ageless aerobics

Green Screen Photography is gaining more and more in renown, particularly among small photography terraces that wish to bring something new and leading edge to their business – something that the enormous corporate photography residences do not even trouble with. Green screening, often referred to as chroma keying, is often the perfect edge that a small studio can use to blow the competition out of the water. But to go a step further, concentrating on the fantasy photography niche with a good green screen program can also separate you from the massive photography crowd.

To begin with, there is the fantasy niche known as’sword and sorcery’. Some examples include the role playing game’Dungeons And Dragons’ and stories such as the’Lord Of The Rings’. To take these kinds of pictures, shoot the customer in full garb ( patois for period costume ) in front of the green screen, holding the weapon of their choice,eg a sabre, bow and arrow, or wand. Then, use digital backgrounds such as stunning nature scenes and old architecture ( particularly castles ) Then get your green screen program out and work your magic from there. Tip : If the customer wants to have that soft paranormal look, take a bit of nylon and strap it to your camera lens with an elastic tie. Instant softness and puzzle added.

Another well-liked fantasy niche is that of sci-fi. The more apparent of this genre would be’Star Trek’,'Star Wars’ and’Babylon Five’. However [*COMMA] this category also includes’Dr. Who’ ( a time and inter-dimensional show ) and steam punk ( Victorian time running today’s technology with steam ). Within of this niche there are thousands of cos-players ( those that enjoy putting on a costume whenever they can ) who adore having their picture taken. Some ideas for amazing pictures would be : For space travel – like Star Trek – assume the observation deck ( a large window with a star field behind it ) or Ten-Forward cantina ( shoot a modern bar for the background ). For steam punk, choose interiors of old Victorian houses.

A niche that is regularly mixed in with these two previous ones, yet also deserves it’s own class, is that of fairy tales. These are the footage of fairy people and other delicate creatures. For these use mystical landscapes that give a feeling of mystery with just a hint of mischief in store. However [*COMMA] don’t think that fairy tales are only for small children, nor just for cos-players. Another group of people who love these types of pictures are female high school seniors. Consider shooting their portrait with them in their promenade dress, but then placing them in this mystical land. This guarantees you provide them with instant sorcery and joyful memories.

Eventually, the last niche which can fit inside of all of these, yet is also all by itself, is that known as Anime and video game cos-play. For these kinds of photos, look into plenty of Asian inspired locations ( both interior and exterior ) as well as decrepid locations such as an old warehouse or the remains of an ancient civilization.

Overall the thing to remember when shooting a fantasy photo is that irrespective of how strange or outlandish the costume might be and no matter where in the world these characters should be, as long as you can make the picture look believable to the customer, you’ll have repeat business for years to come. It is very easy to make your pictures look plausible with a green screen program.

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Technorati Tags: Fantasy, Green, Photos, program, Screen, Shooting

Academic Scholarship Program can help you relax when it comes to paying off your semester’s tuition and fees.  Here are a few of these Academic Scholarship Program you can look at.  Remember to also do your own research to find more scholarships that fit your needs.

*** Click Here to Register Free for your $10,000 Scholarship ***

The first of these scholarships is a scholarship giveaway held at ScholarshipZone.com.  If you want to apply, you need to live in the United States and be 18 years of age.  To enter the giveaway, you simply have to fill out the quick and easy registration form on their site.  Don’t miss the next deadline, register now to get a chance to win the $10K scholarship.

The Sam Walton Community Scholarship is also another scholarship program that you may be interested in pursuing.  Eligible graduating high school seniors can win $3000 for their education.  To be eligible, applicants will need to prove financial need and have a 22 on the ACT.

You may also be able to qualify for a scholarship program called the Carnegie Writing Scholarship.  To further their education, associates can get $3,000 or their dependents can too.  The application process is composed of writing samples that you send in for review.

*** Click Here to Register Free for the Academic Scholarship Program $10,000 Scholarship ***

Apply for as many scholarships as you think you need to, and maybe then even more because the more you apply for the more you can win.  So don’t wait around until it’s too late, get started today.

Scholarship committees are looking for a well-rounded student who performs well academically who also contributes to his or her community.  You should do a good job of showing how you excel in the classroom setting and how you make an impact in your local community and school.

Technorati Tags: $10000, Academic, College, program, Scholarship, Students, Worth

SAP is one of the most popular technology in the world today allowing companies to run and manage their end-to-end business processes on one integrated technology platform. SAP NetWeaver allows companies to integrate third party systems and external web applications together with SAP core ECC system(s) there by providing a robust technology infrastructure. This helps enterprises which have already invested in other third party systems to preserve their investment to support their business growth. Now having said all about SAP, you all know that any SAP transformation project is a huge undertaking and every customer wants to put maximum effort and dedicated workforce to make the implementation successful.

Today I would like to emphasize on some best practices SAP customers may want to consider to minimize any risks and ensure success of your IT transformation project. I have been blessed to have the experience building SAP core applications and leading over 13 SAP implementations for over 10 years. In the recent years, I have been working on mid-size & large SAP implementations as a SAP Program Advisor (also referred to as a Trusted Project Advisor) advising the customer executive leadership on best practices on SAP technology, implementation, methodology and all other aspects of the program with an unbiased independent third party opinions. Every company has different business needs to meet their corporate growth strategy which makes each SAP project unique in its own way and I will share some best practices on a very high level that your SAP project leadership can use to their advantage to ensure that their SAP project is setup for success.

