Important Facts About the Military Coin

Posted by Karen Cruz on February 13, 2015
Military / No Comments

In the military, one of the traditions being followed from before up to know is giving away custom military coins as a gift of loyalty, gratitude, respect, and honor. Although the origin and creation of these military coins are still unknown until now, there are many noted stories which pointed out that these coins were already in use as early as the First World War. However, whether these stories are true or not is still being debated.

Different Common Names of Military Coins

Custom military coins are known by a wide variety of names. These coins are also popularly known as challenge coins, unit coins, commander’s coins, memorial coins and squadron’s coins.

What are the purposes of these military coins?

custom military coinsAside from the purposes mentioned above, custom military coins were also given as a congratulatory gift to any soldier who reached a certain milestone in his or her military career. Moreover, for a soldier, before his or her deployment, these coins were given to boost his morale and pride.

If a soldier receives a military coin from his superior, he or she is expected to carry the coin at all times, anywhere they are. Most coin bearers carry these coins in their uniform’s pocket or are worn around their necks.

How much are these coins?

These custom military coins can be composed of simple designs with inexpensive prices to intricate ones with expensive prices. Expensive custom military coins usually have complicated designs as well as precious gems and stones on the surface of the coin. Military coins can be made of different kinds of metals: silver, copper, nickel or gold. Coins made of gold are treated as highly expensive ones and are often given on special occasions with the highest reward possible.

What is the Military Coin Challenge Game?

Bearers of military coins, mostly soldiers, usually practice a traditional game. Bringing of military coins of all coin bearers is a must and should be practiced all the time. This military-wide tradition should be followed at all times, with no exception. To make sure that each and everyone is complying with this tradition, one member of the military group or unit would challenge all coin bearers to see if their military coin is with them.

This tradition is played with the following set of rules:

1.    One soldier needs to pull out his own military coin and should clearly and loudly state that a military coin check is being made.

2.    All soldiers in the vicinity must show their own military coin.

3.    Any person who does not have his or her military coin needs to buy a round of drinks for all the members who have their military coin.

4.    If all the challenged soldiers have their military coins with them, then, the challenger would need to buy a round of drinks for all the participating soldiers.

5.    Any person who refuses to participate or buy the round of drinks (as a punishment) will be forced to bear the consequences and worse, to turn in their military coin.

The military coin challenge game can be made anywhere: whether the soldiers are in a bar, in a kitchen, in a restaurant, in a field or in a sleeping area. This tradition is considered as a special event in the military.

Overall, the military coins are not only collected and treated as a piece of coin, it serves as a sentimental object for all the coin bearers as well. These coins are not only objects to boost a soldier’s morale and pride; it also serves as a sign to show gratitude and respect.

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The Callaway Golf Foundation’s Culture of Pay It Forward

Posted by Andre Hanson on February 07, 2015
Sports / No Comments

Callaway golf Company’s pursuit of excellence can only be paralleled by their quest to create healthy communities for their stakeholders. Founded by the late Ely Callaway, the Callaway golf Foundation focuses on support programs that improve lives and communities. It also allows its employees to be more involved and gives them the chance to fulfill their social responsibilities.

Callaway golf Foundation’s excellent track record is a proof to the many activity that it spearheads, which is aligned to their mission of helping the less fortunate. With these activities, the company is able to use golf as a means of touching lives.

Pro Kids Golf Academy and Learning Center

Callaway golf Pro Kids Golf Academy and Learning Center, or the PKGA, was founded in 1984. Its mission is to use golf to challenge inner-city youth to excel in life through various programs that promote education, teach life skills and values and develop their characters. With the North County Learning Center in Oceanside, California, Pro Kids aims to provide golf and life skills instruction to children aging from 7 to 17.

The Southern California Golf Foundation

The Callaway Foundation proudly supports the Southern California Golf Association Youth on Course program. By making golf accessible and affordable to the youth, the foundation aims to shift the youth’s focus from drugs and other vices to golf.

Challenged Athletes, Inc.

The Challenged Athletes Foundation or CAF sees the greatness of athletes with physical challenges and supports their aspirations by giving grants for their training, equipment and other needs. For the foundation, disabilities are only challenges and with a little help, these athletes can overcome them and reach their dreams.

Callaway Golf Foundation Women’s Cancer Initiative

The Callaway Foundation is a proud supporter of the Entertainment Industry’s Foundation on Women’s Cancer Programs. Through its donation totaling to $2 million, the Callaway Golf Foundation Women’s Cancer Initiative or CGFWCI showed its commitment in finding a breakthrough for ovarian cancer treatment and early detection.

Employee Matching Gift Program

The Employee Matching Gift Program empowers employees to give back to the community. By matching individual gifts given by employees with a qualified nonprofit organization, the Callaway Foundation makes sure that these gifts reach the person that will best benefit from it.

Dollars for Doers Program

In line with its aim to empower their employees to help others, the Callaway Foundation created the Dollars for Doers program, which recognizes employees who volunteer for their community. By giving 25 hours of their own time to qualified nonprofit organizations, employees, through the Callaway Foundation and the Dollars for Doers Program, can give cash grants and donations to these organizations.

