Maryland First State in the Union to create Benefit Corporation Legislation

Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law the nation’s first legislation creating Benefit Corporations, a new class of corporations required to create benefit for society as well as shareholders.

Unlike traditional corporations, Benefit Corporations must by law create a material positive impact on society; consider how decisions affect employees, community and the environment; and publicly report their social and environmental performance using established third-party standards.

The legislation, sponsored by Senators Jamie Raskin and Brian Frosh and Delegate Brian Feldman, passed the Maryland Senate with a vote of 44 – 0 and the Assembly 135 – 5.

“Milton Friedman would have loved this,” said Andrew Kassoy, co-founder of B Lab, the non-profit that drafted the model legislation with William H. Clark, Jr., partner in the Corporate & Securities Practice Group of Drinker Biddle and Reath.   “For the first time, we have a market-based solution supporting investors and entrepreneurs who want to make money and make a difference,” Kassoy added.

The new law addresses a long time concern among entrepreneurs who need to raise growth capital but fear losing control of the social or environmental mission of their business. These entrepreneurs and other shareholders of Benefit Corporations now have additional rights to hold directors accountable for failure to create a material positive impact on society or to consider the impact of decisions on employees, community, and the environment.

From a company’s point of view, the new law empowers directors of Benefit Corporations to consider employees, community and the environment in addition to shareholder value when they make operating and liquidity decisions. And, it offers them legal protection for those considerations.

“Today marks an inflection point in the evolution of capitalism,” said B Lab co-founder Jay Coen Gilbert.  ”With public trust in business at an all-time low, this represents the first systemic response to the underlying problems that created the financial crisis — protecting companies from the pressures of short-termism while creating benefit for shareholders and society over the long-haul.”

“This is a great moment in the evolution of commercial life in Maryland and America,” said Senator Raskin.  ”We are giving companies a way to do good and do well at the same time.  The benefit corporations will tie public and private purposes together.”

Maryland is the first state to pass Benefit Corporation legislation, but others are quickly following Maryland’s lead.  Vermont Bill S.263, co-sponsored by Senators Hinda Miller and Peter Shumlin, has already passed the Senate and will be considered by the Vermont Assembly over the next 30 days.  Other states considering the legislation include Colorado, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

Five Years ago,  Mystica Linforth had advanced periodontal disease. Her bone loss was responsible for her teeth shifting.

After months of research, she began brushing her teeth with food-grade hydrogen peroxide, aloe, and a potent blend of organic essential oils. The first reaction from friends was to ask if she had had her teeth whitened. Then she noticed her gums no longer bled when she flossed and her teeth weren’t sensitive anymore. When she returned to her hygienist she told her the pockets and receding gums had stopped in their tracks and that tarter buildup was significantly reduced. It’s been five years since she developed her original formula and she still enjoys pristine oral health. During the past year, Mystica  created and is now manufacturing a product she happily shares with others who face similar challenges. That product is Essential Oxygen+ Toothpaste and Mouthwash.

I met Mystica at Lassen’s in Ventura where she was sampling her new product. She gave me a small sample. I had a sore gum at the time and literally, the following day, it was gone. So it worked for me.

What’s new paradigm about this product is that it’s both a great organic mouthwash and a soothing liquid toothpaste.

You can check out Mystica’s excellent new product and purchase a bottle at www.rawessentials.org. And, if you like what you read and are unable to find a local outlet that carries the product, call your local natural food retailer and ask them to stock Essential Oxygen+.

A new friend just sent me a link to the following video that first appeared on the Huffington Post site and which I hope may be the start of the greatest populist movement in history. Rewarding banks for their thievery, reckless conduct and paying bonuses to these incompetent executive bankers is a slap in the face to taxpayers. “What can we do?” has been the burning question. The answer is simple…move your money from the big banks to local community banks. Watch the video and, if it makes sense to you, open an account at your local community bank on Monday morning and transfer your money. If you don’t know the name of the bank, go to the Move Your Money site shown at the end of the video and enter your zip code and you’ll see a list of your community banks.

In just 4 days since its posting on You Tube 225,000 people have watched this video. Let’s hope many of them will open community bank accounts in the next few days and this movement will snowball. Please consider forwarding a link to this page to your friends, family and business associates and become part of a transfer of wealth that will impact large banks in the only place they fear, in their pockets.