So how does a IT Transformation project begin ? Typically, An IT strategy to support a company’s short term and long term business growth is established by the C-level executive leadership (mostly by CEO, CIO, CFO, Vice Presidents of business and IT / Systems). Once the IT strategy is defined and approved, an executive steering committee is formed with some of the above executives and key leadership people representing the business. The project is then officially kicked off into planning, preparation, blueprint, functional design, technical design & build, test, deploy, go-live and maintenance phases. As a project advisor, there are different best practices or actions I recommend depending on the client and project circumstances. It may not be practically possible to cover best practices for all scenarios in this article. But, I will make an attempt to cover the best practices and proactive measures at a macro level that should be followed during each of the implementation phases to minimize risks and avoid any unforeseen challenges to budget and go-live dates.

In part 1, I will discuss best practices for SAP project planning phase which includes business readiness, technology (and SAP modules/packages) selection, selection of SAP implementation partner (also known as SAP Systems Integrator) and finally the project preparation phase. Part 2 and 3 will cover the remainder phases of your SAP project.

Planning Phase
Early on in this phase, the steering committee should meet and establish the initial composition of project leadership that should include a program sponsor, business lead and IT lead who are part of your business today and shall continue to lead the IT strategy of the company going forward. In addition, based on my past SAP experiences, I will always recommend having a SAP Program Advisor to advice the project leadership on key decisions including selection of technology, vendors, methodology and guide your project all the way through the project go-live.

Business Readiness (Define Goals, Scope & Engagement Model)
In the planning phase, initially the project leadership should meet with key stakeholders and define their department objectives that should be met by the SAP project. For example, if the new transformation project includes a new business initiative or significant enhancements to existing business processes, then time to go-live will be a major factor. Is the go-live timeframe aligning with the time when you are planning to launch the new business initiative? Next thing I will recommend is to prioritize the important project factors such as schedule, budget, and quality so that these constraints can be clearly articulated during the vendor selection process. Also, define the high level scope of the project into 3 distinct categories for each business work stream such as “High”, “Medium” and “Low” priority. Also, business stakeholders and leadership needs to identify scope items that can be eliminated if the project budget and schedule is challenged. To the minimum it would be good to have a PMO process in place to de-scope any of the items when time or budget is challenged.

During this phase the project leadership team should review the scope of the project and decide on the engagement model with the software implementation vendor. Typically you can choose between a “Fixed Fee” or “Time & Materials” engagement model. Fixed Fee model means the vendor has to implement the whole project or each phase of the project for a fixed price. With Fixed Fee model, you as a customer need to define your scope clearly so that you can include it in the statement of work. Fixed fee will also mean that you will be typically charged in most cases about 20% surcharge by systems integrator to cover the risk to deliver the project on a scope that was mutually agreed upon at a fixed price. The drawback with this approach is sometimes there is a potential for quality of deliverables to be impacted in the process of delivering solution as quickly as possible within the predefined budget. A change control board should be established and protocol for handling change requests should be defined. It is advisable to do quality reviews on deliverables and overall implementation with the help of independent Project Advisor to ensure that solution delivered is of high quality. The other engagement model is “Time & Materials” wherein the customer is paying for resources on time and material basis. Project management office (PMO) has to monitor the project budget with respect to progress on deliverables very closely to ensure that project is delivered within the budget. It is easy to add scope and resources to meet deadlines thereby overshooting the planned budget. With this model I will recommend an additional third party or in-house SAP project manager (apart from SI project and/or delivery manager) to ensure project delivery in time and budget. Estimates and re-estimates should be done in a timely manner at appropriate milestones within each phase when using this model. If the SAP implementation project is complex and scope is not clearly known then this may be a better option. Now, in this phase you should analyze all the pros and cons of both of these models and pick one that suits the best for your business.

Usually planning phase can last between few weeks to a few months and if you have business team members already identified for the implementation, you can engage them in defining the future state business requirements. This would help accelerate the business requirements gathering phase and creation of BPRDs during the blueprint.

Technology Selection
In this article an assumption is made that you have already made a decision to go with SAP, but nevertheless not all projects go with a presumed technology of choice. In very brief, if your company needs to select a technology to support your IT growth strategy there are several factors that need to be taken into account such as the following:

Scalability of the technology platform
Ability to support the long term business growth in terms of functionality, data volume, performance, etc.
Robust integration capabilities with internal and external systems
SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) capabilities
Ability to enhance the system in-house after go-live with minimal or no support from the product development team from the technology vendor
Business functionality fit with SAP standard modules such as FI-CO, FSCD, SD, MM, IS Solutions, BI, PI, etc.

Choosing a Systems Integrator (or SAP Implementation Partner)
Once you have selected SAP as your technology platform, the next step in the process is to identify potential SAP implementation partners with the help of a program advisor or SAP America. Invite potential vendor sales executives and supporting teams for a pre-planning workshops to orient vendors with objectives and high level business requirements of the project. Invite proposals from each of these vendor companies followed by formal onsite review of each proposal. Onsite review should include formal presentation on how the vendor plans to deliver the solution using an implementation methodology of their choice and also demonstration of vendor’s resource expertise in the SAP modules that need to be implemented. I would recommend selecting minimum of at least two vendors through this process to move onto bid invitations and further negotiations. Let’s refer to these vendors that are selected to bid as “Prospective Systems Integrator or Prospective SI”. In order to get the most competitive project bids, you need to negotiate project bids between at least two companies to arrive at a competitive bid. But bear in mind that vendor prior implementation experience and in-house SAP modules expertise should be competitive before deciding to negotiate the bids.

