Marc's Musings

I’ve been told that Gen Xers will have 7 careers during their life, and multiple jobs within those careers. As of today, I’ve started a new job, and if you think of it as a switch from healthcare to politics, possibly a new career as well!

A few weeks ago, I gave my resignation from my position at Inland Hospital. Yesterday was my last day. My favorite gubernatorial candidate, Peter Mills, asked me to direct his statewide campaign and I said “Yes!”

I loved my five years at Inland. It’s a great hospital and a real asset for Waterville. I’m honored to have been able to take the annual fundraising from around $60,000/year to between $250,000 to $500,000 a year. An even more exciting accomplishment was bringing the cost of raising a dollar from $1.75 before I came to around $0.50.

But I never moved to Waterville to take a job at a hospital, as great as that job was. My family and I moved here to start a church. After we closed the church, we looked at moving to OH or PA, but found we’d come to love Waterville.

So this new position is awesome. In it, I get to use social media, use my fundraising expertise, use my marketing skills, use my coaching abilities–I get to bring my whole package to the task at hand!

People seem really concerned about what I’ll do after. And there are a number of hurdles to jump through:

• We need to get 3,250 $5 checks by March 31. That will allow us to qualify for money to run the campaign. (We’re within about 500. If you’re registered to vote in Maine and would like to help, you can find the web page on the State site at: http://bit.ly/5forPeter.)
• We need to get Peter nominated by the Republican voters in the primary on June 8.
• And then we need to get Peter elected on November 9.

Somehow, all of these “known deadlines” seem a lot less risky than the seeming “sure thing” of a steady job. Perhaps it’s because I received half a dozen job inquiries in January. Or perhaps it’s because I continue to get speaking and training invitations. Or because my book on fundraising continues to sell. (Just shipped an entire case of 120 books to New Zealand!) I am also having a blast teaching a course at Thomas College in internet marketing.

Whatever it is, this risk feels more like an adventure. I’m honored to be married to a woman with a spirit of adventure too! (She did make sure I would apply to Starbucks if it didn’t work out so we could at least have health benefits. )

Does Peter Mills have a chance?

I’m often asked if I really think Peter Mills has a chance.

I do.

I have no idea why anyone would make the decision to work on a campaign that they thought didn’t have a chance!

Peter ran in 2006, but he ran a general campaign in the primary. He had a great time connecting with people all over the state. He’s a great fit for Maine. He votes his mind–and he’s got a very smart mind! He researches issues, talks to people that are affected by the legislation, and often writes detailed reports This ends up in his votes being fiscally conservative and socially libertarian.

But I digress. In 2006, he ran a campaign to the whole state when he really needed to get Republican votes for a nomination. And even then, he came within 3 percentage points of being nominated!

More importantly, all the major papers in Maine said that if he’d been nominated in 2006, he’d have beaten the incumbent Governor Baldacci.

He’s definitely the most electable Republican in our state. And yes, I think he has a great chance of winning.

If you’d like to learn more about Peter, check out http://MillsForMaine.com.

I just love this mash up of the Monty Python’s King Arthur meeting the Black Knight with Darth Vader lines.

Very funny.

And I just found this one of the scene with Batman lines. Fun too.

I love watching Facing the Giants. Tonight, my son laughed, “We’re not even 35 minutes into it and dad’s already bawling!”

Tonight, the part that really hit me was an exchange between the football coach and Mr. Bridges, a guy that had been praying for the school for years.

Mr. Bridges felt God gave him a word for Coach Taylor. It was a good word.

Then there was this exchange:

Mr. Bridges: 2 farmers who desperately needed rain. And both of them prayed for rain but only one of them went out and prepared his fields to receive it. Which one do you think trusted God to send the rain?

Coach Taylor: Well the one who prepared his fields for it.

Mr. Bridges: Which one are you? God will send the rain when He is ready. It’s your job to prepare your field to receive it.

How about you?

What have you been praying for? For a really long time? Some situation where you really need to see God move in your life?

