Ridgerunner Consulting

I know, I haven't finished this website. It really is a big project and I've been working on other stuff (like the skate park) so much that this hasn't had as much priority as it should. So, until I've got it done, here's my resume (pdf).

I like to help people solve their problems - small businesses, individuals, nonprofit organizations, governments, even corporations. I'm getting more and more experience with financial management and analysis: Is your household or business money messy? I can help you clean it up and figure out where to go next. I strongly believe in confidentiality - your business is your business and not anyone else's. I'm an expert in QuickBooks, but you don't have to have special software to understand and manage your finances.

Is your website dreary? outdated? non-existent? Check out the list of sites I've done or worked on over on the left. Let's talk about how I can help you improve your situation during a free consultation.

Databases... organizing and managing data is the heart of many organizations and businesses. A database might be as simple as a spreadsheet or as complicated as a stand-alone relational database application. I've been designing, building and maintaining databases for over ten years. I offer a free consultation so together we can see how my skills can benefit your organization by streamlining data collection and analysis.

Wireless and wired networks, peer-to-peer or server-based, each home and office needs a different configuration. I've created and administered so many networks I can't even begin to count them. I fix the computers on the network - or standalone home and office computers - to remove pop-up ads, spyware, and other pests, check the hardware to make sure it meets your needs, and make recommendations for new or updated equipment.

So... give me a call or email me - 570-638-2486 or heidi (at) ridgerunnerconsulting.com and let's talk!

I am now certified in QuickBooks 2007.

Resume (PDF)

Here's the current version of my resume (PDF).

I've been preparing for major transitions in my life, I bought a camera, and I'm no longer a V.I.B.E. officer.

Transitions I sold my share of my house to my brother and I'm heading to law school at University at Buffalo. I move Aug. 15 and start orientation and classes Aug. 21. I'll be keeping several clients in Tioga County, but not accepting new projects. Why law school? I need the skills to match my vision for community and economic development in Tioga County and the region. I love the community development work I do with V.I.B.E. and other nonprofit organizations and UB has an awesome community development law program. I received excellent scholarship offers from University of Pittsburgh and University at Buffalo - it worked out that even with out-of-state tuition the first year at UB, the cost of attending would have been the same at either school. So I visited each campus. I immediately felt comfortable at UB, met with professors and other students and wandered around the city some (Albright-Knox! Elmwood! Allentown! Falafel Bar!) . Visiting Pitt was pleasant, but the atmosphere was significantly more corporate and less progressive, and their community development clinic, while very good, is not nearly as well integrated into the core academics as UB's. The city is a lot larger than Buffalo. As I was sitting in the admissions office at Pitt waiting to speak with an admissions officer, I perused a copy of their law school alumni magazine. The cover featured NASCAR, the story was about an alum who works on corporate advertising/sponsorship of NASCAR cars. In comparison, the UB alumni mag cover featured human rights interns in Tanzania. Hmmmm... which school do you think Heidi would be more comfortable at? Then Buffalo offered me more money and the decision was obvious... The plan is that in three years I'll be back.

New address beginning 8/15/08:
Heidi I. Jones
131 Allen St., Apt. 15
Buffalo, NY 14201

Telephone: I'll probably keep 570-638-2486 (that whole local # portability thing might be useful)

V.I.B.E. and Blossburg Improvement Association will continue to use PO Box 126, Blossburg, PA 16912-0126.

Email: heidi.i.jones@gmail.com

Camera I've been lusting after a digital single-lens reflex camera since they first came out at the consumer level a few years ago. I finally bought an Olympus E-520. With a little adapter ring, I can use all my old Olympus OM lenses that I used to use on my Olympus OM-G SLR. I took pictures at the Blossburg Memorial Library's annual garden party fundraiser on Sunday. If you want prints, email me!

V.I.B.E. Kelly Rossell, a recent transplant to Blossburg from the Philadelphia suburbs, has taken over as treasurer.
I'll still be working with V.I.B.E. but just not as actively.

Left to right: Jackie Smith, secretary; Tonya McNamara, president; Jill Nickerson, vice president; Kelly Rossell, treasurer.

