What Destination Leaders Can Do to Engage Their Workforce jhammond@desti… Fri, 06/21/2024 - 13:19

5 Tips for DMO Managers with More Questions Than Answers jhammond@desti… Tue, 05/07/2024 - 18:30

The Virginia State Corporation Commission was created by the Constitution of 1902. Its responsibilities include issuing charters of incorporation, policing financial industries such as banking and insurance, regulating rates that common carriers charge for freight and passengers, and enforcing the laws that govern rates charged by such public utilities as electric and telephone companies. Because the commission promulgates regulations, operates regulatory agencies, and hears appeals on some kinds of administrative matters, it exercises legislative, executive, and judicial functions and has sometimes been referred to as the fourth branch of state government. The commission consists of three members who serve six-year terms, one term expiring every second year. The governor appointed members from to 1903 to 1919; voters elected members from 1919 to 1928; and the General Assembly named members after 1928. If a vacancy occurs when the assembly is not in session, the governor appoints a new member. The first commissioners took office on March 1, 1903.
Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:26:11 EST

Members of the United States House of Representatives are listed here in alphabetical order. Each entry includes life dates if known, a member's area of residence when first elected, period of service, and party affiliation when known. Before 1795 and again from the 1810s into the 1830s there were no well-organized political parties or parties were in flux, and for those time periods no affiliation is listed. Between 1795 and the 1810s most members are identified as Federalists or as Democratic-Republicans. The eight men who were elected to the House of Representatives in 1865 but not seated are also included in this list. John Mercer Langston, elected in 1890, was the first African American elected to Congress from Virginia. Leslie Larkin Byrne, elected in 1992, was the first woman elected to Congress from Virginia.
Mon, 04 Jan 2021 09:26:01 EST

Elizabeth Key was a principal in one of the important early court cases that shaped the evolving law of slavery in seventeenth-century Virginia. Born to a mother of African descent and her white owner, Thomas Key, she was transferred to another owner in 1636 for a designated period of nine years. She remained in service for well beyond that period, marrying a white man in the meantime and converting to Christianity. Upon the death of a third owner, Key sued for her freedom, citing the 1636 agreement. She won in Northumberland County but the General Court overturned the ruling. Key appealed to the General Assembly, which found that the status of the father determined the status of the child, that her faith supported her freedom, and that she deserved to be free. The county court subsequently freed her with compensation. In 1662, perhaps a result of the case, the General Assembly passed a law making the status of a child dependent on the mother and not the father. The next year, the assembly passed another law specifying that an enslaved person's conversion to Christianity did not confer freedom on that person.
Wed, 16 Dec 2020 09:16:43 EST

"Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" was the official state song of Virginia from 1940 to 1997. Written in 1878 by the famed Black minstrel performer James A. Bland, it was one of a number of popular minstrel songs that sentimentalized life in the Old South and perpetuated a myth of Black nostalgia for life in slavery on plantations. Legislation to replace "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" was introduced every year between 1988 and 1994. From 1994 to 1997, the Virginia General Assembly made lyric changes to remove Black dialect and references to slavery in an attempt to make the song less offensive. In 1997, the General Assembly demoted "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" from the official state song to "state song emeritus." In 2015, the General Assembly designated two official state songs: "Our Great Virginia," based on the folk song "Oh Shenandoah," was named the official traditional song, and "Sweet Virginia Breeze" was named the official popular song. 
Wed, 16 Dec 2020 09:11:41 EST

In this letter, dated January 16, 1801, Alexander Hamilton writes to James Bayard, a Federalist member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Delaware. Hamilton conveys his satisfaction that Bayard has decided to support Burr in the Election of 1800. He goes on to offer his criticisms of both Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson and his worst fears were either man to become president.
Fri, 30 Oct 2020 16:09:37 EST

Samuel Chapman Armstrong was the founder of Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (later Hampton University). Armstrong's father served as the kingdom of Hawaii's minister of education and emphasized student labor as a key part of schooling. The younger Armstrong enlisted in the Union army during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and commanded regiments in the United States Colored Troops. After the war he worked with the Freedmen's Bureau and began planning a school to train black teachers. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute opened in 1868 and emphasized labor alongside academics. The institution produced African American educators across the South, most notably Booker T. Washington. In 1878 Hampton's mission expanded with the admission of Native American students. The growth intensified Armstrong dependence on benefactors and in turn left it further exposed to the rising racism among American whites. In his later years academics at Hampton were publicly de-emphasized in favor of its trade-school programs. Armstrong died of a stroke in 1893.
Fri, 30 Oct 2020 14:14:55 EST

