July, 2010 - Bettina Network's Blog

Archive for July, 2010

Looking for a different and interesting JOB?

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Waltham Land Trust
July 18, 2010
Dear Friend,

The Waltham Land Trust is looking for a Program Director for our all-volunteer orgranization. This person will provide fundraising and general operations support to our Board of Directors. A detailed job description follows and is also located at www.walthamlandtrust.org/.

If you are interested, or if you know someone who might be interested in this exciting opportunity, please share this information with them. A cover letter and resume need to be emailed to resumes@walthamlandtrust.org by July 31.

Job Description

The Waltham Land Trust, a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation in Waltham, Massachusetts is seeking an independent contractor to serve as Program Director for this all-volunteer organization
.
Overview:

The position of Program Director is designed to provide fundraising and general operations support to the Board of Directors. This independent contractor position has flexible hours, but the engagement is for approximately 1500 hours a year with a stipend of approximately $35,000. The Program Director must be available evenings and some weekends for committee meetings and events.

Duties and Responsibilities:
I. Membership – Support expansion and tracking of the membership through recruitment of new members, creation of membership programs (educational events, walks, trailblazing and similar activities), maintenance of member and donor databases, support of newsletter production and regular communication with members, donors and community groups.

II. Volunteer Coordination – Organize and work with Land Trust committees and volunteer groups in making presentations, organizing educational events, walks, open space clean-up projects and similar activities.

III. Fundraising – Assist the board in implementing the fundraising plan by researching and writing grants, preparing solicitations and acknowledgements, organizing special events and other funding strategies and tasks.

IV. Administrative – Provide general support to the Board of Directors and committees by serving as the primary liaison for the organization and by processing contributions, maintaining the website, and managing daily phone and e-mail messages. Maintain the WLT office, equipment and files; order supplies, and perform related administrative tasks.

V. Any other agreed duties.

The land trust is looking for a person who demonstrates the following skills and attributes:

Outstanding organizational skills, strong oral and written communication skills, and excellent interpersonal skills;
Technological skills:
Proficiency with Microsoft Word and Excel, on Mac or Windows;
Proficiency with email, the primary communication tool of the organization;
Desirable: familiarity with Constant Contact or other email group broadcasting services, Adobe InDesign or other page layout software, Filemaker Pro or other database software, Plone or other CMS/Portal web content creation and editing, and ArcView or other GIS mapping software;
Ability to walk on trails, lift a weight of 15-20 pounds, drive to program locations in Waltham and elsewhere in New England;
Ability to balance competing priorities and deadlines;
Works well independently, is a self-starter able to handle multiple tasks;
Reliability and flexibility;
Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues;

Please send cover letter and resume via email by July 31st: resumes@walthamlandtrust.org

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Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

In Memory of Jaki Leverson – An email response.

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010

Dear Bettina,

my name is xxxxxxx xxxxxxxx. I was a student of Jaki Leverson’s in the Tufts-in-London program in 1983-84. I just learned that she died and am full of sadness. I remained in touch with Jaki ever since college and visited her in London every couple of years. I last saw her in August 2008. Jaki was one of the most decent, kind people I’ve ever known. Her dedication to her work and to her students was incredible. And as you said, she was a true citizen of the world. I will miss her.

Sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxxxx

ed note: The above email was received by us 7/12/2010 and we wanted to share it with you, our readers. Per our policy, the name of the person sending the email is not included.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Harvest Restaurant

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

copyright the Bettina Network, inc. 2010

44 Brattle Street
Cambridge, MA. 02138
617 868 2255

Hours: Mon-Th 12pm-10pm
Fri-Sat 12pm-11pm, Sun 11:30am-10pm

We were roaming around Concord, MA., went into a beautiful modern art gallery and heard about the Harvest Restaurant’s history. The person in the store lived in Cambridge, once upon a time, and her husband worked at the Harvest so we got an earful. We were on our way to reviewing another restaurant, but after that conversation, which was fantastic with lots of history we didn’t know, we decided to stop in for lunch and maybe dinner to take another look at the Harvest Restaurant in Cambridge.

The history was intriguing. Many of the ‘greats’ in the restaurant world in Cambridge/Boston started out at the Harvest Restaurant or worked there at some point in their career. The Harvest and Design Resource – a great place to shop, once upon a time – were connected by the same ownership and we had just enjoyed the retrospective display in the window of the old Design Resource while it waited for a new store to open. The Marimekko fabrics and other items once considered consumer items, now in the area called art were beautifully presented.