Scholarship Program

The Scholarship Program seeks to help excellent students who need financial assistance through higher education. True to its goals of providing the youth with the help they need to succeed in life, the foundation selects its recipients who show the most promise. Applications can be done online, and are only available for students who meet the criteria set by the foundation, one of which is that the student should be the child of an employee working in the company.

Ely Callaway’s success is not only attributed to his keen eye for business opportunities, but also for his penchant for choosing the best employees to work for him. He nurtures this relationship by rewarding employees and what better way to reward employees than by helping their children while allowing them to help others in return. By creating this concept of paying it forward, the company fulfills its social responsibilities while promoting a good working environment at the same time.

Ely Callaway’s tombstone reads, “He considers himself lucky in all aspects of life”, and through the company, he wishes to make other people feel as lucky as he is in all aspects of their lives. His legacy not only transcends in the quality of clubs and balls that his company makes, but more so in the lives that his company has touched and will touch in the future.

Callaway golf equipment has always had a playability and power that golfers can’t get enough of.

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What Makes an Employee Engagement Survey Fail?

Posted by Shawn Dorsey on February 03, 2015
Technology / No Comments

The main objective of an employee engagement survey is to help the company in identifying problem areas that may be causing the lack of drive among employees despite the impeccable salary and benefits provided. The fact is, financial stability is not the only factor that makes an employee develop a healthy attitude towards his work and the company where he is employed. A chance to grow professionally, good relations with co-workers and managers, an open line of communication within the organization, and proper actions toward good or poor performance matter as well. Information about these aspects is what an employee engagement survey intends to provide and that information is further used to improve certain areas of the management and the organization.

Unfortunately, conducting an employee engagement survey does not necessarily mean that it will achieve its objective. This failure can be attributed to the following factors.

Improper Conduct of Survey

Employee engagement surveyAn engagement survey is often conducted by a third-party service to avoid additional workload on the company’s staff members and to avoid bias. Although most of these providers are highly experienced in this task, they do have different methodologies and some may not work for your organization. For instance, for large companies with numerous departments, the survey will bring better results if they were segmented in relation to every group or business unit. One set of questionnaires does not work for all. Hence, a thorough study must be done first before designing the questionnaire for each team or individual.

Results are Not Promptly Relayed to the Company

The results of an employee engagement survey can have more use if interpreted and handled immediately. The point is, the employees’ attitude toward their jobs is not static. It can be influenced by a number of factors, such as a sudden promotion, problems at home, or an unexpected disagreement with a co-worker. The more time it takes for the results to come back, the more meaningless the company’s action would be in remedying the situation. The disagreement between two employees may have already resolved itself weeks before the results came in. Hence, any action done to mend it will be unnecessary and will just be a waste of time.

Results are Not Divulged to the Managers

This is a big mistake that, unfortunately, some executives of a few companies do commit. Through a simple analysis, it can easily be ascertained that managers are the most capable of improving employee engagement. First of all, their relationship and the way they handle their subordinates is a huge factor towards how staff members view their work. Second, they can directly encourage employees to develop a healthier attitude towards their jobs. They also act as middlemen between the employees and the executives. In other words, they play a crucial role in the organization. They can help a lot in employee engagement if they only know its current status, which is provided by the results of the survey.

Not Taking the Employee Engagement Survey Seriously

The sad fact is that there are companies that conduct a survey just so they can say that they have done it, either to appease their employees, to show it off to their competitors, or in a bid to pass a certification. Staff members will eventually realize the lack of action from the management and that can worsen the situation, making the survey a mere waste of time and effort.

If you care about your company and its success, it is recommended that you conduct this engagement survey for the right reasons and with the intention of improving your organization. You have to remember that your success relies a lot on the intensity of dedication that your team and staff members exhibit in their jobs. Therefore, encourage that and ensure that it is maintained.

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Speaking the Keynote Speaker’s Language

Posted by Ruth Harmon on January 28, 2015
Motivation / 1 Comment

For the reason of simply being unique, people have different interests and hobbies that excite or inspire them. Just like speaking the language one has learned and practiced throughout their growing years, one’s desires and wants is a reflection of what they know and represents who the person is as an individual. One acts and speaks in the language they know best: themselves. Many keynote speakers practice the art of speaking and communicating their knowledge and expertise about a certain field or topic to the public. To learn more about keynote speakers, understand the basics and fundamentals of what, who, and how these individuals are considered as such.

keynote speakersFirst, what does the word keynote mean? It can be heard in passing being mentioned by a working professional going to the office or perhaps it was being discussed by a group of students going to attend a lecture. It is a singular word that can be defined in more than one approach. The more common knowledge is that keynote is an Apple software program that allows one to create presentations of texts, graphs, images, and others for one’s usage. Breaking down the two words that produce “keynote” is a method to know and understand the word’s other meanings. “Key” can mean a solution or idea that is fundamental to solving problems and opening new possibilities while “note” can mean the manner in which a specific situation is addressed.

