Artists and vendors who would like to sell their goods at the 39th Annual AutumnFest Arts & Crafts Show on Nov. 8-9 at John A. Logan College can now apply to reserve booth space at the event.  The application deadline is Friday, July 25.

AutumnFest is a juried show that includes a wide variety of original arts and crafts, jewelry, home décor items, and specialty foods all made by original artists.  One of the largest events of its kind in the region, it annually draws around 7,000 shoppers each year.

Emily Henson, the coordinator of special events at JALC, is organizing the show.

“People wanting to participate in the craft show should fill out the online application on our Web site,” Henson said. “They will need to submit at least two photos of their product, either by mail or email.  If they have photos of their booth setup or of them making the product, those are also appreciated.  Once their application is submitted, they will receive an email message from me letting them know I got it.”

Henson said the show can accommodate over 100 vendors and she’s already received nearly 60 applications.  Applicants who apply by July 25 will be notified by email on September 2 whether or not they are accepted.

For more information about the AutumnFest application, contact Henson at 618-985-2828 or 618-457-7676, Ext. 8015.  The Web site with the online application is available at: http://www.jalc.edu/student-activities-and-cultural-events/special-events.  Photos should be mailed to the Office of Student Activities and Cultural Events, John A. Logan College, 700 Logan College Rd., Carterville, IL 62918 or emailed to emilyhenson@jalc.edu.

INA, Ill. (June 5, 2014) – Time is running short for students who want to enroll in a number of summer camps at Rend Lake College. Pullback Car Frenzy, Comic Book Art, and Castles, Catapults, and Coat of Arms will meet on the Ina campus in upcoming weeks.

The first camp, Pullback Car Frenzy, will have attendees build cars and participate in experiments revolving around science and engineering concepts. Campers will use BanBao building block kits to complete 10 projects the students can take home. BanBao are compatible with Lego and Mega Bloks.

The camp costs $130 and will be located in the Applied Science Center, Room 101. Grades 1-3 will meet from 9 a.m. – noon Monday, June 16 through Thursday, June 19. Grades 4-8 will meet on the same days from 1 – 4 p.m.

Comic Book Art camp will focus students’ creative side with illustration and cartooning skills to create their own comic books. There will be two sections of the camp for each age group. Grades 1-3 will meet from 9 a.m. – noon, Monday, June 16 through Thursday, June 19, or Monday, July 21 through Thursday, July 24. Grades 4-8 will meet from 1 – 4p.m., Monday, June 16 through Thursday, June 19, or Monday, July 21 through Thursday, July 24. The cost of the camp is $60 per camper. Comic Book Art will be held in the Vocational Building, Room 118.

Finally, Castles, Catapults, and Coat of Arms is designed for students entering or leaving grades 1-6. They will become characters in medieval times, learning to work together to creatively problem-solve, enhance understanding of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and build towers, boats, drawbridges, catapults, and more. The cost of the camp is $100.

The first meeting of the camp is scheduled for 9 a.m. – noon, Monday, June 16 through Thursday, June 19 in the Applied Science Center, Room 103. Another session of Castles, Catapults, and Coat of Arms is scheduled for 1 – 4 p.m., Monday, July 21 through Thursday, July 24 at the Murphy-Wall Campus in Pinckneyville.

Payments may be made by check, money order, credit or debit cards, or cash, and must be received at the time of registration. Parents and guardians are responsible for all transportation arrangements to and from camp.

Get the registration form online at www.rlc.edu/kidscamps. For more information, contact the RLC Community and Corporate Education Department at 618-437-5321, Ext. 1714 or 1267.

Bloomington, IL – The Illinois Coaches Association and the Shriners of Illinois are excited to host the 40^th annual Illinois High School Shrine Game on July 12^th at Tucci Stadium on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Kick-off for the 40^th annual game is scheduled for Saturday, July 12 at 6:30p.m.  The pregame festivities will begin at 3:00p.m. with a traditional Shriner parade in downtown Bloomington. Eighty-eight of the state’s best football players participate in this all-star game to raise money for Shriners Hospital for Children, the official philanthropy of Shriners International. More information about scheduled events, along with rosters for both the East and West teams, can be found at www.ilshrinegame.com.

Each year at the Shrine Game, two patients from the Shiners Hospital for Children are honored as the game’s prince and princess. This year’s princess is Emma Frick. The game’s prince is Alec Cabacungan. The prince and princess are honorary representatives of the patients from the Shriners Hospitals that will benefit from the money raised through the game. Last year’s event raised over $24,000 that went directly to providing outstanding medical care for children at the Shriners Hospitals.

In light of the 40^th anniversary of this event, all Shrine Game alumni are invited back to celebrate 40 years of football and the values of the Shriners. Our goal is to create a fun and exciting environment for the players, families, Shriners Hospitals patients, and Shriners and to make this a signature event for the Shriners of Illinois and the city of Bloomington.

About Shriners Hospitals for Children

Shriners Hospitals for Children is a health care system of 22 hospitals dedicated to improving the lives of children by providing pediatric specialty care, innovative research, and outstanding teaching programs for medical professionals. Children up to age 18 with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip and palate are eligible for care and receive all services in a family-centered environment, regardless of the patients’ ability to pay. Visit the Shriners Hospitals website at www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org.

For more information, please contact Eric Tjarks with the Illinois High School Shrine Game (217-781-2400) or Matt Hawkins at the Bloomington-Normal Area Convention & Visitors Bureau (309-665-0033).

