News from Nelson – May 2 2007

Hi all,

I hope this finds you all well!

Well, Jan & I wanted to slow things down, but our lives are completely manic at present. We haven't had a weekend in the last month & we can't really see a day off until the third week of June. Utterly ridiculous... but I guess working head down and backside up will see us get through it.

The management lecturing at NMIT has added 15 hours to my already busy week, but my current contract finishes on 18 June (phew!). I thought I was only going to do this contract, but I have been asked if I would lecture some of the Sports Diploma people in HR & Management issues next semester. I have a meeting this week to see whether I think I can fit it in...

In fact, I am supposed to be writing my change management tutorial for this Friday, but thought that writing to all of you was much more interesting!

Jan's current assignment is coming along slowly - a convention paper based around a industry future issue. He is writing on the impact of the Kyoto Protocol and carbon credits on the plantation forest industry, which he is finding quite interesting. He got the top mark in the class for his last major assignment, and has aced all the tiny 2% assignments. I think he will either be doing an HR paper next, or Principles of Accounting.

He is also now pretty right after his surgery; the only thing that remains a slight problem is his changed sense of taste (tastebuds, not velour!!). However, the surgeon saw him a week ago and said that the problem is not uncommon, and should return to normal slowly over time.

Of course we now have a clash for the regionals - Jan's exam is on the afternoon of the day that we are supposed to be leaving for UWH in Chch. He is going to sit it a day early (and I must make sure that he registers for the early sit). My exam is being held on the Monday that we get back from Chch, so that's a relief.

I also had a bit of excitement last week as I was in the local paper in a group photo, and quoted, as Chair of the Business Development Company. Jan thinks I look like someone with Down's Syndrome which is enough to drop anyone back to earth if they were feeling a bit clever! I must admit though, it was a pretty awful photo!

I have been going through all our stuff and putting things on TradeMe for sale that we no longer use. It is proving an amazingly successful method for getting rid of clutter. Last week we flogged off 20 items that we weren't using, and freed up a tiny corner in the office. I think we might carry on doing that, especially as we get closer to moving out to the Moutere. There's no point in paying to move things we no longer use into a new house so they can just gather dust there!

Coco is in season, and Fliss has an eye ulcer, so it is all $ to the vet at the moment. Fliss is having eye problems because Coco is playing too roughly. She will calm down, but it all takes time.

I am getting braces fitted on June 18th; the whole nine yards, full on top & bottom braces for two to three years. I have a front tooth that is drifting further out of alignment, which may eventually kill two teeth through exposing the roots, so I need to do something about it. It is just unfortunate that the whole process is so uncomfortable, costly and ugly. Never mind, it is better than loosing teeth, and a couple of years just whiz by.

Our next trip away is June 15-17 to Chch for the UWH Secondary School Regional Champs. Then we have our Hutties Hanmer weekend in July, then we have put our  luxury Hanmer weekend back to August because we haven't got a weekend free until then. We aren't heading away for UWH Nationals as the team won't qualify.

Notes:

   Andreas and Katrin - Thanks for the Pulmoll! Some crunchies are on their way to you :-)

   Karen T - good luck with your next Triathlon

   Jenny L - look forward to seeing you on the weekend again

Look after yourselves, everyone. Alles liebe :-)

Sam & Jan

Nelson Bays Arts Marketing Guide Book

I heard Martin Rogers, CE of Nelson Bays Arts Marketing, speak at a Rotary breakfast here in Nelson, NZ, yesterday.

I hadn't realised that all of Arts Marketing funding, aside from special projects, comes from the money they raise by selling their guide book to the Arts scene in the Nelson region 'Nelson Art in its own place'.

As soon as Martin had finished, I went out and bought this year's new Nelson Arts guide book (the proof is sitting on our table above!). Yet again, the book is a sumptuous look at Nelson and the creativity of which we are privileged to play a part, with breathtaking photography and fabulous art. We Nelsonians can so easily support Arts Marketing by buying and sending copies of this excellent book nationally and internationally as bait to get people to come to our fair region and explore.

News from Nelson – May 2007

Hi all,

I hope all of you are feeling fighting fit :-)

Life is still busy-busy here. I have just taken on some management lecturing at NMIT due to a tutor going off to have bypass surgery - Keith Coman, for those of you who know him. His surgery (last Friday) went well, but he is out of action for 6 weeks to two months. At this stage I have only committed myself for filling in for this coming term, though the head of the Business School has left the door wide open if I want to continue doing a bit of lecturing. Lessens their risk, having a bit of extra tutor cover.

My first couple of lectures this week went well - just a tutorial on Friday now and LOTS of reading to refamiliarise myself with the subject and get up to speed. The class has six nationalities (Kiwis, Taiwanese, Chinese, Malaysians, German and Swiss), which makes for an interesting mix.

Jan is slowly recovering from his surgery. However, he is not doing too badly - after all, he was off fishing in the sounds over the weekend (and came home with some Snapper and Kahawai). Max & Karen are coming around on the weekend to smoke the Kahawai and have dinner afterwards, so that should be great.

We are also catching up with Jenny this Friday night as she is up in Nelson doing some more mistletoe work. We are going to pop out to her folk's place with some dessert - and to find out how Donald Junior is as he has just, like Jan, had his tonsils out.

I haven't heard how Adam Saleem went in the London Marathon - hopefully he will drop me a line & let me know.

On Saturday I was given a presentation by a distributor from NSE, or Nu Skin Enterprises, trying to sell me "PhotoMax". Having done some internet digging, this is a many tentacled company, including Big Planet, DVD Movie Magic, MaxCast, Pharmanex, NUS and Global Internetworks (all associated Multi-Level Marketing companies).

It was a fairly slick presentation, and it smelled like Amway (you can take by that comment that I may have been presented to, but I am not sold).

Buying into NSE's PhotoMax required a US$3k start up investment, which was glossed over very quickly, as was the US$100/month purchasing required to stay in the scheme. That's $4,200 in the first year, roughly NZ$110 a week, which would buy me enough weekly labour to do the cleaning, the washing, walk the dogs a couple of times and have some town trips run for me. So a not-inconsiderable investment.

I had a look at NSE's stock market figures and found their listed financials. They turned over $1.1b in 2006 for 100,000 'distributors', thus the average distributor generates revenue of $11,000 pa. However, profit is only $32.8m, which translates to $328.00 per distributor.

Not forgetting that this scheme costs you US$4,200 to belong in the first year, Mr or Ms Average Distributor then makes a loss of US$3,872 (NZ$5,200)... hmmm. Hardly the stuff that dreams are made of.

Additionally, I was not sold by NSE's product, after having a trawl around the internet at other similar products - all purchasable online without any up-front fees. All I can say if any of you have this deal thrust at you, be very, very careful. It looks very slick, but I think there are lots of buried fish hooks in it.

As mentioned last time, our next trip will be in May to Hanmer for a luxury weekend, then a more budget Hanmer weekend in July with some of the Hutties. June 15-17 we should be in Chch for the for UWH Secondary School Regional Champs (we are waiting on the kids voting whether want to go or not).

Of course we now have a clash for the regionals -Jan's exam is on the afternoon of the day that we are supposed to be leaving for Chch. We have to try & see if he can sit his exam early. Next it will be that I am invigilating an exam on the same afternoon!

Next Jan will have to start planning what course to do next.

And we hear that Andreas and Katrin may be heading over to our side of the world this Christmas, which will be great. Our fingers are crossed for a confirmed booking!

Look after yourselves, everyone. Alles liebe :-)

Sam & Jan