February 13th, 2012
For many people, the thought of placing an elderly loved one into a nursing or care home is a horrifying one. Doing everything possible to keep a parent or grandparent at home may become a top priority. This priority may change if there is a diagnosis of dementia. Whether from Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis or any number of causes, a diagnosis of dementia should prompt people to rethink having their loved ones stay at home rather than receive treatment and care in a dementia care home.
Typically, there are several stages of dementia and in the early stages, home care may be appropriate. Early stages of dementia may include forgetful behaviour and minor mood swings. For the most part, people experiencing early dementia may just need a helping hand with their day-today activities. As the condition progresses, however, the level of care required increases significantly and may make home care both inappropriate and unaffordable. Before it reaches this point, loved ones should research and consider a dementia care home.
These care homes provide 24-hour, trained staff to assist with a dementia sufferer’s needs. Whether that means providing companionship and activities or assisting with basic care such as feeding and hygiene, staff at these facilities are familiar with and well skilled in dealing with dementia. Nursing and medical staff are onsite to oversee the patient’s care and respond to medical emergencies. Dementia specialists make sure that the patients are receiving the appropriate level of care and that everything that can be done to ensure quality of life is being done for these patients. Home care, even if it is around the clock, cannot offer a similar level of care.
Of course, not all facilities that call themselves dementia homes or dementia care actually specialize in treating dementia. Loved ones should be sure to fully investigate a care home before placing a dementia patient. True dementia care facilities will take steps to ensure a calming, quiet environment; this includes being located in a low-traffic area in order to protect patients who may wander. Staff will be sufficiently trained and include a dementia specialist. A quality facility will have a high staff to patient ratio, allowing for more in-depth care. Security precautions such as locked doors will be in place to protect patients. Finally, if a dementia care facility is part of a larger nursing home complex, it will be segregated from the general nursing home population so that its staff can focus on the needs of dementia patients.
Although keeping a parent or grandparent at home in their old age may be a noble goal, a diagnosis of dementia should cause loved ones to rethink this option. Once dementia has progressed to a later stage, sufferers require a higher level of care than home care can provide. The best option for stable, healthy living is a care home that specializes in the treatment of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. The trained staff in these facilities can provide an appropriate level of care to these patients.
February 13th, 2012
The original purpose of the standardized test was to level out the playing field for applicants to degree programs. As we all know, the magnitude of expensive prep programs and materials have tipped the balance in the favor of those that can afford them. Nevertheless, there is still a way to uncrack these tests without spending such a large sum. The great thing about standardized test prep is that a lot of the things you learn while studying can also help you in all your other academic work as well.
At home test preparation requires some effort, especially motivation to do well in the first place. For many test preparation classes, this is the job of the instructor. The instructor supervises performance and supports improvement. However, if you are self-disciplined enough, you can be your own teacher.
The first step for at home prep is to develop a realistic study schedule. If you plan on studying for the SAT during the school year, you must assign a day and/or time that you will stick to until your test date. Ask yourself: how long will you give yourself before your registered test date to study? 6 months? A year? Will you be willing to study daily in small increments or study weekly in larger ones? Planning is another thing that you pay test prep companies to do for you and if this already seems overwhelming to you, check out my time management section. I must warn you that I’m still working on this section (I have only 2 articles up at this point), but if you would like some personalized advice, please feel free to email me.
The first thing you can do to improve your English score is to memorize vocabulary. My favorite tool for this task is Visual Education Study Card sets. Instead of buying the SAT vocabulary, I highly recommend the English I and II cards. The great thing about VisEd is that they include a sentence using the word on the flashcard, which made it easy for me to learn the definitions as well as incorporating these words are best used in my own writing. So in a lot of ways, this method kills two birds with one stone: you are improving your verbal score plus improving your ability to write concisely. Also, you do not need to buy these vocabulary sets. You can always make your own vocabulary flashcards inexpensively by pulling up test-specific vocabulary lists online.
Although it may seem like a mundane task, vocabulary is one of the most important aspects of any standardized test and you can never learn too many words. If you go for the VisEd card sets, there are a total of 2,000 words to be memorized. Whatever you may choose as your vocabulary test prep, do recognize that vocabulary is important in both the critical reading and grammar sections of the test. It improves comprehension of passages, elucidates on grammatical usage of words, and reveals redundancy.
Learning 2,000 words may appear impossible, but this is when your time management comes into play. For example, if you are committing your entire 10-week summer to the test and want to learn all of the words by then, you will need to memorize 200 words/week. This means 40 words/day if you want your weekends off. It took me about an hour to really get the words down.
You will also need test preparation books by any major test prep company. These can be found at the library for free and the sample tests, the most important part, copied quite cheaply. Otherwise, you can always purchase them used or new. I have also found that the these books do not normally vary much year-to-year, but it is more helpful to use books that are geared towards a newer version of the test such as the new 2400 SAT rather than the old 1600.
Getting as many of the sample tests and their answer keys with explanations is key to doing well on standardized tests. Finding a resource that provides real previous tests is even better. But in the end, once you have a method to build your vocabulary and your practice tests, you are set to start.
Increasing your vocabulary will surely affect your performance, but there is still that dreaded reading comprehension section. There is a solution to this. For me, I always did well on the reading comprehension because I outlined every passage while reading. By outlining, I mean quickly writing down a summary of each sentence. For instance, the following passage is Sparknotes’s current example:
Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 into a Europe wracked by cultural ferment and religious strife. The popes of the Roman Catholic Church, powerful in their roles as both religious and secular leaders, had proven vulnerable to the worldly and decadent spirit of the age, and their personal immorality brought the reputation of the papacy to historic lows. In 1517, Martin Luther, a former monk, attacked Catholicism for having become too worldly and politically corrupt and for obscuring the fundamentals of Christianity with pagan elements. His reforming zeal, which appealed to a notion of an original, “purified”
Christianity, set in motion the Protestant Reformation and split European Christianity in two.
My outline would look something like this:
-Galileo was born in Europe when there was cultural boom and religious upheaval.
-Even the popes succumbed to the pressures and gave into their immorality
-Martin Luther later appeared to denounce Catholicism and it’s corruption and proposed a more “purified” form of Christianity
-This led to the split of Christianity into Catholicism and Protestantism.
Now the question:
Which of the following was not a reason for Martin Luther’s attack on the church?
a. pagan elements in its practices
b. the amorality of its leadership
c. its excessive attention to piety
d. its corruption and worldliness
e. the political involvement of the popes
As you can see, the answer cannot necessarily be found in the outline (i.e. I did not include that Luther had an issue with pagan elements in it) but by the act of outlining, it has increased your comprehension by having to mull over the content of the passage. Also, you can see that knowing the definition of words such as ferment and strife could have significantly improved your comprehension of the purpose of the passage. The answer to this question is C.
Generally, this works best with non-narrative passages, where you will most likely be given a question speculating the author’s opinion and/or argument. The outline format could work with narratives as well, but the trick is moreover identifying points of ambiguity in the passage, such as vocabulary words, that will most likely be questioned in the multiple choice.
There are many other methods you can find in test prep books, but I find this one the most effective. The secret is to find the method that you are best at, which can only be figured out by practicing as much as you can. Realistically, your outline will not look like the one I have typed above because of the time constraint. My outlines normally were sloppily written phrases or words, but they were well worth the effort. This plan can serve as a disadvantage at first since it will take longer to finish a section. However, it enough practice, I’m sure you’ll be able to pick up the pace.
With the math portion, I suggest that you go over all the algebra and geometry rules that are summarized in test prep books. Usually, any test prep book that has an overview of topics can do the trick and if you find that there is one topic, such as right triangle rules, that you do not know make sure you have them hammered down by test time. For any difficulties in the math section, they best way to conquer them is with PRACTICE. Practicing increases your speed and familiarity with common mathematical problems as well as the identification of trick questions.
When taking practice tests, I think the best way to start off is to time how long it takes you to complete each section rather than trying to beat the clock. This way, you’ll know by how much you will need to speed up. I can almost guarantee that your speed will increase with enough practice and the time limitation should not be stressed unless you are experiencing circumstances where your speed is not increasing as much as you hoped.
While taking these tests, it is important to write down your answer and how you feel about this answer. Are you sure? Unsure? Make sure you do this because this is the best way to be able to gauge your correctness during the actual test. When you go back and correct the test, do not just mark the wrong answers and give yourself a score. Go over the detailed answers of every question, if available, and if you got the question wrong, jot down why you got it wrong. Was it a concept error? Attention to detail? Time constraints? If it is a concept error, make sure you take note that you will need to relearn this concept. If it was more logistically, make sure you read the passage more carefully next time and take your time with those types of questions.
