damnation :: essays research papers

Ruining The Grand Places â€Å"†¦ It is apparent, then, that we cannot decide the question of development versus preservation by a simple referral to holy writ or an attempt to guess the intention of the founding fathers; we must make up our own minds and decide for ourselves what the national parks should be and what purpose they should serve.†-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire â€Å"†¦ The difference between the present reservoir, with its silent sterile shores and debris-choked side canyons, and the original Glen Canyon, is the difference between death and life. Glen Canyon was alive. Lake Powell is a graveyard.† – Edward Abbey, â€Å"The Damnation of a Canyon†, Beyond the Wall When you love the Desert Southwest, sometime, somewhere, you will stumble into the writings of Ed Abbey. Like me, Ed was not born there; he discovered his love of the place while riding a boxcar through it on a trip across the US; I discovered mine on a trip through myself. His writings helped lead me home, for that is what the desert southwest is to me: home. I don’t live there for one simple reason, i.e., I have not yet been able to put myself in the financial situation I need to be in. For now, I visit when I can, mostly during my long vacations at Christmas. A couple of years ago during one of those, on a whim after spending a few days in Arches National Park, my wife and I detoured to the snowy, icy south rim of the Grand Canyon. We journeyed toward it from the east side but got turned back at the National Parks’ gate; the road was snowed under from there on up. After retracing our steps, we traveled down to Flagstaff and spent the night, driving in my four by four truck up to the South Rim the next day. It was an eerie experience to stand on the edge of the South Rim and see only cloud; fog shrouded the canyon’s great gap, leaving us with visual doubts that anything was really there. Defeated, we hit the Visitor’s Center and gathered information so we could go back sometime in the spring or fall with weather more to our liking. We haven’t done that, yet. This year we had planned to take a guided river run down the great Grand Canyon. Right now, that probably is not going to happen, either, due to other family obligations that eat vacation and other financial priorities.

Marketing to Generation Y Essay

On May 12, 1999, Matt Diamond, James Johnson and Sam Gradess were visiting San Francisco for a last round of meetings with West Coast investment analysts. They were just days from the initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Alloy.com, the catalog and Internet merchant of teenoriented clothing that they had founded on Diamond’s graduation from Harvard Business School in 1996. Snarled in freeway gridlock, Diamond was on his cellphone discussing the IPO’s pricing with analysts back in New York City. An analyst urged Diamond to respond to an invitation by the world’s largest Website and portal, America Online (AOL), to make Alloy an anchor tenant on its teen shopping site. AOL wanted $2 million per year for the rights. â€Å"Matt, if you say yes, that will be big. If you announce tomorrow that AOL’s partner in the Generation Y market is Alloy, it will put Alloy on the map. It will definitely affect the IPO price.† Diamond sighed. A headline deal with AOL today could be worth perhaps 10% on the stock price. But AOL was asking rich terms. It was widely rumored that AOL preyed on startup companies in the weeks before they went public, tempting them with star billing on its portal at the very moment when the publicity was most valuable. He estimated that he’d be paying a $45 cpm (cost per thousand exposures) to anchor the AOL teen shopping site. Nobody paid more than $30 for Web eyeballs. In the three years that he had been running Alloy, Diamond had prided himself on doing deals that made sense. If he could not anticipate a profit to Alloy from a promotional deal, he reasoned that Wall Street would not anticipate a profit either. â€Å"It won’t pay out,† he told the analyst firmly. â€Å"We only do deals that produce value.† To his colleagues in the limousine, he wondered out loud, â€Å"Am I right?† Professor John Deighton and Visiting Scholar Gil McWilliams prepared this case as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. The contribution of Ann Leamon, Manager, Center for Case Development, is gratefully acknowledged. Certain sensitive information in this case has been disguised and should not be regarded as informative as to the prospects of the company. Copyright  © 2000 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 1 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 500-048 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y The Generation Y Market Termed the â€Å"hottest demographic of the moment,† Generation Y came to the attention of marketers in the late 1990s. This â€Å"echo of the baby boom† was made up of children and teenagers born in the United States between 1975 and 1989 and therefore aged between 10 and 24. They were estimated to be a 56 million strong group of actual and potential consumers, some three times the size of their immediate predecessor, Generation X.1 The U.S. Census Bureau projected that the 10 to 24 age group would grow from 56.3 million to 63.1 million by 2010, growing faster than the general population. Although Generation Y matched its parent’s generation in size, in almost every other way it was very different. One in three was not Caucasian. One in four lived in a single-parent household. Three in four had working mothers.2 â€Å"Body glittered, tattooed, pierced, they’re a highly fragmented,  unpredictable group of teenagers who, while tottering around on five inch soles, voice conservative opinions about sexuality, government, the American dream and an end-of-century commitment to spirituality.† 3 They were computer literate: 81% of teens used the Internet, according to Chicagobased Teenage Research International (TRI), which also noted that over a 3 month period on AOL, they posted more than 2 million Leonardo Di Caprio related messages.4 According to Lester Rand, Director of the Rand Youth Poll, they had money to spend and an appetite for spending it. They have a higher incremental allowance from their parents, and with the growth in our service economy, they are able to secure jobs easily and at rising minimum wages. They’re exposed to so many different products on TV, in the mall and through their friends. It’s a generation who grew up with excess as a norm.5 In 1999 Jupiter reported that 67% of on-line teens and 37% of on-line kids said they made use of on-line shopping sites, either buying or gathering information about products. 6 Generation Y was expected to spend approximately $136 billion in 1999, before accounting for the group’s influence on purchases made by parents and other adults. (See Exhibits 1 and 2 for this and other estimates.) On-line Competition for Generation Y Spending Generation Y’s size and spending power had not gone unnoticed. Many conventional and on-line retailers courted them. Alloy viewed its most significant competitors as dELiAs and the online magalog mXg. The neighborhood mall was also a threat. 1 Neuborne, Ellen and Kathleen Kerwin. â€Å"Generation Y,† Business Week, February 15, 1999, Cover story. 2 Neuborne, Ellen and Kathleen Kerwin. â€Å"Generation Y,† Business Week, February 15, 1999, Cover story. 