Judith Harkham Semas
Freelance Writer...Editor...Author

CALIFORNIA TURNS OUT TO BE SO, LIKE ... SO ... CALIFORNIA
(Published by Christian Science Monitor, http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0406/p01s03-ussc.html; also published by ABC News and USA Today)

By Judith Harkham Semas | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

SAN JOSE, CALIF. - For years, Americans have caricatured Californians as spandex-wearing New Age disciples with a proclivity for hugging trees and an aversion to anything without wheat germ. This is, after all, the state that created an official task force to promote self-esteem.

But, as it turns out, some of those quirky - or perhaps more charitably, distinct - California qualities may be true. And a marketing professor at California State University, Sacramento, has some of the evidence to prove it.

Dennis Tootelian recently announced the results of a survey that has people outside the state no doubt saying: "See, I told you." Among his findings: 63 percent of Californians have actually hugged a tree; 24 percent have surfed; and 21 percent admit to enjoying mud baths.

"It turns out that Californians actually do a lot of the things that make up the stereotype," says Mr. Tootelian.

Granted, regional distinctions can be found in every corner of the land. Many New Englanders do exude a certain Yankee reserve and thriftiness, which is rooted in the puritanism of the past. Southerners do convey a distinctive charm, and Midwesterners, well, they're Midwesterners.

And here in California, trees do get hugged. Stretches of redwood forests and coastlines have apparently inspired those with a pioneering spirit to make bathing in mud a beautiful thing.

Tootelian admits the findings connected him with his own inner Californian. "I've never hugged a tree," he says, "but I've done most of the things the survey sampled, and so have lots of people I know."

Drawn to mine the truth out of "California Grown," an ad campaign that humorously employs state stereotypes to promote locally grown produce, the questionnaire surveyed 500 consumers in five California cities: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, and San Diego.

Of course, there are reasons behind Californian's proclivity just as there are reasons behind New Englander stoicism.

"I see tree-hugging as an aspect of California's greenness," says Kevin Starr, former state historian and author of a series of books on Americans and the California dream. "Moved by the state's natural diversity and grandeur, Californians have largely been protective of their state's environment."

After all, he points out, Yosemite was set aside as a national park in the 1860s under the grant that served as the legal foundation for America's state and national park system. The Sierra Club sprang to life in Berkeley, under the leadership of John Muir, widely considered the father of America's national parks. Ansel Adams, arguably the greatest landscape photographer of the 20th century, made his home here.

No surprise, then, that Californians openly express affection for their lofty, woody flora. And apparently rightly so.

"I recommend that everyone do it," says Micaela Hoskins of San Jose, Calif., who is an enthusiastic hugger of trees. Her 5-year-old daughter seems to be a chip off the old ... trunk. "Rosemary hugged every tree she saw this past weekend as we were out walking," Ms. Hoskins says. "Tree hugging grounds you, somehow. It connects you to the earth and the sky."

Surfing is another link in the sun- dappled life culture. Most residents live within 75 miles of a 1,200-mile coast that includes pristine public-run beaches. Some go as far as to say the ocean is a key element in balancing the California psyche.

"Californians are closely connected to the sea and its environs. They play and unwind at the beach the way people in other parts of the country do at a neighborhood park," says Arthur Chandler, humanities department chair at San Francisco State University.

Lima Bergmann, a family therapist who recently moved to Bell Canyon from Northern California and who has surfed, acknowledges her spiritual tie with the vast expanse of blue water. "If I didn't live on the coast, I would feel trapped, confined," she says. "Even just staring at the ocean can be a near-religious experience."

Mud baths, however, are still quite remarkable in other parts of the country. New Englanders, for instance, recognize mud as that yearly annoyance between March and May. But in California earthy ablutions are a manifestation of the state's famous embrace of self-improvement, such as holistic healing, vegan/vegetarianism, the antismoking movement, the hot tub culture, and more.

Much of California's unconventional ethos is rooted in its past.

Mr. Chandler points to the observation of renowned writer H.L. Mencken, who said that the East Coast was settled by people who were bold and daring in the 17th century, whereas the West Coast, notably San Francisco, was settled by people who were bold and daring in the mid-19th century.

"Eastern settlers tended to be running from something but California settlers were madcap dreamers filled with optimistic fantasies about personal enrichment," he says. "They were running to, not from - a perspective that continues today."

For 150 years California has drawn floods of migrants in search of a better life: gold miners, Chinese railroad-builders, dust-bowl Okies, post-World War II vets, Vietnam refugees, and millions more. In the early 20th century, California's population was less than 3 million. Today, it has exploded to 10 times that figure: 35 million. If present trends continue, Mr. Starr projects that California could become home to one-fourth of the entire country by 2040.

Think of it: America, a nation of surfing, tree-hugging mud-bathers.

That would be just fine with Larry Barrows of Sacramento, a 30-year Californian who was born in New York City and has also lived in New Mexico and Arizona. He, his wife, even his father-in-law admit to relishing the thought of being scrubbed in a mix of earth and water.

"It's wonderfully relaxing," he says, "...like getting a facial for your whole body."

BANKERS SEEK TO REACH
MINORITY-LED COMPANIES:
Anti-discrimination laws
create challenges
[Published in the San Francisco Business Times, http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2006/11/20/focus2.html, Albany Business Review (New York), Austin Business Journal, Birmingham Business Journal, Buffalo Business First, Charlotte Business Journal, Columbus Business First, East Bay Business Times, Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology, Pacific Business News, Portland Business Journal(Oregon), and Wichita Business Journal ... among others.]

By Judith Harkham Semas, Contributor
sanfrancisco@bizjournals.com

Rafael Castro's custom clothing design business is, in effect, the legacy of an employer who died owing him several months in back pay.

“The employer's family compensated me with equipment left in the business,” Castro said. “From there, my own design company was born.”

