Lucious Newsome passed away on August 19th 2008.  Lucious life touched people throughout the country, but none more than Indianapolis.  While most people know his story about his move to Indianapolis, I would have to say that he has been the most influential catholic in Indianapolis.

In order to honor Lucious, please tell us your story and how he touched your life.

I first met Lucious about 10 years ago.  He came to our church to make an appeal for help.  Here is how I remember his story.

 

About 22 years ago, at age 70, Lucious Newsome, then a Baptist minister in Chattanooga Tennessee was invited to Indianapolis by a friend to help feed the poor for Thanksgiving.  He was overwhelmed by the amount of hungry people that really had no one to care for them.  After that days feeding, he asked his friend, “so what do we do now?”  He was told that he should go back to Tennessee and if he wanted to, he could come back next year.  “But they will still be hungry tomorrow, he said”.  Therein formed the ground work for what would become “the Lords Pantry.

 

Having compassion for the hungry, Lucious went to Baptist elders to get help in furthering his cause and was turned away.  Without pride he went asking help to the Catholic Church and found a group that would help begin his ministry.  Aside from the food, his first mission was to get table to serve the food on.  “These people should not have to pick up the food from the ground”, he says.

 

10 years ago is when I first rode with Lucious, we went in a caravan of mini vans and started stopping in at grocery stores.  He had already set up a couple of these stops in advance so the hard work was done.  I would come to find that in my own efforts to secure additional food from stores, that they were not open to this, as there were liability issues regarding handing over dated food.  Corporations did not need this kind of liability. 

 

Not having helped Lucious since last Christmas, my wife and I found we needed to help out again.  There were no big surprises, but it left me once again feeling the need to do more.  I told Lucious that I had a few dollars that I could help with and what did he want me to do?  In the past, he first asked me to pay a few peoples electric bills.  A couple of years later he told me a story about a battered woman that had to leave her house in the middle of the night and literally had nothing.  Her kids slept on the floor and that just wasn’t right.  He told me that I needed to get them beds… but there was a twist.  While I could have easily gone out and bought beds, he told me that I needed to beg for them.  I would need to ask people if they would give me a bed.  Needless to say, I was shaken up.  I went into work the next day and began begging people for beds.  Within 10 minutes I found a coworker whose mother had passed away and they needed to empty there house.  He was happy to donate them to me.  I needed to borrow a truck to pick them up, 50, miles away.  A friend was happy to loan me his truck.  That day my wife and then 8 year old son had our own little mission and we accomplished it.

 

Today, while he was busy feeding 2-300 people, I told Lucious that I had a few dollars that I could help him with.  He immediately told someone… “Get me my little girl; you have got to meet her”.  In came a very attractive 15 or 16 year old girl.  She was a high school student and a few months ago she had told Lucious that she wanted to open up a place for battered women.  You see, while Lucious spends much of his time feeding the poor, he is also a champion for battered women as well.  This young lady began telling me about her little project.  Lucious had a beaten down property close to the women’s prison that was all boarded up and in need of repair.  She began to tell me how she and some friends had already pulled 4 dumpsters full of trash out of the house and that they would have to totally renovate it.  She had already found a plumber and carpenters.  She needed an electrician and money.  She would have a massive group of people helping her out on December 8^th, 2007.  After helping out today we drove by this house and it looked like a war zone.  How could this young gal put this together?  It’s really quite simple, we are all put here to help each other.  Now it’s time for me to beg.

 

I don’t know how far this will go, but if anyone can help physically or monetarily, here are the details. The property that will be worked on is at 242 and 244 Hendricks Street, in Indianapolis.  It is a one way street and you must get there off of New York Street.  If you would like to meet Lucious in person, come down on any Saturday to:  The Lords Pantry, 303 Elder Street, Indianapolis, IN 46222.  Be prepared to meet someone special.

 

Should you feel generous enough to donate jackets, please be sure that they are new and nothing less than what you would want to wear yourself.  As I’ve come to learn, each person that we serve IS CHRIST!!!  I would never want to give Him anything more than the best.

 

If you would like to meet the closest resemblance to Christ, come and meet Lucious Newsome.  Ask him what he needs you to beg for?  For more information or further verification of the lords pantry and this ministry, contact editor@execmagazine.com

   ]]> http://www.execmagazine.com/he%e2%80%99s-not-jesus%e2%80%a6-or-is-he/feed/ 0 http://www.execmagazine.com/storesuite-by-interspire/ http://www.execmagazine.com/storesuite-by-interspire/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2007 02:50:32 +0000 admin http://www.execmagazine.com/storesuite-by-interspire/

 

Interspire is preparing to launch a new shopping cart named StoreSuite in Q4 2007.   Co-founder Mitchell Harper has done it again.  After launching SendStudio and ArticleLive, Mitch plans on this being his next big hit.  This new cart is designed to support both physical and digital sales. 