My friends Alan and Dianne Collins, the dynamic duo of QuantumThink.com are offering NPD readers the opportunity to participate in a free call on December 21st from 5-6pm Pacific. The call will focus on The Essentail Quantum Principle for Creating Intent which may be useful in planning your next year. If you are interested in participating, e-mail Dianne and Alan, mention NPD, and you’ll receive the dial in number and password. dianne@quantumthink.com

QuantumThink is a new system of thinking based on the findings of quantum science and is delivered to individuals, corporations and government agencies and produces out of the box, non-linear results.

Here is an article by Dianne you may find useful:

Allowing – the Genius Gift

Allowing is the “the genius gift” because our faculty of Allowing is what has us tap into universal intelligence as co-creators in partnership with Great Spirit.

We’ve all heard the expression “Let go and let God.” What does it really mean? That you simply create your Intent and then let the chips fall where they may? Well, no, not really dear friends. Some people imagine Allowing means to accept whatever happens, to let things be exactly as they are and be okay with it. That’s fine. However, Allowing as a creative act of consciousness as we refer to it in QuantumThink^® means something else entirely.

Allowing means to be with an undetermined unfolding from the quantum field of probability set up by a specific conscious Intent. Allowing operates in the realm of the unimaginable, in the invisible, where the limits of our mind cannot see. Genius is activated. Probabilities are set in motion directed by our Intent. Rather than attempting to manipulate and control within the limits of what is immediately in our view, we Allow for whatever unfolds itself, realizing it will be consistent with our Intent.

We love the surprise and serendipity and mystery of life yet our old world view conditioning has habituated us to try to micro-manage the unfolding. Can you imagine standing over flower and instructing the petals, “Okay time for you to open now.” As absurd as that may sound we do try to control the events and situations in our life, rather than invoking our genius gift, Allowing.

A participant in our Mastery Study Group, Rose, shared that before QuantumThinking her M.O. was to try to push and force things to happen in her attempt to make life better for the people around her. She was exhausted. One day she was invited to attend a family reunion with her fiancé. People who hadn’t seen each other or spoken in 20 years were now going to spend a weekend together in a five bedroom house. “Letting the chips fall where they may,” you could imagine how that scenario might go. Instead of pushing and trying to control the “good times” Rose consciously created the Intent that everyone would enjoy each day and appreciate one another fully. Many wonderful things unfolded that she couldn’t have foreseen yet she knew happened as a result of her Intent and Allowing.

Allowing works for at least three reasons:

(1) We have a nonlocal quantum mind.

There is a scientific basis for the power of Allowing. We are interconnected in a field of mind – a field of energy, intelligence, and awareness. What does it mean that our mind is nonlocal? Since our mind does not exist in the ordinary boundaries of space and time it can “go” anywhere to tune in and connect by exercising the power of our Intent.

The quantum principle of nonlocality says that we can and do influence things instantaneously “at a distance” from us with no apparent exchange of force or energy. The genius gift of Allowing pulls ideas and connections out of the infinite. Allowing is the passive dynamic of creation – the complement of Intent which is the active dynamic.

(2) Creation happens in the 90% of reality we can’t see with our physical eyes.

Contemplate for a moment: scientists tell us what we can see is less than 10% of the total universe. The other 90-something percent is invisible. They call it dark matter or dark energy. Allowing connects us to the 90% that we cannot see and attracts that which is resonant with our Intent.

(3)  We are in partnership with Great Spirit.

Albert Einstein is considered one of the greatest scientists that ever lived. His theories literally altered our view of reality. Yet he didn’t arrive at his theory initially through science; that came later. He arrived at his theory through wonder. He connected to what we can call the mind of God or Great Spirit and Allowed the genius to come through him. Every one of us has been imbued with this genius gift of Allowing.

Like anything we desire to master Allowing takes conscious practice and Allowing requires awakened awareness in the moment. How will you notice the connections to your Intent if you are not awake and alert to the signs? Are you ready? Let’s make the season even brighter by using our genius gift of Allowing.

Conscious Practices for Allowing

Practice Allowing – Bling’s the Thing
Enjoy It!

Can you enjoy the spirituality of materiality? Even as the holiday season seems the most spiritual, paradoxically it is also the most material. Sometimes people give materiality a bad rap thinking it’s superficial or too commercial. If we want to live the wisdom of a Holistic & Holographic universe isn’t it time we cast away the old world view of the spiritual and material being separate? The outer world reflects the inner spirit.

Bling is the contemporary word for all that glitters being used to decorate everything from clothing to cell phones. The holiday season sparkles and glistens and shines with glittery jewels and silver and gold. Bling is naturally a holiday thing and Bling happens to be in fashion – Bling is the thing. Let’s enjoy it!

