The search for an ideal wedding venue in West Chester, PA, can be quite challenging; there’s the worry of it not meeting the celebrants’ taste, and there’s the other about its ability to cater to guests’ needs. However, despite the stress involved, the need to settle for the best is non-negotiable. A wedding is a memorable affair, the memory of which will linger for a long time; making the most out of it is highly essential.
Location’s a decisive factor when picking out wedding venues in West Chester PA. No one wants to go through tough times find your wedding venue; that’d take away from the fun elation associated with attending a wedding ceremony. A perfect setting is one with high accessibility, i.e., it must be easily accessible to both vehicular and non-vehicular movements. Ensure it’s near guest hotels and essential services.
An excellent wedding venue should also be in an environment with a good road network and good radio services. It has to be in a setting that caters to the comfort of you and your guest.
2. Style
Every soon-to-be-wedded individual nurses a vision of how their wedding venue would look. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a function of tastes and preferences, and they’d go to great lengths to achieve their goal; after all, they only get to have a wedding once in their lifetime. While most people favor indoor venues like hotels, banquet halls, etc., a few others gravitate towards outdoor settings.
So, in your hunt for the perfect wedding venue in West Chester, PA, ensure you settle for one that resonates with your vision and taste; never settle for less.
3. Capacity
Capacity is another factor you’ve got to consider during your search for the ideal wedding venue. Once you’re aware of the number of people you’re expecting, find a setting that fits. Never make the mistake of guessing when it comes to capacity; you don’t want to cramp 300 people into a space meant for 50 people. You don’t want to get a larger-than-necessary space as it’d cost you extra cash in decoration and other areas.Ensure you go for a venue that can fit your total guest count without you having to spend extra.
4. Budget
Ultimately, your budget is the deciding factor when it comes to securing a wedding venue. A perfect venue would cost lots; so, endeavor to allocate a reasonable amount for it in your wedding budget. You don’t want to under-budget nor over-budget; you want everything balanced.
5. Your Feelings
One of the things that can never fail you in life is your instinct; it’s an integral part of you. In your search for an ideal venue, consider taking your gut with you; it’ll make you pay attention to detail. If you have a mixed feeling about a place, then it probably isn’t the one. Only settle for the one that sits well with your spirit.
Cannabidiol (CBD) has become one of the latest global fitness trends. If you are a workout enthusiast or live an active lifestyle, organic premium CBD Oil 2500mg is a great food supplement to add to your routine. One of the biggest problems most gym goers face is muscle soreness after exercising, this is because when you exercise you stretch your muscles which allow them to grow.
Muscles tear during the process of stretching, and this is what causes soreness. When your muscles are too sore, you may not be able to exercise or lift.
How does CBD benefit your workout?
The benefits CBD has on your workouts cannot be confirmed, so it is best to try it out for yourself. CBD functions both as a pre- or post-workout supplement depending on the desired outcomes of each individual.
CBD oils are easiest to take by dropper under your tongue. Whether for pre-workout or post-workout usage, you just need to place a few drops under your tongue. Experts do not recommend swallowing the droplet but whirling it under the tongue for about 90 seconds.
This method of application is fast-acting; and you should feel the effects in less than 15 minutes. If you do not like the taste of natural CBD oil then sublingual application may not be for you. You can add the drop to your food or drinks.
Every CBD oil product comes with a dropper than one can use to measure the dosage. As a general rule, you should start with a small dose and work your way up until you find the optimum dosage. If you are using CBD while currently taking medication, it is best to seek advice from your practitioner on correct dosages.
Topical Application
CBD can also come in the form of cream and lotions that you can apply externally on muscles. CBD-infused lotions and balms are ever popular for post-workout.
These lotions can be in any form as long as they have a certain amount of CBD. The dosage depends on the amount of buy CBD oil online content and the user’s preference.
Lotions are good because they can target specific areas. You can use it on the exact area you want to be affected by CBD. If you are taking medication, please speak to a medical professional before using CBD topically.
Edibles
CBD can also be found in the form of CBD gummies or mints. These are convenient and tasty ways to add them to your workout routine. Edibles are slow-acting and may take up to an hour to have the desired effect. If you have to use edibles for your workout routine, you have to get the timing and the dosage right. Edibles are already made in a set dosage. It is important to follow the guidelines stated on the CBD packaging.