There are stories out there of people that have been out of school for years and managed to score in the 98th percentile for both the math and english portions of the GRE. I do not think it is impossible to do well on any standardized test without shelling out the big bucks to test prep companies. It is very possible and the secret ingredient is practice. If you would like more tips and help, please let me know at .
February 13th, 2012
When we were children, we never hesitated to ask questions, even if they were unreasonable. But, as we matured, we were bound by strict rules and became conscious of criticism. Hence, we began to think logically. Break out of this Nutshell into the wonderful World of Creativity.
To become creative, we must start observing and analyzing the world around us. We have 5 senses to see & observe, hear & listen, taste & relish, touch & feel, breathe & live and a 6th sense to think and analyze. By combining these senses the way we want, we can attain creativity and gain the confidence we need to express ourselves in different ways.
Meditation serves as the foundation to build the castle of intuition by breaking the walls of ego & pessimism and opening the door towards creativity and opportunity, through which the winds of knowledge & concentration flow, making the mind a cool place where we can think with clarity and take right decisions. We recharge our brain cells by trying to think differently.
Know the rules well before breaking them. While cooking, we know what odour or taste the ingredients give. Have you ever tried breaking the rules given in your recipe book?
We can let our mind revolve around the six questions of Who, What, When, Where, Why and How (5Ws &1H technique used by all creators), for a solution to evolve and the problem to resolve.
We can make our writing impressive with figurative language and powerful words. Using figurative language, we can make complicated issues easy to understand and remember, by relating them to simple matters. Today’s word processors are also capable of suggesting alternative words using a feature called Thesaurus.
Creativity and presence of mind have the power to turn even a casual statement into a quote or a joke.
“When Bill Clinton went to meet Bill Gates, Clinton passed the Bill before Gates opened to speak out.”
- Shriram
Some words like in the above statement have different meanings. By using them in impractical situations you come up with a joke.
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for aesthetics. It can be written independently or may occur in conjunction with other arts like poetic drama, hymns or lyrics. Whether you wish to write a 2-line couplet, a 4-5-line limerick containing humour or a story with a moral in the form of poetry called a ballad, feel free to use your own style.
There are softwares and websites that suggest rhyming words. If you are hunting for words, reverse dictionaries are available online, where you can type a phrase and get the word. Online dictionaries also help us save time by just typing the word we want to find the meaning of.
Most novels are based on the lives of real people and most films are based on novels by adding little imagination. Joe Klein’s Primary Colors is a novel based on Clinton’s administration and Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy is an adaption of the novel Q&A by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup.
In the language that film speaks, every single image conveys a word; a series of images convey a sentence; a scene of action conveys a passage and the movie as a whole conveys a story.
Knowing our own body language helps understand that of others. It reveals the attitude of a person. Facial expressions also help us understand the mood of the person. They also help us become good dancers or actors.
We can also cover-up mistakes creatively. With a little presence of mind, we can turn a disproportionate portrait into a cartoon or a bad painting into a modern art. Animation is nothing more than a series of hand-drawn images, with minute differences flipped one after another creating an illusion of motion. Using vector-based softwares, we can design anything by creating 2D shapes and customizing them without the need to draw.
Using Image Editing softwares, we can layer different images one above the other and merge them so naturally that they seem like a single image.
Sometime there is a need to edit written content to fit a column, a design to fit a screen or an advertisement to fit a given duration of time. It only requires a little presence of mind to do these tasks.
We can create realistic effects like the sun’s light entering a room, casting shadows on the wall or animate raindrops falling from the roof of a house. We can also create the reflection of a boat moving in water or people sitting around a campfire. With cost-effective visual effects softwares available in the market today, you can create anything you can think of.
Music composing softwares contain a variety of built-in instrument sounds called loops. We can drag any number of these into tracks, where they can be arranged and mixed for composing music and generating sound effects.
Creating Websites and Softwares has also become easy with user-friendly applications available in the market today. You can design your layout by just clicking and dragging components that you need like text areas, text boxes, radio buttons, check boxes or list boxes onto the page or screen and customizing their appearance.
Even scripting a website or programming a software has become easy using IntelliSense, an auto completion feature, which helps us to script or program without having to remember lines of code.
In addition to the above features available in these Integrated Development Kits, some Game Development softwares contain built-in characters, weapons and scene templates, which you can use in your games if you lack the time and patience to create them.
Any creative endeavour can be accomplished with proper planning. Whether it is an animation we wish to create or a video we want to shoot, writing a script helps us describe our concept and drawing a storyboard helps us visualize it.
The brain thinks and the body does, only what our heart feels. When you read a book, think of writing one; when you watch a film think of making one; when you hear a song, think of composing one and when you use a software or play a game, think of creating one.
With a creative mind we can find new ways to convince customers in our business and expand the market for our products and services. We can use most of the above ideas while marketing.
Creativity requires passion, patience and determination. Any creative task looks daunting for a fresher but becomes interesting over the time. Many artists, who have no hands to hold a brush, use their feet and mouth to paint.
Irrespective of the creative field we wish to work in, all we need to do is understand the basic concepts and stay updated with the latest tools and techniques. Do not be intimidated by technical terms.
The Internet is a huge network of information available for help anytime. Advancements in technology have made it possible for people across the world to connect, share information and also work in teams from wherever they are. There are also many books available in these subjects and many experienced people around the world whom we can ask. Such brainstorming can help us generate more ideas to solve problems. Self-confidence, hard work and openness to learning are the key skills to one’s success.
February 13th, 2012
Following are some resume writing tips that will help you with your objective of getting the restaurant interview. Make sure you go over your resume with your recruiter prior to having him/her send yours to any restaurant hiring manager. Use spell check as well. If you’re a restaurant manager, don’t list yourself as a “retaurant manager”, “restaraunt or restraunt manager”, or “restaurant manger”. (None of these are spelled correctly) Also, check the spelling of the name of your current and previous employers. Failure to put forth this effort decreases the level of professionalism with which you are regarded and brings into question your attention to detail.
NAME:
Email Address and/or Personal Web Address
Permanent Street: City, State Zip Code
Phone Number
EDUCATION:
Institution location: Certain restaurant concepts take education under higher consideration than others. Generally, larger companies doing a higher level search pay closer attention to a restaurant manager’s education, but you can never be sure what type of person will be examining your resume. Always try to include full details on your education including degrees and awards received.
CAREER OBJECTIVE:
In many ways, the resume objective is the bread and butter of the actual document. Including an objective provides the official introduction to the rest of your text, discussing your career objectives along with the kind of restaurant jobs you’re looking for. It sets the tone for the remaining content and is the first thing that hiring manager looks at. Because of this, you need to give your attention to the resume objective. What is your goal in relation to the restaurant manager jobs you’re looking at? State that in your restaurant resume objective. Some restaurant resume objectives include:
· To obtain a management position in the restaurant industry with upward mobility from assistant manager to general manager.
· To obtain a position in hospitality which makes use of my guest relations skills.
· To obtain a position in the restaurant industry with excellent mobility and room to grow.
Note that all of these restaurant resume objectives are short and to the point – one sentence phrases consisting of two major parts that serves as an introduction to getting the rest of your resume read.
EXPERIENCE:
· List experiences as follows: Job title, employer, location (city, state) and the dates. The order of the job title and the employer depends on how you want to present yourself. De-emphasize dates, months may or may not be relevant.
· Start each description with an action word. Use present tense verbs when referring to current activities. Use past tense verbs when referring to past activities. Do not use “I” or “My”.
· Tailor this section for the type of food service jobs you are applying – Assistant Manager, General Manager, Multi-Unit Manager, etc.
· You may choose to put either the job title or employer name first. You should decide which is more important – where you worked or what you did.
Cite your specific responsibilities and accomplishments for each position. Do NOT simply write a generic restaurant manager job description here! Be thorough in your descriptions without exaggerating. Appropriate divisions for this category may include training/development experience, new store opening experience, P&L experience, etc.
SKILLS:
Computer: Even if it is only word processing skills, list familiarity with computer systems, applications and programs. If you don’t have it, they may assume you don’t know it.
Language: State degree of proficiency in reading, writing and speaking, especially if bilingual. This is a big plus to some restaurants.
HONORS & AWARDS:
List academic, leadership and athletic honors.
ACTIVITIES/SPECIAL INTERESTS:
Include leadership positions, such as offices held and responsibilities. You do not need to include everything you have done, be selective in your listing.
REFERENCES AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST:
You should only use this if you need to fill space.
