Thank you!
I certainly didn't intend to give the impression that I was thinking of "disbanding" Best of the Boards when I shared my personal thoughts and feelings of discouragement with you on 4/17. When I realized that was how it was coming across to many of you, I almost deleted the entry entirely. But the deeper reason for the request for letters remained - that the home office NEEDS to know how important online communication has become, especially in light of the extreme growth of our company in the past two years. So I have been collecting the letters you've been sending to me, I read every one of them - many of them made me cry - and due to a number of them asking to please not forward names (although every one of them was signed - thank you) in fear of reprisals from their leader or home office, I have consolidated all of the letters minus identifying names or emails and am right now printing off the extended document to send off to Plymouth.

You all spoke so much from your heart, and put so much thought into the letters, that I feel it is very important that they get read. Many of you expressed the thought that our company should have created a site like this long ago - and I am sure that is something that is being worked on right now - all the more important that they see exactly WHAT it is about the site that really matters to everyone and helps to build our businesses. I hope that is what they take from these letters when they are received.

I will keep you informed as to any reaction or comments that I receive in return - and at some point in the next couple of weeks I may format some of the specific concerns and comments into a page here on the website so you can benefit from them as much as I have.

Again - thank you all for your kind thoughts and encouragement. It was and continues to be very very much appreciated! Belinda

4/20/2000
Links for Recognition products Jenn Nunley

http://www.baudville.com Some favorite items from this company include Lifesavers and Lollipops that are printed with "T.E.A.M. Together Everyone Achieves More". There are also chocolate "coins", pencils, mugs, certificates, notepads, and more, printed with recognition phrases. These are ideal for giveaways at regionals or unit meetings. You can request a catalog at their website.
http://www.recognition.org This is also a wonderful resource for recognition... several articles, and links to other companies that provide recognition products.

A crafty idea for those who enjoy doing a little extra... Robyn, Scentsational Region
Instead of buying plain envelopes for your booking games at parties and decorating them with stickers, I have lots of different styles of wall paper, you know those left over pieces, and half rolls... I made envelopes out of that. They are heavy enough, you can't see through them, very pretty, easy to reuse. Making a template is easy, and you can get rid of those rolls of wall paper you have been storing for some time. If you want to get really fancy, its not hard to line them. RECYCLE what you can!

Another type of "Tealight Sampler" Jennifer Tossavainen, Solid Gold Region
For those of us that want to keep our costs down as we build our businesses, here is an idea for a "sampler" to give to hostesses to encourage outside orders. Melt down one votive from 12 or so of the most popular scents and double dip the end of a popsicle stick in it 2 or 3 times and let them dry on wax paper. You can get 500 popsicle sticks at the dollar store. Write the name of the scent on the other end and then include them in your hostess packages tied up with a bow (and use a rubber band under the bow to keep them together) to use so people can smell the candles before ordering! This way, they can smell the scents but you don't have the problem of not getting your tealight sampler back! Good Luck!

FYI... the other type of Tealight Sampler that most people use is to put together 12 different tealights in a regular tealight box to help your hostess work on outside orders. I offer the box to the hostess to keep as a bonus if her show is at least $300. Belinda

4/18/2000
Wedding Ideas Amy Geiger & Tacy Currey
Burn Times Chart Jackie
Newly Updated Business Links  

Directly From the Heart - new "Like a Little" stickers!
Express Yourself - new Motivational Sticker Pak!
Killer Kollectables - back in stock, and special pricing on the long-sleeved T's!

FREE "Cyber Family" Buttons for Conference 2000!

Just as they did last year, A&R Marketing (aka Flamenglos - or "the lighter folks") is providing free** pinback buttons to identify you as part of our online family at Conference 2000! 

**You pay the postage - get the details on their webpage! Hurry - the deadline to get your free button is June 15!

Belinda's Business Cards
Orders are temporarily on hold while I take delivery on my new COLOR LASER Printer! At this point I plan to continue to offer the single sided or double sided cards at the same price as the ink-jet cards were - that may change after I get a realistic idea of the actual ongoing cost of toner and maintenance for this new toy! Hopefully I will start fulfilling order requests within the next week.

