Denver, CO and Atlanta, GA — September 2, 2010 Copper Conferencing, a leading provider of audio conferencing and webinar services to the legal community, introduced Copper Legal, a full suite of audio conferencing, web conferencing and online account management for law firms and their legal administrators.   Visit www.copperlegal.com.

Copper Legal addresses the growing need of law firms to manage and recover costs, create efficiency among the administrative staff and find creative ways to develop greater contact with potential clients. Law firms, like many businesses today, must find ways to grow their businesses while closely monitoring costs needing to accomplish more with fewer resources.  “As we have become more educated to the challenges law firms and their administrators face in the current economy, we have continued to refine our conferencing services to be more relevant to the industry,” said Carolyn Bradfield, CEO of Copper Conferencing.

Connect To Copper, the online account management tool for firm administrators and legal assistants, streamlines the time that administrators must spend in managing conferencing users and allocating calls to the appropriate cost center or client matter number.  Features have been added specifically for law firms including the ability to email conferencing account information to attorneys at the touch of a button, to manage recordings online and to get invoicing reports electronically.

“We have increased our understanding of the administrative needs of law firms through our sponsorships and visits with members of the Association of Legal Administrators.  Those relationships have helped Copper understand their challenges and create technology to match their needs.”

Copper Legal provides a full suite of audio and web conferencing services for the day-to-day needs of the firm.  Using Copper Legal’s webinar services, law firms can offer CLE seminars, and offer educational webinars to clients, colleagues, the general public or to specific market segments. For more information about Copper Legal, visit www.copperlegal.com.

With Copper Legal, we make it easy for busy legal administrators to manage conferencing, monitor costs and increase their productivity. As part of Copper Legal, our comprehensive and easy-to-use customer portal, Connect To Copper, is a one-stop resource for conference call account management.  With real-time access to activate or deactivate moderators, view usage, listen to and download recordings or view and pay invoices, administrators can work more efficiently and effectively.

Copper Conferencing will be showcasing Copper Legal at two ALA regional conferences this fall.   Ms Bradfield will be attending Copper’s booth at the ALA Region 4 conference October 1-2, 2010 at the Four Seasons Resort & Club Dallas at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas.  Sara Stilson, Director of Sales for Copper Conferencing, will be attending the ALA Region 5 & 6 conference September 30 – October 2, 2010 at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego, California.  Stop by and see Copper at either show or click here to schedule an appointment with Carolyn or Sara.

About Copper Conferencing
Headquartered in Denver, Colorado with a major communications center in Atlanta, Georgia, Copper Conferencing provides audio conferencing and web conferencing services to small and medium-sized businesses. Copper’s Conference Coaches™ provide expert guidance of enhanced conferencing services. From On Demand reservationless audio conference calls, to highly interactive webinars and special teleconference event calls, Copper Conferencing helps businesses save time and money while improving productivity. Copper’s conferencing services are backed by fully managed, carrier-class platforms to power communication for thousands of customers. For more information about Copper Conferencing, www.copperconferencing.com or call a Conference Coach at 866-903-7521.

Copyright  2010 Copper Legal and Connect To Copper are trademarks of The Himark Group, LLC dba Copper Conferencing

Press Contact:

Alycia Maier-Turner
Copper Conferencing
303.952.4308
pr@copperconferencing.com

The smell of freshly sharpened pencils drifts through the air as does the laughter of students.   The different groups of children mingle about in front of the school, on the bus, in the classrooms, cafeteria and outside during recess or gym.   Their ability to come together so effortlessly is a tribute to the social nature of humans.

And social creatures we are — even those of us who proclaim to be loners or profess to not like other people.  Oh sure, some prefer the company of a few close friends or even a furry friend rather than large groups of people.  But it’s these social gatherings, no matter how big or how small that give rise to reunions of intellect, consumption of food, playing of games or other activities.

So if you are back to school this month or next, enjoy those first few days and the excitement of both the familiar and the new.

