TAKE CHARGE SUCCESS STRATEGIES
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Volume 3, Number 6 November 25, 2003
Publisher: GoalMinds, Inc.
E-mail: condrill@goalminds.com http://www.goalminds.com
Copyright 2003 Jo Condrill All rights reserved
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Welcome to those of you who have recently joined us and welcome back to those of you who have been with us a while.

To those of you who shared my concerns about the writers touched by the recent fires in California, I received notes that they and their belongings were safe. Thank you for your concern.

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HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the US. We have so much for which to be thankful. At GoalMinds, we think of our friends, clients, and family, and say a hearty “Thank you.” Without you our company would not have survived six years. Without you our books would have gone unnoticed and our seminars and speeches unscheduled. Thank you very much for your support!

A special “THANK YOU” to all of the servicemen and servicewomen who answered the call and are not with their families to celebrate this holiday.

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"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall
at last unveil." - John Ruskin

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner--A Special Treat

2. Book Report

3. How To Prevent Being Lynched By Heavy Handed Spam Laws --by Dan B. Cauthron
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1. Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner
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Mike Wardinski, Ph.D., retired Army colonel, sent me a note recently with the reference below to a New York Times article which used a Thomas Nast cartoon, "Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner," published in the November 20, 1869 issue of Harper's Weekly, to illustrate a discussion on thanksgivings. It’s definitely worth a read. OP-ED COLUMNIST, The Way We Were, by THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN, Published: November 23, 2003, LONDON

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/23/opinion/23FRIE.html
If you are unable to access this website, please let me know and I'll forward the article.
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NOTE: The GoalMinds.com website and the JoCondrill.com website were recently moved to a new server. BookZone, which previously hosted our sites, is terminating their operations due to health issues experienced by the founder and CEO. In the transfer, we have found a number of glitches associated with the order page at http://www.goalminds.com/products.htm. We hope to have them corrected quickly. In the meantime, if you would like to have any of our products for yourself or as holiday gifts, please call us at 1 800 697-5680. From outside the US, please call us at 310 860-5681 or fax your order to 310 860-5600. We will deduct 20% from each order because of the inconvenience. We appreciate your patience.

VIDEO Take Charge seminar by Jo Condrill recorded at Georgetown University is now available in VHS or DVD format combined with four audio tapes: Affirmations, Take Charge of Your Life book read by the author, and a Master Mind Panel discussion with Pauline Shirley, past president of Toastmasters International; Art Jackson, and John Perry. Special package price: $147.00. Order now.

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2. Book Report
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Bill Causey, my friend and former boss, also a retired Army colonel, recently recommended a book to me, "The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal," by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz. Colonel Causey and I shared some challenging times in the Pentagon through Desert Shield/Desert Storm and other national emergencies. I hold him in very high esteem. He fits the description in the book of a person fully engaged: “We must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest.” Colonel Causey manifests all these attributes. Loehr and Schwartz made me aware of a new way to look at my days—not by the time clock, but by energy levels!

Harold "Hess" Hester, recently completed his third novel, “Remembering Tomorrow: A Human clone searching for his soul.” Hess’ first two works, “January’s Heat,” a novel, and “Heaven’s Luck,” nonfiction, are available on Amazon.com The third book is published by BookLocker.com and is available on their website, www.BookLocker.com. Hess is trying to market the new novel, but is stymied by spam laws. He has a mailing list of thousands, but “I'm not allowed to send them my web site and ‘advertise.’" They need to 'ask' me to send them the site." His personal website is http://www.HaroldHestor.com Email Hess at Mapmak8376@aol.com. Spam controls serve a valuable purpose but are sometimes a challenge for those of us who send Email to multiple addressees—even though the recipients once asked to be included. Read on for possible solutions for people like “Hess” who use Email for business. If you have a different opinion or solution, please send it to info@jocondrill.com. We appreciate your views.
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"To different minds, the same world is a hell,
and a heaven."
--Emerson in "Journal," Dec 20, 1822
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3. How To Prevent Being Lynched By Heavy Handed Spam Laws --by Dan B. Cauthron
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California's new heavy handed spam law, slated to take
effect on 1 January 2004, not only provides stiff fines PER SPAM EMAIL sent. It also opens the doors wide for civil litigation against a spammer, and gross amounts of cash recovery for "damages" done to the recipient. In a society that is already embroiled in lawsuit frenzy, this law appears to be a ticket to instant riches for any California resident that owns an email account.

