Signature: Chapter Meetings

January Meeting Review
By Eric Hurd

After members enjoyed a scrumptious serving of Chicken Picatta, Walter Hanig, president of the San Diego chapter, opened the meeting with general announcements.

Announcements

New Meeting Location

After the announcements, Walter welcomed all first-time attendees and invited members who are looking for work to stand up and introduce themselves. Afterward, members who were looking for employees were invited to announce their available positions.

The evening's guest speaker was Phil Black from Productive Learning and Leisure. Phil began by providing a model for the relationship between thoughts and results.

Sometimes knowledge gets in the way of our ability to make a choice. When we make decisions based purely on past experiences, we limit our choices, even though the present conditions could lead to very different outcomes. By sticking only with what we know, we exclude ourselves for possible benefits from the unexpected outcome.

When considering the past, present and future, our knowledge resides in the past, goals reside in the future, and decisions are made in the present.

Phil used an iceberg as an analogy for consciousness. Only 11 percent of the iceberg is visible above the water. Likewise, only about 11 percent of our thoughts, which drive our actions, reside in our conscious mind. The majority of them occur in the subconscious mind.

Phil made the case that a lot of our subconscious thinking could be moved to conscious thinking just by being more self-aware. He cited our extensive use of mental shortcuts. He gave an example of a woman he encountered who was driving while applying makeup and speaking on the cell phone.

He then used a short exercise to demonstrate how increasing our opportunities can be a simple matter of changing the way we think. When he held up a "no strings attached" $10 bill, most of the audience waited for the "catch" until a member jumped up and grabbed it. In short, increasing our awareness of opportunities increases our opportunities.

Referring back to the original model, Phil advocated becoming more aware of our actions and the types of results they produce. By doing this, we can adjust our original way of thinking in order to get the actions we want. Then, we can choose actions that will help us attain our goals. In short, with limited awareness, our beliefs are updated by results instead of higher awareness.

Phil suggested that we sit down and make a list of our life goals and reasons for not having attained them yet. Then, we should sort the reasons into those which are based on thoughts, and those which are based on fact. For example, if a life goal was to become President of the United States, a reason for not attaining that goal based on thought might be that you did not have enough time. In actuality, you did have time, but applied it elsewhere. A reason that would be based in fact would be that you do not meet the minimum age requirement. By doing this, we increase the awareness of how our thoughts play a major role in the quality of our lives.

Walter thanked Phil for his presentation and all for attending. Phil passed out flyers for an in-depth session with Productive Learning and Leisure. For more information visit www.productivelearning.com.

This month's Wally Buck winner was Kimberly Hiland. Congratulations, Kimberly! See you all next month!

