Many people don’t seem to understand the differences between trademarks, copyrights and patents.

It’s an interesting world out there, full of signs, slogans, logos, books, artistic work, and too many other things to mention in a short article. But the main thing to know is that there is a distinct difference in what a trademark is, what copyright means, and what one does with a patent.

Trademark rights act to protect a word or logo as being “the” source for goods/services. E.g. Nike. The instant anyone says that word, we all think of running shoes and well, Michael Jordan. This is the true definition of a trademark. Now here is the interesting thing. You don’t need to file for trademark registration to have common law trademark rights, but let’s put it this way – if you don’t file and someone infringes on those rights, you’d have a tough time enforcing them. So, it’s best to be safe and not sorry, and file with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Other things that registering will do for you is provide the “presumption” you’re the trademark’s rightful owner and gives you statutory damages against someone using your mark in bad faith. Once your “mark” is registered, you need to remember to always keep protecting it to keep your trademark rights.

The Copyright Conundrum

The easiest way to explain copyright is to say that if you create something and it falls under the definition of being a creative work, it’s up to you who makes copies and how many copies. Of course, there are exceptions, and knowing what those exceptions are happens to be important.

At this point, it’s usually smart to contact a lawyer well versed in this area, as this type of law has the potential to be extremely complex. By the way, you may sell or even license this copyright, or if you have done work for someone else, then they buy this right in advance.

The major difficulty is defining what constitutes a creative work. Legally, it has to exist in some tangible form – on paper, a disk or even written in stone. However, what it’s written on isn’t what makes it creative. To be creative, it can’t be just straight factual data; that is where an easily understandable explanation usually ends, as there honestly is even an element of creativity to coding in computer language.

Anything you do that is classified as creative writing, creative editing, etc., is copyrighted. So the distinction is this: the facts can’t be copyrighted, but a very clever and creative organization of those facts may be. This is referred to as compilation copyright. In short, this area may make your head spin, so speak to a copyright lawyer who has their head on straight and can outline what you need to know.

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If you’ve found this article from a Google search, I assume that you are already familiar with what a life coach is. Even if you are, reading my article “What is a Life Coach” will provide you with valuable information on what exactly a life coach does, how coaching contracts work, what typical coaching formats look like and how you might want to focus your business as you consider becoming a coach.

This article is geared towards the logistics on what you can do to become a life coach and start your own business.

What Credentials do I Need?

At the risk of turning people off to life coaching in this article, I am going to give you the facts about people that are calling themselves coaches. Truth be told – there are NO job requirements to become a coach. Sounds scary huh? Put a sign up, print some business cards, call yourself a life coach and you are good to go. Pretty easy business to build eh?

Lets take a bit of a closer look here. What I am really saying is that by law, no professional certification is required for someone to call him or herself a life coach – or coach (often the word ‘life’ is either omitted or replaced with a different word such as ‘executive’, ‘wellness’, ‘lifestyle management’ or ‘business’). So unlike a psychologist, a physical therapist, registered dietician, a contractor, or a lawyer, the state and country (USA) does not recognize a life coach as a credentialed profession. Therefore, no license is required to call yourself a coach (at least as of the date this article is posted).

Lets look at some other examples of similar professions that might fall into the same category. How about that big one of ‘consultant’. There are lots of consultants out there consulting on everything you can think of – typically a consultant needs no license to be a consultant, just experience doing so. Similar to a coach, a consultant with no experience at all can draft up a business card and start doing business. Of course the big question is whether or not you’d be able to sell anyone on your services given that background. A computer consultant would probably have trouble selling themselves if they knew nothing about computers!

Before Calling Yourself a Coach…

If you are intending to call yourself a coach, please understand what it means to give yourself that title. Without government regulations, I admit you can stake your claim at coachhood with relative ease, however its a discredit to the professionals with years of experience and training if you simply use the word as an allure for clients and in any way you are misrepresenting what the coaching profession is all about. I’d suggest reading a coaches code of ethics to see if what you are offering could truly be considered coaching.

One problem that I see is that many people who are misrepresenting the profession do not even recognize what it means to be a coach. I’ve seen MLM (multi-level marketing) companies give their marketers buttons to put on their shirt stating ‘Wellness Coach’ – when all they know is a couple of herbal supplements that the company sells. I’ve seen Real Estate Agents call themselves ‘Real Estate Coaches’ because they wanted to differentiate themselves from the crowd of agents. Clearly these people are marketing themselves as coaches with little understanding of what a coach really does. If you’ve read this far it shows you’ve got a true interest in becoming an ethical coach and I’ve no doubt that you are doing your homework!

What Background do I need?

This is an interesting question. Coaches come from all backgrounds. As previously mentioned there are coaches in the health and wellness world, in the executive development world, relationship coaches, coaches for families with children that have special needs, stress management coaches – the list goes on and on. Of course there are many coaches that cross pollinate and have several areas they focus on.