Much of what is known about towns and town life in early Virginia Indian society is drawn from archaeological investigation, the observations of English settlers, and the work of Captain John Smith, who between 1607 and 1609 explored and mapped the Chesapeake Bay area. Through a combination of these sources, we know that most Virginia Indian towns were located close to fertile soil and along waterways, which were both a source of food and drinking water and a means of transport. Towns generally conformed to one of two layouts: a dispersed settlement pattern, in which the houses were scattered according to which fields were being cultivated at the time; and a nucleated settlement pattern, in which a palisade surrounds a tightly packed group of houses. The latter layout was usually found in frontier areas, where the threat of attack by enemy tribes was greater. Indian towns were busy, intensely social places and each resident, regardless of age or sex, was expected to play a particular role. This resulted in a tight-knit community that could be supportive, but constricting. Privacy was limited, so great emphasis was placed on manners and politeness and on releasing tension through a nightly group activity like singing and dancing. The quality of life in Indian towns declined in Virginia after the English arrived and began to encroach on Indian land.
Fri, 30 Oct 2020 14:08:31 EST

The record of women in colonial Virginia begins with Native Americans and gradually includes European and African women. The experiences of these women differed widely depending on their ethnicity, their status, and the gender roles defined by their culture. In the colony's early years, survival, not tradition, influenced the roles of men and women, whether white or black, free or unfree. Planters' wives, indentured servants, and slaves labored in the tobacco fields alongside one another, while an unmarried woman with land could engage in business the same way a man might. As Jamestown grew from a fortified outpost into the capital of a permanent colony, colonists began to envision a stable society based on the patriarchal system they had known in England, where men held authority over their wives, children, and other dependents. But the uneven sex ratio, the scattered nature of settlement, the high mortality rate, and frequent remarriages made the transfer of such ideas difficult, if not impossible. Historians agree that a society with less emphasis on gender roles gradually ceded to the traditional patriarchal system, but the exact timing of this change is not entirely clear. By the mid-seventeenth century, the colony's lawmakers began to use ideas about gender and race to codify two distinct roles for Virginia women: the so-called good wife, typically free and white, who performed domestic work in her home and raised her children; and the agricultural laborer, typically enslaved and black. By the end of the seventeenth century, members of the planter elite had separated themselves from the rest of Virginia's residents with their landed wealth, enslaved laborers, and wives who managed their homes. Although middling women (women of moderate means) continued to work alongside their husbands in the fields and operate taverns and other businesses well into the eighteenth century, all classes of women became relegated to the private sphere while their husbands increasingly dominated the public world. By the end of the colonial period, women, whether rich or poor, urban or rural, were expected to skillfully manage a household and provide an example for their children—acts that bolstered patriarchal authority in colonial Virginia.
Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:30:23 EST

Early Virginia Indians spoke dialects of Algic, Iroquoian, or Siouan, three large linguistic families that include many of the more than eight hundred indigenous languages in North America. Among Virginia's Algic-speakers were the Powhatan Indians, who lived in the Tidewater and encountered the Jamestown settlers in 1607. Little is known of their language—a form of Algic known as Virginia Algonquian—although Captain John Smith and William Strachey both composed influential vocabulary lists. The Nottoways and the Meherrins lived south of the James near the fall line and spoke Iroquoian. Although the Meherrin language was never recorded, it has been identified as Iroquoian based on geography. In 1820, John Wood interviewed the elderly Nottoway "queen" Edie Turner and created a word list that eventually was recognized as Iroquoian. Virginia's Siouan-speakers, meanwhile, largely lived west of the fall line and included the Monacans, the Mannahoacs, and the Saponis. Many Virginia Indians, encouraged by the requirements of trade, diplomacy, and warfare, spoke multiple languages, and when the English arrived, they and the Powhatans eagerly exchanged boys to learn each other's language and serve as interpreters. By the twentieth century, most if not all Virginia Indian languages had become extinct, meaning that no native speakers survived. In 2005, the Terrence Malick film The New World presented a form of Algonquian based on the Smith and Strachey lists and the work of the linguist Blair Rudes.
Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:20:19 EST

