Jameis Winston: Close Call

Jameis Winston is the current quarterback for the football at Florida State University and is a Heisman Trophy favorite this year. While all that is good to hear the young quarterback was accused of raping a female student and had faced felony charges after the accusations being made almost a year ago. 

Initially, the accuser told campus police on the night of the incident, but since it was an off campus incident, it was immediately taken to the Tallahassee police. During the process, the victim's attorneys were critical of them and in turn caused the police to be defensive. In their defense they presented the following timeline:

January 10th- Winston was identified as the alleged attacker (incident happened on 12/7/12)

January 15th- Rape kit was sent to the state crime lab

January 23rd- Winston denied to be interviewed by police

NOTE: The dates are given from last year/early this year

This past February the case was put in an "open/inactive" status because the victim didn't wish to prosecute. However, her attorney denied that she wanted to drop the case. Today, it was announced that the state attorney will not be pressing charges against Winston. However, over the last few weeks the state attorney took a look into the case and interviewed the accuser and a month ago it was reported by ESPN.com that the DNA found in the accuser's underwear was Winston's DNA which  is where the disagreement on whether it was consensual or rape. 

Keeping all that in mind the state attorney decided today (12/5) that Winston would not be charged. If Winston had been charged with a felony by the state, he would of been suspended from the football team immediately and ineligible under the FSU athletics Department policy. 

Winston and the Seminoles need to beat Duke on Saturday for the ACC championship and to get to the BCS National Championship at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 6th. We will find out sometime next week if he will be our next Heisman Trophy winner. 

Jameis Winston not charged (Article Courtesy of ESPN.com)

Taking a look at Non-Profits

Katie Paine and any good PR practitioner could tell you that relationships are key in any organization, but especially in non-profits. Non-profits rely heavily on people volunteering and willing to donate.

Measuring how these relationships can impact a non-profit is important and Katie gives 3 reasons for the importance.

1. Social Media: Social media has brought out new ways to reach community stakeholders and not measuring will provide no judgement on which will be most effective. There are also a number of easy no-cost or low-cost tools to create communities in order to stay in touch with stakeholders. 

    Example: Prom Genie, an Indianapolis based non-profit, uses its 

    Facebook page to tell people about it's events, where donations 

   can be made and how they can be made, and how to apply for 

   scholarships. 

2. Metrics: Recently, non-profits have to act like for-profits because of the recent financial difficulties when it comes to measuring. Non-profits are keep those difficulties in mind by adding board members in from the for-profit sector.

      Example: Prom Genie  brought in someone with a background in compliance, business

     development, and management that has worked with big name companies like Wells Fargo and 

     Wellpoint. 

3. Accountability: In turn, donors and contributors are increasingly demanding on what their gifts are being used for by the organizations. 

      Example: Prom Genie provides high school junior and senior girls with prom dresses and 

      accessories. They also provide three seniors with scholarships every year, which makes having 

      financial donations very important. However, getting the motto, "It's more than just a dress", across 

      to donors is very hard because of the name. Board members have to be detailed in telling donors 

      that they provide scholarships and are also looking into having a college fair this year. 

Prom Genie Website

Prom Genie on Facebook

Turkey Day: The Break Was Needed

As the semester ends papers, projects, presentations and other things seem to pile up. In midst of all that the week off for Thanksgiving was needed to catch up on sleep, assignments, and family time. 

This year even though I had a good amount of homework to do, it was really important to me that I got to see my family. I think the importance of family was made even stronger this year because of the crazy summer my family in losing people close to us back to back. But, I also think it brought both my extended and immediate family closer which was needed.

My extended family came over to my house on Thursday night around four and all the women warmed up the food and set it up in a buffet style to make it easier to move everyone out the kitchen. Before we ate dinner we all gathered to say what we were thankful for, the underlying theme was love, and my dad ended with a prayer. Then we all ate our weight in food while watching football then the fun began. After dinner there was a little bit of everything going on like: playing cards, watching TV, the younger kids were running around, and some people ended up helping me take my braids down. 

This year was different because I got to bring my boyfriend with me for my (extended/mom's) family to meet. I think two of my cousins, both male and older, didn't seemed to like the idea of a boyfriend. One of them didn't realize I was 21 when he asked my mom was I even allowed to date, which was really funny. Outside of introducing my boyfriend to everyone, the most eventful event of the night was having my cousins and mom help me take down my braids. My mom cut them while my cousins and I took them out. It was definitely a long process. 

But, the way the night ended was the best. I got a chance to spend it with my cousins, Savanna ("Vanna") and Davonte ("DJ"). The three of us were raised like siblings because we were born so close together. We slowly allowed our significant others into our group and include them in our hang out time. The three of us always decide to do something during the times our family gets together so we can just do 20-something stuff. This year we stayed up late after dinner to talk and watch movies. 

Food for thought: You can't ever take the moments you have with those you love for granted because they can become memories quickly