Louisville Bridge Over Water-Does it go Nowhere? (Art and History)

As I move pictures from one gallery to the next, I'm listing them for people to see. I'm using Red Bubble to host some of my pictures because I don't have to manage anything once they are up (If it was more than a hobby, I would consider specialty printing but that takes time.) However, I'm using a different site for paintings because they will require me to ship them and handle the order on a one-on-one basis. 

This picture was taken a little while ago.. You can see it in the gallary at Louisville Bridge Over Water

Just because I get curious, and you probably do to (...otherwise you wouldn't read a blog like this. It has a demographic type associated with it, but I haven't yet completely defined it yet.). I pulled a little history so I can learn a little something about the bridge. Kind of interesting. The Many Lives of the Big Four, the “Bridge That Goes Nowhere”

Art board looks pretty good. 

Delta County Board of Commissioners Meeting (1/7/2025)

Watching the county meeting to see what is new. Lots of different committee discussions and responsibiliteis. I like to learn about our local governance and some of the decisions they are making. It should be remembered that governance is a community affair and that each person has a stake in how things turning out. Being informed is one of the  most important civic duties we can engage in as citizens. It leads to good governance. One may have a party or a perspective but ultimately it is the needs of the people that should take precedence. 

-Compensation for participation on committees that is stated upfront is great. Compensation in terms of tickets and such things are ok as long as they are relatively low in value. However, generally there should be a policy on when these should be reported. We have seen in other places where such perks and benefits can impact decision making. 

American's Loosing Faith in Professions: We Could Change Our Perspective (Society and Sociology)

Faith is not something that can be forced but is earned through consistently of action and word. There was a time when people expected and encouraged certain values in action even when rewards were not forthcoming. We called that honor and integrity. True service to people as an end to itself.

Many decisions have become a game and these positions are sometimes seen as just jobs disconnected from the bigger purpose of serving society or building a great nation.

The problem is not the youth or the old but our current generation. If we want to restore trust we need a deeper value set that says not everything, not even most things, should be about money, attorneys, politics and the like. 

Do the right things and people will trust, do the wrong things and they won't. Fairly simple concept but each person has to understand and buy into that on a personal level. We are finding a decline in other institutions as well. No plans of action have been brought forward and sometimes needed changes are not occuring.

Just a thought...

Americans' faith in most professions dwindles: Gallup

Future Executives Should Learn Finance and Budgeting (Finance and Education)

Few of us love numbers but we should still learn something from bean counters on how to understand budgets and use financial knowledge to evaluate strategic options. One thing you are likely to find is that investors and senior decision makers will need to justify their actions. That often comes through numbers. Providing good ideas with dollar and cents support leads to programs that are likely to be well received.

Not all things can be easily put into financial numbers but learning to quantify potential value of various aspects of different initiatives helps support the return out on value arguments for organizations. For example, redesigning scheduling hours might improve retention of top talent. One could study that, quantify the outcomes and convert that into potential savings.

(Hopefully you are also good at reports and PowerPoint presentations.)

Learning about finance is essential to being a knowledgeable executive. Much of your work will relate to finance in some way such as balancing budgets, measuring initiative outcomes, and justifying your decisions. Having finance knowledge not only helps you understand financial information you are going to presented with the course of your duties but also help you evaluate your alternatives in numbers of language senior leaders and investors will understand.

Let us consider some research into the value of finance education/knowledge for firms. According to this study, executive finance education can increase cash flows that impact long-term investments and firm performance. It helps reduce account receivables and inventories to create some of that cash flow (Custodio, Mendes, & Metzger, 2020).

It sounds to me like executives should have the basics of finance down.

The Impact of Financial Education of Executives on Financial Practices of Medium and Large Enterprises

Cláudia Custódio Diogo Mendes Daniel Metzger (2020). The Impact of Financial Education of Executives on Financial Practices of Medium and Large Enterprises. Stockholm School of Economics. https://www.hhs.se/globalassets/swedish-house-of-finance/documents/ssrn-id3450851.pdf

Do Flowers and Plants Increase Creativity and Innovation? Beach Daisy Tote Bag (Labor, Art and Products)

Being Artsy Fartsy might have some benefits for coming up with new ideas and those ideas can have long-term dollar value for organizations. It is interesting that it is possible to put flowers, art and innovation in the same sentence and keep a straight face about it. If you like to journal your ideas and need a place to store all those intellectual morsels, consider the Beach Daisy Tote Bag (<<<<<<OK...I’m trying to tie them together in some way! I'm close! I better work on it a bit more. Art and science approach. 😂)

You may consider a more scientific perspective on the impact of flowers and plants in the workplace.

