Whered You Go, Bernadette Book Club Questions

Is your book club is looking to dig into the comic mystery of Whered You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple? This book has over-the-top humor laced with social commentary. Its a fun and quick read that brings to mind several questions, although none of them are very deep.  Whered You Go, Bernadette? is a quick, fun read that has enough discussion for a book club but is light enough for a beach bag. Its good for anyone who wants to disappear for a little while. If you find your book club has been reading too many books that leave you emotionally wrung out and intellectually challenged, its a nice change of pace. Spoiler Warning: Finish the book before reading on as characters and situations are included in the questions. If you dont want your reading experience spoiled, stop right here and come back when you are done! Book Club Questions for Whered You Go, Bernadette?   These questions will help jump-start the discussion. You can add more questions to the list as well as any insights you gained while reading. What was your favorite scene in Whered You Go, Bernadette?Did you think Bernadette had died?Were you surprised by Audreys turnaround? Was it realistic?Do you think Elgin and Bernadette can have a happy future?Are you familiar with TED Talks? What did you think of Elgins TED Talk?Were there any cultural jabs that rang particularly true for you, especially if you have lived in Seattle or the Pacific Northwest?Did this book make you want to go to Antarctica?Do you like the over-the-top style of the book or not, and why?Do you like books that include emails and other items, and what other books does this style remind you of?Which of Bernadettes antisocial attitudes and actions do you identify with, if any?Rate Whered You Go, Bernadette? on a scale of 1 to 5. Give a one to two sentence explanation of your score. Preparing for Your Book Discussion As you read the book, bookmark pages and underline particular sections that interest you or that you found humorous. If these provoke specific insights or cause you to start musing about something, write those down. After you finish the book, return to the bookmarks. What further questions and musings are brought to mind? Is there a character that you particularly identify with, and why? Is there a character you truly dislike and what about them incites these emotions? Maria Semple was one of the writers of Arrested Development, and some of the characters and events in Whered You Go Bernadette? reflect the over-the-top style of the show rather than being realistic. But this style can certainly bring out a laugh.

Evaluation Of Debt And Equity Funding - 1006 Words

Evaluation of Debt and Equity Funding The way the business is funded for its operation and business plans is a crucial factor for the long-term performance of the business. Two most fundamental financing methods include debt and equity financing which will be discussed and evaluated. Equity financing is a method of raising fund from investors with the promise of a share in business ownership. Debt financing is obtaining a loan from external party separate from the business for example the bank and usually involves incurring an interest payment. Advantages of debt financing include protection of ownership and tax reduction. Lenders have no claim on business ownership and debt financing ensure retained ownership. Another benefit includes tax reduction, the repayment of debt is considered as an expense for the business leading to a reduction in tax. Disadvantages include the repayment and lender claim on business asset. For debt financing there is a fixed repayment date, while equity financing does not require repayment. E ven when the company is making a loss, the business needs to make debt repayment regularly for example in a monthly basis to lender such as bank. Usually when business default its debt, the lender can claim its assets as collateral. Interest rate is an integral part of debt financing. Due to inflation, the value of the same amount of money diminish overtime as a result, there is an interest rate for all loan. Long-term loan is comparatively more costly thanShow MoreRelatedEvaluation Of Debt And Equity Funding898 Words   |  4 Pages Evaluation of Debt and Equity Funding Debt funding provides the business with finance from current and non-current liabilities, such as a short-term bank overdraft and loans. Particularly, debt financing is from external sources and it usually charges interest. 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Project Management Plan For Music Festival - Click Here to Get Solutio

