Guli Newsletter Autumn 2008

Overlooking the plaza is Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, founded by Franciscans from Spain in 1772 and named for St. Louis, Bishop of Toulouse, whose statue once again graces the sanctuary after having taken a sabbatical while the Mission was undergoing extensive seismic retrofitting. Visitors come from all over for docent-guided tours as well as worship; the Old Mission serves as a thriving parish church and a pro-cathedral [meaning that it serves from time to time as a cathedral or seat of the bishop].

San Luis Obispo is home to California Polytechnic State University, better known as Cal Poly SLO, and Cuesta College. There is always something going on, and students contribute to the vitality of our town.

When I was a girl, stores did not stay open in the evenings--except for Thursdays. That was when some people shopped, and teens "cruised" Higuera Street. What happens nowadays in SLO on Thursday evenings, Thanksgiving excluded, is Farmers' Market. Stands selling flowers, produce, crafts, and ready-to-eat food line Higuera Street which is closed to vehicles. Musicians and dancers perform, and everyone has a good time. Just for the record, fruits and vegetables are also available at the Saturday morning Farmers' Market held at Madonna Plaza.

This issue of my newsletter will feature some goings-on in San Luis Obispo and connect, as well, to other parts of the globe.

More SLO links:

List of hotels, restaurants, points of interest

Photos of downtown and Farmers' Market

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March 17: Everybody's Irish

St. Patrick's Day is when everybody is a little bit Irish--at least in the countries where descendants of Irish immigrants live. In Boston and San Francisco, in Shanghai and Paris, in Vienna and in Dallas, in Melbourne and Cancun, Irish pubs will be filled with merriment and music.

Here in San Luis Obispo, French chef José Dahan will offer Irish fare in his Et Voilà restauarnt. What? Corned beef and cabbage in a French restaurant? Mais oui! There is a connection: it turns out that it was in France that the fifth-century saint found his spiritual self that led

him to take the Latin name of Patrick meaning "father of people" and return to the land where he had spent his youth as a captive slave to drive out, as the legend goes, snakes and to use a shamrock as an aid in his teaching about the Trinity.

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Guli Institute: Announcing Newsletter Service

We want to weave your web...and help you build customer relationships. There are many reasons for businesses, whether huge corporations or sole proprietorships or non-profits, to send email newsletters on a regular basis. Here are some reasons to stay in touch with your customers:

The cost of acquiring new customers can be five times as high as the cost of retaining old ones
A 5% increase in retention yields a profit increase of 25% to 100%

And here are some reasons to send email newsletters:

Permission email campaigns are more effective than direct mail
They are a low cost, instantaneous way of reaching customers
They increase customer lifetime value
They increase lead generation and cross selling
They provide instant measurable results

And here are some of the things Guli can do for you:

Use your material directly or help you write copy from content you provide [for example, if you are a lawyer, perhaps you wish to share legal news; if you are a veterinarian, you may offer tips on pet care; if you are a non-profit, you may wish to give your constituents news on your projects and programs or solicit donations; if you are a travel agent, send tips and announcements of good deals on cruises; perhaps you have new product information or jokes to share...]
Layout your newsletter with pictures and links
Run the newsletter through a spam detection program
Use your emailing list [one of your most valuable assets] to send email addressed individually
Monitor the results and provide you with reports on who opened the email, which messages bounced, who unsubscribed, and which links in your message were clicked

Prices vary according to the complexity of the project and the frequency of the newsletters [single issue, monthly, quarterly].

Mostly here we are talking about businesses sending email to customers, but individuals may also wish to send a professionally formatted email newsletter regarding, for example, a wedding or a 50th anniversary or a memorial or an annual update to friends and family.

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Middle East Pizza...and other Mediterranean Delights

Owned and operated by the Aburashed family, Petra Mediterranean Pizza and Grill opened recently in San Luis Obispo. Mum, Dad, and eldest son Samir, a graduate of Cal Poly, are present daily from 8 AM to midnight, making humus. pita bread, soups from scratch, falafel, and delicious meals using the freshest ingredients. The three youngest family members--Laila, Summer, and Rammy--combine studies with food preparation, waiting tables, and general running of the establishment. Part of the Petra experience, in addition to partaking of some of the best food you could ever hope to place on your palate, is just observing the family laughing and working together. Their love for each other and for their venture is heartwarming to witness.