I currently run a store at www.CaseandTote.com and find the intricacies of X-Cart to be fairly complex.  It also takes a number of days to get support.  It sounds like one of the nicest options will be the ability to drag and drop the panels where you want them to be.  The current quality of my page and the layouts just don’t seem to pop like I would like them to.  I am hoping this has been addressed in the StoreSuite version.

The StoreSuite software is particularly geared toward small and medium size companies.  They also boast and extensive tracking and inventory management system and accepts all major payment gateways.

Currently they are offering a free beta version to the first 100 people that do a write up on this product.  I will be happy to give a review after we’ve integrated it into one of our sites.

It has always seemed to me that July 4th really ought to be a day for affirming our values and our highest aspirations.

In fact, let me re-phrase it for emphasis:

One of the great failures of modern life is that so many of us do not USE the freedom we have to create the life we want.

Take a moment to consider the freedoms you have right now:*** You have access to a world of education and ideas
*** Your public library has the greatest books ever written
*** You can live anywhere on earth
*** You can live with (or without) anyone you please
*** You can learn as much as you like
*** You can earn as much as you like
*** You can CREATE as much as you like!

And yet, as Thoreau wrote over 150 years ago, too many of us continue to live lives of “quiet desperation.”

I am appalled at the number of Americans who live “paycheck to paycheck,” using credit cards to survive! We are the richest, most educated, most financially literate people in history! Why do we live this way?

I am appalled at the number of people who do work they find boring or unsatisfying. You can change careers with a bit of education, a bit of networking, a bit of effort, and while millions of us “start over” every year, others stay in unsatisfying situations year after year after year. Why!?

I am appalled at the people who call or email me to say they have a dream they want to pursue, but they “can’t afford” a coach, or they “don’t know how to start,” or they “can’t rock the boat.” Folks, there are a million reasons to stay in a situation that is less than ideal – and if that is your choice I respect it – but don’t use the excuse that you “can’t” change it! That’s just wrong!

This week, we celebrate our “Independence Day!” We are also starting the second half of the year.

PLEASE – take time to review your most important goals, your highest aspirations and your biggest dreams, and if there are changes you want to make, then do so! If there are things you need to be doing, please begin.

Decide NOW to make the second half of 2007 your time of transformation and personal independence. Declare that you will USE your freedom to do what makes you happy, fulfills your destiny and gives meaning and purpose to your life. Do not “go to your grave with your music still inside you!”

I’m a firm believer in the power of small steps. It is rarely necessary to take big, dramatic (or risky!) steps, but it is always necessary to begin. Think clearly. Take notes. Talk with loved ones. Admit your dreams out loud, and if there are steps you need to take during the rest of 2007, start walking.

Source: http://www.philiphumbert.com  ]]> http://www.execmagazine.com/freedom-use-it-or-lose-it/feed/ 0 http://www.execmagazine.com/go-green-with-your-business/ http://www.execmagazine.com/go-green-with-your-business/#comments Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:22:23 +0000 admin http://www.execmagazine.com/go-green-with-your-business/ Operating a green business is not only good for the environment but good for our business’s bottom line because conserving resources and cutting down on waste saves money. The good news is that there are simple things we can do to run an environmentally friendly business. Recycling is the first thing that comes to mind when we think of being environmentally friendly. And recycling is important. But recycling is only one part of the environmentally friendly business equation. We can also take a large step towards being more environmentally friendly by reducing the amounts of waste in our offices and business operations. Here are just ten easy-to-implement ideas for running a green business that we can put into practice right now to make our business a more environmentally friendly place:

1. Turn off equipment when it’s not being used. This can reduce the energy used by 25 percent; turning off the computers at the end of the day can save an additional 50 percent.

2. Encourage communications by email, and read email messages onscreen to determine whether it’s necessary to print them. If it’s not, don’t!3. Reduce fax-related paper waste by using a fax-modems so documents can be sent directly from your computer, without requiring a printed hard copy and by using a fax cover sheet only when necessary. We will institute training to insure that everyone knows how to do this..4. Produce double-sided documents whenever possible.5. Do not leave taps dripping; always close them tightly after use. (One drop wasted per second wastes 10,000 litres per year.)6. Install displacement toilet dams in toilet reservoirs. Placing one or two plastic containers filled with stones [not bricks] in the toilet’s reservoir will displace about 4 liters of water per flush – a huge reduction of water use over the course of a year.7. Use paper with maximum available recycled content.  Order business cards, envelopes and letterhead on recycled paper.  The paper is from a great company called “Save A Tree”.8. Choose suppliers who take back packaging for reuse.9. Instigate an ongoing search for “greener” products and services in the local community. The further your supplies or service providers have to travel, the more energy will be used to get them to you.10. Before deciding whether you need to purchase new office furniture, see if existing office furniture can be refurbished. It’s less expensive than buying new and better for the environment. Environmentally friendly actions don’t have to be large to have an impact. Consistently reducing the amount of energy, water, and paper our businesses use can make a huge difference, both to the environment and to our pocketbooks. How much paper would we save over the course of a year, for instance, if you always ran double sided copies? A small thing – but a big result!  ]]> http://www.execmagazine.com/go-green-with-your-business/feed/ 0 http://www.execmagazine.com/leadership/ http://www.execmagazine.com/leadership/#comments Wed, 30 May 2007 13:47:43 +0000 admin http://www.execmagazine.com/leadership/

I recently stated “There are no ‘leaders,’ only people who are recognized by others as persons with the ability to envision what might be and have the proclivity to take action to make that vision happen.”  They see what is and are able to see what might be instead. And these people who serve others in that effort, become recognized as “leaders,” after the fact.

