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Let's open our Bibles together as we come to the study of God's Word. And we're looking at 1 Timothy chapter 3...1 Timothy chapter 3. Our examination of the first seven verses deals with the call and character of church leaders...qualifications for those who are pastors, elders and overseers in the church.
Let me begin by relating to you a story that I read this week and I confess to you that it may well be an apocryphal story, it does sound a bit far fetched, but nonetheless will serve to establish a point.
Supposedly there is a community high in the mountains of Colorado. In fact, it's so high in the mountains that it is a tourist place and many folks come there because from that vantage point they can look out on some beautiful scenery, particularly one section of the town which is on the edge of a sheer precipice, dropping hundreds of feet below to a magnificent and beautiful valley.
As the story goes, many people would go out to see this view and get as close to the edge as they could to see all of it and it was not uncommon that someone should slip and fall over. If they were fortunate and happen to fall in an area where there was a gradual slope, they might only come to the bottom with severely broken bones. However, many of them fell off a rather sheer edge and plunged to their death. Even little children played in the area because of the view and they too had lost their lives over the years.
Well the townspeople got together and they decided that they had to do something about this situation. And so, by vote of the committee they decided to purchase several ambulances to be parked at the bottom of the hill. And the idea was that the ambulances would be there and ready and available to take the broken to the hospital and the dead to the funeral parlor. And through the years this particular ambulance program was very successful and they delivered people as rapidly as they could to the proper place.
However, it became quite costly to maintain this program. What with maintenance on the ambulances and hiring the people and so forth...the committee reconvened to see if there wasn't a better and cheaper way to accomplish the same purpose and somebody came up the with the absolutely unthinkable idea of putting a fence at the top of the mountain. And after some debate it was determined that that might be a good idea. And so a fence was erected at the top of the mountain and from then on there have been no casualties and the expenses have been markedly reduced.
You say, "That's a pretty bizarre story." I told you I thought it was apocryphal. You say, "What's the point?" As I read that I couldn't help but think of how that reminds me of the church. The church is very good at assembling ambulance programs and trying to pick up the crushed and the dead from the bottom of the precipice. But not nearly so good at putting up a fence at the top to stop them from falling in the first place. We have a myriad of ambulance programs, means to repair broken lives. And we are unsuccessful, I think, at trying to play as if we were all the king's horses and all the king's men who couldn't put Humpty together again.
And somewhere along the line we need to sort of recommit ourselves that there needs to be a fence at the top, something that shields people from the initial danger, something that holds them back from the precipice to start with, something that stops the plunge of of individuals and families and marriages. And I want to submit to you that I believe the fence at the top has to be the leadership of the church. I believe that the design of God is that at the very top there would be such Christlike and exemplary life, such character with spiritual integrity that they would become the fence that shield the people from falling into danger. And as I said, the church spends an awful lot of time, energy and money developing ambulance programs to pick up the pieces because there wasn't anybody at the top providing the fence.
As you look at 1 Timothy chapter 3 what you're seeing here is a list of standards by which the leadership of the church can put a barrier at the top so people don't fall off in the first place. It's a long way of saying, beloved, that the leadership of the church is its protection because the leadership of the church sets its standard. And I'm not talking just about articulating its theology, I'm talking about setting its patterns of godliness. Just as the fence influences the people from coming near danger, so Godly leadership influences the people from coming near spiritual danger. The church must have godly leadership. And all of the programs that we design to pick up the pieces that really are the result of inadequate leadership, never do deal with the problem.
This isn't something only the church recognizes, I think the whole world recognizes the premium on leadership. I was reading this week some comments from Dwight Eisenhower, our former President and great General of our armed services, he said this, and I quote him, "In order to be a leader a man must have followers, and to have followers a man must have their confidence. Hence the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity, without it no real success is possible no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office. If a man's associates find him guilty of phoniness, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other," end quote.
Everybody seems to understand that. The premium in the church is really on leadership. And the standards here are very high because the Spirit of God is saying this is what I want all of you to be and so I must establish a model for you. As we've been learning, the standard is not higher for church leaders than for just everybody else, it's just that church leaders are to be at that high standard so as to nurture everyone else to that same high standard. They are the models.
Now leadership is best defined...if you want a MacArthur definition and I believe in brevity of definitions...I would like to define leadership for you in one word and that is the word "influence...influence." Leadership is influence. And influence primarily is a direct result of example. What you are or what I am is the example which influences. And that is why in 1 Timothy 3 when he lists the characteristics of an overseer, elder or pastor in the church, they have to do with the character of his life because it is the influence of example that sets the fence to protect people from falling. Scripture has always laid a heavy heavy emphasis on the matter of example and its influence.
I am reminded, for example, in the Old Testament how God in Leviticus 18:3 warns His people and says, "After the doings of the land of Egypt shall you not do." And then He says, "After the doings of the land of Canaan shall you not do." And what He is saying is don't let evil pagan peoples influence you. We tend to be mimics. We tend to be copyists and copiers. And we tend to reproduce what we see. Influence is so powerful.
In Deuteronomy 18 and verse 9 the Scripture says, "Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of the nations." And Proverbs makes it very specific in chapter 22 verse 24, the Proverb says, "Make no friendship with an angry man, lest you learn his ways." Be careful who you're around, they'll influence you. In Proverbs also I'm reminded of chapter 29, a very very insightful proverb given in verse 12, "If a ruler listens to lies, all his servants are wicked. Show me an evil ruler and I'll show you the people under him learning to do evil as he demonstrated it by his example." If a ruler is evil, then all servants are wicked. Leadership is influence.
In Ezekiel chapter 20 verse 18 through the prophet God says, "Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe their judgments nor defile yourselves with their idols." Don't let your evil fathers influence you. Hosea 4:9 says, "Like people like priest, as your priests have gone so have you." And I'm also reminded in Matthew 23 that Jesus said about the scribes and the Pharisees, "Do not after their works for they say and do not." In other words, don't do the way they do.
From the positive side the Scripture not only includes warning against evil influence but it includes encouragement to good influence. In 1 Thessalonians 1:6 Paul says, "Become followers of us." In 1 Timothy 4:12 Paul says, "Be an example of the believer....you know that familiar text...in word, in conduct, in spirit and love and faith and purity." In Titus 2:7 it's the same thing again, "In all things, showing thyself a pattern or a model of good works," Paul says to Titus. In Hebrews 13, "We are all called to follow the faith of those who are over us in the Lord." In James 5 we are to follow the modeling of the prophets. In 1 Peter 5 we are to be examples to the flock who are under us. Paul calls out, "Be followers of me as I am of Christ." He says you've seen the pattern in me, do it, Philippians 4.
Influence for good or for evil flows out of us. And that is why the modeling of life and the example of life is the most crucial element of leadership and that's why the standards by which leaders of the church are qualified have to do with their moral character.
If you want to see the sad result of poor examples, you need only go back to the Old Testament for a moment in your thinking and remember the story of the kings of Israel and Judah. Listen if I might for just a moment refresh your mind to the power of an evil influence.
In 1 Kings 15:25 we read this, "And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah and reigned over Israel two years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin." He lived just like his father, the power of influence, the power of example.
In 1 Kings 22 verse 51 and following we read, "Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign over Israel in Samaria the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah and reigned two years over Israel. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin: for he served Baal and worshiped him and provoked to anger the Lord God of Israel according to all that his father had done." And here it comes again, evil produces evil because of the power of an evil example.
In 2 Kings 8 we read, "And in the fifth year of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. And he walked in the way of kings of Israel as did the house of Ahab; for the daughter of Ahab was his wife and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. In the twelfth year of Jehoram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri king of Israel and he walked in the way of the house of Ahab and did evil in the sight of the Lord as did the house of Ahab for he was the soninlaw of the house of Ahab." A wicked father, a wicked son, a wicked daughter, wicked marriages produced wicked children...the power of influence.
In 2 Kings 17:21, "For he rent Israel from the house of David and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them sin a great sin for the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did, they departed not from them." The power of an influence to change the course of a whole nation...tremendous power in influence.
We are reminded also of the same things in 2 Chronicles. In 2 Chronicles 33, for example, in verse 9, "Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err and do worse than the heathen whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel." He made people act worse than heathens...influence, powerful powerful influence.
It is not enough in the church to teach the truth. The truth must be modeled, that's integrity. Integrity is living and teaching the same thing. That's why the standards for church leadership here all relate to moral character. The power of influence. You recall, do you not, in the Old Testament that Scripture tells us that evil is visited...the evil of the fathers is visited upon the third and fourth generation. Now please, don't misunderstand that. That does not mean that an evil man has his children cursed by God for three or four generations. That does not mean that you shouldn't adopt children because they might be under some curse because they had an evil grandfather or great grandfather. That is a ludicrous thought. What it means is that influence is so powerful that once you have an evil generation it takes you three or four generations to root out that evil and turn it around. It is not a statement about God cursing children, it is a statement about the power of an evil influence.
Scripture says much also about good influence. First Kings 22:42 says, "Jehoshaphat was thirty and five years old when he began to reign and he reigned twenty and five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi and he walked in all the ways of Asa his father, he turned not aside from it doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord, nevertheless..." and it goes on to describe what he didn't accomplish but he walked in the things that were right in the sight of the Lord like his father had...the power of a good influence.
