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Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?

Social Media 2020: Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010

Social Media 2020: Can You Make Money by Blogging

15 Thursday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Branding, Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Public Relations, Random, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations

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Bloggers, Blogging, Blogs, New Business World, Public Image, Publicity, Social Media, Social Networking

No.

Social Media 2020: Did Women Legitimize the Social Media?

14 Wednesday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Information Technology, Lessons of Life, Random, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, Women

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Facebook, Internet, LinkedIn, New Business World, Re-Imagine!, Rotarians, Rotary, Social Media, Social Networking, Tom Peters, Twitter, Women

Here’s a question for you to ponder.

Would Social Interactive Media (SIM) be where it is today if women hadn’t put their stamp of approval by becoming active users?

: Did Women make Social Media acceptable to the World?

I’m not talking about numbers, because 60% of Facebook users are women, so it’s obvious that they have had an important impact in the volume of users, but I’m talking about legitimizing it for everyone else. I don’t want to get into stereotyping, but as George Clooney’s character in Up In the Air said, “It’s faster.”

Consider that, with the exception of having sex, most men need a reason for becoming involved in an activity. Men don’t shopping; they go to a store to purchase. A man may say that he plays golf just for the enjoyment of the game, but don’t let anyone kid you, a man’s golf score can make or break his day.

Women, by contrast, don’t need to have a reason to go to the store or play golf. They can find pleasure in just doing the activity. For a woman, life doesn’t need justification to be enjoyed.

Now look at the Social Media arena. I often find that men are the most phobic when it comes to participating in Social Media. They mistrust and fear it. Often the comment is, “I just don’t understand what the purpose is!” And there lies the stereotyped gender difference. Men need a reason (and they tend to leave their participles dangling.)

Women don’t need a reason. The format of sharing information and ideas is in their comfort zone and that’s all they need. Women are accustomed to be judged by others, so they don’t fear being judged online. Women are also better self-monitors, so they know how to control their emotions when they post and tweet.

I believe that it was the acceptance of Social Media by women that pushed it into the mainstream. Now, men are just trying to keep up…and trying to find a justification, a ‘reason’, to explain why participation in Social Media is important….hmmm…how’s that working out for us, guys?

Other Blogs on Social Media and Public Relations

Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?

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(Read Part One of this series – Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?)

Social Media 2020: Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010

13 Tuesday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Human Resources, Information Technology, Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations, Tom Peters

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Book, Facebook, HR, LinkedIn, Management Practices, New Business World, Public Image, Publicity, Social Media, Social Networking, Tom Peters, Twitter

A lot has changed in the last nine years in regard to the world of Public Relations. In Part One I compare the fable presented in the Late 1990’s book, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson to the reaction towards today’s new world of Social Media. In Part Two of this series I compare how we looked at Public Relations in 2001 versus how we look at it today.

Paul Kiser

Public Relations 2001: The Power of Third-Party Media

In 2001, Public Relations was more distinct. A person could easily identify the roles and responsibilities. Publicity was defined as earning the attention of third-party media of an organization through free media channels. Promotion described the use of paid third-party media advertising (newspaper, radio, TV, phone book, mail, etc.) to gain public attention. It was easier to define Public Relations in 2001 because it consisted of three distinct roles: 1) The organization seeking publicity/promotion, 2) the third-party media, and 3) the target audience.

Of the three roles, the third-party media was considered a deity. The goal of PR professionals (and non-professionals) was to gain favorable attention of those key people in the third-party media so that they would talk about you to their audience. You could buy your way into the hearts and minds of the media, but the goal was to seduce the media and gain their favor. Journalists, newspaper editors, television news directors, and other media professionals had the power to make or break the public image of company and/or influence customers purchasing habits. The people in the media were the gatekeepers to the public.

In 2001, the Internet was not new, but it was still primarily a place of email and websites. PR professionals were promoting websites as another tool in their arsenal to reach the public, but many organizations still had their doubts about the importance of how a website could increase their business. A few could see beyond the existing uses of the Internet. Some of those gifted few might have imagined a world where junk mail and the yellow pages would become obsolete, but the idea of masses of people in continuous connection to each other was hard to fathom by almost everyone, especially PR professionals.

The New Cheese: The Individual

Tom Peters - author of Re-Imagine! New Business Excellence in a Disruptive World

One person who saw something brewing in the early part of the new millennium was Tom Peters. In his 2003 book, Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, he devoted a chapter to Individual Branding. He suggested a future where the skills and experience of the individual would be key to ‘New Business’. A world where a person isn’t swallowed up as a commodity in the belly of a corporation, but rather as an independent professional that companies would compete to have on their team.