4/17/2000
What Has BoB Meant to You and Your Business?
I found myself in an extremely uncomfortable position this weekend when I attended my Regional. There was a home office field trainer in attendance, and we happened to sit at the same table. I have the utmost respect for this trainer - I have attended VIP sessions where she has spoken, she is an extremely dynamic, motivational and positive person, and we were so lucky to have her as a guest at our Regional. I was completely taken aback however, when I introduced myself to her and explained that I "am" Best of the Boards, to which immediate silence came back at me, and then

"You're Best of the Boards?"

I don't need to expand on the rest of the conversation in this arena. I will tell you the gist of the message was that as in this person's case, the ONLY things that ever get mailed to her regarding BoB are negative comments. I was informed that she has never once received anything positive regarding the site, and that the site itself is full of inaccurate information. I'd like to change this. If you are someone who has bothered to mail something negative to the company, would you please bother to mail it to me as well, so that I can DO something about it? If there are inaccuracies - TELL ME so I can fix them! If you don't you're contributing to the problem.

I need you to think long and hard about your business and yourself. What has Best of the Boards meant to you personally? How precisely has it helped you to grow within your business? How has it helped you to grow as a leader? What exactly does it provide that you cannot get elsewhere? How does it contribute to the effectiveness of your unit/regional workshops? 

If you are moved to do so, please email your personal thoughts to me directly. Take your time, write what you feel, but please - keep it constructive and positive. This is not intended to become an assault on company policy! I plan to assemble them into one printed package, and mail directly to the company so that they can be aware of the positives as well as the negatives that they apparently hear already.

There's another reason for this. We've heard rumors for some time that the company will at some point be providing some type of an online forum, I would assume to be similar to this one. I'm not involved, I don't know, but if it is true, then this is a chance for them to see what points are so very important to the general consultant population, so that they can better tailor it to be the most effective site possible.

My sincere thanks to every one of you - you mean the world to me, and as devastating as it was this weekend to be hit with reality right in the face, I will admit to you that my first thought was "is this worth it?" And perhaps the best thing would be to just stop. Guess what the first thing was that hit me when I stepped in to the house from Regional on Saturday afternoon. Email from Hank, with his "Burning Out" post, and at least three other emails from consultants I've never met thanking me for the site. In the face of being ready to just give in, I had to struggle to remain positive, and re-evaluate to myself that no matter how difficult it may be to please everyone all of the time, what I do here on BoB DOES count, and it DOES make a difference.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Belinda

4/15/2000
Five Stages of Ariana Marcianna Silva, California Dreamin' Region
Burning Out Hank, Keepers of the Light Region
30 Ways to Use the Quilted Crystal Pair Nikki Redmond, Burning Love Region

ACS - Is Your Region Doing Its Share? Mary Turnbull, Tidal Wave Region
I went to my Regional yesterday and was very upset to find that one of the ladies was not there to receive her recognition for promoting. Why? She was at her sister's funeral. Cancer took another life. It made me really start looking at the numbers for our goal of raising a million dollars by Conference. Last month's Reflections showed our total at $484,731.64. Not even half way there with less than 4 months to go!!!

When we got home from Conference last year someone in our region did the math. She took the number of Regions at that time and divided 1,000,000 by that number. It worked out to only $7,500 per region, and there have been several Regions born since that time. TIDAL WAVE is a small Region but we met that goal and have made a commitment to doubling it! Where does your Region stand? What can YOU do to help your Region pull its weight? Only you can decide if you have done your share. Is your Region tracking what it has raised? If anyone would like to post what their Region has raised or how they are doing it, maybe we can motivate each other to meet our goal. Some of the things we have done are:

1. Raffle off $100 gift certificates. Consultants sell the raffle tickets at their shows for monthly drawings. (Consultants can buy tickets too!)
2. Each leader contributed 1 dozen tealights and raffle tickets were sold. (We can all use more tealights right?)
3. Someone crocheted a beautiful afghan and it was auctioned off. (The consultant who's sister just died was the auctioneer)
4. People went to several local businesses and asked for donations to be raffled.
5. Pass the sock at shows to sock it to cancer.

Don't forget to ask for donations at your shows. You will really be touched and amazed at what people will share with you. If you do the envelope game put a $1 bill in one of the envelopes to help you bring up the subject. If you do the bag game put in the table tent PL gave us for the Sunbeam Sconce. Ask guests if they would like to round up their check to donate that extra few cents to ACS.

