Nov. 21: Diversity Council to Be Featured on NBC's "TODAY"; "Stop Hate Speech Now" Campaign Debuts

This Wednesday, Nov. 21, GoodBiz113's favorite not-for-profit group is scheduled to be featured on NBC's "TODAY" show. Sometime between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. CST, coverage of Diversity Council's far-reaching Prejudice Reduction Workshops will air.

That morning, Diversity Council's individual and corporate members will gather for a free celebration breakfast buffet in Rochester, Minn.'s Radisson Plaza Hotel, where they'll watch the "TODAY" show. Afterwards, they'll get to see the premiere of Diversity Council's fresh-from-the-editing-room TV commercial, which launches the group's new "Stop Hate Speech Now" campaign.

Each year, Diversity Council conducts Prejudice Reduction Workshops in classrooms throughout Rochester and other cities in southeastern Minnesota. In 2006, trained PRW facilitators reached a record number of 17,708 K-12 students, engaging the youths in a series of 13 presentations that build respect for human differences; e.g., race, body size, disability, sexual orientation, social class, gender, religion.

Diversity Council's PRW curriculum is available for licensing to schools and community groups nationwide. A 30-hour facilitator training seminar is also available. For availability and pricing, phone 507.282.9951, or e-mail info@diversitycouncil.org.

Diversity Council also teaches adults. Last year, the organization reached more than 2,000 business managers, teachers, graduate students, human-resource professionals, social workers and others with its innovative education programs on diversity. Facilitators conduct free business training for Diversity Council's corporate members, who receive public recognition of their support and commitment to diversity as a value-added membership bonus.

For more information about Diversity Council's expansive aims to educate, communicate, collaborate and celebrate diversity in all its myriad forms, visit http://www.diversitycouncil.org/.

SOURCE: Diversity Council
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Welcome to GoodBiz113!

Inspiration comes from the darndest places. Take GoodBiz113, for instance. Its genesis was mounting frustration, disgust and anger re daily news about corporate gluttony and greed run amok [e.g., Enron, Halliburton], earmark spending, bungled government programs [the four-letter expletive/punchline FEMA pops to mind], corruption, multibillion-dollar no-bid contracts, cronyism, profiteering, finger-pointing, and mind-boggling, heads-in-the-sand denial about issues that threaten our very lives and/or the planet Earth [e.g., hurricanes, floods, transportation safety, homeland security, global warming].

Emboldened by Paddy Chayevsky and Anne Murray
Most days, I felt like Paddy Chayevsky's news anchor Howard Beale, portrayed by the late Peter Finch in the Oscar-winning 1976 film "Network": "Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: 'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'"

After taking several dozen long, deep breaths, I decided an attitude adjustment was in order. My experience as an independent communications professional who's written for and about countless entrepreneurs, small-business owners and self-employed folks unearthed too many truly positive, instructive and spirit-soaring stories that are going untold. Profiles and features about small businesses that partner with public agencies, educational institutions and/or not-for-profit groups to benefit the greater good in innovative and far-reaching ways, deserve to be published -- as do stories about exemplary small-biz stakeholders, friends and champions. I'm just the pathologically optimistic wordsmith to tell those stories, I concluded.

So, here we are. Decades after Anne Murray crooned/pleaded, "We sure could use a little good news today" ["A Little Good News," 1983] -- and, frankly, three-plus years since I initially had this bright idea for a sustainable online publishing venture -- I'm finally rolling out GoodBiz113. My hope is that you'll find our content informational, enlightening and [sometimes anyway] entertaining. Beyond that, perhaps you'll even come away inspired to forge synergies in your own corner of the Universe.

1 + 1 = 3
"I get the 'GoodBiz' part. But what's up with the '113'?" you ask. Well, it's about synergy. Take one promising component and combine it with another promising component, and the end result is greater than the sum of the parts. Think Reese's peanut butter cups. In and of themselves, chocolate and peanut butter are pretty terrific elements [unless, of course, you're allergic to them]. Combine those two ingredients, though, and voilà -- scrumptious splendor!

At GoodBiz113, you can look forward to reading about diverse small-biz synergies that are well off the radars of most mainstream news editors and producers. Along the way, you'll encounter links to various entities -- including several socially responsible advertisers [rated by Business Ethics and/or Domini Social Equity Fund] with whom GoodBiz113 has chosen to partner.

For starters, we'll donate at least 10% of our pretax e-commissions to not-for-profit groups that serve the greatest possible good; e.g., Rochester, Minn.'s Diversity Council, a Charities Review Council-approved Smart Givers Network organization which, since 1989, has effectively promoted cultural understanding, tolerance, peace and respect via its Prejudice Reduction Workshops for students in grades K-12, plus diversity training for businesses.

Thanks for checking out our work-in-progress GoodBiz113. Please bookmark us and come back again soon.