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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > May > 30
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Scott Elliott: For the right advice, find the right advisers
To all the 2009 graduates, high school or college, a few words of advice:
Volunteer. Learn to cook. Travel. Pray. Take risks. Learn another language. Exercise. Dream big. Remember to have fun. Serve others. Stay close with your family. Keep learning. Compete. Listen for God’s call. Network. Thank your teachers. Nurture your friendships. Learn from your mistakes. Fight despair. Accept that you don’t know everything. Make art. Be patient. Be optimistic. Be courageous. Be compassionate. Wear sunscreen.
That’s a lot of good advice, and it comes courtesy of CEOs, politicians, ministers, bloggers, talk show hosts, spiritual leaders, authors, and journalists. Shoot a few words into Google along the lines of “2009 graduation speaker advice” and you can track down all the specifics on who said what and where.
This spring, literally thousands of graduation speakers are dispensing all sorts of advice to the various classes of 2009. The Chronicle of High Education used to track who was speaking at what colleges — a project it has now given up. Last year, it logged more than 600 college commencement speakers across the country.
The worst of these speeches are trite, impersonal and self-centered. The best speeches, carried into the right ears, can be inspirational, uplifting and useful. But for the most part, 2009 graduates, the commencement speaker’s advice will be — and should be — ignored. There’s a simple reason why.
By the time someone reaches the age for these transitions — out of high school, out of college, out of graduate school — the most important advice he or she receives is primarily useful because of whom they receive it from. What is actually said is almost secondary.
It’s not an impersonal speech or a self-help book or a guru video that will provide the key guidance in life. Instead, this is a time for grads to look around at the people they’ve chosen to surround themselves with. Who really knows what they are talking about? Who has provided reliable advice in the past? Who really cares about you?
The best thing young people can do for their futures right now is to start figuring out who their core group of trusted and reliable advisers is going to be — the friends or family members they’ll come to know they can count on to give sound counsel.
These are the people they’ll want to bounce their toughest life decisions off to see what they have to say. The next big step will be learning to parse through conflicting good advice and choose the path that makes the most sense for them. That comes with time and life experience.
This is what the best leaders do — whether in politics, business, the military, athletics, communities, families. They encircle themselves with people they can trust — competent, caring, loyal people. When they come across those people in life, they stick to them like glue.
Even those who don’t become CEOs or senators will still have to “lead” their own lives. So, 2009 graduates, certainly listen to good advice. But also remember where you heard it and start figuring out where best to go back for more.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Columns, Education, Scott Elliott
Editorial: United Way bias should be to merge
No good can come from beating around the bush:
United Way of Greater Dayton is struggling. When it struggles, so do the almost six dozen agencies that it helps fund.
With the economy so bad, this year’s campaign was going to be unavoidably difficult. Contributions indeed did drop — by 19.5 percent.
Meanwhile, because more givers are directing their pledges to a specific charity, United Way had to reduce its awards from nondesignated commitments by 24 percent. Some nonprofits were cut a greater percentage, some less.
The campaign raised $9.5 million this year. The goal was $12 million, which has been the target — give or take — for several years. For historical perspective, in 1990, the goal was a bit over $20 million.
Raising money, in some ways, is becoming infinitely harder for many United Ways. Their strategy is built around planned workplace giving. As big companies have downsized or even gone out of business altogether, campaign organizers here and elsewhere have had to make many more pitches, in more places, to even hope of raising the same amount as in previous years.
At the same time, employees — who are nervous about whether they’ll have jobs — are understandably being more careful about committing a part of their pay to United Way.
But even accounting for all of these seismic changes, the local trend lines are going steeply in the wrong direction.
Partly in acknowledgement of this reality, for two years now, Dayton’s United Way and the United Ways of Cincinnati and Warren and Butler counties have been in talks about whether they should merge, consolidate, share resources — or pick another description.
The discussions could wrap up this summer, at which point all of the boards will get a presentation on how consolidation might proceed. They each hope to vote in August on whether they’re in or out.
That decision, of course, would come after meetings — and they should be public — with clients and nonprofits in each of the affected communities.
In the meantime, United Way officials say they have made $500,000 in administrative cuts, and the board wants $300,000 more. There’s probably no way to get to that number without laying off people at the agency, which has 32 full-time and eight part-time employees.
Nationally, small and even some bigger United Ways are being encouraged to consolidate. A southwest Ohio United Way would be among the biggest when you roll in Cincinnati’s 10-county and more than $60 million operation.
Maybe there are good reasons not to form a partnership. But the bias when considering that decision should be in favor of coming together. Yes, each community is different, and each has special needs, and outreach to donors has to be tailored.
But fundraising, in addition to being about relationships, requires maximizing efficiency, taking advantage of technology and not re-inventing wheels. Surely, there are economies of scale and back shop savings that could be realized.
Critics of working together will worry about the Dayton community’s, Warren County’s and Butler County’s voices being drowned out. And their concern will be legitimate (though Cincinnati has to be doing something right if it can keep 10 counties hanging together).
But the bigger worry has to be whether Dayton’s United Way — as it’s organized — can afford to be all that the community needs.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Ellen Belcher, Social Services
