A retrospective farewell to Innovative Incentives, Inc.

Today is my last day at Innovative Incentives, Inc., a job that I’ve had since the year 2000. All told, this is the job I’ve held for the longest amount of time. The previous record being the nine years I worked for the Kennedy-Donovan Center.

It’s been both an interesting and fun job and, at times, a stressful and difficult job.

In the year 2000, Allen was working for a retail travel agency in Holden, MA that was paying him a moderately adequate salary. He had made arrangements with the owners to start receiving commission income for incentive travel business that he had brought to the company. When it came time for the commission payments to be made, the owners reneged on the agreement. It was then that I suggested and encouraged Allen to leave the company, take the incentive travel client, and start his own incentive travel company. I named it Innovative Incentives, Inc.

Setting up the corporation in the year 2000 was definitely one of the fun and interesting experiences I had at Innovative Incentives, Inc. Initially, we hired Anne, a local lawyer, to draw up the corporate documents and set up the corporation. In 2004, we switched to Brendan, a lawyer at Fusaro, Altomare & Ermilio in Worcester, MA. At that time, we given a corporate book and we made significant changes to our corporate structure and practices. Since that time, we have worked with Paul, a local lawyer in town at Cranston & Cranston, P.C., He has been extremely helpful and invaluable to us on both a personal and business level.

In 2000, we hired David, an accountant in Shrewsbury, MA. He recommended changing our corporation from a C-Corp to an S-Corp. This was done to allow us to buy universal variable life insurance. This insurance program was tied to a somewhat unusual investment program, one that allowed generous amounts of tax-free investments to be made by the company. However, there was no mandatory provision for making any investments at all. The insurance program was the only part of the investment program we were interested in.

At the time that we set this investment/insurance program up, the program was very new and unknown to most people and most companies. In fact, at that time, it hadn’t held up to lawsuits made by insurance underwriters and the government had issues with its tax-loopholes. Buying into this program was risky, but only in the sense of having the insurance cancelled if the program didn’t pass government scrutiny. In the end, it did and we’ve kept that insurance up to this day.

David died on the golf course sometime in 2002, leaving us without an accountant.  His passing was sad as he was our first accountant and we felt he really was invested in our company. Our favorite memory of him is a time that we were having a discussion and I asked about some governmental consideration in regard to a tax liability. He replied in a completely relaxed manner with “fuck the government.” Immediately, we both started to laugh. I think he also suggested that, at least financially, we had then become republicans.

I don’t remember how we found our next accountant, but it must have been through a personal referral. I know we didn’t pick him out of the Yellow Pages. His name was Brian and he was associated with a law firm in Worcester, MA. He was an affable and competent accountant who was always available for questions, even when they weren’t strictly about accounting. Over the years, we became friendlier with him and we invited him to our (then) traditional 4^th of July party.

In 2008, he called us to say that he had been indicted for theft or perhaps it was termed embezzlement. It was my understanding that he'd stolen in excess of 100k from a customer. He came out to the office to discuss the matter with us, saying that he’d “made a mistake.” I was very disappointed and we fired him.

We asked several people in town for a recommendation in regard to hiring a new accountant and they unanimously referred us to Bruce, an accountant in Oakham, MA. We’ve used Bruce’s accounting services ever since that time and although he is more business-minded than Brian in his manner, he is a great accountant and we’re very pleased with him and his services.  

Over the years, Innovative Incentives, Inc. has moved a few times. Actually, it has moved MANY times! It’s sort of a corporate in-joke. I carefully reported the company’s moves in a previous post, but let’s say it moved approximately nine times. I think that may very well be accurate.

We’ve always been a small company with two employees (me and Allen) but there was a time when we had three employees (me, Allen, and Martin) and a time when we had four employees (me, Allen, Sarah, and Emily).

Emily worked with us for a short time when we were located in Worcester, upstairs in the Taproot Bookstore building as a general support person. She was also with us for the move to the Tatman House in Barre center. Emily once traveled to South Africa with Allen to deliver a program, and I think she picked out most of the species of fish we got to put in a huge 500 gallon aquarium we set up in the office.

Sarah stayed with the company for 5 years. During her tenure with Innovative Incentives, Inc., Sarah developed our corporate identity as well as our very cool corporate logo and she was proficient in pretty much every aspect of the business. She did marketing and advertising and also delivered programs and made presentations to prospective clients. She continues to be a consultant to the company in an informal way and remains a corporate stockholder and corporate officer.

