Can you play tennis with a BASEr?

I used to play a lot of tennis. Weekends... after school... entire summers were spent riding my bike to the courts a few miles away, tennis bag over my shoulder, red thermos from Pizza Hut full of Gatorade draped over the handlebars, sweltering heat making me soak through my shirt before I even stepped on the court. Hours of sets, practicing serves, chasing balls, winning and losing...

Tennis was a passion.

So imagine my happiness when I got a great new tennis racket for Christmas this past year. A Dunlop, super lightweight, custom-strung, mostly white with angular swaths of black. It says "hey, I'm good-natured, nothing flashy, nothing overly aggressive, fun... but like the yang to the yin, I will use these perfectly tensioned strings to bury you if I need to."

It says "I like to have fun with tennis, but I take it seriously enough to have a decent racket."

It says "Would you please get me out of my bag that's been hanging on the doorknob since December 26th and do something with me?!?"

I'm going to blame the weather. I'm going to blame the lack of readily available inside courts. I'm going to blame lots of work, volunteer stuff... time in general, or the lack thereof. But the truth is, I'm running out of things to blame.

'Tis time to play ball.

I haven't played in a couple of years. Truth be told, it's been a good fifteen years since I've played with any regularity. It's been harder than I would have thought to find a tennis partner or two or five. A couple of people have stepped up, but for this reason or that it just hasn't come together (go back a couple paragraphs to read why).

So, to motivate myself and expand the pool of possible players, I decided to ask on this site: wanna play some tennis?

What does this have to do with young people? Well, not much - if I don't play pretty soon. I am slowly making my way towards "Old Timer" status, as in the bottom left of the picture (click to enlarge if you need to). Back in the day, I may have fancied myself the guy in the upper right, hit the ball as hard as the guy in the middle, sometimes ended up flailing around like our friend in the lower right, and fortunately never ended up like the woman upper left (although I did hit myself in the eye with the racket the day before school pictures).

So let's play. Shoot me an email, leave a comment, or come to a BASE event and we can talk. If enough people want to do it, maybe we can put together a round-robin tournament or something.

If not, maybe I'll just hop on my bike and go practice some serves. I'm sure I'll need it.

Are You Smarter Than a BASEr

Hello fellow BASErs! Last Thursday, a few of us met and organized a presentation for the Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. We wanted to remind them who we are and update them on activities. The creative juices were running wild!

We didn't want a traditional "Hello, my name is Brad and BASE is good" type of presentation. Instead, we decided to make it a little more fun and turn it into a parody the game show of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader" called "Are You Smarter Than a BASEr?"

This morning we played our spin-off game show with the Board. I think they found it refreshing! We were giving them something different and original in our own way, while still providing them with information on BASE.

Our emcee, Mathias, asked four open-ended questions and board members were asked to respond. We also provided them with hint cards should they have trouble. The rest of the BASErs helped the board members provide the most complete, accurate answer. Because, with BASE, there is not one right answer but rather many individual interpretations of what BASE really is.

Not bad, for a Thursday morning at 7:30!

Rebecca Ryan's Coming To Town

We have news from a BASE friend that Rebecca Ryan will be in Iowa City on Monday (March 24th) at 5:30. A reception will be followed by a reading from her latest book on engaging young people in the workplace and in the community at large.

Check out the details below - should be interesting!

(copy below originally posted at discoverthecorridor.wordpress.com)

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A Corridor collaboration between the Professional & Technical Diversity Network, Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance (ICCA), Diversity Focus and Access Iowa will welcome Rebecca Ryan, author and founder of Next Generation Consulting, back to the Corridor on Monday, March 24.

The collaboration will host a Corridor Welcome Reception for Ryan beginning at 5:30 p.m. at hotelVetro, 201 South Linn Street in Iowa City. The free reception is sponsored by IowaCoast.com. A short program will begin at 6 p.m. Later that evening, Rebecca will read from her book, “Live First, Work Second,” on WSUI’s “Live at Prairie Lights” at 7:30 p.m. hosted by Julie Englander.

Ryan is well-known in the Corridor and throughout the nation as an expert on attracting and retaining young talent and bridging generational differences to make the workplace more effective. Her description of what constitutes “cool communities” reverberates with young professionals and organizations throughout the U.S. Released in March 2007, Rebecca’s self-published book is available from Prairie Lights in Iowa City and on her Web site: www.NextGeneration.com.

Economist and author Richard Florida (”The Rise of the Creative Class and The Flight of the Creative Class”) gives Rebecca a decisive endorsement in his foreword in her book. As an entrepreneur, Ryan knows business rules. When she launched her Next Generation consulting business, she adopted a simple, three-step process which led to consulting success and her first book, “Live First, Work Second: Getting inside the head of the next generation.”
For more than a decade, Rebecca has gathered information from more than 24,000 young people. Armed with data, Rebecca engages and captivates audiences with logic, business sense, her charm and understanding how the world of work is changing rapidly.