February 13th, 2012
With the real estate prices touching a new high, residents in old buildings are now discovering that they have an opportunity to unlock immense value from their property by offering it to a builder/developer for redevelopment. Developers, on their part, are also on the lookout for properties with unused development rights where they can build a new structure of a few storeys higher and sell those additional flats for a tidy profit for them. While it may sound like a typical ‘win-win’ situation, the process of redevelopment isn’t as easy as it sounds. It comes with a set of rules, procedures and implications which you need to understand.
It is needless to mention here that the Redevelopment of housing societies is usually burdened with bitterness and complaints of high-handedness and corruption against the Managing Committee. Hence, with a view to ensure transparency in societies seeking to undertake redevelopment projects, the State Co-Operative Department has, for the first time, issued guidelines for societies to follow under section 79 (A) of the Maharashtra Co-operatives act, 1960.
The recent guidelines are issued by a committee comprising the co-operatives commissioner and CIDCO chairman pursuant to a deep study of complaints by members of Housing Societies undertaking the redevelopment of their property. According to an important feature in the guidelines, a redevelopment scheme has to be approved by the general body only if three-fourths of the society members are present at the meeting.
The subject of redevelopment has assumed great significance because in Mumbai, majority of the buildings owned by the Co-Operative Housing Societies are quite old and in a dilapidated state. In case of redevelopment of old buildings which have completed 30 years or are beyond repairs as certified by the Govt. approved architect on the basis of his “Structural Audit”.
The first and the foremost step before going in for redevelopment would be a structural audit of the building. The structural audit report will determine whether the building should go in for redevelopment or for major repairs. In the absence of the technical report it would not be legally permissible to pass a resolution in the general body meeting. However, it is a fact that many co-operative societies suddenly call for General Body meeting and decide to go in for redevelopment in the absence of a structural audit report.
There are two important things in a Resident/Developer arrangement. One is from the commercial angle and another is from the technical angle. A Developer usually assures a certain amount of cash by way of corpus, an additional area or a mix of both. He may give an alternative accommodation for your temporary stay, foot your rentals or give you a monthly compensation within which you have to find your temporary accommodation.
Before you negotiate with a Developer, you need to establish the market value of the property you will receive on completion of redevelopment. This is a better approach than quoting a random figure to the builder that would make them feel short-changed or the high amount would make the builder shy on the new project.
The technical angle refers to the finished good. Does it match the quality and terms and conditions assured by the builder? In fact, at the agreement stage itself, the society residents should appoint a lawyer to draft and finalize the agreement. It usually takes a year for a builder to convince the society members and take an in-principle approval. The society members should ensure the timely completion of the project which is the most important detail to be mentioned in the agreement.
The main parties involved in the any redevelopment project are Society and Developer. Committee Members dealing on behalf of cooperative housing society are mostly non-technical and are laymen.
Therefore it is very important that the drafting of the Tender / agreement is done meticulously so that there is no chance of dispute and/or difference between both the parties. Excellent skills and vast Legal & Technical knowledge is required to draft such an important document. It is very important to avail the services of a professional, who is legally as well as technically qualified and a person who has the vision to anticipate future problems and requirements.
In any scheme of redevelopment, the primary objective is to ensure guarantee of performance. Performance is principally in the area of timely construction, quality control and adherence to rules, and regulations.
The best way to select the builder is to invite sealed tenders through a public notice and such tenders should have the basic eligibility criteria mentioned. This will bring in more transparency in selecting the developer. Brief details and advantages of the tendering process are given below.
BRIEF DETAIL OF TENDERING
- Preparation of Tender Document including Technical, Commercial and Legal conditions, detailed Specifications and offer etc
- Advertisement in 3 local News paper
- Selling Tender documents
- Identification of Developer and evaluation of offers and Recommendation
- Guidance in Negotiation
- Formation of suitable agreement
ADVANTAGES OF TENDERING
- As advertisement is given in 3 prominent newspapers society will get good offers from reputed developers.
- As offers are invited in a sealed tender form, there is a severe competition among the bidders.
- As all the specifications and terms and conditions are same for all the bidders, it becomes easy for comparison and evaluation.
- Earnest Money Deposit in the form of PAY ORDER payable to the society is taken from each and every bidder so that unwanted or non interested parties do not bid for the work
- Mode of measurement of carpet area and person who will certify the same is clearly defined.
- Entire redevelopment proposal to be done in society’s name making it safer for society in case of any problems faced by developer.
- Right to change and or remove developer stays with the society.
- As all the details pertaining to commercial terms such as Bank Guarantee, temporary accommodation, cost of additional area etc is clearly defined the chances of ambiguity and disputes are virtually non-existent.
- Detailed technical methodology of work is laid out in the tender document under the head of technical specification.
- Basic rates are mentioned in the tender document enabling members to change any specification for their individual uses.
- Right to check amendments of plans during the progress of work is kept with the society.
- Material to be used is spelt out with brand names to avoid any confusion.
- As all the items are defined clearly the chances of getting realistic offer are excellent.
- Consequences of delay are defined in tender document.
- Tender is a legally binding document.
- Bye Law No 158 recommends need of tender document for construction of building.
After a proper feasibility report is submitted, the next step in the process of Redevelopment of any society is the most important one, viz: Selection of the PERFECT DEVELOPER, who will meet all the needs of the society, and at the same time be financially stable, and having a lot of experience of Redevelopment because unrealistic offers can often lead to redevelopment projects being stalled and leave residents in a fix.
This is achieved by the process of tendering, wherein the PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT will float a tender document containing all the Legal, Technical, and Commercial & Other important Terms & Conditions, whereby maximum safety of the society members is ensured, as they are parting with their life’s most valuable possession…. their house, in the hands of a perfect stranger.
Before we agree to re-development plan, please read carefully, the procedural aspects are strictly followed as per the Govt. guidelines at the Meetings of the Society.
The Government of Maharashtra has issued a Circular bearing No. CHS 2007/CR554/14-C, Co-operation, Marketing and Textiles Department Date: 3rd January 2009 which contains a Directive under Section 79(A) of Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act 1960 for all the Co-operative Housing Societies in the State of Maharashtra regarding the Redevelopment of Buildings of Co-operative Housing Societies that wherever, the buildings of Co-operative Housing Societies in the State of Maharashtra are being redeveloped on a large scale, a number of complaints were received from members against managements of Co-operative Societies in which redevelopment is taking place. In respect of most of the Co-operative Housing societies, nature of complaints relating to redevelopment is as under:-
1. Not taking the members in confidence in the process of redevelopment.
2. There is no transparency in tender process.
3. Appointing contractors arbitrarily.
4. To work by violating provisions of Co-operative Act, Rules and Bye-Laws.
5. No orderliness in the work of Architect and Project Consultant.
6. Not planning Redevelopment Project Report.
7. Not adopting proper procedure in finalizing tenders.
Whereas there is no concrete policy in respect of all above points of complaint and therefore Co-operation Commissioner and Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Maharashtra State, Pune had appointed a Study Group under the Chairmanship of Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies (CIDCO) to study the complaints received at various levels and for consultations with all constituents working in the relevant fields. The said Study Group has expressed the opinion that it is essential to frame regulations for redevelopment of buildings of Co-operative Housing Societies after consultation with all the constituents in the field of Co-operative Housing.
Directive for Redevelopment of Building of Co-operative Housing Society
1. Requisition for convening Special General Body Meeting for Redevelopment of Society’s Building:-
Not less that ¼ members of the Society the building of which is to be redeveloped should submit a requisition to Secretary on the Managing Committee elected as per provisions of Bye-Laws and lawfully formed along with their scheme and suggestions for redevelopment of the Society’s building for convening Special General Body Meeting to finalize the policy on redevelopment of the building.
2. Convening Special General Body Meeting:-
On receipt of an application as per Directive No. 1 above, Managing Committee should take a note thereof within 8 days and Secretary of the society should convene General Body Meeting of all the members of the society, Agenda of the Meeting should be furnished to each member 14 days prior to the day of meeting and acknowledgement thereof should be kept on record of the society.
Before convening the said meeting, Society should obtain list of Architects / Project Management Consultants on the panel of Government / Local Authority and obtain quotations from minimum 5 experienced and expert persons for preparing project report for redevelopment work of the building and one expert person from among them will be selected in the Special General Body Meeting.
Following business will be transacted in the said Special General Body Meeting:-
1. To take preliminary decision by taking into consideration demand of the members for redevelopment of society’s building and suggestions received in respect of the same.
2. To select expert and experienced Architect / Project Management Consultant on the panel of the Government / Local Authority for work of redevelopment of the building and to finalize items of work to be done by them and terms and conditions of work.
