All you comments are welcomed!

PS: the files contain no macro.

Template of an invoice including Belgian Tax Law generalities – OpenOffice.org version

Template of an invoice including Belgian Tax Law generalities – Microsoft Excel version

The partner is a leading vendor for service parts inventory optimization planning [1].

The partner offers exciting opportunities for career growth, with a competitive benefits package and earnings potential. If you were looking for a high-energy, team-oriented environment, driven by an innovative leadership team, they would love to hear from you.

The required person

• Is experienced in Java and Oracle technologies
• Is fluent in English
• Has problem-solving skills
• Has experience in a helpdesk (a plus)
• Is willing to travel in Europe up to 10% of his/her time
• has a minimum of three (3) years of experience

Send us your resume to the following address: info [at] alt-f1 [dot] be

[1] What are service parts inventory planning? http://bit.ly/umkVdd

The word ‘ASBL’ should be mentioned in every document

• e.g. Sémaphore ASBL or Sémaphore Association Sans But Lucratif
• it is forbidden to use a name of a non profit already existing

Headquarters:

• exact address and district judicial e.g. Arrondissement de Bruxelles

The goal of the association:

• be very precise (help children from third world countries) and DO NOT list the activities (collect money, etc.)

The goal of the association:

• be very precise (help children from third world countries) and DO NOT list the activities (collect money, etc.)

The members of the Association:

• The articles must state: The full names, address of each founder (individual);
• The name, legal form (ASBL) and the registered address of each founder (legal entity). The registered office of any corporate founders should not be confused with the head office of the association is established.
• The conditions and formalities of admission and discharge of the members must also be defined in the articles
• The rights and obligations of the members must also be fixed by the articles (and not by internal rules of procedure).

General Assembly: powers, summons, notice to members

• The articles must state the functions and mode of convening the general assembly. They must also indicate how its decisions are brought to the attention of members and third parties.
• The powers reserved to the General Assembly are:
• Changes in articles;
• Appointment and dismissal of directors;
• The appointment and dismissal of auditors and fixation of their compensation if a payment is foreseen;
• Discharge to be granted to directors and commissioners;
• approval of budgets and accounts;
• The dissolution of the association;
• Exclusion of a member;
• The transformation of the association in corporation with a social purpose;
• All the conducts the articles require.
• It is important to indicate that anything that is not assigned by law or the articles is under the jurisdiction of the Board of the General Assembly
• The general meeting is convened by the board or when a fifth of the members requests it. The Articles shall determine the terms of this notice. The notice period is eight days at least.
• It is usual that the association keeps a register that records the decisions of the General Assembly. The articles should determine how members can see it.

Directors: appointment, dismissal and powers

• The articles must contain the rules for the appointment, dismissal and termination of a director and the extent of their powers and how to exercise (by acting either individually or jointly, or in college). It is also necessary to regulate the duration of their mandate.

• If the articles permit individuals to represent the association and / or the delegation of daily management
  the association, these mentions are also required.
• If the articles are considering the appointment of commissioners, they should mention their method of appointment

Contributions or payments by members

• The maximum amount of the contribution must be stated in the statutes, in order to inform those wishing to join the association on the financial commitments that will be required

Allocation of assets on dissolution

• The articles must specify the destination of the assets resulting from the liquidation of an association. It must be assigned to a disinterested purpose. If you wish to give the property at the disposal of an association and later retrieve, you are advised to establish a writing describing the conditions.

Lifetime of the association

• You should indicate the lifetime of the association when it is not unlimited. Indeed, some are non-profit organization formed to ensure that the pursuit of a goal limited in time.
• The mention of the term in the articles, when it is not unlimited, provides an additional guarantee to potential members.

Useful links

• Belgian Federal info:
  • http://www.belgium.be/fr/economie/entreprise/creation/types_de_societe/ASBL/
  • http://justice.belgium.be/fr/binaries/Les%20ASBL_tcm421-142579.pdf
• Non profit (FR + NL)
  • http://justice.belgium.be/fr/publications/vzw_s.jsp?referer=tcm:421-138566-64
• forms to fill:
  • http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/tsv_pub/form_f.htm
• Amounts to pay:
  • http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/tsv_pub/asbl_2009.pdf

Here is the essay…

Please choose a leader (known in the business world, political world…).

