according to jeff

The February 27 edition of the Corridor Business Journal has an interesting cover story about staff expansion at two employers in Cedar Rapids. According to the article, Rockwell Collins plans to hire 7000 new employees in 2006. Of these, 275 are to be located in Cedar Rapids.

Imagine with me… we’re sitting in the human resources department at Rockwell Collins, discussing our need to hire additional staff.

“We need to hire 7000 new employees, to make better products and provide better customer service. We’re looking for the right people; they have to be _________________.”

How would you fill in the blank? If you’re like me, you’d use words like:

• Hard-working
• Talented
• Educated
• Skilled
• Dependable

Not so at Rockwell Collins, though. At Rockwell Collins, the primary concern is finding diverse employees. According to Rod Dooley, Rockwell’s Director of Diversity, Rockwell’s priority is “to recruit more diverse employees.”

I never before realized what a key role diversity plays in the design, development and deployment of military and commercial avionics equipment. In fact, diversity must be a significant contributor to product quality, as Rockwell Collins has hired a director to help overcome this problem.

Diversity must be valuable in other fields as well. According to Dooley, “it’s not just Rockwell Collins that wants these employees.”

So, if you’re looking for employment, take heart. The secret to your success lies in your diversity. Don’t worry that your gender and race can’t be changed; that’s not what Diversity means. According to Rockwell’s Diversity Web Site:

The concept of Diversity moves beyond the basic differences of race and gender to encompass differences of all kinds (emphasis added).

It’s not too late; you can be diverse, too! Just change your religion, your sexual preference, or even your dress style. For instance, men, just show up at your next job interview in a sundress and cute pumps; you’re sure to get the job!

What is this “religion of peace” that President Bush refers to? Surely he’s not referring to Islam.

The February 18, 2006 edition of World contained two thought-provoking articles regarding the recent violent “protests” related to the cartoon portrayals of Muhammad.

Being Mocked by John Piper is an excellent comparison of Muhammad and Jesus, and the follower of Muhammad and the follower of Jesus.

Cartoon Violence by Gene Edward Veith provides an up-to-date report on the controversy. If you’ve not yet read the article, my guess is that you don’t know some of what is reported. For instance, you might not know that the Organization of Islamic Conference has filed a formal complaint at the United Nations, accusing Denmark with human rights violations for allowing the publication of the cartoons.

What makes this particularly galling is the double standard: cartoons critical of Muhammad and Islam are inflammatory and violate human rights; cartoons critical of Christianity, the West and Israel are not.

Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated the 20th anniversary of our wedding. I surprised her with a 50-hour Valentine getaway. Lu knew we were taking a two night trip, but didn’t know any of the other details. So, we left on Tuesday and took the scenic drive from Cedar Rapids to Pella, where our adventure began.

Pella, Iowa
Pella is probably most famous for its Tulip Time Festival held each spring. If you’ve never been to that festival, and have a chance to go, take it. (The festival is usually on a Thursday through Saturday; if we go again, we’ll go on the Wednesday before. The tulips will be up, but perhaps the crowds will be down.) The windmill and historic village are closed at this time of year, so we spent the afternoon walking around the town square and visiting its shops. The uncharacteristically warm weather made walking through the town quite pleasant.

The Royal Amsterdam
I’d made reservations at the Royal Amsterdam, located on the canal a block from the town square. Our third floor suite included a sitting room, a bedroom, and a nice bathroom. I think I could live here. With the mini-fridge, a microwave, underground parking and DSL, what more do I need?

J. Benjamin’s Casual Cuisine
Our Valentine’s Day dinner reservations were for 6 o’clock at J. Benjamin’s, the restaurant in the hotel. When we arrived for our reservation, the wait for dinner was 3 hours. The meal was quite good, but the staff takes the name “Casual Dining” seriously. I would have preferred a bit more formality for Valentine’s night.

Jordan Creek Town Center
Jordan Creek Town Center is a newer mall located in West Des Moines, about an hour’s drive from Pella. So we drove there on Wednesday and had a window shopping spree. We enjoy Jordan Creek because it has a variety of stores that we both enjoy and don’t have here in Cedar Rapids. These include:

• Apple Computer Store
• Coldwater Creek
• Dillard’s
• Draper’s & Damon’s
• Games by James
• J. Jill
• Scheel’s All Sports

(And, wow, those new Intel dual-core processor, 20″ display iMacs at the Apple store sure look great.)