Healthy loyalty is so rare it’s nearly unrecognizable. In many organizations primary loyalty is to the lower right-hand corner of a spreadsheet: a.k.a. the “bottom line,” and little else. In others, blind loyalty to a leader is expected.  In yet others, a lack of attention to the process of building loyalty is endemic.  In tragically mislead organizations all three shortcomings coexist.  This is heartbreaking when many people in and out of an organization depend on it for sustenance.
“Every society [and organization or enterprise — my addition] rests in the last resort on the recognition of common principles and common ideals, and if it makes no moral or spiritual appeal to the loyalty of its members, it must inevitably fall to pieces.”
—  Christopher Dawson —
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Three kinds of loyalty spark organizational excellence and effectiveness.

Loyalty to Purpose:  Loyalty to a concept, mission, or purpose is a clarifying state of mind. Earlier this month, the Dean of the Public Health School at the University of Saskatchewan, Robert Buckingham, was fired because he criticized a plan championed by University President Ilene Busch-Vishniac.  The provost to whom the dean reports said the dean was entitled to his opinions but not to express contravening opinions publicly as he was a part of the leadership team.

Walter V. Wendler

Evidently, former Dean Buckingham needed to be supportive of a plan with which he disagreed. I will not argue the propriety of his view or the institution’s. In a similar situation decades ago I resigned a position rather than work to hide enduring differences of perspective regarding purpose. In the Buckingham case the teachers union, the Prime Minister, and nearly everybody else in Canada weighed in and the firing was reversed.  Pressures did lead to the provost’s resignation.  Professor Buckingham was restored to faculty status but is no longer dean. The president’s firing followed. These decisions are political, not academic.   Purpose was lost in a matrix of face-saving and chest-puffing actions.  Too bad: ideas should be held in higher regard at universities.

If loyalty was to purpose, President Busch-Vishniac would have floated that plan to the “community” and sought serious, formative input. This is both good leadership and sound planning.  The dean’s dissatisfaction would have been a purposeful part of the process.  Maybe it was: If so, the president blew it. Lawrie McFarlane, a retired educator, editorialized in The StarPhoenix that the president’s decision was correct and the political intervention to solve the internal leadership difficulties will backfire suggesting,   “… hell will freeze over before you see anything resembling firm management on a campus in Canada. And that is a recipe for chaos”.

I am not sure who’s right but loyalty to purpose appears absent or confused in a limping labyrinth of lost loyalties.

Loyalty to People: Loyalty to a person can be challenging especially if that person is driven by the whims and wishes of expediency, self-preservation, self-protection, reelection, changing circumstances, or embraces fear to engender it. In universities, the number of elected officials who choose to be considered for university presidencies grows. The most recent example is Dave Heineman, governor of Nebraska, who announced that he will be an applicant for the presidency of the University of Nebraska. Who else would apply?  Polls show a 77 percent gubernatorial approval rating!

Everyone’s loyalties — Governor Heineman’s, the students, faculty, board, and the university’s extended constituencies — should be performance tested to determine how someone serves the university, and who is served by it.  When politics engage academic processes, academics often go begging, and loyalty to the people served – students — is trumped by loyalty to those who purportedly serve. Service to self seems supreme.
Loyalty to Process: Lost loyalty to purpose, or misplaced loyalty to people, overpowers failing organizations.  K@W, an organ of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania reported a marked increase of “infidelity” in the workplace in 2012.  The millennial generation, aged 15 to 30, expect processes to provide freedom and liberty as the ultimate demonstration of loyalty.  When such loyalty is not present from the organization towards the individual, the flow of loyalty from individual to organization languishes and organizations falter. Misguided processes to ensure the appearance of unity kill healthy organizations in universities, manufacturing, banking, health care and government.  Think Veterans’ Administration.

The Loyalty Research Center defines loyalty as “employees being committed to the success of the organization and believing that working for this organization is their best option…”  Clear processes stimulate productive loyalty.  Organizations lacking lines of loyalty have to work overtime to create it up and down the organizational chart. As loyalty is sowed it is reaped.

Our universities, and other organizations, may scratch-out sustenance with a single type of loyalty but will thrive only when all three forms are present as triplets.

MT. VERNON, Ill. – Get your blood pumping by starting Rend Lake College’s Emergency Medical Technician – Paramedic certificate program this summer.

Classes begin Tuesday, June 10 in the EMS Training Center at the RLC MarketPlace in Mt. Vernon. Students will meet from 5 – 10 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

In the EMS Training Center, students will interact with a mock ambulance in addition to lecture and clinical experiences to get the real-world feel of being a paramedic. The certificate program consists of four classes in the classroom, laboratory, local hospital, and field settings. Graduates will be eligible to apply to take the Illinois Department of Public Health Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic licensure examination.

Prospective students must be licensed as an EMT-Basic through the Division of Emergency Medical Services and Highway Safety. The EMT-Basic course, Emergency Medical Care I, will be offered this fall.

To find out more or to register, contact Lori Ragland, Dean of Community and Corporate Education, at 618-437-5321, Ext. 1367 or

Moody’s weighed in on a decision by Illinois lawmakers to punt on extending the state’s income tax hike, saying revenues will plummet by an estimated $1.8 billion, forcing it to rely on “credit negative” practices.

Here’s the link to the story in the Chicago Tribune.