Lydia Shire, Chris Shlesinger, and we heard, but couldn’t verify that even Jasper White worked at the Harvest. We couldn’t verify any of the stories we heard because we called the Harvest’s PR person, who was in a hurry and didn’t have time to talk with us. We asked our questions, she promised she would send info on the Harvest’s history – weeks ago. We are still waiting for either a return phone call or marketing information.

That is symbolic of our entire experience.

Our first trip to the Harvest was for lunch on a week day. The restaurant was only about 1/3 full. We were happy about that. Service would be great, no crowds with which to contend, no running out of dishes on the menu, etc.

When we walked in we were confronted with large flower arrangements, which were exquisite, but looked as though the florist had just arrived and put them wherever there was space – pushing some things out of the way to make room for the flowers. That was disappointing. The Harvest would have looked better without the flowers. Someone’s aesthetic sense is missing.

We looked at the menu and looked and looked and looked. It was hard deciding what to order, because nothing really struck us as great for lunch. I came from a place which cooks great rabbit, but somehow Bacon Wrapped Rabbit Leg with grilled nectarine foie gras stuffing just didn’t do it. My food memories growing-up include foie gras and great bread for breakfast and an even greater foie gras for dinner or a late evening snack. The thought of eating a grilled nectarine foie gras – stuffed into a rabbits leg which was wrapped with bacon, just spoiled all those memories so I bypassed that item.

After taking a long time to decide we settled on hamburgers. Going to an upscale restaurant for fast food was just debilitating. There were three of us and we all settled on the hamburgers for lack of being enticed by anything else. The hamburgers were a forced selection, – since we were there we had to choose something. It was not a choice we jumped for joy about.

When the food arrived, it was disappointing! The burger was alright; the aioli good; there were huge proportions; the fries were good; the bread not so great; way to much raw onion – a huge thick slice of raw red onion on the sandwich overpowered everything else. Since we had a meeting to go to after lunch and didn’t want to run everybody out of the room with our after lunch bodily smells, we took the onion off the sandwich. A smaller, thinner slice might have held its own, but this was way over the wrong top.

For an upscale restaurant, it was a decidedly downscale meal. The service was more than adequate, but the wait people were totally lacking in energy. I wondered if they would make it through the meal.

We were bothered by flies throughout our meal and we chose to sit inside so we wouldn’t have to worry about the insects. A fly settled in the rim of the glass at the empty table next to us and stayed there for over an hour. Could that be why many restaurants turn their glasses upside down once a table has been set? – to keep tiny, unwanted intruders out of the crystal and off the porcelain? It was more than a little upsetting to have to battle flies, but we weren’t excited about the food anyway so we skipped dessert, ignored the coffee and left most of the food uneaten.

Because the room was not full the table arrangements didn’t bother us. If it had been filled we would have left before ordering. Somehow, we didn’t expect to see tables lined up along the wall – one table after another, where you would probably elbow your neighbor at the next table before the end of the meal because there wasn’t room to eat with any sense of privacy and distance from others trying to do the same thing. Stuff another table along the wall and push them all closer together to accommodate the extra service for another party – seemed to be the ethos!

All in all – too much money – for a forced upscale-wanna-be menu. One choice we skipped over was a Burgundy Escargot Tart with Chorizo Butter. We wondered what Chorizo butter would do to the Escargot – a delicate taste mixed with – what – butter whipped with chorizo sausage? It sounded greasy, unappetizing and we just couldn’t imagine ordering it.

Would we return? Uh-Uh! We did, however, for dinner – to make sure we weren’t judging on just one visit where things could have been a bit off that day. Dinner wasn’t any better. Especially since NOTHING was organic. The only item close was the “natural” Boyden Farm Vermont Burger. For the same money they could have made that burger an Organic one.

______________________________________________________________

Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.

Searching for Goats MILK!

Thursday, July 8th, 2010

We are searching for Organic Whole Raw Goats Milk Kefir! If we can’t find the Organic Whole Raw Goats Milk Kefir – if you know of a source for Organic Whole Raw Goats Milk let us know that to – we will make our own Kefir.