(Go to Tom Peters Re-Imagine! website)

In 2003, it seemed hard to imagine how an individual could become relevant in a business world that often captured employees and then made them sign non-disclosure, non-compete, we-own-you agreements. The ability for someone to market themselves was severely restricted, if not, banned outright by the corporation that made no promises of job security, but demanded total loyalty.

Perhaps Peters could see that the blogging sites of 2001-03 were signaling a new age of individualism; perhaps there were trends in place that Peters could project in the future; or perhaps (and this is my theory) that Peters has the ability to travel in time; but with the development and massive growth of Social Interactive Media in the last five years, Peters accurately predicted a new world of branding of the individual that is now a reality.

The Individual Trumps False Corporate and Media Gods

The rapid growth of Facebook and Twitter are two of the significant factors that changed the world of Public Relations. Facebook made Social Media acceptable to millions. Social Media allowed an individual to connect with hundreds of other people without the approval or denial of a third-party media deity. Ideas, opinions, and knowledge were now being shared and it all bypassed the traditional gatekeepers. It is hard to say what was the critical mass flash point that pushed Social Media into the mainstream, but once Facebook exceeded 100 million users there was no doubt that the Age of the Individual had dawned.

Twitter’s contribution to the age of the individual was two-fold. The 140 character limitation for Twitter messages created a need to link to blogs, articles, and websites to fully convey new information and ideas; therefore, the practice of embedding links into a Tweet became commonplace. That spurred a new connectivity of an individual’s ideas and opinions to the rest of the world. Prior to Twitter, a blog was primarily found via a Google search, but a Tweet brought more attention to the general public without relying on a deliberate search, AND, the Tweet put new information out to an audience that was already interested in the topic.

The second impact of Twitter was a continuous flow of connectivity. As a Social Media tool it put people in touch with each other 24/7/365. While other Social Media tools could make a similar claim, Twitter encouraged users to stay connected and placed a priority on real-time interaction. This was a pace of communication that corporations, with layers of control and approval, were not equipped to handle. The corporate practice of running every statement or concept by a Public Relations professional before it goes public was not possible in the world of real-time information. Twitter was designed for communication of individuals, not corporations, which is exactly the way users wanted it.

A Different Flavor of Cheese

Nobody will deny that Public Relations is still not a viable function in today’s world, but the old concept of the worship of third-party media like newspapers has been lost. Discussing the Internet and Social Media when a newspaper professional is in the room is like discussing a new girlfriend in front of someone who used to date her and got dumped. Public Relations is no longer an effort to make the best possible impression with the public as it is about being genuine. Users of Social Media can spot a fake PR effort and anything that smacks of a corporate sell job is rejected…permanently.

To survive in a world of ‘Social Media Relations,’ corporations no longer can hide behind the perfect façade of Public Relations. A business will be judged by the sum of its individuals and that means less control and manipulation of its employees. The successful company will unshackle its people to dazzle its customers with their expertise of the business, and their competitors will tremble in fear. It’s a new world, but not for those who don’t adapt and adopt.

Tom Peters world of New Business is here and Public Relations can no longer hide behind the curtain in New Oz.

Other Blogs on Social Media and Public Relations

Who uses Facebook, Twitter, MySpace & LinkedIn?

Next — Social Media 2020: Public Relations 2001 vs Social Media Relations 2010

Social Media 2020: Who Moved My Public Relations?

12 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Information Technology, Management Practices, Public Relations, Random, Rotary, Social Interactive Media (SIM), Social Media Relations

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Blackberry, Newspapers, Promotion, Publicity, Spencer Johnson, The Publicity Handbook, Who Moved My Cheese

Paul Kiser - CEO of Enterprise Technologies, inc.

Twelve years ago the book, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson was published. It gave us fable about mice and men and how each handles change. In the book Johnson’s mice discover the cheese is all gone and immediately begin to search for a new supply of cheese; however, the when the humans discover the cheese is gone they assume someone has moved it and become angry because they saw themselves as victims of change.

I think we can apply this lesson to the field of Public Relations. Some are handling the massive changes in the field with acceptance and are adapting to the new paradigm, but some are taking a more human approach and seeing themselves as victims.

The new social media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging are seen by some as evil, corrupt, and useless. Some business people feel it is unfair that people are making purchasing decisions from information they glean off the free social media sites when they are paying for advertisements to influence them. Some in the traditional media (newspapers, commercial TV, radio, etc.) may feel it is unfair that their sources of revenue are abandoning them for inexpensive promotional tools on the Internet. It’s all soooo unfair.

