Thursday, December 11, 2008

Learning Journal (Blog) - Dec 9

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What appeals to me about entrepreneurship?

For sure this is in my blood, I see my FN culture as entrepreneurs. My father started his own oyster farm, sold clams, started a small family farm. My Grander father would travel all over NB is make and sell the best axe handles. (He had a good customer base - because of his perfect craftsmanship - and they wouldn't buy from anyone else except him).

I believe that entrepreneurship is in my family (my blood). As I have shared in previous blogs, I can recall always seeing opportunities, and seeing if I was skilled enough to fill that need. I enjoy knowing whats happening, all the new things. But mostly, my two greatest strengths are teaching and technology. (They are also my two passions) I also realized that my passion for teaching / mentoring goes all over the place and not only in technology. I also volunteer working with the church, and truly enjoying seeing those little kids light bulbs turn on, because they understand a new concept. I enjoy working with kids a lot. But mostly I really enjoy being my own boss.

Learning Journal (Blog - Dec 4

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Talk to someone (perhaps your spouse, sibling, friend, teenager, etc) and tell them about business plans. Write about your experience. The goal of this exercise is to inform about business plans. Perhaps you know of someone who has a business or wants to start a business that wants to learn a little more about business plans, you can take this opportunity to assist them and perhaps answer some questions.

I decided to interview my daughter who is in a business program under NBCC, (She has great entrepreneurial traits, just like mom) I watched her as a young girl, who has great interpersonal skills. I remember watching her grow up and be able to sell items at markets, Yard sales, etc. Savannah has a selling spirit. She is very great with people, and she has a dream to someday open up a hotel or something under tourism.

We talked a lot about her dreams, and her strengths, and her weaknesses. (She hates accounting) At the end of the interview, we concluded that we would love to open up a business together. Because of the variety of skills we would bring into the business. I could be back end - she would be front end. I am a more serious person and she is mostly interpersonal. I am great with numbers and she is great with people. I also discussed where I failed as an owner - and what types of business are nto good to get into. (More like why kind of Business scams to watch out for!)

We talked about opening up a combination hotel / restaurant. I shared with her about a hotel I stayed in once. (During one of my many travels in Toronto.) It was a suite style, with multi floors, swimming pool, and a small gym where people could work out.

We both love to work out & talked about having a real healthy restaurant (Maybe a Swiss chalet style - our favorite) and The Gym to be open to the Public 24 hours (Gym, Sauna, Hot tub, etc) I use to go to 24 hour gyms in Toronto and there is a big lack of inconsideration for people who works shifts (as do entrepreneurs)

We both feel that a form of physical exercise is an important part of an entrepreneurs life; Some days to just blow off your stressful day, you go skating, swimming, running, etc) But to be balanced you need to be physically active as well.

Learning Journal (Blog) - Nov 24

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What did you learn from our guest speaker? Pick something and discuss it. If you missed the class, use business plans instead.

I didn't catch this guest speakers name, but I wrote like crazy, as she seems to be a source of a lot of information. The one thing I never knew before, or had never thought of was, "Having a back up plan." I never recall during my journey as an Entrepreneur, ever being asked if I had back up plan, or to even incorporate this into my Business plan.

When I started my own business and I worked with ABC & Adel-Kent-Leda, we never discussed a back up plan. My Business was about providing a service as a computer consulting company, so maybe services vs purchase of a building require more sophisticated planning. I am sure, it has to do with the fact that the bank has to do a big investment in this business and they required a a back up plan. (It only makes sense) My Business was really low start-up costs , I need approx $10,000. (this was just to outfit my office with all the electronic equipment to function as a computer consultant) computer, copier, Scanner, various office supplies, desk, etc. The Start-up costs were not high and part of these costs were covered under a grant. In the end I ended up pay back a $5000 loan.

But I thought, what could have been my back up plan. Maybe training (as I do have a teaching degree and I truly enjoy teaching / mentoring) I think I would have fallen back on this.

Learning Journal (blog) - Nov 17

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Pick a topic from our 'Current Business Live Feed' and respond to it.

