Hey there, hi there and hello there to one and all. Yes indeed, it is the last day of May already and that means that I am now a first time homeowner (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZDErUyIGY)!
This week was pretty hectic with only four days but five days worth of work. We are in the midst of business planning season and this is the time of year that when we get tasks, the deadline is now yesterday:) I love working under pressure and having lots of things going on, but I think that some of these things could be handed out as projects prior to the 24 hour turnaround that everyone expects. O well, life does go on and we do git ir done! We also had the internal kickoff meeting for our Aflac social forum site that I am going to be the community manager for. Still haven't quite figured out what that is all going to entail, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be as fancy as this weekly blog ... ok, it probably will:)I turned in the final draft of the Miss Georgia program book on Friday morning, what a relief! I think this will be my final act on this board as I'm trying to determine what I'm really passionate about and have time for. In doing that, I also determined that my time will be better spent not with the Young Professionals group as well. There are just too many good things going on in this community and with the potential of grad school in the fall, I need to start learning to say no:)
Speaking of grad school, Saturday I put the final touch on my application to Emory's Evening MBA program application. I drove up to the amazingly gorgeous campus tucked away in Atlanta for my interview with an Emory MBA alum. I think it went great, we connected very well and although I don't have the amount of years that many of the applicants probably have, I think I have some great experiences in and outside of work. I've been wanting to get into this program now for two years and as the #2 Evening MBA program in the entire US, it'd make me pretty elated if I got in ... heck, I'd even do a mid-air heel click:) So, guess we'll see how well they thought it went in a few weeks.
What could be more exciting than that you say ... how about closing on my first house, wow! If you get the chance to watch the video above, that is the deal that I landed about a month ago which was made official on Friday. I met some of my neighbors, Jim and Esther as well as Connie, our association president. I chatted with Jim and Esther for about an hour and a half on Friday night and they filled me in on all of the scoop about the neighborhood and gave me some tips on how to fix up the place including a tour of their home and gorgeous backyard. There is a lot of TLC needed with the home including all new paint and flooring that goes in this week, but with Jenny moving down in about a week, we'll have part of her family and some of mine there to help out:) Don't worry, I've already started the to-do list so there will be plenty to do;)It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend where I was able to take advantage of some golf with the boys, laying out by the pool and a good ol' car wash and wax back in Waverly Hall for my last weekend at the pad. Next week I will be blogging from 605 Sonoma Court - Columbus, GA 31909!
Hope everyone has a fabulous beginning to June and Jenny, I hope all of your packing goes well and that you have great times with your friends and family ... can't wait to have you down here:)
Alwayz,
Nate
O yes, a happy birthday is in order for Mar Joan and happy anniversary to Tim/Mindy as well.
Also, congrats to my sister as she found out she really does get to graduate on Saturday! I can't wait to be home for the Memorial Day weekend to watch Steph walk across the stage. Wow, I feel old because now I can say, "I remember back in the day when I graduated from college!" 
