Association Puzzle

It's a Scam: 1-800-540-1288 Meridian Financial

I have always appreciated caller id because it allows me to duck calls from telemarketers who have no respect for the "do not call" list. Caller id also gives me the chance to research a number before I decide if I should return the rare voicemail.

Thank goodness for websites that share information on these "800" numbers that never have a name attached. One I just let go to voicemail earlier this afternoon turns out to be mortgage scammers.

If you get a voicemail from "Linda" claiming to be with your mortgage company, offering you a 5.875% loan, and urgently telling you call "James" the senior underwriter at 1-800-540-1288, ext. 1722, it's a scam.

Based on my research, this number is for Meridian Financial, a company that buys mortgage data from legitimate companies and tries to get you to refinance a new 30-year mortgage at a higher rate (most 30-year mortgage rates are less than 5% currently).

You may also see "Petry Maintenance" or a variation of that company name on your caller id, but it's still Meridian Financial.

Just remember: if your real mortgage company wanted to refinance your loan, they would send you a letter and have you contact them. That's how legitimate companies do it.

Freedom To Bike and To Write!

David O. Stewart, award-winning author and President of the Freedom To Write Fund (Washington Independent Writers' Foundation) sets off with his author son Matt Stewart on a bike trip from Poland to Ukraine in search of family, adventure, and internet cafes as they will be blogging about their trip on the road.

Visit http://stewartbiketrip.blogspot.com/ to read about the pre-trip preparations and some funny insights into current events and well-known people. The adventure begins July 24 and continues until September 1.

The Freedom To Write Fund (FWF) of WIW is a 501(c)(3) dedicated to protecting the essential benefits to a democratic society that flow from efforts to maintain a thriving community of independent writers. FWF sponsors educational programs and innovative approaches to reporting developments in free expression, access to information, and copyright, as well as to public advocacy on those topics. Donations to FWF are tax deductible. Learn more at www.washwriter.org

WIW Becomes AIW

Writers are passionate about what they do, whether published or not. They are driven to write, even if their words never see the light of day. This is called “the creative impulse,” and this impulse begins a creative process. 

 

When writers aren’t actually writing, they’re thinking about writing. Words, ideas, concepts, and stories are the tools of the writer; these are what we use in the process writing.

 

When writers aren’t thinking about writing, they are studying writing and getting to know each other. Writing is a solitary pursuit, yet, it is all about building connection with others. Building connections is why we will be changing, which is another kind of process.

 

Traditionally in many cultures, when a young person enters a new phase of his or her life, they choose a different name to reflect their new place in the world. As Washington Independent Writers (WIW) enters the next phase of its life, we will also take a new name: American Independent Writers, or “AIW,” which reflects our new place in the world as a national leader of our profession, our craft, and our calling.

 

This new name reflects the expansion of our organization into a nationwide professional association. July 1, 2008 is our starting point; it will take a few years to get established across the country and to create all the new services we have envisioned for our members, but we already have 156 members outside the DC area, so we are off to a good start.

 

By expanding our membership nationally, we will not only widen our network, which is increasingly easier with electronic communications and social media, we will have access to a broader array of grant opportunities. By positioning WIW to receive more institutional support, we will serve an important financial need of our members: keeping dues as low as possible while delivering more and more of the professional services that our members have asked us to provide.

 

Growth is our best option for continued success, and the WIW Board of Directors is committed to the work necessary to make this happen.

 

We welcome and encourage every WIW member to become part of this exciting time in our organization – we have several committees members can join, a newsletter that could benefit from more volunteer staff writers, and ad hoc projects that need doing. Like anything in life, you get out of your professional association what you put into it. I invite you to join us in making our organization the best writing association it can be.

 

If you are not currently a member, you can join online, or learn more about us, at www.washwriter.org

Thoughts on Social Media: Shared at the 2008 WIW Conference

Social media is any form of communication that connects people with each other and with ideas or news. For example, the ancient marketplace was a form of social media; that is where everyone went to find out what was going on and to see what was happening with others.

 

The concept of “cafe society,” the idea of seeing and being seen, most popularized by the Parisians is another example of social media.

 

The telephone was an advance in social media; for the first time, people across town or across the world, could be connected. I remember my mother and her friends talking on the phone for hours – it was how they stayed connected when they couldn’t see each other.

 

Now, we have the internet and electronic communication. Email, instant messaging, cell phones – which removed the requirement of being near the phone – online services like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace, connect not only our voices but our photos and our writings.

 

Age is not a barrier to social media, but we do have to adjust to the new ways of staying connected. It is called “evolution,” and I would pose the theory people ages 35 to 50 are the most adaptable generation. We weren’t raised with computers or technology, but we not only adopted these changes, we embraced them.