Someone moved Public Relations and it’s just not right!

I mention this because a few weeks ago a friend let me borrow a book called The Publicity Handbook by David R. Yale and Andrew J. Carothers. It was published by McGraw-Hill in May of 2001. In the nine years since it was published the field of Public Relations was moved. What we knew and understood about communication and media in 2001 has little to do with the world of communications and media of 2010, and the speed of change seems to be accelerating. Consider just a few of the changes since 2001:

Newspaper Circulation: Down 21% from 2001 (55.6 M) to 2009 (44.0 M) and newspapers lost over 10% in 2009 alone.
Newspapers Closed: 105…in the first seven months of 2009.
Social Media Sites: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. all started after 2001.
Blackberry Smart Phones: 2002

So what can a book on publicity have to say that has any value in today’s environment?

Quite a bit. The Publicity Handbook is a good foundation for anyone who is trying to learn the basics of the field of publicity and I it is a book I would recommend; however, for me, it gives a measure of how much has changed in the past nine years.

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2010 Council on Legislation, Code of Policies, Council on Legislation, Manual of Procedure, Ray Klinginsmith, RI Constitution, Rotary Council on Legislation

Rotary@105: What Kind of Animal is RI?

12 Monday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Management Practices, Membership Retention, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!, Rotary, Rotary@105

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Paul Kiser - Rotary District 5190 Public Relations Chair - RC of Reno Sunrise, NV

by Paul Kiser

When considering the care and feeding of any beast one must first decide what kind of beast you have, and that is not an easy task when examining the beast known as Rotary International (RI). I’ve been thinking about this because in two weeks RI will hold the 2010 session of the Council on Legislation (CoL). This meeting is charged with approving new policies and policy changes that will determine what RI will be, or not be, for the next three years.

If you don’t understand what I’m talking about…you are not alone and some background might be helpful.

Rotary International is a separate and distinct organization. We, as Rotarians, do not belong to Rotary International. The individual Rotary Club is a member of Rotary International, but the club members are not. It’s a fine line, but a very important one. Our clubs have a voice in RI, but individual members do not.

RI is governed by the Manual of Procedure (MoP), the Rotary Code of Policies, and the RI Constitution. The Council on Legislation decides changes, deletions, and additions to the governing documents. This happens once every three years…yes, I said once every three years. After the Council on Legislation meets during the last week of this month (April 2010) it will not reconvene until 2013.

The Rotary Theme Logo for 2009-10

Individual members cannot propose changes to the Council on Legislation (because they are not members of RI), so for a Rotarian to propose a change to RI policies and procedures she or he must get his or her Club to do it. Once a Club has decided to propose a change to the Council on Legislation they must:

Propose the change almost two years prior to the Council of Legislation (2008 deadline for 2010 CoL)
Have that proposal approved by the majority of clubs in the District
Gain the approval of the Council Services (Administrative Staff at RI) that the proposed legislation is legitimate

The Council on Legislation only sees the proposed legislation that survives all of these hurdles and many proposed changes die in RI’s Council Services review process.

It is noteworthy that all things RI are handled by two groups of people. District Governors (past and present) consist of one group. They serve in various capacities in governing RI, including serving as District Representative to the Council on Legislation.

The second group is almost invisible to the rank and file of Rotary. That group is the administrative staff at RI. The RI staff is governed by the MoP, Code of Policies, and the RI Constitution; however, they also serve as the gatekeeper, and in the case of the Council on Legislation, the Council Services division has significant power to allow or deny legislation to be presented to the CoL.

Change in RI is controlled by who is allowed to make the decisions and by the drawn-out approval process. Part of the challenges we face in making Rotary relevant for 2010 and beyond is the fact that our organization is not structured to allow changes to be done quickly, or in some cases, at all. Our RI beast is governed by policies and procedures that, for the most part:

can only be changed once every three years
proposed changes must be submitted in two years in advance
proposed changes must be filtered through the District Governors who may not support the change

Whether intentional or not, this process is designed to be resistant to change. When it comes to adapting to a new environment the RI beast is a dinosaur in a world that changes in the time it takes to post a Tweet. As we attempt to make Rotary relevant to the professionals in today’s world we must find a more representative and responsive method for making meaningful changes.

Rotary International’s President Elect, Ray Klinginsmith, tells us it is time we found some new traditions and this year’s RI Theme is “The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands.” The sentiments seems to reflect that it is time for Rotarians to step up and Re-Imagine our organization…but we now need to clear out those roadblocks that seek to keep Rotary from becoming all it can be.

