Props and Slops: March 9-15

IN MEMORIAM

• Ted Mina, former State Representative (March 8, but reported March 10)

Now, here are the top and bottom performers as I saw them this week:

PROPS

• Congressman Neil Abercrombie (@neilabercrombie) and other politicians for getting on Twitter and embracing social media as a vital part of their campaigns.
• Hawaii for having one of the most improved graduation rates.
• The Police Departments featured in this article for using Twitter to keep the public informed.
• Hawaii for ranking high in a happiness poll.
• Hokulea, the famous voyaging canoe, for finally being able to launch on its voyage to Palmyra Atoll.
• Hawaii for being tops in public health spending.
• The Federal stimulus for allowing the State to increase food stamp benefits to those most in need. With budgets being cut, services being eliminated, and taxes and fees being raised, it’s good to see some good news.

SLOPS

• Google, a company I normally love, for accidentally sharing some Google Documents that were supposed to be private. Thankfully, they found the glitch and fixed it.
• Mesa Air Group’s go! Airlines for having their traffic go up 12%. I’ve been saying it for weeks, but I really need to work on a new anti-go! post.  I’ve got so much material, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

PROP AND SLOP OF THE WEEK

• Prop of the Week:  Roxanne Darling (@roxannedarling) for resisting the urge to be stingy and instead embracing sharing as good for business. She was the catalyst behind the Social Media Club Hawaii launch and I’m thankful she allowed me and others to use her PowerPoint presentation which she worked on for 10 hours!
• Slop of the Week:  AIG, the insurance company, for sticking to business as usual when everyone else is trying to cope in these tumultuous and uncertain times. They want to award $165 million in bonuses to executives after taking $170 billion (with a “b”) in bailout money.  At least some in Washington, D.C. are equally as outraged about this.
• Dishonorable Mention:  The Lingle Administration for failing to show up at the House Finance Committee on the State Executive budget. Dave Shapiro (@volcanicash) and Georgette Deemer (@georgettedeemer) observed this.  This is the same budget that proposes to cut 374 positions, yet no one in the Administration thought it was important enough to show up.  This may be the first time this has ever happened.  For anyone wondering why this is so important, this is part of the checks and balances at work, or at least is supposed to be when both sides show up!

That’s it for this week.  Be sure to visit next week for another edition of Props and Slops, my favorite feature on Capsun’s Corner.

Mahalo!

Please note:  The views expressed here are mine and mine alone.  While I am employed by and affiliated with organizations and individuals, permission has neither been asked nor granted to write on the topics discussed here.

Tagged as: abercrombie, aig, bailout, dave shapiro, georgette deemer, lingle, neil abercrombie, props, props and slops, slops, Twitter, volcanic ash, volcanicash