A formal vendor evaluation sheet should be prepared to select a prospective systems integrator. The project leadership should divide and conquer to do each vendor research and fill the evaluation sheet to cover the following aspects. First, we need to evaluate whether the prospective systems integrator (referred to as “SI”) has successfully delivered a similar project (same industry, solution and size) in the past and check for client references. Also check if the prospective SI has delivered the project within the estimated budget. If the budget was exceeded it would be nice to know by what percentage the budget was exceeded and reasons for the same. Check if there are enough SAP skilled resources with the SI in each SAP module that need to be implemented by conducting a few SAP architect and senior consultant interviews. In most projects, offshore delivery capabilities play a major role. If this applies to your project then analyze the offshore presence and check for effectiveness & productivity of the offshore team on a past project. Are you planning to have a SAP “Center of Excellence” within your company to support the SAP system post go-live? If there is no COE or the staffing within the COE is limited, you might want to check if the systems integrator has a production support and maintenance capabilities onsite / offshore to support the production environment 24 X 7.

Preparation Phase
Depending on the implementation methodology, this phase may resemble to the one prior to blueprint phase. If the systems integrator is running the PMO and overall project, ensure that all project and team (or work stream) charters are defined during this phase. Each charter should clearly define the scope of the project or the relevant work stream, identify key stakeholders and define the key roles of participants. To the minimum I would recommend a charter for each of the following that should be prepared and signed off by the SAP project leadership and the SAP program advisor if you have one.

Overall project charter
Overall business team (and individual business work stream in case of large projects)
Organizational Change Management charter
Integration team charter (includes legacy / external apps, PI & ECC integration)
Technical Architecture Charter (SAP Systems Architecture)
Application Development Charter (covering RICEF + W )
Legacy Systems Charter (Only if legacy or 3rd party external applications are significantly enhanced to support a new business model or integrate with SAP ECC system )
SOA Charter (Although this may be integrated in parts within business and integration charters, I strongly recommend a separate charter with an architecture team to lead SOA if your business has a heavy emphasis on Service Oriented Architecture. Having a separate charter for SOA has heavily benefited my past projects to have robust, non-redundant and efficient enterprise services.)

The next point I would like to emphasize is very critical especially if you are using a SAP implementation partner (or Systems Integrator – SI) to prime your project. You should interview and select the SI leadership including the client partner and executive leadership from the systems integrator. Having a proven and knowledgeable leader with the SAP technology and business both together is the very critical to the success of the project. In general, I would not recommend two or more people in the senior leadership of the SI with some representing SAP technology and others representing business expertise. It is merely because these individuals may come from separate departments or groups within the SI organization and there may be a potential conflict of interest between these groups. Even if you do hire two or more senior executives from the SI, then I would recommend having an independent project advisor for your project to ensure that your project goals and solution delivery milestones are not compromised.

Sometime the initial bid from the systems integrator may include project end-to-end initial estimates. If not, then make sure that estimates are done for the entire project supported by a staffing model. Again, as pointed above there will be a few milestones in your project when re-estimations will be done followed by adjustments to the staffing model. Based on this staffing model, I would suggest interviewing and selecting all other SI key personnel like the project manager, OCM lead, RICEF lead, PI lead, BI lead, SAP Basis or technical architecture lead and SAP functional leads for each work stream. Architects and other SAP consultants for both functional and technical work streams can be selected during blueprint as per planned start dates as determined by the staffing model. If you have a systems integrator other than SAP, then I would say it is nice to have at least an architect (senior SAP consultant) from SAP America on the project to seek SAP functional expertise and also to leverage any SAP solution assistance from SAP experts and core development.

In part 2, I will cover blueprint phase which will include business requirements gathering, fit-gap analysis (creation of RICEF inventory), solution design phase (for gaps), project re-estimation to completion and functional specification sub-phases.

In part 3, I will focus on best practices to be considered during the realization phase that will include technical design for RICEF or custom solution, build, testing, final preparation and go-live and production support & maintenance.

SAP®, SAP® R/3®, ABAP and SAP NetWeaver® are registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.

Technorati Tags: Advisor's, best, Part, Perspective, Practices, program, Project, Successful

What Is The “Easy As 1-2-3″ Anti-Aging Program?

Are you tired of this doctor’s comment – “That’s what happens when (that part) of your body ages.” Medical professionals have years of training and education and that’s the best they can come up with?

This oft-heard comment led the author to find ways to address the effects of aging for baby boomers. The anti-aging program described in this article is the result of several years of research to try to feel better in spite of facing primary and secondary aging factors.

The program consists of these components as follows:

1  Brain Health

2  Physical Fitness

3  Sound Nutrition

One Of The Most Irritating Old Age Symptoms

Almost forgot – it’s CRS (Can’t Remember Stuff). When you start experiencing “senior moments,” it’s time to take action – quickly.

 That being written, the first component of the anti-aging program, Brain Health, is the focal point of the program. After all, if your body is in great physical condition, but you don’t recognize your family members, there is an issue!