You may have to take your edibles at least an hour before a workout for the effects to set in before you hit the gym. At Itgel our CBD edibles are made in a set dosage per edible. This means that each edible has the exact same amount as the others in the container. This helps you work out the correct dosage you are ingesting.
The only real way to see the benefits CBD has on your workout is to experience it for yourself. Once you find the correct dosage and method you will be able to understand the full extent of what CBD offers.
Many athletes praise CBD and celebrate it for the effects it has had on their workout routines.
As CBD becomes popular, its means of consumption also increase. There are now at least five different ways to take your CBD, depending on personal preference. However, make sure to consult your doctor before adding CBD into your routine.
As a busy small business owner, the idea of having to trawl through the different shipping rates and service agreements for the various shipping companies seems like a painful prospect. If only someone would actually listen to you, understand your business and what it is you actually need? Sounds far-fetched, but Donna’s Global Shipping (part of the inXpress franchise) aims to do just that.
If you’re shipping international get in touch with Donna and she will handle the rest. No more: chasing up carriers, confusing tracking systems, surprise customs costs or, even worse, finding out from your customers that their package hasn’t arrived! Donna’s Global Shipping offers a comprehensive solution for businesses of all sizes.
International Expansion? What’s stopping you?
You have a great product and interest from international customers, but you are limited by:
confusing cross-border shipping rules,
the hassle of dealing with carrier companies and
the transit time vs cost of delivery.
These are not the issues that you thought would limit your growth. If you have already carried out a market receptivity analysis and decided that your business is ready to step out into international waters, but have been put off by the limiting factors mentioned above, then there is a solution. Donna’s Global Shipping offers truly customized solutions; our in-depth knowledge and excellent relationships with carriers means we find the best deal for you.
How InXpress Makes It Easy?
One of the most overwhelming aspects of shipping international is the amount and variation of shipping rates. Not only do you have a multitude of carriers to assess, who all have different shipping rates, but you also have the different rates and services offered by each carrier: UPS international shipping rates, UPS international expedited shipping, Fedex international express, Fedex international priority, economy, etc. But what does that mean for me? Do you really trust the carriers to give you the best solution for you?
At #goglobalwithdonna your business receives the customized care and expertise of Donna, plus the support of the InXpress network. Donna has run a small business for years, so she knows what it’s like to have to fight to get your business the service it deserves. Once you use our international shipping service, you will wonder why you ever tried doing it yourself.
One of the main factors that makes InXpress unique from other shipping solution providers is the customized solutions and services tailored to the unique needs of your business. When combined with the expertise you receive from Donna’s team, the whole package is simply ‘the best’!
How Donna and InXpress Make the Difference?
The company focuses on a fully personalized shipping option for your business and has an innovative online portal for managing all your orders. They also equip their customers with the right knowledge and offer impeccable consultation services. Apart from great customer service we do everything we can to enhance efficiency and cost effectiveness. As an inXpress member you receive various discounts that other services don’t offer.
Typically, freight forwarders don’t operate using this model and usually serve as agents for a small group of shipping companies. However, Donna and InXpress white glove services are the smart solution for national and international contracts, they work with over 60+ carriers. They don’t have any allegiance to specific carriers, their only allegiance is to their customers.
When you opt to #goglobalwithdonna and InXpress, you are selecting a volume agnostic service, which fits whatever size business you are running. There are various domestic and international shipping methods for business owners to choose, including air, ocean, truck and rail. With Donna as your #shippingconcierge, she will help you choose the most cost-effective and safe method.
We Take Responsibility!
This is big! As a business owner, when you select a service to operate an aspect of your business, you need that service to stay true to their word. With InXpress and Donna, they don’t sell you short, they understand that when you are able to hand over responsibility for shipping with full confidence, then you can concentrate on growing your business and expanding your brand.
It’s a Monday morning, and you’re in the middle of a severe dental care procedure, a task for which you created your practice. While at it, your mind suddenly wanders away to the dire financial state of your business, a matter that has been eating at your heart for days with no solution in sight. Even after completing the dental procedure, you keep getting troubled by the issue. This article is here to tell you not to worry anymore.
Running a
dental practice is no easy feat. It requires all the efforts and touches of
luck you can get. As a dentist is more inclined to focus mostly on taking care
of patients to keep the retention rate soaring, the financial aspect is bound
to lack proper attention, which usually comes with grave consequences.