3. To submit outline of the program for redevelopment of the building.
3. To accept written suggestions from members relating to redevelopment of the building:-
Members of the Society will be entitled to submit in writing to the committee eight days prior to the meeting their realistic scheme, Suggestions and recommendations for redevelopment of the building in the name of experienced and expert Architect / Project Management Consultant known to them. However, that Architect / Project Management Consultant should submit a letter that he is desirous of doing work of redevelopment.
4. Decisions to be taken in the Special General Body Meeting:-
Quorum for the Special General Body Meeting convened for redevelopment of building of the Co-operative Housing Society will be ¾ of the total members of the society. If quorum is not formed, meeting will be adjourned for eight days and if there is no quorum for the adjourned meeting, it will be deemed that members are not interested in redevelopment of the building and meeting will be cancelled.
On formation of quorum for the meeting, Suggestions, recommendations and objections from all the members with regard to redevelopment of the society’s building will be taken into consideration and opinions expressed by all the members will be recorded in the minutes book with names of concerned members. Therefore a preliminary decision will be taken whether to redevelop society’s building or not. Such decision must be taken with majority vote of more than ¾ of the members. On preliminary resolution about doing the work of redevelopment getting passed, following business will be transacted in the meeting.
a) To selected expert and experienced Architect / Project Management Consultant
from the panel of the Government / Local Authority for work of redevelopment of the building and to finalize items of work to be done by them and terms and conditions for the same.
b) To submit an outline of the program for redevelopment of building.
5. Providing minutes of Meeting to all members:-
Secretary of the Society should prepare minutes of Special General Body Meeting as above within ten days and a copy thereof should be furnished to all members and acknowledgement therefore be kept on record of the society. Also one copy should be forwarded to the office of the Registrar.
6. Issuing Appointment Letter to the Architect / Project Management Consultant:-
Secretary of the society will within 15 days of the meeting issue Appointment Letter to the Architect / Project Management Consultant selected in Special General Body Meeting and Society will enter into an agreement with Architect / Project Management Consultant incorporating therein terms and conditions approved in Special General Body Meeting.
7. Work to be done in the initial stage by Architect / Project management consultant:-
a) To survey Society’s building and land.
b) To obtain information about conveyance of land to the society.
c) To take into consideration prevailing policy of the Government and the regulations applicable from time to time depending on ownership of the land (MHADA/SRA/Municipal Corporation) and to obtain information about FSI and TDR, which would be available in relation to building and land of the society.
d) To take into consideration suggestions and recommendations from the members for redevelopment of the building as also the residential area to be made available to the members, commercial area, vacant area, garden, parking, building specifications etc. and to prepare a realistic project report.
e) Architect / Project Management Consultant should prepare the project report within two months of date of his appointment and to submit the same to committee of the society.
8. Action to be taken on receipt of redevelopment Project Report:-
a) On receipt of Redevelopment Project Report as above, Secretary of the society will convene a joint meeting to approve the Project Report with majority vote by taking into consideration suggestions received from Committee Members and Architect / Project Management Consultant. Notice in that behalf will be published on the Notice Board of the Society mentioning time venue etc. of the meeting.
b) It should be mentioned in the notice that a copy of the Project Report is available in the society’s office for members to see and the notice should be served on all the members that they should submit their suggestions eight days prior to the next Committee Meeting and acknowledgement of such notice should be kept on record of the Society.
c) Seven days prior to joint meeting, suggestions received from the members will be forwarded by Society’s Secretary to the Architect / Project Management Consultant for his Information.
d) There will be a detailed discussion in the Joint meeting on the suggestions / recommendations from members and opinion thereon of the Architect / Project Management Consultant and project report will be approved with necessary changes. Thereafter draft of tender from will be prepared and date of next joint meeting will be fixed for discussion on draft tender form and finalizing the same.
e) While preparing draft tender form, in order to get competitive quotations from renowned experts and experienced Developer, either carpet area or corpus fund fixed (not to be changed) and by finalizing other technical matters, the Architect / Project Management Consultant will invite tenders. Society’s members will be entitled to furnish information about it to the reputed and experienced Developer known to them.
9. Preparing List of Bids Received:-
a) On the Last day for receiving quotations, Secretary of the Society will prepare a list of offers received and display the same on the notice board of the society.
After 15 days of the last day for receiving quotations, Secretary of the society will convene special meeting of Managing Committee of the society. Authorized representatives of bidders and members of the society desirous of remaining present can remain present for the meeting as observers.
Tenders so received will be opened in the presence of all and the Architect / Project management consultant will scrutinize all tenders and prepare a comparative chart and after checking merit, reputation, experience and comparative rate etc. and select minimum 5 bids and if the bids received are less than 5, all the bids for putting up before Special General Meeting and concerned bidders will be informed about it immediately.
10. Selection of Developer:-
a) Office of the Registrar to appoint Authorized officer for attending General Body Meeting:-
An application with list of the members should be sent within eight days to the registrar for appointment of Authorized officer to attend the Special General Meeting of the Society for selecting a Developer out of those selected by committee of the Society with the help of the consultant, by taking into consideration his experience, merit, financial capacity, technical capacity and competitive rate etc.
b) Convening Special General Body Meeting for finalizing tender:-
After appointment of authorized officer, with his prior permission Secretary of the Society will fix the time and venue convene Special General Body Meeting for appointment of Developer and Agenda of this meeting will be sent to all the members 14 days prior to the meeting by hand delivery and by registered post and keep acknowledgement thereof on record of the Society. Also, office of the Registrar will make arrangement to keep his authorized representative present for the meeting.
Also arrangement will be made for video shooting of the meeting at the cost of the Society. Any person other than formal members will not be entitled to attend this meeting. Therefore members will be required to present at the venue of the meeting with their Identity Cards. At the time of submitting redevelopment proposal to the concerned authority for sanctioning, selection of Developer and other work should have been done in the presence of authorized officer from Registrar’s office.
c) If there is no quorum for Special General Body Meeting:-
If the quorum of ¾ members out of total members is not formed for Special General Body Meeting, the meeting will be adjourned for eight days. If quorum does not get formed for adjourned meeting, it will be deemed that the members have no interest in redevelopment of the building and the meeting will be cancelled and thereafter the said subject will not be taken up before the Special General Body Meeting for approval.
d) In the Special General Body Meeting to be convened for selection of Developer, authorized representative from the office of the Registrar will be present and observe proceedings of the meeting. Also, on concerned representatives and authorized officer remaining present at the venue and at the time of meeting and on quorum of ¾ members getting formed, following business will be transacted in the meeting.
i) Providing comparative information in respect of tenders selected for presentation (for redevelopment work).
ii) Presentation by bidders one by one.
iii) To select Developer for redevelopment of the building, to finalize terms and conditions and finalize the tender.
iv) To obtain consent from the selected Developer.
v) Give information about further work. It will be essential to take written approval by ¾ majority vote of the members present for the meeting for selection of Developer. If the selected Developer of his representative does not remain present for the meeting, further action will be taken by presuming that they have given their consent for the project.
11. Agreement to be entered into with Developer:-
Subject to the terms and conditions approved by General Body Meeting of the Society, an agreement should be entered into with the Developer within one month under guidance from the Architect / Project Management Consultant. Along with the points suggested by the Architect / Project Management Consultant appointed by the Society, following points will also be included in the agreement.
(1) The period for completing redevelopment project of the Society will not exceed more than two years and in exceptional cases, it will not exceed three years.
(2) Developer will give a Bank Guarantee for amount equal to 20% of the project cost.
(3) During the period of redevelopment, the Developer will make available to the members alternative accommodation in the same area as far as possible or arrange to pay monthly rent and deposit as acceptable to members or make available transit camp accommodation.
(4) The said agreement will be registered under Registration Act, 1908.
(5) On completion of redevelopment project, new members will be admitted in the Society only with approval of General Body Meeting of the Society.
(6) Carpet area to be allotted should be clearly mentioned in the agreement.
(7) Development right vested in the Developer will be non-transferable.
(8) Members will vacate their respective premises only after all legal approvals are received for redevelopment of the building.
(9) Rights of those who are in possession of the flats will remain unaffected.
(10) If any dispute arises in the work of redevelopment, provision should be made in the agreement to resolve the same as per provisions of Section 91 of the Act.
(11) After receipt of Occupation Certificate, flats in the redeveloped building should as far as possible be allotted as per present conditions floor-wise and if it becomes necessary to allot flats by drawing lots, on completion of construction, Developer should make arrangement drawing lots, and at that time flats should be allotted in the presence of Registrar’s representative and this process be recorded by video shooting.
(12) Any Committee member or Office Bearer of the Society should not be the Developer or relative of the Developer.