Question: Discuss about the Project Management Plan for Music Festival. Answer: Introduction For events like, music festivals that are going to be held in Victoria country , it is important to manage them efficiently with the use of proper planning, and management approaches. These festivals can provide multiple benefits to desirable and healthy society by mitigating the different negative impacts of other issues and problems (Jones 2014). In order to achieve the incredible potential of the music festivals, sustainable festival management of music celebrations must turn out to be generally adopted and extended as basic practice (Rivera 2014). This report provides a brief discussion about the different approaches that can be used for better management of the music festival (like using fast tracking, Gantt chart for resource allocation). The approaches related to the resource planning, risk assessment (risk register, response to risk etc), mitigation and leadership are discussed in this report. In addition to this, justification for the selected approach is also provided in the following sections of this report. Development of Resourcing Plan, Risk Management Plan and Leadership Management Plan for the Music Festival Project The size and nature of the occasion will have an immediate bearing on the level of required hardware, administrations, facilities, staff and time required to get it going. According to Hull (2015), there are several approaches available to a project managers like crashing, resource allocation using Gantt chart and anticipating and resolving the resource overload issues. Resource planning Resource Describe the resource for example: network engineer. Skill Level or Material Quality Associated Task(s) Duration Required Cost Unit of Cost (Hour, Day, Week, Month Fixed) Project Team Project manager Highly qualified and experienced Managing the whole team. Until the completion of the event. $200 day Accountant moderate Tracking the expanses done for setting up the stage and equipments. From the staring of the plan to the budgeting process $75 day Equipment coordinator high Acquiring and maintaining the different equipments. Completion of the setup of the stage for the performance $125 day Hospitality coordinator Advanced Managing the entrance and exit of the audience At the time of entry and exit of the visitors from the venue. $100 day Visitor service event manager Advanced Taking care of the different services provided to the visitors of the festival. At the time of the performances in the festival. $150 day Facilities Catering facilities High To provide food and beverages to the visitors From the start to the end of the show. $500 Day Lost Found High Collect and return the lost goods. From the start to the end of the show. $100 Hour First aid and emergency services Moderate For any health emergency of visitors. From the start to the end of the show. $75 Day Drinking water High To provide drinking water to the visitors. From the start to the end of the show. $50 Hour Equipment Site decoration equipments High To decorate the stage and the site for the festival. Before the start of the festival $750 Hour Transport vehicles High To provide transport facility to the visitors as the venue is in hilly area. During the show $500 Hour Power generation and wires for distribution. High For managing all the power requirements of the festival From the start to end of the festival. $300 Hour Onsite logistics High To manage all the waste after the show. After the show. $250 Day Table 1: Resource allocation table (Source: created by author) Resource overloading approach: This approach is helpful in assigning tasks to the team members in such a way that, no one of them gets burdened by the task. It also helps in the efficient and optimal use of the human resources (Georges, Semaan and Rizk 2014). Fast tracking or Crashing: The fast tracking is about ding the tasks in a parallel manner that is originally scheduled for done in a sequential manner. Therefore, the resources are not wasted as there is no waiting for a task to be completed. In addition to that, it can be said that, the fast tracking does not involve any cost or increase any cost related to the tasks and the whole project. Risk Management Plan As it is estimated that, there will be almost 8000-12000 people will attend the festival, therefore, it is possible that due to the negligence of any employee or visitor the event gets badly. This are considered as the risks to the whole event (Tomai et al 2013). Following table presents the different risks related to the festival. Risk ID Description Risk Owner Risk Trigger Risk Category Probability (1-3) Impact (1-3) #01 There is a chance that the project cost will exceed the amount that the company has budged for the work. accountant If the expected work remaining will cost more than $5000 over budget the team will need to seek additional funding from sponsors. Financial 2 3 #02 It may happen that due to the narrow roadways the vehicle gets inside to the ground. Visitor service event manager If any car comes inside the venue of the festival, then the volunteers will try to send it back to the road. Security 1 3 #03 Due to the excessive pressure of the workload, it may happen that the employees get stressed out. Project manager The shift timing for the employees must be rotated so that, a particular employee does have to complete a lot of task. Staffing 2 2 Table 2: Risk register for the festival (Source: created by author) Leadership/Management For managing the music festival, forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning steps are used for managing the project team. Step Functionalities Forming In this stage the project, team member meets with each other and determines the goal for the project at the same time they talk about the challenges and opportunities of this undertaken project. Storming In this stage, the team members of project team raise their opinions