If you choose to focus your coaching on a specific area – lets say ‘parenting troubled teens’, then its a good idea that you’ve got a background of working with troubled teens so that you can best understand your client. Now a pure life coach is committed to recognizing that a client has their own answers and that the coaches job is to empower the client such that they see this clearly for themselves. Therefore, a coach is a generalist – their training and skill is really in communicating with people such that they can identify and build appropriate goals and actions that fulfill their dreams. If you naturally have this skill, you’ve got the greatest asset that a life coach needs. Some people have an innate tendency to ‘be coach’. If you don’t naturally have this skill, rest assured that wish practice you can develop it.

What Education if any Should I Get?

If you are considering becoming a coach, I definitely recommend that you get training. A coach training program often has coaching and mentorship not only on how to be a better coach, but also on how to build your business. Whether or not you choose to go through a full coach training certification program is a big decision as it will typically involve a commitment of 1-3 years, up to $15,000, and will require that you obtain between one and two hundred client hours to become certified. Prices, times to certification, and program depth and intensity vary greatly dependent on the program you choose.

Typically after an introductory class, you are encouraged to begin enrolling coaching clients. Therefore, you can charge what you are comfortable charging while you are going through the certification process (remember, you don’t need a license to be a coach). I wish I knew the percentage of professional’s out there calling themselves ‘coaches’ that have gone through a certification program. I am sure that someone’s put an estimate out there but I’ve yet to find it. My suspicion is that it is less than 1/3 of all coaches. So being a ‘certified’ coach differentiates you for sure, however at the moment a typical coaching client probably would not know the difference.

If you elected not to become certified, my recommendation would be that you take some introductory courses, become familiar and comfortable with what coaching is, then try your hand on clients willing to work with you. If these classes are too expensive, read through this whole blog, read as many books as you can find on coaching and develop a toolset which you can stake claim to and comfortably use to team with clients to promote their advancement and self discovery. Make yourself an expert coach based on the knowledge of what a coach is and what they do.

I remember having a conversation with one woman that a friend referred to me. She wanted to change careers, she was very interested in life coaching and she felt she had been coaching friends and co-workers for years. She did have a good understanding of what life coaching was. Furthermore she said she new a number of people that would be willing to pay her for coaching! As I coached her, all she needed to hear was herself confirming that it was OK to get started – even if she had doubts and worries as to what a formal coaching session would look like. She had a fantastic motivation to learn regardless of whether or not that would be in the framework of a credential program (and I don’t know if she elected to enroll in one).

What is the ICF

The ICF (International Coach Federation) is the leading coach credentialing agency on the market. Many coaches have opted to become a member of the ICF (by paying an annual fee to be a member), but this is certainly not a requirement to be a coach. The ICF is strongly supportive of coaching becoming a licensed field – similar as to what you see with psychologists etc. Clearly they have incentive as they would be the leading credentialing agency and this would greatly increase their membership. Many coaches believe that this will come to fruition in the next 5-10 years. At that point in time its likely we’d see a large decrease in the number of people calling themselves coaches as well as an increase in the credibility and the stature of the industry.

I present this because if you did elect to go through a coach training program, the ICF provides a list of programs that are accredited. By training through one of these accredited programs, it is expected that your certification would be grandfathered into the status of a certified coach should a license become required. This might be one thing to consider as you contemplate what level of training and education you would like to participate in as well as who provides that training.

In Summary

To summarize, if you’ve been considering becoming a professional coach (life coach), its important to educate yourself on what a coach is and is not. There is a lot of information on the internet available (much on this site) that can provide you with a foundation for understanding coaching models and how to ‘be coach’.

Legally, at this point in time, there are no requirements to obtain a certification or license for someone to begin calling themselves a coach (in that regards, it’s similar to consulting). If you would like to begin coaching on a specific topic, its great to have a background on that topic but make sure that you know why you are differentiating what you are doing as coaching rather than consulting.

Educationally there are many coach training programs available. I suggest that you attend at least some coaching courses (or hire your own coach) such that you begin to understand how coaching works. If you do elect to go with a coach training program, a good thing to consider would be whether or not is is recognized by the International Coach Federation such that you will not to become re-certified in the future should this become an industry requirement.

I hope this answers your first set of questions on how to become a life coach – I am sure it will lead to more questions. I’ll provide more coaching tips, tools and suggestions throughout the course of the year on this website- so visit often. Till then…

“If you’ve found this site useful, please link to it so that others can benefit!”

Be Well

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Do you know how to find out about warrant for your arrest?

Do you know if there are any warrants for your arrest outstanding? Have you checked lately? There are a number of reasons why warrants may have been placed on you and you might not even be aware of it. If you do have warrants and you ignore them it could prove costly for you when they finally catch up and arrest you. So how do you find out if you have a warrant for arrest?

There might be warrants issued against you for some very simple reasons. You might have some unpaid parking tickets that you’ve forgotten about. Perhaps you missed a court appearance or there’s been a clerical error at the courthouse. You might even be a suspect in a crime and they simply haven’t been able to find you yet.