(13) Building plans sanctioned by the Municipal Corporation / Competent Authority should be put up before the General Body Meeting for information and if any member wants copies of approved documents, he should submit application for the same to the Society and it will be binding on the Committee to furnish the information by charging necessary fee.
By order and in the name of the Governor of Maharashtra (Dr. Sudhirkumar Goyal) Principal Secretary (Co-operation and Marketing)
Copy to:
1) Co-operation Commissioner and Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Maharashtra State, Pune.
2) Divisional Joint Registrars, Co-operative Societies (All).
3) District Deputy Registrars, Co-operative Societies (All).
Select File (14-C).
Ref.: Z:\000 – 500\2 GOVERNMENT CIRCULARS & COURT JUDGEMENTS 2008\2 GOVT CIRCULARS 2007\142 Directive for Redevelopment of Building of Co-operative Housing Society [English] 03-01-2009.
A well drafted consent of at least 70% the Society members must be obtained in writing during the Society meetings when the subject of redevelopment is discussed. However, the minority members of co-operative housing society cannot obstruct a redevelopment project. On Jun 28, 2010, the Bombay high court has once again ruled that members of a co-operative housing society who are in minority cannot obstruct a redevelopment project and must abide by the majority decision of the society, unless they show that here is some prejudice caused to them or a fraud has been committed.
In a recent ruling, the Bombay High Court has stated that the issue of minority of tenants cannot be an obstacle for redeveloping a property if minimum 70% of the tenants are ready for the same.
The judgment came against a matter of a redevelopment in Dadar where 17 members were opposing the redevelopment of an old Parsi chawl. Based on the writ petition filed by the group of dissenting members, Justice D.B.Bhosale granted the permission to BMC to forcibly evict the families with the police help in case of any opposition from the others against the redevelopment.
It is important to note that as per the section 103B of Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Act, 1976, with the guidelines for redevelopment of old Municipal Properties by the Municipal Tenants Co-Operative Housing Societies on the land owned by the Corporation under regulation 33(7) of the Development Central Regulations for Greater Bombay, 1991, it is necessary that more than 70% of the eligible existing Municipal tenants should give written consent to redevelop the property under the scheme with a formation of a co- operative society / association and an initiative proposal for the redevelopment.
The court has held that once 70% or more occupants /tenants give their consent for redevelopment by forming a co-operative body and if the scheme is approved by the corporation, it is binding to all other occupants. As per the guidelines, the tenants / occupants with separate stand, have no choice but to follow the norms. Being in minority (about 30% or less than that) the only choice for them remains is, to give up their tenancy rights and quit from the scheme.
The special general body has to approve the bid of the successful bidder in a meeting attended by the registrar. The entire proceedings have to be video-recorded. Once the agreement is accepted in terms of area and corpus fund, it cannot be revised. The successful bidder has to give a bank guarantee equivalent to 20% of the total project cost to show his financial strength, and proof that he will not throw away the project midway.
The Developer values the kind of Societies that either have some open plot of land or are willing to demolish the old structures to reconstruct new buildings. Where such redevelopment is possible, Developer normally agree to pay some consideration by way of Corpus Fund including more area in their existing flats to the members and seek permission to construct a building on the open plot of land or to construct a new, bigger building using the Transferable Development Right (TDR), Floor space index (FSI) after demolishing the existing structure.
Depending upon the offer from the Developer and subsequent negotiations him, he either provides alternate residential flats to the members of the Society or pay rent in advance by way of post dated cheques, one month rent as brokerage and transportation charge etc. to secure an alternate accommodation till the new building is constructed and the members are rehabilitated in their new flats. All the demands and negotiations have to be carefully recorded in the ‘Development Agreement’ for successful execution of redevelopment in a housing society and the office bearers and the managing committee members have a strong role to play.
In any process of redevelopment, one must be aware of various documentations that are required and also one must understand the tax implications on redevelopment of immovable property. The principal documents are ‘Development Agreement’ and ‘Power of Attorney’ which are to be registered by paying appropriate stamp duty.
By executing the Development Agreement’ with the Society, the Developer gets the required permission to develop the land and submits the papers to concerned civic authorities. Upon various sanctions available to him, the Developer constructs the buildings at his cost, retains some flats for him to be sold in the open market and earn profit.
It is important for a Society to have a valid conveyance of land and building in its favor for it to be redeveloped at a later date and that includes acquiring marketable title, permission for reconstruction and construction of additional floors by use of TDR and FSI, or else, Society may not get any approval of plan from Municipal Corporation. But due to our ignorance, majority of Builders fail to convey the title to a Co-Operative Society after the flats initially constructed on a plot of land.
In fact, the greater majority of the Co-Operative Housing Societies, formed in Mumbai in the last twenty years, do not have the land conveyed in their favor which results in the Developer or the earlier owner continues to remain the owner of the property. This results in a situation where these Societies have only possessor rights and not the ownership rights over the land, depriving them of the additional TDR FSI that is the main driving force for entering into such redevelopment agreements when required at a later date.
The task of satisfactory completion of redevelopment of any Housing Society and to get back their members in their dream houses is not difficult provided the Office Bearers and the Committee Members are honest and justify their respective posts in the welfare and well being of the members of the Society.
February 13th, 2012
Today we are going to see a different computer in this Dell Vostro 230 Mini Tower review. We know you are used to reading about laptops in our reviews, but today we thought of giving our readers something else to read about. So we bought this Vostro 230 Mini Tower to see just how well it performed at just $399. At first glance, it looks like a very capable desktop computer that can be successfully used as a low end server. However, is it really that capable? Let’s see how it did when put to the test.
Just like in our laptop reviews, we started testing the desktop’s most important component, the central processing unit (or as it is commonly known, the CPU). We were thrilled to find a very potent and powerful Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 working at a very good speed of 3.00 GHz, on a high speed front side bus (otherwise known as FSB) of 1333 MHz and with an incredibly large L2 cache of 6 MB. All these specs looked very promising so we started testing it. We were amazed with how quickly it managed to pass all our tests. When put through our most resource intensive multi tasking tests, it did not encounter a single problem. In our Dell Vostro 230 Mini Tower review, this desktop receives its well deserved 10 points.
Next it was time to test its memory and hard disk drive. These are very important to any desktop personal computer, so we conducted these tests very carefully. We started with the random access memory (RAM) and were surprised to find 4 GB of DDR3 RAM working at a high speed of 1333 MHz. During our most intensive memory tests, the RAM behaved extremely well due to its technology and high frequency. We were so delighted with the results that we gave the RAM 10 points in our Dell Vostro 230 Mini Tower review. The hard disk drive was, however, less than we had expected. With a size of just 160 GB, it barely managed to accommodate all our media files. Its high speed of 7200 rotations per minute made up for part of this nuisance. However, we are unable to give it more than 7 points in this Dell Vostro 230 Mini Tower review.
We were very satisfied with the graphics processing unit (GPU), proudly represented by a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT220. 48 processing cores assure you this video card will run any one of the latest titles in the gaming industry. We are glad to give the desktop its well deserved 10 points in our Dell Vostro 230 Mini Tower review.
February 13th, 2012
Perhaps one of the more troubling aspects of brain damage is how treatment options are often limited and may not prove entirely effective for all individuals. As damage to brain tissue is rarely anything that may improve with surgery, most treatment methods take the form of some sort of therapy, whether being an attempt to teach lost information or abilities through repetition, or creating new neural connections through otherwise unconsidered ways of thinking or acting. For treatment of the disorder known as aphasia, this limited repertoire of treatment choices holds true.
The most notable treatment method for aphasia is still only effective for those suffering from Broca’s aphasia, which affects their ability to produce language. In part, this is because it is difficult to rehabilitate the ability to hear language, considering that the event would otherwise defy common logic. However, in order to combat this disorder, many speech therapists have turned to a method known as melodic intonation therapy.
The brain recognizes speech and singing as two different mechanisms of communication. As a result, therapists are able to slowly integrate the basics of sing-speaking into their patient’s otherwise aphasic language. As patients begin, they may only be following a basic rhythm or cadence, but this process grows into full sing-speaking after working out repeated phrases of musical speech. The final step is to cut back on the musicality of the speech, leaving behind a working ability to find seemingly lost or misplaced words.
Although not invasive like surgery or requiring expensive machinery, this therapeutic approach can still prove too costly for some suffering from aphasia. For those with acquired aphasia that was caused by negligence, treatment costs may be effectively reduced or paid for after legal action. Contact a personal injury lawyer for more information.
February 13th, 2012
Today’s seasoned professional possess a variety of skills and abilities that benefit the work environment. Corporate employees are expected to keep up with trends within their field of expertise. If you are fortunate your employer will pay for your education and training. As a result of increased duties and cross-training many job seekers realize they can fill jobs outside of the title and industry they have been working with for years.