February 2003	Chapter Meetings
Return Home	Data Manipulation Using Dreamweaver MX By Michael Cardenas, VP-Programs
Presenter: Click here for February 12 meeting details	Stuart Harris, our own local expert on Dreamweaver MX and author of Dreamweaver UltraDev for Dummies, will provide some "visual Cliff Notes" on the highly complex application that Dreamweaver has become. Stu is a humble man, although there's no reason for him to be. He is a Macromedia-certified Dreamweaver MX instructor, and he co-authored the books Netscape Quick Tour, HTML Publishing With Internet Assistant, HTML Publishing for Netscape, Dynamic HTML Developer's Guide, and Drumbeat 2000 for Dummies. The first edition of HTML Publishing for Netscape was named the best computer book in the 1996 San Diego Book Awards. Stu will be emphasizing Dreamweaver's ability to integrate database lookup information into the usability experience. He will first offer a comparison between the original Dreamweaver interface and the new MX working area. He will then run through parts of the tutorials he wrote for Dreamweaver UltraDev using ASP/Javascript server technology. Finally, he'll offer some general tips and tricks.
Guest speaker Phil Black Wally Buck winner Kimberly Hiland	January Meeting Review By Eric Hurd After members enjoyed a scrumptious serving of Chicken Picatta, Walter Hanig, president of the San Diego chapter, opened the meeting with general announcements. Announcements New Meeting Location Next month our meeting will not take place in its usual location. We will meet at Woodfin Suites. Walter asked for a show of hands for preference for a new regular location for meetings. About half the room preferred a place near Little Italy. When the group was asked about the possibility of moving the meeting north of the 805/5 split, a few hardy souls raised their hands. Nothing is decided as of yet. [Take the newsletter poll!] Volunteers Walter thanked the many volunteers who help make our meetings happen and keep the chapter running smoothly. Of note, thanks to Suzy for managing our Web site, Lance for stepping in as e-mail master, Nadine for making hotel arrangements, Lynn and Deypika for running our library, Lana and Sharon for their work on the newsletter, and Mike McGraw for his feature article. Walter welcomed back Pat Ray as the master of e-mail. He also thanked Lance-Robert for filling in temporarily. Contact Pat at Pat@TheWriteAttitude.com if you would like to be included in the STC San Diego e-mail list. The list is used to distribute news of upcoming events. Michael Cardenas is our new Vice President of Programs. If you have any ideas for topics or would like to give a presentation yourself, contact Michael at mcardenas@multitrans.com. Sue Heim is our new Vice President Membership. We are looking for a VP of Professional Development. This person will be responsible for setting up training and seminars for the chapter. The library will purchase any book that you are interested in if you are willing to write a book review. STC International is conducting a series of mid-day phone conferences. If you are interested in attending one, please contact Walter. After the announcements, Walter welcomed all first-time attendees and invited members who are looking for work to stand up and introduce themselves. Afterward, members who were looking for employees were invited to announce their available positions. Guest Speaker Does Your Thinking Limit Your Success? The evening's guest speaker was Phil Black from Productive Learning and Leisure. Phil began by providing a model for the relationship between thoughts and results. Thoughts => Feelings => Action => Results Education and Knowledge Sometimes knowledge gets in the way of our ability to make a choice. When we make decisions based purely on past experiences, we limit our choices, even though the present conditions could lead to very different outcomes. By sticking only with what we know, we exclude ourselves for possible benefits from the unexpected outcome. When considering the past, present and future, our knowledge resides in the past, goals reside in the future, and decisions are made in the present. Awareness Phil used an iceberg as an analogy for consciousness. Only 11 percent of the iceberg is visible above the water. Likewise, only about 11 percent of our thoughts, which drive our actions, reside in our conscious mind. The majority of them occur in the subconscious mind. Phil made the case that a lot of our subconscious thinking could be moved to conscious thinking just by being more self-aware. He cited our extensive use of mental shortcuts. He gave an example of a woman he encountered who was driving while applying makeup and speaking on the cell phone. He then used a short exercise to demonstrate how increasing our opportunities can be a simple matter of changing the way we think. When he held up a "no strings attached" $10 bill, most of the audience waited for the "catch" until a member jumped up and grabbed it. In short, increasing our awareness of opportunities increases our opportunities. Referring back to the original model, Phil advocated becoming more aware of our actions and the types of results they produce. By doing this, we can adjust our original way of thinking in order to get the actions we want. Then, we can choose actions that will help us attain our goals. In short, with limited awareness, our beliefs are updated by results instead of higher awareness. Taking Inventory Phil suggested that we sit down and make a list of our life goals and reasons for not having attained them yet. Then, we should sort the reasons into those which are based on thoughts, and those which are based on fact. For example, if a life goal was to become President of the United States, a reason for not attaining that goal based on thought might be that you did not have enough time. In actuality, you did have time, but applied it elsewhere. A reason that would be based in fact would be that you do not meet the minimum age requirement. By doing this, we increase the awareness of how our thoughts play a major role in the quality of our lives. In conclusion, it is important to: Know thyself Take inventory Be willing to explore Think out of the ordinary Wrap Up Walter thanked Phil for his presentation and all for attending. Phil passed out flyers for an in-depth session with Productive Learning and Leisure. For more information visit www.productivelearning.com. This month's Wally Buck winner was Kimberly Hiland. Congratulations, Kimberly! See you all next month!
Return Home
	Feature \| Editor's Desk \| President's Podium \| New Members Press Releases \| Chapter Meetings \| Advice \| Tech Issues \| Other Issues Book Review \| Humor \| Introductions