Born, yes, but healthy growth - indeed survival - came only with the help of a microloan from the nonprofit Oakland Business Development Center. The money enabled Castro, who might not have qualified for a bank loan, to buy more inventory, add a second location, and give his working capital a needed boost.

OBDC is a leading alternative business lender among a number of nonprofit and government organizations that provide a broad range of support to minority business enterprises - not simply funding, but also training, education and technical assistance on how to do everything from completing government forms and packaging business loan applications to developing and implementing sound business plans.

Lending to minority-led businesses is difficult not least because Federal Reserve regulations prohibit business lending - or even collecting loan data - based specifically on race. But that doesn't stop lenders, including major banks, from playing a significant role in backing minority businesses through such tactics as targeting low-income areas.

BofA has committed $750 billion nationally over 10 years starting in 2005 to community development, for implementation through local channels. The pledge includes $125 billion to small business and small farm loans. In 2005, its loans and credit lines to small firms in low- and moderate-income areas, plus contributions to small-business investment companies and minority-business venture capital funds, totaled $3,761,800 for all of California.

For the Oakland and San Francisco areas, the figures are $241,900 and $239,600, respectively.

That kind of commitment has earned BofA widespread recognition as a top lender to minority businesses.

Wells Fargo, another bank with a minority- and woman-friendly reputation, has pledged to lend 29 billion dollars over 12 years to African-American, Asian, Latino, and women-owned businesses. What's more, since 1995 Wells has actually lent $33 billion to women and diverse business owners, according to bank spokesperson Michele Ashley.

Credit criteria are the same as for other businesses. But San Francisco-based Wells also works with community organizations such as Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center and TMC Development, both San Francisco nonprofits, to provide technical assistance and microloans. In its outreach efforts, Wells also links with such business and professional organizations as the Asian Business League, 100 Black Men of America and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“Banking is not intuitive to people, and diverse segments typically do business through relationships,” said Brenda Wright, Wells Fargo senior vice president and head of community development. “So we've tried to work with community partners and build staff knowledge to find our role in supporting growth of diverse business segments.”

But according to Alan Fisher, executive director of the San Francisco-based California Reinvestment Coalition, CRC's report on Small Business Access to Bank Credit, shows that community banks do a better job of serving their local communities than banks with multi-state presences.

“The big banks have credit-scored, mass-production programs that aren't particularly sensitive to California's diversity, which requires approaches that aren't cookie-cutter,” Fisher said.

Fisher is working on an update of CRC's 2003 report and noted that things haven't changed much. “For example, in looking at Alameda County, it's still The Mechanic's Bank that does the best job of lending to businesses in lower income areas and to small businesses in general.”

“One of our strategies is to make sure that minorities are well represented among our lenders and managers,” said Erwin Reeves, vice president and community development manager at Mechanic's Bank. “People tend to want to talk to others like themselves.”

Mechanic's makes sure translators are available, too, for Hispanics, Asians and other non-English speakers. “We will bring someone in if we don't have the language capability on our staff,” he said.

Mechanic's has committed $26 million through its community development program subsidiary to making small business and construction loans in low-income zones.

Like Mechanic's Bank, Community Bank of the Bay makes a special effort to assure that its employees - one-third of whom were born outside the United States - mirror the community.

Even though Community has no specific minority-loan program, President and CEO Brian Garrett is quick to point out that, “our one office is in Oakland, and that's a city as diverse as any I've ever seen. We've had to do a lot of outreach with small businesses and with the community.”

Much of the money used to fund Community's small business loans comes from its innovative Oakland 1st Fund. Established in 2004, it guarantees that all money earmarked by depositors for the fund will be used solely in Oakland.

The program has exceeded expectations - it tops $23 million and has earned the bank recognition from the U.S. Treasury Department with a $500,000 cash award from its Community Development Financial Institutions Fund honoring bank lending programs in underserved communities.

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL: Judge LaDoris Cordell Setting the Standards
(Published in San Jose magazine)

By Judith Harkham Semas

The wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow-but not in the courtroom of Judge LaDoris Cordell. Donning judicial robes over her preppy slacks, crewneck sweater and saddle shoes, she ascends to the bench. "Time to rock and roll," she cracks under her breath.

Ninety-one cases were scheduled for Judge Cordell's felony sentencing calendar at Department 10, Santa Clara County Superior Court, but her November 14 courtroom session began promptly at 9:00 a.m. and ended exactly two hours later. All 91 cases were adjudicated with no-nonsense dispatch.

Like a well-oiled Swiss watch, Judge Cordell metes out appropriate sentences for embezzlement, domestic violence, theft, assault, possession of narcotics and other felony convictions-tick...tick...tick. What's more, she does it without sacrificing sensitivity, fairness or courtesy to everyone in her courtroom.

In Judge Cordell's meetings with legal representatives of the District Attorney, the Department of Parole, the Public Defender and other defense counsel-which precede sentencing-advocates from both sides present aggravating and mitigating circumstances, as well as arguments for a more or less severe penalty. Judge Cordell thoughtfully listens to everyone's views and then shares her own, before finally determining the sentence in each case.

From her bench, she gives all victims, defendants and advocates the chance to speak their piece, without exception. Every victim, defendant and advocate in the courtroom-plus the court reporter and her other support staff-receives Judge Cordell's personal thanks. Those civilities don't slip mindlessly from her lips, either. When Judge Cordell thanks you, her dark, sparkling eyes look you full in the face as she declares her appreciation with sincerity and conviction. This judge means what she says and she makes sure you know it.

A dynamic, decisive woman of 48, Judge Cordell has earned a rare blend of admiration from virtually all quarters. Among her peers and judicial superiors, she is respected for her efficiency, effectiveness and the soundness of her decisions. Among the electorate, she is respected for her integrity and commitment to community. Among defendants she is respected as an evenhanded judge-not a lenient one, but someone they can count on for a fair shake.