One of the latest activities on the Live Feed is our economy, and how we are being affected with the World economy. The devastation of job losses, the closing of plants, the Canadian Dollar on a big decline (I'm really sad about this - I love to shop in the states.) But the biggest thing on most Canadian minds is: Will I have a job tomorrow? To be frank, this is on my mind as well. As FN working in a FN community, we are solely dependant on Federal Government Funding for our annual contracts. I am a floater, and I rely on 6 - 12 month contracts for the technology services I provide. The uncertainty in the economy causes the Federal Government to become very nervous, and they tend to start cutting costs on various projects, or to stop funding all together. The last time I felt this was approx 2003, when the Federal Government got nervous and stop hiring, closed all contracts that were under negotiation, etc.. I got affected, as I was one of these clients with a sub-contract under Health Canada.

Learning Journal (Blog) - Nov 4

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Pick a First Nations woman in business and write about the barriers that she has faced. How has she overcome them? Use the barriers identified in my lecture last night. Pick at least three of the seven.

The Woman I would like to do this blog on my own experiences as a FN Woman Entrepreneur.

I have been an entrepreneur since I could remember. I started my own delivery service at the age of 10. (I saw a need and decided to fill it.) In our community, when I was younger, Giving Christmas Cards to everyone was really a big deal. Money was hard to come by, but you were rich with friends when you had a lot of Christmas cards. So the community was very giving with Christmas Cards. My mom use to hand write 200 Christmas Cards & have to deliver them, then my married sister would, and the family next door, etc. So I saw an opportunity and grabbed at the chance to start my own seasonal business. "Heidi's Christmas Card Delivery Business". I made poster and put signs up. Soon our door was ringing with boxes of Christmas Cards ready to be delivered, I would deliver approx. every 4 days so I would have a stack of Cards (like a mail women) when I went to houses. I got so busy that I had to hire my dad to drive me around. He enjoyed how I earned my money that year. Through out my life I had parents who believed in me and supported me (emotionally and morally). This was where I got my drive to move forward as an Entrepreneur.

Later on in life, as I tested some more small seasonal business ventures I knew I was hooked - I was an Entrepreneur. In 1999, I finally decided to sit down and work out a plan - a real business plan. That was the year I decided to open up :"Simon Computer Consulting"- I had many difficulties, and much enjoyment. The difficulties were similar to the various case studies we read about in, the class text. Mostly mine were finances and budgeting. I learned that when you start a small business - you should be debt free, as there was too much financial stress of wondering how you are going to pay for all your bills. (Not enough income coming in and having too many bills to pay out.) I guess this is why I am back in school, to learn to do it right. I know I will be back in the game again. As for now - I will continue to work towards my FN Business Certificate - learn more time management, budgeting and accounting skills - to use in my next endeavour.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Learning Journal - Oct 28

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Learning Journal: What does it mean to be a professional? Are students in training to be professionals?

Defination according to Wikipedia: A professional is a person in a profession that requires certain types of skilled work requiring formal training or education.

I believe the biggest aspect about a person level of professionalism is about attitude. A person can have all the training and education, but with the proper attitude - they are not professionals. I think that this lacks highly in my community, where the code of conduct is over looked. There seems to be too much water cooler talk happening in our work areas, and this degrades our level of professionalism that we should have towards work and towards our clients (the community members).

I think most of the business courses, whether its at the College level or at the University level are preparing students to play up to the professional level. I am very impressed, especially at the NBCC Business Degree Program. My daughter is currently enrolled at NBCC, and the level of expectancy is high, her appearance is expected to bring a level of business professional with her to all the classes. Not all education programs impress upon the students the same level of business/professional expectancies.

Learning Journal - Oct 21

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Read the article titled "Taboo". What are your reactions to it?

First of all I looked at this personally (because I am native, but then I was able to step away and look at this from a business point of view) then as a International point of view.