Guy Kawasaki has a BA in psychology, a MBA from University of California, Los Angeles. Besides his work at Apple as software evangelist in the ’80, he acts now as a venture capitalist in the Silicon Valley.

He is speaker and author of ten books concerning sales, marketing, leadership, communication and psychology. He is using his knowledge to teach to entrepreneurs how to “do not just aspire to sell their product but, aspire to enchant their customers”.

For that reasons, he shares best practices, from “how to build trust with others”, “how to shake the hand of someone” to “how to create presentations using the 10-20-30 rule (10 slides, 20 minutes, font size minimum is 30 points)”.

I would invite you to watch a video available through my blog in order to better know the man: http://bit.ly/lwaNSc

(a) According to what you’ve learned so far in LTC – what can you tell/observe/describe about this person? (This includes leadership qualities, communication, collaboration, etc…. described in terms of strengths and weaknesses of the leader)

Strengths of Guy

• He “sets a purpose for others to follow and motivates them to pursue it with effectiveness and full commitment” (F. Kofman)
• Write and share compelling stories
• Due to his position in a venture capitalist company, he:
• Has a willingness to learn
• Is passionate about the people he meets as well as their projects
• Takes risks
• Is persuasive with his audience who can become his business partners
• Is associative
• He applies the theories he shares with his audience

Weaknesses of Guy

• His omnipresence in the media might denote a kind of inability to find new start-up talents due to the competition of venture capitalists in San Francisco area
• His visibility makes him “the person with whom I want to work” but people might very be disappointed if they can’t get his attention or if he doesn’t like their project
• Too much expectation is put upon him as he motives people but won’t do the work for them

(b) Taking into consideration your own style, if you were to make a business proposal to this person: 

(i) How would you approach it? What skills do you need? And what would this proposal be?

To approach Guy I need a willingness to enchant people through innovative applications that might change the world. This should be materialised by the creation and the management of a successful social network already available to a limited amount of users.

This project should be setup by a team having different background but it must have an “underline magic” that sets what the team has apart from the competition.

Guy is looking for people needing his help to increase the visibility of their projects but not people who need his help to finish their ideal project that might never see the light.

(ii) What possible obstacles can you foresee for yourself (e.g. in terms of own difficulties, weaknesses)? When might these obstacles occur (e.g. preparation phase, selling proposal to leader, implementation…)?

• I am ashamed to disclose the joy I feel when working on my project, implying that I have hard time to share this fascination to the ones I want to work with.
• Barriers to work with others start with finding entrepreneurs with whom to partner in those times when a job as employee in a big firm sounds satisfactory to the majority of people.
• Most people want to lead projects but they forget you need to manage and find people to implement the objectives; the latter are the ones it is hard to convince to stay in their job position and “wait” for their “promotion”.

(iii) What do you propose to do about them (in terms of your own development, improvement…)?

• To work on myself and put out of mind the fact that being attached to an idea that might sounds odd to others won’t be a reason to taunt us.
• To work on my “likability” and change my dress code when I meet other entrepreneurs; basically they dress jeans when I am dressing more formal jackets.
• To work as a software developer again and stop writing strategies for executives because I need the project to run and be consumed by customers.
• To revise with a marketer, human resources expert and a psychologist how to convince people to stay in the position where they are the most efficient

Source:  Leadership, Teamwork & Communication – an essay about Guy KAWASAKI (PDF File)

Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

Guy Kawasaki, in his book called “Enchantment“, presents how to become likeable towards others. Below, you can find a “one page” summary of the book but I do invite you to read the book and enjoy the details / stories / experiences that lead to his conclusions.

If you don’t plan to read the book but you have 1 hour to watch the presentation of the book, check this funny and engaging video:

http://www.guykawasaki.com/enchantment/audio-video/

Any company being ventured at least for U.S. $100.000 or any individual owning a degree in “science, technology, engineering, math, computer science, or other relevant academic discipline from an accredited United States college, university, or other institution of higher education” would be eligible for a StartUp Visa.