Here's a nice photo of the reusable grocery bags and water bottles V.I.B.E. produced:

My friend Ken Cooper of Covington says he monitors this blog. We'll see :-)

Profile of UB Law Class of 2011

For comparison purposes, I got a 163 on the LSAT, my undergrad GPA was about 3.39, and I'm 36.

How did I choose "Ridgerunner Consulting"? Well, I consult for ridgerunners. What's a ridgerunner? The smart, crafty folks who live on the ridges of mountains in northcentral Pennsylvania. I got the idea from Jim Glimm's Flatlanders and Ridgerunners, a wonderful little book of folk tales that Glimm collected. He died a while ago of cancer and Mansfield University has a scholarship fund in his name. Each spring there's a bluegrass concert at the university to provide funds for the scholarship program. I also consult for flatlanders and folks who live on meadows and such. "Flatlander" is a somewhat derogatory term for folks who don't live in the mountains, particularly those from the Philadelphia area. Flatlanders are known for their lack of skill in navigating life in the mountains.

This afternoon I was interviewed by a reporter for Buffalo Law Journal for an article about my decision to attend UB Law. (BLJ isn't affiliated with the university, it's where Erie County legal notices are published. Tioga County doesn't have a law journal; we just publish in the Wellsboro Gazette. I'll let y'all know if my interview is included in an article this week.

http://buffalolawjournal.com/article_view.asp?IDNO=1014200815

Law school seeks prospects, proponents from outside NY

BY JODI SOKOLOWSKI
BuffaloLaw Journal

First-year student Heidi Jones feels comfortable at UB Law, in part because of an atmosphere she describes as noncompetitive.

The law school had to be within five hours of her hometown, in north-central Pennsylvania, have fewer than 300 students in the incoming class and offer courses on community and economic development and mediation.

Jones narrowed her options down to two choices — the University of Pittsburgh and University at Buffalo.

She visited both and immediately felt comfortable with the Buffalo region, UB and its law school. But the final decision came down to the covers of the schools’ respective alumni magazines. Pitt Law featured a photograph of an alumnus working for NASCAR. UB Law’s highlighted a student interning in Tanzania for human rights.

“That was the final piece of evidence. It was progressive,” said the first-year UB Law student.

What’s in the mix

UB Law’s recruiting efforts rely on a variety of factors that may influence a prospective law student’s decision. They include a relatively low tuition, non-competitive and collegial atmosphere, a variety of educational clinics, a New York City program and a wide alumni network.

“I think it’s a combination of those things. Students are looking for a complete law-school experience,” said UB Law’s vice dean for admissions and financial aid, Lillie Wiley-Upshaw.

Jones said UB Law’s Community Economic Development Clinic and meeting with its director, Lauren Breen, on her one-day visit here, coupled with finding Pitt Law’s clinics to be “marginalized” and “not integrated,” helped in her decision-making.

Although she hadn’t heard about UB Law before her search, once she was on its radar, “they did a good job of outreach,” she said.

Through direct-mail campaigns and e-mails, as well as appearances at law-school recruiting fairs and legal conferences, UB Law staff stress the school’s culture and the quality and affordability of its legal education to prospective students. Its fall recruiting tour goes statewide and coast to coast.

I updated my resume to incorporate my educational aspiration and my new mediation certification. I also cut well over two pages, increased the margins and the font size. It was strange to cut the details of the work I've been doing as Ridgerunner Consulting. I hope the resume still conveys the important stuff.

Resume 2/20/09 (PDF)

This summer I'm volunteering with Westminster Economic Development Initiative (http://www.wedibuffalo.org/ - they have a site but no content), a nonprofit organization that works to improve the West Side neighborhood of Buffalo, an area with very high rates of poverty and joblessness. I'm working in the economic development department helping Bonnie Smith, director, with small business startups. I'm focusing on helping the startup clients with QuickBooks but I'm also checking out WEDI's various projects, including the International Marketplace Bazaar. They're hoping the bazaar becomes a small retail business incubator by offering low-rent spaces in a commonly managed building. At an open house held 7/11, they signed up five potential small businesses.