Carolyn Bradfield

I have the distinct privilege of being a Granger.  Now, for those of you who don’t know a Granger is the mascot of LaGrange High School in LaGrange, Georgia.  We’re a small town, just south of Atlanta whose claims to fame were carpet and textile mills.  It was one of the first schools that integrated in 1971, the year that I left high school for college.

Integration produced a lot of anxiety as we merged two high schools together.  The Grangers had two student council presidents, equal representation on the cheerleading squad, much debate about the school mascot, and a lot of anxious students and parents about how all of this would turn out.

The bottom line is that this was a great place to live and go to school both before and after the big event in 1971.  Although it didn’t happen the years I was there, the football team has posted a national championship.  We had a number of scholars who have gone on to have careers in law, medicine and business.  They turned out very good students who knew how to study, write, and communicate.  They knew how to treat other people well.

Many of the students who graduated didn’t stray that far from home.  They came back to work in the mills, work in their parents’ businesses, and live the idyllic life that only a small town can provide.  This weekend, several of those natives launched the Granger Gathering, a weekend event for the classes of 1969-1974.  250 of us crowded into the Best Western in LaGrange for food, fun and fellowship.

My posse of girl friends was there – Lynn, Clair, Connie, Jan, Gail, Peggy, etc.  For old girls, we really looked pretty good, but we were surprised how many of us had not aged well.  As we were thinking about this, it occurred to us that we were not as educated, informed and focused on our health as our children are today.

My mom, not the best cook, fed me butter and sugar sandwiches on white bread for lunch.  We didn’t have sunscreen and spent our days at the pool lathered up with baby oil and iodine for the best tan we could get.  Nobody lifted weights other than a few football players and there were almost no sports for girls.  We didn’t know about cholesterol, alcohol abuse, the evils of smoking or skin cancer.  And most of us are paying the price for this.

Many people were at the Granger Gathering were overweight, diabetic, had very large waistlines.  They just didn’t look healthy.  Others had significant wrinkles likely spurred from years of tanning and the lack of good skin care products.  It was quite disappointing and in fact, even shocking that the Grangers of old have just not aged well.  We all thought that people had sent their parents to the reunion as old as everyone looked.

We can only move forward from here and I would encourage this group to start taking better care of themselves.  Lose weight, exercise, stop smoking and eat better.  My hope is that the next generation will come to their own Granger Gathering living healthier lives, looking better, avoiding type 2 diabetes and living much better than our group.

My hope also is that if we have another Granger Gathering in the near future, everyone will take a lesson from this when they look at the pictures posted on Facebook.  There’s no time like the present to have that Granger Spirit!

Carolyn Bradfield

Children around the country are going back to school, lugging new backpacks brimming with school supplies and crowding into classrooms in the latest style of skinny jeans and t-shirts.  Teachers are thinking through how to meet this year’s challenges, how to motivate and how to educate their students.  Another thing they are also thinking about is of the growing dilemmas of how to manage the distraction of texting in the classroom.

ABC News today reported studies have indicated that texting provokes a response in the brain very similar to the one that addicts experience when they pursue their substance of choice.  The brain’s pleasure center lights up when a text is read and withdrawals happen when the person can’t get to the phone.  Addiction can be defined as the pursuit of the “substance” in the face of increasingly negative consequences.  Cell phone texters often meet that classic definition.

Cell phone texters will go to great lengths to make sure that they don’t miss that 20-word response to their last message.  They will risk their lives to send a text driving down the highway.  They’ll interrupt any conversation to reach for their cell phone when the text chime rings out.  And if they are a student, they will learn to be quite secretive as they learn how to text under their desks without the teacher noticing.

I used to be a teacher, one of the best jobs I ever had, until I found the world of teleconferencing.  Although I think everything I had to say in the classroom was compelling and riveting, even the best teacher is likely to find it daunting to try and compete with the behavior of the large number of cell phone addicts in the classroom.  It’s a “catch 22” scenario for these teachers.  Do they divert their teaching time to find and confiscate these phones or do they try and press on, hoping the students can multi-task enough to learn?

