Shop for a Cause, Train for a Future, Watch Four Great Films

As part of our guiding principles, we advocate for great causes and engage our diverse audience of shining stars. I want to bring your attention to three exciting events that are coming up in the next few weeks. These include an opportunity to shop for unique items, start a small business, and watch award-winning films about inspirational African women leaders.

Shopping for a Cause: Partners for Women's Equality (PWE) is holding an benefit event at Ten Thousand Villages in St. Paul on Wednesday, September 26 from 5PM to 8PM. This is a great place to shop for Fair Trade items create artisans in 130 countries. Ten Thousand Villages will donate 20% of the proceeds during this three-hour event to PWE.

I have served on the board of PWE for over two years. This organization provides leadership development and organizational support to empower marginalized women and girls around the world. So, while you are shopping please stop by our table--I will be there--and learn more about our Kenya Girls for Change Scholarship Program and Bridge to Change Leadership Training Course.

Training for a Future: African Career, Education, and Resource Inc. is offering a 12-week Microentrepreneur Development Training and Support Program at the North Hennepin Community College starting October 18 through February 7. The tuition is $99 and scholarships offer $50 are available upon request. This program provides technical assistance and other helpful information to equip new microentrepreneurs to start and operate their businesses. Participants will have a chance to apply for small business loans from $500 to $10,000. Applications for this program are due September 28. Contact Denise Butler at DBulter@acerinc.org or 763-493-8106 to apply or more information.

This program is provided by ACER in partnership with Neighborhood Development Center (NDC), North Hennepin Community College, Hennepin County Housing, Community Works and Transit / Public Works, and the City of Brooklyn Park.

I have volunteered with ACER for events twice this year--Job Fair in April and Walk, Run and Bike in September. This organization offers valuable programs to people of African descent and other underrepresented communities of color that are focused on Education, Health and Wellness, Community Economic Development, and Advocacy.

Watching Four Great Films: The African Women's Development Fund USA (AWDF)-Minnesota Network is hosting their Pan-African Women's Film Forum at St. Catherine University in St. Paul on October 20 from 1PM to 8PM. This is part of AWDF's Celebrate Mother Africa campaign. They are featuring the following Four Award-Winning Independent Films:

"Daisy Bates: First Lady of Arkansas"

  

"Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai"

"Chisholm '72: Unbought and Unbossed"

"Iron Ladies of Liberia"

I hope that you can find time to check out these wonderful events and inform others who might be interested. These are great organizations doing their part in making this a better world.

Patience Test

It is 11:30PM (CST) as I write this post, because I am too excited to sleep. For nearly a week, I have undergone a major test in patience. On September 12, I redirected this blog to my new domain. However, something went awry with this process and my domain appeared as a 404 error...meaning that the URL was not available for unknown reasons.

Being the tech geek that I am, I went into the settings to revert my blog back to the original domain. Regrettably, I discovered that this option was not even available in the publishing settings as I read this message..."maintenance in progress...domain switching disabled."

Still having hope that a plausible solution was out there, I then posted on the Blogger product forum regarding this issue. I soon discovered that countless others were experiencing the same thing that appeared to start on September 9.

What seemed to be the most disconcerting issue for all of us, is how Blogger did not shine with their customer service. They failed to keep us posted to what caused the problem or how long it would take to fix it. This left all of us in the dark contemplating what to do next.

The forum appeared to be the only source of information. After following it for nearly a week, I can say tensions were high with some bloggers while others were trying to maintain some decorum with the group. Then there were those who shared about switching their blogs to another service and others who had temporarily exported their blog to another blogspot. These options piqued my interest and I was strongly considering them. Yet I had to be realistic, because I just didn't have the time or energy to make this possible due to a nearing project deadline.

So, I decided to continue reach out to other social media outlets such as Twitter to get some sort of update or information to why this occurred. From the responses I received. the results were still more of the same... "maintenance in progress...domain switching disabled."

Tonight around 11PM, I received an email from the forum and some people blogs were back. So, I checked my blog immediately and the same 404 error came up; however, this time the domain switching was enabled. So, for now my blog will stay with the same old domain until I have confidence that this issue does not occur again when I switch to my new one.
 
I am grateful that I back online and that I stayed even keeled during this challenging time. This test was a great reminder that we are not always in control and all we need is a little patience (lyrics from the Guns N' Roses song Patience) to get through it.