Other Rotary Related Blogs

Leash Your Accountant Now!

09 Friday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Management Practices, Passionate People, Public Relations, Re-Imagine!

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Accountants, Evil, Executive Management, Star Trek, Value-added

Paul Kiser - CEO of Enterprise Technologies, inc.

Accountants are evil. They are generally nice people…outside the company walls, but that changes once they walk into an office. Once in their natural environment an accountant becomes a ravenous predator that feeds on nickels and dimes. Like any beast they need to be caged and carefully watched.

The problem with accountants as business managers is simple. They hate the customer. Customers are messy, demanding, fickle, illogical, expensive, unreliable, and in general, not conducive to an orderly stream of revenue. For accountants the world breaks down to revenue and expenses. Everything that is ‘business’ falls into these two categories. For accountants business is about increasing revenue or decreasing expenses or both. Everything else is irrelevant.

Your Typical Accountant Eating the Customer's Money

To an accountant the customer is an income stream and they want that income stream to be efficient and reliable. Accountants get down right testy when customers defy the rules of their little world and become demanding and emotional.

By now those few accountants who might be reading this are probably fuming. How dare I say accountants hate the customer! Most accountants would vehemently argue that they love the customer! That they wouldn’t have a job if it wasn’t for the customer!

But what they love is the customer’s money…the nickel and dimes. They love to romp through a company and institute new policies, slash budgets, shut down experimental divisions, and in general kill anything that smacks of fun or excitement. Show me a happy accountant and I’ll show you a company where the employees are considering other job offers and customers are re-thinking their loyalty. Show me an unhappy accountant and I’ll show you a company where the leadership keeps them on a short leash and as far away from the customer as possible.

Unfortunately, most businesses go through a cycle where money becomes an issue and then somebody lets the accountants out of the cage and they start chasing all the loose nickels and dimes. In the short-term the bottom-line might improve which reinforces the myth that the problem with the company was not giving the accountants free reign in the first place.

Then the company begins a slow death. Customers discover that the business no longer provides value-added service

(See Previous Blog on Surprising the Customer)

and employees and managers find that the little extra money that they had to provide better service and/or address problems has been eaten up by accountants. What follows is company stagnation.

Mr. Spock from the Original TV Series Star Trek

All this stems from a lack of control on the accountants. Accountants should be able to tell you how much money is in the bank and where it was spent, but then they need to be muzzled. If a company is going to succeed or fail it will be done by giving the customer what they want, when (or before) they want it. Business is emotional. It is driven by intangible things like satisfaction, surprise, joy. Accountants don’t get emotion. Like Mr. Spock on Star Trek, accountants see emotion as irrelevant because it isn’t a revenue or expense.

The moment an accountant says, “you know we could save $x.xx, if we just…” is the moment that a CEO needs to say, “Don’t you have something that needs ledgered?”

Do that and everyone else will be happy, especially your customers!

Ahem…I now apologize to my accountant friends..I still love you Dave!

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Rotary: The Man in the Yellow Hat as the Ideal Club President?

07 Wednesday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in Crisis Management, Human Resources, Lessons of Life, Management Practices, Membership Retention, Public Relations, Random, Rotary

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Curious George, Management Techniques, Membership Retention, Rotarians, Rotary Club

Paul Kiser - Public Relations Chair - Rotary District 5190 (Northeast CA/Northern NV

The Man in the Yellow Hat seems to be overwhelmed by the adventurousness of his pet monkey, better known to the world as Curious George, but at closer inspection George’s owner has a style about him that allows the little monkey to have the freedom to be creative, while not stifling his enthusiasm. It is a model that could help every Rotary Club President understand that individual members need the freedom to fail if a club is to be successful.

If you are blessed with a four year-old you probably have some screen time with the Public Broadcast Service (PBS) young children’s programming known as PBS Kids. Among the many children’s programs offered by PBS Kids is the Curious George series that began in 2006 and based on the Curious George books.

Most people over 50 may remember Curious George from the seven children’s books written from 1941 to 1966 by Margaret and H.A. Rey. In both the book series and the PBS Kids program the owner of Curious George is the Man in the Yellow Hat (let’s abbreviate that to MITYH) who is never identified by a name. (A 2006 animated movie did name him, but I’m not going to acknowledge that feeble attempt to put a name on a character that the original authors intentionally left unnamed.)

