tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84354713072685210012024-03-07T22:18:27.222-05:00Radical ChangemakersA catalyst of radical change in the workplace and in the world. Viewer discretion advised. Not appropriate for the average human. Must have big dreams, the courage to change and a dash of spunk.Coach Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01642453527067325698noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435471307268521001.post-86042285512665003312011-01-14T11:44:00.008-05:002011-12-26T14:16:38.625-05:00I challenge you.....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
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Here is what I have observed.<br />
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It's the new year and mostly everyone who chooses to live with more conscious intention has set up goals and resolutions for the coming year. We tell ourselves we want to be more healthy, think better thoughts, make better choices. We say it's really important to us to make these changes.<br />
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So for some time, perhaps a month, a week or a day, we enact these changes, whether it is cleaning up what we eat, going to the gym, thinking more positive thoughts, or embracing gratitude.<br />
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Sometimes it takes a tragedy to take nothing for granted.....a divorce or someone we love is dying or has passed. In those moments, our hearts and minds are wide open and we really step into appreciation for the delicate balance and graceful blessings of being alive.<br />
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We live in the moment. We become present.<br />
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And then the window closes....we forget. We get busy again with all the things we think we need to do, the things we think we need to buy. We clutter our lives with thoughts, things, activities, busyness. We get busy with things instead of life, instead of the just being in the moment and noticing the gift of that.<br />
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They say the whole purpose of forgetting is to remember. No matter what, there is always perfection in everything. Nothing wrong has happened or is happening. No mistakes have been made. Everything that happens is in service of our growth.<br />
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Lately I have been focusing on Esther and Jerry Hicks "Getting into the vortex" meditations, which is about living in gratitude for everything we have. When we live in gratitude, we enhance our vibrational frequency which allows more of the same positivity and thereby attract more of the same. What people don't realize about the law of attraction is that when we focus on what we want, or do not yet have, we focus on lack and then wonder why we get more of the same.<br />
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So here is your challenge (me included!). I challenge all who are reading this blog to truly embrace, live in, remember, and focus on all the blessings you do have. Think of all the things that have gone right. Think of all the things that you might take for granted, whether it's food on your plate, a roof over your head, a partner who loves you, or good health. Find something, anything, to be grateful for. Focus on that. <br />
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Take nothing for granted.<br />
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Live in compassion, for yourself and for the world around you.<br />
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I challenge you.<br />
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<div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Written By Annie Gelfand </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> © Copyright 2011 Tammy Anne Gelfand. </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>All Rights Reserved.</i></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Coach Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01642453527067325698noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435471307268521001.post-90193513356550111292010-10-23T12:11:00.007-04:002011-12-26T13:26:48.604-05:00What do you choose?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
I started out the new year in 2010 vowing to live in a place where everyone gets to be right. I decided to stop stepping way up onto my high horse of a soap box and vilifying those whose opinions vastly differ from mine just because my judgment is that their position is not life supportive. Hey, they think they're right as much as I think I am right.<br />
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Right?<br />
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How do we find the win/win where everyone walks away with what they want? <br />
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This morning I had a conversation with my friend Justin and we realized that we share this goal. So I asked him how he is doing with his and he said "It's on my radar...." and I said "I am not doing too well with it either."<br />
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It got me thinking. If we aren't doing well and Justin and I are being conscious and intentional in this and we are failing wildly, is it any wonder things are so messed up?<br />
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There was an article in our morning paper today quoting the Dalai Lama's talk in Toronto yesterday. In his global plea for world peace, he said, "At age 75, what I have learned is the power of talk. In the spirit of dialogue, you can't have one side that is defeated and one side wins. Open your heart and consider others."<br />
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No one is beyond talking to, he added. Following 9/11 he urged dialogue with Osama Bin Laden urging leaders to understand "what really is his complaint".<br />
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Now THAT is truly radical thinking.<br />
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Imagine, instead of vilifying those whose positions seem to be polar opposites of ours, that we open dialogue to truly try to understand what is their complaint.... to listen without judging or making them wrong, no matter how different their position is from ours...to listen to the request under the complaint and not get triggered because the request sparks judgment in us.<br />
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Trusting in the best of humanity, I know that every human being craves harmony and peace, to be seen for who we really are, to feel understood and above all, loved for who we really are at our core.<br />
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This would be truly radical. I speak as much to myself as I do to you. It is my stretch also, but I know that without setting the intention and making it conscious and intentional, we will never find world peace. We will never be at peace with ourselves because underneath the judgment of others, lies deep within the judgment of ourselves and for the most part, we find ourselves lacking.<br />
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I choose to surround myself with love. I choose to find a way to find others right. I choose to step off my soap box and listen to the request under the complaint, especially when I want to judge. I choose to open my heart and considering others.<br />
