Tree Luggers

Yes folks, you read that right.  Unfortunately, the Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship is not taking on the challenge of lugging trees.  You may think that it's because our new Fellowship class just couldn't cut it.  While you might be correct (I'm a second year Fellow, I can say that, right?), the reality is that this wonderful program just didn't fit this year.  

With the expansion of our new class, we've begun growing in other ways.  For example, our business meetings just keep getting better and better - Gov. Mitch Daniels, Ellen Annala (CEO of the United Way of Central Indiana)...  And more!  Not to mention, we've all been incredibly busy with each of our high growth start-ups.  Your first job is never easy, but since we are all holding a full-time position in such fast-paced and growing companies, our jobs keep up hopping even more.

So you may be wondering, what in the world will you do with your tree this year without Tree Luggers?!  Here are a few options that we've been able to locate around the city:

The May 2006 issue of Human Resources magazine featured an article by Sommer Kehrli and Truy Sopp in which the authors attempted to share tips with older generations on how to manage Generation Y, a group roughly 80 million strong born after 1978 that began entering the workforce five years ago. Often the onus for change is on older generations. After all, we 'Millennials' are coming into the workforce whether current generations like it or not. Why should the 'new' be the ones to change our habits or learn new ones from the 'old'? 

An an entrepreneurial fellowship, we constantly strive to place distinguished college graduates into high growth start-ups. But at the same time, we also communicate the need for constant improvement and learning from industry leaders. Nobody is a subject matter expert anymore and while entry-level jobs in start-ups will help you become more knowledgeable about a specific area, it won't guarantee career-long success. To quote Dr. Thomas Mason, Professor of Economics at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, "to be successful at [an older] age, you need to keep learning." 

Need real world examples? 

Did you major in Public Relations or Marketing in college? Are you pretty confident writing press releases? Cool. BUT, looks like Presslift is a step ahead and that skill set will become mainstream in the near future.

Did you major in Web Design or UX in college? Are you pretty confident designing emails for your company's marketing team? Great!. BUT, Toddle is making email newsletter design and marketing a breeze.

Major in Finance? ChubbyBrain is democratizing your skill set.

Going to Law School? Legal Zoom has the basics covered.

Are you a scrapbooking professional? Yup...the semantic web has taken over this too.

EVERYTHING  is changing. High-growth start-ups and technology jobs in Indianapolis will KEEP changing. Being an expert today doesn't ensure anything for tomorrow. As Gen-Y'ers, we want to be mentored, use new technology, and be given the space to try new things. But we can be too confident, and in the process, atrophy our innate strengths of learning and development.

Your job won't be around forever, and if you don't keep learning, neither will you. The first step is accepting that a college degree doesn't make you an expert. The second is opening yourself up to learn skills, habits, and lessons from Generations past.

Oh...and sign-up to have your tree lugged through TREE LUGGERS or follow our tweets @treeluggers.

In the past couple months, I've had the chance to take two pretty spectacular vacations. There were two experiences I'm going to share that insanely enough have a lot to do with entrepreneurship opportunities, and they also showed me that there's no way I will end up doing what I hate for a living.

Experience #1: Accidental Tourist
My sister had the pleasure of studying in Florence, Italy for her first semester of her junior year at IU - and I had the pleasure of paying her a visit. My favorite day out of the week  was a day we chose to embark on a cooking/wine excursion with a company called Accidental Tourist. Turns out the woman who started the company was the one who took us on the tour. She was so incredibly passionate about what she did it was almost weird (kind of like me and HP printers).

We certainly don't have jobs in Indiana that would come anywhere close to what Accidental Tourist does (mostly because Indiana isn't anything like Italy). Their goal is "to show their beloved Tuscany through the back door, to give you the inside story, to take you inside the beating heart of the private homes of Chianti."



Making pasta and being invited into someone's home gave me an idea of what it would be like to live in Italy. I'm not sure what a similar company in Indianapolis could provide tourists...but my point is that this woman started a company and makes a living based on what she loves doing - drinking wine and cooking. And she made it seem so easy.

Experience #2: Indigo Divers
Over New Years, I went scuba diving in Grand Cayman - and again we ended up with an entrepreneur. This time there were two, Chris and Kate. They started a diving company called Indigo Divers in the Caymans about 5 years ago. Rough life.



Since there are so many diving companies in the Cayman Islands they decided that they:

1. Didn't want to teach people how to dive
2. Didn't want to take out more than 6 people at a time

In most cases, diving shops will offer lessons and take out huge boats of people at once, so diving with Indigo was much better than the alternative. Their company is very successful.