What I find fascinating is the relationship between Curious George and the MITYH. For those who have not watched the PBS Kids program, The MITYH and Curious George live in a flat (presumably in New York) and George is the MITYH’s pet monkey. As an animal owner he would likely be arrested for not controlling his animal. George is often left alone for vast stretches at a time and he always get into mischief when the MITYH is absent. Fortunately for the MITYH, it seems that the cartoon world has no Humane Society or ASPCA to interfere with the relationship between a man and his monkey.

(Link to PBS Kids)

Curious George - Monkey making mischief

If you watch the show you will see a pattern of disaster that is always preceded by the MITYH leaving the flat and saying, “Be a good little monkey.” George then proceeds to solve a problem, understand how something works, or tries to be helpful, which always results in a mess. What is surprising is the tolerance level of the MITYH and his neighbors and friends. They always seem to understand that George will be George and all is forgiven. At the end of each episode George has a new understanding of how the world works and all problems are fixed and everyone ends up happy.

So what does this have to do with a Rotary Club? First, let me be clear, I’m not trying to infer that Rotarians are a bunch of monkeys…although I have been involved in some meetings where it seemed that the behavior of the members could be best described as Simian in nature. Rotarians are all human and typically a creative group of people. But because we all come from a business-related background our first thought as a Club President is to ‘manage’ the members. I would suggest that it is not the best strategy.

As volunteers, Rotarians represent a vast resource of knowledge, skills, and creativity that is unique in the world. Few organizations can put together the quality of people that Rotary attracts without offering significant compensation and benefit packages. Rotary’s only asset is its members, but it is an asset that is more valuable than gold regardless of the current market price.

But our members are an asset, not a commodity. Each day as a Club President is a gift. The Club President represents a group of people who belong to the Rotary Club simply because they want to be, and not because of any quid pro quo. It is a mistake to belief they belong because they want to be managed.

That is the magic of the MITYH’s style can be applied to the Rotary Club. He doesn’t try to ‘manage’ his monkey. Indeed, the MITYH acts as if it his pleasure to be able to simply be associated with George. Sometimes it almost seems that he intentionally finds reasons to leave George alone to explore his world and create mischief with the understanding that all will work out in the end.

Often the MITYH is embarrassed by George’s actions, but his embarrassment is short-lived, and never does the MITYH decide that he needs to control George more to save face. Nor does the MITYH decide that George must become more involved and assign George to a committee. The MITYH offers opportunities and then walks away. Never does he judge or attempt to manipulate…but he is always there to help clean up.

The Man in the Yellow Hat has a style that is unique in a world that values and teaches ‘managing’ other people in order to achieve his or her goals , but I think we could all learn a lot about working with talented volunteers from the example of empowering without fear of failure. Our members deserve no less.

Other Paul Kiser Rotary Blogs

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(See Positive Harm to Our Son Doesn’t Feel Okay)

Positive Harm Part II: Downs and Ups

06 Tuesday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in About Reno, Lessons of Life, parenting, Random

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Doctors, Healthcare, Nurses, Renown, tonsillectomy

Play Surgery before the big day.

Yesterday our 4 1/2 year-old son, Alexander had his tonsils and adenoids removed. In Part I of this story

I talked about the concerns of harming our child in order to make him healthier and our efforts to prepare him for the experience. It is impossible to know whether that preparation was good or bad, but we certainly have seen the downs and ups of the experience and the problems of too much knowledge.

The Downs of Surgery Eve

On Sunday night we did another session of play surgery before bed and then just before he went to sleep I reminded him that there would be some pain after the surgery and that we would be with him until he went into the OR. That was probably a mistake. Alexander woke up just before 1:00 AM crying. He said his throat hurt, then his ears, then his head. His Mom took it at face value, but he didn’t have a fever and at times the pain was only the throat, so I was more suspicious. He was clearly scared and violently battled to stay with Mom and wanted me to stay away.

We were able to get him to sleep in 10 minute chunks, but he always woke up crying. To me it was clear he was terrorized by the thought of going to the hospital in a few hours. Needless to say, none of us slept the rest of the night.

Mood Recovery Before Surgery

Alexander at home a few hours post op

At the hospital he fell asleep in Mom’s arms in the waiting area and got about an hour in before we were moved into a pre-op room. When he woke up he was still in a foul mood, but he wasn’t crying. In the pre-op room I decided to see if I could get his mind off of the surgery. He had been given a stuffed duck during his tour of the surgery area the week before so I began flying ‘Quackers’ around the room. That got him to laugh and lifted his spirits some.