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What do you choose?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Written By Annie Gelfand </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> © Copyright 2010 Tammy Anne Gelfand. </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>All Rights Reserved.</i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yu3Fn8jshwQ/TMMKWZ0hvoI/AAAAAAAAA0k/T88_045sL_M/s1600/bottombanner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yu3Fn8jshwQ/TMMKWZ0hvoI/AAAAAAAAA0k/T88_045sL_M/s320/bottombanner.png" width="320" /></a></div>Coach Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01642453527067325698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435471307268521001.post-72403584537266923222010-10-20T18:48:00.016-04:002011-12-26T13:27:01.719-05:00If you do what you've always done....<div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="color: #20124d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Even though this is a blog about radical change in the workplace, there are so many areas where radical change is essential. I am acutely aware that simply expressing opinion can be polarizing. With these words flooding my mind for years, I have to believe that they have a purpose yet to be discovered. If you find yourself on the other side of my opinion, I give you my word I will work hard to find you right if you give me that same privilege. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">For generations, our parents and their parents relied upon experts to advise them in areas they didn't consider themselves to have any expertise in, whether it was medical, legal, or financial advice. What is now becoming clearer to me, is that the legal system isn't about justice, it's about following the letter of the law. The financial system isn't about helping the consumer build and preserve financial foundations, it's about preserving the bottom line to look good for the shareholder. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">And the medical system isn't about healing people and preventing illness, it's about perpetuating just enough illness to justify over prescription of medications. </span><span style="font-size: small;">It is here where I get caught in anger, feeling helpless and frustrated.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">Here is my rant.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">If the medical system were truly devoted to healing, the emphasis would be on prevention. Our health care system would be supportive of the oldest most ancient healing arts, like homeopathy, botanical medicine, naturopathy and osteopathy. Instead, allopathic doctors call natural medicine quakery and say it lacks scientific proof. We see a system vested in keeping people ill in order to perpetuate their need of expensive drugs, creating billions of dollars of profits for multinational pharmaceutical corporations. These pharmaceuticals are being prescribed daily, and daily it is being revealed that while they may resolve the presenting issue, they also create a multitude of complicated side affects that it's virtually impossible to detect which caused what first.</span><br />
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<div><span style="font-size: small;">To quote</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b> Dr. Carolyn Dean, MD ND </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>& Trueman Tuck, Rights Advocate, </b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>DEATH BY MODERN MEDICINE:</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: small;">"We must always remember that allopathy is a medical model born of the industrial age and with Big Pharma less than 100 years old. To suggest that the oldest and most used healing arts in the world are secondary to allopathy is not only insulting but inaccurate as well. Traditional methods of restoring and maintaining maximum health, by virtue of their track record of safety and success, take second place to no other medical model."</span><br />
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</span></div></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;">At her physician's urging, and in order to save my life, my mother took DES (diethylstilbestrol), a synthetic female hormone (estrogen), while she was pregnant with me in order to prevent miscarriage. The drug was withdrawn in 1975, after its dangers to mothers and their unborn children became apparent.</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;">A study of 5,000 women known to have been exposed to DES in the womb conducted by the National Cancer Institute, compared medical histories with a similar number of women who were not exposed to the drug. The study determined that DES daughters had an increased risk of breast cancer of 40%, but for those women over the age of 40, the increased risk was 250%. </span><i><span style="font-size: small;">(source: http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles/00284/des_miscarriage_cancer.html)</span></i></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #20124d;">"Experts say, the long-term side effects of DES surfacing some 30 years after the drug was discontinued, should serve as a potent reminder of the potential harmful consequences of over-zealous drug promotion and distribution." <i>August 20, 2006, Evelyn Pringle</i><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;">I watched my mother, age 50, take her prescribed Atavan, an anti-anxiety substance when my father died after a 2-month illness. She took that drug for over 35 years with very little supervision by her physician who also prescribed her numerous other medications for high blood pressure, anti-constipation, anti-depressants, aspirin for her heart, anti-inflammatories for her joints, and more. Because her physician could not spend more than 15 minutes with her in person, I wonder how much time he spent researching the impact of taking all these prescriptions together and what will be revealed in the coming years. My mother was very obedient and reverent towards the medical profession, as many of her generation were. They were taught that doctors know best and that they are the experts on the human body. With that kind of predilection, how could she <i><b>not </b></i>listen to her doctor.</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;">However, it is my belief that the multitude of unsupervised drugs, in combination with her daily intake of one alcoholic drink a day, caused her to have several mini-strokes that her family doctor never detected because of a system so stressed from treating illnesses. My mother was always a difficult person even at the best of times, so it was easy and convenient for my brothers and I (and her doctor) to chalk up her increasingly erratic behavior to just how she was. We later came to discover that she had suffered numerous mini-strokes and the impact of those mini-strokes had ravaged the frontal lobes of her brain, affecting her short term memory and judgment centers.</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;">How could we, as a society, have left healing and compassion and the individual so far behind that it is now easier to ignore challenging behavior than dig underneath to understand it's core cause.</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are no easy answers. What I do know is that before we can build new, we need to understand the old and what we did to get here for we are all responsible for where we are now. My rant is my way of understanding myself in hopes that healing is not far behind.</span><br />