Ways to find out if you have a warrant for arrest – Ask a police officer

The easiest way to find out if you have a warrant for arrest is to ask a police officer. They will access their databases and will be able to tell you quickly and at no cost to you. No cost that is unless you do have a warrant against you and they decide to arrest you on the spot. If you don’t like the idea of possibly being arrested then don’t ask a police officer.

Visit your courthouse

If you suspect that you have a warrant for arrest and you know which area it would have been issued in then go and ask at the relevant courthouse. They will be able to tell you if you’ve been issued with any and you probably won’t get arrested unless the crime is serious. This approach is less effective if the warrant was issued elsewhere.

Use an online service

You can now find out if you have warrants for arrest anywhere in the US by using an online website. All the public databases you need are now available to you in an easy to access and affordable way. In addition, they are completely confidential so there is no possibility of you getting arrested by using them.

If you simply ignore the possibility that you may have warrants for your arrest they will catch up to you eventually by which time the fines and costs could be substantial. Don’t take the risk, find out if you have a warrant for arrest now.

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You have worked very hard for the car or cars you have as well as all of your other personal possessions that you place value on. Having adequate auto insurance can protect more than just your cars; it can help protect all of your possessions.

Auto insurance is more than just coverage for your automobiles or RV or motorcycle. Insurance can help insulate you from having your personal assets put at risk should you be involved in an accident and are determined to be at fault. Understanding that all states have different liability or fault laws and different minimum liability coverage requirements, it is important to know that in all states, if you are in an accident and found to be at fault, you are personally responsible for those damages.

Insurance is a way of minimizing that responsibility or exposure for damages you may cause and determined to be responsible for. When you purchase a policy, you select the coverage amounts you want or need. In many cases the lien holder on your vehicle may dictate the amount of coverage you need, if you have one. However, there is something else to consider and ask yourself: what is the value of my personal assets? The reason for that question is this: although your insurance company has a duty to defend you within the policy limits or coverage’s you have purchased, a claimant or the person that you caused damage and potentially injury to, can attempt to come after you personally if they feel the limits of your policy are not adequate for their property damages and/or injuries.

An example may help demonstrate this better: You have a current insurance policy with the following limits: property damage $15,000 and bodily injury $15,000/$30,000. the bodily injury limits mean that there is up to $25,000 in coverage available for any single person injured and up to a total of $30,000 total for all injured parties. Lets say, for demonstration, there were 3 people in the vehicle in which the injured parties were in and you were found to be at fault. The driver was injured badly, sustaining a broken hip, lacerations to the face and a broken arm. The other 2 passengers in the vehicle sustained soft tissue injuries to their backs and some cuts to their faces from broken glass. From my experience as a claims adjuster and manager, this claim will be valued over the policy limits of $30,000 for all injured parties.

Remembering that your insurance company has a duty to protect you and resolve this claim within the limits of your policy. If the injured parties have an attorney, the attorney will do his/her due diligence to determine if you have any personal assets of value or are a high net worth individual. If you are, the attorney may decide to pursue both your policy limits and then come after your personal assets. And yes, this does happen and you and your assets could be at risk.

The example above and potential for that to be a real-life one in terms of your personal assets being at risk and having adequate insurance coverage can be mitigated. How? By taking care in understanding your personal financial position and then ensuring you are adequately covered for more than just your vehicle. It is worth your time to pull out your Declarations page that shows what your current coverage limits are and then, if, after really looking at what you have on the line, you feel you may not be adequately insured, use an unbiased, consumer focused site which will allow you to get free auto insurance quotes for the amount of coverage you need to feel that you are adequately covered.

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It is commonly known that sexual harassment at workplace involves unwelcome acts of sexual nature by a co-workers or a supervisor, such as unwelcome touching, repeated unwanted propositioning, conditioning employment or promotion on sexual favors, etc.

Offensive conduct, however, need not be sexual in nature to create a hostile work environment in the workplace. Hostile non-sexual conduct (or language) directed at an employee because of his or her gender may create an actionable hostile environment. A pervasive pattern of verbal abuse violates Title VII even if not motivated by sexual desire to drive women out of the organization. Rude, overbearing, loud, vulgar and generally unpleasant comments by a male supervisor toward female subordinates, coupled with physically aggressive (though non-sexual) actions, may constitute sexual harassment, if male subordinates were treated with proper respect at the same place. Interestingly enough, the fact that are were more women than men in the office does not make a difference.

A non-sexual conduct that singles out an employee based on his/her gender may also be actionable and constitute sexual harassment/hostile work environment . In one California case, a hostile work environment was shown by evidence that the male police officers engaged in overtly hostile acts toward a female police officer, including stuffing her shotgun barrel with paper, so that the weapon would explode if fired, spreading untrue rumors about her abilities, singling her out for unfavorable work assignments and shifts, making false complaints about her performance, and even threatening to disrupt her wedding.

Even staring, coupled with other factors, can constitute sexual harassment hostile work environment. In one case, a female employee refused several requests to go out on a date by a male co-worker (which included divulging lewd fantasies about her). When she complained to her supervisor, the coworker stopped talking to her, but started staring at her in an intimidating manner. In light of his prior conduct, the coworker’s repeatedly staring at the female employee and the employer’s failure to stop it despite the employee’s complaints could constitute actionable hostile environment sexual harassment according to court.