We have received lots of mail about one of our bed & breakfast home’s morning Smoothie Drink which is available to their bed and breakfast guests as an addition to or instead of the regular breakfasts they prepare. We would like to make the recipe and information available on the Blog, but sources for the Goats Milk are impossible to find – except in the most hidden places. What country is this? A democracy? Or has our open government been replaced with a dictatorship when we weren’t looking?

Don’t know why those foods that are best for us are the hardest to find? Are we being marketed and programmed into sickness and problem health issues?

The smoothie made with Organic Raw Goats’ Milk Kefir is getting rave reviews from some of our guests. One guest credits it with getting rid of his “pot belly” which he cultivated by drinking beer and which exercise did nothing to flatten.

The recipe:

Put the following in a blender –
1 cup organic raw whole goat’s milk kefir
Add a frozen packet of your favorite organic fruit – blackberries, pinneapple, cherries, strawberries, etc.
Add one organic banana – very ripe
Add organic maple syrup to taste

If you like your smoothie very cold and a little like a soft ice cream add about 4 ice cubes
If you prefer your smoothie more liquid, don’t add the ice cubes and you will get a wonderful thick drink.

Blend for several minutes – depending upon how you want the outcome – experiment until you get your favorite consistency.

We’ve started trying it, but can’t get the proper milk. We are using organic whole milk pasteurized cows milk kefir. Its still good, but not as healthy, nor does it give the kind of results the organic raw whole goat’s milk kefir is giving and we are jealous of the results and frustrated in this search.

At least we can find the organic whole milk – Lifeway is the only label we’ve found selling the organic whole cow’s milk kefir.

I am sure you all know the difference between the whole milk and low fat. We are discovering claims that low fat is what is producing the osteoporosis epidemic. All the research we’ve done and the breakfast discussions we’ve been made aware of talk about the difference and the false bill of goods, particularly women, have been sold thinking low fat milk products will help them control their weight and provide their needed calcium, etc.

Apparently, milk fat and milk protein have to be present in the body at the exact same time and the only way that can happen is if your milk is “whole”. All the unnatural things that are being done to milk is amazing. What ever happened to good, plain, clean milk straight from the animal without all the expensive equipment now needed to produce a bottle of milk to sell to consumers. It certainly has limited who can go into the dairy business and produce the end product – And, especially – who receives the real profit from milk. It looks as though that will not be the farmer with the dairy animals producing the milk. That is only the first step – after which those who make the real profit on milk step in, collect milk from many dairy farmers and up the price beyond anything any dairy farmer could hope to make.

There have been some hot breakfast table discussions about milk lately. We buy organic milk, but hadn’t thought much beyond that. We now have been pushed to look at a lot more and think carefully about this whole topic. There is even a bit of controversy over kefir. Are there 10 or 12 probiotics in Kefir or are there 36 and are we being short changed even in that area?

Bed and breakfast opens doors we didn’t even realize were doors and throws open windows we couldn’t see through. What a startling new view through those windows with the painted glass panes. This milk business is certainly an area that has us dizzy. And it all started with smoothies for breakfast.

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Learn More About How We Use Your Donation!

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______________________________________________________________

Want to join us? Have a home that you want to open to become one of Bettina Network’s Hedge Schools? Call us and lets talk – or email us.

Ed. Note: Members of the Bettina Network Lifestyle Community can contribute to the Bettina Network Blog whenever they have anything they want to say and be heard by this fantastic group of people. Send your blog to bettinanetwork@comcast.net or mail it to us at P. O. Box 380585 Cambridge, MA. 02238 or call us on the telephone at 617-497-9166 to tell us what you want to say and we will write it for you.

Volunteer with Bettina Network Foundation, inc. to work estate sales; to help move items from one home to another; to contribute your ideas on how we can better use our resources in this effort to relieve and eliminate homelessness and poverty. We also need photographers; designers; and more. However much or little time you have, we are grateful.

Send your event information to be included in Bettina Network’s Menu of Events to: bettina-network@comcast.net

This is a curated blog so you cannot write your responses at the end of each entry. TO RESPOND TO THIS BLOG email bettina-network@comcast.net or info@bettina-network.com

TO LEARN MORE about Bettina Network, inc. try www.bettina-network.com

IF YOU ENJOY OUR BLOG, USE OUR SERVICES TO BOOK ACCOMODATIONS WHEN YOU TRAVEL!

1-800-347-9166 inside the U. S. or 617 497 9166 outside or inside the U. S.


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