Second Kings 15, "In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign. Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign, he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem, his mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel began Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah to reign. Five and twenty years old was he when he began to reign, he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done."
Isn't it interesting how the Scripture emphasizes the power of influence? You have the godly example of Hezekiah and the godly example of Josiah and how as a result of their life good was affected among the people of Israel. You have the power of influence. I wish we had time to study it that came through Ezra and Nehemiah in the restoration after the Babylonian captivity. But all of this is to say that in terms of leadership the crucial aspect is the matter of influence. And influence flows primarily out of example...out of example. What the Spirit of God desires in the church is to set a standard for exemplary living.
That is why as you look at 1 Timothy 3 you don't see a list that a might have been written by a typical corporate analyst today, a list of things like...listen, if you want to be a leader in the church you need to have diligence, foresight, conceptual vision, administrative skills, decisiveness, courage, humor, eloquence, friendliness, tact, diplomacy, etc., etc. Those are human characteristics that might equip a man to be effective in a secular situation and they're fine. I'm not arguing with them. They're right in the right place. But the issue here is not leadership skills, the issue here is spiritual example. The issue here is influence. And the man who leads the church by example and influence, the man who leads the church to work for the salvation of the unconverted to build up the saints to maturity, to feed the flock, to encourage strong families, to lead the church to Christlike maturity, to become salt and light in the world, that kind of spiritual enterprise has to be...has to be at its very heart a matter of modeling godly virtue. And when will the church awake to this that this is the standard of spiritual leadership?
Look at verse 2, 1 Timothy 3, "An overseer then must be blameless." And that's the key word we've been looking at each time. Blameless, no place for hypocrisy...he is to be without blame, there's nothing in his life for which he can be held blame worthy which would be a blot against his purity. His life is to be exemplary.
John Stott in his very helpful book Between Two Worlds speaks to this matter of integrity when he says, "Communication is by symbol as well as speech. For a man cannot only preach, he must also live. And the life that he lives with all its little peculiarities is one of two things, either it emasculates his preaching or it gives it flesh and blood. We cannot hide what we are. Indeed, what we are speaks as plainly as what we say. When these two voices blend, the impact of the message is doubled. But when they contradict each other, even the positive witness of the one is negatived by the other. This was the case with the man Spurgeon describes as a good preacher but a bad Christian. He, says Spurgeon, preached so well and lived so badly that when he was in the pulpit everybody said he ought never to come out again. And when he was out of it they all declared he ought never to enter it again. But at this point, it is a practical problem presenting itself to us, pastors are to be models of Christian maturity," end quote.
It's true and we all know it to be true. In Acts 20:28 in 1 Timothy 4:16 the Scripture says to those in leadership, "Take heed to yourselves." Spiritual leadership begins with character. The great preacher of our own nation, Henry Ward Beecher once said, "A preacher is in some degree a reproduction of the truth in personal form," end quote. And so we are to live that blameless life that stands behind the message so that we have true and lasting influence for good and for God.
William Golding is a contemporary novelist. And he has vividly illustrated the negative power of Christian hypocrisy in a novel that he calls Freefall. It is the story of a boy by the name of Sammy Mountjoy, he is an illegitimate child. He was brought up in a slum. He became later in life a very famous artist. During his school days he was torn between two of his teachers and the two worlds they represented. On the one hand, in the book, there is Miss Rowena Pringle, a Christian who taught Scripture. And another one of his teachers, a Mr. Nick Shaels(?) an atheist who taught science. Hers was the world of the burning bush. Hers was the world of supernatural mystery. His, the scientist's, was the world of rationally explainable things.
Instinctively Sammy and his childhood was drawn to the burning bush. Unfortunately the advocate of this Christian interpretation of life was a frustrated spinster who plunged her knife into little Sammy every time she could because he had been adopted by the clergyman she had hoped to marry. She took her revenge by being cruel to the boy. And Sammy later asked himself, "But how could she crucify a small boy and then tell the story of that other crucifixion with every evidence in her voice of sorrow for human cruelty and wickedness? I can understand how she hated but not how she kept on such apparent terms of intimacy with heaven." And it was this contradiction which kept Sammy from Christ.
The novel says, "Miss Pringle vissiated(?) her teaching. She failed to convince not by what she said but by what she was. Nick persuaded me to his natural scientific universe by what he was not by what he said. I hung for an instant between two pictures of the universe, then the ripple passed over the burning bush and I ran toward toward my friend. In that moment a door closed behind me, I slammed it shut on Moses and Jehovah," end quote.
How many doors have been slammed shut on Moses and Jehovah not because of what we said but because of what we were? Influence, the influence of example. You see, what the man of God is is the issue. And it's the issue in our text.
Let's go back now to the text remembering that the overarching attribute of leadership is blamelessness and that is defined through four categories of discussion. The Apostle Paul in assisting Timothy and identifying those who should fit into church leadership...and by the way, the Ephesian church to which Timothy was ministering as you know was desperately in need of leadership of a proper kind. The four categories to be considered in regarding his blamelessness; one, his moral character; two, his family life; three, his maturity; and four, his reputation.
Now we've already examined verses 2 and 3 which deal with his moral life. He is to be a onewoman man, temperate, sober minded, of good behavior, loving strangers, skilled in teaching, not given to wine, not violent, patient, not a brawler, and free form the love of money. All of that sums up his moral qualification. Even his skill in teaching which is the only mention of the actual function of leadership has primarily to do with the skill that comes because his life is a model. He is to manifest moral integrity. He is to be like the Apostle Paul who in 1 Corinthians 9 says, "I beat my body to bring it into subjection lest in preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." I have to govern my own life.
Paul understood that when he expressed to Timothy, "Flee youthful lust and follow righteousness." Seek things out of a pure heart. And anyone who seeks a place in church leadership must focus first of all on moral purity.
I was reading something that had to do with gardening this week. I don't often read that and don't know a whole lot about it but it struck me as something analogous to our own commitment. It said this, "It is not enough for a gardener to love flowers, he must also hate weeds." And that's true. And it is not enough for a leader in the church to love the Word of God, he must also hate sin. If anything comes into his life that is at all doubtful, he must turn from it.
Now I'll let you into one of my most private secrets, how I determine whether a shirt is fit for wearing. The little principle is if it's doubtful its dirty...you just take a short look at the collar and find out, right? That's a good principle for life for one who stands in the place of spiritual leadership, if it's doubtful, its dirty.
I enjoyed reading the account of a former pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City by the name of Dr. Maltbe(?) Babcock some years ago. And he says that he was approached by a physician, a medical doctor in his church, and he was concerned about the fact that his pastor seemed to be working very hard and he said, "You need a night off and I have here two tickets to the theater," Broadway theater in New York. He said, "Take them, you need the recreation of going to this theater."
The pastor looked at them and he could see by the title of the play that it was not something he could conscientiously attend so he said to him, "Thank you, sir, very kindly but I cannot go." And the doctor said, "Why not?" To which he replied, "Dr., it's this way, you're a physician, a surgeon, in fact, when you operate you scrub your hands meticulously until you're always clean. You wouldn't dare operate with dirty hands." To which the doctor nodded. "Well I'm a servant of Christ," he said, "I deal with precious human souls and I wouldn't dare to do my service with a dirty life." The power of a pure life to set an example that influences for godliness is wrapped up in moral character.
Now let's go to the second category, the category of home life and see how very important that is in regard to spiritual leadership. Verses 4 and 5, "One who would desire to be an overseer in the church, a bishop, an elder, a pastor, should be one that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all dignity, for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of a church of God?"
Now in those two verses we have the summation of a tremendous range of truth. Let me say to you that it is essential for anyone in church leadership to not only have an exemplary personal life but an exemplary home life. By the way, this is a direct statement in opposition to the position of the Catholic Church that those who are in spiritual leadership in the church must be celibate. Quite the contrary. The Word of God affirms that those who stand in the place of spiritual leadership must have demonstrated the capability of such leadership in the home before they would be counted worthy to demonstrate it in the church. I would have to say that the Roman Catholic Church is not the first religious organization to advocate a celibate leadership, apparently even in the situation in Ephesus that was being advocated by some when Paul wrote this epistle. Chapter 4 verse 3, "There were some with doctrines of demons who were forbidding to marry." Some were setting, no doubt, a level of spirituality that involved nonmarriage and saying that people who wanted to attain the highest level of spirituality would certainly not marry and thus bring themselves down to the level of everybody else, but that is certainly rejected in the text before us. The family becomes the proving ground for leadership skills.
What this is saying is that anyone who leads in the church has demonstrated himself to be a spiritually successful leader in the family...in the family. Notice verse 4. "He is to be one that rules well his own house." The word "rule" means to preside, to have authority over, to stand before, to manage. He is the manager of his house. And by the way, this affirms the consistency of the biblical roles of men and women, always the man is seen as the head of the house, the one who leads in the household. There are obviously shared responsibilities and duties and there is a sense in which the woman...as we shall see later in Timothy...does management tasks within the house but the head of the home is always the man, he rules. And if he is to rule, 1 Timothy 5:17, as an elder...same word, by the way...if he is to rule as an elder as indicated in 5:17, he is to give evidence of being able to do that kind of thing by how he has ruled in his home. He therefore is to be the leader in his home. He is to be a strong spiritual leader in the home. And again I remind you this emphasizes and reinforces the divine order for male headship in the home. We saw that, didn't we, back in verses 9 to 15 of chapter 2, how that women are called to a role of submission in the church to the leadership of men and so it is here in the home.