The restaurant takes its name from the archeological site in Jordan's Wadi Musa [Valley of Moses] where Moses passed on the way to Edom. Today tourists marvel at the rose-red buildings carved by the Nabateans who controlled the trade routes from about 200 BCE to 200 CE. FYI, it is at Petra that the Magi would have procured frankincense, and the Arab Christians present at Pentecost would have come from Petra. I will take you to Petra Mediterranean Pizza and Grill if you come to SLO, and I will take you to Petra in Wadi Musa if you join our Holy Land pilgrimage scheduled for fall 2009.

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Claire's Gift Shop in Bethlehem

Another place I will take pilgrims to visit is Claire Anastas's gift shop in Bethlehem. Claire has lived all her life in the Holy Land, and income from her gift shop, which offers a variety of items for tourists including exquisitely carved olive wood, helps support the family.

But you don't have to go there to browse her wares and shop. With help from friend Rima of the Netherlands, Claire now has an online gift store. Make a point to take a look at Holy Star Gifts. You might wish to bookmark the site for Christmas shopping as she has various olive wood nativity scenes as well as crosses and other items.

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Coupon for H & R Block Charity Contribution

It's tax time, and H & R Block has a terrific deal from now until November 1st. Follow the link to a coupon that you can take to any participating H & R Block office. When you use their tax preparation services, they will make a $25 contribution to the Queen of Peace Foundation which provides aid to the needy. If you live in San Francisco, you may wish to go to the office of Robert Archer, 5109 Mission Street at Geneva, tel: 415-334-4362 x 229. Click for map.

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Opera Lovers Meet

		As a 7th grader, I arrived in San Luis Obispo having spent my grammar school years in San Francisco. The transition was a culture shock. I was accustomed to venturing all over the City on public transportation, alone or in the company of my siblings or peers, to visit museums, the zoo, cinemas, and ice skating rinks. None of that seemed available in SLO. Still, I remember that the late Viola and Robert Andreini, friends of my parents, were active in the Little Theatre, and Viola was in the chorus of a production of Kiss Me Kate at that time. There was a community symphony orchestra, and I was in the school orchestra [last violin]. But often I overhead criticism of our "cow town" that seemed to be lacking in "culture."
Viola Andreini 1919-2006

One outstanding episode during my teen years was ballet class taught by Eunice Pierce who, with her husband Jack [he still plays in a jazz band], remains a dear friend. Eunice took some of her students to Los Angeles where we saw Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev in Sleeping Beauty. And my dad drove my friends and me to San Francisco to see another performance at the Opera House. Well, one good thing about SLO is that we were only a few hours away from the "culture" of the big cities.

Today, in addition to a respectable public transportation system [Cal Poly students and staff ride free], we have a fabulous Center for the Performing Arts at Cal Poly where there are ongoing concerts, ballet, musicals, and more. In March the Pacific Repertory Opera will perform Madama Butterfly, and summer brings us Festival Mosaic [formerly the Mozart Festival, the annual event now features both classical music and a mélange of global music]. Some time between my salad days and the present, Yvonne Edmisten, herself a native of Shanghai, got a group together to share their love of opera; Viola was an enthusiastic participant. Year after year, they met monthly to discuss various operas, to host speakers, and to view videos. Now under the leadership of Tom Frey, connoisseurs continue to meet and share their love of opera. You would be surprised at the "culture" rising when Opera Lovers Meet.

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Changing Batteries, Changing Careers

"Batteries are a necessity of modern life," asserts Jeff Shaffer, owner of the BatteriesPlus franchise in SLO, "even during a recession." Another characteristic of modern life is that people won't always stay in the same job; they will have two or more careers.

Jeff enjoyed an 18-year career in the telecom industry. Working out of Chicago, he was a regional sales manager who, with ten states to cover, spent a lot of time on the road. It was time for a change, but he wasn't sure what until one day in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the battery of his company-issued cell phone went dead. Anyone in sales understands that having a working phone is critical. Without a spare battery [spares weren't issued by the company], he went in search of a replacement only to be told that the battery he needed wasn't available. Instead he was encouraged to purchase a new phone. That

is in all stores except Cingular. There the sales associate suggested he go to BatteriesPlus where he would find all sorts of batteries, from wristwatch batteries to car batteries. He went directly to BatteriesPlus, and sure enough, one query to the in-house data base showed that the item was in stock, and he was all set.