This is a jurist who hates bureaucratic red tape as much as any small business owner, and when she IS criticized, it is usually for her frustration with what she sees as incompetent or over-regulation. "I'm somewhat impatient," she says. "So I'm lucky to be in a position where I can help create change and right wrongs."

The fact is, Judge Cordell has created change and righted wrongs all her life. This self-professed justice fighter takes pride in her heritage as the great-great-granddaughter of a North Carolina plantation slave named Dolly, who lost her life in a heroic stand against the institution of slavery. Judge Cordell says she draws inspiration from that part of her family history. "My inclination is and always has been to try and improve the system when it's not functioning as it should...to change it and make it better."

After graduating Stanford Law School in 1974, Judge Cordell opened the first law office in the history of predominantly black East Palo Alto. Her costs were partially underwritten by an Earl Warren Fellowship-the first such grant awarded in the Western U.S.

Later, after being turned down for a loan to purchase her law office building, she went door to door surveying East Palo Alto residents on the need for a law firm in their city. Her goal? To convince the bank there was a market for her legal services. Her result? She got the loan. "Don't ever tell me 'No,'" she warns with a wink and a grin.

As Stanford Law School Assistant Dean for Student Affairs from 1978 to 1981, Judge Cordell created and implemented the minority admissions program that vaulted Stanford to national leadership in law school enrollment of students of color-without lowering either academic standards or applicant qualifications.

She made headlines again a few years later when, as the first African-American woman judge in Northern California (1982 - Santa Clara County Municipal Court), she became the first jurist in the state to order convicted drunk drivers (DUIs) to install breath devices in their vehicles. Such devices-now required by law for convicted DUIs-make it impossible to drink and drive by disabling the car if the driver's breath tests positive for alcohol.

In 1988 this single mother of two overwhelmingly won election to the Santa Clara County Superior Court and made history once again: She was the first African-American woman in Northern California-and the first person of her race in Santa Clara County-to become a Superior Court judge.

A spirited activist and volunteer whose judicial innovations and community contributions have been widely honored, Judge Cordell is a woman of diverse talents. Sales of her donated original art and derivative products have raised many thousands of dollars for such important community service organizations as Support Network for Battered Women and Legal Advocates for Children and Youth. Friends and fans alike delight in her musical talents when she performs in public, singing pop standards in her rich, contralto voice to her own piano accompaniment.

These days, Judge Cordell is thinking about the second half of her life. Youthful, with only the odd strand of silver in her close-cropped black hair to hint of approaching middle-age, she'll have 20 years on the bench by 2002 and could retire at 52. But will she? "Maybe," she says. "I'm starting to think about options-including the possibility of teaching at law school-but I love judging so much I'm not interested in rushing off any time soon."

One thing's sure. On the bench or off, Judge LaDoris Cordell continually seeks out opportunities to create change and right wrongs. And whatever her current calling, she'll be doing THAT for a long time to come.

Judith Harkham Semas is a freelance writer based in San Jose, Calif.

POSITIONED FOR SUCCESS
(Published in Technology Magazine, Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal)

By Judith Harkham Semas

"Where am I, and how do I get where I want to go?" Humans have been asking these questions since they first stood upright and began wandering around the planet. Yet through the millennia, every system we've devised to give us the answers has had problems...until now.

Marking trails with stones or bread crumbs worked fine until it rained or snowed, obscuring the markers. And basing careful measurements on the stars has serious pitfalls: You can calculate only on clear nights, when the stars are visible.

Even modern radio-based systems such as Loran and Decca, or the satellite-linked Sat-Nav system often used by sailors, can be affected external factors (electrical disturbances, geographic variations) resulting in significant errors.

"Finally," explains Charles Trimble, CEO of Trimble Navigation in Sunnyvale, Calif. "someone got fed up and said, 'That's it! We've got to have a system that works under all conditions.'"

That someone was the U.S. Department of Defense, which needs to know where people and things are because lives hang in the balance. What's more, DOD has the resources to invest over $12 billion in building an accurate system.

What DOD developed was the Global Positioning System, based on a constellation of 24 satellites orbiting the earth and serving the function that stars served for ancient mariners.

These satellites are high enough to avoid the problems of land-based systems, and their technology is so accurate that they can pinpoint any land or sea position anywhere, any time, in any weather.

In regular use, GPS provides street-width accuracy, and in special modes, it yields land survey measurements accurate to within a centimeter.

"What's most exciting about GPS today is its potential," said Mr. Trimble, who also chairs the U.S. GPS Industry Council.

He founded Trimble Navigation in 1978 to make marine navigational systems. The company gained fame more than a decade later when the U.S. military installed Trimble's GPS-based navigation devices on thousands of vehicles used in the Persian Gulf War. Soldiers relied on the mapping system to find their way across miles of uncharted Iraqi desert.

"With today's integrated circuit technology, GPS receivers are fast becoming small enough and cheap enough to be carried by just about anyone, giving humans -- finally -- the ability to know exactly where they are, all the time," Mr. Trimble said. He envisions that this capability will become a "new utility," as basic and ubiquitous as the telephone.

Applications for GPS are limited only by imagination, and its widespread acceptance only by consumer considerations.

"It's simply a matter of size, power, and price point," Mr. Trimble said. "We've got the technology."

In one application of GPS, delivery vehicles determine precise locations. For example, Whirlpool Corporation recently implemented software provided by Mineola, N.Y.-based Lightstone Group, running on the NavTech database created by Navigation Technologies, to manage the comings and goings of its 440 technicians across the country.

The result: A reduction in total service mileage for the territory by 10 percent; a cut in individual driver mileage by up to 30 percent. On-time service also improved because knowing precisely where all fleet vehicles are at all times allows dispatchers to choose the most efficient routes and schedules.

According to Navigation Technologies (which has its North American headquarters in Sunnyvale), other Lightstone/NavTech customers have realized annual savings of from $100,000 to $250,000 in their delivery, distribution and field services operations.

