Blessing #3 brings calm and peace, knowing your tribe has your back covered. – SCN Encourager

How sweet it is to have your professional organization’s email list serve group within reach!

All you gotta do is shout.

And then stand back.

Good ideas and advice will start rolling in like crazy.

It’s amazing what a “peer to peer” network can do.

And when it’s connected to a whizbang email “list serve” engine, it operates almost like an intellectual ponzi scheme. (At least it seems so… I’m not intellectual enough myself to figure it all out.)

So, whether you’re in MSPRA, MASA, or the CIA (your secret’s safe with me), the thoughtfulness behind every peer group’s willingness to consistently lend a hand to each other never ceases to astound me.

People really DO TRY to help each other out.

Here’s a cool example.

A member of MSPRA recently sent out an email questioning how her district’s logo was being used (on logo wear sold by boosters, etc) and she asked the list serve group for advice about trademarks and other protections.

My response to her included the request for one of those logo wear shirts (size XL) – so I could get a hands-on feel for the problem – along with my sincere promise to look into the matter once I received my shirt back via overnight FedEx.

Leave it to Garth Kriewall, the communications office supervisor at the St. Clair County RESA (MI) and the treasurer of MSPRA, to actually step in and reply with something insightful.

He wrote:

The trick isn’t getting a trademark, it’s enforcing it. That means sending snarky little letters to every parent group that wants to create unauthorized T-shirts for their 3rd-grade team. Saying no to PTA groups what want to do their own thing. And so on. Problem is, if you give them a pass on respecting your trademark, you run the risk of losing it. Aspirin, Escalator and Cellophane once were registered trademarks. As the saying goes, “Be careful what you wish for; you might get it.”

Dang good advice, don’tcha think?

It’s not very applicable to me, though.

I don’t ever have to worry about being careful.

I never get what I wish for.