h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Road? Oh, that thing....

I shall carry mace for those attacking trees.

*sneaks in, scoops up cal, sneaks out again*

*is glas he doesn´t have to read the blog*

Ahem...I saw that...

*looks around*


I think there's a Calnapper in our midst..

Hmmm...seems to happen often...

I reckon he should organise bodyguards for himself...

Welcome back Cal - I hope you had a good trip and I look forward to reading all about it. Am I right in thinking you had family there you visit?

You would be impressed with the topic drift we have had here - commenting on which we have a high level of employee contribution to the community too - we get a lot of recognition for it in the UK and we have a programme of things to help those impacted by Katrina, coordinated by our Dallas office.

That is wonderful to read, Light. It's so important. I've recently accepted a position as one of the coordinators for our company's Animal Rescue group. We have people driving to New Orleans to pick up those pets that survived. The ones surrendered by their owners are put up for adoption and the ones whose families want them back when they find a home themselves are put in foster homes.

Because I'm in the middle of a major campaign I cannot volunteer. I am going through all of 's stuff and giving away the things she no longer uses. An extra set of food/water bowls, extra collars and leads (like she'd be caught dead on a lead!), her bed she never uses and some antibiotics I have from a previous ear infection she had. I'm also going to donate some money to help pay for food, gas, etc.

That is good news.

The story in our local paper about the pets was very sad. We donated some stuff to the local church shelters and the L.S.U. vet school. The vet school is housing animals from New Orleans.

You'll probably be seeing many of my coworkers picking up critters to bring back. Mostly from Project HALO and the various Humane Societies and Rescue Groups. The way our company does the volunteering is most major charities or groups of charities (like animal rescue) have teams of coordinators within the company that volunteer to keep things straight within the company and generally browbeat our coworkers into helping out.

Because we have almost 100000 employees (probably more than that now that we just bought a financial firm on the West Coast) the internal coordinators have some serious organizing they need to do.

I can't imagine organizing anything that large.

Well.. it's not like everyone goes for every charity.. plus there is the advantage that not all our employees are local. We have a whole department that does nothing but maintain the local civic programs, but each city we have a major presence in has a chapter of our volunteer group.

One of our largest annual functions is a private version of the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. I participated this year and there were a few thousand in attandance. We also do it in other cities we have a major presence like Raleigh, Atlanta, Mobile, and others... in the last 5 years our company has done this locally we've raised over 7 million dollars for cancer.

That is a major contribution to cancer research. You are lucky to work for such a socially concious company.

What is the relay for life?

I have been impressed since I started there. Some of the recent "upgrades" to our volunteer and donation programs is that the company upped their support for Katrina by 10x. We started with 250k before we knew how bad it was. That has changed to 2MM in cash, plus about 500k in supplies, plus they'll match all employee donations to 1k each.

For the war - we've always had a standard policy for employees who are members of the National Guard and Reserves when called to active duty. For up to 1 year they continue to receive full pay and benefits so their families don't suffer while they are away. Because many are being called up again and again after 1 year, it has been extended so they are able to file a form with HR and have it continued throughout their tour of duty.

Of course they get their job or something comparable (with free retraining) upon their return regardless.

That's a lot of donations.

I don't recall anyone on our staff being in the military at the time they worked with us. There were a few veterans on our staff over the years.

This is for National Guard and Reserves.. weekend soldiers.. many of their families are in terrible shape because they were called to active duty and shipped off to war. The military "salary" that they are given is a joke! Particularly considering often when one parent leaves the other cannot work as much as they are raising children alone.