John Dilbeck Musings

In late December 2007, I created a new social networking site for Murphy NC 28906 on Ning.com.

If you live in, visit, or want to know more about Murphy, NC, come join us at the Murphy NC 28906 social networking site.

You can customize your profile, write a blog, discuss topics related to Murphy, NC in our forum, meet and get to know fellow residents, upload photos, and much more — all for free!

Anyone living in, visiting, or wanting to know more about Murphy, NC is welcome. Come join us today.

Nancy Williams, a resident of Graham County, North Carolina, announces the publication of her new book, A Matter of Destiny. If you are interested in a fast-paced story that combines UFOs, aliens, government conspiracies, and political intrigue, this book may be right for you.

Her background in the US Air Force and knowledge of ham radios, combined with an actual incident that occurred in Brookhaven, NY in 1992, make the fictional story more realistic and exciting.

The sequel, Agenda 21 Conspiracy, will feature a plot set in Andrews, Murphy, and the Nantahala Gorge in western North Carolina.

A Matter of Destiny is available in Murphy, NC, at the Curiosity Bookstore in Shoppes of Murphy on Valley River Avenue; in Fontana Village at Ditmore Drugs; in Robbinsville at The Graham Star; in Hayesville at Lloyd Bookstore; and in Waynesville at Osundu’s.

You can order the book from her website at www.NLWilliamsWriter.com.

To order offline, mail a check for $15.95 ($12.95 and $3.00 shipping) to: N. L. Williams, P. O. Box 1477, Robbinsville, NC 28771.

Nancy Williams will be making a number of personal appearances over the coming months. Don’t miss the chance to get an autographed copy.

I’ve been promoting Nice Offers coupons for some time, but over the lack week or two I’ve kicked it up another notch or two.

In order to help spread the word about Nice Offers coupons, I’ve created a couple of new blogs for Murphy NC and Western North Carolina. I’ve updated and improved my Syndicate Your Ad blog and I’ll be posting to it regularly, especially about coupons created by merchants I refer to the program.

The Nice Offers system is different from all the other coupon systems I know of and it may be confusing to some people.

This morning, I created a new department for Nice Offers Coupons Marketing Tips on my John Dilbeck And Friends blog.

I’ll be posting opinions, advice, and marketing tips about Nice Offers coupons to that department.

The first advice is simple: create a coupon.

Act on your dream!

JD

Over the last few days, there have been some big changes at Squidoo.com with the release of the new groups feature.

Now, your Squidoo lens is not a stand-alone page. You can join appropriate groups for cross promotion of similarly-themed lenses.

Don’t find a group you like? Start one of your own. Help all the members of your group find more readers and more success with Squidoo.

New Squidoo lenses

I just created a new Success With Blogging lens and I invite your feedback for resources that can be added to that lens.

New Squidoo groups

I have several lenses, websites, and forums related to North Carolina, so I created a new North Carolina Group and I invite you to add your lenses to this group as long as they relate primarily to a place, event, person, organization, or business that is in North Carolina.

Foundation Hosts Friends Luncheon on September 25, 2006

Please join The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina in celebrating another year of promoting philanthropy and building mountain communities at their annual Friends Luncheon.

This year they are focusing on homegrown philanthropic efforts that are enhancing and preserving our way of life.

In the past year, CFWNC has distributed more than $7 million in charitable grants across our 18-county mountain region and beyond.

Come to the Renaissance Asheville Hotel at noon to hear about some of the most promising projects and innovative ideas that promote and preserve mountain culture, encourage economic development and markets one mountain community as “The Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree.”

They will be serving a special “homegrown” lunch made from food grown by local farmers.

The cost is $25 per person and $45 per patron. Tables of 8 are available.

Reservations will be accepted until September 20, 2006.

To register, contact Beth Semadeni or call (828) 254-4960.

BRMEMC.NET Launches High Speed Internet Technology Initiative Focused on Advanced Data, Communications and Entertainment to Homes and Businesses

YOUNG HARRIS, GA – May 15, 2006 - BRMEMC.NET announced today that it intends to bring High Speed Internet Connectivity to Members of Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation. Service will be delivered by deployment of emerging Technologies such as Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH), Broadband over Power Line (BPL) and High Speed Wireless (Wi-Fi).

With this service, BRMEMC.NET will be addressing the growing need for widely accessible data and communications to homes and businesses. Currently, access is available only in limited areas due to the constraints of telephone lines and equipment. By deploying a wide-area fiber network in conjunction with BPL and Wi-Fi, limitations such as geography and/or distance can be overcome.

At the end of 2005, BRMEMC.NET purchased fiber that encircles the entire BRMEMC service area. This fiber will serve as the backbone of our new data and communications network. From this backbone, fiber can be run directly to homes and businesses or can be used to feed Wi-Fi Access Points and BPL.

Brian Anderson, Director of Internet Services for BRMEMC.net said, “Our investment in a regional self-healing fiber-optic network will help us provide broadband services to many of our members that have never before had the option of high-speed Internet.”

Members will have access to reliable, high speed Internet connectivity and new options for data, voice and video. Bandwidth can be used to simultaneously provide high speed Internet access, phone service, video, and a host of other exciting features.

Response to this new project has been immediate and larger than expected. Local Real Estate Developers are already requesting that fiber be installed in existing neighborhoods, and many are planning for fiber to be installed simultaneously with electric utilities in new developments.

High speed Internet service will be priced comparably to DSL, but will offer higher speeds. Additional services such as telephone service or Voice Over IP (VoIP), Video, etc., will be offered through strategic alliances and/or partnerships with other service providers. Pricing for additional services will be forthcoming as those projects develop.