Recently I coached an individual that was having difficulty returning to the workforce after being laid off 8 months ago from her job where she worked as a District Store Manager for a retail employer. Karen was 49 years old and had worked for over 20 years within the retail industry in some form of management capacity. She posted her resume on Monster and searched for jobs on Indeed but she only had one phone interview in the past 8 months. Her resume looked OK but when I asked her to provide more details in her job duty section it was revealed that she had performed many job duties that a corporate human resource generalist, recruiter and trainer does. She conducted interviews, provided training, negotiated and extended offers. She prepared and distributed payroll. She enjoyed these H.R. related duties so we prepared a 2nd resume that highlighted all of her H.R. related duties. The best place to highlight your specific skills related to the job that you are applying for is in your summary which should always be listed right beneath your name and contact information. Your summary of qualifications is a very critical component of your resume, without it your odds of being recognized are diminished significantly. It was in the summary that Karen listed how many years she had with preparing payroll, interviewing and training. She mentioned what kind of payroll software she worked with, what type of interviewing techniques she used and the size of her audience that she trained. In the summary specifics sell. Karen reposted her revised resume on Monster, created a LinkedIn account and applied to human resource related jobs via Indeed.com, within one week she had three interviews for human resource jobs! Within two weeks of posting her new resume she accepted an offer with a major retailer to work within their human resources department. The offer paid more than she ever earned as a District Manager and an added bonus her exhausting road travel requirements were eliminated. In Karen’s case she enhanced her human resources duties but applied to H.R. jobs within the retail field where she had many years experience.
One of the keys to tailoring your resume for a specific job is know which skills you have that are of value to the position/client. One of my human resource friends, Cindy, has a general version of her resume and a resume that she uses when she applies for jobs that require a recruiter that has experience finding Information Technology professionals. As a corporate recruiter consultant she has interviewed and on-boarded professionals for Sales and Marketing, Healthcare, Wireless and Information Technology positions of employment. When she applies for an information technology recruiter position Cindy minimizes her background that involves recruiting Sales, Marketing, Healthcare and Wireless professionals and expands on her I.T. recruiter experience. For her latest I.T. Recruiter resume she wrote a list of what are the most common questions she is asked in an interview setting when applying to an I.T. Recruiter position. Upon reviewing her list she was able to answer many of the interview questions in listing those skills first and foremost in her resume summary section. Cindy put in bold the areas she wanted the recruiter or hiring manager to be drawn to when reviewing her resume. If there is something that is very important for the reader to see she will print it in bold red lettering. She also looked carefully at the key words listed within the job descriptions that appeal to her and incorporated as many key words as possible in her resume summary and job description. To identify key words look for the specifics in the job description.
Below you will see Cindy’s general Recruiter resume followed by her Information Technology Recruiter resume:
Cindy Examplelcandidate
Cindy’s contact information listed here…
*successfully traveled to work on-site for duration of contracts as well as worked remotely
Summary: 5+ years agency experience, 10+years Corporate Contract Recruitment experience within a matrixed environment. Sr. Talent Acquisition Specialist with over fifteen years of full-life-cycle internal/external recruitment experience including developing and maintaining relationships with hiring managers to determining the best recruitment strategies. Serve as candidate advocate working to ensure a world-class experience for all potential candidates. Able to thrive in a high-pressured, ambiguous environment. Experienced with UltiPro, Vurv, Recruitmax, BrassRing, Prohire, Raycats, Peopleclick, PeopleSoft, SharePoint, Behavorial interviewing, Web 2.0 recruitment processes, Outlook & Lotus Notes. Managed vendor relationships. Articles published on corporate recruitment – Western International Media & e-zines.
Experienced sourcing and screening for the following: I.T., Sales, Marketing, Retail, Wireless, Healthcare, Government and Business professionals.
Work History **All assignments were completed successfully, on-time, within budget.
1999 – Present EXCELLENT Incorporation Company
Principal – Corporate Contract Recruiter
Aka: Talent Acquisition Consultant
CLIENTS:
IBM
As Recruitment Program Manager am responsible for managing exempt-level I.T. high-volume candidate activity. Serve as front end to hiring partners. Qualify candidates, facilitate the interview process, work closely with hiring executives to evaluate candidates and prepare offers. Also provide direction to dedicated sourcers for fulfillment of opening requisitions.
September, 2010 – present
Press Ganey/South Bend, IN
Responsible for staffing I.T., Legal, Sales & Marketing departments for this leader for Patient Satisfaction Surveys. Source and Screen legal, sales, marketing and I.T. professionals for positions located across the U.S.A. Coach managers on selection of hires. Prepare offers. Write and post job descriptions. Cold calling as well as utilizing major and niche job boards. Assist with the implementation of company ATS, Ultipro. 5/10/10 – 10/27/2010 and 9/14/09- 12/17/09
IMS -( I.T. Staffing Agency)/Huntington Beach, CA
Assist this agency with staffing for: Architect, Management, Project Leader, Programmer Analyst, DBA, Developer, Systems Analyst, Software Engineer, Business Analyst, and other I.T. related roles. Skills recruiter for: Citrix, SharePoint, SQL, LAN/WAN, DHCP, Lotus Notes Administrator, helpdesk, C#,.NET, IBM, Intel, migration, VB, Oracle DBA, MCSE, CCIE, PowerBuilder, XAML, WinForm, TCP/IP, C+, HIPAA, Scrum, Agile, Q.A. Analyst/Tester, MCP, J2EE, JDE and others. Extensive Cold- calling
Clients: Entertainment, Commercial, Automotive, Healthcare 1992 – (on/off support)
T-Mobile USA/Cerritos, CA & Novi, MI
Source and screen for retail division. Roles responsible for filling include: Sales Engineer, Account Development Representative, Event Rep., and Technical Sales Support. Positions are spread across the country. Partner with hiring managers to council on selection of candidates as well as construction of offers. ATS: Vurv 3/5/07 – 8/26/07 and 8/8/08 – 1/5/09
AT&T Mobility/Los Angeles, CA
Source and screen wireless sales professionals for the government division. Interact with H.R. Hiring Managers and Applicants across the country. ATS: Peopleclick Offer process: Peoplesoft Corporate community site for sharing information: Sharepoint
Assist hiring managers with newly developed recruitment process due to AT&T acquisition of Cingular Wireless. Create and conduct phone screens. Review resumes in ATS and make recommendations to hiring managers. Prepare and extend offers to candidates. Company was in M&A mode with U.S. Cellular
“It is evident that Kelly has a passion for recruiting, and a confidence in her skills. This shows in the way that she approaches the recruiting challenges that are presented to her.
I highly recommend Cindy for any recruiting position she will pursue in the future. She has been a very valuable resource on my team.” Charlotte P – Associate Director Mobility Staffing 10/07 – 7/08
Humana /Louisville, KY
Using ATS, RecruitMax (Vurv), job boards, internet, and referrals sourced a variety of healthcare insurance professionals for exempt and non-exempt level positions of employment. Consult with hiring managers to determine specifications for role. Develop phone screens to determine interview eligibility. Interview applicants face-to-face. Consult with hiring managers for selection of candidates to extend offers to. Negotiate salaries for and with candidates.
Extend offers verbally and in writing. Assist with mass hiring campaigns for various Humana locations throughout the United States. Utilize basic HTML coding.
Was key contributor for two week hiring initiative of 20+ Frontline Leaders (Supervisors). This initiative required the sourcing of 200+ resumes, phone screening 40+ candidates, coordinating with hiring managers to interview and on-board new employees within two weeks all at the same time providing candidates and extending offers for other hiring departments.