According to this study those who had flowers and plants around brought forward 15% more ideas when compared to non-flower groups (These would be control groups). Sometimes innovative creativity isn't purely just hard numbers. If one were thinking about a relative cost effective way to invest earned capital internally they could think about investing in plants (There may also be some other benefits such as cleaner air, lower heat, less employee burnout, etc. You have to research the topic. Adding up some of the studies would give you a good idea of its cost/benefits.).

Think about creating the best corporate environments one can culturally and perhaps aesthetically to improve performance. 

Flowers and Increased Productivity

Likewise, I'm still engage in my art hobby and trying to move my pictures from one gallery to the next and upload my paintings to another gallery (So pictures and paintings are in different gallerys). It is a hobby but I do try. Sometimes I get a nice shot or two. I think this beach bag sort of came out well. I took the picture near Manistique. 

You can find Beach Daisy Picture in The Walking Path Gallery. (Don't be knocking the hobbies! 😠 ....😕)

Recruitment Still Suffering in Most Police Departments (Government and Service)

Recruitment for public services is important and it does have some impact on other institutions as well. Public service isn't always on the top of the list for many young people. However, public service is necessary for the safety of citizens and the full functioning of an economy (There are always central underlining safety, trust, etc. aspects that increase or decrease economic activity.). Attracting and drawing the highest caliber future officers we can makes a difference in not only the functioning of such institutions but also the ability to attract future top talent. 

According to a survey of 1,158 U.S. Agencies by the The International Association of Chief of Police they found , 

-70% of respondents reported recruitment tis more difficult than 5 years ago. They are at 91% of their staffing needs. 

-75% reported making policy and procedure changes to improve the pool. 

There is going to be some negative impact on crime if we don't get more people to join and of course the type of people we want to join is an important point of discussion. Sometimes widening the pool of candidates doesn't mean lowering standards but perhaps recruiting from new diverse pools, reviewing the profile of who we want to recruit, and ensuring the best officers rise to the top (..and the worst ones cycled out because all systems should have a little flow to keep upward movement.)

In the Characteristics of the Ideal Police Officer, you find important factors such as 1. Initiative, 2.) Sense of Ethics, 3.) Respect and Knowledge of Laws, 4.) Communication Skills, 5.) Common Sense, 6.) Civility, 7.) Service Mentality, 8.) Humility, 9.) Controlled Temper, 10.) Thirst for Knowledge (Capps, 2014)

As always, I'm 100% for Police and 110% for Civil Rights. Good officers protecting our community and doing things the right way should have 100% of our support. If you want a career path you might consider joining your local department and being one of those good officers. If you have issues and other problems, consider a different line of work because we need our best out there keeping us safe. Thanks for what you do. 

Capps, L. (2014). Characteristics of the Ideal Police Officer. https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/perspective/perspective-characteristics-of-an-ideal-police-officer

IACP (2024) The State of Recruitment & Retention: A Continuing Crisis for Policing. https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2024-11/IACP_Recruitment_Report_Survey.pdf

Escanaba City Council Regular Meeting Thursday January 02, 2025-Some Foundations For Investment (Government and Society)

This was a relatively short meeting and provided another opportunity to understand the city as a investment destination. There are some things that can raise standards. According to a study in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics human capital and agglomeration are more conducive to new firm entry than are natural amenities, local fiscal policy, or social capital (Artz, Kim, Orazem, & Han, 2020. Escanaba has a local trades college, local industry skills, some of the region's nicest natural resources/amenities, the city has fiscally sound as of date, and there is momentum to develop the town among community activists. One might consider that a good start as a place to consider investing.

You may read, 

Which Small Towns Attract Start‐Ups and Why? Twenty Years of Evidence from Iowa

Agenda

Artz, Georgeanne M., Younjun Kim, Peter F. Orazem, and Peter J. Han. "Which Small Towns Attract Start‐Ups and Why? Twenty Years of Evidence from Iowa." American Journal of Agricultural Economics (2020). doi: 10.1111/ajae.12144.