Coffee beans and comic books

Good morning, BASE! One of the several things putting spring in my step this Thursday (in addition to the fact that it's actually starting to feel like SPRING outside!) is the hot mug of Outreach Africa coffee that's going to make me a very productive public policy researcher today. We talked last meeting about the idea of finding ways to distribute these coffee beans more widely, and I'm proud to announce that the Iowa Policy Project is now officially an Outreach-Africa-coffee-bean-brewing office! As the primary coffee drinker in the office, I hold some sway over such matters, and I've just installed a new coffee grinder next to the coffee machine and the adorable little cloth bag of coffee on our kitchen shelf.

In other news, I just wanted to advertise a great event coming up in a few weeks; the next installment of the UI Lecture series is coming to Hancher on April 6 and will be Marjane Satrapi, author of the autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis. Ms. Satrapi writes about her childhood growing up in Iran. The book is amazing, and you may know that it's just been made into a movie (French with English subtitles). I read this book a few years ago in a course on politics and literature, and I've been recommending it left and right ever since. If anyone wants to borrow my copy, you would have to give me something really valuable to hold in reciprocal hostage. . . or you could go buy your own, beautiful copy and then come with me to the lecture on April 6.

March Madness

BASErs:

Okay, Hawk fans! March Madness is here and we need to enjoy it (before the Hawkeye season comes to an end...).

Join us for the Hawkeye Men’s Basketball team's first-round Big Ten Tournament game on Thursday, March 13 at Old Chicago in Coralville. Tip-off is at 11 a.m., so plan to take your lunch with us and root on the Hawks. Remember, there is a great pizza buffet at Old Chicago!

Come celebrate the continuation of the Hawks’ season....or lament their early demise.

And the AFLAC Trivia Duck is back, so brush up on your useless sports knowledge as well!

Iowa Men's Basketball vs. Michigan (1st round Big Ten Tournament)
Thursday, March 13th (tomorrow)
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (stop by for as short or long as you can)
Old Chicago (we’ll be in the front, across from the bar)
Coralville (on the strip, you know?)

See you there!

NEWBIE

I am one of those “new faces” in BASE that everybody is talking about. I am not exactly new, but close enough. I attended the BASE Launch Party way back when this summer, but never came back to another meeting until last week. Not sure why I never came back…maybe I had another meeting, it was too cold, could not find parking downtown, was just skeptical, or whatever…

Anyways, now I wish I had made more of an effort. The group of people that attended the meeting were great and I immediately felt part of the group as we each partook of our favorite domestic and imported brews. I go to a lot of meetings everyday, and this is my only meeting where drinking is not frowned upon. We talked about everything from Coffee to Building Houses to the Hawks running the Big Ten Tourney.

There was no stuffy agenda, just good people having good conversation!!!
There are many ways to get involved in the Iowa City area…if you are looking to get involved, you should definitely consider attending the next BASE meeting. I think most of the meetings usually take place at the downstairs bar of Atlas World Grill…come check it out. If you do not like it, you can always say you were just trying to find the Bathroom…

Wrap-up Casual Collab. March 3

We met last night at the BASEment of the Atlas World Grill in Iowa City. More new faces, more new ideas, and some action steps.

Ice Breaker: "Since this winter has been such a drag (esp. that wonderful 55-degree teaser), tell us one thing you love about winter and one thing you hate about winter."

Old Biz:
Karaoke at Charlie's in Coralville was a good event that will be repeated. Apparently Brian "embodied Johnny Cash" although he is declining any praise and crediting illness-inspired vocal hoarseness for the success of the show. Loren was also well-received and offered an "any time, any place" karaoke challe'nvite. ( Challe'nvite - noun/verb - an invitation to participate in competition, casual or otherwise. copyright 2008 - mathias gran)

Volunteer ushering at the Englert in Iowa City for the Kevin McDonald show was a success. BASErs made it happen, although it's rumored that other volunteers helped, too. Sean was overseas, but didn't hear of any issues. Brian was coming down with a cold, but showed up anyway and ended up going home because all positions were filled. Woo-hoo!

New Biz:
Credit to Brian: Big 10 Tournament Viewing (Iowa Game). The schedule is still TBD, but the Hawks will likely play on Thursday, March 13 at Noon. Plan on meeting at Old Chicago on the Strip in Coralville for about 2 hours to watch our favorite local collegiate basketball team play (one of) the final game(s) of the season.

Mike Schmitz proposed an opportunity to work with Iowa Non-Profit "Outreach Africa" by collaborating with local coffee shops to buy a bulk order of raw beans from Tanzania to support the cause. Then, perhaps, utilize the skills of local coffee roasters and hold a "Roasting Hosting Toasting" event to promote individual or business purchases of aforementioned coffee beans. Mike will continue to "brew" on it and post more details as they "perk" up.

Pun quota: met.

Brain will check with local non-profits to see who organizes Habitat for Humanity fund raising since we don't have resources for that aspect. Good amount of buzz in the group about participating in a build if one is funded.

Hasta.