In sum, the California law and the recent rulings by courts clearly indicate that the conduct does not have to be “sexual” in nature in order to constitute hostile work environment sexual/gender harassment.

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When you plan the design of your trade show display, it is important to think of your trade show booth floor as your fifth wall. The flooring of your trade show booth should always complement– and enhance– the environment of your trade show display. In fact, your choice of flooring can add a third dimension to your trade show booth.

When the city of Chicago used full-color digitally printed footprints- in- the sand on their trade show carpet, it was the starting point of a “follow me” tour of the Chicago area that made their booth 3 dimensional.

Their realistic footprints-in-sand carpet graphics enticed visitors to follow the footprints leading up to Lake Michigan shown graphically on the trade show booth wall. It was a clever way to explore the terrain of the city of Chicago and its environs. Imaginative trade show flooring can create 3 dimensional trade show booths with flooring that uses footprints, railroad tracks, and other devices that stimulate a “follow me” look.

Using creative flooring graphics can enhance the look of your trade show booth. By merely adding imaginative carpeting concepts to your trade show exhibit, you will be able to successfully update the look of your existing trade show booth. Also, compelling floor designs can act as a beacon inviting visitors to view featured products perched on top of attention-getting floor destinations.

Contemporary flooring uses materials that are now easier to use and ship. New lightweight and durable flooring materials can easily roll up like carpet. Interlocking floors are extremely portable and can handle the demands of small and large trade show exhibitors. With new 10′ wide carpet panels, flex floor panels, pre-measured padding and carpet bags with wheels, trade show flooring assembles faster, and is easier to dismantle and less costly to ship.

Today’s trade show booth flooring concepts offer a greater variety of choices than ever before– from carpets in solid or specifically dyed colors, inlays and logos, to flex floors that look like stone, metal, fabric or hardwoods. Consider the addition of a corporate logo or brand name to exhibit flooring to make and reinforce your brand impression. The application of border designs, custom inlays and carpet sculpting can significantly add a quality look to your trade show booth décor.

According to Dave Walens, President of Brumark, a flooring solutions company for the trade show and event industry headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, there are many smart and flexible innovations in flooring for today’s trade show exhibitor.

Walens mentions that one new innovation is the plastic tile raised floor that is a quick to install and an easy way to level the trade show booth floor. It has the advantage of allowing you to manage electrical, plumbing and air easily and effectively under your trade show exhibit without the threat of damage or the inconvenience of large carpeting. The system’s integrated shipping pallet makes packing, loading and unloading quick and simple. The raised floor is also pleasing to the eye and the slightly elevated surface can enhance the decor of the trade show booth.

Rubber flooring can be used for areas subject to heavy wear. The durability, flexibility, safety, comfort, slip resistance and aesthetic appeal makes rubber flooring an appealing option for both indoor and outdoor flooring applications.

Padding is also available to provide comfort for those trade show booth attendants who spend long hours on their feet. Visitors often notice the extra cushioning as well with appreciative comments to the trade show exhibit hosts.

Walens adds that, in addition to the trade show floor materials, the trade show exhibitor must be mindful of carpet accessories such as tape, clear plastic sheets used to protect the carpet from damage, and flat extension cords with lighted ends that eliminate bumps under your carpet or flooring. This works well whether you are considering a trade show booth at the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago, the Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the Santa Clara Convention Center or the San Jose McEnery Convention Center

Remember when trade show exhibitors think out- of- the- box exposure ideas for their trade show booth, they often consider overhead hanging signs. However, if you properly integrate your trade show flooring into the design of your trade show display, you can have a successful exhibit experience by providing underfoot appeal to your trade show booth visitors as well.

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To begin with, let us tell you that this article is going to smash any preconceptions out there regarding opening a halfway house in the USA. You do not need a license, permit, or any other document to open a halfway house. If any person, government official, government agency, zoning commission, etc. tells you otherwise, they are engaging in illegal and unfair practices. Know your rights (see bellow links to know your rights).

NATIONAL LAWS (ADA) ALWAYS SUPERSEDE LOCAL LAWS.

Just for a hypothetical situation; let’s say that 3 people who have depression decide to become roommates in a home. Should they be shut down and kicked out of the neighborhood because of their disability? Does that mean they have to get a license or permit to stay? Of course not. They are protected under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), as well as other determinations (see links below) against such discrimination. Havingchemically dependent persons in a home is no different!!! Alcoholics and addicts have the same laws to protect them.

It is a well known fact that City Councils have tried to stop halfway houses in their neighborhoods by stating that a halfway house with alcoholics and/or addicts, in other words disabled persons, (and alcoholics and addicts qualify as disabled under the ADA), must not have roommates (as in 2 people in a room at a house), which prevents most halfway houses from opening.

