure of the average of prices of a set of economic goods and services bought by wage earners in urban areas).