The term "spam" of course, refers to unwanted commercial e-mail that clogs millions of computer mailboxes every day. The Internet culture's current mindset toward spam is so near to reaching critical mass, it's akin to that of a rabid and out of control lynch mob in old Tombstone - to put it succinctly, "shucks, let's hang somebody."

While 30 or so states in the US now have anti-spam laws on the books, most of those are difficult to enforce against real spammers (the ones who send multi-millions of emails at a whack, hawking this week's special snake oil.) Those people often are located outside US borders, and are about as easy to track down as a ghost.

It's my prognostication that few if any real spammers will be lynched. The people who are most likely to be harmed are legitimate businesses who participate openly in electronic marketing, conducting their affairs above board with real addresses and real phone numbers.

Small emarketers who derive part or all of their income
from email marketing, and have worked to develop their own opt-in emailing list, appear to be the ones who are most vulnerable to aggressive anti-spam laws.

The fact is this: Sooner or later, some list member will "forget" that s/he opted-in, and will inevitably scream SPAM at the top of their lungs. With the prospect for major remuneration under the California law, there undoubtedly will be those who suddenly contract a case of chronic "opt-in amnesia." Managing the most valid opt-in emailing list in the Universe is about to become even more taxing.

What To Do?

1. - Develop an iron-clad opt-in agreement that the new
subscriber must read and electronically agree to (via a
radio button, checkbox, etc.) before s/he is presented with your opt-in form.

2. - Rigorously use a double opt-in subscription process, where the first message the new subscriber receives will require them to "confirm" the voluntary status of their opt-in action. It's likely that this process will reduce somewhat the number of new subscribers who make it all the way to your opt-in list. Still, you'll wind up with a higher quality list, containing subscribers who are serious about reading your emails.

3. - Email any existing lists you have, explaining that you are cleaning your lists, and asking those subscribers to re-subscribe under your new policy. (Offer them something good in return for their trouble.) You may lose some subscribers, but those are probably the ones who never paid attention to your mailings to begin with, and are most likely to suddenly contract "amnesia."

4. - Retain electronic confirmations of all opt-in actions. It would be wise to save those records externally to disk on a daily basis.

5. - Provide an automated removal link in all emails sent. A "reply to this email for removal" or "email this address for removal" statement may not be sufficient in the near future.

7. - Sign all messages you send, top and bottom, with your full name and email address. Keeping your name in front of your subscribers will greatly improve their ability to recall their voluntary opt-in action.

8. - Be sure your email subject line relates directly to the context of your message body. This is a prominent clause in most current spam laws.

9. - Use only a valid and working return address for any email sent. The recipient must be able to reach you (or a member of your staff) by clicking the reply button to any email received.

While I don't appreciate being spammed, I've also learned to quietly use the technology available to me, ie. email filters and delete buttons. Still, it won't surprise me in the least to soon hear of some guy who has filed a million dollar lawsuit because he contracted carpal tunnel syndrome in his "delete" finger.

Blind and uninformed legislation appears to be laying a
foundation for just such a frivolous boondoggle, as slick legislators continue to jump on the bandwagon, "taking action" on popular social issues as a self-serving exercise in ensuring their own re-elections.

What I fear most however, is a terminally diseased social consciousness that refuses to take individual
responsibility, while expecting big government to be a
panacea for all ills, no matter how small or insignificant.
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Dan B. Cauthron runs several websites and publishes his 100% Original and Highly Opinionated *Revenew QuikTips* online whenever he has something significant to say. To subscribe please visit: http://DanBCauthron.com Dan also operates: http://Earn-Revenew.com
http://SlideInADSGenerator.com
© Copyright 2003 - All Rights Reserved Worldwide
Serenity Marketing Group - Dan B. Cauthron
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The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of GoalMinds, Inc.
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