Your Information Center

If you supervise employees of a company or manage volunteers for a nonprofit organization, you probably know how important it is to recognize your employees and volunteers for their work.

But knowing you need to do something doesn’t mean you know how to do it. And if you’re like most businesses and nonprofits, you don’t have an unlimited budget.

Lynn McShane, a volunteer manager, has learned how to recognize volunteers and staff without spending a lot of money. She shares 11 Ways to Recognize Staff and Volunteers that will get you started with some simple, inexpensive ways to recognize those who have contributed to the success of your organization.

When you’re ready to develop a recognition program, Lynn’s longer article, Keep the Ones Who Keep You Going: Recognizing Staff and Volunteers, will guide you step-by-step.

Technorati Tags: recognition, employee motivation

The New Day Dawns: People of the Frozen Earth Book 1 by Grace Anne Schaefer has been chosen as a finalist for the 2007 North Texas Book Festival Award in the general trade book category.

Two members of the Your Information Center Editorial Board - Miriam Ruff and Lillie Ammann - were chosen by GASLight Publishing to edit the book in preparation of publication.

Congratulations, Grace Anne! Your fans will be glad to know that Book 2: As Shadows Fall will be available in a few weeks.

Technorati Tags: North Texas Book Festival award, Grace Anne Schaefer, The New Day Dawns, As Shadows Fall, People of the Frozen Earth.

If you’re thinking about self-publishing a book - whether it’s a family history, a nonfiction book to establish your business or professional credentials, or a novel - read the Self-Publishing Primer first. You’ll learn what self-publishing is, what is involved, what it costs, when it’s appropriate, pitfalls to avoid, and how to market the finished book.

Technorati Tags: self-publishing

Should you use a numeral or write out the number? What is the correct format for the date? How do you know when to capitalize words? What are hyphens for anyway?

Get the answers in the short report Writing: Some Points of Style by writer/educator Jennifer Stewart.

Technorati Tags: writing

Do you know what height adjustment you should set on your lawn mower? Or how tall your grass should be when you mow it? Or how to maintain your lawn mower to keep it cutting smoothly and cleanly?

If not, you can find out in the short report Lawn Care and Mower Maintenance.

But what if your lawn mower needs a tune-up? You can do it yourself in about an hour. Just follow Roger Vizi’s step-by-step guide: How To Tune Up Your Gas-Powered Lawn Mower.

You can have the greenest grass in the neighborhood.

Technorati Tags: lawn care, lawn mower tune-up

The Last Boat Out, Memoirs of a Triumphant Vietnamese-American Family won the 2007 EPPIE award for General Nonfiction.

The EPPIEs are presented annually by EPIC, the Electronically Published Internet Connection to recognize outstanding achievement in e-publishing. The Last Boat Out is available in both print and electronic formats.

Your Information Center congratulates the authors (Truong-Nhu Dinh and Tran Thi Truong Nga) and the publisher (GASLight Publishing). We’re proud of the freelance editor who turned two diaries written in Vietnamese and translated by someone for whom English is a second language into an award-winning book (our own Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Lillie Ammann).

Technorati Tags: Last Boat Out, EPPIE award, Lillie Ammann

Edith Brown had a dramatic wake-up call at age 45 when her doctor told her she had high blood pressure. He really got her attention when he said, “If you don’t change your lifestyle, you’re going to die!” She lost more than 100 pounds, quit smoking, changed her eating habits, and added physical exercise to her lifestyle.

And she took up bicycling. What started as a fitness activity turned into fun. Through bicycling, Edith has improved her health, developed a love for biking trips, made new friends, and benefitted charities.

You can do the same -Bicycling for Fitness and Fun will help you choose and fit a bike, learn what you need for biking trips, and find out about bicycling with and for others.

Fitness and fun - find both through bicycling.

Technorati Tags: bicycling, fitness, lifestyle change

Many people dream of owning a business, but a lot of new businesses fail in the first two years. The experts give many reasons for failure, but perhaps one of the most important is that individuals who dream of owning a business don’t necessarily have the traits that are required for success in business.

Just because someone is talented in a particular field and is an excellent employee doesn’t mean that person will succeed in business using their talent. Managing a business requires a different set of traits and skills than working for someone else.

Learn 19 Traits You Need to Succeed in Your Own Business before you make the leap. If you don’t have all the traits, you can learn new skills or find a partner or employee to fill in the gaps. But your chances of success will be much greater if you have most of the 19 traits and determine how to make up for the ones you don’t have.

Good luck in fulfilling your dream!

Technorati Tags: starting a business, entrepreneur, business success

All the articles on Your Information Center are available online at no cost to you. We are adding short reports and longer practical guides in many categories. The articles are written by professional writers who have experience or extensive research in the subject, have worked with a real-life expert, or both. Each article will give you a concise overview of a specific topic along with resources to learn more.

While everything on our site is completely free, you will find links to resources that are not free. We may suggest books for more information about the subject as well as products related to the topic. Links in the body of the article or in the resource list are recommendations we think will be helpful to many of our readers. Please let us know if you find broken links or inappropriate recommendations. And suggest links you think would be valuable to our readers.

Enjoy and use the easy-to-read-and understand information you will find at no cost throughout our site.

Technorati Tags: Your Information Center, free reports

Five prostitutes were killed in the Whitechapel area of London in 1888. The killer, who came to be known as Jack the Ripper, was never caught. He is now the most famous serial killer in history, with new theories being expounded about his identity more than a hundred years later.

Famous novelist Patricia Cornwell studied the case a few years ago and wrote her conclusions in the book Portrait Of A Killer: Jack The Ripper — Case Closed (Berkley True Crime).

But not everyone is convinced by Cornwell’s theory. See how much you know by taking the quiz at Jack the Ripper: Case Open, then learn about the crimes, the victims, and the suspects throughout history in Jack the Ripper — Serial Killer.

Both articles are written by Vickie Britton, who has researched Jack the Ripper and even taught classes about him.

Technorati Tags: Jack the Ripper