Combining these into one suggests that “keynote” means the way on how a main thought or concept of a certain topic is presented or talked about. On a musical context, “key” is the first tone to a melody or harmony while “note” is a symbol that characterizes the tone, pitch, and other aspects of a song. Barbershop a capella groups would usually play a note that would set the tone on how a song will be sung. Adding the word “speaker” means that keynote speakers are those who express their sentiments and talk about a central idea or subject with reliable knowledge to an audience by setting the tone and conveying the overall structure and lesson through their speech.

There are varying types of keynote speakers depending on what the main concept is about and how they conduct the talk. There are those who serve to motivate the audience into doing something, inspire them by telling a story of struggle and accomplishment, educate them about a particular issue, or even celebrity speakers who share their own experiences in their respective industries. They are usually invited to conferences, workshops, special lectures, or even in graduation ceremonies which can last for an hour or more. They are invited to such events to incite awareness or create buzz; the possibility of having more than one person speak is a natural occurrence as well. One practitioner can introduce and open the event, others can fill in the gap at the middle of the occasion, and another can end the night with a rousing closing speech. It is not enough though to simply know what one is talking about but, on how they deliver and talk to the audience regarding their knowledge of the topic is of utmost importance. There would be no point in talking to someone else if the receiver will not listen and respond to what one is saying. A great speaker knows how to capture one’s attention, inspire change, motivate action, and get people to listen. This skill and charisma, although challenging to master, can be honed and practiced upon.

Not all who proclaim that they are keynote speakers are indeed true practitioners but, anyone can learn to speak a new language and improve upon themselves always. As long as one talks and shares their thoughts out of true passion and sheer enthusiasm, the universal language of listening and responding back positively will follow.

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Focusing Your Internet Marketing Solutions On SEO And Beyond

Posted by Marsha Womble on January 20, 2015
SEO / Comments Off

Building collateral in the past was tough, especially online. If you were to publish a site in the heyday of the internet’s first steps, you were amidst a vast emptiness. The vacancies online would allow you to integrate a lot of different solutions that would help you get a lot of traffic with relative ease. In fact, millions of people chased this and built simple websites and are still at the top of their game. If you set up a site in the past, then you know how simple it was to get people to see it. That’s not the case today, you’re going to find that the marketing levels that you have to deal with today are far more complicated than ever before. In order to get yourself into the parameters of a lot of traffic, you are going to have to isolate your page and then construct a campaign that is going to build on to a lot of different parameters overall. If you work on this alone, you will find that you could end up losing market share over time.

SEOIt’s too easy to end up losing out on the marketing collateral that you need to succeed, especially when it comes to the world of marketing as a whole. If you want to gain the world as an audience, you would have to go back in time and register a domain in the early days of the internet. Since you can’t do that, you’ll have to join the millions of people that are fighting through a great deal of complications to get noticed online. When you launch a page today, your internet marketing work has to be spot on, and if it is not, you will end up losing out overall.

The Broad Reach of Marketing

First and foremost, you need to understand that your marketing solutions are going to need to be within the parameters of core SEO fundamentals. If you try to reinvent the wheel or you focus on the wrong pieces, you are going to end up losing market share over all. Many people lose out on the traffic that they should be getting because they over complicate this whole thing. If you want to get to the right channels, you have to focus on building through the lens of a professional solution and gain leverage within a variety of different components.

Without marketing collateral that reaches within the core concepts of nyseoexplode, you’re going to have to fight an uphill battle overall. It’s important to understand that you need to factor in the changes that search engines are going to impose as you try to publish content, build links, and work within the marketing elements that you need to work on right now. The broader you want to reach, the more complicated things are going to become for you and the more complex your campaigns could end up being.

In order to see a return on your investment, you need to look into marketing solutions that are going to pay off dividends. It’s with that in mind that you should look into hiring a professional to focus on this for you. Sure, you could do a lot of it yourself, but unless you have a team in place that is going to work on all the loose ends that you can’t work on, you’re going to miss out on the opportunity to engage a captive audience moving forward.

The Singular Solution

Let’s assume that you were to ignore the advice of hiring a professional SEO company and wanted to do this alone. You would have to first isolate keywords that you were going to build your content on, and make sure that each published item that you factor into the relationship of your marketing works towards the push forward of the right elements overall. The right solution here is definitely one that is going to take a lot of work, but the preliminary steps are easy. Finding the right keywords is as simple as using the many tools that are in place to help you build on this in the right formatting. Once you have the relationship of your keywords in place and you start building the content necessary to gain a good overall sense of what you’re doing, you’ll want to publish a lot of content.

After the content marketing options, you will want to build links that are pointed to your page and all the articles that you are publishing across several domains. This will take you a lot of time because if you want “natural” placement, you will need to spend a little extra time working it all out. To say that this is easy, is an understatement because it gets far more complex after this.

The Better Option

Instead of doing it all yourself, focus on building the right collateral by hiring a good overall company to take on the role of your SEO ambassador. Fixing the right elements, publishing content, and getting you noticed is going to be easier when you hand over the reins to a professional solution overall. Allowing that to get you moving forward will definitely play on a lot of different elements, and well worth exploring.

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