TrevorNelDailyOnline

My life has been pretty busy lately... so I thought I would share my communication feedback to our community members from a community executive meeting held last night. There are some interesting insights into the destabalising effects of change... and how it takes a 'shaker of trees' to push for excellence and passion in delivery.

Subject: My Feedback From Last Night's Meeting

Hi Execs

Your comment is required - see below.

One thing is clear... leadership on the LRA is only for the tough..! I appreciate the fact that the 'diplomats' on the LRA allow me to voice my honest perception (for right or wrong)... and I appreciate when they disagree as I deliver my views without pulling punches.

I am reasonably happy that there is an appreciation for my harping for PASSION to be shown by our 3 service providers in their delivery.

Chris Crozier captured my 'fuming' concern in his dual analogy of a car service dealership and a hotelier who both understand the key to EXCELLENCE.

The quality car service dealership who recognises that it is just not the quality of the service of the vehicle that matters (that is expected)... but it is the final IMPACT of the last half-an-hour of cleaning the vehicle that makes a statement.

The 6-Star hotelier recognises that it is just not the cleanliness of the room that counts (that is expected)... but it is the little chocolate on the pillow and the special fold on the end piece of the toilet roll that makes a statement.

Chris put his finger on it perfectly when he said that VISIBILITY of our 3 service providers is of critical importance. This is not to say that they are not delivering an expected service (this community has never had such a service before)... however my concerns are that they are not making a statement to this community. I am happier that this was clearly voiced at last night's meeting. It is about IMPACT... a WOW..!

I saw for the first time last night the beginnings of a clear recognition that the LRA is converting from a 'voluntary' association to a more professional footing of demanding service delivery excellence and INNOVATION from our paid service providers. We have a clear vision that needs to be delivered upon.

It is clear to me that the LRA has to become MORE professional in it's service delivery to the community... and that the old days of relying on solely voluntary efforts of residents to drive the LRA are fast disappearing. Voluntary effort alone will no longer ensure that Lonehill grows towards the vision established for it... PROFESSIONAL paid-service providers will be the key to growing the value of our personal assets in Lonehill.

The challenge for the current LRA volunteers on the committee is to bridge the mental gap between the old-days of being a cap-in-hand tu'penny-ha'penny begging-bowl association... to recognising that the LRA now controls +-R10 million a year through it's books. It is a BIG entreprise in anyone's book... and it MUST get bigger.

Again, last night, I recognised that Chris Crozier and Hermann Erdmann truly are best-of-breed leaders to lead this change. They make me feel guilty for 'throwing my toys out of the cot'... but I appreciate how they try to temper the tempestuous effect of the 'unmanageable'... ;-) I appreciate their bridging our critical transition with great restraint and calm.

To the others on the committee who suffer my protestations with disbelief in their eyes... I apologise, my only defense is that I wear my heart on my sleeves... and that I am prepared to be put into my place if I am wrong.

I am pleased to see that VOLUNTEER Harry Lukan's incredible efforts on the Save The Dam project are to be accorded the highest priority support.

I have voiced my concern for backup of of our 5 critical function areas... am not quite sure if everybody sees it as serious a concern as I do. But I am happy that it is noted and discussed.

The most critical functions in the current LRA process are:
i) Chairperson
ii) Security Chairperson
iii) Administration Service Provider
iv) Security Service Provider
v) Estate Manager

From last night's meeting:

I have taken it upon myself to introduce a Lonehill Community OPEN Forum online concept to try and stimulate more passionate input from our community. I am testing two processes for which I would like Exec comment of approval:

1. A simple enough FREE Online Forum - http://www.quicktopic.com/26/H/GjhkFWqfNpsT
Please make a comment on this forum to test it.

2. I have a business relationship pending with a seriously U.S. funded Social Network Application... and they want to do more more business with me on my online business community projects... I saw that they were looking to provide their Enterprise Solutions FREE to Associations in the U.S. I managed to get them interested in providing a TEST project for us in the LRA.

I would like Execs to view the two docs attached and let me know if there is any serious objection to my testing this for our community. Our LRA database is kept totally confidential. I will need to sign the attached 1 page contract on behalf of the LRA.

This is the confirmation back from their Business Development Director (I have highlighted his comment re - Lonehill):

Trevor,

Thanks for your note. It appears you are involved in a wide range of interesting projects.