If you have a house, and you want to open a halfway house, and your mortgage payment is $700.00 per month (see additional expenses at the bottom of this paragraph), there are many things to consider before accepting residents into your house. Let’s say, hypothetically, you follow licensing and zoning guidelines. With the average charge to a resident with a substance abuse problem, being around $125.00 per week, you can see that if you went with what the license division / politicians tell you, (which are illegal tactics), you would be out of business shortly. Keep in mind that in addition to your mortgage payment are things such as: utilities, phone service, water, food, furniture, cooking utensils, beds, sheets- basically everything you would need to survive, etc.

On the other hand, if you did not license your house, you could put in 2 or 3 people in a room and keep your halfway house open. In other words, helping others to get a hand up at living sober. Please read more details below…

NATIONAL LAWS (ADA) ALWAYS SUPERSEDE LOCAL LAWS.

How to open a Recovery Home, Halfway House, Sober Living Home OR starting a Half Way House/Recovery Facility*- Resources to assist you. This article includes information on the standards and requirements of opening and operating a Halfway House/Recovery Home- NOTE: Not every county in the United States approaches standards and licensure in the same way- it is best to contact your local licensure department and/or zoning division.

The first thing you should know about opening a halfway house is that you do not need a degree or special certification to open one, and that most operate without a license/permit. Also, under the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) and The Fair Act Amendment, as well as other determinations, makes it illegal to discriminate against halfway houses and the people who own, operate, and live in them. Please see our links below for more information concerning these issues. There are a number of other important issues to cover concerning opening a halfway house that are vital to know.

You must first decide where you will operate. Once you have determined a location you have a choice in whether to license* the facility or not. There are also other permits, inspections, zoning variances, etc. to explore prior to opening up a halfway house. Please keep in mind that it is your choice whether to obtain a license, permit, and other certifications for the operation of a halfway house. If you choose to open a halfway house without a license, there are certain parameters you must operate under to make sure you are not shut down by the county/city you operate within. It is always best to check into what is required, allowed, and not allowed by contacting your local licensure agency and zoning department.

Most halfway houses that are not licensed are mandated to NOT provide on-site counseling or other wrap-around services- to avoid additional

paperwork and hassles, you could provide these services at a local church or other building. Most halfway houses that are licensed may need to

obtain a zoning variance, simply because (in the eyes of politicians) you are basically operating a business in a residential area. You may find that

because you are licensing it, the county (Zoning Commission) will limit the number of people you can have in any one room and at any one residence.

A halfway house that is going through the licensing process (and this may take months, even years to work out) will be required to have certain

structural adaptations made (water/fire sprinkler lines installed- which is very expensive) wheel chair accessible, parking and traffic issues to deal with, etc.

There are some overhead details to work out before you start taking in residents. You should know how many residents you will have in each room, what you are going to charge each resident, and what services are included in this cost or rent. You may also have to contend with residents coming in with no money, or that some residents will be late and/or short of the entire rent monies owed. It’s up to you how you handle these situations. If you have a house ready to use as a Halfway House (providing you have decided whether to license it or not) and your mortgage payment, for a 4 bedroom home, is $700.00 per month (estimate), you will also need to factor in start-up and continued costs like food costs per week, water and utility costs, household needs, (paper towels, toilet paper, dish soap, cleaning chemicals, phones, etc.), as well as monthly and yearly costs, (beds and sheets, TV, computer(s), Internet connection, towels and face clothes, shampoo, dishes and utensils, pest control services, vucuum(s), maintenance, etc.)- basically everything you would need if you were starting from scratch in a new home (considering you have nothing on hand) only this time it is for X number of people. Also include additional items, if licensed, like license and permit charges, health inspection fees, reports, paperwork and filing, accounting, etc. With the above example you can clearly see that many licensure and zoning variances would limit you to having only 4 people at your house, so meeting your overhead is not possible- you would be operating in the red every month.

Fair Housing Act

A case in point (actual court case) in which, for a period of more than 1 year, a city violated the provisions stated within the Fair Housing Amendments

Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, as amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988, 42 U.S.C. §§3601-3619) and denied the operating of a Halfway House within a residential area.

In an effort to assist individuals, agencies, religious affiliations, etc. open recovery places and tackle the unfair and illegal tactics politicians and others are using to stop them, NICD has put together some basic, and very needed, resources to aid in the journey. Counties are using zoning

codes/variances to try and control halfway houses/sober living homes and the total census allowed within these centers. Some of the bias is a

NIMBY, (Not In My Back Yard) situation, while others include property value concerns. In any case, the reasons for discrimination and unfair tactics are not based on fact or material circumstances. These counties and individuals are in violation of the law as it relates to the ADA, (Americans With Disabilities Act), Section 36.209 section 510 which describes alcoholics/drug addicts as people with disabilities. The Federal Fair Housing Act, (see link below), 42 USC section 3604(f)(2) makes it unlawful “to discriminate against any person in the terms, conditions, or privileges of sale or rental of a dwelling, or in the provision of services or facilities in connection with such dwelling because of a handicap.” The 42 USC section 3604(f)(3)(B) provides that unlawful discrimination includes failure to make “reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices.

providing some resources that you can use in starting up a program.