3 O’Leary, Noreen. â€Å"Marketing: The Boom Tube,† Adweek, Vol. 39, No. 20, May 18, 1999, pp. S44-S52. 4 Brown, Eryn. â€Å"Loving Leo Online,† Fortune, April 12, 1999, p. 152. 5 BAXExpress, July/August 1999, http:baxworld.com/baxexpress/0799/consumers.html. 6 Sacharow, Anya. â€Å"Shadow of On-line Commerce Falls on Postmodern Kids,† Jupiter Communications report, June 7, 1999. 2 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 500-048 dELiAs Inc.7 The largest on-line and catalog merchant serving Generation Y was New York-based dELiAs, with 1998 sales of $158 million. Founded in 1995 by two 33-year-old former Yale rooommates, Stephen Kahn and Christopher Edgar, dELiAs sold through print catalogs mailed to more than 10 million recipients, of whom 6 million had bought within the past year. It managed its own order fulfillment from a warehouse complex, and operated twenty conventional retail stores. Most of dELiAs’ 1,500 employees were under 30. Its phone representatives were often high school and college students, and they frequently offered fashion advice as well as taking orders. In November 1998 dELiAs Inc. paid $4.75 million for the trademarks and mailing lists of bankrupt Fulcrum’s 5 catalogs (Zoe for teenage girls, Storybook Heirlooms, Playclothes, After the Stork, and Just for Kids), giving them 5 million names which nearly doubled their database. It also paid $2.4 million for merchandise from Zoe and Storybook. By 1999, dELiAs went to market with a complex set of brands and marketing methods: Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø The dELiAs brand marketed to teenage girls as a catalog through the mail and as dELiAs*cOm on the Web.  The gURL.com Website was an on-line magazine for girls and young women, carrying articles as well as free e-mail, free homepage hosting and publishing tools, and links to a network of third-party sites for girls and women. gURL was the only property that was not engaged in commerce. The droog brand marketed apparel to 12-to 20-year-old males through the mail and on-line. The TSI Soccer catalog sold soccer gear by mail and on-line. Storybook Heirlooms retailed apparel and accessories for girls under 13 by mail and Web catalog. Ø Dotdotdash sold apparel, footwear and accessories for girls aged 7 to 12 by mail and Web catalog. Ø Discountdomain.com was a subscription Website selling discounted close-out merchandise. Ø Contentsonline.com offered unusual home furnishings, light furniture and household articles to females aged 13-24. While predominantly a Web catalog, the property appeared intermittently as a print insert in dELiAs’ print catalog. In April 1999, dELiAs Inc. spun off its Internet properties in an IPO, selling shares in a company called iTurF which earned revenues from all of the above on-line elements. In terms of the deal, these on-line businesses could advertise in dELiAs’ print catalogs at a rate of $40 per 1,000  catalogs. The dELiAs catalog, 60 million of which were printed in 1998, had the largest domestic circulation of any publication directed at Generation Y. The on-line magazines also shared the parent company’s 354,000 square foot distribution center in Hanover, PA. Because iTurF did not take ownership of inventory until a customer’s order was placed, the risk of obsolescence and markdowns remained with the parent company. iTurF shared offices with the parent company, enjoying a submarket rent for New York metropolitan space. 7 Information drawn from company website: www.dELiAs.com 3 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 500-048 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y In May 1999, iTurF announced record quarterly sales of $2.6 million (up from $0.69 million in the first quarter of 1998). Gross profit was $1.3 million, or 49.1% of revenues, up from $0.34 million or 49.3% of revenues 1998 (see Exhibit 3). However, dELiAs reported that it expected its iTurF unit to report a loss for the fiscal year. By April 1999, the number of people who had ever bought at the iTurF Websites was 66,000 (up from 35,000 at the end of December 1998), and the number of unique visitors was 731,000 in April 1999 alone. Analysts estimated that each customer cost $26 to acquire.8 Private label merchandise accounted for 40% of iTurF’s sales, in line with dELiA’s ratio. iTurf entered into agreements with RocketCash Corp and DoughNET, companies that had been established to let parents control the on-line spending of their children. For example, RocketCash let parents establish a credit card account and set each child’s access to specific merchant sites, times of operation, and the option to set up an auto-allowance to periodically replenish the account. DoughNet was a virtual  debit card that parents could set up for their children. Parents could customize DoughNET’s site to guide teens through all aspects of managing their money. In April 1999, dELiAs’ decision to spin off iTurF seemed shrewd. The market capitalization of dELiAs Inc. was $90 million, on sales of $200 million annually. ITurF was capitalized at $200 million on a sales run rate of $12 million annually. mXg Media Inc.9 Hunter Heaney and Stuart MacFarlane graduated from the Harvard Business School in 1996. MacFarlane joined Bain & Co. and Heaney joined BancBoston Robertson Stephens. Heaney told how he got the idea for mXg while Christmas shopping at Nordstrom’s for his then girlfriend. A saleswoman had told him that the â€Å"Y† necklace featured on the â€Å"Friends† sitcom was in style. â€Å"I knew there had to be a more direct way to find out about fashion trends influenced by entertainment,† Heaney said.10 In 1997, Heaney and MacFarlane quit their jobs and moved to Manhattan Beach, CA, to be close to Hollywood and surfers and skaters. Using the pay phone while staying at a local motel they raised $250,000 in increments of $5,000, and launched mXg, styling it a â€Å"magalog,† a hybrid of catalog and magazine, aimed at teenage girls. Unlike a conventional magazine, mXg reported exactly where to go to buy the fashion items that it featured on its pages. MacFarlane recalled their early lean times: â€Å"Typically, retailers order inventory in sixes (one small, two medium, two large, one extra large). But instead of saying ‘We’ll take 2,000 sixes’ we said ‘We’ll take six’ – literally one of each.† They could fund a circulation of only 20,000 for the magazine’s launch in the fall of 1997, but it did well. Some 5% of the recipients bought from it. The numbers were good enough to induce Urban Outfitters, a retail fashion chain, to invest $5 million for 40% of the company, incorporated as mXg Media, Inc. Merchandise doubling each issue. each, refunded with B Dalton Booksellers. accounted for most of mXg Media’s revenues, but advertising revenue was The company used newsstand distribution (150,000 issues per quarter at $2.95 a purchase), as well as distribution in bookstores like Barnes & Noble, and The magazine had a pass-along rate of almost six readers per copy. Sensitive to the tastes of their target audience of female teenagers, they hired teens, paying them $7 per hour to work after school answering letters, doing interviews, and writing copy to make 8 CIBC World Markets, Equity Research, June 2, 1999. 9 Information drawn from company website: www.mXgonline.com 10 Waxler, Caroline. â€Å"Guys with moxie,† Forbes, May 31, 1999, pp. 130-131. 4 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 500-048 it sound authentic. â€Å"No printed word goes out without a teen girl checking it †¦ being uncool is the kiss of death in this business.