 

Associations are organizations that connect people; in many ways, they are the original “social media” as far as being a tool to stay connected as opposed to individuals doing it informally.

 

However, associations seem to be having a tough time adjusting to the newer social media tools. Rather than seeing their usefulness, many are being distracted by their “technology-ness” as opposed to seeing them as an evolution in tools, just like the telephone replaced the marketplace, or neighbors talking over the back fence.

 

Like any tool, social media needs to be chosen for the task at hand and the audience to be reached.

The Connections That Matter

When I was two years old, I made my first friend. She lived across the alley from the house I grew up in, and I still remember the first time I saw her -- she was so excited that a little girl her age had moved so close that she came running out of the house and almost fell down the back porch stairs.

We stayed friends through thick and thin, long silences, and moves on both our parts. We were maid of honor at each others' weddings and I am officially godmother to her oldest child, though I consider all three my godchildren.

When I was five years old, I made my second friend. She was seven years old, and lived two houses down. I remember seeing her play in her back yard, her long red ponytails flying around her freckled face. Through our teen years, we shared confidences, tears, and fun, including many a long summer evening listening to music and pondering the future.

She was, and still is, one of my closest friends, despite distance and differing schedules complicated by time zones. Although she cut her hair short years ago, my first image of her stays with me.

These two friends, over 40 years later, are still the ones I can talk to no matter what, no matter the issue. Sometimes we don't talk for months but when we do talk, it's like we just spoke last week. These connections are deeper than just friendship; they seem almost programmed in our DNA because they were forged so early and grew stronger over so many years.

True connections last, no matter what, no matter when. Time, distance, disagreements, life changes -- you know these people will be there and care because you feel it. Those we have true connections with make us feel important no matter how long it's been since we talked; you always have that feeling inside that everything is okay with them and with you. It's hard to explain, but the feeling exists and you just have to listen to it.  

I have been thinking about this alot lately because I have recently realized that several long-time connections that I thought were in the "true connection" category turned out not to be. While it was a painful discovery full of emotional pain and disappointment, it is clear to me now that this was going to happen eventually. I made a bad judgment, and it's unfortunate, but also very human.

It is very human because the need to connect on a deeper level than talking about the weather is something inside all of us. We seek it even where it doesn't truly exist. Social media, that great electronic boogeyman, is just another flailing attempt to find someone that you can build a true connection with, the kind of connection that doesn't break.

Are pixels and wifi waves sturdy enough stuff to become the ties that bind? Or will these just put more distance between us as we fuss over our Facebook pages instead of really getting to know each other?

Do we truly connect with instant messages instead of actual conversations? I've heard stories about young people sitting right next to each other and texting instead of talking, tiny cell phones becoming walls instead of connections. Brevity may be the soul of wit, but I doubt that it is the soul of true connection.

Much is being made about social media, and many are saying "we have to do this" for a variety of reasons. But just because we can do a thing doesn't mean we should do a thing; it seems to me that too many want to replace interaction with electronics.

A true connection can be found in unlikely places, and very few of these come from tapping on a keyboard or punching too tiny keys on a PDA.

Pajamas in the Afternoon

Last week, the ASAE & The Center Communication Section Council had its monthly conference call, which is always at 2 pm eastern time. On our agenda, we always ask if anyone has any updates.

 

Someone on the Council announced that she was very pleased to have switched her full-time position to a part-time one! We all congratulated her, and then the Chair jokingly asked if she was still in her pajamas – turns out she was wearing actual clothes so the Chair thanked her for dressing up for the call.

 

While I laughed along with everyone else, it was because I was the only one who knew that I was still in my pajamas at 2 pm.

 

Now, in my defense, I injured my back about two weeks ago and I’m having trouble walking and bending. So, pajamas are the best choice when you have a bad back. However . . .

 

It reminded me that the image “outsiders” have of those who work at home is sometimes true: Sometimes, since we work at home, we don’t put on actual clothes. We don’t always wear pajamas, but I bet you would catch most of us in sweatpants or jeans most of the time – when we aren’t attending meetings, of course.

 

There’s been many a time that I’ve bemoaned the fact with a fellow consultant about not having brushed teeth at 1 pm in the afternoon. Not because we are anti-hygiene and dental health, but because we get up and start working right away in the morning and next thing you know, four or five hours have passed.

 

The ability to roll out of bed and start working is an excellent benefit of working for yourself despite the occasional day of pajamas in the afternoon. So, I say, “vive les pajamas” if it leads to higher productivity!