I continue to be amazed and astounded how many emails I get every day that aren’t signed and/or that make only vague references to what they are about.“Thank you for adding Joe to our membership” isn’t really all that helpful unless I know who you are and who Joe is.I am fortunate in that ...

I hope you don’t mind if I take a few minutes tonight to explain the best approach to contacting other members of our now vast organization.The best approach to contacting just about anyone, including other members, is to first send a letter of introduction with a copy of your resume. I kn...

How often have we seen a speaker tap a microphone and say: Is this on?At least the person in question is preparing to speak. On the other hand, how often have we heard news reports about politicians saying things they shouldn’t have been saying (or thinking), not realizing that the microph...

In a sense, a sailboat isn’t a complicated machine. Compared with other means of transportation such as cars or planes, there really isn’t much to a sailboat. Sails are pretty simple, and if you are like me, you don’t use the motor if you can avoid it. (We only burned 50 gallons of diesel ...

A few weeks ago I was doing a pretty good job of keeping up with my email. This past week or so, not so good. I must admit that from time to time I have fallen very far behind. (My personal record is 600 or 800 unanswered after one of my vacations, but that was a long time ago.)Sure, I kno...

I sometimes get the feeling from the format of emails I get and the strange formatting of resumes I see that there are those who believe computers are just a passing phase in our society.I don’t know how to break this to those of you who have been reluctant to “get with the program,” one o...

I have been known to get seriously silly at times. (I know this will come as a great shock to all of you.)Back in the old days when I was able to stay up late, Saturday Night Live had an ongoing skit about an individual named Pat. Over the course of the seasons or season it was on (as I in...

Every once in a while I get an assignment for The FECG that draws more than its fair share of attention.I think our all time high several years ago was an assignment that drew 225 responses. However, even when you get an assignment that draws more than say 40 responses, it can get a little...

For those of you who are sailing fans and/or history buffs and saw the movie Master & Commander: The Far Side of The World, there was a scene where Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany were having a heated argument about the merits of flogging. The comment made by the captain was that the go...

There was a time, I suppose, when it was really hard to get back to people. Let’s say someone sent you a smoke signal. I guess you would first have to build a fire, and a smoky one at that. If they sent you a message towards the end of the day, would you really have enough time to respond?...

I suppose I could be wrong about all of this, but I find the use of “, MBA” as part of your name to be a bad idea. Yes, I know that not everyone has an MBA, but in my opinion unless you are a CPA or a Ph.D., you need to exercise a little caution in the initials you place after your name. M...

I assume that most of you are unaware that in addition to being Chairman of The FENG, I am also president of the Save The Nauga Society. I have been actively involved in trying to save the nauga from extinction for many years. While naugas existed in most parts of the world in large number...

Here in Connecticut spring has arrived and with it the beginning of the boating season. We took our boat out for the first time 2 weeks ago! Great fun.Anyway, as I begin each season, I sit myself down and remind myself of the ease with which tools are lost over the side. As you settle into...

One from column A and one from column B. Sure makes it easy, doesn’t it? Much as our electronic world makes life simple, it also makes it more complicated in certain ways due to the opportunity to be lazy or inattentive to details. Just as there are only a few themes for good writing (man ...

I don’t know if your incoming snail mail is anything like ours, but we sure get a ton of unsolicited mail. The procedure we follow in our house is to pile the mail up and pull over a large garbage pail. The rule is, “when in doubt, throw it out.” Hard to believe how much junk mail we get o...

To quote George Bernard Shaw: “The biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” With respect to our power to communicate, we live in a remarkable period of time. I normally respond to 50-100 unique emails every day. I have been doing this for many years and ye...

Tomorrow I will begin processing a rather large batch of new members. It is actually a two week batch as I was on vacation the past two weeks. I realize that new members are not totally indicative of how everyone is doing their resume, but I have to tell you that their resumes aren’t all t...

I hope I will not sound like I am in a bad mood or anything, but I have to tell you that the bulk of the messages I get from members need a lot of work to make them appear as proper business correspondence. I wish I could believe this is only how you write when you are corresponding with y...

I don’t know if you will agree, but I’m almost convinced that email is going to stick around for a while as a business tool. This being the case, I would like to make the bold suggestion to all of you who write emails (and hopefully that is everyone in The FENG) that you “get with the prog...

I have never quite understood why the emails I get are so sloppy. I fully realize and accept that most people don’t type 90 words a minute like I do. Still, even if you only hunt and peck, it is my honest advice to you that you make an effort to spell words correctly and to check your sent...

A few times a week we get an “Unsubscribe” note from one of our members asking us to stop the newsletter. Although our Unsubscribe button does ask why, sometimes we do get an explanation of sorts, but most times we don’t. All we get is the subject: Unsubscribe.Perhaps I shouldn’t admit thi...