People who need emergency help are big beneficiaries of GPS, which allows public safety personnel to respond more quickly. Here in the Bay Area, ambulances are equipped with such systems.

"With GPS the dispatch center can tell instantly the nearest available ambulance and get it on the road, even before talking with the caller," Mr. Trimble said. "GPS effectively cuts almost two minutes off the dispatch time required to get an ambulance to an accident scene. In one case in Phoenix, the emergency team was able to get to a home within 83 seconds of the call -- fast enough to save the life of a child who'd fallen into a swimming pool and had stopped breathing."

"We're starting to see GPS receivers on the backs of search and rescue dogs," he noted. "So you can tell what portion of the wilderness they've searched when they return to base."

GPS systems equip cars with maps that instantly show best route to any destination. No more wasted time from misread maps or stopping for directions.

One such map, described by y New York tech experts as a "way cool" product, is the award-winning SkyMap personal navigation guide for hand-held and laptop PCs. It allows mobile professionals to identify and track their position via computer screen; locate business destinations such as customer offices, banks, restaurants, and conference centers; and navigate to them in real-time.

Developed by Etak, Inc. of Menlo Park, this GPS-based system monitors a traveler's progress on digital "moving maps" that display cities, streets and highways across the continental U.S. Users can even print out the map if needed.

And using TravRoute Software's new Door-To-Door CoPilot (a product of ALK Associates in Princeton, N.J.) a driver simply enters a starting point and destination into a laptop, and CoPilot generates turn-by-turn directions, along with distance and estimated travel time.

A GPS receiver connected to a laptop dynamically guides the user along the way by reading off specific directions: "Turn right on Cherry Hill in one mile," for instance. And if the driver makes a wrong turn, CoPilot will compute a new route to get the vehicle back on track.

GPS makes location-based services possible, too.

For example, if you include the OnStar option when you buy a Cadillac, by pushing a designated button on your car telephone, you can ask the Center you're automatically connected to "Where's the nearest five-star Italian restaurant?" or "Where's the nearest bank?" and receive directions. And if your airbags are deployed, your position is automatically sent to the OnStar center, which automatically calls for emergency services.

If you forget where you parked your car at the airport, or lock your keys inside, you can call a special toll-free OnStar number. The center will locate your car via GPS, unlock it if necessary, and make its lights flash and horn honk, so you can find it.

"The Hertz 'Never Lost' system is acquainting a lot of Americans with GPS today," Mr. Trimble said. "It allows you to enter a street address or identify a hotel or business you want to go to, and will give you voice instructions on how to get there.

"Recently I drove from Sunnyvale to Fresh Cream Restaurant in Monterey using that system, and it took me to the back of the restaurant, right outside a parking garage," he said. "I couldn't have gotten any closer on my own."

According to Dataquest Inc., the San Jose, Calif.-based market research firm, the worldwide automotive navigation system market is expected to achieve rapid growth, with revenues increasing from $246 million in 1996 to nearly $1.7 billion by 2001.

Although in widespread use in Japan, with the European market No. 2, automotive navigation systems have been slow to catch on in the U.S. They are priced in the $2,000 to $2,500 range now, but experts foresee $700-$1,000 as the price point that will trigger popularity here.

"With the cost of electronics dropping at about 30 percent a year, we're still three years away from widespread use of these systems here," Mr. Trimble said. "Even so, the overall market for automotive navigation systems is currently expanding at the rate of 91 percent a year."

Risk management is yet another area in which demand for GPS-based systems is growing. "Insurance companies want to plot on maps and record trends in catastrophes such as earthquakes and floods in order to define regions of higher risk," explained Craig Lynar, Etak's marketing vice president.

Hollywood uses GPS technology, too. The well-known scene showing Forrest Gump sitting on a bus bench was shot over a six-week period, making it crucial that the sun be in precisely the same position for each shoot. "If you enter the sun and moon tables into a GPS receiver, you can do those calculations and replicate sunlight or moonlight right down to the instant," Mr. Trimble said.

According to Mr. Lynar, falling prices on handheld GPS devices are making them more attractive to general consumers for use in hiking or on boats. "And with the coming technology improvements in wireless communication," he said, "we'll soon be able to get live traffic readings on our individual commute routes from home, showing actual road speed; any construction, roadblocks and so forth; plus estimates of time before the obstructions are cleared.

"We'll just enter our commute routes one time," he added. "The system will remember. It can be set to call first thing in the morning and tell us what traffic along our commute route is like."

James J. Spilker, Jr., chairman of Stanford Telecom, and Bradford W. Parkinson, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University, are considered the architects of GPS, having developed and designed it in 1973. Their two-volume book, GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM: Theory and Applications (published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) is considered the foremost reference series on GPS today.

According to Mr. Spilker, the potential applications and implications of GPS technology are enormous.

"In the next century you'll see all sorts of new uses: for instance, earth-moving and road-grading equipment that can run day or night, rain or shine, with literally no operator, guided entirely by GPS as to what grading it will do and how it is going to move the earth. And remotely piloted vehicles traveling to and from locations with no manpower," he said. "I don't think we've even begun to see the real possibilities of GPS yet."

Judith Harkham Semas is a freelance writer based in San Jose, Calif.

CLEAN SWEEP
(Published in McCall's magazine)

After household cleansers made Amilya Antonetti's son sick, she founded Soapworks to make safer suds

By Judith Harkham Semas

When Amilya Antonetti brought her baby boy home from the hospital six years ago, he was hardly in the pink of health. "David was gray," recalls Antonetti, 33, pointing to a photo of her only child at 8 weeks of age. "They told me sometimes it takes a few days for them to get their normal color and to just keep rubbing and massaging him." But the infant's condition worsened. His constant gasps for air prompted Antonetti and her husband, Dennis Karp, 42, a lawyer, to race him to the emergency room many times. Was it colic? Asthma? Something worse? Doctors weren't sure. Her lowest point, Antonetti says, came when a physician advised her to "...let him go. Try again. You're young, you can have another one."

