Remarks about the NCRC EIM programme, as it once was, and still may be:

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June 9th., 2005: two emails arrived today, indicative in sum of shoddy thought, an insult to people who may have behavioural or mental problems. Note that there are grammatical errors, which affect both emails. Not only that, but their email set up is faulty, in that everything apparently funnels through V Viale, which should not happen. There should be a verification point somewhere.

Comment: the bold type in the first email is a statement that is unclear, but it indicates the problem.
Email One:
EIM team: (viz. 'Davidson, Brian'; 'Laird, Shellie'; 'Linneboe,Paul'; 'Mindy, Sperber')
Pxxxx Sxxxxxxx, a Ph. D. in systems engineering, has just become an EIM client.  Pxxxx came to me through personal networking. 

He may or may not ultimately attend the EIM workshops, but for now he definitely wants to be included in our alumni and e-mail database of job postings (Vicky, please add).  I invested 2 hours this morning helping him focus his job search and networking strategy, which he found valuable. 

Pxxxx will be joining me at the Ottawa Wireless Cluster event this evening.

More and more I’m finding that this type of counselling/sharing of ideas seems to be something the more emotionally stable/entrepreneurial EIM client’s value. It’s also a recruitment tool.

Although they see value in the overall EIM program, not all are in a position to commit to a 2 week program due to other job or family related commitments.

Pxxx’s full contact information is: (editor: information has been removed, although it rests in my email database).

Brian Davidson
Business Development
Experience in Motion
Nepean Community Resource Centre
3730 Richmond Road, Suite 106
596-5626 extension 241
bdavidson@ncrc.ca
www.experienceinmotion.ca

Email Two: this almost immediately followed by the first one (there was no subject, indicates that it was sent in a rush to the EIM email client database).

Please ignored the last email I sent. I made a mistake
Thanks

Virginia Viale
Experience in Motion
Nepean Community Resource Centre
(613) 596-5626
v.viale@ncrc.ca
www.experienceinmotion.ca
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The EIM programme is based at the Nepean Community Resource Centre. Note that Experience in Motion is mentioned on their web pages under the heading Programs and Services for the Community. Look for Mature Adult Employment Program.

Problems accessing the NCRC site, summer 2004:
Damn it, we're in Canada, and program should be spelt programme, as center should be centre. That grammatical fubar was eventually corrected! Note also that, until recently, clicking on any "For more info contact" statement, on any computer (at the NCRC or elsewhere), produced an error, the dreaded HTTP 403 or merely an access denied comment. Free help, technical or site building, is not always full value, what?

Furthermore, if one is using the free Internet access at an Ottawa library, then one can't load the Nepean page, because Macromedia Flash is needed. One is not, as on many other sites, asked if one would like to download and install Flash if it's not present on one's computer. I did that at the Main Library once, and the NCRC site then worked. Not that that would be of any real use, if I don't do it on every machine. This means that access is unavailable for a lot of people in need in the community, especially since I don't visit any other library. Here is the flash detection kit package.

Mon Dieu, June 2nd., 2004. The NCRC site now works to the extent that the JavaScript based buttons allow one to reach a message page. That's as good as it gets, because there are items missing on each page. Probably, these items are href (hard referenced in html speak) to someone's hard drive.

But then, two days before the sixtieth anniversary of D-Day, the site seems to work properly. Sacré bleu!! How long should it take before any site placed on the web properly services its community? Yes, you're right! On the first day.

Incidental statements wrt the programme:
Firstly, here are three files in two versions for download, related to May 2004: A Colour Brochure, Description of Workshops and the Workshop Programme, for the second quarter, 2004. All of these (edited) documents are in Word XP format. Any dates stated are there because that was when I attended, and I'm too lazy to find out if the programme has been improved.

The programme was developed for the greying population of Ottawa and environs (or, to be fair, those 45+ in need of help towards finding the proper career they should have always had until death do them part, or until they run out of hair dye).

The Experience in Motion programme is funded until at least August, 2004 by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC). Again, searching for Experience in Motion, or Mature Adult Employment Program (as mentioned on the NCRC site) produces no hits!! Neither on the government site, nor anywhere using Google. Wouldn't one have thought that funded programmes would be advertised? If only to show the public where our taxes are spent.

A critique, still unfinished and likely to remain so, of my experiences on the course.
Here is a page about CVs from Amy Lindgren (one of the hand-outs on the course had an almost illegible article about smart choices, written by her). Here's another by her about age discrimination. And yet another considering job change decision making at 55.

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November, 2004:
This week there were two emails about the fitness class: Both showed signs of immaturity. Bellowing that spring was nearly over merely accentuated the feeling that the emails were written in haste.
Frankly, no, we do not need to impose ourselves on all and sundry every damned minute of the day. Some people do things that necessitate solitary thought and commitment. They need not feel, as the statements so clearly implied, that they are deficient in some way.
I held back on replying until I felt calm. Why? Simply because I can't help feeling that this person fails to qualify as qualified for employment. Not just the argument and the statement, but also the grammar of the whole charade. And there's nothing I can do about that, is there?

There is one other thing: smart tags is applied to the letter w, in every one of the EIM emails . Who has allowed this, or simply not noticed? Seemingly another incompetent is at loose in Nepean. The smart tags part of Word can be turned off, but not at the NCRC it appears.