Notice it says that as he rules at home he is to rule well. It is not just that he rules, there are a lot of men who rule in the home but they don't rule very well. They don't get the desired effect. This one rules well. And the word here is a very rich word, it is the word kallos in the Greek and basically we could translate it excellently but that wouldn't give us the full understanding. In order to grasp what it means, we need to compare two Greek words...agathos and kallos. Agathos is a common word in the New Testament that means inherently good, or morally good, or practically good. Kallos takes it a step further, not instead of that but in addition to that, it is esthetically good, it is appearingly good, it is beautiful, it is lovely, it is appealing to the eye. Agathos, apparently good; kallos inherently good and also appealing to the eye, and so the idea is that here is a man who is to be leading his family in such a way that his leadership is inherently good and it is manifestly good to all those who perceive and see his leadership there. It is reasonable to assume that a man could have his spiritual act together in his own life, he could be morally qualified but disqualified on the family level.
You say, "How so?" Well perhaps he is right with the Lord, he walks with the Lord, everything is as it ought to be in his life, but he became a Christian later in life, his children had already established patterns, his wife had already established a pattern, he may have his act together before God, his family may be in chaos. No matter how spiritually he may be set before God in a right place, he would not be qualified to lead in the church.
You say, "Well, isn't he cheated?" No, because in the ministry that all of us are called to, our calling is an absolute calling not a relative calling. We would all agree leadership in the church is of high priority, but the issue for every individual is simply to do the thing God has called them to do, not to feel that what they do is in any sense inferior to what God's called someone else to do. It is absolute, not relative.
So, if a man had all the moral qualifications but his family was in disarray, maybe he was not a good parent, maybe he had an unbelieving wife and there was a lot of chaos at home, it is not without reason to assume he may have had children who were not favored with the sovereign electing grace of Christ and therefore he has to deal with that. That man does not fit this qualification and has another ministry that God will use him in and bless him to the fullest intent of his divine plan, but not this position.
In the Old Testament, there were certain physical disqualifications of a priest. The Old Testament text says if he had been wounded in the stones, or had something wrong with an eye, he could not function as a priest. That was not a commentary on his spiritual life, that was simply the fact that God was identifying the priests to stand in a sense before the people as a perfect man, as a model, as an example. And so this is a man who has had exemplary home life and his family is as a family ought to be, the very model of Christian virtue.
Notice it says, "He rules then not only intrinsically well but visibly well, his own house." Not just his family but his house. And the implication here is it isn't just his wife and kids, it's the affairs of his living. What kind of steward is he of his home, of his resources, his finances? You might imagine a man, for example, I know men like this, who have maybe their life in the right order in terms of their spiritual life, they love the Lord, they walk with the Lord, they don't have any blight on their life, they may even be skilled in teaching, they have a wife that believes, now the children are responsive, they are involved, they believe in the Lord, but he's in bankruptcy, he's mismanaged his funds or he's a poor steward or his use of money is out of balance. Somehow he can't seem to pull that into line as it ought to be. He does not rule well his household...that means the people and resources over which he has responsibility.
The home then becomes the proving ground where a man's administrative leadership capability is nurtured, made visible and thus qualifies or disqualifies him from spiritual leadership. How he handles the home, how he handles the assets. The stewardship of his possessions is critical.
Further and more specifically it says, "He must have his children in submission with all dignity." In submission means literally, it's sort of a military term, to line up in rank under those over them in authority. His children are to be...that is to say subject, lined up in proper control. They are to be respectful and controlled and disciplined children. Now if they're present. If there are no children present, that by God's design is not a disqualification. You can't have a problem with your kids if you don't have any kids. And so that would never be a disqualification. If you manage the assets and the household God gives you and that's only one wife and a partner for life and no children are brought into that, in no way does that disqualify. Those are the assets God has given you and that is the family you have from Him. But where children do exist, they are to demonstrate control and respect for their parents.
Furthermore, look at Titus 1:6. Titus speaking of the same range of qualifications within the family says a man is to be blameless who desires to be elder. He is to be a onewoman man and he is to have faithful children...pistos, that is believing children. His children are to believe the gospel. They are to believe the message the man is to preach and teach.
So, we would say first of all, then, for a man to be qualified to lead in the church he must demonstrate capability in administrating in leading all of the resources within his own household in an exemplary way, handling both the people that are there, the assets that are there, the funds that are there in a stewardship model that can be a pattern for others to follow. Secondly, his children must be under control and respectful. Thirdly, when they reach the age where they make their own commitment to Christ, they must be believing children.
So, you start with the moral character, the family leadership, the controlled children, the believing children and you realize God is identifying a rather narrow track, isn't He, for those who stand in the place of church leadership. You have to see how important this is, beloved, because if the fence isn't set at this point, if the leadership don't live by these exemplary patterns then why in the world would the people feel bound to live at that level? That's why we have to set the fence.
And by the way, chapter 3 verse 12 also calls for the deacon to be the onewoman man who rules his children and his own house well also. A very very important issue.
It also says in verse 4 that the children are to be in submission with all dignity. That's a nice word. That's a good word. It basically means respect. It blends dignity, courtesy, humility and competence all together. Somebody said it's stateliness. It's a sense of class. The children are to be such as bring honor to their father and their mother.
He is a leader in the family. And his leadership, I believe, involves three things. I want to share these with you as we draw to a conclusion. Number one, firmness; number two, wisdom; and number three, love...or number one could be authority...authority, wisdom and love.
In the family I believe it is essential that the father exercise authority that makes it, listen to this, advisable for his children to obey. Did you get that? He must exercise authority that makes it advisable for his children to obey. What do you mean by that? I mean by that that where there is disobedience, there must be immediate and negative consequences. The only way you can train a depraved person which is what your children are and mine, the only way you can train that kind of person is to create pain associated with disobedience...whether it's emotional pain or physical pain. That's why Proverbs says, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." So there must be enough authority coming from the father to make it advisable to obey.
Secondly, there must be enough wisdom coming from the father, enough wisdom to make it natural and reasonable to obey. In other words, it isn't just authority, it is that behind that authority there is a reasonableness because invariably when you deprive your child of something or say no, the first question they ask is...what?..."Why, Daddy? Why can't I do that?" and you are, whether you like it or not, during the entire time of raising your children, you are frankly a local neighborhood philosopher and theologian. And you must communicate to them some rationale for their behavior. And so I suggest to you an authority that makes it advisable to obey and a wisdom that makes it natural and reasonable to obey.
Thirdly, a love that makes it delightful to obey...a love that makes it delightful to obey. Your children ought to long to obey you because they enjoy so much the intimacy of an unhindered, an uninterrupted love relationship with you. And that love has to be there...that love has to be there. Really you can sum up the whole process of leadership in the home with authority, wisdom and love. And I would hope that my children have obeyed me because it was advisable...I know they have because we have taught them that lesson. I would hope that they have obeyed because it is reasonable and natural for them to want to do what is reasonable. And I also hope and I hope most of all, and I would love to think that they would give testimony to it that they have obeyed mostly because it is delightful to obey because that keeps the love bond so pure and so rich between parents and children.
I would like to think...and I was sharing this with somebody the other day, somebody said, "How is it that your children obey you?" And I talked a little about authority and a little about...you know, we try to be reasonable and explain but I said, "I really think the bottom line is that love really holds our family together. And I believe in my heart...and you can interview my kids individually if you want on this...but I believe in my heart that the primary motivation in them to obey Mom and Dad is that there's a love bond between us all that they don't want to lose." And that's the stuff that makes leadership in the home successful.
Now the point is this. If a man is going to lead in the church, he must have demonstrated in the home that he can exercise authority that makes it advisable to obey, wisdom that makes it reasonable to obey and love that makes it delightful to obey because frankly, folks, that's exactly what we call for in the church, isn't it? The whole of the ministry, these things teach and exhort. Now how are we going to get you to do that? We have to have enough authority to make it advisable for you to do that, set some fences and call for some proper responses. We have to have enough wisdom to show you the reasonableness of that and enough love to build a bond with you so that you cherish that relationship enough to be delighted to obey it. So that the family and the home becomes the very best place to demonstrate these kinds of characteristics.
I love to see that man whose children are submissive, whose children are believing, whose children are disciplined and controlled, I can see the authority but I can see the naturalness with which they obey and the delight with which they obey their parents. Now there is a man who is fitted to lead the church, and that's exactly what verse 5 says from a negative viewpoint. If a man doesn't know how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of...and it's anartherous(?) construction here...a church of God. And that phrase "a church of God" is used 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, about nine times in the New Testament and every time it's used it refers to a local assembly...a local assembly. Acts 20:28, 1 Corinthians 1 it's used three times, 1 Corinthians 11 it's used twice, 1 Corinthians 15 it's used once, and each time it means a local assembly. How can he rule a local assembly if he can't rule his own house?