Neurobics Or Brainercise

Neurobics are brain exercises to develop mental acuity and stave off cognitive issues like dementia and Alzeimer’s disease. Neurobics may help stop memory loss.

Not only is brainercise painless, the exercises are short in duration. Five minutes per day is enough time to start developing new brain pathways and improving cognitive functioning.

An example of a typical brainercise is a crossword puzzle or a math “word problem.” You remember (maybe) –

 If oranges are on sale for 80 cents per pound, how much will you pay for 3 pounds of oranges? (Most people would multiply 80 X 3 to get $2.40, but feel free to do something else like 80 + 80 + 80 cents).

The Other Two Components?

Physical Fitness and Sound Nutrition, the two remaining components, complement Brain Health. Your brain will certainly appreciate the increased oxygen flow from an aerobics routine as well as the correct dose of folic acid from your food or supplements.

More details on these two components can be found below.

Click http://squidoo.com/anti-aging-program for more information about the “Easy As 1-2-3″ Anti-Aging Program.

Stop Memory Loss contains a description of proven ways to address issues such as mild cognitive impairment.

Technorati Tags: AntiAging, baby, boomers, brain, Health, Priority, program, Reveals

Your stress management program is an inside job. In other words, stress is a physiology that exists inside my body. Most of us have learned to link the external world to our physiology, by blaming the outside for the inside.

(For example, I will not have stress when I earn more money. That is not necessarily true).

In order to manage that physiology I am going to have to manage my inside chemistry, which is linked to my perceptions, what I think, how I breathe, my heart rate variability coherence, how I eat…any number of variables.

When I am advocating a stress management plan to my clients, I like to use the brain fitness model, which is based on enhancing the recently discovered capacity of the human brain to grow more neurons.

That capacity is called neurogenesis, and neurogenesis is hampered if not stopped by an exposure to stress hormones, according to Simon Evans,Ph.D. and Paul Burghardt,Ph.D., authors of the excellent book Brainfit for Life. Evans and Burghardt talk in clear language about the necessary steps to enhancing neurogenesis and neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to form new connections subsequent to learning new information, sometimes within minutes.

And Evans and Burghardt emphasize the need to review that new information so your brain solidifies the new circuits and keeps them.

The brain is a big user of energy, and the brain is very efficient at eliminating unnecessary circuits in order to conserve energy.

But back to the plan to enhance neurogenesis by following a brain fitness program.

The Pillars of Brain Fitness and Your Stress Management Program

We know by now that the reward for following a lifestyle based on attending to the four pillars of brain fitness is a bigger brain through neurogenesis, and I lean to the side of the discussion that says a bigger brain is a good thing.

So what are the pillars of brain fitness?

They are physical exercise, nutrition including lots of omega 3 fatty acid and antioxidants, good sleep, stress management (!), and novel learning experiences.

Physical Exercise and Your Stress Management Plan

Evans and Burghardt go into great detail about how physical exercise is the most important brain fitness pillar.

And there is good news for you if you think that you will be required to throw around heavy barbells and buy expensive gym memberships just to have new neurons. After all, how important can new brain growth be?

Well, actually the physical activity required for your stress management program and your brain fitness is exercise of the deep breathing kind, and if you are walking around the block, walk a little faster for a little longer to signal your brain that your are serious about the growth of new neurons.

Nutritional Pillar of Your Stress Management As you might expect, nutrition is very important to both your stress management program and your brain fitness. It is imperative that you quit eating processed food. No way around it, you need the phytochemicals, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fiber, ect. from real food, not food that is designed to outlast the effects of a nuclear war.

Your brain uses about 20% of the fuel you burn daily, so there are a lot of chemical reactions in your head, all of which can release free radicals, which cause the aging process.

Antioxidants sop up those free radicals for you, so eat a lot of fruit and vegetables to keep antioxidants available.

Omega 3 fatty acid is important to your stress management and brain fitness because your neurons are about 70% omega 3 fatty acid and if that supply of fatty acid is not replenished, those neurons get brittle and do not effectively communicate.

Garbled chat between neurons is not good. The best source of omega 3 fatty acid is fish, or you can supplement.

Stress Reduction By Heart Rate Variability?

I have been a user and teacher of heart rate variability biofeedback, now called emWave, for about ten years. I love it. Regular practice has given me the ability to manage the inside of my body heart beat by heart beat when I choose to pay attention to the brain in my heart.

What I mean by that is there are still times when I choose to stress myself unnecessarily, and even to keep that distress when I could have the heart rate variability biofeedback eustress. Progress not perfection.

But I was really amazed to see the endorsement of this biofeedback tool by Alvaro Fernandez, who is the author of the SharpBrains blog which tracks all things brain fitness.

So if you want to explore a heart beat by heart beat stress management plan, then then by all means try out heart rate variability biofeedback.

What Can Possibly Be Stress Reducing About Novel Learning Experiences?

Novel learning experience is important for bringing those new neurons into existing circuits, where they can begin to help out building cognitive reserve, which is very important if your brain happens to be one of the Baby Boomer brains, or really important if your brain is a Senior brain.

Novel learning experience is usually catagorized for our brain fitness purposes as the kind of learning that happens when you learn a new language or a new instrument.