The Cheesecake Factory
Our anniversary lunch was at The Cheesecake Factory, our first visit to the “casual, upscale” restaurant. We’d been warned about the size of portions, so opted for an appetizer, an entree to share, and then a dessert to share. Unfortunately, by the time it was time to share the dessert, we found that the appetizer and the entree were more than enough. So, we skipped the dessert and planned to return later in the afternoon. When later in the afternoon rolled around, though, we were still not ready for dessert. So, we still haven’t experienced dessert at The Cheesecake Factory.

The Pink Panther
Our hotel package included two movie tickets and The Pink Panther recently opened. While the humor in this movie won’t be appreciated by everyone, I laughed out loud while watching the movie, while watching the credits to see if there would be a bonus after the credits (there’s not), while walking back to the hotel, while watching the Olympics, while…, well, you get the idea.

Meteorologists
The weathermen didn’t do a very good job predicting an incoming snow storm. At first, there would be calm weather through the week. Then possibility for snow on Thursday. Then freezing rain turning to snow in the early evening on Wednesday through mid-morning on Thursday. Then, snow starting at noon on Thursday. In real life, the snow started in the wee hours of Thursday morning. These poor fellows get 2 stars instead of just 1, though, because it did, after all, snow!

My middle name isn’t Valentine, but it should be.

I learned a few years ago that Valentine is a family name on my mother’s side. Several of my distant, male relatives were named Valentine. Their family name was Moulder, but many were given the name Valentine as their first or middle name. So, rather than the mundane Alan, I could have been given the middle name of Valentine.

According to Catholic history, there are three Saint Valentines. Each is thought to have been martyred for their faith, though details are sketchy. The feast of St. Valentine was held on February 14, in honor of one (or more) of these men.

However, our modern Valentine s Day traditions do not date back to one of the martyrs. Instead, they likely originated during the Middle Ages.

Today, Valentine is associated with love, and Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays. It’s a time when we’re all reminded to express our love for others. And, since the Christian’s highest calling is to love, Valentine’s Day can be a thoroughly Christian holiday.

Jesus replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
(Matthew 22:37-39 NIV)

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church…
(Ephesians 5:25 NIV)

Even though my middle name isn’t Valentine, I invite you to join me this February 14 and express your love to those around you!

(And if you want to call me Valentine, that would be OK too!)

Have you been reading about the violence allegedly spawned by the publication of editorial cartoons unfavorable to Allah’s prophet, Muhammad?

According to GEO World News, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed a Zionist conspiracy for the editorial cartoons that have roused Muslims into acts of destruction. According to Khamenei, Israel is upset about the results of January’s Palestinian elections, where the terrorist organization Hamas unexpectedly won a majority. (Actually, the Ayatollah didn’t refer to Hamas as a terrorist organization: I added that part for clarity.)

“The reason for the Zionist action is because of the loss they suffered by Hamas winning.”

However, as reported by Greg Alan and National Review Online and other sources, the offending editorial cartoons were published in September, 2005, three to four months before the Palestinian elections.

The conclusion in inescapable: Israel has developed and employed a time machine! Following Hamas’ electorial victory in January, Israeli agents must have traveled back in time, to September 2005, in order to vent their frustration by publishing editorial cartoons in a Danish newspaper.

What clever fellows! I wonder what shenanigans they’ll be up to next?

I was in elementary school during the late 1960s and early 1970s. I vividly remember a school promotion to help me, as well as the other students in Oklahoma, learn to brush my teeth properly. We didn’t even have a health class back then; I think we learned to brush our teeth in science class. We were given little red pills to chew; the pills turned everything inside the mouth — tongue, teeth, etc. — a shade of red or pink. After turning our teeth pink with the little red pill, we were instructed to brush our teeth. Following our diligent effort, we could then examine the results. Were the teeth still pink? Were there spots that we missed?

I don’t know how this “healthy teeth” promotion came about — after all, I was only 8 or 9 or 10 at the time — however I suspect that some one learned that the trend of cavities per child was increasing and decided to do something about it. Since kids obviously weren’t being taught proper tooth-care at home, the school system seemed a natural vehicle for intervention.

While it would be hard to argue that teaching kids to brush their teeth is some terrible, evil plot that should be resisted, it’s interesting to consider how this well-intentioned intervention has progressed. Using the same logic of “parents aren’t doing it, so the school must do it”, we have progressed from teaching kids to brush their teach in science class to teaching kids how to use condoms and where to get abortions in health class. How did this come about? Because over time, parents willingly gave more and more of their responsibility to the schools and no one challenged the parents to take it back. After all, what’s so bad about the school teaching a child how to brush his teeth? Yet now it seems normal to us for schools to be the primary source for learning not just reading, writing and arithmetic, but also values (acceptance of “alternative lifestyles”, “diversity”, “tolerance”) and health (“safe sex”, “sexual orientation”).