Our business model is primarily selling enterprise software and our focus for Spoke Associations is associations with over 1000 members. If you manage or have relationships with others who manage associations of that size, I would be interested in bringing the associations on board. The product is free, hosted by Spoke and co-branded with the associations.

The main differences (between the Enterprise solution and the free association solution) are:
1. Co-branding
2. Logo identification of members in search and referral screens
3. Direct Connection of association members (means they can contact each other directly, even if there is no prior relationship)
4. Auto-linking of association members (means they can request referrals through each other, even if there is no prior relationship)
5. Ability to view / search association membership
6. Ability to message to association members

I am attaching our standard one page agreement. If you would like to move forward with the Lonehill group, I am fine with that, although the product will most likely be picked up more in the Juvio community. All I need is the attached agreement signed and to find out what domain you want (xyz.spoke.com). After that, you will be up and running.

kind regards,

---------------------------------------------
Tod M. Sacerdoti (View Profile)
Director, Business Development
Spoke Software, Inc.
(650) 213-0640
---------------------------------------------

Regards
Trevor Nel - 705-2790

I wonder if anyone else feels like me... as a home PC user.

I just LOVE my PC... I love the Internet... I love all the new hardware and software technology that keeps unfolding to save me time and create tons of new opportunity.

But... when it CRASHES... I can spit nails..!

And... I have just exeperienced my 6th MAJOR crash in the last 3 years.

Please know one thing... I drive my PC like I drive my car. As long as it goes, everything is hunky-dory. But when it stops I am in dead trouble. I haven't got a clue what happens under the bonnet.

Thank goodness I have discovered a superb PC Support solution that now clears out my problems by REMOTE HOST. Isn't this global village thing amazing, I actually watched a Vietnamese GEEK, working through a San Diego connection, take over my machine in Johannesburg, South Africa.

What really frightened me was to watch Hao pull some complex coding apart in my registry to get me back up and running. There is just no way that the average joe, like me, could ever do that..!

However, I am pleased to say that I am a slow, but sure, learner... and each crash has taught me something new (and something different)... and today, I am on the point of a new realisation and aim.

Here's what I think... I don't want to become a GEEK like Hao... I don't want to be a PC mechanic or software programmer... I don't want to have to rely on friends or a service company to rescue me days later... I just want to switch my PC on... and IT MUST WORK LIKE IT DID THE DAY BEFORE..!

Am I being petutlant..? Am I asking for the 'holy grail' as a reliant home business user..?

I don't think so... I'm looking for a new solution... I'm on a mission... to find a way to get immediate access to a fully functional backup system within minutes of my own machine crashing.

I don't want to have to restore backups, I don't want to have to wait for someone to spend days on my machine, I don't want to waste hours on reinstalling software. Let someone else waste their time on trying to get machines back up and running.

I WANT immediate access to my system that I shut down yesterday. Surely this can now be achieved online... maybe it means working off an operating system hosted online (why can't I use Word or Powerpoint on someone elses server..?)... or a simple way to mirror my system..?

I am looking for ideas... while I take stock of what I currently use to keep me in the Web Business... see my next post.

Today... I am VERY PROUD of our country - South Africa. Waking up after a fantastic general election day yesterday, I can only marvel at the maturity of our electorate... after only 10 years of a FREE and OPEN society.

As much as I did not vote for the ruling party - the ANC - only for reasons of promoting some healthy opposition in Parliament, I am hugely IMPRESSED with the LEADERSHIP in government shown by the key leaders in this party.

As I watch the humility of ANC Spokesman, Smuts Ngonyama, discussing the HUGE majority building in numbers for their party (the votes have only just begun to be counted) I could see how this individual represented a clearly well thought-out strategy for the ANC's place in the future of South Africa. These people are master strategists and tacticians.

It can only be to the credit of all political parties and their leadership for the incredibly peaceful turnout of masses of people... on a beautifully sunny day... as if BLESSED by God.. :-)

I contrast this against the pathetic immaturity shown in other areas of the world where violence and the gun has become the only medium of debate.

I repeat... I did not vote for the ANC for a clear strategic reason of my own... but I would certainly vote for their leadership to step in and provide an example of magnanimous leadership for any strife-torn part of the world.

