California Supreme Court Rules Employers May Terminate Employees for Use of Medical Marijuana

The California Supreme Court has ruled that an employer does not discriminate against an employee on the basis of disability under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act by refusing to accommodate an employee’s use of medical marijuana.In the case decided by the Court, the former employee suffered from strain and muscle spasms in his back as a result of injuries he sustained while serving in the United States Air Force. Because of his condition, the Court noted that the plaintiff in the case was a qualified individual with a disability under the provisions of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.Sometime after the approval by the voters of Proposition 215 known as the Compassionate Use Act, permitting the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the former employee began to use marijuana to relieve his pain, based upon his physician’s recommendation.Thereafter, the employer offered the Plaintiff a job. The employer required plaintiff to take a drug test. Before taking the test, plaintiff gave the clinic that would administer the test a copy of his physician’s recommendation for his marijuana use. The clinic informed him that he had tested positive for marijuana use. At that point, the employer suspended him. The Plaintiff then informed his new employer of his physician’s approval to use marijuana to deal with his pain. However, the employer terminated the employee because of his marijuana use.In his lawsuit, the former employee claimed that the employer violated the Fair Employment and Housing Act by discharging him, because of his disability and by failing to make reasonable accommodation for his disability. Plaintiff also alleged that the employer terminated his employment wrongfully, in violation of public policy.The California Supreme Court reasoned that the Compassionate Use Act did not give marijuana the same status as any legal prescription drug. No state law could completely legalize marijuana for medical purposes, because the drug remained illegal under Federal law. The Compassionate Use Act merely exempted medical users and their primary caregivers from criminal liability under two specifically designated state statutes. Nothing in the text or history of the Compassionate Use Act suggested the voters intended that the measure would address the rights and obligations of employers and employees. The Supreme Court concluded that the Fair Employment and Housing Act did not require employers to accommodate the use of illegal drugs.The California Supreme Court recognized that it was lawful for an employer to condition an offer of employment on the results of a medical examination, and that such an examination may include drug testing. Employers may deny employment to persons who test positive for illegal drugs. The Compassionate Use Act did not eliminate marijuana’s potential for abuse or the employer’s legitimate interest in whether an employee uses the drug. Marijuana is illegal under Federal law because of its high potential for abuse, its lack of any currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and its lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision. The Compassionate Use Act did not require employers to accommodate marijuana use by their employees.

Bring Out the Drummer in You With an Audio Gadget

You have always admired those rock stars who would know how to play the drums. You often feel intimidated each time you see a girl able to create the rhythm with the drums. You often dream of you holding those drumsticks and being able to bang away for hours on end with your very own drum set. That remains to be a dream but you can actually change that with an audio gadget that you are sure going to love.Meet the Air Drummer.The Air Drummer is going to be the answer to all your problems with having a drum set. It is going to be the avenue to where your drummer’s dreams are going to take place and happen. Head over to Gadget Epoint and you would see the specifications that come with the Air Drummer. See, this is just a tiny gadget that is not going to take up a really huge space in your home. It is a gadget and it is not that bulky as the whole drum set you have been dreaming of. But it sure will do especially if space is your problem.When you get the Air Drummer for yourself, you would be able to fulfill your dreams of being the one who creates the rhythm. See, this audio gadget is a kit that comes with a pair of drumsticks to help you create the music that you want, there is also a foot pedal so it would seem to be like the real thing, and there is a sound box. When you pick up those drumsticks and start banging away, you would hear the sound of a real drum because those sticks come with sensors and your movement is going to create the sound. This sure is the audio gadget of a drummer’s dreams.Cool, right?