Although I live in the world of conference calling and my children are long past their time in the classroom, I would like to offer a simple solution that almost every parent can implement which would vastly reduce the amount of texting during the school day without having to worry about severing the umbilical cord between the child and his cell phone.

Many cell services, including AT&T the one I use, offers parents the ability to meter cell phone and texting habits.  With AT&T, a parent can turn off texting during specific hours, limit the number of texts or even limit where those texts are delivered.   Think about the change in classroom behavior if texting stopped when the bell for first period rang and only started up when students are heading for their buses after school?

Now why don’t parents do this?  First, I think they haven’t done the research into their cell services to see what is available.  It’s easy to do, costs only a few dollars a month for cell phone monitoring and is instantly available.  However, I think the real reason is that parents are afraid to separate their addict from the addiction.  Who wants to face the wrath of a teenage girl when OMG they can’t text their BFF during math class!

Parents, get a clue.  This addiction is distracting your child, lowering their ability to concentrate and learn, and handicapping them from forming real relationships.  If you knew your child was smoking pot, drinking or snorting cocaine during the school day, you would move heaven and earth to stop it.  It’s time to “man-up”, go online, sign up for cell phone metering services, and turn off those texts during the school day.

You may likely be your child’s biggest enabler in what is a very significant addiction.  Do yourself, the teachers and your child a favor and recognize texting during the school day for what it is.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. You can try Copper’s affordable web and audio conferencing services — and get a discount for using our nationwide Local Dial-In network. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

As you may remember from a prior blog, Georgia, my daughter’s pit bull left her yard and went missing on Friday the 13th.  I’m happy to report that after 4 days, she has been found safe and sound and returned to us.  Interestingly, she only traveled less than a mile from home which is consistent with most missing dogs who are usually found within 2 miles.

Georgia knows who her people are and if you’re not someone she knows, she will not come up to you.   Many people saw her and tried to help, but they couldn’t get her corralled.  Several people were more scared of her than she was of them (although she’s pretty small) and ran the other way.   But a really nice Korean couple saw her, called the police department who came and waited until we could come get her.  They had seen our flyer and knew this was the missing dog.

What helped to bring her back was getting the word out quickly.  Many people saw the flyers that were posted in the area where Georgia went missing.  All vet clinics and shelters within a 10-mile radius were also emailed with her picture and identifying information.  Two of them responded because people had seen her and called them.  Several organizations had email broadcast lists just for the purpose of getting the word out on missing animals.

People responded with mixed reactions about the breed.  The rescue organizations shared that all puppies are born perfect, it’s the owners who don’t do a very good job helping them be good pets.  I think there’s some wisdom to that.  Others wanted to know – why a pit bull?  I can’t help with that answer because it wasn’t my decision.  I think the perfect animal is a basset hound, but that’s just me.

Georgia was brought home by some fast thinking, a lot of communication and staying in touch with the organizations that someone may call to deliver her.  She was also made safer by being spayed, micro chipped and registered.  Today she gave me a big doggy kiss and reminded me just why I love her, no matter her pedigree.

Now, I’m a huge dog lover myself and at one time had 3 dogs living with me until they died of various ailments and old age.  It’s only been just recently that I opened my heart again to Hallie, a shelter dog who was rejected by her first adopted family.  Back to my daughter.  I found out through her roommate that she had acquired a pit bull puppy for her small apartment in Denver.  There was already 2 people and 2 cats living in the small 2-bedroom space. (Not to mention the lease was in my name.)

I did what any mature parent would do – freaked out!  Aside from one more creature to take care of, I was horrified that she had selected a pit bull.  You all have heard the stories on the news.  Pit Bull Mauls 5-year old Child……Pit Bull Attacks Unsuspecting Jogger. When I met her as a 4-month old puppy, the first thing she did was growl when I came into the space unexpectedly.  She was living up to my nightmare expectations.