Personally I was offended with the frankness of this man from Harvard University. I felt his cultural and historical understanding of First Nation people, historically was very ignorant. Internationally, if you try to do business with other cultures in other countries, you need to understand where the people come historically, their struggles and their values. These values are the bases of how these cultures / countries make business decisions; (Their individual business decisions models). Take for instance the German culture. You must understand their history in order to understand how to deal and make business transactions with them. Without understanding any of their history and their struggles, I would clearly insult them if I choose to do a formal business transaction, wearing flimsy, cheap shoes (or is my shoes are too casual, this would insult them) Because shoes historically in their culture has a deep meaning and the struggles they had to endure. Historically people in general could not afford shoes in Germany, if you had shoes made of leather you were considered well off, or a person of importance. As time has gone on, this value of importance and respect to the type of shoe you wear in business transactions weighs heavy on international business deals.

With this in mind, I feel this man, has not begun to understand our struggles or our values making the statements he did on this article. I feel he was unable to see our people and our country with the proper vision from an International business point of view. I was truly dissapointed in this mans narrow vision, and ignorance of cultures in his own country.

Monday, October 6, 2008

Learning Journal

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For my business web site I did a few changes. First I added my sort of cover letter on my website, see blog title..Heidi Simon ~ Technical Consultant (Oct 7th). I added this information to my blog so people viewing my site can have an idea of my background in education and the experience in technology, as well as all the First Nation communities I have had the privilege to work with. Then I changed the title of my main page "Aboriginal Technology Consultant". I also changed the theme color, to a more polished professional, yet simple theme color and design. I added a picture on my Title (Under the banner) I was trying to be creative, if this was truly my business website - I would have put my company logo and mission on this spot. (I googled this picture and placed it there). I decided to keep my profile picture - which is one of my profile pictures , where I am attending a conference. I did not include other pictures - in fact I removed my personal pictures and some pictures of sunsets that I had. I just did not think they represented the professional image I was trying to portray. I am trying to keep a simple technical language in my site. I also decided not to remove any of my past blogs as they were geared to technology in the aboriginal communities, which fits my business image. Most of my previous blog discussed Health Information Technology and Technology in the First Nation Community. I also decided to include links to some of my favorite technology links in terms of resources. But I also decided to leave my personal links as well. I am a practicing catholic and my site reflects this with my links as well hopefully with my values.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Heidi Simon ~ Technical Consultant (Oct 7th)

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Heather Simon (Technical Consulting)
27 Hill St
Elsipogtog NB E4W-2V4
Email: heatherheidisimon@hotmail.com

To: Whom it may concern
I am very skilled in the areas of Training and Technology, this is something I have done for the last 10 years and believe that my current education and my strong interpersonal and technical skills are appropriate for any Technical Business endeavour your company may require.

I currently have a Bachelor of Education Degree with University of New Brunswick. I majored in Native Studies and minored in technology. I truly enjoy interacting with people and have a great knack for technology and training. (I love to see the light bulb effect when they get it!) I went to further my technology skills as I was the Training Coordinator, when I worked at the First Nations Help Desk. I also upgraded my technology and have gained CISCO certification, and most recently a Cisco award, please see the link for the CISCO article: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/global/canada/news/2008/pr_07-31.html .

I have worked in all 35 First Nations School in Atlantic Region as the Training Coordinator, under the First Nation Help Desk. We supported 35 First Nation Schools in the Atlantic Region. I am able to provide training in my native language Mi’kmaq. (Either in person or via Video Conferencing.) Prior to this position I worked under Health Canada as a contract and I was the FNIHIS First Nation Coordinator, and was able to travel to all the First Nation Communities and Health Centres in Atlantic region offering them technical support and training in the Health Information system.

I know I would enjoy an opportunity to continue to work in the Atlantic First Nation Communities, attached is a copy of my resume, which more fully details my qualifications for the position.

Please feel free to contact me at (506) 555-1212 or by email at heatherheidisimon@hotmail.com, to answer any questions you may have.

I am looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your consideration.
_______________________
Heidi Simon
First Nation Technical Consultant

Monday, September 29, 2008

What do you feel are the pros and cons of the problem solving ritual discussed? (Due Sept 30)

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What do you feel are the pros and cons of the problem solving ritual discussed?

When our group read and discussed the article "How to Make a Decision Like a Tribe" we looked at this article from a business point of view, how various cultures do business. We did not do any research on the people who wrote the article. I remember reading this book on the various business etiquette and business protocol in countries across the world. I learned so much from this business book about business culture, doing business, business customs, etiquette and business protocol. So when I read this article I was looking at this article from this point of view.