Top Influencer Marketing Strategies for the Social Business

Influencer Marketing is a modern marketing technique in which concentration is mainly placed on particular individuals rather than the entire target market. These individuals, termed influencers, are identified as people having a profound influence on the marketing activities of many other potential buyers of a brand. The explosion of social media over the last ten years has remarkably revolutionized communication and is making a similar impact in the business world. This has brought about the emergence of many potential influencers, often people very active on social media (having many followers) with respected opinions due to industry expertise.The concept of influencer marketing is more about positively impacting sales and not just increasing awareness. Therefore, the selection of a productive influencer is very brand and/or brand campaign sensitive. Most present-day consumers do not respond well to billboards, newsletters, digital adverts, commercials and other conventional marketing schemes. They often prefer independent brand research or hearing about it from a trusted person. As a result, the use of influencers in marketing is turning into one of the most successful ways to pull clients and customers for all businesses including social business (Social enterprises, social benefit companies, social initiatives, non-profits etc.).Marketing for non-profits and other social businesses demands meeting the needs of both their donors and the clients they serve. Every social organization, regardless of their source of funding, requires effective marketing to enable them to continuously meet the needs of donors and clients while earning positive value in return.In this modern business era, fundraising consulting, non-profit consulting, and the hiring of profit consulting services uncover and reveal some evolving key marketing techniques including influencer marketing strategies. The strategies of influencer marketing are constantly evolving. However, aligning with the right influencer opens the sales door to their loyal audiences and those of their networks, providing the chance to relate with these audiences non-stop.An essential factor in the establishment of an efficient influencer marketing system is identifying and engaging the most capable and best contextual fitting influencers for the brand. Social entrepreneurs can successfully improve their value in the eyes of donors and at the same time satisfy the clients they serve by effectively making use of these traits for ideal influencer targeting;1. Audience and Reach:Targeting potential influencers with huge followings on various social media platforms is advantageous.2. Relevant Connection:This highlights the importance of targeting people with posts, comments, and messages that possess some degree of cohesion with the brand’s fundamental interests and keywords.3. Quality and Trust:Quality and trusted followers for Influencers provide greater capacities for potential clients. This is measured by taking special notice of audience members who actively interact with influencers in promoting the brand.4. Activity:How frequent an individual posts or comments and their general activity as a whole plays a major role in influencer targeting as it serves to predict potential reach before a campaign is started.Although influencer marketing is typically employed as a tool for consumer brands and their partnerships, these strategies and features best apply to the marketing of social businesses;Authenticity Influencer campaigns won’t achieve their marketing goals if the audience is aware that the influencer is getting paid. Therefore, it’s very important to work with individuals with a true passion for your project. This only emphasizes that the key to a successful influencer campaign is being extremely authentic. Influencer marketing and Social Businesses are a perfect fit with respect to authenticity because potentially targeted influencers are often already outspoken about causes they support. This simplifies their identification, facilitates the establishment of a smoother relationship, and creates a more natural fit for your message.Strategic PlanningIt’s always very important to have a clear vision of what you plan to achieve before engaging with any influencer project- especially for social businesses. Also, the process of achieving these set goals and the scale on which success will be measured is of similar importance. Conducting a strategic analysis results in productive decisions on influencer action issues like; mediums with most relevance to brand audience and whether sharing brand content to as many people as possible is the primary objective or cooperating to generate new content to deeply connect with people. Early engagement with influencers is advisable to seek their opinions on how best the partnership will work.Targeting Relevant AudiencesStatistics and experience have proven that engaging with individuals and personalities with the largest social media following and fan bases as influencers to provide an endorsement for your mission doesn’t necessarily guarantee the best results. Statistics instead suggest that more audience engagement and the highest conversion rates are provided by niche social influencers with generally smaller followings. These individuals often referred to as micro-influencers possess highly targeted and more online interactive audiences. Micro-influencer inspired marketing for non-profits and other social businesses produce impeccable results. These Micro-influencers serve as passionate advocates for their brands, playing major roles in awareness and the driving of valuable action.Measuring ProductivityThe ability to quantify the success of influencer marketing campaigns has always been and remains a great challenge today. It’s anything but difficult for anyone to perceive the reasons why surveys have marketers attesting to the fact that measuring Return on Investment (ROI) for influencer marketing was the greatest challenge they came across in 2017. Tackling this challenge could begin from the initiation of a wide range of metrics like audience engagement, sentiments, and conversions to ensure more is being measured than just fan numbers. Also, the incorporation of hashtags such as #socialgood, #socialenterprise, #socialimpact, #socialchange, #innovation, #entrepreneur, #startup, #impact #nonprofit, #funding, #grantwriting, #charity, etc. into your campaign is easy and encourages people to join the conversation enabling tracking.To aid in this important quest for success measurement in influencer marketing campaigns, fundraising consulting, non-profit consulting, and profit consulting services would more explicitly advise social businesses to create dedicated fundraising pages for each of their influencers. This provides a unique platform through which connections can be established with their networks, depicts the clear dollar value of donations driven by each influencer and conclusively offers a means to assess the productivity of the partnership.Legal BoundariesUnderstanding the laws surrounding the agreements between influencers and companies during partnership is critically important. Although some influencers promote many social business causes without charge, most influencer endorsements involving highly followed individuals often require payments to safeguard official partnerships.Influencer marketing is revolutionizing the business world in general and has the potential of optimizing marketing for social businesses.