The former AT&T marketing manager wasn't about to give up. Tracking her son's attacks, she soon noticed a pattern of E.R. runs on Tuesdays, her housecleaning day. As an experiment the next Tuesday, she skipped cleaning. No attack. In fact, Antonetti recalls, "He got better!"

That simple discovery led the San Leandro, Calif. homemaker to toss her chemical-based household cleansers away -- and to start a company to produce nontoxic alternatives. Today her four-year-old Soapworks line features organic ingredients such as coconut oil and white ginger (bestseller: the three-for-$4.99 Natural Touch soap bar). Last year the company cleaned up to the tune of $5 million in sales and now employs more than 50 people, many of them parents of kids with environmental sensitivities. "It's so easy to use healthy alternatives," says actress Pia Zadora, who persuaded her children's Santa Monica private school to convert to Soapworks products.

But no convert is more passionate than Antonetti herself. After David blossomed following that chemical-free Tuesday, she tested her hypothesis by cleaning the house as usual. "And bam!" she says. "He was in the emergency room that night. I kept saying there's gotta be something to this." But the alternatives -- pricey "all-natural" household products she found in health food stores -- disappointed her. "He didn't have a reaction to them," she says, "but they didn't clean very well.

So with her husband's support, she threw her energies into developing safer suds that actually got the job done. The family scaled down, moved to a smaller house and traded their Mercedes for a used Toyota. Antonetti took to the garage to cook up organic cleaning products. With a little help from her husband's family, who had been in the soap-making business, and her own Italian grandmother, who used vinegar-based cleansers, she developed a prototype for a powdered soap that she shopped around to merchants. Says Dennis, "Once Amilya puts her mind to something, she's definitely going to succeed."

Thanks in part to a stubborn streak that Antonetti, the daughter of Franco, 56, a trucking consultant, and Bette Ann, who died in 1984, traces to her childhood. At age 10, she faced down taunts about her Italian heritage after the family moved to rural Georgia.

That same grit helped her ride out her business's slow start. After 18 months, she was on the brink of throwing in the towel when Trader Joe's, a California-based chain of specialty grocers, placed a standing order for Soapworks' laundry soap.

"The customer response has been outstanding," says Trader Joe's product manager Annette Davidson. Since then business has boomed, with credit not only to grocery chains but also to the Web site (www.soapworks.com) Antonetti launched in 1997.

Today, photos of children who have benefited from her products line Antonetti's office walls, along with grateful notes from their mothers. But her greatest reward is her son David's robust health; the hearty 6-year-old calls Pokemon and his rottweiler dog Babe his favorite things. "I think I'm here on earth to help be on the team that makes a positive change," Antonetti says. "I'm doing what I was meant to do."

EARLY FUNDING NETS NET FIRM A COOL $29 MIL
(Published in Investor's Business Daily)

By Judith Harkham Semas

Is it Internet mania?

Well, in a way. In another show of the Net's money magnetism, start-up Desktop.com Inc. recently announced it had completed first-round financing, netting...$29 million.

Hold it. Was that first round?

Sort of. But not all first rounds are the same, cautions Mitchell Kapor, one of the venture-capital investors as a partner in Accel Partners and a well-known start-up adviser since his days as founder of Lotus Development Corp.

Even though the Net is crazy, savvy investors like Accel, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Sequoia Capital won't put quite so much dough into a first round - a funding waystation where even $1 million or $2 million, not long ago, was large.

The real first round for Desktop.com, says Kapor, was the millions of dollars invested by its founders. And the founders had the cash because they had also founded - and in 1997 sold for more than $90 million in stock to leading Web portal Yahoo Inc. - one of the first free e-mail companies, Four11/RocketMail.

"So, compared to other start-ups, Desktop.com was further along in terms of having a working model of what they're doing and having hired people. Our funding wasn't really the first round; it was the first [venture] round."

Who is as important as what

In the Internet age, $29 million for a second round, while still quite high, isn't unique.

Why did Desktop get so much money?

First, there are the people. A tenet of the venture-capital world is that VCs invest less in any idea than in the people who will execute it.

Thanks to their work at Four11, Desktop.com founders Katie Burke, who's all of 29, and Larry Drebes, 32, are known commodities. Larry's wife Karen Drebes, 35, the third co-founder, had been manager of the electronic medical records project at the Palo Alto (Calif.) Medical Foundation.

Then there's the business.

As of Monday, Desktop.com began offering people a "friendly interface" to the Internet. It lets users create and access their own customized Web desktop - and it can look just like their own PC desktop.

The service hopes the customized desktop will become the first page that comes up when users log onto the Net.

The concept is complete with icons. Do you visit the Amazon.com Web site often? Create an icon that will sit right on your customized Internet desktop. Instead of typing in the Amazon Web address or clicking your bookmark, just click the icon. Navigating to favorite sites is as easy as clicking icons.

Desktop.com executives think the service will get most attention from people who use many different PCs and devices to access the Web. Bookmarks, for example, don't travel from machine to machine.

With Desktop.com, that problem is solved. Once you set up your customized desktop, all the stuff you need is always there for you, no matter when you're logging onto the Web - or from where.

Branding, as always, is key

"We want to be your Internet home," Burke said. "the one service you log onto, from which you access and use all other services on the Web."

But for the idea to click with the marketplace, Desktop.com will have to earn the name recognition of an Amazon.com or Yahoo.

The service is free. It makes its money from selling ad space on its site.

Name recognition boosts the need for money early in Internet start-ups. Kapor says marketing costs are extremely high.

"When you're trying to reach a broad consumer marketplace, it is, at best, expensive to establish a new brand," he said, "and getting more so all the time." The Web already is packed with sites seeking to draw users' eyeballs and wallets.