An online form has been created to assist in planning the deployment schedule. Customers can submit a response form at www.brmemc.net/response which will be analyzed to determine areas with the greatest initial need. Areas with no high speed Internet access will be given priority, and the goal will be to serve as many members as is possible. Keep an eye out for announcements for a deployment schedule on the web site at www.brmemc.net.

Blue Ridge Mountain Electric Membership Corporation is a member-owned electric cooperative headquartered in Young Harris, Georgia, serving over 45,000 customers in Cherokee and Clay Counties in Western North Carolina, and Towns, Union and Fannin Counties in Northeast Georgia. Organized locally in 1937, BRMEMC has invested nearly $100 million in physical infrastructure in its mission to provide reliable electric services to its members where those services would not otherwise have been available. In 2002, BRMEMC.NET began operation with a similar mission in mind: to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to our underserved region. Now over 3,000 customers strong, BRMEMC.net is forging ahead in its effort to make the Western North Carolina and North Georgia region a leader in the technology age.

My ancestry is partly Scot-Irish, as is the ancestry of many people who live in western North Carolina and the surrounding area. Our Appalachian heritage derives much of its richness from our ancestors in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England.

I’ve been interested in fairy tales, druids, dragons, Celtic symbols, an other similar topics since childhood. I recently found a great website that provides information on these topics.

I’ve told you many times that I am a huge fan of Sitesell’s flagship product Site Build It! and I’m a very satisfied customer. I have one SBI site and am in the process of planning a couple more.

Recently, I was looking at other sites built on SBI to see what people were doing. That’s when I came across Celtic-Culture.com.

Instantly, I liked the site and spent some time reading it. I subscribed to the newsletter, too.

I am interested in Celtic culture and I think Ron picked the perfect name for his domain.

Ron already has very interesting information on his site and blog and I look forward to reading more as he has time to add it.

If you have any interest in Celtic culture, or know someone who does, I recommend Celtic-Culture.com to you.

(Asheville, North Carolina) Almost one year ago, they began coming together, a group of women who wanted to create positive change for women and girls in western North Carolina.

They formed Women for Women and now have more than $185,000 to grant in the coming months to nonprofit organizations and public agencies that serve women in crisis. Grants from $30,000 to $100,000 are available, and the deadline to apply is Friday, February 3, 2006.

To date, 188 women have become members of Women for Women, a special initiative of the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina that encourages women’s philanthropy. Each member contributes $1,100 per year for three years, then together they learn about pressing needs facing women throughout the region and determine how to direct their funds.

During the first year of grantmaking, the membership decided to award grants to organizations that are helping economically disadvantaged women rebuild their lives and be more self-sufficient.

“We are looking for applicants that can supply safety net programs to prevent setbacks for women such as homelessness, joblessness, and hunger,” said Carol Minton, chair of the grants committee. “We plan to fund groups that work cooperatively with others, address causes rather than symptoms, and make a lasting impact.”

To be eligible for consideration, a nonprofit organization or public agency must meet specific guidelines and serve one or more of the 18 counties in the western North Carolina region.

To apply for a grant or become a member of Women for Women, visit Community Foundation of Western North Carolina or call 828-254-4960.

Mike Arriola, the U. S. Small Business Administration’s Senior Area Manager for Western North Carolina, in cooperation with the Small Business Center at Tri-County Community College and SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), will offer a free workshop on financing techniques for businesses and will provide attendees with an opportunity to ask questions about other SBA programs. SCORE and Small Business Center representatives will be available for expanded business counseling and mentoring.

The workshop will be held at Tri-County Community College on January 14, 2005. If it snows, the alternative date will be January 19, 2005.

You can learn more about the SBA and its programs by calling 1-800-827-5722 or by visiting their website at www.sba.gov.

For more information about the upcoming workshop, call Cecilia Crawford at the Small Business Center at 828-835-4297 or email her at CCrawford@tricountycc.edu

If you have corporate or small business skills, and a desire to help business owners succeed, SCORE would like to speak with you about volunteering at the Murphy branch office. Contact Jerry Chautin at PO Box 254, Murphy, NC 28906 or via email at JKChautin@aol.com .

Hendersonville-based SCORE Western North Carolina announced that Judy Grove has joined its new branch office in Murphy, North Carolina, as a volunteer business counselor.

SCORE is a not-for-profit all volunteer resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration. They offer free business advice, counseling and mentoring to entrepreneurs who want to start, expand, finance or buy a business.

Grove, a seasoned entrepreneur, is president and chief executive officer of Grove Enterprises, Inc. in Brasstown. She has many years of experience overcoming the challenges of starting and making small businesses profitable and will apply these skills when helping her SCORE clients.

Dick Adams is the chair of SCORE Western North Carolina and met with Grove in Murphy. He told her that Washington-based SCORE was started 40 years ago and has since grown to 10,500 volunteers, in 385 chapters nationwide. Adams said that new Cherokee County branch is an outreach of the Hendersonville-based, SCORE Western North Carolina with 27 volunteers and branches in Brevard and Rutherford. It will serve small businesspersons in Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties.

To learn more online, check out, www.scorewnc.org and www.score.org. Grove’s Web site is, www.grove-ent.com.

Domiciled at the Small Business Center of Tri-County Community College in Cherokee County, NC, the new SCORE office conducts private and confidential counseling and mentoring sessions with business owners.

SCORE’s local branch office is looking for a few more volunteers. This interesting opportunity is available to working and retired men and women who have small business or corporate skills. They must enjoy helping others succeed spend a few hours monthly on a flexible schedule. Resources and training are provided.

For further information on volunteering or to request an application, please e-mail: JKChautin@aol.com or call (828) 837-4598 in Murphy or (828) 693-8702 in Hendersonville.