We often see the same pattern in our welfare programs. What is meant for good (helping those in need) sometimes encourages a cycle of repeating, negative, self-destructive behavior. The challenge is to provide real assistance without encouraging and enabling irresponsible behavior.

This same challenge — to provide real assistance without encouraging and enabling irresponsible behavior — applies to children and youth ministry. On the one hand, we want to nurture the faith of our youth and we want to be spiritual parents to the spiritual orphans. Yet on the other hand, we want to encourage believing parents to be, well, responsible parents, because we know that this is effective at teaching about faith and values.

Many churches have gone down the same road as our school system.

• Because children aren’t learning to brush their teeth, we’ll teach ‘em at school.
• Because children aren’t learning the fundamentals of the Christian faith at home, we’ll teach ‘em at church.

Unfortunately, our well-intentioned intervention often escalates. Just as we generally accept the additional reach of the school (and may, in fact, rely upon the school to teach such things), we’ve come to rely upon the church to teach our children what is best taught and learned at home. Rather than reinforcing and supporting the teaching of the parents, the church is now expected to be the primary source for religious education. Unfortunately, the church is not as well-equipped as the Christian home for teaching and passing along the faith.

These are practical issues that we grapple with.

1. How can we better minister to the large number of children being raised without any positive influence for Christ?
2. How can we better encourage growth and maturity among the believing children and youth?
3. How can we better teach and encourage the apparently large number of Christian parents who are not equipped or willing to provide spiritual influence within their own family?
4. How can we better encourage parents that are teaching their children Christian values and thoughts?

Let me know your thoughts.

The Iowa Farm League is a Fantasy Baseball league run by my friend Brian.

What Is Fantasy Baseball?

Fantasy Baseball (originally known as Rotisserie Baseball) is a strategy game that uses real-life events in real major league baseball games throughout the season to determine the outcome. Each player acquires a team of real-life baseball players, and each team competes against one another based upon real-life statistics. The strategy is in acquiring the right players to maximize your statistical score. Sounds easy, except that you compete against others to acquire the players that you want, and baseball players do not always live up to expectations.

Fantasy Baseball is not so much a sporting game as it is a strategy game that uses real-life events played out in baseball games. Like most strategy games, planning, execution and luck affect the outcome.

My Fantasy Baseball History

Way back in the early 80s while I was an engineering student at the University of Missouri – Rolla, I wasn’t as dedicated to my studies as I ought to have been. One evidence of that is that some buddies and I started a Rotisserie Baseball League shortly after first reading about it. Back in those days, stats were done by hand and calculator using information published weekly in The Sporting News. It was a lot of work, but fortunately, Bob Kanyok was up to the task. I don’t remember much specific about the league, except that it was fun, and it was a lot of work for Bob.

Several years later in the mid-90s when I was working at Parsons Technology, Brian and I started another league. We called it the Iowa Farm League. (One of the “funnest” parts of Rotisserie Baseball is the puns and word-plays.)

Two of our executives colluded to try to win our inaugural season by trading the best players from one team onto the other team midway through the season. Ironically, however, those “best” players didn’t make enough of an impact and my team (The Jeff Ersons — motto: Movin’ On Up) finished in first place. I think Brian finished in second.

We continued another year, when Brian finished first and I finished third. The league came crashing to a halt when real-life events at Parsons resulted in about a third of the workforce being riffed one morning.

After a few years, Brian resurrected the league and recruited players. For several years, I turned down the opportunity to join. However, beginning in 2004, my son Matt and I joined as a father-son team. We chose the name “Wheelers of Fortune” — again, part of the fun of the game is the language that is used. In 2005 we changed our name to the Two Wheelers and made a new logo. Now in 2006 we’re back again, using the moniker Hot Wheelers.

Season		Team Name		Final Standing
2004		Wheelers of Fortune		6th Place
2005		The Two Wheelers		3rd Place
2006		Hot Wheelers		TBD

The Basic Rules

Our league uses the fantasy baseball services at Yahoo. Yahoo provides the general framework for the rules. Here is a brief summary.

