Taxes are due on April 15th (today) and I am okay with paying them. When I hear people complain about paying taxes, I point out that I like roads, supporting the military, having hospitals and education programs for pre-kindergarteners. I think supporting medical research, finding new sources of energy and providing care for older people is pretty cool. I like going to national parks and monuments and knowing that I can find useful information about most things from government web sites.  I know that I am not being fashionable in my belief that paying taxes is okay but I consider it a good investment in our country and a responsibility no different from voting on the second Tuesday after the Read More

I spent the afternoon yesterday with one of my favorite clients going over budget reports. There must have been 6 or more reports we reviewed about their programs, everything from income statements to balance sheets. There were sub reports, special project reports and even service metric data to review. We were able to interpret all of it but towards the end of our meeting, I commented that the data was “informative but not really helpful” for the team to improve the management of their department. Part of the reason for that may be due to the fact that the reports are geared to meet the finance departments requirements for reporting or that the team I was working with does not Read More

Hey, with today being April Fool’s its time to get your jokester hat out and get ready for some yuck, yuck. Since I love doing research, I checked out a number of important facts about the first of April. An early precursor of April Fool’s Day was an ancient Roman festival called “Hilaria” which was celebrated around the first day of Spring. The days were highlighted by events of rejoicing including births of children, successes in life and probably acknowledging the greatness of Rome. Every one had to be upbeat and no one was allowed to show signs of sorrow or grief. And given how serious those Romans were, you would probably not want to fool around with that day Read More