5 Things You Need To Know When Camping Without Electricity

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At this day and age, camping has become more convenient. Most campsites offer electricity and other types of convenience. While this is ideal for families or for beginners, plenty of people still want to experience the old-school style – camping with no electricity. If you’re planning for this kind of trip alone or with some buddies, there are certain things that you need to know and some useful tips to follow to avoid hassle.

Follow these useful tips for a surefire awesome camping trip without electricity:

Learn how to start a campfire

A campfire is one of the most important things to have when camping without electricity. It will be your biggest source of light and will also be your source of warmth during cold nights. That’s why it is crucial to learn how to start one from scratch if you don’t already. If you don’t know how to start one, make sure one of your buddies going on the trip with you knows how. Starting a campfire is one thing, keeping it ablaze is another so make sure you bring the right tools with you to keep that campfire alive for as long as you need it.

Do some research about your campsite

Camping with no source of power indeed is a challenge, especially for first timers. Make sure you are familiar with the area where you will be staying. Do some research and find out where the nearest road is, the nearest area with electric power and the nearest hospital is. This is important in case of emergency. You will also know where to go if you run out of supplies.

Let someone know where you’re going

Even if you have extra batteries for your mobile phone, the signal in the woods might be weak and it might become hard to communicate with anybody. It’s important to let a friend or a family member know where exactly you’re going and when you will come back for safety purposes.

Pack some good quality flashlights

Aside from basic camp essentials, bring a good quality flashlight which will be very useful as a source of light in the darkness of the woods. Bring a spare or two and some extra batteries.

Bring entertainment

Without electricity, what you can do in the woods is a bit limited especially during the night. Don’t forget to bring a source of entertainment whether for you or for your friends. It could be some playing cards, a guitar or anything simple that will be fun!

Follow these simple tips for camping without electricity and you’ll be ready!

Enjoy Thrilling Sport Fishing Adventures With Fishing Charters

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British Columbia is well-known for offering some of the most sought after game fish and anglers from all across the world. Most of them come here because BC’s waters offer an excellent opportunity to enjoy some of the most thrilling sport fishing adventures in the world. BC Fishing Charters will take on an exiting vacation journey in the best ocean fishing waters. You can enjoy the beauty of breathtaking wildlife such as seals, grizzly bears, bald eagles, humpback whales, porpoises, seals and sea lions. With these charter boats, you can get the charter trip experience of your lifetime.

The interesting feature about BC Fishing Charters is that they guide vacationers seeking sport fishing adventures to a variety of fish, using the best of fishing equipment. Guidance on sport fishing is provided by expert fishing guides, which makes your adventure all the more exciting. These guides give a lot of insight into how to enjoy your favorite activity in the best possible way in these waters. Vacationers can be sure of not getting lost or will learn about which areas are best for fishing. Charter guides can accurately locate the best Sockeye Salmon, Halibut, Chinook, and much more, using just basic observation and studied experience. They know how to time the fish trips so that vacationers can gain a bountiful harvest. This is enough for fishes that follow normal migration routes and for those that do not, charters guides makes use of GPS and fish finders to locate such fish varieties.

The fishing guides employed in these charters are well-experienced and they are experts on salmon fishing and so you can be sure of getting the biggest fish hand out of your lifetime. You can find charters offering exciting wildlife and wilderness eco-tours through some of the most beautiful coastal areas, islands and rivers of British Columbia and Southeast Alaska.

Fishing Charters here also offer various hiring options for hobbyists and fishers such as hiring by day or by night, so that they can select one according to their vacation plans. They provide facilities for lodging, meals, fishing equipment and gears and much more to best facilitate your favorite activity. Some charters provide extended sightseeing excursions that enable vacationers to not just indulge in fishing, but also enjoy culture, history, wildlife and the natural beauty of this place. If you are looking for sport adventures that can give you the trill of an exciting catch and a totally different sport fishing experience, hiring BC Fishing Charters will give you the opportunity to enjoy an experience that you simply cannot forget.

High Performance Corporate Culture – 5 Genius Steps to Make it Happen

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Read time 4 minutes

Platinum Manufacturing, a $25 million company in 2004, was positioning itself for growth. It’s market opportunities were expanding.  It had a robust strategic plan.

But the inertia in its culture was preventing the strategy from being implemented.

So Jim Collins, the recently appointed president of Platinum decided he needed to “unfreeze” the culture before the company died of hypothermia.

Here’s Jim first Genius moves:

  • He identified his key formal and informal leaders.
  • He pulled them together, outlined the situation, laid out the consequences of doing nothing and asked the formal and informal leaders if they would join with him to change the company’s culture.
  • To a person, they said absolutely, “Yes!”

Even through this Great Disruption, Platinum is holding its own and already showing signs of growth. They have only laid off clearly identified non-performers.