Practice: Create the Intent to experience appreciation for all the amazing ways your planetary brothers and sisters are using their unique creativity to manifest things for the rest of us to enjoy. Be a well wisher for businesses and entrepreneurs and artists to thrive by selling their goods and services during the holidays. Allow for what marvels show up in your experience.

Practice Allowing during Holiday Gatherings
Celebrate Your Relationships

This holiday season when we come together to celebrate life and gifts in gatherings with family and friends and with co- workers and business associates you can practice the genius gift of Allowing amazing experiences.

Practice: Create your Intent for the experience of you and the people you will be with regardless of any past “rifts” or disconnects of any kind. (Old world view = circumstance rules; new world view = Intent rules.) Perhaps you can create this Intent: We experience our connection deeper and loving and more fulfilling than ever. Allow and enjoy what unfolds.

Practice Allowing Your Experience Within
Be the Bliss That You Are

Every spiritual teaching expresses that our true nature is bliss. If your “routine” for the holidays in past years hasn’t been uplifting and enlivening and fun and blissful, now is the time to go within and change it.

Practice: As you read this you can create the Intent: This holiday season I am enlivened and uplifted by everything I do. Allow your experience moment-by-moment to be activated and shaped by that Intent. Bliss out.

Allowing is a most powerful yet underused faculty for creating. You know how fabulous it is when you have one of those days where everything flows so well that it is just magical. Your entire holiday season could be that way. Why shouldn’t it be? It’s the season of magic. Look for it, expect it, appreciate it, and express gratitude for it. What you focus on expands. <>

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Dianne Collins is the creator-author of the QuantumThink^® system of thinking and the forthcoming book, Do You QuantumThink? New Thinking That Will Rock Your World (August 2010, SelectBooks) Dianne and her partner, Master QuantumThink Coach, Alan Collins, offer QuantumThink 21 teleseminars for accomplishing specific business and personal results, QuantumThink consulting to leaders who are involved in globe-transforming projects, and QuantumThink AudioCoach CDs for individuals to expand their thinking at their convenience. Contact Dianne at dianne@quantumthink.com For information on teleseminars for individuals and companies worldwide visit www.quantumthink.com or call 305-354-8141.

My friend and web designer and programmer, Wayne Marshall of Kaizen Marketing in Santa Barbara has launched a new service that creates a Fan page for your business. Here’s the scoop…

Fantastic Facebook Fan Pages

There are now over 350 Million active Facebook users, with 1/2 Million added daily, with the fastest growing demographic being over 35 and in higher income brackets. Even business to business is now being conducted via Facebook. Time spent on Facebook increased by 566% from December 2007 to December 2008, compared to around 18% for the web overall-clearly a phenomenon. The time for businesses to jump into social media is NOW!

In response to growing demand from clients, Kaizen Marketing has introduced a new service:

The creation and customization of business and brand oriented Facebook Fan Pages.

Here’s what Kaizen does for clients:

* Build the basic fan page connected to your personal FB account

* Create a personalized avatar graphic from your logo that shows up on your page and all your posts

* Tie in any blogs you may have via Facebook Notes – this will auto post all your blog posts from WordPress, Blogger or whatever directly to the Facebook page and to the feed of your page fans.

* Use the Facebook version of html (FBML) to custom create a sidebar under the fans area. This can include any graphics and links you wish out as well as an opt-in form for your email list, if you have one.

* Use FBML to create a custom landing page that only NON-FANS will see. This can be a large graphic or short video, following by an invite your friends box so that folks landing can become a fan and also invite their friends to do so right away. Once they are fans, they will go direct to the Wall. See ALL ONE Vitamins fan page for an example – and become a fan while there.

* Once you have 25 fans, we help you apply for a custom, vanity URL of your choice (only one per Facebook) Here is another fan page I produced with URL for Nutiva, with over 1500 fans and growing daily.

* Assuming your chosen URL is available, you can immediately add it to your marketing mix .

* Option 1: Do you have videos on Youtube,? We will help you add a custom tab up top that will display your YouTube channel.

* Option 2: We will help you install the “Fan Box” widget on your own website. It displays recent updates, a sampling of your fans, and allows folks to become a fan directly from your site.

* Finally, we provide you with our Special Report “Ten Ways to Build your Facebook Fan Page” that will support your strategic planning process and best practices for using and building a stream of traffic to your Facebook Fan Page.

Kaizen’s all-inclusive price for this service is $500. (about half what our competitors are currently charging)

To learn more, ask Wayne any questions or order his new FB service, click here.

Watch for the launch of our New Paradigm Digest Fan Page soon thanks to Wayne.