Why All Good Brands Crave a Brand Audit

To get started, I am going to pose three questions to help you see your brand through a different lens. You might discover your brand is in need of a good, strong Brand Audit. Think about it as the kind of regular check up. You know, the kind you get from your doctor. The prognosis will inform you whether your brand is in good shape (or not). You’ll find out whether your brand issues are getting in the way of your business success (or not). Here goes:PLEASE NOTE: If you answer ‘no’ (or, hmmm, I’m not sure), then it’s time for some serious brand therapy and, of course, a Brand Audit. Here goes:Q1: IS YOUR BRAND 100% IRRESISTIBLE TO YOUR AUDIENCE?Q2: IS YOUR BRAND DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESSFUL AND PROFITABLE?Q3: DO YOU HAVE UNRESOLVED BRAND ISSUES THAT ARE GETTING IN THE WAY OF YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS?Q4: ARE YOU CRAVING TO FIND OUT WHERE YOU REALLY STAND IN THE MARKETPLACE?Q5: DO YOU SENSE YOUR COMPANY HAS GONE OFF THE BOIL AND YOU NEED TO RAMP UP YOUR IMPACT AND REPUTATION?OK. First, let’s look at the facts:FACT 1: STRONG BRANDS MAKE MORE MONEY The stronger your brand, the more powerful your organization and the better you can inspire, captivate and engage your audience. After you do your own brand audit, your brand emerges with a clarity and ability to make more meaningful emotional connections in a world with a low attention span.FACT 2: STRONG BRANDS NEED A REALITY CHECKDo you know there are thousands of snippets of dialogue, conversations and clues going on inside your brand every second? Today it’s critical, more than ever, to understand the tone of these conversations, tap into the underlying and invisible clues, issues and intentions, and then turn them around so you can create a more synergistic and congruent brand dialogue that will provoke and captivate your audience. It provides the foundation for creating powerful, highly effective marketing programs.FACT 3: BRAND AUDITS PRODUCE BIG BENEFITS 1 Impacts the bottom line because the money’s in the brand.2 Your marketing efforts effortlessly kick into high gear.3 Lands a clear spot in the psyche of your target market.4 Differentiates your brand as a desirable (i.e. a client attraction magnet.)5 Creates immediate emotional connections with your target.6 Creates a highly enhanced image for your organization overall.7 Presents you as an innovative and memorable marketplace leader.8 Re-energized brand storytelling resonates and hits home (like never before.)9 Gives you a distinct competitive advantage (while competitors still scratching their heads).10 Easily attracts raving fans who champion your cause.11 Provides an enhanced sense of proud ownership across the board12 Your credibility factor soars and generates buzz.13 Aligned and authentic energy has a powerful ripple effect.THE BEST PART ABOUT THE BRAND AUDIT?IT BUILDS AN INTUITIVELY AND EMOTIONALLY CAPTIVATING BRAND So this is about enhancing your marketing programs. Creating a bigger and bolder brand; and then watch as your organization becomes more visible, credible and more profitable.5 CLUES: HOW TO KICKSTART YOUR OWN BRAND AUDIT 1 Check for the kind of invisible clues that your brand is emitting on a daily basis. Start with looking at the language you are using, and what you are asking your audience to do. Is there total clarity, transparency? Or are you muddying the message?2 What’s the overall attitude or tone of your brand? If we’re looking at your website’s home page, is it welcoming and friendly in tone, or is it keeping me at arm’s length?3 What kind of score would you give the energy levels of your brand? Is it high energy or is it just very low energy — on simmer, so to speak!? You know yourself the kind of energy that attracts you in other people, right? It might be bright, fun, relaxed and optimistic, for example. If that resonates with you, then make sure your energy levels reflect fun, relaxed and welcoming.4 What’s the feeling people get when they visit your site or business? Today, the most important piece in marketing and branding is connecting and engaging with other people. Living and working in a vacuum is not going to win you any points. This is about building community, and community means people — and building meaningful connections with them.5 Is your marketing message about your business all about you? or is it showing your readers/visitors that you understand their issues, their problems, and you have the exact solution to their problem? The biggest problem I discover when I do Brand Audits? It’s finding the ‘same old, same old’ in print and online. It’s seeing business after business just talk about themselves, forever! So here’s the deal. In your own Audit, take a serious look at how much you are raving on about you and what you offer. Then, scratch that all out, and start again. Think now about what it is that you offer, deliver and the main benefits. THAT’S what your audience wants to know, and when they get that message from you, their reaction is going to be: I need to speak to that person, right now. So how do you feel now? After conducting your own Brand Audit?

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