Are you preparing the field?

My brother-in-law, Paul Bruce, introduced me to Microsoft’s Photosynth. It’s a cool tool that will synthesize your images, putting them together and, if possible, making a 3-D composite.

Well, I didn’t have the zoom to make too much of a 3-D composite, but I dumped the 138 photos I took from my phone while at Fenway last night into PhotoSynth and got this:

It’s pretty fun! (First hit the “Click to view synth” button. Then hit the “play” button for the easiest way to see the pix.)

P.S. The Red Sox beat the Orioles 7-2. Big Papi even hit a home run in the first inning!

I just received the May update from the En-Gedi Resource Center:

In just a few days, both Christians and Jews will be remembering the ancient festival of Shavuot (Pentecost). At sunset on May 28, Jews will begin their celebration of Shavuot, remembering the giving of the Torah to seal God’s covenant on Mt. Sinai. On Sunday, May 31, Christians will celebrate the giving of the Spirit at the Temple to seal the new covenant of Christ’s atonement for sin. Jews will have all-night parties to study the Torah together to rejoice that God has given them his Word. As Christians, why not celebrate in a similar way? How can Pentecost be a special time to study the words of Christ?

I love learning about the Jewish tradition about the giving of the Torah on Sinai happening on Pentecost. Dwight Pryor has some incredibly accessible teaching on this. I find it very exciting that the God who wanted to write the Torah on our hearts choose this very festival to pour out His Spirit!

The Torah on tablets to the Torah on our hearts reminds me of a Joyce Meyer teaching I heard years ago, for believers the 10 commandments become 10 promises. Instead of a threatening “thou shalt not” command, they become grace filled assurances. “Relax, you won’t have any God besides me.” “Rest assured, you won’t covet any more.”

So studying this weekend seems particularly appropriate. After all, as my college advisor Dr. Marvin Wilson taught us: study is the highest form of worship.

Here are some suggestions for your studies:

• Consider reading Exodus 19, God’s giving the Torah on Sinai.
• Or reading the traditional Pentecost story from the Christian scriptures, Acts 2. Consider how Acts 2:2 could well parallel Exodus 19:16 -19.
• Perhaps reflecting on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7 is more your speed.
• Finally, you could read the Book of Ruth. As it says on the Wikipedia article on Shavout:
  

  “The Book of Ruth corresponds to the holiday of Shavuot both in its descriptions of the barley and wheat harvest seasons and Ruth’s desire to become a member of the Jewish people, who are defined by their acceptance of the Torah. Moreover, the lineage described at the end of the Book lists King David as Ruth’s great-grandson. According to tradition, David was born and died on Shavuot (Sha’arei Teshuvah to Orach Hayyim, 494).”

As I learned from Dwight Pryor, in the faith of Jesus, redemption isn’t enough. Freedom from slavery is necessary and wonderful, but becoming a people is the goal. Having a new identity, belonging to the One who created us, becoming a member of God’s people, that is the story of Pentecost.

Happy Pentecost!

I love our networked life!

Here are some ideas my Facebook friends have for treating a sore throat.

Try it for yourself.

Get your twitter mosaic here.

Ok. So maybe this was a little over the top…

Today’s a big day for me, not just because it’s Epiphany. It just so happens that 37 years ago today, I was born.

Not that I had much to do with it. Dad and Mom were largely responsible. Mom says it was a very long labor. I’m sure she would’ve preferred doing something else for more than 33 hours!

I just know that, to this day, all my fingers and toes are in the right places. Pretty amazing given the migraine medication my mom was told to take during her pregnancy. Not to mention the presence of a Dalkon Shield!

The odds were certainly stacked against a healthy birth. So, I’ve been thinking a lot today about the hand of God in my life even then.

A co-worker just popped in and said, “Let me be one of 300 to say ‘Happy Birthday.’ The world is a better place because you’re in it.” All I could think of was how honored I am to be here. I’m humbled by what God’s allowed me to accomplish in the first 36 years. And I’m pretty excited about what He’s got instore for the next hundred or so.