There are numerous obstacles to overcome in trying to open up a halfway house for alcoholics and/or drug addicts. NICD will attempt to help you by

Note: Please feel free to copy/print this page, as we have waived the copyright for this page only.

Some additional concerns you may encounter:

The next section has some rules that should be a part of any quality run halfway house. In addition to these is a section for navigating your way

through getting your residents into benefits and entitlements.

Specific: Halfway Houses Rules- A good halfway house should have rules. We have constructed some that we feel are essential.

RULES & REGULATIONS

IMMEDIATE DISCHARGE

*Being under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs

*Possession of alcohol/drugs

*Possession of weapons

*Threats either verbal or physical, or acts of violence, fighting

*Property destruction or altering the physical construction of the premises, including interior walls

*Failure to submit a U/A (which are always at your cost)

*Unaccountable or discrepancies in times off of premises

*Lies, either found on your intake paperwork or otherwise, stealing, unusual behavior, and any criminal activity

*Failure to comply with rules and/or staff directions

1. You are required to attend at least 3 12-Step meetings per week, have a program book, (Big Book, NA Text, etc.), and have your meeting slip

signed by a member of the group, and not another resident, and attend on-premises “House Meetings” which are held 2 times per week, 1-2 hours per meeting.

2. House meeting attendance is mandatory, (which means you must arrange for employment that does not interfere with these meetings), there are

no exceptions to this rule.

3. For the first 30 days you are to remain on premises, (during this time you are expected to be working on your steps), and must arrange 12-Step meeting attendance with another resident who is not on restriction, and this must be pre-approved by the house manager.

4. You are required to sign-out when leaving the premises, and sign-in upon return- all leaves must be pre-approved by the house manager in

advance, and any inconsistencies in leave times are grounds for discharge.

5. Rent must be paid every Friday directly to the house manager, and kept up to date without exception.

6. You must see the house manager at least 1 time per week to discuss your recovery program- it does not count as a visit to discuss program while paying rent, unless the house manager chooses to do so.

7. You must obtain a Home Group and a Sponsor (You must provide a contact name and phone number), within the first week of residency, and this will be verified.

8. You must have Steps 1,2, and 3 in writing, and present these in the House Meeting by the 3rd week, along with a copy to the house manager.

9. You are required to be employed full time, and you are not permitted to quit a job without first discussing it with the house manager, (employment status will be checked on periodically).

10. There are certain types of employment that are not allowed, and you must speak with the house manager

11. No cab driving, working in bars, clubs, or places that sell alcohol.

12. Your room must be kept neat, with your bed made at all times, rugs vacuumed, toilet cleaned, kitchen area clean, which means absolutely no

glasses, dishes, forks, knives, spoons, etc. left in the sink at any time, and any trash disposed of in a timely manner.

13. You will be assigned daily and weekend chores (these are mandatory as part of your stay).

14. All vehicles will have current tags and insurance, and this must be verifiable. Also, there will be no storage of vehicles, and no working on vehicles on the premises.

15. Bikes and other modes of transportation must be stored in the appropriate locations, and security for these are at your own cost.

16. Any situation that requires police involvement must be discussed with the house manager before the police are called, (any police involvement

without house manager approval will be grounds for discharge).

17. There are absolutely no visitors allowed on premises without prior approval from the house manager.

18. There will be no congregating outside, no loud music or discussions, no walkmans, caps, sunglasses, bandanas, or inappropriate dress allowed, and you are required to attend to daily hygiene needs.

19. No one is allowed in another residents room- period.

20. There are no sharing of clothes, personal property, loaning money, borrowing vehicles, including bikes by either staff or residents.

21. You may be requested to submit to a U/A at any time, which may include either with cause or without.

22. Any resident who is aware of a rules infraction and does not notify the house manager immediately will be subject to discharge, which includes

finding out later that you knew about it.

23. All rooms are subject to inspections at any given time, and any room that does not pass inspection may cause all residents in that room to be

discharged.

24. Smoking is not allowed in rooms.

25. There will be no illegal hook-ups of cable, or use of cable boxes. Cable hook-ups will be done legally, at your cost, and your risk. If bills are not current you will be required to cut-off services until the bill is paid for.

26. Phone hook-ups are your responsibility, as are the bills that go along with it.

27. Any cooking done by residents requires immediate clean-up.

28. Any delegation, directive, or request that is made by staff will then become a rule.

29. Any medical conditions and/or injuries must be brought to the attention of the house manager.

30. Calls to 911 for medical conditions, injuries, etc. must be approved by the house manager before calling.

31. If there is an emergency, call 911, and then notify the house manager immediately.

32. Any and all medications, including pain pills, psych. meds, aspirin, Advil, cold, flu, sinus, etc. will be kept, and locked up by the house manager and dispensed according to the instructions on the bottle- any Rx. or

33. House shut downs will occur if chores are not done, the grounds and buildings are not cared for, rooms are not kept clean, or general attitudes are not in line with house etiquette, and is done so at the discretion of the house manager.