If you are like me, you do not have time to put into a language or instrument, so using one of the newly minted computerized brain fitness programs could be beneficial.

Can you imagine yourself following a stress management program based on the four pillars of brain fitness?

I can. I will take relaxation and a bigger brain as an worthy endgame.

Technorati Tags: brain, Fitness, management, program, stress

Make fitness boot camp a part of your corporate culture and you will build strong teams, increase productivity and change the lives of your employees. Successfully organize and conduct your own fitness boot camp program. Implementation of a corporate fitness boot camp program costs almost nothing and results in increased productivity, less sick days, cohesive teams and lower health care costs.

For Whom Is Fitness Boot Camp?

Fitness boot camp is designed for all ages, all sizes and shapes, as well as all fitness levels. It is great for beginners and those who have never exercised before as well as for the regular exerciser. Fitness boot camp will enhance existing wellness and fitness programs or completely replace them.

Perfect For Busy Schedules

You will learn how – with little or no cost – to organize your very own fitness boot camp cells/teams. I call this the busy person’s workout, because it covers the strength, cardio and flexibility all wrapped into one workout session. Consult with your physician before beginning this or any other fitness activity.

What You Get With Fitness Boot Camp

– Variety.

– Fun.

– Energizing.

– Builds strong teams.

– Incorporates company, family and life core values.

– Complete-body, encompassing strength, muscle endurance, flexibility and cardio.

– Can be started anytime.

– No strict workout regimen.

– Dynamic, always focused on progress.

– Can be done indoors and/or outdoors.

– For men, women, teens and children.

– For pre-beginners, beginners, intermediates and advanced.

– For young and old.

This workout is for the company looking for a creative way of getting its employees in shape while strengthening team spirit, increasing productivity and reducing absenteeism.

The purpose of implementing fitness boot camp cells/teams is to actively take on the role of getting employees, club members, family members and friends in shape and build strong, cohesive teams.

Workplace Benefits of Fitness Boot Camp

– Little to no cost.

– Use existing employee and management structure to organize.

– Enhancement of corporate culture.

– Healthier and happier employees.

– Enhanced team spirit.

– Reduced illnesses.

– Reduced loss of work time.

– Reduced injuries.

– Increased productivity and performance.

– Weight-loss and weight management.

– Nutritional guidance.

– Stress relief and stress management.

– Enhanced communication.

Appoint Team Leaders

Appoint team leaders for each cell, which will be made up of approximately six to twenty employees. This is a company-wide approach, from senior management all the way down to front-line employees. Any member of management can simply step in and join the workout with any of the teams to promote their relationships with employees while working on their own fitness and demonstrating, by example, how important this is. Management participation is a non-threatening way for senior- and mid-level management to join in on what is offered as serious fun with special emphasis on fun and teambuilding.

Decide on how best to organize your initial team cells and appoint team leaders or coordinators (one for each cell). Then, assign one individual to support all team coordinators of all the cells and to track the programs. That individual could be the wellness coordinator, supervisor, manager or some other employee. That individual should already possess a heightened level of enthusiasm for fitness and have a desire to help others.

Different Fitness Levels Train Together

All fitness levels train together. Have all employees sign a waiver for the program. If any members have medical issues, those employees would then only perform those exercises that are permissible by their physician; for example, walking but no jogging, no abs work, no squats or lunges due to knee injury. Often a simple modification of an exercise is possible. Those with medical restrictions would then perform their alternative exercises during the time the rest of the team is performing their (unmodified) exercise; or they will simply modify the team’s exercise to a safe range of motion suitable to their medical limitation.

Organize Fitness Cells

Those employees who work together on a regular basis should be organized as a part of the same fitness cell. You can organize the cells by department or cross-departmental. Have managers or peers come together; mix various management levels. Rearrange the mix of employees every six months, if you desire. Whether your business is customer service, sales, banking, law office staff, fire and rescue, hospital staff, law enforcement, school, college or university, or small business with a handful of employees, boot camp fitness cells are right for you.

Indoors or Outdoors

Another exciting aspect of fitness boot camp is these workouts can be done anywhere, whether indoors or outdoors. Keep it interesting by changing workout location, where feasible, and look for opportunities to incorporate your environment into your workout. For example, park benches are great for performing dips, and the entire team can wrap their resistance bands – also called exercise tubes – around a tree for a group upper-body exercise.

Flexible

You choose a time to fit your schedule. Whether it is 10, 20, 30 or 60 minutes for fitness boot camp, it all adds up to an accumulative health benefit. I strongly recommend at least twice a week, once a week at a minimum, as a part of a corporate program with emphasis that the employees work out four to six times per week all told. If you cannot schedule fitness boot camp twice a week, schedule the frequency that will work. Make it a part of your corporate culture and your employees will take this into their private fitness routines. There is a clear connection between fitness and workplace performance.

Combine Workout with a Business Meeting

Combine a meeting with fitness boot camp. There is no better way to get those creative juices flowing while problem solving than to engage in hearty exercise. Start with an issue to be considered or a problem to be solved, and then perform an exercise or two. Stop and discuss. Then do it again with the next agenda point, until all issues and muscle groups have been addressed. Who says you cannot combine work with pleasure?

Anyone Can Do It

The training is easy, and the exercises are very basic and easy to perform. The mix of exercises follows the principles of simplicity and fun. Technically, this is called functional training. Functional training focuses on training the body how it is used in activities of daily life.