What is known of marriage in early Virginia Indian society is limited to the observations of Jamestown colonists, visiting English observers, and later American historians, and is mostly applicable to the Algonquian-speaking Powhatans of Tsenacomoco, a paramount chiefdom of twenty-eight to thirty-two groups living in Tidewater Virginia. Marriage was crucial for survival in Indian society, because men and women needed to work as partners in order to accomplish their many daily and seasonal tasks. The man initiated courtship and looked for a woman who would perform her assigned tasks well. The woman could decline a marriage offer, but if she did choose to accept it, her parents also needed to approve the offer. The groom's parents, meanwhile, paid a bridewealth, or marriage payment, to the bride's parents to compensate them for her lost labor. Men were allowed to have additional wives, so long as the husband could afford to provide for them; for chiefs especially, these wives served as symbols of wealth. It is estimated that the paramount chief Powhatan (Wahunsonacock) had as many as one hundred wives during his lifetime. While a man's first marriage was expected to last for life, additional marriages were likely negotiated for shorter terms. Unless a woman was married to a chief, she was allowed to conduct extramarital affairs, provided she had her husband's permission (which was usually given). Punishment for dishonesty on this score could be severe, however. Virginia Indians held onto their marriage traditions long after contact with the English, and marriage between Indians and the English was rare.
Thu, 29 Oct 2020 17:44:08 EST

Garnett Station Partners, a New York-based investment firm managing over $2.3 billion in assets, has made a strategic growth investment in Bristol Environmental. This partnership aims to expand Bristol's reach and enhance its environmental remediation and abatement services.

PuroClean, a leading franchise in property restoration and remediation, is expanding its footprint in Connecticut. Targeting cities like Hartford and New Haven, PuroClean aims to extend its specialized services in water damage remediation, fire and smoke damage restoration, and mold remediation to new areas.

Sasser Restoration, a commercial restoration company, has expanded its operations and opened an office in California’s Inland Empire. Through this expansion, Sasser Restoration aims to provide high-quality restoration services to commercial businesses experiencing water, fire, and mold disasters throughout Riverside and San Bernardino counties. 

A visionary leader in the cleaning and restoration industry, was awarded the Cooper Award for his exceptional dedication, charitable work, and over 20 years of service.

Rainbow Restoration of Greenville welcomes Geoff Schull as its new Chief Financial Officer. With a strong background in financial operations and a passion for process improvement, Schull aims to streamline efficiencies and support the company's mission to serve Upstate South Carolina with top-tier restoration services.

CRDN moves up on the 2024 Franchise Times Top 400 list, ranking third in sales growth within the Disaster Restoration category. Securing an overall ranking of 243, up from 278 in 2023, CRDN continues to showcase its growth and leadership in the restoration industry.

BELFOR Franchise Group announces the launch of the Claims Partnership Program, offering customized training for property claims professionals. This program aims to address the gap created by retiring veterans and new entrants in the claims industry.

Stellar Service Brands announces the promotion of Jessica Wescott to CEO, marking a new chapter for the company. Wescott, who joined in 2022, has driven significant growth and expansion, positioning the company for continued success. 

Professional Metal Fabricators won their bid on the project and got to work on the support structure for the stained glass — and some issues arose.

According to the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA), poor indoor air quality classifies one out of every four buildings in the United States as "sick," costing the economy up to $168 billion annually. 

BluSky Restoration Contractors, LLC, raised $150,000 for ALS research through its seventh annual Rakers Classic charity golf tournament, an event inspired by Lyle Rakers, an employee diagnosed with a rare form of ALS in 2017, which has become a cornerstone of the Lyle Rakers Charitable Foundation.

Alpine Cleaning & Restoration Specialists team up with ROC Solid Foundation to build a backyard playset for Adlee Frampton, a brave three-year-old battling Stage 2 Wilms Tumor. This generous act not only brings joy to Adlee but also highlights the powerful impact of community support and the healing power of play during challenging times.

RT Specialty’s Hamilton, NJ office has promoted Justin Kochmer, Kelly Jackson, and Joe Fagan to Senior Account Managers, recognizing their contributions to enhancing the insurance experience for clients. Their dedication and leadership are expected to drive further success within the team.

New franchise owners Andrew Hoskins, Tyler Berry, and Justin Maier bring local expertise to the CRDN family, while recent training graduates are now equipped to deliver specialized textile restoration and end-to-end services.

BluSky Restoration Contractors hosted its 14th annual "Clays for Kids" fundraiser, raising $15,000 for CASA of Larimer County.

Jon-Don has launched a temporary Hurricane Support Center in Sarasota, FL to provide essential disaster restoration equipment, supplies, and expertise to contractors aiding in the recovery from Hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Find out how PuroClean's commitment to excellence led to a 44.4% systemwide sales increase and continues to fuel its success in the industry.