In the past, the company has had several outside agents but none of them produced any significant business for the company. One outside agent’s referral business was primarily that of her own occasional vacation travel arrangements. In regard to retail travel business such as this, the company has not realized any serious income from that aspect of the travel industry. Not for lack of trying. Over the years we have done some advertising to the local retail market without appreciable results.

For the most part, in reality, Innovative Incentives, Inc. could be regarded as a one-man business.  Allen has a passion for travel and the travel business in general. His knowledge of travel and travel destinations coupled with his very competent and engaging personal people skills has resulted with repeat business from loyal clients year after year. Allen has had one client’s incentive travel business for twenty years in a row!

Our partnership has been a solid one and we’ve each had very distinct roles within the company. Allen has handled all of the retail and incentive travel aspects of the business including: client contact, re-contracting, presentations, program budgeting, site inspections, trip deliveries and a lot of other detailed work. I have been involved with the business infrastructure and “behind the scenes” work needed to run the company (taxes, accounting, banking, graphic design, documents, and setting up phone systems, office machines and business protocols.)  

Together we have started and successfully managed Innovative Incentives for thirteen years. It is not without some sadness that I leave the business, but I will remain an owner, corporate officer and stockholder. After some planning and discussion, we have made arrangements to transfer my job responsibilities to others. We think we’ve come up with a good plan with which to move forward and hopefully our plan will transition well as it becomes the “new normal” in regard to the operation of Innovative Incentives, Inc.

Although I will no longer be involved with the business in an active manner, Innovative Incentives Inc. will remain my livelihood so I will always be interested and supportive of the company in any way that is necessary or holds some interest for me. This job has taught me a lot of new skills and made me familiar with corporate America. I can’t say I have any affinity with corporate America, but it has, of course, provided me with the means to enjoy a good life.

It is my hope that the company continues to be successful and provides the excellent and personal service for which it has been lauded since its inception. I also look forward to this new part of my life and wonder what may lie ahead...

Religious Ranting: 002

 
This is God's map of his sanctioned religions and their evolution over time. Any religion not growing on this tree is a devil religion.

Reality Check: 002

“The point is that most of what we currently hold sacred is not sacred

for any reason other than that it was thought sacred yesterday.”
― Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

The Life of a Story in Progress XII: how does one change their mind?

I'm so stupid, I should have eaten the GREEN BERRY!!!

Change your mind and change the world.

If there's anything you can't change, it's your first impression. Secondly, it's also very difficult to change your reputation. As you know, it precedes you and often times IS your first impression. So what is one to do? I'll give you two choices. You must pick one, there's no third option.

1) Be elusive and secretive. Keep all your thoughts and feeling to yourself and don't come out on the side of anything controversial.

2) Live your life as if it were an open book, be aware of what is going on around you. Be accessible and present. In other words, live in the moment.

If you chose option 1, I don't know what's going to happen to you because you're not available for mutiny, I mean scrutiny. 

People won't know you or care what it is that you're doing because you're not making any waves nor are you rocking the boat. In other words, you're dead in the water.

If you ever come out of dry dock and want to sail the seven seas, you'll find that you've missed the boat and been left high and dry. You might say that you're somewhere between the devil and the blue sea; your goal may be to row full steam ahead but you're up a river without a paddle.  

On the other hand, if you selected option 2, you're a loose cannon and when given a wide berth, you'll take any port in a storm. When beached, you don't feel the need to batten down the hatches, if you catch my drift.

Usually you are an even keel, although you may occasionally haul up short and find yourself in the same boat as the scallywags who look one way but row another.

---

"O Captain! My Captain!" "Our fearful trip is done, the ship has weathered every rock, the prize we sought is won, the port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting." ---Walt Whitman

Religious Ranting: 001

Latter Day Saints
Prairie Saint Denomination

There are about 80 different types of Mormon churches. Yes, 80. Those churches headquartered in the American west are known collectively as the Rocky Mountain Saints and those sects that formed in and around Nauvoo, Illinois; Voree, Wisconsin; Independence, Missouri, and other locations in the midwest and east are referred to as the Prairie Saints. 

Reality Check: 001

“It is time we realize that belief is not a private matter. As a man believes, so he will act. Believe that you are a member of a chosen people, awash in the salacious exports of an evil culture that is turning your children away from God, believe that you will be rewarded with an eternity of unimaginable delights by dealing death to these infidels—and flying a plane into a building is only a matter of being asked to do it.”

― Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

 

Tribute: Little Green Men XII: be prepared

Don't worry, I remembered the snacks!