“Cindy is an expert in the Staffing/Recruiting Industry. She has a wealth of knowledge and is an out-of -the-box thinker. She delivered results in a challenging and tough environment, while carrying a heavy workload of requisitions. I received numerous compliments from hiring managers on the quality of candidates presented and responsiveness.” Larry M – Staffing Manager at Humana 10/05 – 2/07
HRFirst/American Express/Troy, MI
Using BrassRing, job boards and the internet was responsible for sourcing & screening various marketing professionals for sites across the United States. 8/05 – 10/05
Berbee Information Networks/Southfield, MI
Hired to develop talent pipeline and place networking and sales professionals for Berbee’s enterprise software industry clients. Berbee provides end-to-end sales and services for IBM, Cisco & Microsoft business products. Utilize ATS: Prohire, job boards, employee referrals and networking to hire systems engineers, system architects, account managers, Network Voice
Engineers, and other I.T. professionals. Developed phone screens from questions asked of hiring managers and top level I.T. professionals within industry. Negotiate offers, consult on recommended starting sign-on bonuses, relocation and vacation packages. Check professional references. Sell candidates on the value proposition of joining the Berbee team. 2/05 – 6/05
Raytheon/Troy, MI
Hired for ten-week contract recruitment assignment for this Fortune 100 company. Raytheon Professional Services, LLC designs and executes integrated learning solutions for commercial, military and government organizations worldwide. Responsible for sourcing, screening and hiring web instructors, as well as hard-to-fill hybrid I.T. positions. Provide strategic recruitment methods. Create and conduct phone screens. Using Lotus Notes, set up interviews for multiple hiring managers. Utilized company ATS: RayCats. 11/04 – 2/05
Kaiser Permanente/San Jose, CA
As project manager for community-wide nurse hiring event was responsible for contacting college instructors, cold-calling potential attendees, keeping administration and recruitment staff abreast of activities, maintaining spreadsheets for activity updates, and delegating responsibilities to various personnel. Overall duties involved hiring of nurses from start to finish, i.e., sourcing, screening, interviewing, set up interview with management, follow up with applicant and management, salary negotiations, offer letter preparation. Utilized internet effectively for recruitment purposes. As part of recruitment team was able to bring on board over 60 nurses, thus cutting nurse hiring needs in half. “I am continually amazed at your dedication and work ethic.” Sherry B, nurse management candidate, Kaiser email message. 8/04 – 11/04
Port Huron Hospital/Port Huron, MI
For this six-month contract assignment was responsible for full-life-cycle recruitment of allied healthcare professionals for 1200 employee hospital. On average filled four positions per week. Utilized behavorial interviewing techniques. Developed recruitment strategies and advertisement campaigns to attract candidates for difficult to fill positions of employment, i.e.: respiratory therapists, pharmacists, MRI technicians, ultra sonographers and phlebotomists. Prepare offer letters, prepare and give presentations to management on how to recruit effectively, gave presentations regarding H.R. procedures at staff orientations, negotiate with vendors and prepare a host of H.R. related paperwork. Track Affirmative Action using Peopleclick software. “She has covered every aspect of what I need to know to keep the process (recruitment) moving. I truly appreciate all she did to fill our open positions” Marlene Z/Housekeeping Supervisor, email sent to H.R. department head at Port Huron Hospital.
12/03 – 7/04
Additional Clients
Clients: Deloitte & Touche, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Accenture, Carlson Marketing, Paramount Pictures, Giorgio’s, Universal Studios, Staffed senior level I.T. professionals.
EDUCATION
B.A. with distinction in Speech Communication San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
MEMBERSHIPS
SHRM – Society for Human Resource Management
SMA – Staffing Management Association
ERE – Electronic Recruiters Exchange
Volunteer
Provide job-search workshops to various classes/groups/associations/government sponsored events
Published articles on job search in newspapers, e-zines and magazines
**Following is Cindy’s I.T. Recruiter resume. You will notice that in addition to highlighting her I.T. recruiting activity in the first page of her resume she continues to highlight her I.T. related skills throughout the job duty descriptions and right up until the end of her resume where she list the additional clients that she has worked for. **
Cindy Examplecandidate
Cindy’s contact information listed here…
*successfully traveled to work on-site for duration of contracts as well as worked remotely
Summary:
15+years Corporate Contract Recruitment experience within a matrixed environment.
15 years full-life-cycle internal/external recruitment experience including developing and maintaining relationships with hiring managers to determining best recruitment strategies. Serve as candidate advocate working to ensure a world-class experience for all potential candidates.
Able to thrive in a high-pressured, ambiguous environment.
Experienced with UltiPro, Vurv, Recruitmax, BrassRing, Prohire, Raycats, Peopleclick, PeopleSoft, SharePoint
Experienced sourcing and screening for the following:
20 yrs full-life-cycle recruitment for I.T. professionals for the following environments: Manufacturing, Wireless, Healthcare, Consulting, Retail
On & Off 10 yrs engineer staffing: software, sales, network, VOIP, systems
20yrs recruitment for exempt, non-exempt, enterprise software (ERP), SQL,.NET, Cisco, IBM, Microsoft infrastructure, engineer, architect, process improvement, business analyst, Business Intelligence, outsource operations, Six-Sigma Black-belts, Project Managers, others…
Tools and Sources used to locate quality I.T. professionals:
• Company ATS
• Linkedin (messages, invites, announcements via groups and associations)
• Job boards: DICE, Monster, TheLadders, SixFigures, Executnet
• Niche internet sites: Free-for-Recruiters, scguild.com, findadeveloper.com, ishunter.com
• Web 2.0 sites: Twitter, Facebook, Zoominfo, Spoke
• Utilize own income to join and participate in associations and conferences
• Referrals, heavy networking, meet others when I give job search presentations in the community
• Passionate about cold-calling
Work arrangement: Lifestyle flexible to where have travelled to work on-site for duration of contract as well as have worked successfully from home office as telecommuter.
Work History **All assignments were completed successfully, on-time, within budget.
1999 – Present EXCELLENT Incorporation Company
Principal – Corporate Contract Recruiter
Aka: Talent Acquisition Consultant
CLIENTS:
IBM
As Recruitment Program Manager am responsible for managing exempt-level I.T. high-volume candidate activity. Serve as front end to hiring partners. Qualify candidates, facilitate the interview process, work closely with hiring executives to evaluate candidates and prepare offers. Also provide direction to dedicated sourcers for fulfillment of opening requisitions. Positions processed: Oracle developer, Oracle DBA, SAP Basis, SAP Architect, COBOL developer, Siebel developer
September 16, 2010 – present
IMS -( I.T. Staffing Agency)/Huntington Beach, CA
Assist this agency with staffing for: Architect, Management, Project Leader, Programmer Analyst, DBA, Developer, Systems Analyst, Software Engineer, Business Analyst, and other I.T. related roles. Skills recruiter for: Citrix, SharePoint, SQL, LAN/WAN, DHCP, Lotus Notes Administrator, helpdesk, C#,.NET, IBM, Intel, migration, VB, Oracle DBA, MCSE, CCIE, PowerBuilder, XAML, WinForm, TCP/IP, C+, HIPAA, Scrum, Agile, Q.A. Analyst/Tester, MCP, J2EE, Java, CISSP, JDE and others. Extensive Cold- calling
Clients: Entertainment, Commercial, Automotive, Healthcare 1992 – (on/off support)
Press Ganey/South Bend, IN
Responsible for staffing I.T., Legal, Sales & Marketing departments for this leader for Patient Satisfaction Surveys and performance improvement. Source and Screen legal, sales, marketing and I.T. professionals for positions located across the U.S.A. Coach managers on selection of hires. Prepare offers. Write and post job descriptions. Cold calling as well as utilizing major and niche job boards. Assist with the implementation of company ATS, Ultipro. 5/10/10 – 8/27/10 & 9/14/09- 12/17/09
T-Mobile USA/Cerritos, CA & Novi, MI
Source and screen for retail division. Roles responsible for filling include: Sales Engineer, Account Development Representative, Event Rep., and Technical Sales Support. Positions are spread across the country. Partner with hiring managers to council on selection of candidates as well as construction of offers. ATS: Vurv 3/5/07 – 8/26/07 & 8/8/08 – 1/5/09
AT&T Mobility/Los Angeles, CA
Source and screen wireless sales and technical sales professionals for the government division. Interact with H.R. Hiring Managers and Applicants across the country. ATS: Peopleclick Offer process: Peoplesoft Corporate community site for sharing information: Sharepoint
Assist hiring managers with newly developed recruitment process due to AT&T acquisition of Cingular Wireless. Create and conduct phone screens. Review resumes in ATS and make recommendations to hiring managers. Prepare and extend offers to candidates. Company was in M&A mode with U.S. Cellular
“It is evident that Kelly has a passion for recruiting, and a confidence in her skills. This shows in the way that she approaches the recruiting challenges that are presented to her.
I highly recommend Cindy for any recruiting position she will pursue in the future. She has been a very valuable resource on my team.” Charlotte P – Associate Director Mobility Staffing 10/07 – 7/08
Humana Inc/Louisville, KY
Using ATS, RecruitMax (Vurv), job boards, internet, and referrals sourced a variety of healthcare insurance professionals for exempt and non-exempt level positions of employment. Consult with hiring managers to determine specifications for role. Develop phone screens to determine interview eligibility. Interview applicants face-to-face. Consult with hiring managers for selection of candidates to extend offers to. Negotiate salaries for and with candidates.