A Boy Rests

The staff at the Renown was aware of his fears (I got the sense they had experienced one or two patients with a similar concern) and they all worked to help him get his mind off of the surgery. Nurse Toni, (the nurse that gave us a tour of OR the week before,) checked in on him, and his pre-op nurse (I can’t remember her name) did a great job of asking him questions and involving him in the conversation. By the time the anesthesiologist came in Alexander was no longer focused on the surgery and he continued to talk directly to Alexander…and listening to him. By the time the star of the show, Dr. Jenny Van Duyne, entered the room Alexander was ready to hold court. When it came time for Alexander to go to the OR, he had no problem taking a wagon ride away from Mom and Dad.

The next 45 minutes were blessfully short and when Dr. Van Duyne came out we knew everything went as planned. She explained that he had one very large tonsil and she put in one stitch to keep the back of the mouth symmetrical, but everything else looked good.

Recovery Room Down and Up and Down

Post surgery was no cake walk, but the important note is that it was after the surgery…meaning the scary part for us was over. Alexander was groggy and hurting post op but he did what he need to do. He drank liquids and rested. Again the Renown staff did great. Nurse Kim was his post-op nurse and she kept close tabs on us and did not hesitate to give pain meds if she thought they were needed.

If either of us had felt that Alexander wasn’t getting the best care we could have been difficult parents for the staff. We were both exhausted and feeling very protective; however, I don’t remember any time where I felt that Alexander was being neglected. Alexander did his part by drinking water, eating two Otter Pops, and he even went potty.

All was going as planned until we were ready to leave. Just as I picked Alexander up he lost his cookies, or in this case his Otter Pop. It could have been a lot worse but Nurse Kim had made sure we had the emesis (sick) bag at the ready.

Roller Coaster at Home

Alexander - 26 hours post op...vacuuming

Since being home we have dealt with the challenge of getting Alexander to take his medicine (which tastes horrible), vomiting right after taking medicine, sleep in four-hour stints at night, and a really sad and hurting boy. We have also experienced a boy who wants to vacuum and clean the furnace air filter. He feels good for about two hours at a time today and then he doesn’t. Hopefully, each day he will feel stronger.

Our journey is long from over, but we are able to see that doing positive harm to our child was for the best. We know that he will sleep better and feel better. In hindsight I would have not discussed the scary parts of the surgery as much. The pain is best dealt with at the time it hurts, not feared before it happens.

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Fortnight: Chapter 4 – The Devil in the Details

04 Sunday Apr 2010

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CHAPTER 4
The Devil in the Details

Friday, May 15, 2020 3:27 PM MDT
In the few hours that past, Gwen had done a week’s worth of work. She was a person that could focus intently on one task, but could also stop and take care of another detail and then return to the original task without missing a beat. The pressure of a P1 case only made her focus on the murder scene more intense. Gwen was efficient, but thorough. Every detail, picture, and fact had been referenced and entered on her tablet screen she carried with her. The tablet never left her hand, or if she needed both hands she could attach it to her arm. It was roughly the size and thickness of small yellow note pad of her grandfathers.’ He had a bunch of them in a filing cabinet in their garage when she was a child but she hadn’t seen a real yellow pad for years.

All the data Gwen entered was transmitted immediately to her personal server and to two backup servers. She could access the case file anywhere in the world. As a matter of protocol, Tommy, the ISPO, assigned the encryption key code in the flash form that he sent her to authorize her to be the LCI on this case, however, no one but Gwen’s team would be authorized to access the case file unless she was removed from the case.

After walking around the building several times, both inside and out, she had an exact knowledge of the layout of the murder scene. In her mind she had worked out the possible scenarios of how the killer had entered the building and how the victim was executed. In all scenarios the victim must have voluntarily come to the building, entered it, and kneeled on the floor. Perhaps it was all done at gunpoint, but based on the lack of marks on the body and no evidence of a struggle at any of the entrances; the victim did not fight back at any point. That allowed Gwen to rule out almost all ‘kidnapping/murder’ situations.

Gwen couldn’t be positive, but Elizabeth McKay must have known the murderer and likely came to the warehouse unaware of his or her intent. That was the only scenario that made sense. If that was the case then the murderer had been able to convince McKay trust him or her. That gave Gwen some hope. A person can gain the trust of a few people who will be gullible enough to walk into a murder, but it is nearly impossible to get 14 people to do it. It was likely that McKay was the closest person to the murderer; therefore it was unlikely the other 13 potential victims would be as trusting. In addition, McKay likely knew some or all of the other potential victims and they knew her.