Carmen's Kitchen, a Puerto Rican/Mexican takeout/delivery joint, opened in late May.
Website
Review

Opening 7/24 (if all goes well): Tango's Pet Store 246 Massachusetts Ave. (at Normal Street), Buffalo, NY 14213. Michelle, the owner, raises fancy birds, although the store for now is just pet supplies, not live pets. (Sorry about the bad cell phone shots!)

This is Tango the parrot

Tango's children, 10 weeks old at the time of the picture

The boy baby parrot enjoyed having his belly feathers stroked!

Pretty white bird

My finger petting the pretty white bird

I've been writing so much elsewhere that I've been neglecting this blog, mostly because I don't think anyone reads it.

What I've been up to recently:

• Save North Penn High School campaign. Southern Tioga School District administration is proposing to shut down North Penn, ship the kids in grades 9-12 to Liberty High School and Mansfield High School, and turn the elementary school into a kindergarten-through-eighth grade facility. Obviously, I'm opposed to this.
  • I did some research on effects of school consolidation/closing on students and communities and on the state regulations about school facilities construction. (The district administration is not providing the school board with sufficient information to make a huge, permanent decision like this.)
  • I created an ad for the Penny Saver (weekly classified ad rag based in Mansfield, Pa.). PDF here.
  • I created and update the FaceBook fan page "Save North Penn High School!." I update the NPHS alumni myspace but I think the FB page is more valuable.
  • I created the specs for a letter-writing machine that my brother Josh implemented.
  • I helped Jill Nickerson write a speech and handout for the November school board meeting.
  • I helped Jill draft a letter for Blossburg Borough Council to send to the school board.
  • I wrote a letter to the editor of the Williamsport Sun Gazette in response to an article about the November school board meeting.
  • I wrote a letter for Blossburg Improvement Association to send to the school board. PDF here.
  • I'm learning more about hands-on community organizing. I need this book: Tools for Radical Democracy, if anyone would like to buy it for me. (To get supersaver shipping at Amazon, you could add in Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals).
  • I have two real clients through the University at Buffalo Law School Community Economic Development Clinic. I'm doing some nice stuff with them.
  • I'm treasurer of the Alternative Dispute Resolution group at UB Law. We host a mediation (negotiation, really) competition each year - it's this Saturday. We also coordinate and subsidize a 30-hour basic mediation training in January, which I took last year.
  • I'm a facilitator with the Alternatives to Violence Project.
  • I'm still working with Westminster Economic Development Initiative, currently focusing on the West Side Bazaar, a retail incubator project. Bonnie Smith and I are also working on developing a relationship with a local credit union to create a microbusiness lending program using the Small Business Administration's Micro-Loan Program. There's a real need for microbusiness lending in Buffalo. The two current SBA lenders in Erie County are not currently lending anything.
  • I'm still working with Blossburg V.I.B.E. We should be publishing our annual newsletter/business directory/place mat soon.
  • I updated my resume to apply for an externship with the IRS. I have no expectation of getting the externship because they favor third-year students and only take three. Maybe next year after I've taken Taxation of Individual Income I and II, Exempt Organizations, State & Local Taxation...
  • I have a new logo/business cards and a gorgeous brochure. (Yes, I now desperately need to update this website. Maybe January.) Thanks, Krysta!

    

  • AND I'm still working with clients. I have a few in Buffalo and many in Blossburg. I'm scheduling stuff for January. If you need QuickBooks installation, setup or tutoring, let's schedule it now!
    

    To comment or contact me, email me at heidi (at) ridgerunnerconsulting.com.

    Save North Penn High School! on Facebook

    One more link - Liz Berkowitz of Wild Asaph Outfitters keeps a blog about natural gas drilling issues. This is important stuff that's going to affect Tioga County for a long time - probably as significantly as the coal mining era of the 1850s to 1980s.

Here's my current resume [pdf] - updated to include the successful "Save North Penn High School!" campaign.

And here's my spiffy consulting brochure [pdf].

Contact info
570-638-2486
heidi.i.jones @ gmail.com < take out the spaces