against the actions of the leader (Lundgren and McMakin 2013 ). This stage helps the team to be more versatile, thus can complete the project effectively. Norming This stage unites the whole team that shares a common goal and greater intimacy between the different members. Performing At this stage the team members and the team leaders becomes autonomous and are able to make decisions for the better completion of the project. Adjourning In this stage the project gets completed and Justification for the Selected approaches to manage the festival Resourcing Resource overloading approach: The best way is to determine the overload of the specific resources. Like, it may be determined that, which are the team members having two or more tasks in their hand to complete, then a new schedule for a project must be developed so that, the skillful employees does not have a hectic workload (Rokooei, Goedert and Fickle 2015). This rescheduling includes, hiring of new personnel if the resource overload is for long-term. The project manager must ask for overtime to meet the deadline of the project. After taking over the project, it is important for the project manager to determine the availability of the resources whenever they are required. The estimation of the resources is not done according to the actual workload on a specific resource (Inoue, Mori and Komiya 2012). On the contrary, the fast tracking approach is helpful in completing the project in the estimated budget by executing the tasks in a parallel way. Risk management For risk management, the risk register approach is used for this project. This approach is selected as it asks for input from the project team members as well as from other stakeholders. This document contains the probability occurrence of the risk, its severity, and the mitigation plans as proposed by the different stakeholders (Ballantyne, Ballantyne and Packer 2014). On the other hand, another risk management approach is to respond to risk. This approach states the steps like avoid, transfer, accept and mitigate risks. This approach is used by the teams whenever the project impacted by any risk (Kendrick 2015). Leadership/Management For managing the event, the selected approach includes the following steps, forming, norming, storming, performing and adjourning. This approach is selected as it clearly defines the roll and responsibility for each of the team member. Therefore, each team member will have proper list of tasks that are going to be completed by them. Conclusion From the above discussion it is clear that, there are several approaches for resource planning, risk management and leading an event management team for the music festival like the music festival of the Victoria country. In order to manage the resources optimally, to accommodate the large number of the visitors, performances of individuals and bands it is important to choose the appropriate approaches. In addition to that, it is suggested to partner with the local organizations so that before and after the festival the wastes from the venue can be easily removed. Moreover, to maintain the cleanliness at the venue during the show, it is important to have clearly market waste bins so that, visitors can easily notice them and use them for waste disposal. References Ballantyne, J., Ballantyne, R. and Packer, J., 2014. Designing and managing music festival experiences to enhance attendees psychological and social benefits.Musicae Scientiae,18(1), pp.65-83. Georges, N., Semaan, N. and Rizk, J., 2014. Crash: An Automated Tool for Schedule Crashing.International Journal Of Science, Environment, and Technology,3(2), pp.374-394. Hull, J., 2012.Risk Management and Financial Institutions,+ Web Site(Vol. 733). John Wiley Sons. Inoue, Y., Mori, K. and Komiya, S., 2012, April. Automatic creation of countermeasure plan against process delay: creation of countermeasures based on crashing and fast-tracking valve. InProceedings of the 11th WSEAS international conference on Applied Computer and Applied Computational Science(pp. 243-251). World Scientific and Engineering Academy and Society (WSEAS). Jones, M., 2014.Sustainable event management: A practical guide. Routledge. Kendrick, T., 2015.Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-proofing your project. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Lundgren, R.E. and McMakin, A.H., 2013.Risk communication: A handbook for communicating environmental, safety, and health risks. John Wiley Sons. Newton, P., 2015. Managing the Project Schedule. Parent, M.M. and Smith-Swan, S., 2013.Managing major sports events: Theory and practice. Routledge. RIVERA, J., 2014. THE EFFECTS OF CHANGING GROUP SIZE IN MY WORKSHOP IN FUNDAMENTALS OF MATHEMATICS. Rokooei, S., Goedert, J. and Fickle, K., 2015. Using a Simulation Model for Project Management Education. In7th Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Scherrer, J.L., Olco?, K., Butterfield, A.K. and Kebede, W., 2015. Bringing experiential educational groups to the United States: an analysis of group development in an international travel and study program.Social Work Education, pp.1-13. Tomai, M., Mebane, M.E., Rosa, V., Ingravalle, V. and Benedetti, M., 2013. Do virtual groups experience less conflict than traditional teams?.Global Journal on Technology,4(2).