First Onsite, a leading disaster recovery provider in North America, has expanded its New England presence by recruiting a seasoned team of restoration professionals. Led by industry veterans Gary Grout and Jason Green, the team brings decades of experience in water, fire, and mold mitigation, enhancing First Onsite's ability to serve clients across Massachusetts and beyond.

As communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, 1-800-Packouts, a leader in contents and personal property restoration, offers vital assistance to franchisees and residents through the Hurricane Relief Fund. With a 100% match on donations, the fund supports restoration efforts in impacted areas across the Southeast.

The IICRC has announced the election of four director positions for the 2024-2025 Board of Directors.

Learn how this initiative provides veterans with a 25% discount on franchising fees and opportunities to thrive in a growing industry, backed by the expertise and passion of Frank Torre and his commitment to service.

The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) is seeking volunteers from the User category to join the consensus body for the revision of the IICRC S300 Standard for Professional Upholstery Cleaning. Users of professional upholstery cleaning services are encouraged to apply by contacting IICRC Standards.

Chicago-based tech startup Albi has been named one of LinkedIn's Top 10 Most Successful Startups, recognizing the company’s transformative platform for restoration professionals. 

Discover the leadership strategies that fuel high ROI, from building strong teams to leveraging cutting-edge technology. Learn how the industry's top pioneers are bridging the leadership gap to ensure future success.

With Don O'Dell's expertise in quality service and safety, he is poised to lead New Crystal Restoration's project management team, further enhancing the company’s trusted reputation across the tri-state area. Learn more about his journey and the valuable skills he brings to this leadership role.

New Crystal Restoration proudly announces the addition of Diosel Pineda Ocampo as Operations Manager. With 25 years in construction and 5 years specializing in restoration, Diosel brings a wealth of expertise to the team.

Cavalry Construction & Restoration announces a leadership transition as President Boyd Beadles takes sole leadership, expanding the company's focus to include enhanced mitigation services across Texas.

With a proven track record in sales and operations, Amanda Stichter is set to lead the digital marketing firm toward continued growth, focusing on innovative strategies in SEO, website design, and lead generation.

PuroClean has been named one of the most profitable franchises of 2024 by Franchise Business Review, recognized for its strong financial performance and high franchisee satisfaction.

ATI Restoration ranks among America’s fastest-growing private companies, driven by a 97 percent revenue growth over the past three years. CEO David Carpenter attributes the achievement to the company’s dedicated staff and its commitment to exceptional disaster recovery services.

Typely is a free editor that claims to be able to edit grammar. Most grammar tools are fairly limited, and this is no exception.

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I have been studying Lao for the last few months. As I leave the school and go home to work on the internet, I don't practise that much. But I have been learning how to read and write in Lao. 

EF (Education First) have created a free online language test called EFSET. As it stands, it is a bit of a curate's egg, but I do think that they are onto something. It's slick and available in several languages, and you can log in directly from Facebook,Google or Linkedin.

A couple of weeks ago, we blocked access to the forum from all IPs from South Korea. The forum had been under attack by some organised spammers for a few weeks, and it was ruining the forum. The attack was, presumably, using something like a botnet as there was a seemingly unending supply of different IPs used. Day after day, hundreds and hundreds of posts were being made and it was impossible to keep up with deleting and banning the accounts posting the spam. This was affecting the forum- people were complaining, and many were simply put off by finding page after page of nonsensical messages. The spam filter was not catching a lot of the messages as most didn't contain links but text pointing towards sites that were probably full of malware.

Quite a lot of people post the same question in a number of ESL forums. The logic behind doing this is clear- you should be able to access a wider selection fof views and opinions and get better answers. However, things don't always work out the way people think and this process can lead to objections from the people answering.

We are updating our site to incorporate the changes that have been made by the updates to the First Certicate in English (FCE) exam from Cambridge English.

I left the UK in 2004. There are jobs currently advertised that pay the same, or in some cases 10% less, than I was earning then. Add even a very small amount of inflation and this makes for a huge drop in spending power. The average salary that people talk about in Japan today is the same as when I first visited Japan in 2005. I saw hourly rates in Portugal, where I first taught, a decade later that were the same as when I left.

I have had a few complaints about swearing in the forum, even though the posts were legitimate questions about the use of slang and swearwords. There aren't that many threads dealing with these, but some of them do contain language that somewould consider to be extreme and taboo.