Having said that... I would like to see these leaders now tackling the super-sensitive issues in South Africa - HIV Aids; Poverty; Unemployment; Crime - with the aplomb that they REALLY could deliver to these issues and to steam-roller out those crooked, corrupt, incompetent individuals who are discrediting their government at provincial and regional level.

I am extremely proud of the role played by the other political parties... who stood up to be counted in pitting themselves against a monolith... one of them got my vote as encouragement to 'keep on keeping on'... bringing quality balance to our politics over the next 10 years.

I am VERY PROUD of our democracy in South Africa.

Oh, I must say... I am most proud of my daughter who, as a first-time voter, chose to value and exercise her vote... I don't know who she voted for, but I am extremely proud that she chose to VALUE her vote as highly as Nelson Mandela and his Robbin Island colleagues valued theirs.

Had some family friends over to lunch on Sunday... and the subject of our 3rd democratic elections in our 10th year of a FREE South Africa (freed from apartheid) dominated the discussion.

Of interest to me was the seeming atittude of futility displayed towards the voting. Two arguments were expressed:

1. The ANC is so strong... your vote won't make a difference one way or the other.

2. If you are going to vote, you must vote for the dominant opposition party... just to create some opposition in Parliament at least.

I think what concerned me most was the seeming lack of interest displayed in exercising one's democratic right to influence the governing of one's country.

To me, a VOTE in a democratic election should be one of the most highly valued and prized of possessions... and yet it is not held in such esteem by many intelligent people.

I just see the misery of people in non-democratic countries... people who have no vote (and no say in the governing of their country)... and I look at the dedication of a Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years in jail to secure his right to a vote in a democratic country... and I am appalled when people don't take their vote seriously.

Having said that, we have an interesting situation in South Africa... where the ANC are the dominant party by a clear mile... and who have not done a half-bad job in their first ten years... especially through their Finance Minister - Trevor Manuel - and Reserve Bank Governor - Tito Mboweni. These calibre of people have impressed me no end... as have our two Presidents in that time Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki (whatever their faults).

Like any government (or politician for that matter) the ANC haven't REALLY been able to deliver satisfactorily on things that concern most people in South Africa - HIV/Aids, Crime, Poverty, Unemployment - and I put that down to the incompetence of unwilling people in their structures. Plus they have been hamstrung by the usual lowlife, graft and corruption of officials looking after themselves, that unfortunately exists everywhere in society.

What is very clear is that there has been a miraculous redistribution of wealth to many socialites in those 10 years. This could raise any measure of sceptical comments... I respect that this may well be a result of who you know, rather than what you know. What's different anywhere else in the world..? It just makes it tougher for those no longer in the know.. ;-)

The ANC's problem for me... is that they are just too dominant in South Africa (some of their leaders have just been too good at what they have done - this IS a backhanded compliment)... and just as 'absolute power, corrupts absolutely', I know that complacency slips into people who are not kept on their toes and they just ride on the back of the monolith, sucking the lifeblood from it before they bail... and eventually bring it down.

So given the ANC's strength in this election (failing which, I would have probably voted for them this year - Trevor Manuel for President, for me)... my vote this year goes to someone who can keep the ANC on their toes... ;-)

So who is around... well there seem to be only two reasonably serious players that attract my attention as potentially providing some opposition of any kind, the Democratic Alliance and the Independent Democrats.

What interested me in our Sunday discussion is how little anyone knew of these two parties and their manifestos... including me. So that night I went to their two websites and did some research as to who was going to get my vote.

That proved enlightening and I now feel armed to cast a vote that I believe will lead to a long-term solution for a better balance of political power in the next 12 years... yes that's right, I am hoping that my vote will have an impact in the elections 8 to 12 years from today. That's how seriously I take my vote.

Maybe then Trevor Manuel will be standing for President... and he will then get my vote for the ANC.. :-)

I just love this country... South Africa.

This week I saw Mel Gibson's movie... The PASSION Of The Christ... and it left me with some interesting thoughts.

Firstly, as terrible, gory and sadistic as the floggings shown on Christ in the movie... I left with the distinct feeling that even THAT atrocity was nowhere near even a small part of the real pain that Christ must have endured in his sacrifice for humanity.

Whilst many felt sick to the core at the sight of the bloody beatings in the movie... I cannot get rid of this feeling that it did not get close to the pain that Christ really endured.