As time passed and I got to know “Georgia,” I became aware that I had a paradigm of this type of dog that was grounded in media hype and ignorance.  Georgia is a fun and gentle dog that lives to play with you and with others.   She chases sticks, balls and anything you toss for her to retrieve.  She loves dog bones, biscuits and pig’s ears and is respectful when you give them to her.  She’s the most popular dog at the dog park and plays nicely with much bigger and smaller pets.  She’s never bitten anyone or had a mean bone in her body.

On this Friday the 13th of all days, Georgia got out of her fence in Roswell, Georgia and is now missing.  Fortunately she’s micro-chipped and has tags on her collar.  I’ve contacted every vet and shelter in a 25-mile radius and I pray every minute that anyone who sees her will call or turn her into a clinic or shelter.  Life on the street for any dog, especially a pit bull, can be full of danger, especially for some of those ignorant Southern rednecks who think fighting them constitutes a sport, not a criminal activity.

Having said all of this, I think there are some lessons that anyone who accepts responsibility for owning a dog.
•    Consider the breed carefully.  If you live in an apartment and work all day, having a young, big dog that requires a lot of activity is counterproductive.  They get bored, try and get out or get destructive.
•    Keep in mind that not all people will love and accept your dog the way you do.  Unfortunately for Georgia, people are afraid of the breed and will have less tolerance and understanding than you will.
•    Be proactive about protecting your dog in the event they get loose.  Make sure they are spayed or neutered.  Micro-chip the dog and register the chip.  Make sure that the collar fits and that the ID tags are on tight.
•    If they run, call all the clinics and shelters around and email them your dog’s information, chip number and picture in the event they turn up.  Someone may try and pass them off as their dog, but the vets will know better if you keep your name in front of them.
•    Post flyers not only in neighborhoods, but in grocery stores, churches, schools, etc.  My friend lost their bulldog, Herschel, who was picked up by a stranger.  Based on a flyer in grocery store, someone saw the vehicle and the owner kept monitoring the store until the man came back to shop.  Needless to say, Herschel has now been liberated and has been returned to his owners.

I never thought I would grow to love Georgia, but she’s now a part of the family and she’s missing.  I hope people will do the right thing, bring her back or at least take her to a vet or clinic.  I think we’ve done what we can to get the word out in the community.  All we can hope is that Georgia will come home soon.

TUSCAN SOUP

Ingredients
1 lb ground Italian sausage (if you like Spicy, go with HOT Italian Sausage)
1 1/2 tsp crushed red peppers
1 large diced white onion
1 Package of Bacon
2 tsp garlic puree
10 cups water
5 cubes of chicken bouillon
1 cup heavy cream
1 lb sliced Russet potatoes, or about 3 large potatoes
1/4 of a bunch of kale
Salt and Pepper to taste

1.  Sauté Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in a large pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients.
2. In the same pan, sauté bacon, onions and garlic over low-medium heat for approximately 15 mins. or until the onions are soft.
3.  Add chicken bouillon and water to the pot and heat until it starts to boil.
4.  Add the sliced potatoes and cook until soft, about half an hour.
5.  Add the heavy cream and just cook until thoroughly heated.
6.  Stir in the sausage and the kale, let all heat through and serve. Delicious!

About Sara
Sara has been with Copper Conferencing for a total of three years. She is a 15-year sales veteran, selling everything from coupon books door-to-door to enterprise software packages.

When Sara is not playing the role of super sales person she is playing the more important role of super mom to Audrey and Mya and super wife to Tyler. She enjoys traveling, reading and spending times with friends and family.

For more information about Copper Conferencing and our affordable, easy-to-use audio conferencing and webinar services, contact Sara at sales@copperconferencing.com.

Carolyn Bradfield

Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to look at hundreds, and maybe thousands, of resumes. In general, I find that the majority are an absolute mess. They are generally too long, too wordy, and not specific. In order to get a job in this economy, you need to really step up your resume game and pay attention to both form and substance.