Now notice that it says at the end of verse 5, "How shall he take care of the church?" That's a beautiful word. That word is used in a very familiar parable of our Lord in Luke 10. The parable of the Good Samaritan. And you remember what it says, "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, fell among thieves who stripped him of his raiment, wounded him, departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite when he was at the place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. Nobody wanted to help the man. But a certain Samaritan who would have had no dealings at all with this man, comes along and had compassion and he went, bound up his wounds, poured in oil and wine, set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn and here's that verb...and took care of him." It's a big verb. I mean, it's a wide one. It starts with compassion, extends to giving time, extends to binding up wounds, to pouring in oil, to sacrificing your..your means of transportation to carry him, to take him to an inn and paying his bill, and then in general just taking care of him. And that's wonderful because that's what it's all about in leading the church. It's taking care of the church.
And what does it mean to take care of the church? Well it encompasses a lot of things, it encompasses stopping what you're doing sometimes and being diverted to a guy lying in the road. It involves pouring oil and wine in his wounds, it involves binding him up, it involves selfsacrifices, you put him on your own animal as you pay his way at the inn and as you generally take care of and meet his needs.
And I'll tell you, there is no better place to see whether a man has a life committed to meeting needs then to take a look at what he does with the people in his household, right? Does he care about them? Is his life committed to them? Does he work hard to meet their needs? If he doesn't, and he doesn't have the leadership manifest, then how could he ever take care of the needs of the church? Beloved, it is incumbent upon the church of Jesus Christ and this church, of course, as well, to begin to build the fence at the top of the hill, not to train ambulance crews at the bottom. It's time for us to have the kind of leadership that would honor the Lord and keep the people from the dangers of by setting a model and a pattern for them to follow.
Now let me tell you something. I've been thinking about this last week. The day will come when I will be gone, the Lord will take me to heaven, if I die before Jesus comes for all of us, and this church is going to go on. Let me just tell you in the future, the most important consideration you'll ever make in the future of this church is who is selected for leadership. What elders, pastors are allowed in leadership. The standard is clear but as that standard becomes violated, you begin to remove the fence and the people are going to start going off the edge wholesale. Typically you may try to get the ambulance crews moving but that's not the problem. So may I say to you, for the present pray for the leadership of this church, and for the future covenant in your heart if you're here...some of you young people will be the leadership of this church, if you're here in the days ahead, don't deviate from the standard of God's Word. Let's bow in prayer.
Lord, having said all that we have said this morning from Your Word, we have preached the message that the Spirit gave us in this section. But one thing is unsaid, and we would add this, that even though I and others are pastors and overseers and elders of the church. We confess in humility that we come short of the perfect standard. And we admit, Lord, that we are only here because of Your grace and mercy, because You have washed us from our iniquities and empowered us with the Spirit. And, Lord, we are grateful to know that thou You can set no less than a perfect standard, You in grace can accept less than a perfect man. But, Father, we know that by Your Spirit You desire the leaders of Your church to be all that they can be while still human through the agency of Your Spirit. Lord, keep us ever and always in that tension between from being grateful that You have kept us pure, grateful that You have guarded our life, grateful that You have called us to this leadership and at the same time fearful of our own unworthiness. Keep us in that very helpful tension between gratitude and humility that we may lead in a way that pleases You for the Savior's sake. Amen.
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This sermon series includes the following messages:
Please contact the publisher to obtain copies of this resource.Publisher Information


text:
Individual and Group Values Coaching
We have utilized this survey and coaching method for the past several years within our Masters in Leadership program, and the learners have repeatedly asked that we make the service available to their friends, family and co-workers.
Brian Hall (2006), creator of the values survey technology, defines values as "the ideals that give significance to our lives, that are reflected through the priorities we choose, and that we act on consistently and repeatedly" (p. 21). He describes values as packets of energy, "units of information that mediate our inner reality into full expression in our everyday lives" (p. 40). The Saint Mary's Leadership Center team has been accredited by Values Technology to offer individual, team and organizational coaching and consulting using the Hall-Tonna Values instrument. To learn and read more about the Values Survey and why we believe it is a powerful tool for developing leaders for the 21st century, please click here.
The Saint Mary's Leadership Center Individual Values Coaching Sessions work as follows:
First, take an online values survey at www.valuestech.com. We will then provide an overview to the survey results, as part of an individual, 90-minute executive phone coaching session on the specific results of your values survey. This material will help you better understand your own value priorities and the skills and capacities you need to reach your highest goals. Many people report that having a conversation about bringing their highest values priorities into full consciousness is a powerful and transformative experience.
The values survey is an easy to complete, web-based, interactive questionnaire, consisting of 125 multiple-choice questions. Once finished, the results and commentary will immediately be available for your use.
The cost for taking the values survey and receiving 90-minutes of
personal coaching over the phone is:
$295 Members of the Saint Mary's community; veterans; people who work in non-profit organizations; and people who are currently unemployed.
$495 Corporate/Business/Government rate
Group and Organizational Rates are also available.
To ask any questions you might have about the Saint Mary's Values/Coaching, please contact us.
With Gratitude to References
Hall, B. P. (1994, 2006). Values shift: A guide to personal and organizational transformation. Rockport, MA: Twin Light Publishers.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Florian Reichert
Current Residence: Goettingen, Germany
Born/Age: Feb. 10 1982
Trail, Cross Country, Mountain, Road, Track & Field...Flow loves to run in all terrains and disciplines – as long as he feels challenged,close to nature and to himself.
Starting his career as a track & field athlete, his focus gradually shifted to the road, where he debuted in his first marathon in 2:26 h. Other accomplishments include a 30:50 min in the 10k and a 1:08:46 h for the half-marathon.
Apart from many individual and team titles in Germany's state of Lower-Saxony he also won the Canary Cross Country championships on the island of Tenerife and the NCAA Division III Cross Country championships in New England. However, a deep love for the mountains and the more rugged areas made him work on his trail skills and he consequently focuses mostly on trail and mountain running now.
A permanent guest on each step of the Swiss Alpine's podium (2009, 2010, 2012), he also won the Ecco Indoor Trail twice (2012, 2013) and is now looking at a solid season of skyrunning, with races in Zegama (33rd place in 2013), Chamonix (Mont-Blanc Marathon), the Dolomites (European Skyrunning Championships & Dolomites Skyrace) and Zermatt (Ultraks).
His occupation as a high school teacher for English, Spanish and Phys. Ed. lets him pass on the passion for being out of doors and getting in touch with people from all over the world.
Career accomplishments:
8th place German Marathon Championships (2012): 2:26:13 h
1st place Ecco Indoor Trail Run (2012 & 2013)
1st place Urbanathlon Hamburg (2012)
1st place Survival Run Germany (2012)
1st place Swiss Alpine Marathon K21 (2009)
Recent Media Coverage:
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text:
Pension systems in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are remarkably generous. People in the region retire well and they retire early. To the extent that the region's pension systems are intended to provide social welfare, they are certainly fulfilling their role. However, the overemphasis on social welfare is at odds with the region's movement away from a pure welfare state model toward one that relies on steady diversification of the economy and growth of the private sector. Existing pension systems are also unstable and unsustainable. Successful reform will gradually shift responsibility toward workers and private fund managers, and thereby help grow the GCC's financial markets and significantly reduce the role of government, finds a new study by Booz & Company.
The GCC's slowly sinking pension reforms
Pension systems can confer three benefits. The social benefit allows retirees to maintain their pre-retirement consumption, or provides a safety net against poverty. The second is the financial benefit - pensions involve decades-long liabilities and long-term investments, which can decrease the volatility of financial markets and deepen a country's capital markets. The third benefit is economic - giving people an incentive to work, thus bolstering the labor market and making the country more competitive.
"In the GCC, pension reforms mainly work toward a social goal, doing little to further the region's economic and financial goals," stated Richard Shediac, a partner at Booz & Company. Although the systems are currently sustainable with 25 working people contributing to pension funds for everyone who pulls money out of them, by 2050 this dynamic will change to approximately three-to-one in some countries. "Pension reforms are required to strengthen the financial underpinnings of these funds, preserve their role as safety nets for citizens, develop the region's capital markets, and deepen the efficiency of regional labor markets," he added.
Pension plans in the GCC are generous and use much shorter averaging periods, often the last one to three years of a worker's career. Income replacement rates in retirement also tend to be high - around 80 percent on average and in many countries, the 80 percent level is available to 40-year-olds.
Accrual rates—the percentages by which GCC workers' expected retirement incomes rise each year - are constant and the same regardless of income level—resulting in the same replacement rate. "Depending on a country's pension reform goals; there are several options to investigate aside from constant accrual rates. A progressive accrual rate by years of work for instance, rises as workers age, and gives workers an incentive to remain in the workforce," said Samer Bohsali, a principal at Booz & Company. A regressive accrual rate is another option, where accrual rates decrease by income level.