And I love that He chose to have me be born on Epiphany. On this day, we celebrate God’s revelation of His incarnate son, Jesus, to the Magi. It would’ve been enough if He’d just come for the Jewish people. But He was so excited, He couldn’t wait to get the word out! So the first leaders to worhsip Jesus were really smart goyim from a long way away.

I want my life to be like that. I want to be used by God to help really smart leaders see His reality in tangible ways in their lives.

And, being born today, I like to think He wants that for me too.

I’ve been having a lot of fun learning to use Twitter for nonprofits and fundraising.

And I’m pleased that some folks from my local Rotary Club are getting into the game! Well this morning, one of those guys tweeted “I need a Twitter tutor!” I passed that on to some twitter stream. Here are some of the responses I got:

SCATJ @marcapitman for your friend @chrisgaunce: follow others for a while and jump in when you see something that strikes a chord with you

Bobbiec @marcapitman for your friend, http://tinyurl.com/6a5exs. Don’t judge, whole site not done yet

seanbohan @marcapitman start w/ tweetdeck – dashboard view of all/replies/directs & has search, can make groups, etc. .. and write 1 tweet/day minimum

Great advice!

Over a year ago, Chris Brogan wrote Newbies Guide to Twitter.

One of the most important things I learned from Chris Brogan is to use the same “identity” across platforms. For me, that meant I started using “marcapitman” for

• Twitter,
• SlideShare,
• StumbleUpon,
• TwitPic,
• Last.fm,
• Digg,
• Scribd,
• BlogTalk,
• FriendFeed,
• LinkedIn,
• GoodReads,
• BrightKite,
• uPlej,

…well you get the picture.

I even use “marcapitman” for fun sites like: Wordle and MustLoveBeer.com!

Personally, I think one of the best ways to get started on Twitter is to follow alot of people and see how they’re using it. Twitter user Mark Hayward has a great list of 97 suggestions in his blog post 97 Remarkable Ways to Diversify Your Network in a Down Economy.

And you can use tools like search.twitter.com and Twellow. They’ll let you see who’s tweeting on topics of interest to you. Or find people in particular careers or in specific of the world.

I’m finding Twitter is

• helping me as a development professional at the Inland Foundation
  • it’s much less expensive than actually going to some of the conferences people tweet from!
  • I get real-time feedback from people just like my hospital’s donors
  • I get alerted to the latest fundraising blogs and podcasts
  • I’m getting to meet hundreds of folks doing the same thing I’m doing and get real-time help
  • I’ve even received help doing database work and cost-to-raise-a-dollar analysis!
• helping me sell my fundraising book
  • I’m getting to connect with readers one-to-one
  • and tools like TweetLater help me automate some Twitter actions so I can focus on those in the evening. (I also write my blog posts in the evening but publish them so they get tweeted during the day.)
• helping me connect with really cool people in the media and other professions, and
• even helped me do goofy things like name my beers.

Twitter is really helping me expand my network from right here in Waterville, Maine USA. I now am in regular communication with people all over the world. I was already talking to people around the world with my fundraising ezine. But now they get to talk back to me. During the Olympics I was even tweeting with the NBC folks in China! Sure made the games seem a lot closer?

I’m going to pass this on to Chris. I’m not exactly sure it’s the “Twitter tutor” he was hoping for, but it’s a start!

What would you recommend he do if you were his Twitter tutor?

Today I got to sing with some Rollickin’ Rotarians outside of Walmart as we rang bells for the Salvation Army. (When my wife saw the photos, she called us the “Rotary Dingalings”! )

What a blast! People were very generous!

But one person wasn’t enjoying our singing:

And while Wally did help people get into their cars…we weren’t sure what else he was helping himself too…(Just kidding!)
 

If you missed the fun, and the opportunity to contribute, would you consider dropping some “change” into an online kettle for Waterville?