This is my first job as a team lead and I am looking forward to stepping up to the new responsibilities of this position.  This new position allows me to grow my interpersonal as well as my technical skills which appeals to me.

My previous manager and team leads have set the bar high for me in terms of having a positive approach and being focused on delivering high-quality solutions.  I expect to bring this experience with me as I help to keep the high level of performance my new manager and teammates have already achieved.

I will be transitioning to this new job in the coming weeks.

For these funds I’m not applying a criterion of faith/world view of the agency or its directorship.  Any agency that directly brings the life of an individual, family or community up to a basic level of health, education and opportunity is an option but I do want to understand their expense structure and World Vision’s 86% passthrough to the individual/community is a high mark.  I’m also looking into Oxfam International but I don’t have their expense and efficiency yet.

Criteria:

• Agency must act internationally
• A high percentage of funds should reach the individual/family/community
• I prefer a low expense for leadership and staff (not just a low percentage but officers making less than a quarter of a million dollars USD is preferential)
• Review of individual(s)/family/community affected and what’s being done with photos or video of the people and the changes

If you have ideas, agencies for me to check out or metrics by which I can evaluate an agency, please e-mail me with that information.

For BestLawTalks lately I’ve been reading Antonin Scalia’s A Matter of Interpretation. I started Stephen Breyer’s Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution but I’d have to say that I fall far closer to Scalia’s viewpoint of textualism and questioning the Twentieth Century application of “due process.”  On the topic of due process and common law I’m still reading Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr’s The Common Law.

For BestMoneyTalks I’ve been more into reading about economic systems such as Keynesian, Austrian and neo-Classical.  I find that these types of material, especially Austrian or von Mises content, lead to study in socio-political philosophies like Libertarianism.  Questioning the source and definition of concepts like money or property can have impact on attitudes individual responsiblities and freedoms versus corporate or social responsibilities and freedoms.  Some of these thinkers engaged concepts like the State so studies in these areas brings more content into the review process.

My Kindle 2.0 will be here next week (chick’s hand not included).

Obviously, with the birth of a new child I’m at one of those points that lends itself to internalization and scrutiny.  Oddly, I find that many friends also seem to be at similar junctures; it may be that everyone I know finds the end of 2008 and beginning of 2009 to be a time of personal reflection and evaluation.  Either way, I thought I’d use this forum to vent something that is on my mind (I often express what I’m dealing with, it’s one of the ways I process).

Some of the people who have meant the most to me in life are not the ones who try to redefine their reality but those who willingly accept their reality, make no bones about their situation and then move forward through whatever is around them.  It seems like a simple concept and I bet anyone who has achieved a certain amount of self-actuation would tend to see similar processes and decisions in themselves.  I don’t want to get into trying to define the differences between perambulating on down the path of life after responsible reflection and metaphorically jumping up with a cavalier attitude and moving on because perhaps I’m lazy or just venting (remember it’s how I process some stuff).  I see some people who seem to me to almost be trying to whitewash a rotting facade but everyone deserves the respect and benefit of the doubt that perhaps that’s just either their way of moving on or maybe I just don’t see the background work that they’ve already put into evaluating their situation.  For that matter I should remind myself that not everyone needs to internalize things the same way but such a thought bugs me.  Here’s a neurosis of mine, when I can’t see someone processing something and I see them move forward I worry that perhaps I’ve considered someone a friend without thinking of how they may have changed how deeply they consider things in their life.  I don’t respect how very many people engage their realities; the folks that seem to me to be willing to deal with their problems impress me and I feel more confident about trusting them with where I am and the things with which I deal.  The emotions I feel about seeing this in my friends are similar to when I see someone wanting a position of power.  I get the responsibility aspect; I think I’m pretty responsible (even though I know there are several areas right now where I could be much more responsible) but the desire for authority eludes me.  I’m convinced I’m one of the smarter people I know (A – depends on how you figure “smarts,” B – how well can I say that I know myself and C – there are studies that validate that people are not objective about their own mental acuity so a preponderance of folks believe they’re smarter than average and I could be suffering from similar delusions . . . or could I?) and yet I have little desire for authority.  I don’t mind leading, training, planning or even trying to motivate others.  Leadership also is not something that bugs me; it’s the desire for power or authority that I find puzzling and nauseating.  I don’t get people who want authority; for me, authority derives from objectivity as much as possible, mutual compromise on some subjective content and then sometimes, like with faith, it’s totally based on invidivual subjectivity.  In none of these do I see room for the concept, “BillyBob wants to be king so dadburn it, he’s king.”  If you perform at a high level of functionality and responsibility then you should be rewarded; authority should very, VERY seldom (and those who know me know that I hate to use the word “very”) go to those who want authority.

Back to the main topic from the “authority” rabbit trail, I know no one needs my approval or oversight to deal with their lives as they see fit; any thought on my part to that effect would be condescending and I apologize if that’s how this reads.  At the same time, I’d like to think that I solicit input and interaction with people that, whether we utilize the same methods or not, are similarly engaged in our respective lives. 

To try and close this out I guess I don’t invest much in my friends and that cuts into the subconcious trust potential; we used to all play games together (StarCraft, WarCraft III and WoW) but that’s been dwindling for some time now.  I share some philosophical or theological thoughts with folks I consider friends because even when we differ I feel that I can respect the manner in which they come to their viewpoints.  I sometimes feel quesy about the differences in my friends and me and lately I don’t take much time to just hang out with my buddies like back in high school or college; we all work in similar fields, go home to our families and often work on things on the side to increase our employability or to have a side business.  In retrospect, I guess this is just one of those nights where I see folks I respect and appreciate and I just need to take a deep breath and enjoy my friends no matter what.  My apprehension probably stems heavily from my neurotic mistrust and I would interpret the same behavior in a totally different light tomorrow . . . and if not, then who cares.