†11 At the start of each fashion season mXg recruited 30 â€Å"Moxie girls† to spend a hypothetical $150 each. Their virtual purchases determined which items appeared in the next issue. The magazine paid staffers to model clothes and invited would-be teen celebrities to pose free to gain recognition. A Website, mXgonline.com, was established in the summer of 1997. It comprised a magazine, chat rooms, and community sites, and sold clothes and accessories. mXg Media pursued other access points for their on-line magalog, featuring it in on-line fashion malls such as fashionwindow.com. In 1999, mXg sponsored concerts featuring acts like Gus Gus which were favored  by Generation Y. Yahoo produced a series of Webcasts of the concerts for teens. The company described its mission as cross-media publishing, targeted exclusively at teen girls. It planned to add mXgtv, an Internet video site, to its media portfolio later in the year. A Crowded Marketplace? Other companies vied for the attention of Generation Y. Bolt.com was a content-based magazine-type site skewed towards a market slightly older than that of the Generation Y market, but into which the older end of the Y market might eventually fall. Bolt.com included sections titled jobs, money, movie reviews, music, news and issues, sex and dating, and sports. It had a chat room and free e-mail, and sold branded merchandise. It boasted that 5,000 people joined it every day. The magazine Seventeen had an on-line version, offering chat rooms and message boards, as well as its regular articles, quizzes and features. Indeed many magazines were now launching online versions of their magazines, and new print publications like Twist and Jump had appeared to compete for generation Y advertising revenues. Broader on-line retailers served this market, such as bluefly.com selling discounted brands on-line. Strong competition came from mall-based stores such as The Buckle, Gadzooks, Abercrombie & Fitch, The Gap, American Eagle Outfitters, and Guess, all of whom sold merchandise on- and off-line. Apparel and sportswear manufacturers were developing on-line sales sites. Nike and Tommy Hilfiger planned to launch e-commerce sites with broad product offerings. Alloy.com As a Harvard MBA student in 1996, Matt Diamond wrote a business plan proposing the idea of marketing ‘extreme sports’ clothing by catalog to young people in Japan. The premise was that the popularity of this style of clothing among American youth might generate demand abroad, and that catalogs would be able to tap that demand faster than would store distribution. On graduation, Diamond implemented the plan. He and a friend, Jim Johnson, used seed money from friends and family to design and print a Japanese-language catalog, which they branded Durango Expedition. They  mailed it in January 1997, and at the same time they went live with Japanese and English Websites, as alternative channels. The venture flopped. The mailing generated no significant sales. However, they discovered to their surprise that they were receiving hits on the English Website from American youths. Within a month they had reconceptualized the business to serve American teen girls through catalog and online channels, under the name Alloy. Diamond and Johnson each contributed $60,000 in cash and 11 Waxler, Caroline. â€Å"Guys with moxie,† Forbes, May 31, 1999, pp. 130-131. 5 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 500-048 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y another friend, Sam Gradess added $150,000 in cash when he joined six months later from Goldman Sachs. In November 1997, the first issue of the Alloy catalog, 48 pages in length, was mailed to a purchased mailing list of 150,000 teen names. At the same time Alloy’s Website became active. The intention at that time was to reduce the number of catalogs mailed as on-line sales grew. Organization Diamond became president and CEO of the fledgling company. Johnson took the title of chief operating officer. Gradess was chief financial officer. Neil Vogel joined from Ladenburg Thalman & Co., a consumer and Internet investment banking group to be the chief corporate development officer. Fellow Harvard sectionmate, Andrew Roberts left PricewaterhouseCoopers to join Alloy in January 1999 as VP of business development. Another Harvard  MBA, Joan Rosenstock was hired as marketing director, having held positions in marketing at the National Basketball Association as well as in advertising account management. Erstwhile, music editor of teenage magazine Seventeen, Susan Kaplow, became executive editor and Karen Ngo, who had been a feature editor and fashion stylist at Seventeen, was hired as creative director. Alloy outsourced as many of its operations as it could. Working with mostly domestic vendors who could produce and ship within a 2-8 week timeframe, Alloy purchased only 50% of its featured products and relied on a quick order and re-order ability so as to control inventory levels. Telephone orders and order-processing were outsourced to Harrison Fulfillment Services, based in Chattanooga, TN. OneSoft Corp., based in Virginia, handled on-line ordering and fed its orders to Chattanooga for fulfillment. Alloy personnel concentrated on marketing and merchandising issues. Target Market Unlike dELiAs, Alloy opted for a single-brand strategy targeted at both genders. â€Å"Rather than dividing our marketing resources across multiple brands and Websites, we seek to maximize the impact of our marketing efforts by promoting a single brand. We believe this allows us to attract visitors to our Website and build customer loyalty rapidly and efficiently.†12 Indeed Diamond considered that Alloy’s key differentiator lay in being gender neutral, believing that a successful Generation Y community depended on dynamic boy-girl interaction. He thought of their community site as an MTV-like interactive distribution channel. â€Å"It’s an opportunity for girls to talk to boys, boys to talk to girls, to deliver music, to deliver fashion, to deliver lifestyle.† Diamond conceded that the majority of the visitors to its Website were girls, and the print catalog was even more skewed towards girls. However, it was the intention to attract boys to the Website by other means. There was some evidence that this strategy was working, as the percentage of female Website visitors declined from 70% in early 199913 towards a desired 60/40 ratio. Boys tended to be drawn by music, extreme sports and games, while girls appeared to be more responsive to chat and browsing. Diamond felt, however, that just as both teen boys and girls hang out in shopping malls, watching each other as well as chatting, the on-line  presence of both boys and girls was important. Alloy’s target was teens making buying decisions with parents â€Å"somewhere in the background.† The target group ranged from 12-20, but the median age was 15. Alloy was careful not to aim too young, partly for regulatory reasons, but also because they felt that by targeting 15-yearolds they reached a group at an important buying point in their lives. About 35-40% of teenage purchasing was on apparel and accessories, and Alloy monitored what else this group bought. As 12 IPO Offer Document May 1999. 13 Chervitz, Darren. â€Å"IPO First Words: Alloy Online CEO Matt Diamond.† Interview at CBS MarketWatch.com, June 14, 1999. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/19990614/news/current/ipo_word.htx?source=htx/http2_mw&dist=na 6 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 500-048 owners of a â€Å"piece of real estate† they did not see themselves as limited to selling apparel and accessories, and had moved into soft furnishings. The Offering It was standard practice among catalog retailers, such as Lands End and LL Bean, to sell products under the catalog’s brand. Even at dELiAs, private-label sales accounted for about 40% of the mix. Alloy, however, emphasized recognized teen brands such as Vans, Diesel, and O’Neill, both to attract buyers and to offer reassurance of quality. Only 20-25% of Alloy’s sales came from labels that were exclusive to Alloy, such as Stationwagon and Local 212. Diamond was philosophical about the pros and cons of private label, â€Å"There’s no denying you get better margins on own-label goods. But  running with your own labels leaves you vulnerable to ending up as a skateboard brand.† The Alloy site aimed to build what Diamond termed the 3 Cs of on-line retailing to this generation: Community, Content, and Commerce. He noted that constant communication was key to understanding this generation. They had a strong need to chat about movies, television, music and what was happening at school, and to seek advice from one another, sound off about pet hates, and occasionally shop. A small team of in-house editors created editorial content on the site, supplemented by syndicated content. The audience also contributed content, receiving in exchange a sense of community, in chat-rooms and message boards, and by submitting their own letters, poems, drawings and articles. Poems and drawings would be voted upon interactively. Chat rooms in particular were popular and frequently full (in contrast to some of the chat rooms of competitors). The chat rooms were moderated from end of school-time until midnight on a daily basis, with software employed to spot offensive or obscene language. Advice columns were a dependable magnet. (See Exhibit 7 for a sample of user-generated content.) Andrew Roberts remembered vividly the moment when he knew that Alloy was really â€Å"onto something.† In the aftermath of the Columbine High School shooting tragedy, one of the editors knew that Alloy had to respond and fast. She worked all night creating the appropriate spaces in chatrooms, and editorial content. By 8:30 a.m. the day after, 15 hours after news of the tragedy broke, Alloy had received 7,311 postings related to the events at Columbine. Roberts explained that it wasn’t so much the number that impressed him, but the content of the postings. â€Å"These kids were really anxious. We had kids who followed the goth fashion who were really scared about how others would treat them. Other kids were reassuring them and saying â€Å"Don’t worry, we know it wasn’t you or the goths who made these guys do what they did.† They just had a desperate need to talk with each other, and be reassured by each other.† Building the Brand Alloy built its brand, and with it traffic to the Alloy site, in several ways. It undertook traditional advertising in print media (Seventeen Magazine, YM, Rolling Stone, and Snowboarder). It used hot-links from sites  such as seventeen.com to advertise promotional deals. It had special copromotional deals with, for example, MGM Entertainment, Sony Music, Burton Snowboards, MCI and EarthLink/Sprint, who provided free products and services that were used as special promotions for the Alloy community (such as private movie screenings, exclusive music give-aways, and celebrity on-line chats). Finally, it bought banner advertising on gateway sites such as Yahoo Shopping, Fashionmall.com, CatalogCity.com and CatalogLink.com. 7 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 500-048 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y The Business Model There were two revenue streams: merchandise sales, and advertising and sponsorship. An agent had been retained to sell advertising on the Website, and the longer-term intention was to build an in-house sales force to sell sponsorships, banner-ads, targeted advertising (segmented by Website area, time of day, user location, or age), and combination print and Website advertising. To this end, Samantha Skey, who had been responsible for commerce, advertising and sponsorship for Disney Online and Family.com and had worked for Buena Vista Internet group, was hired in 1999 as VP of ecommerce and sponsorships. In 1999, about 10% of revenues were generated by sponsorship and advertising deals, and the proportion was expected to rise to 20% in year 2000. Alloy was aware that it would never meet all of its customers’ requirements. It was happy to offer links to other sites that could be seen as competitive, such as Gap’s on-line site. â€Å"Look, we figure they’re going to go there anyway,† noted Roberts. â€Å"If they go via us, we at least get something for it. We’re happy to have such complementary deals. Probably not with dELiAs, though,† he grinned. Exhibits 4 and 5 report annual fiscal year performance 1996-1998, and quarterly performance between last quarter 1997 and first quarter 1999. To hear Diamond describe it, running Alloy was, at least day-to-day, like running a production plant. â€Å"We know what it costs to get a customer, and we know what a customer will spend. We just have to keep the two numbers in balance. We could make a profit today, but in this investment climate there’s no reward for beating your loss numbers.† By April 1999, Alloy had a database of 2.6 million names and addresses, comprising 1.7 million previous buyers and 900,000 visitors to the Website who had registered their names and addresses. It was mailing monthly to the most responsive of the names on this list, supplemented by purchases of new names, and it hoped to mail 20 million catalogs over the course of 1999. Alloy’s catalogs cost $450 per thousand to design, print and mail. If Alloy mailed catalogs to names from the database who had bought from it before, it received an order from about 3% of the names each time it mailed. If Alloy bought a list of new names, for example a list of American girls who owned personal computers, at a cost that was typically $100 per thousand names, the response rate on the new names14 was about 1.5%. Alloy would often exchange some of the names of its customers for the names of customers of similar firms, if it could count on a response rate on the swapped names of close to its own 3%. By blending names from these three sources, Alloy could choose whether a particular mailing would yield a high rate of orders or expand its customer base. Over the year, Alloy’s mailings comprised 10% swapped names, 70% past customers and 20% new names. Diamond found that some people in the private investment community were not well informed on the ease with which response rates could be manipulated. â€Å"Analysts ask me, why is your response rate down last month? I say ‘you want a 10% response rate, I’ll give you one. I’ll just mail to my very best customers.† Most orders were received by telephone, and orders from all lists ranged from $65 per customer in spring to $85 in winter. The gross margin on an order was about 50%. Alloy paid its fulfillment company $6.00 to handle each telephone order. Customers paid the shipping charges. Traffic to the Website, as measured by Media Metrix in the quarter ending March 1999, comprised 263,000 unique visitors15 per month. While about half of the  visitors eventually registered 14 List brokers typically sold names on a ‘deduplicated’ basis, meaning that the buyer had the right to delete and not pay for any names that it already owned. 