My Point: I want to do it too
My two entrepreneurial encounters on vacation made me think about what I love doing. I want to be able to start a company that helps showcase my passions as well as my talents - both Accidental Tourist and Indigo Divers did this. The Orr Fellowship is providing me with the initial experience I need at a small Indiana company. However, I know that my business career in Indianapolis will have to be one that doesn't seem like a career.

So if you happen to come across any entrepreneurial opportunities that have to do with eating and sleeping please let me know...just kidding. But seriously, while you're at it please go to our Tree Luggers website and sign up to recycle that Christmas tree! 

It's that time of year again; the Holiday Season has passed and in a short amount of time you'll find yourself taking down those holiday decorations that probably cover your entire house.  After you've mustered up enough motivation to finally begin this lengthy process, the last struggle is always the disposal of the family Christmas tree.  However, that's not going to be the case for you this year - the Orr Fellows are here to help!

As a non-profit organization, the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship places a strong emphasis on community outreach, civic responsibility, and self-sustainability.  As such, one of our annual fundraisers is called "Tree Luggers" in which we travel around the Indianapolis community collecting and disposing of Christmas trees while collecting donations.  But how does this fundraiser actually benefit the community?  Well, first, we are providing a service that for many people is extremely helpful.  More importantly, though, we offer an incentive to local churches and other non-profit entities that promote our fundraiser to their members.  For all money that is donated to the Governor Bob Orr Fellowship during Tree Luggers, half of the proceeds are given to the specific non-profit that created the referral.  In this way, we are able to assist Indianapolis-based non-profits in funding their efforts.

One of the most important values that the Indiana-based Orr Fellowship promotes is entrepreneurship.  Tree Luggers is a great example of entrepreneurship in action as the Orr Fellows carefully organize, plan, and execute the fundraiser from start to finish.  So what goes into Tree Luggers to ensure its success year in and year out?  Many of the Orr Fellows are "luggers," or those that travel to homes, collect the trees, and then later dispose of the holiday conifers.  Several others use their marketing expertise to help spread the word through social media like Twitter and Facebook, strategically placed fliers in the Indianapolis community, and specified email lists owned by several Orr Fellowship host companies.  We also have fellows that help create partnerships with churches and other non-profit organizations.  Lastly, a couple of fellows take on a financial role so that all donations and referrals are carefully recorded.  To participate in this fundraiser, and save yourself a great deal of time and effort, please sign-up here.  Remaining pick-up dates are:
 

For those that don't know much about the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship, it is an Indiana-based non-profit organization that provides jobs for recent graduates in fast growing Indianapolis companies.  Whether you're looking to start a marketing career, an entrepreneurship career, or maybe just a career in business, this is one unique fellowship program like no other.
 

The holiday season is my favorite time of the year.  But since I love Thanksgiving too, every year I wait patiently until Black Friday to start listening to Christmas music, watching my favorite holiday movies, and putting up decorations.  I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving, but come Friday, the holiday festivities kick into high gear!!  My all-time favorite Christmas movie (and one of my all-time favorite movies in general) is It’s a Wonderful Life.  I’ve seen it more times than I can count, and I think I could probably recite most of the lines.  See that lovely Christmas tree in the picture above?  Looking at it makes me wonder, what did they do with that tree after Christmas was over?  As much as I love the holiday season, the clean-up afterwards can be quite a pain.  If only the Bailey’s had the Orr Fellow Tree Luggers to come to their rescue!  


Working at Angie’s List I’ve learned that you can find reliable people to help you with just about anything to get you through the holidays, from decorating to party planning.  And after all the chaos dies down, the Tree Luggers are there to help Indianapolis residents with the clean up.  For the Orr Fellowship's annual fundraiser, current Fellows (our Tree Luggers) will come and pick up your Christmas tree and take it to a nearby Indy Parks location to be recycled.  We will pick up trees from several neighborhoods in and around Indianapolis for four consecutive Saturdays starting on January 2nd.  The program is a fundraiser for the Fellowship, local churches, and local charitable organizations.  The suggested donation is $20, and all donations are 100 % tax deductable.  Click here to find out more information and schedule your tree pick-up!

Tree Luggers is a great example of how Orr Fellows work together outside of our various full-time jobs in Indiana. As the Finance champions, Ty and I are heading up this year’s program, but every Orr Fellow has a different job and is involved in the organization, planning, and execution of the fundraiser.  Tree Luggers gives us a chance to utilize our ambition and talent and apply what we have learned so far in the Fellowship and working in our respective high growth start-ups.  Being able to take part in opportunities such as this one truly shows the “entrepreneurial” part of the Governor Bob Orr Indiana Entrepreneurial Fellowship and allows us to give back and get involved with the Indianapolis community.