My leaders fundraising efforts were a factor in my choosing her and PL (I looked at several others). I figured if she cared that much she was who I wanted for a sponsor and PL was a company I would be proud to be associated with. I wasn't wrong on either count.

4/11/2000
Sorry for the hiatus...

Thanks for missing me! Yes, I'm still around - everything's fine - I've just been having difficulty juggling too many balls in the air and they are tumbling around my head!

I've had emails from several people offering to help, but have not even been able to take the time to respond intelligently to them LOL. 

As many of you know, BoB is frequently a reflection of the state of my personal and business lives - in that when you suddenly notice nothing new on "What's New" for more than a week at a time - things have taken a turn for the chaotic. I can't believe it's nearly mid-April and I am just now renewing the April What's New page. Not for lack of content - believe me!

I confess to being ever so grateful for Raven (http://www.ravenquest.com/candles) & Christy
(http://christys-corner.virtualave.net/)- similar sites that provide different perspectives , different strengths in different areas than BoB - especially during this time that I've had to work on re-aligning my client priorities.

Hang in there - keep helping each other through the message board - I'll get back to normal eventually! The Vegas tickets are bought - still working on the room - but I think I'll be in the Venetian - there will DEFINITELY be a FLING #2!

And now for some strictly business notes:
I was contacted by several consultants yesterday (Monday) throughout the day who had received letters from our home office regarding internet advertising. I am going to post the basic text of the letter here and then respond. (I have bold-typed the important points)

#1. This is a positive thing, not a nastygram. I am very glad that the home office is taking steps to enforce the policies that we all agree to when we sign the consultant agreement. It should not be perceived as a threat, merely a strong reminder to follow the rules. Simply abide by the no trademarks and no copyrighted images rules and you will be fine. Most will recall that Best of the Boards received a similar letter in January of this year, I did as requested and to the best of my abilities continue to do so, and there has been no further response from the company.

#2. What I take real exception to are leaders who use scare tactics to try to force consultants to conform to their personal interpretation of the company's internet policy.

"My leader told me I can't even go to BOB. If she knows I am using the info she said I will be terminated."

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen, and although I wish I could say it is one person's misinterpretation of their leader's advice, I know for a fact it is not. I am now going to be more outspoken than I ever have been previously, because this has got to stop. No leader should feel threatened by consultants sharing their ideas and reaping the benefits of other perspectives on a balanced, ethical site such as BoB, Christy's Corner, Ravenquest, or many others that are unnamed here. Anyone that insecure over use of the internet should relocate themselves to a less-forward-thinking country that does not have the rights to freedom of speech and the luxury of enough family income to afford to purchase products such as candles, cookware, housewares, books, jewelry, or other niceties that we take for granted. Use the resources available to you to become the best consultant you can be since you have chosen to be part of direct sales. That includes attending every training opportunity afforded to you - INCLUDING this one that is available at every hour of the day at no cost and promotes everything that is positive about our business. 

#3. If you ARE one of the consultants who is blatantly advertising on a webpage, or offering products on auction sites, or doing anything else that is in direct violation of the company's policies, then you deserve to have your consultant account closed and you are lucky that you are given a letter of warning before it happens. If you are stopped by a traffic cop and claim that you did not know it was against the law to go through a red light, you have no business behind the wheel and I guarantee you're going to receive a ticket at best. Ignorance is no excuse. The same goes for agreeing to become a direct sales consultant. Part of that agreement to be in business for yourself is to agree to know and abide by the rules in your consultant handbook and on the back of your consultant agreement. If you don't understand them, don't sign your name, because once you add your signature you ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING THE RULES AND ABIDING BY THEM.

Last - don't jump to conclusions regarding other sites. Worry about your own, and be assured that you personally are doing everything to the best of your knowledge to be in compliance. There's no need to police the internet for the company - they can and are beginning to do a great job of it on their own. Book shows, sell candles, give great customer service to the people who are allowing you to be in business for yourself. If it's just a hobby - wonderful! Enjoy it - don't stress over it!

I can't wait to meet you all in Vegas - my airline tickets came yesterday WOO-HOO!