At about noon Gwen decided to leak the information and victim’s name to the media. She knew that it would increase the chances of identifying the murderer and make the potential victims on the alert for any strange requests from people they knew. Gwen figured she had at least five or six days and maybe a month before the murderer would try to kill someone else. This murder probably took a month or more to plan and execute, so Gwen would have time to assemble a team and train them in her style of investigation before they would have to deal with another body.

As the LCI on the scene she had to oversee the handling of the scene including and the removal of the body. She had dismissed the paramedics soon after arriving. She knew the body would have to lay there for several hours and she respected the time of others. All of the police administrators left within an hour of her arrival this morning. They knew hanging around would be inappropriate, as their job was to hand off murder cases, not investigate. One patrol unit stayed according to the policy that was established back in 2016 when a murderer came back, or perhaps had hidden out at the crime scene, and killed the LCI and the CSI team. After that it was determined that at least two patrol officers must stay on scene until everyone leaves.

The CSI team had finished up an hour ago and left. A recovery unit picked up the body and was now driving out of the parking lot. Gwen had been in contact with the landlord and a representative had stopped by and given Gwen the run down on the property…who leased it last, who had access, who looked at the warehouse in the past year, etc. The building rep transmitted the details to Gwen as they talked.

The most of the doors were the old style key locked doors, but two were card/keycode locks. The bad news was that the locks had not been changed in at least six years. The rep told Gwen that the building had been rented by five businesses and one church in the past six years so the number of people who might have had access to a key was impossible to determine. Either the murderer was smart or lucky, or both.

By now Gwen had over 150 flashes regarding this case in her IN box. Technology was great, but it was overwhelming and unforgiving. Every document she received, every response she gave, or didn’t give would be a part of the case and subject to being presented in court. Attorneys would pour over her flash traffic looking for things they could turn against her and the case the DA would make in court. If the DA couldn’t get a conviction then police administrators would be even less forgiving than the attorneys.

As Gwen walked out of the shadow of the building she squinted in the bright sunlight. The sun still felt strong and warm. Gwen looked down along the side of the building and saw her new car. She had almost forgotten that she had it. Her old car was a used 2014 model that didn’t have all the new communication and data technology. Gwen could work out of the passenger seat in the new car and have access to more office functions than were available in most brick and mortar office buildings. She headed to the passenger side of the car and then realized she should leave the area. If Gwen stayed to work it would mean the patrol unit would have to stay and guard her. She opted to go get coffee somewhere and sort through the ever-growing digital file of messages.

She wasn’t familiar with this warehouse area so she tapped the tablet screen and it lit up. She touched the button on the touch screen that said, “Find Me”. Instantly she had a live view of her location from a satellite in orbit. It showed her car, the parking lot, the building. She touched the reverse zoom icon and the image pulled up and showed about a ten block area. She had coffee shops on auto label and a coffee cup appeared on the image just a few blocks east of her current location. She closed the car door and said “Start” and the car began to hum.

Her tablet rang as she walked into the Starbucks. She grimaced. She hated talking on her phone in places where people were socializing. She turned around and went back outside. Before she answered she looked at the number. It was one of the LCI’s she had contacted to join her on this case.

Jake was older. He used to handle murder cases and had been very successful, but four years ago he decided to only handle large theft cases. Gwen had worked with him a few times as an intern and after she got her license she asked him about his decision to change. He told her that one day after a murder-suicide case he was paid $10,000 for proving the obvious…the husband killed his wife and child before killing himself. Jake then wondered if the husband realized that someone was going to make $10,000 off of his deranged act of cold-blooded murder. Jake decided he wasn’t to take any more money because someone’s violent act. Gwen knew this case would be a tough sell, but she wanted Jake on this case and she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“How’s it going Jake,” she began. “Gwen, I know that tone,” he replied. Gwen reminded herself that you don’t get to be a good LCI without being able to read the prosody in the voice. “I need to contract you,” Gwen said. He paused for a moment and then said, “You lose something?” Gwen took a short breath and then said, “I’m the lead on a P1.”

For a moment Jake felt a little burst of pride that Gwen was selected for the most important case an LCI could be assigned after only a few years on the job, but he knew exactly what this meant and why she was calling him. “So you’ve lost your mind…I don’t do those….no value,” he said. Gwen was not going to let him brush her off. She said, “Look, it’s big and I need your help in finding two more LCI’s to help us. You can stay in the office and keep us on track. I need you on this case.” Gwen voice didn’t noticeably change when she said ‘I need you’ but Jake could tell that Gwen was being absolutely sincere.