Further details are available on the following links:

[1] Kerry-Lugar-Udall Visa Bill Will Create Jobs in America   http://kerry.senate.gov/press/release/?id=4e6a51f6-fb2b-4212-b299-b0c46c7e6b58

[2] Startup Visa Act 2010: http://startupvisa.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/dc-startup-visa-act-2-24-10.pdf

[3] Startup Visa Act promotion website http://www.startupvisa.com/

This 20 minutes talk has been summarised into one template [3] of 10 slides released under creative commons license.

PS: Watch the movies before you fill the slides!

[1] http://bit.ly/hhrodk The Art of Raising Venture Capital

[2] http://bit.ly/dVB5pI Guy Kawasaki blog named “how to change the world”

[3] Guy Kawasaki, The Art of Raising Venture Capital Presentation’ template

Template from “The Art of Raising Venture Capital” by Abdelkrim BOUJRAF is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

It was faster to run a test using the tools already installed on my machine. 

To be short:

1. install Visual Studio 2010 Express http://www.microsoft.com/express/downloads/
2. install IIS 7 and all ASP.NET options using the Microsoft Web Platform Installer http://www.iis.net/webpi
3. run as administrator the following command lines:
   32 bits: %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe –i
   64 bits: %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe –i
4. Create an account on http://www.twitter.com
5. Run IIS 7 as administrator
6. Create a new site called “nettwitter” and choose a port: e.g. 8081

7. 

   Create a new site using IIS7 named nettwitter

8. Update the application pool of the nettwitter site in order to .NET 4.0 target framework

9. 

   Update to .NET 4.0 the target framework of the nettwitter site

10. Run Visual Studio 2010 as Administrator
11. Follow this twitter tutorial: http://www.giantflyingsaucer.com/blog/?p=2074
12. Publish the web application using the following properties

13. 

    Properties to set for the deployment of the nettwitter site on IIS7

14. You should see your last tweets as described inside the post

I also tried the twitter API provided by http://www.twitterizer.net 

1. run the sample from http://www.twitterizer.net/downloads/#general by running the Twitterizer2.3.1-examples\TwitterizerExampleApplications.sln project
2. That’s all folks

Next time, I do the same exercise using Python; Then I may start to develop a tool to fasten and improve the visibility of the tweets (tweetdeck, twitter and the others quite sucks)

As many public administrations we are publicly funded and collect few donations to be used to increase the salary of our team (a coordinator and two animators). We try to keep them motivated, as my HR manager told me more that 5 years ago, but it doesn’t work.

My definition of the motivation is:

1. Inform honestly on the difficulty of the job (but psychologists say: if you don’t experience it you can’t truly evaluate its difficulty or simplicity – think when you had your first child)
2. Focus on the dreams of the employees but use their past knowledge and interest (e.g. we had a professor or theatre courses who never gave any classes to our children)
3. Answer honestly to the questions of the employees
4. Involve the employees during each discussions when strategic decisions are made
5. Give a full autonomy to the employees to organise activities with our children

But apparently it is still not sufficient, the work looks too hard:

• Maintaining a barge of 38×6 square meters
• Educating children through the work, the sport and the culture
• Motivating children

On top of that, we had difficulties to recruit new members of our Management Board as people are too busy to dedicate time for a mid-long term commitment; On the contrary, we find easily volunteers for short-term (read semester) commitments in accordance with the school’ schedule (September-June).

The question is: “how could we keep the motivation of our children, employees and members of the Board?”.

Recently I found a definition of the motivation which made by Daniel H. Pink. He is an American writer, author of many books focusing on the world of work.

Below is a talk presenting the gap between what science knows about motivation and what companies apply. Apparently, we don’t need sweeter carrots and sharper sticks, we need a whole new approach, an approach that puts more stock in intrinsic motivation.

Dan identifies three elements that comprise a new way of thinking about motivation [1]:

• Autonomy: The urge to direct our own lives.
• Mastery: The desire to get better at something that matters.
• Purpose: The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

Based on that definition I’ll be able to foster the motivation of our employees and try to keep them proud of them and willing to help children who need guidance during this ‘crisis” era during which the financial bonuses of the individuals have generated one of the biggest economical decline!

let’s watch this 5 stars talk:

[1] End of December, Dan will release a new book: “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”

[2] Semaphore nonprofit organisation: http://asblsemaphore.skyrock.com/