The Life of a Story in Progress XI: recreation of the 60's

When I lived in San Angelo, Texas during my youth, we often visited the Goodfellow AFB recreation area on Lake Nasworthy on weekends and perhaps on some holidays during which time my father didn't have to work.  http://www.goodfellow.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123256152  

We’d pack up the car with lawn chairs, blankets, swimsuits, toys and our trusty metal cooler (filled with food and snacks) and leave the house in mid-morning to spend the entire day at the park.

The rec area was a place set aside for use by military personnel and their families. There were playgrounds, baseball fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, horseshoe courts and plenty of space for badminton, croquet and other lawn games.

(this is a sample cooler of the times and not our actual one)

 

And, there was fishing and boating. To fish, (or engage in any other activity) fishing poles, basketballs and all manner of equipment was available to be checked out for free at the boat house. I think items were chedcked out for specific amounts of time. We often went fishing and I once caught a big fish; I think it was among the larger fish anyone in the family caught--at least at that time.

(this is a sample thermos of the times and not our actual one)

 

One of the special activities we'd enjoy from time to time would be to check out a boat (equipped with an outboard motor) and we'd fly across the lake, from one end to the other. We'd have to go under a large bridge on one end of the lake and we'd have to slow down while passing under it. I'm pretty sure this bridge was one we'd cross over on our way to the park. Seeing the bridge from underneath was always exciting and I remember being amazed at how far away it was from the park. Each time we went out on the boat, I wondered how my father knew how long we could be out on the water and how far we could wander without running out of gas. I don't know the answer to those questions, but we never did run out of gas.

  

Once a year, around the 4^th of July, there would be a carnival at the park. This would always be a special event and I can remember playing many midway games and having special treats. Each year, we’d come home with all sorts of treasured prizes and memories. Of course, there would also be fireworks. Sometimes, there would be an entire fireworks show and other times, there’d be a smaller display. Fireworks were legal in San Angelo, TX, although you couldn’t buy them within the city limits.  Some years, part of the 4th of July festivities would include a live band. I don't know what kind of music they played but they were a band and not an orchestra, so I imagine they played music of the sixties for the most part. 

 

The rec area was very large; at least that’s how I remember it. Wherever the family set up its picnic area or cook-out area, one could wander far away to check out what was happening in another distant part of the camp. Sometimes, a family of friends would be near us and we’d hang out together, or they’d be all the way across the park and we’d visit throughout the day. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing the end of the park in any given direction. I'm not sure if this is because the park was so large that finding the edge was impractical or if it's just that I never tried to find it.  

There was a time that we left the park to go home because there severe thunderstorms in the area. Along the way home, we saw a tornado off in the distance. When I say off in the distance, I mean way, way off in the distance. The terrain on the Edwards Plateau (the region in which this story takes place) is flat, flat, flat; and this means you can see far, far away.

Enjoyed a fun-filled birthday weekend in NYC with Allen, Sarah and Emily!

It was a very nice weekend indeed. We visited and revisited the food emporium (we've been there several times before while visiting NYC), walked a few blocks this way and that way, went to the show and ate at the Olympic Diner and Ruby Tuesday's. We enjoyed the Hell's Kitchen flea market. Sarah and Emily gave me a beautiful Swarovski crystal key designed and signed by Yoko Ono. That was a terrific surprise! ...and besides giving me the entire weekend and taking me to see the Book of Mormon for the third time, Allen bought me a Book of Mormon t-shirt.

The Life of a Story in Progress X: another trip to NYC... sans aircraft.

I will be enjoying a birthday weekend in NYC this weekend. Looking forward to spending time with my family and having late summer adventures in the Big Apple. As is a tradition on my birthday, we're seeing the Book of Mormon (third time).

The Little Green Men highly recommend the Book of Mormon. You shouldn't ignore them.

A Quandary; is it ethical to grind up vitamins and place them into someone's food?

Yes folks, Allen admits it; he's too good for vitamins.

Tribute: Little Green Men XI: The Beginning

The primordial Green Man.

The Life of a Story in Progress IX: Having no thoughts, the thinker fades into memory.

The Crazy Lady

Being remembered as the Crazy Lady isn't very complimentary. But, it's too late for political correctness or niceties. The Crazy Lady lived at 105 Dorchester St., in Worcester, MA up to the year that she died in 1975.

In 1974, I lived in Worcester, MA on Dorchester St. in a third floor apartment in a "double" triple-decker. That is, the building was essentially two triple deckers joined together. A double triple-decker was unusual but there were others in the city. The apartment in which I lived was on the third floor. Because of the terrain, and the height of the building, looking out of the windows was an awesome sight. It seemed to me as though the view was from a much higher viewpoint

The Crazy Lady did have an actual name and that name was Dottie St. Marie. My paternal grandmother's last name was St. Marie. But that's not really relevant here. Dottie was crazy, there's no doubt about that. She was nothing if not schizophrenic and demonstrated all the classic symptoms of schizophrenia.