34. All rules and regulations are subject to additions and changes at the house managers discretion.

This is not a complete list of all the possible rules and/or violations that may happen, so to insure a healthy, happy, drug and alcohol free recovery

environment please do your part to use common sense when it comes to either doing or not doing something that may affect yours and others

continued stay.

Finally, staff will not take the role of cop, lawyer, or investigator. This means discharges will occur without investigation of who did what, what was said, who is, or who is not at fault.

The NIMBY Syndrome, (Not In My Back Yard), is one area that an owner of a recovery home / halfway house will have to contend with. It is usually best to address this issue up front before you open, or before construction is started. Your local Zoning Commission office should be able to provide information on the area you plan on opening the halfway house in. The census bureau can provide information on the neighborhoods make up, (economic base, average salaries made, gender average, average cost of homes in the area, and other good information to educate yourself with).

Check to see if there is a homeowners association, as that could be your best bet in getting to know your neighbors, and them getting to know you.

You should plan on going to one of their meetings before you open, but definitely after you have been armed with the information that you know will come up for discussion. Some concerns will be on whether or not you will accept violent offenders, psychiatrically unstable residents, how your home will affect property values. You can convince people that you plan on running a safe, drug free, and strict program by bringing a copy of your intake protocol and halfway house rules. Let them know how you plan on handling the situation when one of your residents comes up positive on a drug

screen. You should develop, in writing, protocols for dealing with this and other situations- there should be a plan of action that all staff and residents are to follow in any given situation. There will be some fear there, as no one wants a drug addict discharged/kicked out in their neighborhood at 1:00 A.M. on a weekend or any other time.

You need to arm yourself with the facts and also how you will handle all sorts of possible situations. If you take the lead and let your neighbors know, before they ask, what they can expect from you, you will go far in gaining their trust. Just be sure you follow through as you promised. It will pave the way to open another site, if you want to, if you have a great relationship with those that live around your halfway house.

In six major studies of communities where halfway houses were opened, no significant change in average housing prices could be found (MacNeil & Kappel, 1986, Part III.A.).

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The world’s largest technology trade show — The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) – held in Las Vegas in January spanned over 1.8 million square feet of space or the equal of 35 football fields. There were over 2,700 trade show exhibitors and more than 140,000 trade show visitors from 130 countries. In fact, the CES is America’s largest annual trade show of any kind.

“The 2007 International CES succeeded beyond our expectations,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the trade group behind the CES. “It had buzz and optimism and attracted the world leaders of the content, technology and services, communications and automobile industries,” Shapiro continues.

The technology trade show showcased the convergence of broadband, content and consumer electronics. The trade show exhibitors took advantage of custom and custom modular tradeshow exhibits– some using sophisticated rental trade show displays– to springboard more than 20,000 dramatic product launches and major partnership announcements, spanning across industries and linking up consumers with more features, services and control of the content incorporated into electronic devices.

Crowds came to see the latest trends in hi tech gear. Gadgets ruled the day. It all comes down to this–what tech gadgets are hot and what do stores need to stock in order to catch the latest hi- tech wave. American businesses want to know how people will spend their time and money in the 21st century. The Consumer Electronics Association, offers the following facts:

The average U.S. household is projected to spend nearly $2,000 on consumer electronic devices in 2007. Compare this to $1,251 per household in 2005 vs. $84 per household in 1975. The industry is expected to ship a record $155 billion in products in 2007.

The average U.S. household has 26 consumer electronic products: TVs, video games, digital cameras, cell phones, iPods, etc. This compares to 17.4 such products per household in 2000. In 1975, the average was 1.3 products, most likely a TV and a radio.

Today every household has almost three TVs. Flat TV monitors and LCD TV sales are expected to reach $26 billion this year.

There is a shift away from radio and audio system sales due to spending on other gadgets such as TV displays and MP3 players.

At the CES trade show, the trade show exhibitors boasted tech gadgets that were fast, small, and mobile. The trade show exhibits on the show floor showcased the latest in gadgetry. Trade show visitors were mesmerized when they saw the latest widgets at the trade show booths.

A good rule of thumb is that a successful trade show is one that offers trade show booths that give visitors what they come for–no matter whether the trade show is at the Las Vegas Convention Center, the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago, the Kaiser Convention Center in Oakland, the Moscone Center in San Francisco, the Hannover Exhibition Center in Germany or the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.

So, remember, the next time you exhibit at a trade show–whether you are in the hi-tech industry or another field; if you are able to showcase new gadgets, products or services that answer the needs of your visitors, you will win the day.

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In routine gall bladder surgery, the surgeon mistakenly punctures the patient’s aorta, a major artery supplying oxygen-rich blood to the body. The patient is 20-year-old Airman Colton Reid. His fiancé watches as Reid’s feet turn blue from lack of blood flow; yet there are more than eight hours of delay before Reid is transferred from the teaching hospital at Travis Air Force Base to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, where Reid can get adequate treatment. Because of the lack of blood flow from the punctured aorta, and the delay, doctors at UC Davis are ultimately forced to amputate his legs.

Gall bladder surgery is one of the most common surgical procedures performed in hospitals, but the online video segment by ABC News described above shows gall bladder surgery is not without its risks. In Reid’s case, what went wrong?