After reading this article I realised that the Chinese culture and their decision making process is very similar to the traditional First Nation process that we do here at the Elsipogtog Health Centre, as I was describing in class, when we meet at a management level, we have to ensure that every body owns the product (report, work plan, etc). As a group we do not move on to another topic or section of the agenda until we have a group consensious. This is a pro, the result of these type of meeting is that everyone walks away feeling heard and having input, therefore owning the result. The con with this process, is that it takes a longer path. I read that the Chinese use this process as well, as it takes much longer to get to group consessious, but when a decision is made, it's owned by everyone.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

FN Entrepreneurship ABRG 4664

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Looking forward to this course ~ Have a lot to read, but also a lot to contribute! It's nice to see Tina again! I have some reading to do!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Telemarketing Fraud & Identity Theft

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I attended a session with the RCMP on telemarketing Fraud & Identity Theft session - This was a community Information Session. This was a RCMP from Fredericton who works on the Commercial Crimes Section. This session was very interesting - he discussed cyber fraud and other fraud scams that are happening in NB as well as Canada. There was scams that happened here in Richibucto as well as Moncton. Debit reading scams - how restaurant, banks, bank machine were fitted with card readers & micro small cameras to defraud people. it was a very interesting session, He also discussed how Banks have changed their machines in the last year to stop card readers from being installed on official bank machines. He also warned us to take extra caution on entering our PIN number. He said 'Get used to covering your hand while you punch in your pin) He sowed us the many different ways people had installed cameras to record your pin number. He also cautioned us not to hand over our cards, but to insist to swipe our own cards - some restaurants would double swipe debit cards (1st swipe would be a card reader) and the 2nd swipe would be to capture your PIN. I walked away feeling. I walked away feeling - Gee I don't even want to use my debit card, and never go to a public computer to check your bank account. He also let us know about the latest Credit Union scam - where the official Credit Union Web Page was hijacked and people were logging into a dummy website (This people were based in Bathurst). The website was rigged to read your bank card & record keystrokes (your password) ) Then they would go to the real bank site with your information and then your bank account is empty!

Technology Plan

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Ok - So it was really exciting planning a technology plan for school. I think this was a great practice for us as business students. We need to start thinking "Where does Technology fit in my business" or "Where does Technology fit in my community". I always enjoy it when people, organizations and communities embrace technology (For the good) we know technology can be used for many illegal ways, this would be another blog.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Technology as a Tool (Part 2)

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So it was a great busy week in terms of technology! But the great news was how the people are embracing technology. It was great that the Director her self, saw the site & commented on the value of it. Other co-workers as well, said it looks very valuable and we happy to see a site with up to date community events. The Network Administrator is also willing to put a link from the Main Health Centre web site to link to the News site to help the community find this information faster. I have the Youth Coordinator who is keen and happy to do updates & posting her events photos on the Youth Centre Site.! I love it when people embrace technology, I especially love it when I see that light bulb on top of their heads and take new knowledge and run with it!

Busy Week With Technology!

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What a crazy busy week, So I have this to do list, (1) Make video conference connections to the 2 surrounding hospitals and the Clinic in Dieppe. It’s amazing how you can get bounced around from one tech guy to the next to the next (I think this is the 5th contact that I finally got bounced to!) So I hope next week I will finally make contact and actually do a test call) (2) Finalize the Health Centre Technology plan. This has been a journey of 5 months. It’s amazing how it took so long in reviewing and revising a 2 year old Technology plan, until I owned it. I had to read and reread it until – I understood the whole plan and layout. Then I had to ensure to update the plan to reflect the vision and the direction that we want to take for the next 3 years. But I have great co-workers helping in this plan, so I must say it’s almost finally done! (3) Begin to do a gap analysis for a Health Information System that is greatly needed in the Health Centre. We have already have the (a) What do we have, then we are working on (b) What do we want based on our needs, then we analyze the gaps. So I should be busy, for the next couple of months.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Technology as a tool for youth contact

