Part -1:

Your company, Right On Track, was founded on the idea that helping others is the best way to truly help ourselves. Everything from the mission statement to the posters on the walls sends the message of serving others. This quality has attracted workers to your business, and many of them already exemplify that serving spirit.

You and the executive board have decided to pay employees for the charity work that they do or might do. Employees can get paid for one hour of charity work in their normal 40-hour work week. Here are some particulars.

o charity work should be done for a nonprofit group
o the employees will not earn over 40 hours for doing charity work
o employees choosing not to participate won't be penalized because they will just work their normal 40 hours at the office
o supervisors will make absolutely sure that essential business services are covered when an employee has taken off to do charity work
o employees will clear time off for charity work with their supervisors at least one whole week in advance of the day(s) off
o employees who do charity work on the weekends can then take those hours off during the work week after requesting that of the supervisor
o a list of organizations that welcome volunteers is being compiled by the company so that everyone can have a chance to learn about opportunities to serve
o employees can do 1 hour per week, 2 hours every other week, or 4 hours (half-day) each month
o hours spent volunteering cannot be banked for use all together at a later time. These are paid out on a month-by-month basis only.
o we will start the program on August 1
o we will spotlight the employees who participate in our monthly e-newsletter
o we estimate that about 40% of our employees already do some type of charity work on a regular basis
o we know that some employees won't be able to or won't want to participate (remember that you should consider these people as part of your audience too. For example, consider what is the benefit for them in working for a company that has such a program?)
o consider the benefits this program will have for the employees and company as a whole in the eyes of the community
o consider other benefits as well as you analyze this situation

Your company's internal blog is where you will be posting this message. You should take time to review the information about blogging in your textbook. Use all that you have learned about communicating in a business environment. Use good paragraphing especially. You will certainly need several paragraphs to do this one well. And remember that blogs have titles, submission dates, and an author's name.

Use all that you have learned about communicating in a business environment.

Part -2

You are Midas Investment Services' specialist in estate planning. You give talks to various groups during the year about estate planning.

You ask nonprofit groups (churches, etc.) just to reimburse your expenses; you charge for-profit groups a fee plus expenses. These fees augment your income nicely, and the talks also are marvelous exposure for you and your company.

Every February for the last five years, Gardner Manufacturing Company has hired you to conduct an eight-hour workshop (two hours every Monday night for four weeks) on retirement and estate planning for its employees who are over 60 or who are thinking of taking early retirement. These workshops are popular and have generated clients for your company. The session last February went smoothly, as you have come to expect.

Today, out of the blue, you got an email from Hope Goldberger, Director of Employee Benefits at Gardner, asking you to conduct the workshops every Tuesday evening next month (July) at your usual fee. She didn't say whether this is an extra series or whether this will replace next February's series.

You can't do it. Your spouse, a geneticist is giving an invited paper at an international conference in Paris next month and the two of you are taking your children, ages 13 and 9, on a three-week trip to Europe. (You've made arrangements with school authorities to have the kids miss three weeks of classes.) You've been looking forward to and planning the trip for the last eight months.

Unfortunately, Midas Investment Services is a small group, and the only other person who knows anything about estate planning is a terrible speaker. You could suggest a friend at another financial management company, but you don't want Gardner to turn to someone else permanently; you enjoy doing the workshops and find them a good way to get leads.

Write the email reply to Ms. Goldberger.