15 Many of the visitors to a site came more than once a month. Media Metrix used the term â€Å"unique visitors† to emphasize that they were counting visitors, not visits. 8 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 500-048 themselves with the site by entering a name, address and e-mail information, the proportion of unique visitors in a month who registered in that month was about 8%. In addition to catalogs and Web visits, Alloy interacted with Generation Y by means of a weekly broadcast e-mail, Alloy E-Zine, sent to 850,000 site visitors who had asked to receive it. When a visitor to the Alloy Website registered, the name was added to the print catalog mailing list. Names gathered in this way, although they had not previously bought from Alloy, tended to respond to the catalog at a rate close to the past-buyer rate of 3%. Calculating the cost of attracting someone to become a registered visitor was difficult, because Web traffic resulted from many actions: banner advertising, listings on search engines, and Alloy’s print advertising in media like Seventeen Magazine. The catalog was a significant driver of traffic to the Web. On the day that the catalog reached its audience, traffic to the site would jump 40%. It would continue to rise to about 180% of pre-mailing levels for a week, and slowly fall back. Possessing a copy of the latest Alloy catalog conferred significant prestige in a junior high school lunchroom. And then there was wordof-mouth. Many visitors to the Website, and many who decided to register, came at no cost to Alloy because a friend had mentioned the site, had e-mailed a chat room story, or had asked for an opinion on an item of clothing shown on the site. Less than 5% of Alloy’s revenues came from orders placed on the Website. When an order was submitted on-line instead of by phone, Alloy paid its fulfillment company $3.00 instead of $6.00 to reflect the saving of telephone handling charges. Alloy’s e-mailed catalog, termed Alloy E-Zine, was another small element of the business. Because Alloy had no way of knowing whether a recipient’s e-mail system was able to view graphic displays or color, it used only text in the E-Zine. Only 25% of those who indicated willingness to receive it ever opened it, and of those 1% placed an order in the course of a year. These orders were fulfilled at $3.00 each if they were placed by return email. Sponsorships and banner advertising were a small but rapidly growing source of revenue. As Alloy’s base of registered visitors and catalog recipients grew, both became assets that interested advertisers. The AOL Deal Diamond reflected on the AOL deal. It was not a question of finding $2 million. If the IPO went ahead at the planned price of $15, it would generate $55.5 million and Alloy would be awash in cash. Diamond tried not to be annoyed at the idea that AOL would offer this deal on the eve of his IPO. â€Å"I’ve been talking to AOL for a year about opening a teen shopping area, showing them what a big revenue opportunity it could be. Now suddenly they get it, and they think it’s worth $2 million.† He thought to himself, â€Å"What else can I do with $2 million? That’s over 4 million catalogs, which means more sales, more site visits, more registrations, and more E-Zine registrations. Alternatively, it could buy us exposure on television, and that would build a stronger brand.† Alloy’s budget for 1999 included a line item of $2.5 million for production of two television spots and $2.5 million for air time. Yet AOL was Alloy’s most important source of traffic to the Website. More than a third of visitors to the Alloy site used AOL as their Internet service provider. Would a competitor on the AOL site be able to intercept them? Would the announcement of a competitor’s deal with AOL on the eve of the IPO be as bad for Alloy’s share price as an Alloy deal would be good? The cellphone rang again. It was his partner, Neil Vogel. â€Å"Matt, Wall Street would like it if you would do that deal. They don’t want iTurF to pick it up. This is valuable real estate on a really important teen property.† 9 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 500-048 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y Exhibit 1 Total Teen Spending in 1996 $ billions % Apparel 36.7 34 Entertainment 23.4 22 Food 16.7 15 Personal Care 9.2 9 Sporting Goods 6.7 6 Other 15.3 14 Total 108.0 100 Source: Packaged Facts via InterRep Research, in MSDW Equity Research: †Fashions of the Third Millennium,† June 1999. Exhibit 2 Estimates of Teen Spending Rand Youth (Adweek May 18, 1998) 1996 1997 Morgan Stanley Dean Witter’s report â€Å"Fashions of the Third Millennium,† June 1999 $108 billion $91.5 billion 1998 1999 Teen Research Unlimited (quoted in Alloy press handout) $141 billion $136 billion 10 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 500-048 Exhibit 3 Consolidated iTurf Income (in $ thousands) st st Net revenues 1 quarter ending 1 May 1999 2615 Cost of goods 1332 35 Gross profit 1283 34 Selling, general and admin. 1753 109 Interest income (expense) (112) 11 Loss before tax (358) (86) Income tax (benefit) (161) (33) Net loss (197) (53) Apr 99 = 731,000 Feb 99 = 635,000 50 million 4 million No. of unique visitors No. of page views in April Size of mailing database 1 quarter ending 30 April 1998 69 11 million names Source: IPO Filing Exhibit 4 Alloy Online Annual Fiscal Performance Fiscal year 1996 1997 1998 (thousands) Net merchandise revenues $25 $1,800 $10,100 Of which on-line order placement accounted for: – $40 $710 Sponsorship and other revenue – Gross profit % Selling & Marketing expenses Web pages views (Month of March) $125 32.5% 41.7% 46.3% $98 $2,000 $9,200 1,500 25,000 Weekly e-zine registrations 480 Source: Company records 11 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 500-048 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y Exhibit 5 Alloy Online Quarterly Performance 1997 1998 1998 1998 1998 1999 1999 31 Oct Jan 31 Apr 30 Jul 31 Oct 31 Jan 31 Apr 30 ($’000) Net merchandise revenues 401 1396 1353 2082 3215 3436 2391 Sponsorship, etc. – – 1 5 46 73 163 Total revenues 401 1396 1354 2087 3261 3509 2544 COGS 263 783 906 1200 1665 1715 1249 Gross profit 138 613 448 887 1596 1794 1305 34% 44% 33 42.5% 49% 51% 51% 903 1437 1782 2992 3396 2679 3529 (749) (806) (1312) (2165) (1901) (985) (2302) 400,000 800,000 Gross profit % of revenue Operating expenses Net loss Number of registered users Source: Company records 12 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y 500-048 Exhibit 6 Circulation of Leading Teen Magazines Publication Publisher Circulation as of 1998/99 Seventeen (monthly) Primedia Consumer Magazine Group 2,400,000 Teen (monthly) EMAP 2,400,000 YM (10 x year) Gruner & Jahr 2,200,000 Teen People (monthly) Time Inc. 1,300,000 Jump (10 x year) Weider Publications 350,000 Twist (monthly) Bauer Publishing 265,650 Girl Lewitt & LaWinter/Freedom 250,000 Source: Various 13 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003 500-048 Alloy.com: Marketing to Generation Y Exhibit 7 Examples of consumer-generated content on Alloy Website Source: Alloy Website 14 Downloaded by Junfei Xu on 9/02/2013. New York University, Stephen Tamke, Fall 2013, 001-003

