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[1/27/2010 SteppersUSA Daily News]
Challenge Details and Steppers Choices
By Markie Bee
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Today's Steppers Beat column is sponsored by: Steppers West Associates "A Memorial Day Weekend Jam" starting May 28, 2010 through May 31, 2010 at The Plaza Hotel and Casino One Main St., in Las Vegas, NV, 89101. They are offering a 4 Day Package Deal for $80!
Today I have a couple of things to talk about and I think they're both important. In the first part of the column I'm putting out the details of how you can participate in the $100,000 steppers challenge for Haitian earthquake relief. In the second part of the column I'm going to have my say about the Chistepper.com annual "Peoples Choice Awards" and its ramifications within the Chicago style steppers community. Let's talk about what I consider the most important first.
The $100,000 steppers challenge details
After making all sorts of calls to the national offices to the Red Cross and getting put into "phone hell", I decided to try my local chapter. They had a live receptionist and I explained what I was attempting to coordinate. She sent me directly to the CEO's (of the local chapter) phone. Of course, I got sent to voice mail so I left a message.
I got a callback a short while later. Once again I explained what I was attempting to coordinate and wanted to see if there was any way Chicago style steppers organizations can donate directly to the Red Cross relief effort in Haiti in the name of their organizations (and individuals too) with some kind of accountability.
After all if we have a goal it would be a good thing if we knew how we are doing. I asked if the organization had any web widgets (I had to explain that's "tech talk" for a piece of code that I could put on SteppersUSA so people could donate for their steppers organizations). He told me no such code exists. Then he told me they do have a donate page where at the bottom of the donation form people can place the name of their organization. It was a start! We discussed different ways we could accomplish the goal… mostly low tech stuff like when a group has an event someone can go and collect money and send the money to the Red Cross in the groups name.
I could fill up plenty of space with a recount of our entire conversation but that's not really my goal so I'll cut to what I'll do and hopefully what you'll do… so read on…

 

More Below

Continued


Here's the first option (High Tech)
I'm putting this button (to the right) on the site. It goes directly to a secure donation page on the Red Cross website. All money collected from this page goes directly to the Haitian earthquake relief effort. Fill out the form (Make sure you put in the name of your steppers organization at the bottom of the form) and make your donation. After you've made your donation please send an email to relief@steppersusa.com  and tell us the name of the individual or steppers organization the donation was made in behalf of along with the amount donated. I'll enter it in a spreadsheet and post the names (of the people or organization) only and the grand total donated (from everyone).
Here's another option (Low Tech)
When your Chicago style steppers organization (group or class) has an event, or set or class do a collection and send (or bring) the money to your local chapter of the Red Cross and donate the money for the Haitian earthquake relief effort in the name of Chicago style stepping. Then please send an email to relief@steppersusa.com  so I can post your organization or individual name and add the amount donated to the total.
A third option
If you don't want to donate via one of the organizations for whatever reason and want to do it yourself, just use one of the methods above tell us the amount of donation to be made in your behalf as a Chicago style stepper in an email to relief@steppersusa.com so I can post your name and add the amount donated to the total.
With thousands of Chicago style steppers across the country we can meet the challenge… In the words of DJ Sam Chatman, "Go to work steppers"! Don't send donations to SteppersUSA!!!
Would you like to help?
Copy the button and it's link and put it on your websites, Facebook, and so on. I've made a widget (below) you can use to copy and paste into your blog or website code (for the tech savvy).
Peoples Choice Awards – My Take
Yesterday Terrance Pratt of Chistepper.Com kicked off his annual "Peoples Choice Awards" and of course it became the buzz in the steppers community as it does every year. Its another one of those cases where I thought of that years ago but never did anything about it and there's nothing but love for Terrance for making it happen. I'm not going to break down all of the criteria to qualify and to be nominated nor am I going to show you all of the categories an individual stepper can be nominated for because you can see for yourself by clicking this link.
What I am going to do is make mention of the fact that there have been so many emails from various individuals lobbying the steppers community to nominate them for awards.
In the past I've made mention of it myself in this very column, hey vote for me… yada, yada, yada. Perhaps I've just gotten older and wiser and developed a different perspective. In a few emails I got asking me if I was participating, here's how I responded:
I've won in the past for my work in video and doing website work for others.
I think a REAL Peoples choice winner shouldn't ask people to nominate them so I'm not going to ask or send any mass emails asking people to choose me.
I enjoy the recognition just like everyone else and if in fact I'm nominated for any of the categories I'll probably respond to the nomination as a "Peoples Choice".
My mother told me a long time ago to do as much as you can with your life and if someone recognizes it to stay humble.
Finally, in each email I received asking if I wanted to be nominated I said, Thank You! You can nominate me for whatever you want but I'm not going to solicit for people to nominate me for any of the things I do.
To risk sounding like a politician, if you nominate me I'll run… but I get plenty of recognition for my contribution to the community I've been a part of since 1996. Thank You!

Button Widget
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https://joini5.com/steppersusa

 

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