Hey there, hi there and hello there to one and all mothers!!! Can't thank all the mothers, whether grand or the aunt style, for all that you've done for me over the years to help me get where I am today:)
Hanging out at the duck the last few weeks has been a whirlwind, but amazingly exciting as we just finished up our annual Employee Appreciation Week celebration. It's pretty impressive to see a company this big take so much time to recognize our employees, well, mostly with food I suppose! I was on the Executive EAW committee this year and got to help plan the event and volunteer throughout the week. The powers that be even asked me to ride around with our CEO, President and Executive VP and help announce our tenured employees at our various locations ... guess all those years as the voice of the Mustangs is helping to payoff now;)
Friday morning was the big finale at the CivicCenter where all of our employees and some of our associates gathered together for a rock party, the Aflac Family Values Tour where I had the pleasure of being a correspondent in the crowd to give away some money. A few weeks ago I even had the chance to be Monty Hall, the 70s game show host of Let's Make a Deal ... and yes, that suit is polyester! Gotta love Aflac:)
I finished up my final presentations a couple weeks ago for my Spring courses, of which I think Project Management was one of my favorite of my time thus far. That leaves me with only two classes left this summer to start in about a week, Cost Accounting and Leading People/Organizations. Crazy to think about how fast that time went at Emory, o, and where all those miles on the Honda went! I'm thinking this Fall may bring a new educational adventure at Columbus State University in the Masters of Servant Leadership program. A big focus on coaching and organizational development makes me pretty excited about the possibilities.
Easter back home was one great time as well, thanks mom/Dan for the tickets! Hadn't been back home in about four months, so it was good to go back to see all the family and friends. Four Easter celebrations in three days was a bit much, but so worth it! Even had a chance to meet with th old MMU SIFE team and friends at Fat Wally's for some pool action. Won't be back until the 4th of July, but a bachelor party will be awaiting:) And o yes, Jenny caught her first fish ... wasn't quite ready to take it off the line though!
The weekend after Easter, Jenny and I with a bunch of friends all went up to Gatlinberg, TN for a camping trip at the Yogi Bear campsite, yes, the Yogi Bear:) Saturday we all got up early for some campside breakfast and a trek into town for some adventure on the white water rapids of the Smokies. 
I had only been white water rafting once before, but this trip was pretty awesome hitting some class III/IV rapids whilst floating down the cold rapids. Then we all went zip lining before spending the rest of the trip by the campfire eating mallows and hot dogs, great experience indeed!
The volunteer front has been pretty exciting as well. I had a great chance to speak to the PTA Presidents and Principals about how to gain and retain volunteers, which was a great public speaking experience that has sparked my interest to figure out how to get more gigs like that, more to come:) Back in April, we had a Live United Youth Camp reunion with about ten of the students back at the Habitat for Humanity Rennovation Station where we helped organize and move around materials for the store. 
Even better was the success story of one of the campers, Chariena. She came to the event that Saturday with a car full of clothes that she had collected during a clothing drive at school/church to donate to the Open Door Community House. Still working with the United Way staff and volunteers to try and institute a new Stuff the Bus campaign to gather school supplies for those students in need ... more to come, but could be a great good time for the city and UW. Still trying to figure out how to raise some money for the Literacy Alliance and have a couple calls out to some local CEOs to see if we can get some local sponsorships, fingers crossed!
Don't know if I could fit more into the month, but this one has already started off with a bang and later tonight Jenny, some friends and myself are going to go kick it old school with an NBA playoff game where my Bulls take on the Atlanta Hawks, should be some good times! Hope everyone finishes up a great Mother's Day and has a wonderful week!Alwayz,
nate
It's been a great last month indeed both at work and at home. The new gig at Aflac is quite the daunting task, just learning the new responsibilities, but the people make it fun indeed! Last week I had 20 meetings, and that was just four days' worth ... I've gotten tricky with it now though, scheduling 1v1 meetings with myself just to get the work done:) It's kind of fun to learn about the aspirations of my new teams, plus have some fun using a pirate sword to cut a donut in half:) I have always had a good bit of confidence in my abilities, but any new adventure always test that. Especially when those reporting to you have had so much more experience, but it's such an amazing feeling to be able to sit down with them and learn that you do add value, as everyone can!