Education Jewish Women Essay

The aim of this paper is to discuss the significance of education for Jewish people and its transformation in recent years. Special attention will be paid to Haredi education. Education has been traditionally attached paramount importance in Jewish communities. It was perceived as a precondition of social advancement, success, and respect from the others. The main feature of education in Jewish communities is that the focus has always been on balanced and all-round development of the personality of a child. Education is closely linked to culture and identity, and the goal of education is to plant Jewish values. Religious education is a part of any educational process, irrespective of whether it happens in family or school settings. A tool of religious education is studying Torah, and the Jews believe that this process is a lifelong one. Therefore, Jewish communities were among the first to champion the idea of continuing education. In terms of Jewish education, it makes sense to speak of formal and informal education. As concerns formal schooling, Jewish education programs can take one of the following forms: full-time, part-time, Sunday-only (one-day only), or tutor (Goldstein & Fishman, 1993). Primary school is usually attended by children older than the age of 6 or 7; before that, they are educated at home. Sometimes children before the age of 6 or 7 attend Sunday school or engage in various forms of informal education. Informal education encompasses such techniques as youth group, camp experience, or drama clubs. Jewish children often manifest strong desire to learn and impressive academic achievement. This is one of the reasons why Jews are likely to pursue higher education. This can be explained by the fact that education has been historically perceived as an important value: ‘At the turn of the last century, Jewish immigrants to the United States and elsewhere carried on the tradition of education. Barely able to make a living, they continued their educations, fought the anti-Semitic stance of University admission committees and sent their children to university’ (Winston, 2006, p. 1). It is interesting to note that Jewish education in the 20th century has put a significant emphasis on gender equality in education. Throughout the 19th century, Jewish girls were educated at home and rarely attended public education facilities. The turnaround was made possible by the institution of girl’s schools at the beginning of the previous century. At present, there are virtually no gender disparities in the level of enrollment in education. Another interesting factor is that children and adolescents realize the value of education from early teens and without external pressure. A study (Seginer & Vermulst, 2002) indicated that such issues as family background as well as perceived parental support and demandingness do not directly affect the level of educational achievement among Jewish youngsters, while this factor is regarded as the key for academic success in other communities. Now it is high time to discuss Haredi education. Under the Haredi education law, local authorities should provide equal amount of funding for state schools and non-state schools: ‘The government approved Sunday my proposal to advance an amendment to the national education law that would obligate local authorities to play a part in funding schools defined as ‘recognized but unofficial’ in an equal manner and in accordance with the schools’ ability to meet the terms and rules set by the Education Ministry’ (Beilin & Nahari, 2007, para. 1). While the law has come in foe excessive criticism, there are some good points in it. First of all, this law acknowledges the importance of different methods of education, both formal and informal, or, in this specific case, both state and non-state. If it is quality education that raises children in the spirit of Jewish values, there is no difference in who provides it. Yet formal education is still paid more attention under this law: ‘The bill has the power to create equality between students in the official education system to those in the recognized system. However, there would still be preference given to students in the former system, which will enjoy full funding both from the Education Ministry and local authorities, compared to their counterparts from the ‘recognized but unofficial’ world – who will continue to enjoy partial funding only’ (Beilin & Nahari, 2007, para. 7). Summing up, it is possible to conclude that education has played a significant role in the Jewish culture. Unique combination of formal and informal as well as state and non-state education providers gives the youth an opportunity to develop their skills and abilities together with learning Jewish values and culture.

Ellen Fairclough Biography

Ellen Fairclough Biography About Ellen Fairclough Ellen Fairclough became the first Canadian woman federal cabinet minister when she was appointed Secretary of State by Prime Minister Diefenbaker in 1957. Vivacious, intelligent and competent, Ellen Fairclough had a mixed record in cabinet. Her attempt to restrict family immigration sponsorships to immediate family members caused an uproar in the Italian community, but she was successful in introducing regulations that largely removed racial discrimination from Canadian immigration policy. Birth January 28, 1905 in Hamilton, Ontario Death November 13, 2004 in Hamilton, Ontario Professions Before entering politics, Ellen Fairclough was a Chartered Accountant and owner of a Hamilton accounting firm.She was active in the Consumers Association of Canada, the Girl Guides, the I.O.D.E., the United Empire Loyalist Association, and the Zonta Club of Hamilton and Zonta International.After leaving politics, she worked in a trust company and was then chairman of Ontario Hydro.Ellen Fairclough published her memoirs Saturdays Child in 1995. Political Party Progressive Conservative Federal Riding (Electoral District) Hamilton West Political Career of Ellen Fairclough She was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in 1950. She was the only woman in the House of Commons until three others were elected in the 1953 general election. Ellen Fairclough was elected to Hamilton City Council in 1946. She served on the Hamilton City Council for five years until 1949.As Progressive Conservative labour critic, Ellen Fairclough introduced a private members bill requiring equal pay for equal work and advocated the creation of a Department of Labour Womens Bureau.With the election of a Conservative minority government in 1957, John Diefenbaker grudgingly appointed Ellen Fairclough to cabinet as Secretary of State. As Secretary of State, Ellen Fairclough initiated Dominion Day celebrations on Parliament Hill.The Conservatives won a majority government in 1958, and Ellen Fairclough was appointed Minister of Citizenship and Immigration. At the beginning of her time at Citizenship and Immigration, Ellen Fairclough ran into political problems, especially from the Italian community, when she tried to limit immigration family sponsorships to immediate family members, and was forced to back down. In 1962 however, she successfully b rought in regulations which went a long way towards the elimination of racial discrimination in Canadian immigration policy. She was moved to the Postmaster General portfolio in 1962.Ellen Fairclough was defeated in the 1963 election.

