How can your organization get Five Star reviews, from clients and employees? In 1979 John Carona founded Associa, a community association management company, with only one client. Under his leadership, Associa has evolved into the largest and most successful management company in North America. In his second book, In the Common Interest II: Embracing Five Star Customer Service, Carona shares the secrets of his success for those in the community management industry and any leader interested in the “how” of building a successful service business. Customer service is at the heart of his philosophy, guiding his employees in every action, communication, process, and relationship. It permeates every aspect of his company, from employee culture to client relationships. Carona does not brag about his success; he genuinely wants to help others create their own successes. He shares the details of his approach: Associa’s mission statement, four pillars, and five core values, as the tools for implementing his Five Star Customer Service Model. Each chapter includes easy-to-understand explanations of these tenets, a “Service in Action” case study, and self-assessment questions that readers can use to guide their own organizational development. You will walk away with a thorough understanding of the importance of customer service and how to implement similar policies and practices to help your own organization be the best it can be.
Across America, community associations are flourishing. As a growing number of residents have discovered, these communities offer a new way of living together—one that protects and enhances property values, allows people to support their mutual interests, and promotes harmony and cooperation. In the Common Interest reveals the phenomenal growth of this lifestyle, and explains how the modern community association benefits not only residents but also the country at large. Author John Carona outlines the pros and cons of these communities, plus prescriptive advice for how we can make them even better. To bring his points to life, Carona weaves throughout the book the fictional story of David and Sandra, a couple whose experiences bust many myths about community living. Whether you’re considering living in a community association or whether you currently reside or govern in one, you’ll be enriched and empowered by the wealth of knowledge contained in this book—and inspired by Carona’s vision of how we can continue to build the new American community.
A furious denunciation of America’s coronavirus criminals Hundreds of thousands of deaths were caused not by the vicissitudes of nature but by the callous and opportunistic decisions of powerful people, as revealed here by John Nichols. On March 10, 2020, president Donald Trump told a nation worried about a novel coronavirus, “We’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” It has since been estimated that had Trump simply taken the same steps as other G7 countries, 40 percent fewer Americans would have died. And it was not just the president. His inner circle, including Mike Pence and Jared Kushner, downplayed the crisis and mishandled the response. Cabinet members such as Betsy DeVos and Mike Pompeo undermined public safety at home and abroad to advance their agendas. Senators Ron Johnson and Mitch McConnell, governors Kristi Noem and Andrew Cuomo, judges such as Wisconsin Supreme Court justice Rebecca Bradley all promulgated public policies that led to suffering and death. Meanwhile, profiteer Pfizer (and anti-government propagandists such as Grover Norquist) fed at the public trough, while the billionaire Jeff Bezos added pandemic profits to a grotesquely bloated fortune. John Nichols closes with a call for a version of the Pecora Commission, which took aim at what Franklin Delano Roosevelt called the “speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, and profiteering” that stoked the Depression. There must be accountability.
How belief in a loving and sovereign God helps us to make sense of and cope with the coronavirus outbreak. We are living through a unique, era-defining period. Many of our old certainties have gone, whatever our view of the world and whatever our beliefs. The coronavirus pandemic and its effects are perplexing and unsettling for all of us. How do we begin to think it through and cope with it? In this short yet profound book, Oxford mathematics professor John Lennox examines the coronavirus in light of various belief systems and shows how the Christian worldview not only helps us to make sense of it, but also offers us a sure and certain hope to cling to.
At David’s (3rd son) invitation, Ruth and I decided to make a trip to Florida and view the planetary launch to Jupiter of the Lucy Spacecraft at 5:34 AM on Saturday October 16th. In addition, we planned to visit Tommy (2nd son) and Laurel, his wife. Also, as long as we were down there, we scheduled to drive to Orlando and spend a few days at Disney World, since Ruth had never been to the Magic Kingdom in Florida. All the preparations were made well in advance. I booked a round trip ticket on the AMTRAK auto train to leave the Lorton, VA station at 4:00 PM on Thursday October 14th and return one week later. I had a confirmed reservation. The train was scheduled to arrive at Sanford, FL by 8:00 AM, the next day. While waiting for the launch, I had made a two-night reservation at the Patrick Air (now called Space) Force Base Visitor Officers Quarters (VOQ). We planned on staying four nights with Charlie (4th son) in the Disney World area at his “time-share” located a few miles away from the entertainment center. These were the plans. They were not to be accomplished exactly due to many challenges and frustrations. After a leisurely lunch at one of Ashby Ponds restaurants, we went back to our apartment, finished packing, and sat around until three hours prior to the train’s departure. On the way down to Lorton at about 3 o’clock, I received a cell phone call from the train dispatcher inquiring about our location. I thought that odd. But I told him we should be there in plenty of time. The next thing I heard was that we should have been at the station no later than 2:30 PM. I looked at my ticket and discovered mixed in with ten other footnotes that were each one millimeter high, the notation that all passengers and vehicles must be checked in by 2:30 PM. When we got to the station at 3:30 PM we were refused boarding even though we had a confirmed reservation made many weeks previously (Strike 1). An offer was made to book us on the next day’s trip, but that would mean we would miss the launch.
A collection of excerpts from the Charlie Parker thrillers, including: Every Dead Thing, Dark Hollow, The Killing Kind, The White Road, The Black Angel, The Unquiet, The Reapers, The Lovers, The Whisperers, The Burning Soul, and The Wrath of Angels. Also includes excerpts from the Samuel Johnson novels The Gates and The Infernals, as well as other works, including Bad Men, Nocturnes, and The Book of Lost Things.
The country is more polarized than it has been for decades, but John McCain is the rare public figure who has earned the respect of colleagues and constituents on both sides of the aisle. A model for bipartisanship and political integrity, in his forty years in politics McCain has never been afraid to buck trends or ruffle a few feathers. His words are more important today than ever.
Greg Fischer, the main character tries to offer a natural remedy for the Covid 19 Virus to the general population while campaigning for political office in a fractured Suffolk County, New York. His efforts lead him to discover the twists and turns of a huge Ponzi that is controlling the financial institutions that control every dollar in his County. He struggles to maintain his family and protect the ones he loves from an invisible invader known as Corona Virus. Along the way he finds love and lust in the time of Covid-19. Together with his friend and partner Lady he tries to offer hope to the masses. Lady is menaced by car accident staging gangs in Suffolk County, New York and discovers a long standing ring that hides behind uniforms and credentials to avoid detection. The corruption in Suffolk County is maintained by old money families with organized crime connections. If Fischer could only see the new reality he could save his children from the most extreme form of violence - Poverty.
John Bachman (1790-1874) was an internationally renowned naturalist and a prominent Lutheran minister. This is the first collection of his writings, containing selections from his three major books, his letters, and his articles on plants and animals, education, religion, agriculture, and the human species. Bachman was the leading authority on North American mammals. He was responsible for the descriptions of the 147 mammal species included in Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, a massive work produced in collaboration with John James Audubon. Bachman relied entirely on scientific evidence in his work and was exceptional among his fellow naturalists for studying the whole of natural history. Bachman also relied on scientific evidence in his Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race. He showed that human beings constitute a single species that developed as varieties equivalent to the varieties of domesticated animals. In this work, perhaps his most significant accomplishment, Bachman stood nearly alone in challenging the polygenetic views of Louis Agassiz and others that white and black people descended from different progenitors. Bachman was also an important figure in the establishment of Lutheranism in the Southeast. He wrote the first American monograph on the doctrines of Martin Luther and the history of the Reformation. Bachman served for fifty-six years as minister of St. John's Lutheran Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and was one of the founders of Newberry College.
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