Currently, GCC workers are incentivized to retire early rather than stay engaged in the workforce. Roughly nine in 10 male workers in the region have retired by age 60, versus only one in 10 male workers in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
Another reform issue is the creation of savings vehicles to help deepen the region's financial markets. "GCC workers are not encouraged to save for their retirements and there is no equivalent of the voluntary retirement mechanisms that exist in more mature economies," explained Shediac. High spreads at banks also discourage savings, and life insurance is not widely owned in the GCC. A lack of sophistication in investment knowledge and a high consumption rate (a recent study put Abu Dhabi among the nations with the highest consumption rates in the world), highlights the reluctance by workers to move from a welfare mentality.
A clear improvement opportunity for GCC pension programs is the inclusion of productive non-national labor - especially considering three-quarters of GCC employees are expatriates. In the UAE and Kuwait, this is even higher - at 83 and 82 percent, respectively.
"While other countries with large percentages of foreign workers have looked for ways to include them in their pension systems, the governments of the GCC have avoided such concessions, thus limiting their countries' attractiveness as destinations for workers," Bohsali stated. Some companies have addressed this issue, setting up private pension schemes to keep prized international managers. By excluding foreign workers from pension systems, GCC countries miss a significant opportunity to strengthen their financial markets: pension coverage of non-nationals means the contribution fund would in some countries be more than three times larger than now.
Finally, the GCC's approach to its pension funding is almost certain to prove unsustainable in the long run. Its pension systems are partially funded, meaning some benefits are paid out of investments made with excess contributions, backed by a pay-as-you-go system, where retirees' income comes out of the tax contributions of current workers. "This approach is necessary because assets are not enough to cover long-term liabilities. Ideally the region's pension systems should become fully funded, where assets would cover long-term liabilities so that benefits would primarily come out of an invested pool of contributed money," said Shediac.
The pension systems' partial funding does not currently pose a problem, but as the region's demographics change - there won't be enough workers supporting retirees. The old age dependency ratio - the ratio of people working to those in retirement - will drop steadily as the population ages.
Reform objectives, what the GCC's pension systems require
All these weaknesses will drive GCC nations to overhaul their pension systems. It makes sense to initiate pension reform now when, demographically speaking, the pressure is less intense and changes can be made purposefully.
Among the most important reforms is opening the GCC's pension systems to foreign-born workers and the self-employed. A second fundamental reform is reducing governments' roles in administering pensions and taking care of workers in their retirement. A third critical reform is the introduction of voluntary retirement savings, so workers have the option of saving money above and beyond that allotted for them. A fourth reform would be to make workers' retirement accounts portable, so they wouldn't face the prospect of losing pensions if they switched jobs or left the country.
"Other tactical changes that GCC countries should consider include fine-tuning accrual rates to better redistribute wealth; lowering the guaranteed income replacement rate to levels more in line with highly developed countries; indexing pension increases to inflation; and reducing companies' mandatory pension contributions," Bohsali commented.
Existing routes to pension reform
Most countries that have reformed their pension systems have gone about it via either parametric reform or systemic reform. Parametric/ retrenchment reform involves changing the parameters of a country's pension system to ensure financial stability such as retirement age or mandatory contribution rates. Systemic reform is more complex, involving the introduction of multiple pension "tiers"; a retirement income that is guaranteed by publicly administered pension funds often supplemented with a benefit provided by privately administered funds. A tier 1 system is a government-sponsored, mandatory pension fund (like Social Security in the U.S.); a tier 2 system is a mandatory employer-administered fund in which there are defined benefits (like General Electric's pension benefit). A tier 3 system is underpinned by defined contributions, in which workers voluntarily save an amount of their choosing and invest it as they please, over and above what the state and their employers are putting away for them (like an IRA or 401(k) in the U.S.).
The World Bank is a strong proponent of multi-tiering as a route to systemic reform, which eventually makes pension systems more robust. When governments introduce nonpublic pension tiers, they typically do so with the goal of shifting responsibility to the worker and private fund managers, and lessening their own roles.
"Parametric reforms alone may not be sufficient in the GCC but systemic reforms do not guarantee success either," Shediac said. The right socioeconomic conditions must be in place for it to work. A government undertaking systemic pension reform is less likely to succeed if it has a high deficit. Second, a country undertaking systemic reform is less likely to succeed if its underlying income inequality is high and its financial markets or financial-services industries are not yet well developed. Income inequalities are accentuated by a system that emphasizes the market returns from worker contributions or a system oriented toward privately administered tiers. And less developed financial markets make the success of such reform efforts debatable—there is no one to administer the private tiers.
Three tiers, managed by government
The region needs a model of pension reform that uses the three tiers of systemic reforms and embeds them in the individual public funds already being administered by governments. Governments should run all three tiers and spin them off as employers get proficient at running corporate retirement funds (Tier 2) and as capable financial-services companies arise to handle the employee-contributed funds (Tier 3). Because such financial-services companies aren't well developed in most of the GCC, it isn't realistic for governments to hand off the burden of administering their pensions.
"Instead, governments should move forward with the "one fund/three tiers" concept, and give financial players time to lay down infrastructure and begin developing services," stated Bohsali. The long-term objective would be to have the governments' parts of the funds serving mainly the social welfare function, ensuring that retirees meet a designated standard of living, while the corporate- and employee-funded areas contribute financial and economic benefits, such as deepening financial markets.
Parametric reforms should also be part of the prescription. Changes parametric policies would go a long way toward ensuring the financial stability of these one-fund/ three tiers entities, allowing many to wean themselves off partially funded or pay-as-you-go schemes and move toward being fully funded. Embedding the voluntary portion of the program in the existing public fund would help jump-start the third tier; making workers more secure about putting "extra" money into retirement savings in a public fund they know and trust. "As money pours into this third tier, it would create the conditions for capital markets to thrive, leading to a stage when defined contribution funds can be spun out in the GCC, and run by private companies," Shediac explained.
Without question, there will be some beneficiaries of the current GCC pension systems who will be unhappy with changes to the benefits structure they are counting on. But those changes should be phased in over a period of years, giving people who are still in the workforce time to adjust their thinking and modify their financial behavior. There is real opportunity for GCC countries to make reforms to their pension systems now, that would strengthen the financial underpinnings of those systems, preserve their role as financial safety nets, and allow low-income workers to maintain their consumption habits. The reforms could also contribute to the development of regional capital markets and deepen the efficiency of labor markets. Done right, these reforms could help the GCC's pension systems advance to become among the best in the world.
© 2000 - 2019 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)


text:
Major Section: STOBJ
The following event
(defstobj ms (pcn :type integer :initially 0) (mem :type (array integer (100000)) :initially -1) (code :type t :initially nil))introduces a single-threaded object named
ms (which stands for
``machine state''). The object has three fields, a
pcn or program
counter, a
mem or memory, and a
code field.
mem field is occupied by an object initially of type
(array integer (100000)). Logically speaking, this is a list of
100000, each element of which is an integer. But in the
underlying implementation of the
ms object, this field is occupied
by a raw Lisp array, initially of size 100000.
You might expect the above
defstobj to define the accessor function
mem and the updater
update-mem. That does not happen!.
The above event defines the accessor function
memi and the updater
update-memi. These functions do not access/update the
mem field of
ms object; they access/update the individual elements of the
array in that field.
In particular, the logical definitions of the two functions are:
(defun memi (i ms) (declare (xargs :guard (and (msp ms) (integerp i) (<= 0 i) (< i (mem-length ms))))) (nth i (nth 1 ms)))
(defun update-memi (i v ms) (declare (xargs :guard (and (msp ms) (integerp i) (<= 0 i) (< i (mem-length ms)) (integerp v)))) (update-nth-array 1 i v ms))
For example, to access the 511th (0-based) memory location of the
ms you could evaluate:
ACL2 !>(memi 511 ms) -1The answer is
-1 initially, because that is the above-specified
initial value of the elements of the
mem array.
To set that element you could do
ACL2 !>(update-memi 511 777 ms) <ms> ACL2 !>(memi 511 ms) 777
The raw Lisp implementing these two functions is shown below.
(defun memi (i ms) (declare (type (integer 0 268435455) i)) (the integer (aref (the (simple-array integer (*)) (svref ms 1)) (the (integer 0 268435455) i))))
(defun update-memi (i v ms) (declare (type (integer 0 268435455) i) (type integer v)) (progn (setf (aref (the (simple-array integer (*)) (svref ms 1)) (the (integer 0 268435455) i)) (the integer v)) ms))
If you want to see the raw Lisp supporting a
defstobj, execute the
defstobj and then evaluate the ACL2 form
(nth 4 (global-val 'cltl-command (w state))).
To continue the stobj tour, see stobj-example-3.