Importance of Civic Engagement

Importance of Civic Engagement Civic engagement is whereby people work to make a difference in the local life of their communities and society, and developing combination of skills, knowledge, motivation and values in order to make that difference. Civic engagement can also mean â€Å"promoting the life value of the people in a community through both nonpolitical and political processes.†[1] There are different forms of engagement. First is political engagement. Here, the community is engaged in political activities, like voting, which involves partisan advocacy. The second form is civic engagement. This is whereby the community takes place in organizing and development activities which involves social justice. The community also engages in civic reflection that is, they are able to get into debates and discussion in the public sphere. In this case, it involves journalism and environmentalism. The third form is religious engagement. Religious engagement is faith-based, where initiatives are acted upon based on faith and religion of the community or society. In this case, there’s involvement of inter-faith dialogues and action.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Importance of Civic Engagement specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Factors Influencing Civic Engagement There are several factors that affect and / or influence civic engagement within the communities in the United States of America. These may influence civic engagement positively or negatively. First are strong traditions and beliefs, attaching them with philanthropy or humanity towards the community or â€Å"individuals (public and private).†[2] Second, strong and robust civil society organizations and nonprofit organizations in the country influence civic engagement. Third, different viewpoints of communities in the public sphere may influence civil engagement. Consecutively, government also influences civic engagement by having its policies and support of service. For instance, there are Peace Corps and AmeriCorps in America. Lastly, there exists many pressing social concerns and needs in the society which influence civil engagement in America. History of Civic Engagement Civic engagement originated between 1880 and 1900. This was due to the emergence of social work in response to the needs of immigrants in urban centers, in America. Civic engagement was also developed in civic engagement centers in university campuses due to settlement house movement. Jane Addams was the first woman in history to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in the year 1931, after coming up with the Jane Addams Hull House foundation, which seeks to improve communities’ social conditions in Chicago and Illinois area. The Civil Rights Movement (CRM) was between 1950s and 1960s whereby there was the Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus boycott. Martin Luther King Jr. said, â€Å"Everybody can be distinguished†¦ because anybody can serve, one d oes not need a college degree to serve. [3] American Democratic Protest (ADP) was introduced for civic engagement of the public. Most people may think that the American Democratic Protests only works with democratic causes, like voter registration. ADP promotes voter registration also encourages other activities. The ADP’s goals were aimed at getting students in campuses involved in advocacy activities like protests and community meetings, with the hopes of causing positive change in the social environment. The ADP also created opportunities, for example, Fishing Has No Boundaries, whereby students run the group which allows disabled people to have fun relaxing. This has facilitated students to volunteer their time on such activities.Advertising Looking for research paper on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Effects of Civic Engagement Civic engagement earns the community social capital: this is the cover title of all positive effects of interactions in the community. The benefits that come with social capital are education for the community dwellers, increased safety in the community, decreased crime, illiteracy, and health and socioeconomic disparity. Depending on engagement in civic activities, social capital can either be gained or lost according to the behavior. Civic engagement service as a strategy aimed to meet the challenges in the community and the nation at large, for instance, strengthening the schools in the community and addressing the dropout crises in the community. This improves the education in the community and the country in extension. Civic engagement also helps in improving energy efficiency also safeguarding available energy in the community. This facilitates safeguarding the environment and its resources. This in turn also helps in improving health care; it also expands the economic opportunities in communities which have low income. Civic engage ment helps in preparing for and responding to disasters and emergencies in the community and the country. All these contemporary examples of civic engagement practice and policies came into shape after the recent passing of the Edward M. Kennedy: Serve America Act. The supporters of direct democracy, since the Progressive Era, claim that the use of a ballot initiative results in strengthening democracy in the country by encouraging a more active and engaged citizenry. Advocates argued that the ballot initiative process would help in the reformation of voters by encouraging them in participative public policy making. Allowing citizens to act as lawmakers increases their interest in politics. Currently, civil engagement is an overriding theme in civil dialogues as social commentators and policy-makers search for more democratic and collective ways to send messages to the government. While the Progressive reformers in the 20th century aimed in the creation of bureaucratic, hierarchical , rule-based organizations in the administrative state to prevent corruption in politics, the current reformers, support less hierarchical governmental organizations in order to increase civil participation in enhancing government responsiveness to citizen demands and policy making.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Importance of Civic Engagement specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This model of participation suggests that there’s improved and strengthened relation between policy-makers and citizens that will improve policy-making. This is a core element of moral governance. Digital democracy, e-government, deliberative democracy and strong democracy are participatory mechanisms, which are designed in expanding the circle of people involved in policy-making, thus allowing civic officials to get new sources of information and ideas when making decisions. Proponents of these mechanisms of civic engagement a lso suggest that they will help in building public trust in the country’s government, also strengthen civic capacity of the community. As per Progressive reformers and contemporary normative theorists, in order to make the government to function well, one needs to foster collective and individual participation in decision-making processes. While civic engagement is public-based, with the public deciding on public issues by a direct vote, political scientists have begun to explore empirically whether giving the public a direct voice in the legislature procedure, in fact, improves the public’s participation and interest in politics. Recent studies conclude that civic engagement or direct democracy have a positive effect on voter turnout. The state-level data was the basis of this conclusion. The ballot data from 1972 to 1996 indicates that, the presence of outstanding initiatives and popular referenda increases the turnout in interim elections by around 3% above the stat es without civic engagement, but not present in the presidential election years. It is evident that the states with more public initiatives on the ballot have higher voter turnout in both presidential election and interim elections, around 4% and around 8% respectively, than states without ballot initiative. These studies suggest that there is more pronounced turnout in interim elections, which have low information, low turnout affairs and fewer mobilization sources, because of the initiative. In such elections, the marginal voters may be sensitive to the mobilization sources that exist, such as ballot propositions. Ballot initiatives may generate interest and bring information in an election, which may further lead to higher voter turnout. On the other hand, presidential elections have high information, high motivation, which may weaken the mobilization influence on ballot measures.Advertising Looking for research paper on political sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Using more recent data and sophisticated methods for research challenge previous studies that did not find a positive impact of ballot measures on voter turnout. There is lower turnout in the American electorate compared to other western countries, especially among the less affluent, younger, non-white, and less partisan citizens. If citizen political participation is preferred in a country and ballot measures increases voter turnout, then the initiatives are a reasonable thing despite their content, policy or outcome. Scholars of electoral studies should be interested in the impacts of initiatives on voter turnout, as there are more initiatives on local and state ballots presently more than ever before. Another civic engagement or political participation, in addition to