My interaction with the Crazy Lady consisted of "conversations" with her through my third floor kitchen window and hers. These windows were very narrow, perhaps about 24" or so. The building had an irregular shape in the back. See illustration:

My introduction to the Crazy Lady came one day soon after moving into the building. I heard a woman yelling outside but I didn't know where it was coming from. The yelling was quite loud. I eventually discovered that the reason she was so loud was 1) she was actually yelling very loudly and 2) her voice was echoing back and forth between the two "wings" of the building. It was as though she was yelling through a megaphone. 

I checked out several of the windows looking for the source of the ruckus and when I checked the kitchen window I saw the Crazy Lady for the first time. 

She appeared to be about 60-65 years old with mostly grey hair. Her face was worn and wrinkled with the emotion of her rantings. She was wearing an inverted dark green contractor-sized trash bag in which she had cut arm holes and a hole in the bottom of the bag to accommodate her head. Her arms had been lathered with soap that she had allowed to dry and in one hand she held some kind of kitchen utensil, perhaps it was a spoon. Needless to say, her appearance was striking. Now add to her appearance her loud raving diatribe against the landlord of the building. This was my introduction to Dottie St. Marie.

Appearances aside, the Crazy Lady is really remembered for her insane discourse. One day, I recorded her for about an hour. This is most likely her only legacy. Her favorite topic of discussion was the inadequacies of the neglectful and greedy landlord who, in her words, "only wants the rent." 

The truth about the landlord was that he was a very amicable fellow who was rarely seen unless making a repair or was at the building for some other appropriate reason. When he did come to the building, this would trigger Dottie into hyper-crazy mode and she would begin a very long session of verbalizing her great displeasure with his perceive indifference and neglect. 

In the course of about a year, Dottie made frequent speeches, mostly about the landlord, but occasionally about her daily routines and even more rarely, she would have a fairly coherent expression about how she felt about someone or something. Whenever she had such a lucid (one-sided) conversation, hearing her express an awareness of her isolation and illness was very sad.

Many months after living across the way from Dottie, I went out to the front porch and was surprised to find a very old man sitting there. He seemed quite frail and spoke softly and haltingly. He had a cane and wore a hat. He wasn't much of a conversationalist, but over time I learned that he was Dottie's father and that they had lived in their apartment for many, many years.

He was not often able to walk even fairly short distances and his appearances on the front porch were very limited. When I did find him on the front porch, I would sit with him and not engage in much conversation. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for him to live in his situation so keeping him quiet company seemed appropriate. I got a sense that he appreciated the time I spent with him, but perhaps that was just something I imagined.

 If you'd like to hear a sample of Dottie's speeches, an. mp3 file is available HERE.

Sadly, and sadly is an understatement, there was a fire at 105 Dorchester St. in 1975 that consumed the entire building. No occupants survived the fire.

The Life of a Story in Progress VIII: A year in the life.

It's been a year since we moved from 550 Old Dana Rd. in Barre, MA to our new home on some street in some town, MA. (I'd tell you where it was that I moved, but my daughter will not like that at all)

It's been an extremely busy year. We moved to our new home but first had extensive renovations done. We moved our business office (twice) after having to get a special variance from the town to run a business in a residential area.  We moved all the art to the apartment (Where our business was located) and then moved it all back to the house when we rented the apartment to a new tenant.
We had a massive yard sale and made about $30.00.  We set up an above ground swimming pool and learned to maintain it.

We escaped a big blizzard by having the good sense to be in the Caribbean on a cruise ship. We prepared for a hurricane, but it didn't live up to the expectations that were predicted. .

I had two significant injuries to both hands at different times, requiring stitches first time and although needing them on the second, I refused to have Lidocaine injected into the wound like the previous time. Allen also got involved in the medical drama by dropping a huge glass table top on his big toe. It’s been black and painful for over a month at the very least.

We installed 21 solar panels on the roof and will find out the actual savings we'll realize at the end of the billing period. Can't wait to see what it shows us. We saw The Book of Mormon for my birthday (2012) and also saw the musical Spiderman in November.

We had weatherization projects done in the attic including new flooring and air-sealing at the top of the walls (in the attic) for all rooms on the second floor.

We had new steps, railing, landings and gates built on our pool decking and we had a significant amount of trees cut down to open our vista.

And, of course, I got two new tattoos in May and without ceremony, got laid off from work in July. I’m probably forgetting at least half of what happened in the last year, but enough is enough.