text:
Hi Eric, all I still don't agree with the section "Error margin". As pointed out: error margin a specific term. We should not use this term, when we speak about failures on pages. To make clear what we mean, we should use something like "failures" or "violations..." as heading for this section. Nevertheless we also need a section "error margin", where we describe possible systematic errors like sampling errors. I remember that we discussed also the term "systematic error" just in the context of failures on pages. As this an evaluation methodology I believe we should be careful with terms and shouldn't use specific terms of testing theories and methodologies in general for anything else to avoid confusion. Best Kerstin Am 27.01.2012 um 01:18 schrieb "Velleman, Eric" <firstname.lastname@example.com>: > Hi Alistair, > > The 100% conformance you refer to in your mail made it into the document in clause 5.5 Error Margin as we decided it: "The Methodology assumes a strict conformance requirement for all resources in the sample. I could change strict into 100%." > > Also in the same section I added a disclaimer following the outcome of our discussion. We said that it is necessary to say that we cannot guarantee that there will not be another error somewhere on the site. This is caused by the use of a sample: "It is important to note that due to the use of a sample there is never a 100% guarantee that the full website is conformant." > > I thought it might be good to explain that further and I propose to do that in the Random Resources clause (4.1.3). I already made a short link: "This specific error margin for a given confidence level is described in the section about Random Resources." We will discuss clause 4.1 next week (as agreed today), so we can then discuss if we want to keep that in the document or take it out again. > > Kindest regards, > > Eric > > > ________________________________ > Van: Alistair Garrison [firstname.lastname@example.com] > Verzonden: donderdag 26 januari 2012 15:50 > Aan: Eval TF > Onderwerp: Fwd: 100% conformance for the pages sampled... > > Dear All, > > The concept of "100% conformance for the pages sampled" gained a reasonable level of consensus amongst EVAL TF members (6 or 7 people). Several other ideas have seemingly gained the same group approval, but then fallen by the wayside as we've move ahead to debate something else... > > I'd like to know, what mechanism are we following to capture such ideas, and ensure that they are appear in 'black & white' in our methodology updates? > > All the best > > Alistair > > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Alistair Garrison <email@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>> > Date: 20 January 2012 14:10:20 CET > To: Léonie Watson <firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>>, Eval TF <firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>> > Subject: Re: 100% conformance for the pages sampled... > > Hi Léonie, > >> From http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/#conformance-claims - "Conformance is not possible at a particular level if any page in the process does not conform at that level or better". > > And, as an additional component of the conformance claim "A list of success criteria beyond the level of conformance claimed that have been met. This information should be provided in a form that users can use, preferably machine-readable metadata." > > So, I would suggest that for our purposes (those of evaluating the whole site) this would mean - making a level AA conformance claim for all pages in the sample (website). If required by the website owner (or other) it could be provided along with a list of urls for the web pages on which the additional AAA Success Criteria have been achieved. > > If we were not looking at the whole site separate AA and AAA claims for the relevant pages would probably be the way to go. I should add, that a AAA conformance claim could only be made for the pages which were AAA conformant - ruling out, in my opinion, a AAA with exceptions type claim. > > Let me know what you think. > > All the best > > Alistair > > On 20 Jan 2012, at 12:59, Léonie Watson wrote: > > Thanks Alastair, it does. Although it's started me thinking more about this. Given that WCAG acknowledges that Level AAA is not possible with all technologies, we could end up with a sample that is partly Level AA compliant and partly Level AAA compliant. > > I'm thinking out loud here as much as anything, but would we therefore consider the sample to be 100% Level AA compliant with additional achievements, Level AAA compliant with exceptions, or part Level AA and part Level AAA as applicable? > > > Léonie. > > -- > Nomensa - humanising technology > > Léonie Watson, Director of Accessibility & Web Development > tel: +44 (0)117 929 7333 > mob: +44 (0)792 116 8551 > twitter: @we_are_Nomensa @LeonieWatson > > Nomensa Email Disclaimer: http://www.nomensa.com/email-disclaimer > > > > ________________________________ > From: Alistair Garrison [mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com] > Sent: 20 January 2012 09:38 > To: Eval TF > Subject: Re: 100% conformance for the pages sampled... > > Hi Leonie, > >> From http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/#conformance-claims - "Conformance is defined only for Web pages. However, a conformance claim may be made to cover one page, a series of pages, or multiple related Web pages." > > Where they say "for Web Pages" I think they meant to say "for full Web Pages" - referencing "Conformance (and conformance level) is for full Web page(s) only, and cannot be achieved if part of a Web page is excluded." from the same page. > > Hope this clarifies things... > > All the best > > Alistair > > On 20 Jan 2012, at 10:14, Léonie Watson wrote: > > If I understand correctly, WCAG conformance relates to a single page, not to an entire website. I'd be interested in people's thoughts on how this might (or might not) influence our thinking about an error margin? > > > Léonie. > > -- > Nomensa - humanising technology > > Léonie Watson, Director of Accessibility & Web Development > tel: +44 (0)117 929 7333 > mob: +44 (0)792 116 8551 > twitter: @we_are_Nomensa @LeonieWatson > > Nomensa Email Disclaimer: http://www.nomensa.com/email-disclaimer > > -----Original Message----- > From: Detlev Fischer [mailto:email@example.com] > Sent: 19 January 2012 21:58 > To: email@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com> > Subject: Re: 100% conformance for the pages sampled... > > Let's stop here and consider the implications. > > Here and then, people in the EVAL TF have agreed that the 100% conformant site does not really exist 'out there'. Aren't we holding the bone a wee bit too high? I wonder what that will mean for the practical acceptance of the methodology. Will it come to be derided as academic, as impossibly demanding? Who then is the customer of a (sorry, chap) refused seal of conformance who bows to gracefully accept the list of flaws to rectify? Just wondering...it just strikes me as slightly surreal... > > Detlev > > > > Quoting RichardWarren <firstname.lastname@example.com<mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com>>: > > Dear Alistair and All, > > Having just spent a fortune getting my son's car through its MOT I > have to agree with Alistair 100%. Our task is to establish a > methodology for evaluating website accessibility. If the evaluation > identifies that the site fully meets the guidelines then a conformance > claim can be made to that effect. Everyone will know exactly what that > means. > > If the site "almost" meets the guidelines then perhaps some other form > of "compliance statement" can be made - BUT that is not our current > problem. Maybe, once we have finished our methodology, we can > recommend a new task force to look at variance in conformance claims > <grin>. > > > Regards > Richard > > > > -----Original Message----- From: Alistair Garrison > Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 9:02 PM > To: Eval TF > Subject: 100% conformance for the pages sampled... > > Dear All, > > If I understood correctly from this afternoon's EVAL TF telecon - > there was a suggestion that we should (at a minimum) require the > representative sample pages to be in 100% conformance with WCAG 2.0 > (at the chosen level) in order to say the site conforms (at that > level). If this was the case, I strongly agree with it (meant to > write it in the IRC at the time). > > In addition, I noted from some a worry about telling a website owner > (a client, etc) that their website doesn't conform - especially when > they might have tried hard to do so. To my mind, worries of this kind > should not deter us from asking for nothing less than 100% conformance > (on any given sample). The person that does the MOT on my car has > absolutely no worries about telling me about any failures, but > possibly that's because everyone doing MOTs requires 100% conformance > from a car for a pass. > > Surely, we want people to try their absolute best to conform 100%. > We must encourage them to shoot for the stars (100% conformance) - > some, of course, will initially only hit the moon, but they will at > least know what is expected from them... Let's not, however, start to > congratulate people for simply getting off the ground - that time must > have passed long, long, long ago. > > Anyway, look forward to seeing you all on the list. > > Alistair > > > > -- > --------------------------------------------------------------- > Detlev Fischer PhD > DIAS GmbH - Daten, Informationssysteme und Analysen im Sozialen > Geschäftsführung: Thomas Lilienthal, Michael Zapp > > Telefon: +49-40-43 18 75-25 > Mobile: +49-157 7-170 73 84 > Fax: +49-40-43 18 75-19 > E-Mail: email@example.com<mailto:email@example.com> > > Anschrift: Schulterblatt 36, D-20357 Hamburg Amtsgericht Hamburg HRB 58 167 > Geschäftsführer: Thomas Lilienthal, Michael Zapp > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > >Received on Friday, 27 January 2012 07:45:27 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.1 : Tuesday, 6 January 2015 20:40:19 UTC


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A sculpture entirely made of beeswax. Over 500 years old. Authenticated to have been hand-crafted by the Renaissance Master himself. The work of a horse and rider in full military regalia is believed to have been a model for a larger monument of politician and military figure Charles D'Amboise, a friend and patron of Leonardo da Vinci's. So where was it all this time? Shortly after the artist's death, the model disappeared from public view, inherited by his trusted apprentice and close friend Francesco Melzi, who became principle heir to Leonardo's possessions. When Melzi passed, the beeswax model was auctioned, and has since changed hands, always remaining in private collection. Although it has been preserved remarkably well, all things considered, its survival is not without some weathering. Time and travel over the centuries took its toll, in addition to the general deterioration of the beeswax.
Enter American real estate businessman Richard A. Lewis. In 1985, Lewis' friend, Paul Wagner, was part of a group of businessmen who were shown the maquette while in Switzerland. With their interests piqued, they enlisted world renowned da Vinci expert Professor Carlo Pedretti. He endorsed its authenticity, after examining the original mold that had been taken from the beeswax sculpture. By 1987, an opportunity was presented to Lewis, who then became owner of the original mold, dubbed "Horse and Rider," and its supporting documents, establishing provenance.