• The league consists of 12 teams.
• Players are acquired via an auction, from the National League. The auction means that each owner bids to acquire a player. Each owner can spend no more than $260 (we use play money) to bid against other owners.
• 23 players must be drafted.
  • 12 batters and 1 batter bench player (there are specific position requirements)
  • 9 pitchers and 1 pitcher bench player
• Statistics are kept in 10 categories: 5 offensive categories and 5 pitching categories.
  • Runs
  • Home Runs
  • RBI
  • Stolen Bases
  • On-base Percentage
  • Wins
  • Saves
  • Holds
  • Strikeouts
  • WHIP (ratio of walks and hits per inning pitched)
• Scoring is determined on a points basis. In a league with 12 teams such as ours, 12 points are awarded to the leader of a category, 11 to the 2nd place, 10 to the 3rd place, etc. Thus, the maximum possible score is 120 and the minimum score is 10. The team with the highest score is winning.
• Trades are allowed.
• Adjusting the roster by dropping a player to acquire a free agent is allowed, but there is a limit on the number of such changes that can be made through the year.
• Moving players to and from the bench is allowed.

The 2006 Seasons

For the 2006 season, our team is named the Hot Wheelers. The draft will be held on Saturday, March 25, and the statistics will start to accumulate on opening day.

In previous seasons, I’ve put information about the season at my Web site. However, this year, I’ll be using this blog to write about the season. Watch for my weekly press conferences!

When I made the transition in 1999 from employee to entrepreneur, one of the company sponsored benefits that I left behind was health insurance. It was necessary to replace my family’s health insurance coverage with a private policy.

We first opted for a fairly traditional health plan from a major provider (let’s call them “A”). After several years of double-digit rate increases, we switched to a high deductible policy from a different provider (“B”) and coupled this with a health savings account (HSA) option. The HSA is a tax-deferred savings account that can be used to pay medical expenses not covered by insurance, such as the deductible, vision checks, dentist, orthodontics, etc. This high deductible policy essentially provides coverage for the big ticket items: surgery, hospitalization, etc. This kind of medical coverage is more compatible with my medical care philosophy: the consumer is responsible for the small things and the insurance provides coverage for the big things.

However, while I am philosophically happy with my coverage, it is not without problems. One glaring issue is that rate at which the premiums have increased. We just started our fourth year with company B, and the premiums for coverage have nearly doubled in those 3 years.

Year		Provider		Rate Increase
1999		“A”		n/a
2000		“A”		??
2001		“A”		20%
2002		“A”		35%
2003		“B”		n/a
2004		“B”		22%
2005		“B”		19%
2006		“B”		30%

Another problem with private coverage is pre-existing conditions. We have some broad categories of health coverage that just aren’t covered at all due to a pre-existing treatment in that category. As an example (and I’m making this up but it’s similar to a real situation): “You have had a kidney stone and are taking medication to prevent the formation of kidney stones. We will not cover any future kidney stone treatment or other health issues related to the kidney.” Losing coverage in a broad category due to a very specific condition is particularly frustrating.

An additional frustration is that every visit to the doctor makes it more difficult to switch health insurance providers due to the pre-existing condition clauses. Switching to a more price competitive provider could result in less coverage due to the pre-existing conditions.

It’s like being caught in a clever trap: “This customer cannot jump to one of our competitors without losing coverage; thus, we don’t need to be as competitive.” Now, I’m not suggesting that such decisions are made on a customer-by-customer basis. However, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that one rational for increasing premiums for current customers is that many just can’t afford to change providers due to pre-existing conditions.

There are some alternatives to health insurance. For instance, two Christian alternatives are Medi-Share and Samaritan Ministries. These are not insurance companies. Instead, they are organized ways for Christians to help pay for the qualified medical needs of other Christians, knowing that other Christians will help pay your needs when they occur. It is a non-guaranteed method of risk-sharing.

It’s common for Christian risk-sharing organizations (ministries?) to quote Galatians 6:2 as a guiding principle.

Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
(Galatians 6:2 NIV)

Like the HSA, I like the philisophy of these alternatives. I like the concept of people being responsible for their health care, and Christians working together to help with the larger expenses that sometimes come along. A healthy lifestyle is encouraged, and members are to be under the teaching and care of a local church.

Unfortunately, a little investigation into these ministries reveals that pre-existing conditions are again a problem. While the concept of burden-sharing is biblical, the realities of life (that is, money) results in this principle:

Carry each other’s (future) burdens (and not those that they are already carrying), and in this way you will (partially) fulfill (a part of) the law of Christ.
(Galatians 6:2 RLV [*])

Again, I understand why this is necessary. However, doesn’t it seem just a little inconsistent?

I’m not sure what the solution to any of this is, but I hope it involves both personal responsibility and compassion. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

[*] RLV = Real Life Version