Give yourself a proper introduction
Since most resumes are sent via email, make sure to use an email address that is business appropriate. Resumes from email addresses such as billythebanger@aol.com or hot4u@hotmail.com are going to get sent to the trash. I suggest you get a gmail account and use your first name, middle initial and last name as your email address. Keep it professional.

Send an introductory email that is specific to the job you are seeking. Don’t start it with “Dear Sir.” (A lot of us that read these are not “sirs”) Just open the email with a powerful first paragraph – no more than 2 sentences. Here’s a sample:

“Attached is my resume in response to your posting for an Office Manager on Craig’s List. My experience in customer service and office administration gives me the perfect blend of background and skill set to make me an ideal candidate for this position.”

Use Good Form
Make sure to deliver your resume as a Word document. Everyone will be able to open your file. Formatting is critical. Don’t go cute on the font – use something standard like Arial or Times New Roman. Pay attention to the margins, spacing, and bolding of categories, company names, etc. Center your name and contact information up top and make sure to include your email and cell phone.

All resumes should have the following 3 categories in this order: Summary or Objective/ Experience/ Education. Most of us generally do not care that you love to hike or like to read. We all know that you will provide us references. When you list your experience, give us the company name, job title, dates. Include a one-line description to let us know what this company does. Don’t assume we know that. No more than 2 pages, even if you have worked for years. We don’t really care to know lots of details about a job you had 20 years ago.

Objective
It’s important to summarize what type of job you are looking for and why you are qualified to hold that position. Many people have varied experience in their background that may make it hard for the reader to figure out what you really want to do. Remember, this is the first thing someone will read, so make it well thought out and powerful. And here’s a little hint — your objective can change depending on who you send the resume to.

Results, Not Activity
Most of us don’t care what tasks and activities you did, but we do care about the tangible results. For example, it is weak to say that “Responsible for securing new business.” We want to know some examples and the resulting revenue.

Avoid phrases such as “responsible for”, “participated in”, “worked with a group to…” Use active verbs such as: developed, delivered, produced, secured, sold, created.

Use bullet points to call out activities that are important. If you did 10 things in an organization, don’t list them all, just the ones that are significant and that you can quantify. Remember that the more detail you give about a specific job, the more we will weight how important that job was to you. Don’t give me 7 bullet points about your first job and 2 about the 4th job you had.

Pick an Editor
Find someone who is in a position to hire and have him or her edit your resume. Do not get your feelings hurt when you get direct feedback. Your resume is often the only document that a hiring company will see before they decide whether to engage with you or not. Don’t hire a resume writer. You put down the details and then have someone edit what you did. There are plenty of people who can do this.

Whether you are looking for a job or not, compile your resume and get it in shape. You never know when an opportunity will come along or when your company will downsize. Form counts. Substance counts.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools.  You can try Copper’s affordable web and audio conferencing services — and get a discount for using our nationwide Local Dial-In network. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

Last week, I flew to Denver then to Houston and then to Atlanta.  Because I run a conferencing company, I know the value of using audio and web conferencing to minimize the need for these types of trips.  But sometimes, you have to go pay a personal visit.  During the summertime, you pay a high financial as well as a personal price to get on an airplane.

Maybe it’s just because I’m older and my kids are older.  I just get terribly annoyed with the way families travel these days.   They clog up the airports with their strollers, their stuff and their kids.  They slow things way down at the ticket counter, through the security line and getting onto the airplane.  Now I know everyone deserves a vacation, a family trip or time to see the relatives.  But I beg you to please respect those of us who need to travel to make a living.

If you are not a frequent traveler, then here are some hints for those of you lugging your kids off to Disney World or to see grandma:

Pack lighter
You see families lugging toys, stuffed animals, pillows and giant sized diaper bags through the airport and wonder how they will manage this load of stuff.  Leave some of this stuff at home.  If you really need it at your destination, visit Goodwill or Wal-Mart, buy the extra stuff and donate it before you go home.  Better yet, send money ahead and have the grandparents do some pre-visit shopping.