Secondly, I am amazed at the pre-movie protests focussing on the apparent 'blame' supposedly pointed to the Jews of this time. I saw no such thing. Methinks too much over-sensitivity was displayed by the protesters.

What I did see was the clear display of man's inhumanity to man (clearly they had no inkling of WHO they were dealing with) in the arrogance and vested interests of people in 'power'.

We see the supposed 'justice' dispensed by 'leaders' who should know better and who should recognise their authority over and respect for humanity... and the sadistic mentality of low-life soldiers who let power and authority go to their heads.

The sad realisation for me, is that I do not believe that anything has changed in 2000 years. The atrocities of the last century, the last decade, 9/11, Madrid, Palestine/Israel, in Iraq right now... and the memorial of the Rwanda genocide... lead me to believe that we have arrogant 'leaders' with vested interests and low-life soldiers with sadistic mentalities just as capable today of committing the atrocities done to The Christ in this movie.

That is frightening..!

It takes GOOD Men and Women to stand up against these atrocities.

It makes me ask myself: So what are you doing to make a difference in this life..?

In summary, I just have this feeling that this movie may be in danger of trivialising the true SIGNIFICANCE of the most important event in the history of Man.

As a technical period piece... it was excellent. The photography and detail have to be seen to be believed. The only piece that didn't quite fit for me was the portrayal of the devil... a little too weak for me. But maybe that was Gibson's touch of genius... depicting him as an innocuous little slimeball.... albeit this character being the underlying factor behind the inhumanity of man in this movie.

Was it a spiritual exercise... or financial exercise... for Mel Gibson..? No idea... that didn't come across in the movie. But, I can tell you that the timing of its release and pre-marketing hype was pure genius in commercial terms. A low cost, high return movie. I am impressed with Mel Gibson... the businessman..!

Oh boy... there is nothing more energy-sapping than working with mediocrity... and just plain low-life.

The last 15 to 20 days have seen me suffer the misfortune of dealing with these two categories of people... and all it does is KNOCK you back... off your course.

I have had to deal, these past few days, with mediocrity in a business venture and a serious community venture... but the crunch came on Saturday when my daughter flew home from 'varsity (her first EXCITING homecoming)... only to see the excitement spoilt by her suitcase going missing on the flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg.

In times of bombs on planes being a real threat, I knew that there had to be a trace on this case... but do you think I could get one.

Well. three hours later, and a ton of disinterest by all who should have taken responsibility... I decided to turn the airport upside down... no mean feat when it covers two international airports at Cape town and Johannesburg... ;-)

The baggage-handling manager at Johannesburg probably felt as though he was being held 'hostage' by a crazed man... once I had him I refused to allow him to leave my side until the bag was found. When I threatened... 'I'm going to stick to your backside like super-glue, wherever you go I go'... he realised that we were gearing up for a major incident with airport security... so he decided to stay with me.

Thank goodness I did this... because to my estimation, and following the documentation trail, this suitcase had been surreptitiously slipped into a place where someone could go through it at their leisure. The paperwork had indicated (fraudulently) that it had passed through their hands and the responsibility was passed onto someone else... who was about to take the fall.

What the low-lifes didn't count on was that my enforced paper-trail on this end... showed where the case was.

We got it back... with all my daughters 'precious' 'varsity work intact... plus her favorite clothes, camera and CD's which she had packed into this bag in her sweetly naive expectation that no-one would open it and remove them. (Just one box of pretty expensive perfume had disappeared - our little parting gift to her at the beginning of her year). Obviously the temptation of the x-ray screens was too much for the low-lifes to resist. Yes, I do think it is a syndicate operation between the screener of the bags and a baggage-handler or two.

With a rueful little smile I can report that these airport officials have never dealt with anyone displaying the PASSION I showed for getting that bag back. I had every manager and director lined up, woken up, on stand-by at their homes, to spend a sleepless night with me until the bag was found.

And herein lies the missing link in this world, the most precious commodity I know... people with PASSION.

All the money in the world can't buy this missing ingredient in people... and our society suffers because it is missing.

I am speed-reading a U.K. friend's latest business publication - just rushed to me - all to do with start-up business ventures, and he writes: 'The best people are motivated by enthusiasm, passion, purpose - by a mission.'

I add to that comment with this... give me a person with PASSION, Purpose, Enthusiasm and Energy... and I'll show you a person who can change the world.