The Inflamed Gall Bladder

The gall bladder, tucked away near the liver, is small and resembles a pear. The liver produces bile and the gall bladder stores it until bile is needed for digestion of food.

In some cases, gall bladder surgery (cholecystectomy) is performed to treat abnormal gall bladder function or cancer, but in the majority of cases the gall bladder becomes inflamed or obstructed because of gallstones, and the patient elects to have it removed.

Gallstones are hard, tiny pebbles of cholesterol that form for a number of reasons, from poor diet to genetic inheritance, and cause symptoms that range from chronic indigestion to intense abdominal pain. Removing the gall bladder through laparoscopic surgery helps to alleviate the symptoms.

Laparoscopic surgery, colloquially known as “Band-Aid” surgery because of its tiny incisions, became popular among general surgeons in 1990 due to technical advances. It is now the standard procedure largely replacing the more invasive techniques of open surgery. The surgeon makes incisions no greater than one centimeter, inflates the patient’s abdomen with carbon dioxide to make room, and inserts a small video camera (the laparoscope). Once inside, the surgeon locates the gall bladder’s vessels and ducts, cuts them, and removes the gall bladder through the navel.

Laparoscopic surgery is less risky, less painful, and more cosmetically pleasing compared to traditional open surgeries, in which incisions are much larger and internal organs lay bare. But laparoscopic surgery still requires practice and experience on the part of the surgeon.

The Laparoscopic Surgeon

Laparoscopic surgery carries risks beyond those inherent in general anesthesia, the patient’s overall health, and his or her individual prognosis and recovery. Laparoscopic surgery is a minute exercise. Any hand tremors are amplified, compounding any lack of eye-hand coordination. And the surgeon must be comfortable using the laparoscope; chiefly, dexterity of the wrists, hands and fingers is required to safely manipulate the instrument inside the patient’s body.

The surgeon must know the relevant anatomy. Since gallstones often cause inflammation, the anatomy can be distorted and difficult to identify, and an inexperienced surgeon could mistakenly pierce the wrong organ or clamp the wrong duct–like the bile duct, requiring emergency room treatment and reconstructive surgery–or, in Reid’s case, the aorta. In other words, the surgeon must correctly interpret the image displayed by the laparoscope and couple that with his or her experience and dexterity; if the surgeon fails at this, the complications are serious.

From Pierced Aorta to Legal Culpability

For Airman Colton Reid, whose legs were amputated, the central issue is the apparent negligence of the laparoscopic surgeon who cut his aorta–as the triggering event–made worse by the fact that Reid’s transfer was delayed much longer than the few hours a patient can go without blood flow to his limbs before he risks losing them.

As applied in a case with facts similar to Reid’s (Reid does not have access to civil malpractice laws because he was treated by a military doctor), New York pattern jury instructions define medical malpractice as the negligence of a doctor, in which the doctor does something that a reasonably prudent doctor would not do under the circumstances, or fails to do something that a reasonably prudent doctor would do under the circumstances.

Reid would have to prove both proximate cause and resulting damages; typically, a jury would decide whether there was surgical malpractice in piercing the aorta, whether the pierced aorta caused the amputation, or whether it was primarily due to the eight hour delay.

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You’ve done your research and have decided on a business entity. You’re chomping at the bit to open a bank account and get moving. You file your corporation or LLC with the Secretary of State and wait…and wait…and wait. Just how long is this going to take?

California Filing Times

The California Secretary of State can be very slow when it comes to approving new business entities. Once you file the entity, you can sit around tapping your fingers for as long as two months. After two months, you may not even remember why you filed the darn thing! Can you avoid this time and momentum killer? YES!

The California Secretary of State offers “rush filing” options for forming business entities. The first is a 24 hour rush that ads $500 to the filing process, an expense that should really only be undertaken if you are desperate. The second option runs a whopping $15 and has a turn around time of 7 to 10 business days. Ah, so this is the way to do it, right? Nah, that would be far too easy!

For rush filings, the Secretary of State requires all filings to be made in person. If you are not located in Sacramento, this can cause a major problem. So, what do you do?

If you are creating a corporation, you can file the articles of incorporation at a branch office of the Secretary of State. Most major cities have a branch, but you can pop on to the web site for the Secretary of State and find your local branch.

If you are forming an LLC, California makes things difficult. For no logical reason, the Secretary of State doesn’t allow LLC filings to be made at branch offices. This policy makes absolutely no sense, but what are you going to do? You are going to beat the state at its own game.

Rush LLC filings must be personally filed in the Sacramento office of the Secretary of State. The policy doesn’t say WHO must personally file it. Using this loophole, you can hire an attorney delivery service in Sacramento to file and pick up the Articles of Organization for your LLC. You simply send them the articles as well as the filing and rush filing fees. You can expect to pay the attorney service an additional $50 to $75 for the service.

California is one of the worst states to do business in. The Secretary of State does everything possible to make filings a pain in the… With this information, you can turn the tables and beat them at their own game.

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