Dress for the airport
You are going to have to strip down to go through security and so are your children.  When they have tennis shoes with complicated laces, it slows up the process.  Consider a cheap pair of flip-flops to get through the airport.  Stuff those jackets, jewelry and belts in your carry-on bag before you get to security.

Set your kids expectations in advance
If they are old enough, tell your kids the process they will go through in the airport.  Let them know what they are responsible to carry, how they will have to stand in line and what is expected of them as they go through security.  Let them know what type of behavior is acceptable in the airport and how to behave in their seat on the airplane.

Be prepared
Invest in a travel folder and put your documents and identification where they are in one place and easy to get to.  Long before you get to the security officer, have this folder in hand and ready to give to them.  If you think your kids will be bored, have plenty of things to do and snacks packed in advance.

Remember, they are not as cute as you think they are.
I’m sure you have the cutest kids in America.  However, business people don’t really want to engage with them.  If they kick our seat or if they turn around to wave at us, we’ll be polite, but we really just want to be left alone.  It’s not cute when they horse around with each other in line either.  I know that you think they are cute, but don’t look to us frequent travelers to validate that.

The business traveler often grinds it out in the air week to week and we are just looking for a peaceful ride to wherever we are going.  We have kids of our own and are not just mean and grumpy people.  Respect our space, learn the rules of the road, be prepared, manage your kids and we can all fly the friendly skies together in peace.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. You can try Copper’s affordable web and audio conferencing services — and get a discount for using our nationwide Local Dial-In network. Just sign up now.

Carolyn Bradfield

Airplane travel has a lot of drawbacks.  I’m winging my way to Houston on Southwest Airlines, one of the best and most efficient carriers in the industry, reading a USA Today article on hidden airline fees.   The article states that the Government Accountability Office reported that the extra fees airlines charge are not fully disclosed to passengers making it difficult to compare the total cost of the flight.

On their morning news program, CNN also reported that in the last two years since it became a trend to charge these extra fees, the airline industry has collected a staggering $8 billion from baggage fees, preferred seat fees, and likely the hidden fees referred to in the USA article.  This has become such a lucrative practice that it has been reported that some carriers are considering fees for using the overhead luggage compartments.

The GAO is pressuring airlines to be clearer and thorough in their disclosure of these fees so passengers can understand the true cost of a flight.  I think I’m going to write the GAO and request that they engage in the same analysis of the conference calling industry.

Larger competitors try to wow companies with very low per minute rates, touting their ability to save tremendous amounts of money.  In fact, many of these rates seem to be approaching what it cost a company to make a minute of conferencing.  However, when you add back the fees, then take the total cost divided by the number of conferencing minutes, you find that the effective rate per minute to be quite high.

The effective rate per minute of a minute of conferencing begins to rise when the following conditions are in place:
•    There are minimum call charges
•    Usage patterns are such that there are some shorter calls that don’t reach the minimum call charge.
•    Participants call in and initiate a call only to have it cancelled and rescheduled for another time.
•    The average monthly usage is low and invoice fees, surcharges and minimums account for a larger portion of the bill.

Go back to the airline analogy.  Think about a family of four flying from Atlanta to Orlando.  Each person checks a bag both ways.  That adds $200 to the cost of the trip.  Then there are other fees and surcharges that tack on another 20%.  What looked to be $150 a passenger round trip ended up being $230 by the time all the fees were tacked on.

I’m not a huge fan of government oversight, but GAO bring it on in my industry.  Copper Conferencing charges one fee – the Universal Services Fee required by the Federal government.  To the rest of my peers, it’s time for full disclosure so that business customers can compare an apple to an apple.    Maybe it’s better to drop your fees and raise your rates.  It’s OK to make a reasonable profit if you are reasonable about being up front about it.

Carolyn Bradfield is the CEO of Copper Conferencing, a provider of easy-to-use audio conferencing and web conferencing communication tools. Copper also provides wrap-around services including online account, invoice and recording management. You can try Copper’s great web and audio conferencing services — no obligation. Just sign up now.