The end to the MBA is just right around the corner and the countdown has begun. Two presentations, one debate and half a final exam left in this semester, followed by my final two courses this summer. Then what to do with all that time? So I went and spoke with the President at CSU to get some insight last week. He encouraged me to look at some adjunct faculty work, which would be really fun maybe a night a week, so we'll see. Another option would be to go get a Masters in Servant Leadership at CSU, which would be so fun to learn about ... or, I guess I could take some time off to chill:)
The volunteer front is continuing to chug along with a great Live United Youth Camp volunteer reunion coming this weekend ... can't wait to see the students again! I was asked to help out with the United Way strategery committee as well, so that work will start up over the lunch hour here in the next few weeks as we strive to reach out more in the community to make a difference. One way we want to do that is with a Stuff the Bus campaign to provide students in need with much needed school supplies, hope we can get that one off the ground! Had a fun charity event a few weeks ago as well with the Relay for Life Softball Tourney ... where yes, we actually won a game this year!
This weekend has been great too, even though Jenny is back home, Caden and I had a blast! Listened to some great live music downtown at the Frogtown Hollow Jam festival, had some fun bike rides, lots of yard work which resulted in getting absolutely roasted and just chillin' with the pooch.
Welp, guess I will start with some good news on the job front at the Duck. I recently was given the opportunity to interview for a promotion to Manager of the PIC team and by golly gee willickers it worked out. With a team of about twenty folks now, I get to continue with some of the tasks I had on the future state team, but now I also get to work with some great folks on our risk team that deal with state Departments of Insurance and our current state teamthatkeeps our systems running smoothly. 
It has meant quite a few more meetings, but also a great opportunity to get involved in more change throughout the division. Last week I decided to meet with everyone individually to get their thoughts on what they thought was going good and not so good on the team, in addition to what we can do to have some more fun. It was probably ten of the best hours I've had lately tojust sit down and chat with the team ... they really make it fun to come into work every day:) I also had a pretty great opportunity to present to our next CFO about all that we have going on with the PIC team ... great good fun!
Last month was also the 2nd annual Live United Youth Camp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLIAwc3_kUI) where another group of amazing students learned about homelessness, poverty and how to make a difference in our community. Check out the video for a great bit of inspiration. Also, we had our United Way Board of Directors strategery session this past week. It was pretty amazing to sit with all of the local community/business leaders to talk about the future of the organization and what we need to do to get there.
February 15th also marked our 6th Annual Literacy Alliance Trivia Bee, our annual FUNdraiser where the community came together for some wonderful times. We raised a lot of money, but more importantly, we raised awareness of what our organization is all about and how we help the community. We're in the midst of some great partnership chats with the library as we explore how we can be mutually beneficial for each group, that I think will truly help move our organization forward. O yes, then Jenny and I had a great opportunity to get all dressed up for a schwanky event and a great cause at the American Cancer Society's Crystal Ball. We had a pretty good time, but I think Jenny might have had a better time as the winning bidder of a autographed Brad Paisley guitar ... wow, all for a great cause right!?
Emory has taken up a good bit of time as well, but that light at the end of the tunnel keeps creeping closer and closer to the end! I had a great opportunity though to participate in the Washington Campus course in DC a couple of weeks ago. It was a one week crash course dealing with politics in business in our nation's capitol. I arrived a couple of days early to take in the Smithsonian Museums, the amazing Holocaust Museum, the various monuments and memorials that make DC a great place to visit. 
Throughout the week, we heard from various politicians including our GA State Senator Johnny Isakson, visited the Senate gallery to hear senators discuss our budget crisis and even had the chance to sit in the chambers of the Supreme Courthouse. It was a pretty amazing experience that I was able to share with a bunch of classmates, including a few that became some fun roommates ... even called dibs on the top bunk! I also just finished up with one of my best Emory experiences in the Leadership Academy. We had some great lessons about how to take a more personal look at how we interact with each other and ourselves. It's helped me to slow down a bit and start to look more at how to build upon my leadership abilities, good times indeed.