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Ok, so I am all for knowing what can technology do for me! Its not what can I do for technology! I work in an environment where I am paid to put my technology thinking hat on and always be on the look out on how I can help employees automate their jobs! So bright idea this week on how our Community News paper can be more live! "Jeff’s Protopage - I just love it". Ok so now that I know about it and have played with it! I put some stuff on the protopage site that I can show the value and sample content to our staff, what’s my next step? I have to sell the idea to my co-workers whom I hope will embrace this news concept. I have Vanessa, Bev, Nancy and possibly others that I would like to have ownership of this little tool! I think the things that these women do at work, especially the fact that they deal directly with the youth ~ they need a simple and fast tool so they can update their groups or clubs as too what’s happening! So stay tuned next week and see what happens at work. Can Heidi sell the idea, Will Bev and Denise feel they can update this site, What will Vanessa say about it?

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Great Ideas from Class

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I really liked Jeffs News Page, and I was telling Jeremy G. about it, I was like "Look what he does on his news page!!!"I thought it was really a neat little tool for news & events. I have been playing with it for work related events. Check out the link!
http://protopage.com/e.h.w.c.

I was showing Jeremy what I did in terms of my calendar of events, He said this was his biggest challenge, trying to let the parents know whats going on in the school.

So, thanks to this course and all the new techy infomration that I am learning about! I am making community news and events much easier to share!

Sunday, February 3, 2008

As parents, what can we do to ensure our kids can play safe on the net?

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I think this is something Jeff asked one of the students (Jennifer). This is one of my greatest concerns as a parent, and 2nd as an educator of technology. I myself need to explore this area deeper. I find the tools that you can buy off the shelf are not enough to keep our kids safe. I have now learned to use the reverse method as a parent at home – Disallow everything and only add sites as you require them. After a really bad experience with both Goolge images and uTube videos (that got past the rating systems) I don’t allow these two websites on my family computer. (Which by the way is located in the living room and not in the children’s bedroom) This can be another blog “Computers in the child’s bedroom – How safe are they?”

I hope to share and see what other parents are doing . I am also looking forward to see and hear Jeff’s insight with regards to this topic.

Technology in Business ~ How can we stay connected!

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This course is really great for me as I have two loves, teaching & technology. And I am so grateful that in my current position, as Health Information Management Technician (Health Centre) I am able to use both my teaching and technology skills!

I have been teaching the staff about video conferencing, multipoint, webcasting, etc. I got them excited about the possibilities about collaborating with other FN communities using tele-methods. I have done a brief introduction to the Business Team Board (similar to the Smart Board – except it lacks all the functions of Smart Board) and I am helping the staff understand how this tool fits in their work environment.

I must say that introducing Video-conferencing to a staff of 70 people was a big challenge. Many who do not hold management or coordinator positions were reluctant to come to the training. They could not see the benefit of Video Conferencing and asked themselves “Why do I have to go to this training?” As the many reluctant staff people rolled in to my 2 hour Video Conference sessions (Which were scheduled across a 2 month period) they rolled out of class with amazement and converts to Videoconferencing. I especially remember an elderly woman who attended the session fully believing that she was only here because it was mandated from “The Boss” and was not going to gain anything out of this. She walked out saying ~ “Wow, I can’t believe all the benefits and capabilities of video conferencing, I can’t believe that now I will be capable of doing training sessions & workshops with other FN communities from her in Big Cove. She explained to me how amazed she was when we called IT support in Boston, Mass, that he felt like he was right there. She had shared how she does not like to travel far from her community and how communities like Eskasoni had asked her to come to Sydney, NS to teach them how to make Indian Medicines, she had always declined due to the distance of this community. She was so happy and amazed that now this new technology had opened the door to all 35 FN communities in Atlantic Canada, and better yet to the world!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

FNBA Certificate Program Day 1

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I am part of the First Nation BA Certificate program being offered here in Elsipogtog. This is a distance education program offered from UNB (MMI) using tele-methods; Video Conferencing, Smart Board & Collaborative Web Conferencing software (Brigit) . There are 8 First Nation communities involved, and I think the Professor said that there were approx. 70 students in total from all the sites.

Our first course as a group is the ICT1 course and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!. So I hope I will be as enthusiastic for the rest of the course :-).