Extend offers verbally and in writing. Assist with mass hiring campaigns for various Humana locations throughout the United States. Utilize basic HTML coding.
Was key contributor for two week hiring initiative of 20+ Frontline Leaders (Supervisors). This initiative required the sourcing of 200+ resumes, phone screening 40+ candidates, coordinating with hiring managers to interview and on-board new employees within two weeks all at the same time providing candidates and extending offers for other hiring departments.
“Cindy is an expert in the Staffing/Recruiting Industry. She has a wealth of knowledge and is an out-of -the-box thinker. She delivered results in a challenging and tough environment, while carrying a heavy workload of requisitions. I received numerous compliments from hiring managers on the quality of candidates presented and responsiveness.” Larry M – Staffing Manager at Humana 10/05 – 2/07
HRFirst/American Express/Troy, MI
Using BrassRing, job boards and the internet was responsible for sourcing & screening various marketing and I.T. professionals for sites across the United States. 8/05 – 10/05
Berbee Information Networks/Southfield, MI
For this high-tech consulting company that provided end-to-end services for IBM, Cisco & Microsoft business products utilize ATS: Prohire, job boards, employee referrals and networking to hire systems engineers, system architects, account managers, Network Voice Engineers, and other I.T. professionals. Negotiate offers including sign-on bonuses, relocation and vacation packages. Sell candidates on the value proposition of joining the Berbee team. 2/05 – 6/05
Additional Clients that I served on a contract basis
• Deloitte & Touche – I.T. professional placements – Greater Nashville area
• Hewlett-Packard (HP) – I.T. professional placements – Metro Detroit area
• Accenture – I.T. professional placements – Michigan
• Raytheon – Marketing professionals – Michigan
• Paramount Pictures – I.T. professional placements – Southern California
• Universal Studios – I.T. professional placements – Southern California
• Carlson Marketing – I.T. and Marketing professionals – Michigan
• Girogio’s – I.T. professional placements – Southern California
• Kaiser Permanente – RN’s for their hospitals in Bay area, CA
EDUCATION
B.A. with distinction in Speech Communication San Jose State University, San Jose, CA
MEMBERSHIPS
• SHRM – Society for Human Resource Management
• SMA – Staffing Management Association
• ERE – Electronic Recruiters Exchange
• AHIMA – American Health Information Management Association
• HIMSS – Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
Volunteer
Provide job-search workshops to various classes/groups/associations/government sponsored events
Have been a guest on Cable TV show relating to the Job Search process
Online video speaker for Newspaper web site
Published articles on job search in newspapers, e-zines and magazines
Author of book, The Recruiter’s Hiring Secrets
Create several versions of your resume and save them on your computer so you can easily upload the appropriate resume for the job you are applying for. Also remember to constantly be updating and refining your resume. Happy Job Hunting!
February 13th, 2012
Bone cancer is rare and accounts for less than 1% of all new tumors. Not all bone tumors are fatal in fact benign (non cancerous) abnormalities are more common than malignant ones. Most are secondary and have been spread from another site. Primary bone cancer which starts in the bone is quite rare constituting less than one per cent of all malignant tumors. They are more common in males, especially in children and adolescents. The most common type of primary cancer is osteosarcoma. This type of carcinoma usually affects young adults. It can affect any bone, but the arms, legs and pelvis are more commonly affected. Other less common forms of primary bone cancer include Ewing sarcoma, malignant fibrous histiocytoma and chondrosarcoma.
Primary Bone Cancer
The causes of primary bone tumours are not known; however, adults who have Pagets disease (a bone disease) may have an increased risk.
Secondary bone cancer
Secondary bone cancer is the most common bone cancer. It is a carcinoma that starts somewhere else in the body and spreads (metastasises) to the bone. The most common cancers that spread to the bone originate in the breast, prostate, lung, kidney and thyroid.
Reticulum cell sarcoma of the bone
A cancerous tumor of the bone marrow presenting in more males than females.
Leukaemia
Cancer of the blood, which starts in the bone marrow
Symptoms of bore cancer
Symptoms tend to develop slowly and depend on the type, location, and size of the tumor. The signs and symptoms of bone carcinoma include: painful bones and joints, swelling of bones and joints, problems with movement, susceptibility to fractures. Less common symptoms include: unexplained weight loss, tiredness, fever and sweating.
Remember this conditionr is very rare so if you have any of these symptoms it is likely to be caused by another condition. Always see your doctor if you have for a diagnosis.
Causes
Although bone cancer does not have a clearly defined cause, researchers have identified several factors that increase the likelihood of developing these tumors. A small number of bone cancers are due to heredity.
Diagnosis
Bone cancer can present itself in any of the bones of the body, but it is diagnosed most often in the long bones of the arms and legs.
Diagnosing bone cancer involves a number of tests, including: X-rays and bone scans to show the exact location and size of the cancer (these are always done prior to biopsy), bone biopsy where a small sample of the cancer is removed from the bone and examined in the laboratory for the presence of malignant cells, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan similar to a CT scan but uses magnetism instead of x-rays to build three-dimensional pictures of your body.
Treatment
The treatment and prognosis depends upon multiple factors including the type and extent of the cancer, the patient’s age and overall health status. Tumors may be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of these.
Primary bone cancers:
The tumor, surrounding bone tissue and nearby lymph nodes are surgically removed. In severe cases, the affected limb may need to be amputated, but this is rare. Treatment may also include radiotherapy (x-rays to target and kill the cancer cells) and chemotherapy (anti-cancer drugs). These may be given before surgery, to shrink the cancer and/or afterward to destroy any remaining cancer cells.
Secondary bone cancer:
Treatment depends on the treatment for the original tumor, but usually includes chemotherapy, radiotherapy or hormone therapy. Surgery may be needed to strengthen the affected bone.
Prognosis
Overall, the chance of recovery (prognosis) for bone cancers has improved significantly since the development of modern chemotherapy. The chance of recovery will depend on a variety of influences; if the cancer has spread, the type of cancer, the size of the tumour, location, the person’s general health and other individual factors.
If the tumor is very small and localized, the five-year survival rate is close to 90 percent. If the cancer has begun to spread, however, survival becomes more difficult. The five-year survival rate is only about 60 percent, and the prognosis is poor once the cancer spreads.
Bone cancer in cats and dogs
Bone carcinoma in dogs and cats can be a challenging disorder. Osteosarcoma is by far the most common bone tumour if dogs, usually striking the leg bones of larger breeds. Chemotherapy significantly prolongs the survival of animals with osteosarcoma when used in conjunction with surgery. For dogs Cisplatin alone or in combination with doxorubicin markedly improves survival time to a median of 8-10 months with the percentage of dogs alive after11 months at 50%.
Feline Osteosarcoma unlike its canine counterpart it has a much lower rate of metastasis and longer term survival can be expected with complete excision. Median survival for cats with osteosarcoma is approximately 2 years with many cats outreaching that.
February 13th, 2012
Article marketing is one of the most powerful marketing concepts on the internet for many reasons. As the competition of internet marketing grows you have to find way to brand yourself inside peoples mind. What better way to show off your knowledge then to write articles on topics that you have knowledge in.
Here are a few things to consider when you are doing article marketing and if you start to master these concepts, this technique will drive tons of high quality traffic to your site.
1. Make sure that you are delivering the best content on the internet; people are looking for tons of real information. Be the one that provides that to the masses.
2. Good headlines; make sure that your headline has a catch will grab a persons attention. The headline is the first thing that a potential reader will see; don’t blow if before it starts.
3. Make sure that you are proof-reading all of your article content. There is nothing worse then trying to read through an article that looks like a 6 year old kid wrote it. Spell check and grammar check are there for a reason. Use them!
4. Try and make your articles keyword rich, so that the search engines can pick up on your articles and turn your simple article into a stream of traffic gold.
5. Use as many bullets and numbers in your articles. People tend to have short attention spans on the internet and you have to grab it quickly, and give them the relevant information as quickly as possible
6. Make sure that you are posting all your articles to your blog. The search engines will know that the content is originated from you, and they will reward you for it.
7. Be consistent when posting articles. The heaviest amount of traffic (unless you have a really optimized article picked up by the search engines) is when you first post your article. Most sites put them on their home page as a reward for posting to their site.
8. Make sure that your signature file and your bio is up too par. If you are getting a ton of articles reads and not a lot of click through to your links, change your bio and signature file.
Test, test, test and test some more, till you get the best conversion rates possible.
And last but not least here is a little nugget that will help give your articles that extra little bump in the rankings, and in turn a ton more traffic. Post all new links to your articles on your social media sites like:
Twitter.com
Friendfeed.Com
Rejaw.com
And any other social communities that you are apart of.