There's one factor helping the Desktop.coms of the new world get such loads of dough. "We're not having to educate people about the Internet anymore," Burke said.

That's not to say all projects are funded. "Certain areas especially in business-to-consumer e-commerce - such as pets and furniture --are getting too crowded," Kapor said.

But, he says, plenty of business-to-business opportunities still exist.

"The Internet's re-creation of the way people do business is comparable to what happened when electricity was introduced into factories in the early 20th century," Kapor said. "So, selectively, there are still great opportunities for investment."

TAKING OFF FROM THE HI-TECH GRIND
(Published in HR magazine)

By Judith Harkham Semas

Mack Medeiros headed Down Under for a leisurely month of scuba diving on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef—-something he’d always wanted to do. Sue Priore bundled her teenage son into the car and took off to tour the California coast. No plan, no agenda—-just freedom, relaxed exploration, and uninterrupted days of mother-son togetherness for the first time in years. Patrick Trujillo revisited the province where he soldiered during the Viet Nam war—-a dream he’d nurtured for three decades.

No, Medeiros, Priore and Trujillo didn’t win the lottery or inherit a bundle from the death of a rich relative. These three Silicon Valley employees are among the thousands who work for companies—-notably technology firms—-that offer their workers extended periods of fully paid time off from work, commonly known as “sabbaticals.”

Sabbaticals are a long-established perk in the world of research facilities and higher education. “In the traditional sense, sabbaticals had a mission,” says ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D., business consultant and co-founder of the Institute for Chiology and Innovation in Palo Alto, Calif. “They were intended to further one’s professional development, thus benefiting both the individual employee and the employing organization.” In that traditional world, sabbaticals were available only to executive and professional staff.


Intel Led the Way

Intel, the Santa Clara, Calif.-based, global high-tech behemoth, was the first company in Silicon Valley to offer sabbaticals to workers at all levels. Today, every full-time, regular, domestic Intel employee qualifies for eight weeks of leave with full pay and benefits every seven years. And that’s in addition to regular vacations. (Overseas employees aren’t eligible for Intel’s sabbaticals because their vacation allotment is more generous.)

The policy began with Intel’s founding in 1979, and continues essentially unchanged today.

“We see sabbaticals as accomplishing two things,” says corporate affairs manager Tracy Koon. “Allowing people time for revitalization, and giving the employees who remain an opportunity for new challenges and growth.”

The idea has caught on. Over the past 28 years, sabbaticals have become an accepted part of life all over Silicon Valley. (See box.)

Even non-technology firms are getting into the act. A growing number of law firms offer sabbaticals, and American Express Financial Advisors is considering implementing a policy for its workers.

According to the national Work and Family Survey recently conducted by Buck Consultants of New York, 22 percent of the 313 responding companies offer their employees paid general leaves of absence--in addition to vacation, sick leave and other types of paid time off.

Some people predicted the demise of sabbaticals when employers downsized dramatically in the early ‘90s, according to consultant Diana Reach of Hewitt Associates in San Francisco. “But companies are relying on their employees even more now than before.” she said. “They want to show they care about employee needs, and sabbaticals are one way to do that.”

At private-sector firms, employees can usually use their sabbaticals for any purpose, so long as it doesn’t conflict with the interests of their employer. And workers can extend their sabbaticals by adding tacking on vacation or other paid personal time off.

A "golden handcuff"

Like most companies that offer sabbaticals, Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, Wa. sees its one-year-old policy as a key retention tool. However, where most employers offer the perk with virtually no restrictions, Microsoft has imposed some limits.

"Our program is considered an award, not an entitlement," says Cecily Hall, Microsoft's senior employee benefits manager. "It is structured for key upper-level employees, includes some job/career performance standards, and requires final approval of the employee's vice president."

After seven years of service at Microsoft, qualifying employees are eligible for an award of eight weeks, offered in "three different flavors," from which employees can choose: They can simply take the time off with pay. They can continue to work at their jobs and take the cash equivalent of their time off in addition to their regular pay. ("If they want to donate the cash to a charitable organization, we can help facilitate," Hall says.) Or they can request an assignment in another part of the corporation, and Microsoft will provide coordinating support.

Microsoft's sabbatical program has been well received, according to Hall. "Overall, feedback has been very good, with no complaints from managers or peers," she said. "We're about to start formal polling to secure more direct feedback from the recipients about the short-term impact of the award on their careers, and how they feel it will affect them long-term. In that way, we can understand and better gauge the effectiveness of our program."

Adobe Systems, Inc. of San Jose, Ca. began its program in 1995. "We wanted to remain competitive, and learned that more companies were offering sabbaticals," says Susan Hall, Adobe's benefits administrator. "We see it as an employee destressor and a tool for avoiding burnout, as well as a means of retaining employees. Everyone here at every level loves our sabbatical policy; we haven't seen any downside at all."

"Indentured servitude is long gone," Koon comments. "Still, I've had Intel employees tell me, 'I received a good offer from another company, but I like my job here and I'm almost eligible for sabbatical, so I turned it down.' "


Companies benefit

Sabbatical advocates insist that even a few uninterrupted weeks away from the press of work boost productivity by giving stressed workers the opportunity to recharge their batteries. Employees return to their jobs, they say, with renewed enthusiasm and heightened creativity.

"We find that not only are employees more relaxed and better able to handle work stresses when they return, they also come back with new ideas and fresh winds blowing between their ears," Koon said. "Sabbaticals really do give you a new lease on life, both psychologically and intellectually. Because returning employees haven't been immersed in their day-to-day tasks while they've been gone, they tell us their sabbaticals have helped them see work issues and problems in a different-often more effective-way."

Koon also touts sabbaticals as an effective tool for broadening the perspective of the employees who remain at work, picking up the slack for the worker on leave. "It helps them better understand what we do here, and gives some employees management experiences they might not otherwise have had."