Getting out of your financial woe requires the help of a professional dentist CPA- an accounting professional capable of helping you make ideal financial decisions and plans, even at crucial times. A dentist CPA in Kansas City will give you an idea of how well your business is doing because they have deep industry experience that makes them worthy candidates for solving financial matters in the dental industry.
Now that we’ve agreed on the need to get a dental CPA, how do you identify an excellent one? When securing the service of an accounting professional, you must hire a highly-qualified and excellent one. Doing the opposite might land you into more significant trouble than the one you’re trying to solve.
Examined below
are a few qualities you should look out for in a potential dentist CPA.
1. Vast Knowledge of the
Industry
A well-qualified dentist CPA in Kansas City will be well-versed in financial management practices peculiar to the dental industry. They’ll possess adequate knowledge of bookkeeping and accounting methods applicable to dental procedures. An excellent CPA must be able to use the latest accounting software to solve their client’s financial management challenges.
Being knowledgeable will be instrumental in helping dental practices make effective financial decisions, with which they’ll grow their business and increase revenue.
2. High Credibility
Seeing as you’ll be putting the fate of your practice, financials, and ultimately, life into the hands of a stranger, significant efforts should go into verifying the credibility of your potential dentist CPA in Kansas City. Find out all you can about their qualification and certifications. A credible professional must be certified and registered under a professional body.
Also, your prospective CPA must have a high level of integrity, as they’ll be handling lots of sensitive information that must be kept confidential at all times.
3. Excellent Customer Relations
Skills
Relationships are essential in every sphere of human existence. The way you treat your patients and clients says a lot about the kind of person you are. It’s not enough to be skilled and knowledgeable; the ideal dental CPA must be client-centric. They must be respectful and willing to go the extra mile to ensure that clients get their desired results.
Conclusion
When it comes
to hiring a dental CPA, there’s no limit to how far you should go in ensuring
that you end up with a well-qualified one. An excellent dental accountant will
make your life easy.
Over last couple of decades, we all have witnessed how technology and the internet have changed the perspective of businesses operating without any boundaries. You can sit in the corner of your room and can sell your services through the internet to anyone around the globe.
The only boundary we were left with was the language barrier and professional translation services in Dubai have helped greatly to overcome that too. “Translation near me” is all that you need to find the possible translation service providers near you and get you started with a global outreach of the business.
It does not matter if you are a new entrant in the market or an established business, translation of services to any language around the world is helpful equally. You may wonder that English is the most common and used language around the world, then why someone would need to translate services and offerings into more than that.
It is true that English is spoken and understood by the majority of the people globally, but not all of them. Risking to offer your services in the most common language still has the probability of losing 50% of potential customers who feel more confident. The reason is that they see a piece of information in the language that they speak and understand on a daily basis.
Translation Near Me – What Can Be Translated?
Be it a freelancer offering a unique skill or services from a small room or a chain of businesses operating in different countries of the world; anyone could be in need of translation services. There is no limitation in terms if what can be translated into other languages. It could be your resume, your website content, your research paper for other than your native language publication, your marketing portfolio items, your product packaging, etc.
When someone has a clear mission in mind to expand service worldwide, the critical part is that your offering around the globe should communicate the same message to everyone. Professional translation services are of great value when you need your native content to be translated into perfect, grammar free other languages.
Why Do Businesses Need Professional Translation Services?
Keep in mind that translation is not about a word-to-word conversion of one language to another; it is about conveying the same message and sentiments through the converted text. Even robots or online translation software can do translation; however, only professional translation service agencies can ensure the accuracy and precision of the translation work.
Professional service providers are bound to the confidentiality and secrecy of data if needed, and robots/software cannot guarantee that. Anything you post to the internet world can go viral and can be posted to global databases without the pre-consent of the content owner.
In the case of brands or large businesses, it is of critical value that their identity, mission or vision statement, logos, any form of marketing material cannot be published around the globe. Therefore, instead of using free software look around and find legal translation near me.
Benefits Of Translation
The first question that comes to any mind would be why translation is important and if I do so, in how many ways it can help my business. Let us state some evident benefits that other businesses have seen, and someone looking for translation services should expect from the outcomes of translation.
Enhanced Customer Experience
Customers feel more confident in buying when they can get the needed information in their own language. Despite the fact that if the same information is available in commonly known languages, customer experience is enhanced with the availability of accurate information, and the possibility that the same customer will buy again increases.