This incident provided Jeff with the idea of opening his own BatteriesPlus franchise. He actually spent a year investigating the business as he also pondered over where to settle. Wanting to return to his native California, Jeff decided to open shop in San Luis Obispo partly because SLO is paradise and also because the rent was more affordable than in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Jeff offers advice for people staying at home [test and change your smoke detector batteries annually] and for airline passengers [pack your spare batteries in your carry-on bag in their original retail packaging]. For more information, consult the U.S. Consumer Policy website on smoke detectors and SafeTravel.Dot.Gov.

Links:

U.S. Consumer Policy website on smoke detectors

SafeTravel.Dot.Gov.

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Photography: Humanity & Fine Art

Noreen and Bryan Hogan of Australia [my colleagues at Sichuan International Studies University in Chongqing, 2001-2002] recently made a pilgrimage to India where they encountered photographer James Nicholls whose life has been devoted to "exploring and observing the sacred and the profane in ordinary lives and places, in places of conflict and calm." His website is a gallery of stunning photos from Sudan, Jerusalem, Mexico, India, and Zambia. While the photos of India draw the Hogans' attention and the photos of Jerusalem mine, it seems that the book on Sudan deserves some mention here.

James captures the quiet dignity of the people of Sudan in the photos appearing in War and Faith in Sudan. In praising his photography, Anne Lamott urges us to sit down and take a look, promising that good things will spring from the experience. Through these photos of a remote part of Africa, she writes, we can see her cracks and her light and her shadows...and our own.

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John Updike, RIP

		Ron's business, Red Dragon Books, specializes in signed first editions that are sold on eBay. The store is open 24/7, and so orders arrive at all hours of the day and night. We have come to expect any flurry of inquiries regarding books by a particular author to be an announcement of his sudden demise. It's a macabre feeling sending us quickly to online news to look for a death notice. That is how we learned that John Updike passed away on Jan. 27. He would be celebrating his 77th birthday on March 18.
John Updike 1932-2009		Updike was a prolific writer whose main topic was life in

the small American town. He authored more than 20 novels and many short stories and poems and even children's books. At the time of this writing, we still have a couple of his signed first editions available on eBay: The Witches of Eastwick and Bech at Bay.

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Comments from Claudia: Courtesy Copies

Here is a little reminder about sending email messages to multiple recipients. As a courtesy, you don’t want to expose the email addresses of your friends when you send a message. Many people simply like to keep their email addresses private. Exposing email addresses increases the chance that they will be picked up by spammers.

How to send courteous email

When you are sending a message to, for example, your grammar school classmate Mary and wish to copy your sister Susan, put Mary’s address in the TO box and Susan’s address in the CC box. You are specifically speaking to Mary, and you make her aware that you are sharing the message with Susan. Or if you want to recommend Jack to your friend Jake, put Jake’s name in the TO box and, as a courtesy, Jack’s name in the CC box so that both Jake and Jack are aware of your referral.

Back in the days of typewriters, a letter writer would insert carbon paper between two sheets of stationery, making a carbon copy for persons not directly addressed but whom he or she wished to keep informed. “CC” stands for “carbon copy,” but in modern times we might think of “CC” as “courtesy copy. "

Let’s say, however, that you wish to send your message to a former employer and you wish to copy a colleague without listing the colleague in the email header. Then you would, of course, place the employer’s address in the TO box, but instead of placing colleague’s address in the CC box, you would put it in the BCC box. “BBC” stands for “blind carbon copy” or, in my new nomenclature, “blind courtesy copy." BBC addresses are not displayed.

Now, if you are sending or forwarding a message to multiple recipients, you place your own address in the TO box and the addresses of the recipients in the BCC box. In this manner, you are keeping their email addresses private and helping them from being gleaned by possible spammers.

And just one more thing... When you forward humorous messages or informative commentary or cute pictures, kindly delete all the names and addresses of previous senders and recipients. That is just another way to be courteous and considerate. Click for more information on sending email to multiple recipients.

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