Aflac's Got Talent to SIFE Nationals, the weeks just keep getting better. First off I just want to say a big happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, aunts and grandmothers out there ... thank you so much for always being there. I hope you all were able to celebrate in a fun and family-filled kind of way. It was Employee Appreciation Week at Aflac, which is our annual celebration from management to employees to let them know how much they mean to us and our customers. Festivities were planned throughout the week including every employee receiving a sweet lawn chair, ice cream for the department and many other snacks. Tuesday was Thank You day where I put together a pretty sweet video of all of our management just saying thank you that we posted on our intranet. Wednesday we were supposed to have some crazy events, but 5 o'clock rolled around without many festivities so myself and a couple ladies threw together some great ideas to make Thirsty Thursday even better. We got there early Thursday morning to decorate the halls, set up the music and the games ... it was a hit! The Policy Service employees really liked the games, the free drinks and camaraderie with the thrown-together event, not bad for an hour worth of planning:) 
I never thought I would be diving into so much analytics with this program, but it was basically a college course in statistical analysis ... which was a good refresher for me. Class took up most of the week, but my boss-man also pulled me out to be a part of the 2010 planning sessions for about a day and a half. Wednesday we laid the groundwork for Employee Appreciation Week (EAW which is this week, wahoo) as well as our agenda for Thursday. It was off to the Double Tree on Thursday for our all-day planning for 2010. We talked about what our department will look like over the next year as well as various leadership certifications that we'll be going through. Naturally, I've been tasked with writing up the 2010 plan to present to our management ... nothing like putting together a tactical action plan:) I'm actually looking forward to it, good thing I paid attention during that Professional Writing class back in college! EAW is a week-long celebration of our employees with free ice cream, thank you cards, gifts, prizes, food and a big celebration on Friday down at the Civic Center. Steven and I are tweaking our duet for Aflac's Got Talent since we made it to the final six. I don't think it crossed my mind until this weekend, but we'll be singing in front of over 4,000 people ... 
which is ridiculously awesome! It should be a pretty fun week indeed.I've been in charge of the Miss Georgia Pageant program book for the last couple of years, and on Monday I presented our final statistics to the rest of the Trustees. Our ad sales went from $17,000 last year to over $41,000, a $24,000 increase in just one year! I wish I was on commission, but I tell you what ... that's a pretty good feeling to know the kind of impact I had on that part of the organization. Wednesday I had another great volunteer night when I went over to help out the CSU SIFE team with their final recruitment effort for the year. They took 5 students up to Atlanta for Regionals just a month ago, and after Wednesday night, the CSU SIFE team had 16 members from all grades and many majors. Even better than that, a girl I worked with since she was the President, Crystal, landed a job with a SIFE sponsor company because of her involvement over the last year. 
Even thought it's been a rough two years trying to get this team up and going, it's stories like that which keep me going to give back to their team;)By far the best part of the week though was Saturday at the 1st Annual Columbus Heroes Read program. I've been a part of hundreds of volunteer activities, but this core volunteer crew from the Literacy Alliance is one of the best, if not the best, group I have been a part of. As the Program Chair, I was asked by one of our committee members in February if we could participate in the Free Comic Book day that happens the first Saturday each May. 
As a committee we decided we were going to kick it up a notch and make an amazing event, which we did. It was one of those projects that when I looked down at the task list, I only saw my name on one thing, to organize volunteers for the event. Every other task was quickly taken on by the rest of the committee, and everyone came through! We invited real heroes from our community, including military personnel with their Stryker vehicle, EMS in an ambulance, fire fighters with their truck and the Columbus Police Department. We secured a TV sponsor in WRBL and they ran free ads for us over the last couple of weeks. Our event was in the paper three times in the last four days and even on the radio. 
As of Friday I had about 18 volunteers signed up to help, so I gave each of them something to do ... but, then Saturday came and to my surprise, we had about 40 volunteers lined up to help! It was amazing to see how excited the military folks, board members and even some of the SIFErs were to help inspire kids to read. So, fifteen minutes before the event I put on my cape to turn into Super Nate and corralled the crew for final instructions. Everyone was so excited, and I tell you what ... we needed all the excitement from the volunteers we could get because the kids were lined up right at 11am. We registered every child, gave them at least two free comic books and set up stations for story telling as well as drawing stations where kids learned from local teachers how to draw their own super hero. 
One child even chose to draw me, or I guess it was my alter-ego, Super Nate:) The kids had an absolute blast and the volunteers thoroughly enjoyed their time. More than 360 people attended the event and we handed comic books out to 218 kids from 3 years old to 11th grade and they represented more than 75 learning institutions throughout the area! We couldn't have asked for a better first year event and everyone, including the library director, is talking about we can make it bigger and better for next year. Thank you to everyone who either joined us for the fun or helped make it happen, it was a hit!