Reliability and Trust Worthy
Looking at a product or offering in a foreign language may put the customer in a state of confusion. Generally speaking, if someone is looking for critical information about a business or offering, if that is not available in the local understandable wording, one will never reach to the buying decision. Customers perceive a brand as more reliable and trustworthy if the information about the products or offering is easy to understand.
Customer Perceived Value
Brands or businesses that tailor their offerings to variant regions and languages people speak there are considered more customer-centric than the businesses that try to sell through generic marketing or product content. Being a buyer, one expects that businesses are committed to providing a tailored solution to one’s need rather than just selling the products.
Increased Outreach of Business
Technology, online businesses, E-commerce, Woo-commerce, global online marketplaces such as Amazon, Ali Express, etc. has provided common places to do business without setting up physical warehouses or production in all countries. Yet, if on these common platforms, a buyer is unable to understand a product or offering, that business is still losing a customer.
Other than that, if a business has its own website or online selling platform, the reachability of customers is increased by simply translating the website or shop content to multiple common speaking languages.
If you are still wondering how to do that efficiently and without spending much effort out of your busy business routine. The best solution is to look around and find “translation near me”. Dedicated professional service providers who can ensure the accuracy, precision and integrity of the content without altering the brand value attached with a person or a business.
Al Syed Legal Translation is offering the professional translation services around the globe – no matter where your business is located and which language you are targeting for the translation of your business material, we have reliable legal translation office in Dubai services at your back.
Reach out to our representative today and share your requirements. We promise you guaranteed turnaround time for reliable and accurate, mistake-free translation services. Without compromising the quality of work, we have affordable packages for each business scale, and we ensure customer satisfaction through each project. Contact us today for a customized quote for any translation work required for increasing the outreach of the business.
Summary
Translation services can enhance the customer experience and help you in acquiring customers around the globe by simply making your product or offering available in the native language. Read more about the translation benefits for businesses.
If you’re considering getting divorced, you may be wondering what the procedures are and how long they take. The truth is that the timeline in each divorce case depends on the route the couple chooses.
For instance, with no-fault mutual consent divorces, couples need to wait for at least 90 days after filing to get a divorce decree. However, fault divorces may take longer to move forward since one party has to prove that the other committed misconduct.
Other factors that influence a divorce timeline include the couple’s assets and debts and their ability to agree on the divorce terms.
Here’s a general review of the timeline in a divorce case that proceeds to litigation, to enable you to prepare ahead. However, since every situation is unique, you should discuss your case with divorce attorney West Chester PA.
Filing a Divorce Complaint
A divorce process always starts with one spouse’s attorney writing a petition or complaint, stating the reason for the divorce. Some common grounds for divorce include irreconcilable differences, cruel treatment, adultery, and bigamy. The lawyer then files the complaint in court and serves a copy to the other spouse within 30 days.
The served party will have to file a response stating whether or not they agree with the petition. If they don’t send a reply, the court will assume that they agree to the complaint.
Filing Motions for Temporary Orders
Divorcing spouses can decide to file motions requesting temporary relief, with help from divorce attorneys in West Chester, PA. Some of these motions include temporary child support, child custody, spousal support, and restraining orders. The court typically issues these orders at a pre-trial hearing, and they’ll stay in effect until the final hearing of the case.
The Discovery Phase
During this phase, both sides will gather all facts and evidence they’ll need to obtain a fair outcome. Some vital information includes earning history, list and values of assets and debts, and monthly expenses. This phase’s duration depends on the complexity of the necessary information and the cooperation of both parties in supplying them.
Settlement Phase
In some cases, both parties agree on the terms of their divorce, which a court will honor and officially dissolve the marriage. However, some divorces are contested, meaning that both spouses can’t work out the terms themselves. Therefore, the court will order mediation in the presence of a neutral party to help resolve any issues. If they settle at mediation, a judge will approve the agreement at an informal hearing. However, if they can’t agree after mediation, the case will go to trial.
The Trial
At trial, the attorneys from both sides will present their legal arguments before the court. A judge will then decide on unresolved issues relating to child custody, child support, and spousal support. Divorce trials can last for days or weeks before the judge gives the final decree.