 In almost any bookstore or library, one will find whole bookshelves devoted to leadership. And while they may not all have the key word leadership in their titles, they all cover various parts of the process, from individual character to change agent processes.

Some of the processes of leadership outlined in these books deal with such things as strategic planning, strategic thinking, how to be a change agent, tutorials on assessments, organizing, negotiating, creative thinking, business creativity and problem solving, including an old evolving process called TRIZ (Russian for “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving,”) newly discovered in the 90s in this country, through translation. There is even a book entitled Leadership for Dummies.

 Not-with-standing all of these more recent titles, the real leadership research I’ve seen, was done by F. E. Fiedler, E. P. Hollander, and others back in the 1960s through the 1980s. This was qualitative and quantitative research and analysis, while most new books seem to be based on anecdotal evidence (qualitative) but few seem to deal with the why of that leadership.  Given the proclivity for action, it seems that one would want to know why, not just how.

I don’t believe that learning the processes found in these books, while they may be steps to idea generation, productivity, change, or control, they do not necessarily bring us that recognition of being a leader, since that is something totally different than the being in charge of, or following processes. Even Deming and Drucker, I believe, would agree.

I remember during my high school days of telling people often in meetings that, “Maybe I’m different, but I really feel we should be doing this (or that).” These initiatives usually resulted in peers putting me in “leadership” positions. Along the way, I think someone suggested I sounded arrogant, so I dropped the, “maybe I’m different” thing, and in college I learned to ask questions instead, like, “What would it take to get these institutions together, since none of them seem to know the others exist?” The response was immediate; “We need to first have a meeting.”  And that was the start of several meetings and national conclaves that would result in the establishment of the national Association for Recording Sound Collections (ARSC), now in its 41^st year.

I’ve often wondered how all of my leadership posts came about and to what I could attribute my actions. What or how did I learn these “leadership” things that “leaders” do?  When visiting my daughter for Thanksgiving, I recognized a book title I had long forgotten in her library.  The book was William Danforth’s, I Dare You! This is a book I remember finding and reading in my father’s library when I was about 11 years old.  It was a bit different than some of the later editions, as each page had a specific Dare, e.g., I dare you to think creatively, I dare you to do courageous things, I dare you to achieve what others have not, I dare you to catch a passion for helping others, I dare you to share. It seems it is this last item upon which the following are based, and perhaps the authors have read, I Dare You also.

Servant Leadership is a more recent buzzword, and a title, along with other books such as, Strength in Servant Leadership; The Servant, and On becoming a Servant Leader. There’s also Paul’s Servant Lord… a book I ran across in the bookstore that reminded me of my espoused nutshell philosophy from high school and college days; paraphrased from the Bible, “To be Leader of men, you must first be servant of all.”  Finally, it would appear, many of us dummies are waking up to the fact that the directions to leadership have been in the Bible all along.

One of the ways I’ve learned to be a servant leader is to teach others how to do my job as well as theirs. This is done so the things that are supposed to happen when I’m gone will indeed happen. For some, this might seem a conflict of interest, because, if your teaching is well done, they won’t need you at some point. So why would anyone in business want to do that?  Well, we do that for our children and it’s called parenting. We do that for others outside our immediate workplace and it’s called mentoring and sometimes while volunteering, messianic. In the workplace it is called leadership. Danforth states, “a man who has made a success has a responsibility to those who are striving to make a success.”  Sharing and teaching others to become the best they can be is one way to be recognized as a leader…and also a way to enhance one’s own life.

Someone famous once said, “I’m a part of everyone I meet,” I would say, “I become a part of everyone I teach.” You and I can be, and often are expendable, either by edict or by choice in our jobs, but either way, to have left a person, group or organization with something better than what was, is what recognized leaders, indeed do.  How?  One commencement speaker suggests that to get anything done, “one has to first start.”

Perhaps people take action and become leaders because they ask, “Why not?” We all can be leaders. Why not…take the lead today, by serving another?

Mr. Jackson, owner of Trescott Research, is an Information & Library Consultant, Instructor of Research, Writer, Editor, and Musician.  He is publisher of the 4^th edition of Pioneers in Brass by Glenn D. Bridges, a book chronicling early 20^th century brass musicians.

Originally written © 2003; Updated © 5-29-2007