Train the Trainers

Once you have identified your trainers, they need to be trained. To implement this program the trainers will only need a few basic exercises. Start with these basics and, with time, gradually introduce new exercises. The trainers are not just watching. They are performing the exercises with their team members as they guide and encourage them through the workout.

Three Basic Principles

– Warm-up. Perform toe raisers to warm up the body.

– Stretch. Stretch each body part briefly right after exercising it.

– Strength and cardio. Alternate between upper and lower body exercises.

This approach is safe and does not require much training to implement. Participants are to stay in touch with their bodies and do only what they can do. If they can only perform a partial motion of an exercise, that is acceptable and is still working the muscles. Use the following list of basic exercises to get started. You will find a description of these exercises in the book titled Boot Camp Fitness for All Shapes and Sizes by Lt. Col. Bob Weinstein, USAR-Ret..

Start With These Exercises

– Squats

– Standing crunches

– Standing lunge

– Arms and shoulders stretch

– Triceps and upper back stretch

– Standing straddle and stretch

– Standing hamstring stretch

– Biceps curls, resistance band

– Shoulder press, resistance band

– Upright row, resistance band

– Crunches

Ground Rules for Fitness Boot Camp

There are ground rules to follow. These rules are designed to build strong, supportive teams and team members. Focus on the basic approach of the workout to guarantee progress for all team members, while having fun.

Safety

Keep the workouts safe. Ask about medical restrictions and remind participants to stay in touch with their own bodies. The workout is designed to take the employees out of their comfort zone periodically so that fitness progress can be experienced. The comfort zone will differ for each individual. A team member only modifies an exercise for medical reasons or due to fatigue level and then continues to exercise that body part.

Do not allow the question of liability to cause the program to be rejected or terminated. The advantages of this fitness program far outweigh any questions of risk or liability. Seek legal counsel to mitigate any risk. Require all participants to stay in touch with their own bodies and do only what they can do.

Simplicity

As a team progresses, new exercises can be incorporated into the workout, periodically changing the routine, location or sequence of exercises. Introducing something new keeps it interesting.

Fun

The fun factor cannot be emphasized enough. The workouts are all performed in a light, upbeat and positive atmosphere with an emphasis on mutual respect and concern for all team members. Humor is an important element, as long as it is not demeaning, inappropriate in language, or content. No foul language is to be used by any team member. Treat the workout like a game and have a blast.

Variety

Variety is the spice of life. In addition, variety is one of the principles that keeps the workout interesting and actually plays a role in surprising the neurological system into supporting greater fitness progress.

Complete Body Workout

Complete body workout means strength, cardio and flexibility. It also means upper body, lower body and abs. Every workout will include all of these in varying degrees. This is easy to apply. Simply spoken, what you will do is jog or walk; stop and work a body part; jog or walk; stop and work a body part until the entire session is complete.

Are you indoors and can’t go outdoors? Be creative and perform the exercises while alternating between upper and lower body. You will get a cardio workout as well. Every session may have a different emphasis. For example, the upper body may be emphasized, while the other areas are still being worked. The order of exercises may be random, as long as there is alternation between upper and lower body.

Core Values

The core values of the company are to be consciously practiced and illustrated during the workouts. Core values are designed to make us better employees and better persons. For example, the core values of the U.S. Army are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless-service, honor, integrity and personal courage. A clear understanding of the company core values is an essential part of the training. During each training session, a particular core value or values should be emphasized to talk about. This can be accomplished by selecting an appropriate quote or quotes or a life or business scenario or anecdote that best demonstrates the core value.

Enhance Workplace Performance

The practice of core values of a company is very important for the long-term success of the company and for great employer/employee and employee/customer relations.

All people have different skill sets and different levels of performance. The object of fitness boot camp is to make all team members feel appreciated and motivated regardless of performance levels. That is the secret to enhancing the performance of all.

Team members will all have different fitness levels. Some will have stronger upper bodies, some will have greater flexibility, and some will have better cardio. Each team member focuses on his or her individual fitness progress based on his or her very own fitness level and not the fitness level of other team members. All team members support each other in their individual quests to improve. Fitness boot camp is not only about physical strength, it is also about mental strength.

Mental Fortitude

Mental fortitude pushes us to improve and go beyond our present fitness level. In order to improve mental fortitude, 100 % effort is required of all team members. One hundred percent effort means that if a team member, during the course of an exercise, gets so fatigued that the complete exercise cannot be performed, then that team member will not simply quit, but will modify the exercise to the point of being able to continue. Without a struggle, there can be no progress. This is where the mental fortitude is actually being strengthened again along with the body. Strengthening of mental fortitude will carry over into the workplace. This is very powerful. This keeps the mind and body in the mode of saying, “Hey, I can do this! I will not stop! I won’t quit!” This is what adds the challenge to the fun.

Count Reps Aloud Together

All team members will count exercises with repetitions aloud and enthusiastically. The only exceptions are laryngitis and those who cannot speak. This works the diaphragm and has a very positive team-building impact on team members. If you happen to be in an environment that will disturb others by counting aloud, whisper instead.

Start your fitness boot camp corporate wellness program today.

Please mention the author when citing or reprinting this article. The author is Lt. Col. Bob Weinstein, USAR-Ret.

