A Golf Blog

CHAOS

It’s the acronym being used by United Airlines’ flight attendants – Create Havoc Around Our System. The flight attendants are protesting United’s termination its staff pension plan. So the CHAOS the flight attendants are looking for will manifest itself as workstoppages on any of United’s 3000 flights every day, worldwide.

Apparently, the flight attendants are willing to do this every day until United agrees to negotiate alternatives to the new retirement plan.

Says one travel expert – ‘Hope for the best, prepare for the worst’.

Daylight Savings Time Plan is Anti-Competitive

Gerard Arpey, Chairman and CEO of AMR, American Airlines parent, says that the proposed extension of daylight savings time will put his airline in a non-competitive position with foreign carriers.

Says it has to do with slot allocation – a control for arrivals and departures or time windows for take-offs and landings.

I don’t get it. Why not just run the current schedule until the time changes? Then run the schedule you were going to when daylight time ended. What difference does it make when the time changes?

Link

Off to the Races

Or is it more like stuck at the gate? It’s certainly not for a lack of material so I wonder what happened to the Silicon Valley Watcher’s IONRSS. In the past two days, Charlene Li and her colleagues at Forrester Research have published two terrific pieces on RSS – RSS 101 for Marketers and Using RSS as a Marketing Tool.

It’s too bad you need to be a Forrester subscriber to get the full report. You can get a synopsis on Charlene’s blog. Charlene, does Forrester have single copy pricing?

Battle at the Bridges

Got lured into watching Tiger Woods and friends last night on prime time television. It was a made for TV event hyped for high drama - tournament caliber golf under the lights. Mickelson and Goosen closed out Woods and Daly on the 15th hole while it was still light.

If there going to do these silly events, let's not opt for the match at a course where the membership initiation fee is $350,000. Think of the common man! Let's play it on a muni or semi private track where the average joe can play for $50 or less. And, how about a lottery system to pick the four pros - play a 6 hole scramble, a 6 hole alternate shot, and 6 hole better ball. Winner take all.

That's high drama - real golf, real courses, real winners and real losers.

Being on Call

It's my week with the phone - if something goes wrong at the IgoUgo Playground I get a text message that tells me what went bump. So far, the phone has been quiet and that is not a good thing, it is a great thing. We created a black binder that explains in detail what needs to be done in case of emergency. It's all about re-boot. They don't want me poking around - that's good; I'd probably only make it worse. Five days and counting.

By the way, we just loaded a new rev today. Fare Trend History has been expanded to 500 markets and we have enhanced the usability of My Group Travel.

When Boomers Retire

I’m a Boomer. Not old enough to retire but getting there. I’ve been wondering about the impact retiring Boomers will have on companies’ intellectual capital. Or perhaps the issue is more about knowledge management – either way, courtesy of Forrester Research, here are some interesting statistics.

In the United States.....

46% of government employees in the US are 45 or older
45% of public employees in the US will reach retirement age within 5 years
31% of private sector employees are 45 or older

The situation in Europe is also challenging.

In the next 2 decades, folks who are in the 50 to 64 age group will increase by 25%.
Those in the 20 to 29 year old age group will increase only by 20%.
Across the EU, people in the 20 to 59 year old age bracket will decrease 27% by 2050. In the same period, folks over 60 will grow by 45%.

The numbers are significant – I hope that companies are preparing because those that are left will have many interesting challenges, the least of which looks like getting more work done with significantly fewer people.

Czervik, Smails, and Spackler

Twenty-five years ago today Caddyshack hit theaters and the shenanigans at Bushwood forever changed the way I looked at country club life.

Original courtesy of Bill Higgins.

ICE

What a marvelous idea.

Paramedics routinely will turn to your mobile phone to establish your identity. In increasing numbers, they are also looking for ICE - it stands for In Case of Emergency. Go ahead and take a few minutes and program your ICE contact information into your mobile phone.

Infrae Freaks Bray

And most probably, Jon Udell, Dare Obasanjo, and Paul Everitt. They are replicating their blogs - Tim Bray, word for word, right here.

A Thousand of Anything

My bride has re-discovered Costco. No matter how you look at it, 1000 of anything is a lot. I can sleep knowing that with normal use, we now have 2.739 years worth of coffee filters.