In the early 2000’s people at Platinum would gossip about the “dis-ease” that was infecting the company, even though they had good talent. There was a strategic plan but it was just not being executed.  People were mostly disengaged, unaligned and sloppy.

People were argumentative, unhappy and antagonistic toward management. They were stuck. Basically, the culture was broken.

From 2004 when Jim “took the bull by the horns” Platinum has become a completely different place.

Shipping manager, George Lencioni “Now we have a culture of prideful performance that makes this an effective, enjoyable place to work.”

What changed?

  • Jim communicated a possible future for its people (a vision and mission).
  • He first Showed them how to they could get there and what was in for them to get on board. He also clearly spelled out a bleak future is they resisted.
  • Then he Focused them with a system of company core values (expected cultural behaviors).
  • Then he Facilitated them through their stuck points and resistances.
  • Then he started Delegating to empower people to move forward on their defined initiatives.

In the process the lowest, most negative employees scattered like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

Jim’s 5 Genius Steps to Changing Platinum’s Culture:

1. Flag and Show the critical impact of culture on profitability and business growth and on the company’s capacity for competitive intelligence.

  • Jim knew it had to start with him as the CEO — the chief cook and communicator of the culture.

2. Find out what is “really going on.” Informal and formal leaders are in the trenches. They know what’s “really going on.” They must be enrolled, engaged, aligned and motivated to make the changes.

3. Design, define and develop the culture. Define a vision  (this is where we want to go) for the ideal environment with strong, simple core values that will take the company there.

4. Define a set of action plans – the mission (this is how we’re going to get there) and get lots of people and teams involved.

  • Engage and collaborate with the informal and formal leaders about what needs to change about the culture. Hash out an explicit strategy for making the changes happen. This plan has to include the What, Why, How and Imagine If …ways to make values an integral part of the business strategies.
  • If the culture says “to be the customer” then there must be specific behavioral actions clearly spelled out to achieve this goal.
  • Action plans must include ways to help people develop the competencies they’ll need to develop to make the new culture operational.

5. Define and Measure What A Good Job Looks Like.

  • Hold people accountable for the expected behaviors that have been defined for the new cultural codes. 
  • Recognize and congratulate people for their achievements in visible, concrete ways.
  • Hire, promote, and reward people who exhibit the values.
  • Constantly monitor decisions so they are in line with the values, vision and mission of the cultural renovation.

Tips and Ideas on Worry Free Camping

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Making options for a perfect getaway is easy but choosing one that suits best is kind of a question. But, if close to adventurously perfect is what you are after, take camping as an option. Fun-filled activities in the outdoors are going to be a whole new experience for you, your family, and friends. Yet, somehow, people keep on asking why they would try the outdoor and go camping. I am here to show you why.

Bonding and connecting with your family and friends are best done through camping. Activities like swimming in the lake, hiking, and chitchat around the bonfire are some of the activities you can do when you go camping. So much so, there is more to save in camping, financially, than going out for a trip abroad for you have to pay for the air tickets, hotel accommodations and food. In camping, all you have to do is drive few hours away from your home and spend less on cabins or lesser when bringing your own tent.

Time spared need not be worried on preparations and planning because camping does not necessarily require longer time. Camping checklist, which can be downloaded in the web or you may have your own, will ease out everything. Having fun and appreciating the beauty of the wild is more important than anything else. Bringing your kids along is better than best. It is a good time that kids will enjoy nature while it is still possible. We do not know that in the advent of industrialization, campsites will become shopping sites.

The city is becoming polluted and we are becoming more concern with the health of our family. Camping will aid this concern. The wild, forest, and mountains promise fresh air and it is good to our health. Hiking in the mountains or going near the lake are also guaranteed that only fresh air is what you will breathe. We all need fresh air, of course.

Nevertheless, campers whether a neophyte or not commit common mistakes that are easy to be solved. Therefore, if you are now ready for camping then have some of the following tips help you improve your camping experience.

Upon arriving at the campsite, campers often forget loads of necessary gears. They will even reach to the idea of going back home and get all those supplies. But, do not you find it tiring? Lucky you are if there are stores in the site. Even if there are, buying new ones are impractical when you can actually solve this concern. That is by making a checklist, as what I have been telling you a while ago. Some important gears that you will need and should be included in your list are sleeping bags and pads, burner, flashlight and other luminous sticks, sunscreen and insect repellents, food and drinks in a 3 way camping fridge or in a portable camping fridge. Before heading to the site, check your list again.

If you are a first time camper, then try out is advisable. You can have camping at your backyard so that you will have the feeling of camping outdoor. Then, try to erect your tent so that you will have the knowhow. It is not that easy actually setting up a tent, where even experienced ones find it difficult. Ask help also from your friends who are experienced campers. Toilet in the campsite might be limited, so, bring your own folding toilet for convenience. Finally, check the site first prior to the date.