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<div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Written By Annie Gelfand </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> © Copyright 2010 Tammy Anne Gelfand. </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>All Rights Reserved.</i></span></div></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yu3Fn8jshwQ/TMMKWZ0hvoI/AAAAAAAAA0k/T88_045sL_M/s1600/bottombanner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_yu3Fn8jshwQ/TMMKWZ0hvoI/AAAAAAAAA0k/T88_045sL_M/s320/bottombanner.png" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b></b></span></div>Coach Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01642453527067325698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8435471307268521001.post-9095437403856252042010-10-19T23:58:00.003-04:002011-12-26T13:27:20.248-05:00RCM Manifesto<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-68" height="121" src="http://radicalchangemakers.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/topbanner5.jpg?w=300" title="topbanner" width="300" /></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Current business structures and practices require that publicly held corporations answer to their shareholders. Shareholders want to see the value of their investment consistently grow and as long as that happens, shareholders are happy and so, apparently, is the corporation. Unfortunately, tracking ‘success’ with this narrow and self-interested a focus, can lead to significant negative impact on employees, supply chains, the environment, customers and even, in the long term, shareholders. This form and practice of business is no longer sustainable, as evidenced today by our current economic climate, environmental crisis in the gulf, employee engagement statistics and escalating bankruptcies.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Companies who are proactive, visionary, and responsive and who contribute to the long term happiness and well being of all of the stakeholders in the corporation are thriving. In contrast, the companies who continue to prioritize the bottom line, at any cost, are failing. If we have learned anything from the economic and environmental crises of late, it is that the corporation and its impact on the world are not separate.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It is time for a radical change<a href="http://questiam.com/RadicalChangemakers/manifesto-annie/#_edn1">[i]</a> in how we do business. In using the word radical, we mean that this change must be intentional and must spring from the root source recognition of our interconnectedness and impact on each other. It must be based in loving ourselves, each other and the world around us. Make no mistake, love is the radical change for love is a radical act. Organizations, as employers of many in our developed societies, need to play a leading role in how we achieve a world at peace and societies living in harmony.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Truly radical change happens over time, even though it might appear, as if it happens without warning. We suggest that the foundation of the change called for now is a shift from hierarchical, control based systems of management, through bosses or managers to a system of wisdom-based self-directed leadership by community, which we have termed “SDL” for Self-Directed Leadership. SDL defined is self-responsibility, self-accountability, passion, creativity and purpose within the container of our interconnectedness/recognition of our impact on each other, ruled by our mutual respect for life. Our theory is that this will result in greater innovation and fulfillment. Our goal is balance between the self-interest of the individual or organization and the context within which it operates.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As we recognize that what we think, believe, do and say, has impact on our communities and the world, we begin naturally to act with conscious intention in service of</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">the greater good, and are emotionally rewarded by feeling more fulfilled, healthy and engaged. When our actions incorporate respect for life and each other, when we learn how to listen to each other without the need to make one right and one wrong, when we learn that every voice needs to be heard, when we stand on opposite sides with the objective of finding the commonality and mutual goals, then we will have achieved true democracy.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We propose that our new understanding of the balance in the human motivation system may function as the best model for how to run a sustainably high performance organization. Develop a balance between profit and responsibility, between the individual and the collective in business, follow and honour the intrinsic needs of the people within the organization and profits will follow. In short;</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Structuring the WAY we do business to honour the needs of the individuals IN the business is the best way to maximize profit and minimize, and even eliminate the collateral damage that business has had over the past few centuries.</b></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As we transform the workplace to fully leverage the internal motivation systems we are born with, namely the desire to love and care for ourselves and for our communities, the workforce engages automatically. The organizations that adopt this new way of being will thrive and grow the bottom line to the delight of their shareholders, who may very likely turn out to be their stakeholders. Profits and bottom line success for companies who honour and work <i>with</i></span> their human systems will far surpass those that do not. The organizations that do not step up will become obsolete. The new generation of employees will not tolerate anything less than an engaging, supportive and fulfilling workplace.</div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> </i></span></div><hr size="1" style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;" /><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://questiam.com/RadicalChangemakers/manifesto-annie/#_ednref1">[i]</a> Radical = root</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">1. Arising from or going to a root or source; basic: proposed a radical solution to the problem.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">2. Departing markedly from the usual or customary; extreme: radical opinions on education.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">3. Favouring or effecting fundamental or revolutionary changes in current practices, conditions, or institutions: radical political views.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Written By Sharon Lewis and Annie Gelfand </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i> © Copyright 2010 Sharon Lewis and Tammy Anne Gelfand. </i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>All Rights Reserved.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="77" src="http://radicalchangemakers.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/bottombanner1.png?w=300" title="rcm_bottombanner" width="300" /></div>Coach Anniehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01642453527067325698noreply@blogger.com0