July 30, 2023
Dear Friends,
Don’t know if you’ve ever noticed before, but whenever you’ve run into a girl or woman named “Kim,” they are invariably super people. Only the luckiest of business ever get one to come work for them. They are nearly always bright, talented at what they do, friendly, cheerful and brave . . . . and even more, they always put out good vibes.
We’re just really tickled to death that Fox Country Quilts has acquired, as a new employee, Kim Jarvis! She has a solid background of experiences related to working in small businesses in numerous capacities, including quilt shop experience. The two things about her that impressed me most were (1) always emitting good vibes, and (2) the way she wrote her resume. Most resumes will tell potential employers of their capabilities starting with what a person might term hard skills . . . things like specific physical abilities and experiences. “I can type 600 words per minute, I can make 4 root beer floats in three minutes while mopping the entire facility, that sort of thing. . . . . O.K., that wasn’t Kim, just examples of hard skills. However, harder to write in a good resume is a listing of soft skills without it sounding cheesy or simply trying to think of positive-sounding filler to impress the hiring person. Have to let you know I’ve been in hiring positions before, including chairing numerous university faculty search committees in which some position postings receive well over 100 applicants. So I have the experience to properly assess what I read in resumes. For that matter, so does Donna. What impressed me so much about Kim’s resume is that she did an amazing job of writing about her soft skills, writing in such a way that you know they are real, not cheesy filler. That is not an easy thing to do. What’s more, which after getting to know her for only a short time, it’s clear she is exactly the person we need here. Kim will fit in so well with Fox Country Quilts that we are genuinely excited (wanted to say "pickled tink" but thought Donna might edit it out.) about having her come on board.
Second neat thing happened, just over the last couple of days. Quite some time ago, we (i.e., mostly Donna . . I was camera man) created on online course entitled “Mastering Edge-to-Edge quilting with Pro-Stitcher.” The course has been in place for more than two years on our online course software, but hasn’t had the response we hoped for. Low response was somewhat surprising . . . If you know Donna in person, you know she has the kind of personality and energy to make excellent courses that immerse and genuinely teach students. She is always able to develop a great rapport with students throughout the process.. This seems to come naturally to her, and was a great asset while she was a faculty member at the university.
A couple of years+ ago, Donna formed an online Pro-Stitcher group called Pro-Stitcher Quilting Transformation. This group has well over 1700 active and interactive members. Welp, it was this past Thursday that one of the members posted, with a big noticeable yellow background and big, clear lettering, that she had discovered this course, got super excited about it and signed up for it. Now comes the amazing part. After her post, several other people expressed they are interested too, and now only two days later, more than 11 people have signed up to begin the course. We’re really excited about this increase in response and this increased opportunity to provide this educational opportunity to these ladies (I think they're all ladies). This is also encouraging us to develop even more online courses to be made available to people. As you well know, being able to give top-flight quilting education is the driving purpose for us even being here.
If you would like to check out this course . . . . as well as a couple of small courses, . . . . go to https://learn.foxonlineuniversity.com/ We are right now setting up to begin developing several new courses we think you might be like to take, helping you to be able to find increased value and enjoyment with your quilting skills..
Chip