Conclusion
The timeline in a divorce case depends on the approach both spouses choose. If you and your spouse file a mutual consent and agree on all terms, the process will be short. It’s advisable to consult divorce attorneys in West Chester, PA, who’ll help you understand how the law applied to your case.
The goal of every business and dental practice is to increase profits. Having an improved bottom line can be the determiner of a successful dental business. Although running a dental practice involves more processes and moving parts than other companies. But with a few changes, you can improve the fortunes of your practice and increase profits. Some factors, like marketing and advertising strategy, administrative methods, and the right professional help, contribute to improving profits.
Profits are primarily a game of numbers, and the best way to handle it is by working with an excellent dental associate accountant Kansas City. However, it’s also advisable to know some things you can change to make your practice yield more profits.
Incur Fewer Expenses
Here’s a simple trick every business owner should know: when you spend less, you can save more. However, spending less shouldn’t mean compromising on the quality of services offered. By carefully evaluating your expenses and setting measures to control them, you can end up saving more money for the practice. Reducing your overhead costs by properly managing supplies, letting go of unnecessary equipment, and good employee management. A dental associate accountant Kansas City can help you properly analyze your running expenses and tell you how to reduce it.
Offer More Services
Being a specialist in one aspect of dentistry can give your practice a form of exclusivity. While exclusivity is good, it can limit how much income your business gets. Most patients also like convenience. A prospective patient is more likely to visit the dentist that can attend to all their problems in one place. So when your practice can offer patients more, then it’ll get more patients too. And more patients equal more profits. You don’t have to provide all the dental services, just what will benefit your clientele.
Improve the Quality of Your Services
An essential part of keeping profits coming in and even increasing income is keeping your customers happy. By improving the quality of your services, you can grow a dedicated clientele and get new patients too. Even if your practice already offers premium quality dental care, improving the overall dental practice quality goes beyond dental care. Take extra steps to keep your customers satisfied. Have a friendly work environment, converse with soothing voices, and create a generally comfortable office space. All these changes will help your clientele stay happy and most likely come back again.
Try Digital Marketing
Generally, improving the advertising and marketing strategies of any business can increase the level of engagement the company gets. With the internet, you can make your dental practice reach a wider audience through digital marketing. Having an efficient digital marketing plan is very important for bringing in new patients. You can also specify your target audience and launch campaigns aimed at getting them interested in your practice.
Final Thoughts
The key to making your dental practice get more profits is in your management practices. Properly managing the personal and finanacial aspects of the business can help you gain more profits. You can consult a dental associate accountant in Kansas City for tips on financial planning and orhanization. Also, by implementing the tips above, your practice will be well on its way to achieving more income.
When it comes to orthodontic treatment, everyone wants Cheapest Invisalign Edmonton and faster options. The idea of wearing braces for a year (or three!) can be frustrating, but the risks associated with so-called “fast braces” or home-shipped aligners will greatly outweigh the costs and time associated with proper orthodontic treatment.
In particular, home-shipped aligners bring a lot of danger with use. You may have heard of some select cases where patients achieved beneficial results; however, don’t be fooled by these stories: those results are few and far between. Not only are you not likely to receive any benefit, but you could potentially hurt your jaw or teeth alignment even more—causing the need for further orthodontics.
Here are some of the dangers of home-shipped aligners and why you should stick with an orthodontist instead.
No Consultation
The way home-aligners “work” is that a company sends you a kit with instructions on how to take a mould of your teeth, which you then send back and they send you clear aligners based on that mould. While Invisalign aligners from your orthodontist work, home-shipped knock-offs do not.
While these companies often do have a dentist on staff, it is nearly impossible to deduce the appropriate shape of your aligners from your homemade impressions. What’s worse is that after shipping you your aligners, the company is done with you. There is no follow-up, no mid-treatment consultation. If you run into any issues or problems, you’re on your own.
Often, orthodontic procedures require course corrections throughout treatment. That is part of the reason why you have regular, scheduled visits with your orthodontist. No consultation means you could face unresolved complications along the way, which could end in pain, crooked teeth (worse than before), and new health problems.
A Poor Fit
All these companies have to work with is one impression of your teeth that you took yourself at home. The odds of being able to construct an appropriate series of clear aligners from this mould are slim. That means that, when you get your aligners in the mail, they will be a poor fit for your mouth. This translates to discomfort and, ultimately, teeth that are not appropriately aligned at the end of treatment.