It seems retirement was the catalyst for the casual art enthusiast to bring his admired possession out of the closest 25 years later, and onto the public stage by allowing a limited number of reproductions to be produced and sold, with a portion of the proceeds to benefit The Salvation Army of Southern Nevada. Lewis employed the revered American Fine Arts Foundry to produce 996 castings, 900 in bronze in three patinas, retailing for $25,000 a piece, and 96 in silver for $30,000.
The four city world tour, to promote the story and reproductions, kicked off August 27 in Los Angeles with a privately held event at the befitting historic Greystone Mansion. On display for us captivated guests were all four versions of the reproductions, the original cast and mold, and books documenting "Horse and Rider" including a limited edition (#36 to be exact, owned by Rod Maly of Art Encounter) of The Queen's Collection which officially catalogued the masterpiece in 1987.
I could have stood there at great length studying the exceptional detail and craftsmanship. It's no wonder tears were shed from some experts upon inspection, and Pedretti had declared it "Perfect! Perfect! Perfect!" The anatomical proportions, and command of the horse are captured perfectly. Then, imagine the finesse in carving the tiniest of features with such precision onto beeswax. Genius! Adding to the thrill was seeing the discernible impression of da Vinci's thumbprint left behind on the horse's breastplate. For most of us, this will be a once in a lifetime experience, not to be forgotten.
Today, the beeswax original is believed to be in a private collection housed in London. It will be interesting to see how the art collectors' world will respond to the limited editions, and their affect on the value. Never has this manner of reproduction been done before. Regardless, owners will belong to a uniquely rare membership, and be part of art history.
The "Horse and Rider" castings accompanied by the original mold, derived from the sole surviving da Vinci sculpture in existence, gallops ahead with the next tour stop, New York.
For more information on "Horse and Rider," Richard A. Lewis, and how you can purchase a limited edition model, please visit www.davincihorseandrider.com
For information on Rod Maly and Brett Maly, the fine art appraisers and brokers selected to be exclusive worldwide distributor of the limited run castings, please visit Art Encounter
To learn about bronze casting, and the creative team of artists behind the reproductions, please visit American Fine Arts Foundry
Photos taken by Lawrence Davis with the AMAZING Sony NEX-5NK Camera.
Read the review of this fantastic camera: Sony NEX-5NK Camera Review - Go On Take the Shot


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AMD's award-winning Catalyst graphics and HD video configuration software delivers unprecedented control of performance and visual quality with AMD Radeon graphics processors. AMD Catalyst drivers deliver stable performance and push the limits of innovation with advanced user-oriented features.
Precision controls for power users. Tweaks for gamers and video enthusiasts. Simple wizard-assisted setup, easy multi-monitor configuration, and ultra reliable operation for working professionals. New user or seasoned expert, AMD Catalyst puts you in charge of The Ultimate Visual Experience.
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Robust stability
- Catalyst drivers for Windows Vista and Windows XP are Microsoft WHQL-certified to deliver the industry's most stable and reliable graphics performance.
This version is for the 32-bit version of Windows XP and 2003
# Feature
* Support added for AMD Radeon HD7790 and AMD Radeon HD 7990
* Catalyst Driver optimizations to improve performance in Far Cry 3, Crysis 3, and 3DMark
* Significantly improves latency performance in Skyrim, Boderlands 2, Guild Wars 2, Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution
* Performance gains seen with the entire AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series for the following:
- Batman Arkham City (1920x1200): Performance improvements up to 5%
- Borderlands 2 (2560x1600): Performance improvements up to 10%
- Quake Wars (1920x1200): Performance improvements up to 13%
- Hitman Absolution (2560x1600): Performance improvements up to 11%
- Wolfenstein MP (1920x1080): Performance improvements up to 11%
- Civilization V (2560x1600): Performance improvements up to 5%
* Delivers support for the following OpenGL 4.3 features:
- GL_ARB_compute_shader
- GL_ARB_multi_draw_indirect
- GL_ARB_shader_storage_buffer_object
- GL_ARB_arrays_of_arrays
- GL_ARB_clear_buffer_object
- GL_ARB_ES3_compatibility
- GL_ARB_explicit_uniform_location
- GL_ARB_fragment_layer_viewport
- GL_ARB_invalidate_subdata
- GL_ARB_program_interface_query
- GL_ARB_shader_image_size
- GL_ARB_stencil_texturing
- GL_ARB_texture_buffer_range
- GL_ARB_texture_query_levels
- GL_ARB_texture_storage_multisample
# Resolved Issues
* With the Radeon HD7790 graphics card, corruption may be seen in the game Tomb Raider with TressFX enabled
* Texture flickering may be observed in DirectX 9.0c enabled applications
* Corruption observed in Tomb Raider with TressFX enabled for AMD Crossfire and single GPU system configurations
* Corruption observed on objects and textures in the game, Call of Duty – Black Ops 2
* Corruption observed in the game, Alan Wake (DirectX 9 Mode) when attempting to change in-game settings with Stereoscopic 3D using Tridef
* Corruption observed on textures in the game, Battle Field: Bad Company 2 with forced anti-aliasing enabled
* Adobe Photoshop CS6 experiences screen flicker under Windows 8 based system
* Horizontal line corruption may be observed with forced anti-aliasing enabled in the game, Dishonored
* System hang may occur when scrolling through the game selection menu in the game, DiRT 3
* F1 2012 may crash to desktop on systems supporting AMD PowerXpress (Enduro) Technology


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GF EnduroVar7/22
Anyone here using General Finishes Endurovar? I bought 2 gallons of gloss and one of dull recently for a couple small projects here in the shop. I've been searching for a waterbourne topcoat finish that I feel comfortable in using for our custom kitchen and bath cabinetry. I like the color tone of this finish and have played with small samples a bit. I first sprayed a cherry wall cabinet that came out great. Next, I sprayed a coat of gloss on a walnut piece (no stain) followed by 2 coats of dull. The first dried ok but then a day went by before the second got sprayed. The sprayed finish acted like there was wax on the surface, beading up and not flowing out. I had sanded with 320 between each coat and removed dust. Since then I have tried a number of sample boards with the same result. Calling GF, was told over 24 hrs between coats can cause this issue, but sanding should take care of it. Short of sanding down to bare wood, it still happens. I've flushed gun with gallons of soapy water, followed by more gallons of clean water,etc. Any other ideas?
I've used it for some floors w/multiple coats and on a couple of small projects with no issues. I use lots of their poly and have for years with good results. The poly is a harder finish I add orange dye to get that solvent look much like the Endurovar. Off the top of my head it sounds/looks like you could have a contamination issue. Or another possible issue could be your coat thickness. Are you spraying it on heavy? WB in general don't like to be sprayed too heavy, multiple thinner coats are the way to go.
EnduroVar is not the easiest thing for me to spray; too light and it doesn't flow out; too heavy and I get orange peel. I've never had the problem you describe, but I always adhere to the recommended recoat time window. Are you sure your air is clean? Is your sandpaper stearate coated or some other coating? That might be a problem.
It's a good product that gives a finish with more of the amber tint you get from oil based finishes. I have sprayed a lot of it and for the most part got excellent results but there were a few times where we would have surface tension issues leading to fish eye and cratering.
One thing to keep in mind is that it is not compatible with their standard line of sanding sealers and only use it for stained wood.
This is just a guess on my part, since I'm not familiar with the actual chemistry of the coating.
They might be using a wax emulsion as a flattening agent. The clue is you sprayed one coat of dull, no problems. It was the second coat of dull that created the problem. Had it been the stearated sandpaper, it would have occurred with the first coat.
You likely did it backwards. Two coats of gloss, then one coat of dull, rather than one coat of gloss then two of dull. This would have avoided the problem and given a coating with greater clarity.
If you wish to avoid stripping, then sand off all of the dull, spray a coat of gloss, then a coat of dull.
I'm surprised that this is happening. There are wax additives that have better intercoat adhesion properties.
Thanks for the responses. I had a follow up call to GF and a better talk with one of the chemists. He did say this has been a recurring issue sometimes and persoally prefers their clear poly for commercial cabinetry, either with slight tinting of the first sealer coat or a shellac sealer coat followed by the poly. Not the same surface tension issues and a bit more durable. They are sending me some free of charge to try out. I re-sanded the initial project and was able to save it, recoating and it came out ok. Luckily it was a small project, not a large kitchen.
I tried their flat poly, just foam brushed 4 coats on bare walnut. Next morning I sprayed Fantastic cleaner
what type of Tack Cloth do you use ?
That's an interesting comment from the GF chemist that Enduro Clear Poly is more durable than EnduroVar. That has not been my experience, nor that of some others I know. Clear Poly is MUCH easier to spray than EnduroVar; flows out beautifully whether you spray a light or heavy coat. But it's not nearly as chemically durable as EnduroVar unless they've reformulated it in the last couple of months. I prefer using Clear Poly, and I have for bath vanities over Sealcoat shellac, but when I want maximum chemical durability I use EnduroVar. In my testing, almost nothing damages it. The price difference should tell you something.
From what I was told they have added cross linker to it where in the past you had to add the
I am pretty sure that I tested some of the first Endurovar to hit the Distributor probably around 2009 and have never had to add an external crosslinker.