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OVERVIEW:

As the nation awaits the second actuarial evaluation of the National Social Security & Insurance Trust (NASSIT), a thorough analysis and understanding of the initial actuarial valuation report conducted by Canadian based actuarial firm Regie Des Rentes Du Quebec (RRQ) for the period ending December 31, 2004, is instructive in assessing the performance and future viability of the nation’s pension scheme.

Pursuant to Article 47 of the National Social Security & Insurance Trust Act, 2001 an actuarial evaluation of the pension scheme is by law required every 3 years during the first ten years of the pension scheme and once every five years thereafter. The scheme was initially implemented in 2002 with the first actuarial valuation performed in 2004. The second statutory valuation should therefore be conducted by 2007/2008 and an actuarial report issued soon thereafter.

The 2004 RRQ actuarial studies report while acknowledging the general good financial condition of the scheme, as expected of start-up schemes without pension payment liabilities, however highlighted areas of concern and deficiencies that both Sierra Leonean policymakers and pension participants must be made aware of and requisite steps taken to address in order to forestall the Trust’s failure and potential bankruptcy.

Aside from the need for growth in the insured population and the need for more scheme experience data, the actuarial report paid especial focus on the exorbitant administrative expenses and costs and the management of investments, as areas of concern requiring corrective measures.

An analysis of the pension scheme’s administrative costs, according to the actuarial report, reveals that NASSIT’s “administrative expenses compared to insurable earnings were higher than the level expected in the inception report ”.

It is worth noting that at inception of the scheme an industry best practice expenditure for administrative costs was pegged at 1% of insured earnings as recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO).

However, since 2002 when administrative costs were at 1,691 billion Leones, the administrative costs have progressively increased to 3,250 billion Leones in 2003 and to a whopping 6,407 billion Leones in 2004. As noted in the RRQ actuarial report, the 2004 costs exceeded the ILO recommended 1% for the scheme’s administrative costs by a proportion of 230%.

In the recently published annual report for 2006, NASSIT reported general administrative expenses at 15.3 billion Leones while the Trust’s payments in pensions amounted to a paltry 1.9 billion Leones. The 15.3 billion Leones in administrative costs represented an increase from 14.4 billion Leones in the previous 2005 fiscal year. Thus as of the year 2005, administrative costs represented 5 percent of the insurable earnings of the scheme. Such a ratio glaringly is economically untenable as even when compared with other African countries 1.5% for administrative costs, the trajectory of NASSIT’s administrative costs remains one of the highest in the world.

The amoebic growth in the Trust’s administrative costs has continued to balloon as figures for the year ended 2007, revealed that the stratospheric sum of 22.1 billion Leones was expended as administrative costs and expenses.

While acknowledging that nascent pension schemes generally have higher administrative costs at beginning than matured schemes, and factoring that the “initial seed money of 4.5 billion Leones provided by the government for setting up of the Scheme was fully refunded by the end of the third year”, the continued growth in administrative costs with no apparent oversight or checks and balances by the Trustees / Board of Directors reflects a lack of good governance controls and potential inefficiencies that must be addressed and corrected.

For should this trend continue, the Trust will be rendered bankrupt and the country, the statutory guarantor of the pensions will be saddled with unfunded pensions by the time the equilibrium period ends and pension liabilities are at their peek. As fiduciaries, the board members must be seen as exercising their fiduciary duties on behalf of the pension scheme’s participants- the workers of Sierra Leone.

Staff costs represent a large percentage of the administrative costs and were estimated to consume more than 55% of total expenditures of the pension scheme. For example, payroll costs increased from 5.1 billion Leones to 8.2 billion Leones from 2005 to 2006. As at the period ending December 2006, the scheme employed 227 employees representing a net employee increase of 6 from the prior year. In 2005 the scheme reported a total of 221 employees on its payroll. The 6 new employees the scheme employed in 2006 in addition to whatever cost of living increases in salary paid the existing employees could most certainly not explain the exorbitant increase in the wage bill of the scheme.

As of the second quarter of 2008, the Trust reportedly has a total of 275 employees, an increase in its employee rolls from 227 in 2006.

Moreover, in addition to staff costs, the remuneration of key management personnel salaries and allowances substantially increased from 1.6 billion to 2.2 billion Leones from 2005 to 2006.

According to the NASSIT staff matrix, the scheme has 8 executives and 13 senior management positions. If “key management” refers to only these positions, it thus represents 21 personnel who over a one year period received as salaries and remuneration an additional humongous sum of 2.2 billion Leones from the Sierra Leone workers pension fund.

Aside from staff costs as reviewed above, the amorphous category of “General Costs” represents about 30 percent of the scheme’s expenditures. Whilst initially at 543 million Leones in 2002, general costs expenditure had ballooned to 963 million Leones in 2003 and to an exorbitant 2.1 billion Leones in 2004.

It should be noted that while administrative costs by the year 2004 represented 95.4 percent of total benefit expenditures and 24.0 percent of contribution income of the entire pension scheme, the continued fiscal viability of the pension scheme is greatly at stake as an inordinate amount of contributions of workers hard earned wages seem to be spent on the scheme’s management and staff expenses.

ANALYSIS OF INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO

Since a major source of financing for the Trust is investment income, which derived from the right investment mix and returns determines and ensures the scheme participants level of pension benefits, this article will not be complete without an analysis of the NASSIT’s current investment strategy.