I probably should start off by saying, Go Packers!!! I wasn't able to say hello to everyone on the blog last week because it was at about this tie a week ago that my buddy Eddie and I were sitting in section 450 at Super Bowl XLV (by the way, Roman numerals are awesome!!!) The weekend started off Friday afternoon on what Garmin said would be an 11 hour drive putting us in Flower Mound, Texas at midnight ... little did we know that Mother Nature would stop us an hour outside of Dallas for 4.5 hours of waiting for trucks stuck in the ice.Two movies later and after a bit of a drive, we arrived at our buddies Blake/Jessica's house at 5:30am. We only needed a few hours of sleep before we headed off to wait in line for the NFL experience with cheesehead in tote.O yeah, did I mention we still did not have any tickets ... still had all of our fingers crossed and toes:) It was like a mini-combine at the NFL experience, so we did our broad jump, vertical jump, shuttle run and then we tested our football skills running some routes.
O yes, then I stepped up and nailed a 40 yard field goal ... and as you can see, it was probably good from about 50 ... I'm just sayin', watch out Crosby:) It brought me back to the good ol' days.
So, we did some shots of Splemonade (Sprite + Lemonade) and made our way to Jerry's House, North Texas Stadium, for Super Bowl Sunday. $85 parking was the cheapest we could find, only about a mile outside of the stadium though wasn't too bad. Then it was off to Cici's Pizza for our tailgate party, yes, Cici's Pizza had their $5 buffet all day ... tastylicious:)After walking around the stadium, taking pictures and hanging out with 100,000 of our closest Packer/Steeler fans it was time to pick up our ticket and make our way into the stadium. When the security man scanned my ticket, goosebumps up and down the arms!! Then it was into the stadium for a walk about to take it all in, including the ridiculously huge $40M HDTV. 
Eddie and I finally settled into our Steeler side seats where I was the only one with a cheesehead, but it didn't matter after that first quarter. A great first half led to an amazing halftime performance by the Black Eyed Peas. Edge of your seat football was brought to a close by a big defensive stand and my voice was gone by the end of the game to celebrate the Packers first Super Bowl victory in 14 years ... and I was there ... wow:) O yes, Eddie was a bit sad his Steelers didn't win, but had good times anyways!!!
Itell you what, that was one amazing experience that I will not soon forget!!! Go Pack Go.
Should be a fantcularly great week with a couple much-anticipated not-for-profit activities. First is happening Tuesday night with the Literacy Alliance's Trivia Bee FUNdraiser. Then, after our thank you celebration Thursday night, I will be working with United Way to put on our 2nd Live United Youth Camp. The lessons the students and volunteers will undoubtedly learn will change lives ... I think, forever.
Had anamazing trip back home for the Christmas holidays to visit with family and friends. Our 15 hour drive with the pooch wasa great time followed by about five Christmas celebrations in the matter of a week and a half. Time was spent up in Manchester, Cedar Rapids, Shueyville andeverywhere in between. Jenny, Caden and I put on quite a few miles and even had a great photo shoot with Jenny's cousin Katie ... pretty good engagement photos I would say in the snow:) We received some great gifts, but even better times were spent just chilling with family and the pooches.
When we droveback to Georgia, it was right back in the grind at Aflac. So much for a slow start to the new year, it has been probably the busiest time I've had thus far with the Duck. Taking on some new responsibilities has opened up some great doors for growth and learning. The team has really stepped up over the last months and continues to drive projects and create great relationships throughout the company. I'm fairly positive I had 29 meetings last week and sometimes I wonder how I get anything done ... then I realize the team's got my back:)
The volunteer front has been pretty exciting as well over the last month. We had our first quarterly board meeting for the Literacy Alliance couple weeks ago and invited in some new members to the board. We have a lot of opportunity to improve/grow this year and I can't wait to work with a great team to pull off our Trivia Bee this year, hope you can check it out 2/15 at CSU! Later that week it was off to the United Way board meeting where we're well on our way to meet our goal for the year with the big announcement coming in a few weeks. Plus, we have our Live United Youth Camp coming up February 17-19th. I am pumped as we have 14 students this year for a great lineup to teach them about poverty, homelessness and giving back to their community ... should be great good fun:)
Best volunteer gig over the last month though wasmy 5th trip down to New Orleans for some hurricane relief action with about 12 friends. It was a fantacular time as we arrived Thursday of MLK Jr. Weekend to our cozy bunkhouse outside the French Quarter. We volunteered Friday in the classroom at McDonough 42 Charter School and helped tutor some math and then on Saturday/Monday we helped to clean up and revamp a flower garden that needed quite a bit of TLC. It was a great service trip, but it wasn't just about giving back, it was about having fun too:) Instead of going too much into it, figured I would just let you check it out (
School has been going pretty darn good too with only five classes left to go and partway started on two of those five. I had a Networks & Organizations class in Dec/Jan and now have a class in Customer Relationship Management and maybe my most exciting one thus far in Project Management. In addition to all that learning at Emory, I'm going with about 30 classmates to Washington DC in March for a course in Politics & Business ... should be fun!