I believe it was originally formulated and marketed as a floor coating which is why it is as durable as it is.But by saying clear poly is more durable he may have meant harder and more scratch resistant. The acrylic resins seem to me to be harder than the oil modified resins. The advantage to the oil resins is that they have more flexibility to wood movement that you see in floors.
The one thing to watch with endurovar is you cannot use it to clear over their pigmented poly. I am not positive but it may not be compatible with their classic or milk paints as well.
Either way it has an amber tone and will yellow more over time which makes it a poor choice for going over pigmented finishes and white woods like Maple, Birch,Hickory and Beech.
On woods like Walnut, Cherry and even Oak the tone of the finish can actually enhance the appearance and look quite impressive.
The guys at GF are great to work with and if you have any questions they are very good at helping to answer any questions you might have.
GF also has a product called their Enduro Conversion Varnish that does have to be catalyzed. Could this be what some have referenced?
The regular poly is what I'm referring to not the Endurovar. I did use the Endurovar once on cherry and it came out nice but it does have some yellow in it. The poly is very clear and
I wonder when (if?) GF started adding cross linker to the Clear Poly. Their tech. data sheet says cross linker can be added, which suggests there is none in it. Also, the cross linker you add only lasts so many hours if you don't use the mix, after which it no longer works as a cross linker. So if they are adding one now, it must be different and they haven't updated their TDS to reflect the change. Count me skeptical. They once told me that Clear Poly has a better UV stabilizer in it than HP Poly. Years later a colleague calls them and they say it has no UV stabilizer and never did. GF makes some great products but getting reliable info. from them is not their strong suit.
As far as a tack cloth I used a slightly damp rag, no tack cloth. Surface was dry when next coat applied. My understanding from their online product description is that Endurovar does not require any additional crosslinker as it is already been crosslinked. ??? I was also under the impression once crosslinked it only lasted for a short time. He was quite adamant that the Endurovar was not as durable and chemical resistant as the poly and most commercial shops used the poly on production kitchen/bath cabinetry. I just got a free gallon yesterday so I will do a little experimenting this week.
John B. if you want to do a fair comparison you need to apply an equal number of coats of EnduroVar and Clear Poly to two pieces of identical wood, and then wait at least 7 days and preferably 3 weeks for them to cure before testing.
I did some quick chemical testing on specimens of cherry finished with EnduroVar and Enduro Clear Poly. These specimens were more than 4 months old so they are fully cured. I put a couple of ml of DNA, acetone, and Windex on each specimen and let them sit until they were dry, which took about 4 hours. The looked like what's shown in the first photo. I then wiped them first with a wet paper towel, followed by a dry one. After, the Clear Poly looked like what's shown in the second photo and the EnduroVar in the third photo.
None of the chemicals truly damaged either finish, but the DNA and acetone left a ring or changed the sheen of the Clear Poly, but did nothing to the EnduroVar. Windex, which contains ammonia has proven deadly on many finishes I've tested before, but did nothing to either the Clear Poly or EnduroVar.
I don't know what protocol GF used to conclude Clear Poly has superior durability compared to EnduroVar, but it wasn't in my quick testing. However, it's still really good, superior to many finishes I've tested, including some solvent based varnishes.
I was thinking that spraying Enduro Var over dark latex (in this case it is SW All Surface Enamel tinted to a kind of Expresso or Dark Chocolate) because I felt that the dark color could take the Enduro Var and I would be able to make a softer darker finish harder---I have a couple of HVLP's and am very experiened with the new reformulated High Performance, I originally was going to just tint the Enduro Var with some exterior GF Stain and some tints and then top coat the thing with for Enduro Var but color matches per batch looked too difficult to change and I dropped that. Should I switch back to the HP? I have used Enduro Var only to lock down touch ups to worn cabinets that fell my way. I still might roll some on the bottom cabinets and the island if it turns out that the bead up thing is a problem, but I have seen that with the new HP, and it goes away with sanding and proper thinning. I think, or hope.


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There's a lot of talk about so-called "green" jobs lately, and many of you are wondering how you can get a piece of the action, especially if you're out of work.
Well, you're going to have to think beyond just wanting a green job because these positions are so varied and are in so many industries. Saying you want green employment is almost like saying you want employment. And even though federal dollars earmarked for sustainable industries are starting to trickle in to projects and job-training programs across the country, that doesn't mean green jobs are plentiful.
"Thinking just 'green job' limits you too much," warned Paul Pierpoint, vice president for community education and chair of the "Green Team" at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, Pa., who said the expected green jobs explosion has yet to materialize.
"Almost every job has a green component. Even bartenders have to learn how to recycle," he explained. "But to look for a job that exists because it's green is not good career planning if you want a job right now."
The key is figuring out where the opportunities are and what type of job is right for you.
Green jobs run the gamut, everything from solar installers to pollution auditors. The question you need to ask yourself is whether it's something you'd enjoy and whether your skills are transferable — even if you might require some training — because it will make the transition smoother.
Laci Gilmore, a former diesel mechanic for Ford in Denver, was interested in a job in wind energy but wasn't sure she'd be capable of working on large wind turbines. Turns out, her mechanical skills were just right for the job. She's now an operation and maintenance technician for Suzlon, a large wind turbine company.
"I did a lot of this work — reading schematics, troubleshooting — at Ford," she said, which made for an easy transition into the industry. She took some classes and relocated to Arlington, Ore., but 99 percent of her training has been on the job.
Relocating for a job
Many employment experts advised that people be willing to move if they want to work for companies that are clearly focused on the environment.
The West Coast and parts of the Northeast, including the Boston area, are key areas where green companies are sprouting up, thanks to venture capital money, said Chuck Pappalardo, managing director for recruiting firm Trilogy Search. Green-manufacturing jobs can be found in cities such as Cleveland and Indianapolis.
"I had a conversation recently with a women at the vice president level who didn't want to move. But people have to be opportunistic when looking for these jobs, and that's always been the case," he added.
Once you figure out where the jobs are and in which industries, you can start figuring out if a job is a good fit for you.
"You have to self-educate," advised Gayle Oliver-Plath, founder of green jobs Web site and community CareerEco.com. She suggested checking out cleantech.com and greenbiz.com to see what's out there, and reading about what different jobs and different industries are like.
"People don't like to hear that it takes a lot of work to go about getting a job, and a green job is the same," she said. "Start the research process, take a look at your skill sets and then say, 'How can I take what I'm good at and get some new training, or volunteer, or get nonprofit experience, and turn things around and move into a new job?'"
Landing a green job
Here are some of your questions:
I am 53 years old and am the father of three teenage girls. I am also unemployed and going broke by the day. I will likely lose my house by year's end. I have a master's degree level of education and have well over twenty years professional experience in my field, (most recently a) senior level project manager for an architectural-engineering (firm). But, jobs are few and far between at the moment. I would like to have an opportunity to receive job training in the renewable energy industry. I am willing to make what sacrifices are necessary to secure a better future for my family.
— Mark Romulus, Yorktown, Va.
Unfortunately, there are not as many federal grants out there for professional workers because most of the funds are directed toward skilled and semiskilled employees, said Carlos Martin, who advises the training and development arm of the National Association of Home Builders. "Because he's at a higher level, it will be harder to find something for free."
However, there are numerous programs for engineers, especially those with an architectural background. To get help paying for such training, Martin suggested Romulus contact his professional organization to see if there are training discounts for people in his industry.
Some companies, he added, may be willing to train him because he has the skills that firms looking to fill green positions need.
Raquel Pinderhughes, urban studies professor at San Francisco State University, suggested he contact Green For All to see if there are any green job-training projects in his geographic area. "His work in arch-engineering should be transferable," she added.
Again, Romulus may have to consider relocating, maintained Trilogy's Pappalardo, because the mid-Atlantic isn't quite a hotbed of green activity.
Pappalardo suggested that Romulus find a recruiter in his area or find out where venture capital firms are investing their dollars and connect with those people. "With his background in architecture, I'm sure people are dying to know where he is," he added.
Due to the economic downturn, I'm having to look in new areas for career ideas. One such idea has been the "green" sector, thus my interest in your article, "
Green industries offer job growth opportunities
." I would like to see if you had any more information on some of the major green companies in the San Bernardino/Riverside, Calif., area (80 miles east of Los Angeles).
— James Potts, San Bernardino, Calif.
Almost all the major job boards now have green job sections or allow you to search for green jobs and specific locations.
If you know you want to work in a specific industry — such as water, for example — find the local branch of the American Water Association, said Oliver-Plath. Such groups will be able to connect you with firms in your area and information about job opportunities.
There may also be regional green groups that can help you figure out what's available in your town. She pointed to Southeast Green and the Green Chamber of the South as examples in her region. "In every part of the country, you have more and more of these popping up."
Attending conferences or green networking events in your area can be a great way to learn about the industry, gain contacts and find out where the jobs are, she added.
Don't forget to check out your state department of labor or county, city or town employment offices and community colleges in your area.
Eve Tahmincioglu writes the weekly "Your Career" column for msnbc.com and chronicles workplace issues in her blog, CareerDiva.net.


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