The scheme’s investment strategy policy has been adjudged in the actuarial report as economically and actuarially well designed. The devil however is in the implementation of this well designed policy. Especially as relates to stocks in companies, the absence of an adequate financial infrastructure where shares and stocks can easily be traded to free up cash flow exposes the Trust to additional investment risks.

Despite this shortcoming in the country‘s financial environment, the Scheme has poured over 39 billion Leones into equity investments, even though the country does not have a functional stock exchange.

A review and analysis of the types of businesses and ventures the Scheme’s equity investment has been directed into causes risk concerns for achievement of the expressed strategic objectives of the investments portfolio and for the continued viability of the scheme.

The Scheme in 2006 increased its equity asset mix from 11.4% in 2005 to 20% in 2006. This category represented, aside from Treasury Bills, the largest percentage investment by the Scheme.

As of 2006, the Scheme’s long term investment portfolio totaled 39.6 billion Leones, comprised of equity investments in the following:

1) Debentures in SierraBlocks of 8.2 billion Leons.

2) Equity investment in SierraBlocks of 7.1 billion Leones.

3) Equity investment in Barock Investment of 7,268,000

4) Equity in Regimanual Gray SL Limited of 6,000,000.

5) Equity in Gouji Property Investment of 9,129,992.

6) Equity investment in Eco Bank of 3,033,917 Leones.

7) Equity investment in Kimbima Hotel of 5,296,414.

Equity investment in Sierra Leone Brewery of 7,005.

The scheme’s investment liability exposure in the cement block making company, SierraBlocks represents a 60% ownership shares with a concomitant 60% of liability. Such exposure of the scheme’s capital and considering the high costs of the homes Regimanuel Gray is selling in Goodrich must serve as a warning signal that returns from this venture are likely to fail to conform to minimization of costs and risks associated with investments-a core objective of the scheme‘s investment policy.

The scheme’s experience with the Gouji Property Investment when it prematurely recalled its equity investment and reportedly only received a portion of the Trust’s initial capital investment is highly instructive.

Currently, contribution accumulation represents the main source of asset increase in the scheme’s portfolio. Since the scheme is young and growing this trend will continue. However, the laws of diminishing returns will very soon set in and contributions not only will remain stagnant but will inevitably regress resulting in an adverse impact on the scheme’s investment mix.

As a mandatory pension scheme all employers and employees are required to contribute into the Trust. However, an alarming trend witnessed over the past five years of the Trust’s existence shows that government departments and parastatals are the greatest delinquents with mounting arrears of contributions owed to the Trust on behalf of their workers. For example, as recorded in the Trust’s 2006 annual report, total contribution delinquency increased from 9.1 billion Leones in 2004 to 12.9 billion Leones in 2006. This amount subsequently increased to 16.2 billion Leones in 2007 and as of the second quarter of 2008, the contribution arrears stood at 19.4 billion Leones.

The main reason adduced for this delinquency is the non-compliance by government ministries, departments and parastatals whose contribution arrears rose from 2.1 billion Leones in 2004 to 5.5 billion Leones in 2006. The trend of non-compliance by parastatals especially continues unabated as recent statistics for the second quarter shows that their non-compliance is currently at 10 billion Leones.

With all the statutory instruments at its disposal, the Trust must be aggressive in ensuring outstanding contributions are immediately recouped. A reduction and elimination of the arrears must be a benchmark in assessing management’s productivity and efficiency. The Sierra Leone landscape is dotted with government services institutions and companies that have failed by their inability to ensure user-service payments are timely collected for services, be it insurance, electricity, water supply and other public services. At this rate and trending, NASSIT is setting itself up for the same demise.

The participation of Sierra Leone’s diasporas in the country’s pension scheme, the NASSIT, represents one such creative and out of the box thinking that management and the government must urgently explore.

Diaspora participation in NASSIT could be achieved by a system of purchase of credits in foreign currencies, into the pension scheme, modeled on the concept of “Diaspora Bonds”; where countries raise financing from their overseas diasporas through a debt instrument .

However, unlike a debt instrument, the sale of credits into the NASSIT pension scheme allows diasporas to participate in the nation’s social security system with benefits inuring to both the diaspora participant and the NASSIT. In the case of the diasporas it ensures:

Patriotism, as participation affords continued connection to the home country.

Satisfaction of contributing to and participating in the home country’s national economic growth.

Protection as a risk management tool, as the survivor’s benefit component of the pension scheme will afford benefits to beneficiaries in the home country, in the event of the death or disability of the diaspora participant.

In the case of the country and NASSIT, it provides:

Extension of the covered population, providing additional private sector capacity, which the scheme desperately needs to meet actuarial projections.

Access to foreign capital remittances, as contributions would be made in foreign currencies.

Risk diversification, as the foreign capital infused into the scheme could be invested in foreign investments and international bonds, stocks and indexes.

Needed capital for developmental programs such as the current NASSIT low cost housing project.

The establishment of the pension scheme in Sierra Leone represents a singular achievement in public policy implementation over the past 30 years and if properly executed and managed long-term will serve generations of workers and contribute positively to economic and social development of the country. It is thus in accord with the tremendous expectations for success of the scheme that the above critique and suggestions for curtailing the run away administrative costs of the Trust are been proffered not only to management but especially the Board of Directors.

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