At Apple Computer, team bonding is another of the company benefits wrought by sabbaticals, according to benefits manager Sue Cunningham. "We had that experience in this department," she said. "We all stretch to help each other. Knowing that our teammates will come through for us when it's our turn to take sabbatical has made our whole team stronger and more cohesive."

American Express Financial Advisors (AEFA) is considering adopting the sabbatical policy of its parent corporation (American Express, New York), which kicks in after 10 years of service. Why? Not just for consistency in the corporate family, but also as a way of addressing the company's commitment to give back to the community.

"Part of the sabbatical program at American Express is to provide long-term enhancements and learning opportunities for employees," said Bonnie Anderson, AEFA's director of field employee relations, "but we have established criteria for participation in the sabbatical program, and we recognize that it is also one way we can help foster support for community service."


Employees benefit

Employees on sabbatical choose to spend their time in a variety of ways. Some, like Carl Berney, a vice president of engineering at Centigram Computer, decide to follow their personal interests. Berney, who'd sculpted for 30 years in his spare time, used his four-week sabbatical to participate in a marble workshop in Pietrasanta, a small town in Italy founded by Michaelangelo.

Patrick Trujillo, an Intel project manager, returned to the town he'd been stationed in during the Vietnam War, meeting local residents and reconnecting with a community service group that ran an orphanage.

Some use the time to get a head start on a new degree or take special coursework or training to improve their career opportunities. Some, like Maria Dugan, a former administrative manager at Tandem Computer in Cupertino, Ca., choose to intensify their home remodeling program or catch up on domestic chores. Others opt to spend quality time with their families. And others still, simply kick back and enjoy-at the nearest expanse of sand, surf and sun or in exotic locales like Australia's famed Great Barrier Reef.


Part of the company culture

Some companies have developed sabbatical-related rituals and vocabulary over the years. According to one engineering manager, workers at 3Com use the word "sabattitude" to describe the near beatific serenity of people who have just returned from leave.

Intel has a tradition of lighthearted teasing that often bookends workers' sabbaticals. According to Koon, one manager who'd spent his sabbatical in the tropics returned to discover his office cubicle filled with sand and a beach umbrella. Another couldn't find his cubicle at all-until he checked the parking lot, where company pranksters had transported it.

"One person in our unit planned to spend part of her sabbatical in Europe and the remainder at the beach. So at her going-away party, we gave her a flimsy bathing suit and garish, hot pink-and-rhinestone, oversized sunglasses, plus books of slang expressions in French and Italian," Koon said. "And we really faked out my boss on his return from a nine-week leave. We had him thinking the whole organization chart had changed in his absence because we'd installed new people and nameplates in every cubicle."

Sabbatical fun is the norm at other firms, too. "The day before one of our employees left to spend his sabbatical time in the tropics, we set up a whole beach scene in his cubicle-sand, wading pool, palm tree, the works," noted Larry Hicks, director of compensation and benefits at Silicon Graphics, Inc.


What's the downside?

Although confirmed sabbatical supporters frequently maintain that with good planning and communication, there is no downside, not everyone is an unqualified fan.

Bob Smith, former executive vice president of development and chief technical officer of Belfort Memory International of Los Gatos, Ca., has spent 30 years working for Silicon Valley technology companies, including Seagate Technology, Inc. of Scotts Valley, Ca.; and Magnetic Peripherals, Inc. (formerly Sperry-Univac, and Information Storage Systems) in Cupertino, Ca.

"A standard comment I heard from some fairly high-level people at Seagate is, 'If I can let somebody go on sabbatical for four or five weeks, I don't need them at all,' " Smith said. "I've heard such comments repeatedly from many, many people throughout the industry."

It's no wonder, he notes, that lots of employees worry over being replaced or having their jobs downgraded while they are out on sabbatical. "Give someone five weeks to do your job-probably at a lower salary-while you're gone," he says, "And guess what: You've got an unpleasant surprise awaiting your return."

For companies that swear by sabbaticals, cost is not a concern; most look to the employees' teammates to cover work during sabbatical absences. But for firms without sabbatical policies, cost and fear of reduced productivity can be a big issue.

"When you hire a person and pay him or her to produce for you for five years, you've invested a considerable sum in that employee's training and production capability," Smith observed. "Can you really afford to let the person go for five or six weeks?"

In smaller firms particularly, business can suffer when key employees are out. Few small outfits have the staff to adequately cover for extended absences, or the budget to hire temporary replacements.

Some employees have been heard to complain that the trouble they must take to prepare for their sabbaticals-and the pile-up of work they face on their return-is so stressful, it's almost not worth it to take the time off.

Almost,, however, is the definitive word. A few may grumble, but employees who pass up the opportunity to take their sabbaticals are harder to find in Silicon Valley than a stretch of ungridlocked freeway during commute hours.

One 3Com engineer tells of returning from his sabbatical to find more than 1,100 e-mail messages queued up on his computer. But according to Hicks and others at pro-sabbatical companies, that kind of problem can be easily eliminated.

"Most people put in an e-mail stop on their computers, with instructions to refer their e-mails to someone else," he said. "We think that kind of thing is important because we don't value people being islands. The environment at Silicon Graphics is team oriented and, although some people are missed more than others, no one is indispensable. We think that's as it should be."


Sabbatical policies aren't for everyone

Hewlett-Packard, the large, Palo Alto, Ca.-based international employer that consistently makes everyone's list of best American companies to work for, has no formal sabbatical policy.

"We've re-examined the idea from time to time, and concluded that our overall benefits package is already what we want it to be-a good fit for our company philosophy," said Nancy LaMarca, HP's manager of benefits design and delivery. "Our diverse array of work-life/balance programs includes a host of flextime and flexible time off opportunities that, in essence, allow employees to create their own sabbaticals using other types of paid time off."