The past couple weeks of new responsibilities at work have taken me away from my ability to have good 1v1 time with the team, so hopefully I can pick that up again after the New Year. Some of the new projects I'm getting some exposure on are pretty fun, so we'll see how everything shakes down. I love this time of year at work though because we get to look back on everything that we've done, sit back, relax (maybe for 15 minutes) and celebrate all the success.Had a great Leading Change seminar this week and a fun division wide luncheon. In addition to the fun, our team sponsored the 3rd annual PIC team canned food drive where we exceeded our 550 can total last year and nearly hit 800 with 799 cans accounting for 750 pounds of food for a local shelter ... made us feel pretty darn good:) 
Had some fun volunteer action over the last couple of weeks with a half day YP board retreat to chat about our 2011 plans. Also had our nice United Way 2010 volunteer committee wrap up with some tasty soup and great discussion about our 2011 Live United Youth Camp, which is going to be quite exciting! Then, the Literacy Alliance is having our budget wrap up and planning for all our 2011 activities, on a slim budget of course. Sounds like there is a lot of not for profit planning going on, now it's time for the fun part ... executing the plan!!
We've had lots of parties with friends over the last couple of weeks, ending in one amazing Dirty Chinese Elephant gift exchange with the SIFE crew. After some Networks & Organization class up at Emory, I met up with the guys for a weekend in the wilderness (as seen in the pictures this week). After picking up some double cheeseburgers, ya ... really hoofin' it you could say, I hiked with some pals into the night for a sleepover in the woods. A wonderful fire and great guy time was had by all nine of us. This morning brought about a seven mile hike back to reality and the comforts of indoor plumbing;)
Aflac hasn't been too crazy as the year winds down, just finishing up the year's projects and planning for 2011 is getting finalized. Had good times out with a couple of our customers as we work with a vendor to improve our online services. It was fun to sit down with all the team members this week for some 1v1 goal action. We finished out the week at Haleigh's house for our annual Dirty Santa party where the most popular item came from the Klein residence, and yes, it was an Iowa Hawkeye Snuggie, passed three times:) What a great team and good times had as usual.
Pretty darn good week at school too with a final presentation for our Integrated Marketing Communication class, which went swimmingly. Then Wednesday brought our final in-class case negotiation to wrap up the semester. Only six more classes to go and I have a whole week and a half break before my next one starts, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself:) Then Thursday, the Blue Steel Kickball team hoisted another Co-ed Kickball championship trophy with a 3-1 win ... ya, it was amazing!
We had a couple more parties that wrapped up the weekend including one at Runci's for the soccer team. Then Saturday morning, before the Aflac Christmas party, we flipped some flap jacks for a fundraiser at the Easter Seals organization. I tell you what, that is one organization that truly knows how to make their volunteers feel welcome ... plus there was some tasty breakfast action indeed. 
The night brought all the friends together for a great eve at the Aflac Christmas Prom ... yes, that is a burgundy suit and Jenny all dresed up as, welp, an elf I suppose.
A great week ahead with the Wizard of Oz, Fantasy in Lights and a visit from one of Jenny's friends all on the docket. Plus, we finished all Christmas shopping and the Christmas card poem today ... so, an amazingly productive weekend indeed. Hope you all have a fantacular week ahead.