Gwen had natural abilities, but she had correctly identified her weakness…the lack of long-term experience. Jake saw that her plan to have him to run the inside of the case was the perfect solution. In his career he had never been the lead on a P1 case, but he had been on a P1 team five times and he saw lead LCI’s succeed and fail. This late in his career he had no desire for the pressure of being the lead, but a P1 case was just too good of an opportunity to thumb his nose at and he could be a valuable mentor for Gwen and the rest of the team. Still, he didn’t want to look too easy. He said, “Let’s get together and talk it through…but I’m not saying ‘yes’, understood?” “Understood,” she replied. She smiled. He just said ‘yes.’

Gwen gave Jake the information to access the case file and made plans to meet Jake at 7 PM and then went back inside. She could leave Jake to pick the other two LCI’s and he could task both of them out throughout the course of the investigation. Using him as a resource and task master would free her up to follow the investigation in the field.

She was feeling very pleased with herself until she saw a red light flash on her tablet. It was a new flash and in the description it said, “FBI – URGENT. This was not good. Were they taking over the case? She had hoped that since they didn’t show up at the crime scene that they were uninterested in her case….that’s right, she reminded herself, it was her case. She opened the flash and saw that it was a request for operational progress briefs every 48 hours. It would have been better if the FBI would not be involved at all, but this wasn’t as bad as she feared. She would just put two daily reports for the DA together and submit them to the FBI.

The rest of the backed up flash traffic were mostly predictable. She was pleasantly surprised that $300,000 was already deposited in her investigation fund and that four credit cards were waiting for her at Denver C & C Center. Unfortunately, she had to pick them up by 5 PM or wait until Monday. She headed out to the car. It would look bad if police administration had expedited her credit cards only to have them sit on someone’s desk all weekend. This is one of those issues that would haunt her even though she wouldn’t have anyone to give the credit cards to until Monday at the earliest.

Gwen’s was clearly irritated. She was the lead LCI on a P1 case and her priority right now was an errand. She knew she needed to get her team on board quickly so she didn’t get caught up in little details like picking up plastic late on Friday afternoon.

The Earlier Fortnight Chapters

Chapter One & Two

Chapter Three

Positive Harm to Our Son Doesn’t Feel Okay

03 Saturday Apr 2010

Posted by Paul Kiser in About Reno, Lessons of Life, parenting, Random

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

adenoids, boys, hospitals, parenting, pediatrics, Renown, surgery, tonsillectomy, tonsillitis, Tonsils

Alexander prepares for 'play' surgery

On Monday we will get up early and take our four and a half year-old boy, Alexander, to Renown Hospital in Reno. He is basically healthy…that is when he doesn’t stick a plastic bead up his nose,

See Blog Post

but he snores and is awaken at night because his tonsils have grown too large and block his airway when he sleeps. He also has a persistent cough at night that comes and goes. We are confident this is absolutely necessary as his Dentist (Dr. Stoker), his Family Practitioner (Dr. McCarthy), and two Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist have all agreed: Tonsils Must Go.

Play Surgery to Prep for the Real Surgery

Still, it is getting harder to shrug off that this surgery is going to hurt him and there are always risks and complications that can’t be anticipated. Parents may not be required to take the Hippocratic Oath (First, Do No Harm), but even so, it’s instinct for most of us, and when we turn Alexander over to Dr. Jenny Van Duyne on Monday morning we will be asking her to hurt our son. Yes, in the long run he will be better off, but that doesn’t change the fact that when he comes back from surgery he will be injured.

Our Play Operating Room

Ironically, I was pushing for us to have him checked out and to have this surgery done. I had my tonsils out when I was around six and I was eating crackers the next day. My older brother Mike had his done around the same time and as a teenager he had a much harder time recovering from the surgery. Of course, that was back in the days of rusty, old surgery instruments when doctors sharpened knives with a leather strap…okay, it wasn’t that bad, but it was almost 50 years ago.

Post Play Surgery Recovery Room

It doesn’t seem that the surgery has changed that much and the recovery time is one to two weeks, so this is not an overnight hurt that will be better the next day. We also know he gets worried and scared in unfamiliar situations, so we took him for a tour of the Operating Room last week and Nurse Toni did a great job of reassuring him. He’s also watched a DVD over and over that was produced to help children overcome their fears of this surgery. Finally, we’ve been practicing the before, during, and after surgery with me as the doctor (complete with poofy shower cap) and him as the really good patient. So far, so good, but Monday morning will be the final exam for all of us.

I was thinking that this was going to be harder on Mom than Dad, and in the end I will likely push my fears aside for Alexander and Mom, but it still feels odd….I don’t know, maybe it’s just the poofy shower cap.

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