Cost is one of the important considerations in HP's decision not to offer sabbaticals, per se, according to LaMarca. "Paid time off is part of the financial package we offer as a benefit to our employees. And it's a valuable and costly benefit to our 65,000-person workforce," she said. "A day off with pay is perhaps one of the most expensive benefits a company can offer, which is why we give it a lot of consideration as we assess our total compensation package."

LaMarca sees sabbaticals as a "trendy thing," but not a problem for HP's benefits competitiveness or recruiting ability. "We've been able to attract people away from companies that have sabbatical policies," she said. "So, it's not a real issue in recruitment for us."

Long-term ability to maintain a specific benefit is another important factor in HP's non-cash compensation decisions. "When we provide a benefit, we make sure we can offer it for the long term," she said. "You want to be among the leaders, but you can't afford to pay significantly above everyone else."

Judith Harkham Semas is a freelance business writer and editorial consultant. Her book SAN JOSE AND SILICON VALLEY: Primed for the 21st Century (co-author: Chris DiSalvo) was published by Community Communications, Montgomery, AL. Based in San Jose, California, she is a former personnel director with nearly 20 years experience in HR. You can e-mail her at: j9202635@covad.net..

NINE LIVES AND COUNTING ... OR LEARNING TO LIVE YOUR DREAMS
(Published in New Perspectives magazine)

By Judith Harkham Semas

Dr. Michelle Millis and cats -- the link is inescapable. First there's her photo on her most recent music CD, INFINITY + 1, released under her stage name, Michelle Chappel. With those to-die-for cheekbones, oversized almond eyes, and upturned smiling lips, her features exude more than a hint of Eartha Kitt, the internationally famous beauty who played Catwoman to Adam West's Batman on the campy 1970s TV hit series of the same name.

Then there are her two Persian-mix cats, Ollie and Izzy, whose feline penchant for pleasing themselves underscores the message of her UC Santa Cruz Extension class "The Art of Living."

And let's not forget her multiple reincarnations. Cats may have nine lives, but 10 minutes with Dr. Michelle Millis will convince you she has even more -- at least in the sense of reinventing her creative self and successfully refocusing her talents.

As a child she dreamed of being a nurse. But as an adult? The mind boggles. She has taught psychology at Princeton University, where she earned a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology. She was a professor at Santa Clara University, where she received the highest teaching ratings every year...and at UC Santa Cruz, where students honored her with their award for Most Inspirational Professor of Psychology. She's been a consultant, too, for Interval, a Bay Area think tank.

Since 1990 Millis has been writing and performing contemporary rock music, proving she can succeed in that intensely competitive field, as well. She has garnered a dozen outstanding achievement awards in BILLBOARD MAGAZINE'S International Song Contests. Her self-named 1994 debut CD produced an original Top 10 hit in South Africa, where her popularity has helped fuel her growing acclaim. Said to have a "vocal quality that is one part Tori Amos and one part Alanis Morissette," her music resonates with fans the world over and with reviewers "from local tabloids to cyberspace."

"The reason my 'Art of Living' course works is that I live my own advice," Millis says. During her years as a university professor, she was published in the best journals in her field. She saw herself as a hard-core academician, she says, but felt empty inside.

"Students would come to me for advice about their career or their choice of graduate school, and I would encourage them to follow their hearts," she recalls. "One day it hit me that I was ignoring my own advice and neglecting a huge part of myself." Not long after that pivotal insight, she quit teaching full-time to develop her artistic talents.

"That's what my class is about," she says, "helping people discover what they love...helping them learn what is really true to them and how to go after it -- whatever 'it' is."

Millis maintains that American family and social structure usually rewards us for meeting the needs of the group, rather than those of ourselves. "In families, we tend to take on certain roles that work for the family unit, but not necessarily for us as individuals," she explains. "We get boxed into certain roles -- the responsible one, the social one, the smart one, the quiet one -- roles that are often not appropriate to our truest, deepest selves."

In education, the pattern is similar. "In school, we're rewarded for imitation, rather than for original thought," she says, "because as soon as you put your own unique spin on something, you're risking your grade."

It's not that obeying unspoken rules and fulfilling role expectations are bad things to do. After all, these behaviors help us function well in groups. It's just that we need to find a balance, Millis stresses; we need to be true to ourselves as well as to our groups.

Through a variety of class exercises, Millis helps her students unpeel the role layers they've built up over many years. She leads students into learning what's underneath, with sometimes surprising results. "I've had an attorney discover he's really a poet," she says "and a poet discover he's really a businessman."

Dottie Carpenter of Cupertino, widow and grandmother, enrolled in Millis' class to explore new options and new life directions after having been a homemaker for most of her life.. "When I saw the title of Michelle's class, I thought 'That's just wonderful'," Carpenter says. "And, of course, it was wonderful because SHE'S wonderful." Having gained encouragement and a hefty dose of enthusiasm from the class, Carpenter has returned to her roots as a college English major and happily begun writing again.

Bob Nielsen, a Salinas attorney, poet and photographer, takes UCSC Extension humanities courses to keep his perspective fresh and expand his horizons. "Michelle's class helped me refocus," he says. "She was a catalyst for most of the class -- some students were inspired toward change...others toward growth...and still others felt a reaffirmation of what they're already doing."

According to Millis, most people's lives involve placing small limits on themselves. "I help undo those limits," she says. "My classes become supportive groups early on. It's not unusual for the class to want to continue meeting with me even after the scheduled end, they enjoy our group so much."

But her class isn't only about finding your dream -- it's also about acting on it. By the end of the second class, all the students leave with at least one "baby step" they can take right away to change their lives, along with an individual plan to help them breathe life into their fantasies.

Millis' own plan is a work in progress. She's already taken steps toward yet another of her "cat-lives": This time it's as an author. Look for her first book, tentatively titled "The Ruby Slippers: A Step-by-Step Guide to Living Your Dreams," late next year. After that? Who knows!!