voting, is the contribution of money to political causes. The exposure to initiative campaigns enables citizens to donate money to political parties, candidates, and interest groups. The enhanced image and visibilit y of worth that groups receive from this activity may stimulate more individuals to make donations. Such process would be necessary for implications for democratic theory. Pluralist scholars have been arguing that wide civic engagement ensures that the diverse interests will add into the political process. Recent research suggest that the states with civic engagement have more diverse, and larger interest group systems compared to states without civic engagement. Other scholars suggest that citizen groups are the main beneficiaries in direct democracy elections, rather than economic groups. A mechanism through which the initiative process may increase the diversity and size of interest group representation is through citizen contributions to them. It has been proven that citizens living in states with civic engagement are more likely to give money to interest groups, than those living in states which do not have this institutional mechanism. Civic engagement or direct legislation wo uld make the voter recognize that he/she is independent, since decision making on ballot actions bring voters into a nearer touch with vast affairs, and allows voters to start taking shape and becoming a sovereign in both fact and fancy. If ballot initiatives help in producing a more engaged and politically self-confident electorate, they also create a more informed electorate. The exposure effects on civic engagement at political knowledge may be similar to the effect of media exposure. Watching the news on TV has been positively associated with knowledge on politics. While an extensive prose, documents how citizens can make voting decisions on the initiative with clear directives from the elected officials, media, interest groups and political party endorsements, scholars have not systematically explored how civic engagement campaigns may advance political knowledge among citizens. Scholars have found, from pioneers of political surveys and contemporary researchers, that Americans have little interest in political knowledge. However, it is evident that political learning is profoundly influenced by the political environment. Sophistication politically is endogenous to three broad factors: the ability to organize and assimilate political information; the desire or motive to follow political affairs; and exposure to information on politics. Exposure to information on politics may be a function of the quantity of times with which such information is availed, media use, and communications technology. Civic engagement campaigns may create marginal opportunities for political learning, thus increasing political sophistication and political knowledge. In relation to civic engagement, there are nonprofit organizations, which are involved in civic engagement campaigns and initiatives. â€Å"Citizen Schools† is a nationally recognized organization that is dedicated to educating using service learning outside of the classroom. They provide programs for middle-sc hool-aged youths, connecting them with businesses, adult volunteers and nonprofit organizations, in order for them to learn about their roles as citizens and learn more about their communities. â€Å"Do something† is an initiative aimed at making the service more appealing to the youth. The program includes ideas floated monthly to â€Å"challenge the youth to engage in the community and presents awards to service role-models.†[4] They have come up with a magazine titled BUILD. â€Å"Hands on a Network† is an organization that seeks to solve the hardships in a society through service. This network realizes the dimensionality of civic engagement and service by emphasizing the work done by volunteers and the meaning of experience to them. â€Å"Sustainable Seattle† is an organization which utilizes the social capital building and civic engagement in its economic, ecological and community sustainability programs. This organization is an example of a metropol itan level model of civic engagement, focusing on education, local business and neighborhood development. There are also websites that are related to civic engagement. â€Å"American Psychological Association’s Civic Engagement and Service-Learning† is a site which emphasizes on the psychological connection between service-learning and civic engagement. â€Å"Journal of Civic Commitment† is an online academic journal that provides research and ideas on how to slot in commitment to the community with learning. â€Å"Community College National Center for Community Engagement†, is a site that provides information on current and past issues. â€Å"Learn and Serve America† is part of Corporation for National Community Service, which includes Senior Corps and AmeriCorps. â€Å"Social Capital Gateway†[5] is a domain of sites, events, and research that are related to social capital and its relationship to other phenomenon. In conclusion, civic eng agement is normally influenced by several factors, including traditions and beliefs, civil society organizations and nonprofit organizations different perspectives of communities, the government and pressing social concerns. Civic engagement earns the community social capital. The benefits that come with social capital are education for the community dwellers, increased safety in the community, decreased crime, illiteracy, and health and socioeconomic disparity. Civic engagement service as a strategy meets the challenges in the community and the nation at large, for instance, strengthening the schools in the community. This improves the education in the community and the country in extension. Civic engagement also helps in improving energy efficiency also safeguarding available energy in the community. Civic engagement or direct legislation would make the voter recognize that he/she is independent, since decision making on ballot actions bring voters into a nearer touch with vast af fairs, and allows voters to start taking shape and becoming a sovereign in both fact and interpretation. Bibliography Brehm, John. Individual Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997 Jarvik, Erik. Inequality, Trust, and Civic Engagement. Boston: Academic Press, 1980. Robbins, Sarah and Mimi Dyer. Writing America. New York: Teachers College Press, 2005. Sen, Vicheth. Higher Education and Civic Engagement in Cambodia A Case Study at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. München: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2010. Yang, Kaifeng and Erik Bergrud. Civic Engagement in a Network Society. Greenwich: Information Age Publishing, 2008. Footnotes Vicheth Sen, Higher Education and Civic Engagement in Cambodia : A Case Study at the Royal University of Phnom Penh (München: GRIN Verlag GmbH, 2010), 19 Kaifeng Yang and Bergrud Erik, Civic Engagement in a Network Society (Greenwich: Information Age Publishing, 2008), 108 Sarah Robbins and D yer Mimi, Writing America (New York: Teachers College Press, 2005), 68 Erik Jarvik, Inequality, Trust, and Civic Engagement (Boston: Academic Press, 1980), 234-238 John, Brehm, Individual Level Evidence for the Causes and Consequences of Social Capital(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 92

An Exploration of the Representation of Teenagers in Two British Films, Films Are History Boys and Kidulthood

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U.S committee system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

U.S committee system - Essay Example tives; identify problems and propose solutions to them; select, determine the text of, and report out measures for full chambers to consider; monitor executive branch performance of duties; and look into the allegations of wrongdoing† (Schnieder 1). The decentralized structure of the congressional committee system started in adherence to the 1946 Legislative Reorganization Act though the use of committees is presence since the congress conducted its first meeting (Schnieder 1). The determination of the number of committee members as well as the ratio of majority to minority is often carried out by party leaders. Each party is also responsible in choosing the leader of each committee (Schnieder 2). The committees are classified largely according to their functions and activities they perform. These are the standing committees, select committees, and joint committees. Standing committees are permanent panels which are created according to chamber rules which also list the jurisdiction of each. Due to their possession of legislative jurisdiction, these committees â€Å"consider bills and issues and recommend measures for consideration† (Schnieder 3). Standing committees perform the general duties of the congress such as monitoring issues and activities as well as consider the government’s revenues, tax systems, budget, pension, industry subsidies, and other direct expenses. The activities of select committees are dictated by the parent chamber. These special committees are often established because the standing committee requires a more thorough comprehension of an issue(Schnieder 3). Thus, select committees often function to investigate on certain issues of interest and to consider possible measures. Because of the nature of their jobs, most select committees are often temporary and are dissolved when their tasks are accomplished. Joint committees are comprised of members from the senate and house which are â€Å"permanent panels which conduct studies or perform