With proper orthodontic treatment, your orthodontist will continue to adjust your braces as needed, ensuring your end result is corrective and effective.
Damage, Not Health
Orthodontic treatment is a complicated procedure that requires education and experience to manage effectively. By using home-shipped aligners unsupervised, you run the risk of introducing new damage to your mouth. You could damage the roots of your teeth, cause gum recession, and even cause your teeth to loosen.
The goal of orthodontics is oral health, a part of your overall health. Home-shipped aligners are more likely to cause the opposite. You want to work with an experienced orthodontist who will help guide you to oral health.
Savings Don’t Matter
In the end, most people choose home-shipped aligners for the cost; they think it’s cheaper. But in truth, after the impression kit and the cost of each aligner, the procedure won’t be that much of a saving. There’s also a very good chance that you’ll do more damage to your teeth and have to visit an orthodontist.
Trust in your orthodontist. He or she has spent many years being appropriately trained through accredited medical institutions, along with years of personal experience working with patients in need of orthodontics. Resist the urge to “pay less” with home-shipped aligners because, in the long run, you will end up paying more for a twice-crooked smile that your orthodontist will have to help you fix anyway.
The Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification Online course is designed for professionals with full schedules and little or no prior experience with Lean Six Sigma. It provides students with an introduction to the tools, techniques and methodologies that will empower them to lead LSS projects in their organization.
Students learn the problem-solving framework for improving processes – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) – and also receive instruction in the tools for streamlining production and services from end to end. By course completion, you will be well-versed in the knowledge and skills needed for successfully leading a Green Belt-level project to reduce or eliminate waste, lower defects in your organization’s products and processes, and improve customer satisfaction.
Project managers and process owners who want to learn how use Lean Six Sigma to make improvement projects more successful.
Financial managers, plant managers, floor supervisors and administrators who are seeking a proven method for dramatically improving their organization’s financial performance.
Professionals in health care, education and the military, among many other industries, who are interested in pursuing Lean Six Sigma Black Belt certification.
The Purdue Online Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate Difference
Our Lean Six Sigma Green Belt curriculum is particularly thorough, providing added Lean training and preparing students for the rigor of our LSS Black Belt course. Instead of completing a Green Belt project, our students learn through case studies. This approach offers students greater flexibility and the opportunity to gain a more holistic understanding of tools for identifying waste and reducing defects. Students also are encouraged to begin thinking about their Black Belt projects.
Many Black Belt certification courses include review of some Green Belt-level instruction and require no work on a Black Belt project during the course. Since Purdue online Black Belt students jump right into their project during the course, they must already know how to use many pivotal LSS tools.
Learning Outcomes
Relate LSS concepts to business objectives
Identify waste within the value stream
Demonstrate ability to effectively analyze and present data
Define and apply team leadership tools
Collect and process customer input/requirement
Identify key metrics for measuring success
Define the DMAIC process
Effectively use tools and concepts associated with each phase of the DMAIC process
Employ Lean Six Sigma skills in process improvement projects
Green Belt Refresher
The online Six Sigma Green Belt Refresher is designed for previously certified Lean Six Sigma professionals who would like to brush up on their Lean Six Sigma Green Belt-level knowledge and/or prepare to complete Purdue University’s online Lean Six Sigma Black Belt course. Because courses offered by other providers may diverge somewhat from Purdue’s own course, our Green Belt Refresher helps ensure that all of the students who enroll in the Black Belt course have the necessary tools to succeed.
The Refresher also provides students with an opportunity to test out of the online Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, which is one of two prerequisite courses for the Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. The online Lean Principles course is the other prerequisite.
Students who pass the Green Belt Refresher pre-assessment can register for Lean Principles and, upon completion, the LSS Black Belt course. Professionals who obtained their Green Belts more than a few years ago through a company program or from a provider with somewhat different standards than those of Purdue, may find that they need to fully complete the Green Belt Refresher course before advancing in the certification process. If the pre-assessment indicates, however, that a student has major deficiencies in Green Belt-level knowledge, they will have to take the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course to advance.
Green Belt Refresher Certificate Program:
Online: Yes
Format: Instructor-led
Course Fee: $395
CEUs: N/A
Course Availability: Access at any time
Time to Complete: 6-month access
Prerequisites: None
How the Green Belt Refresher Works
The instructor assesses a student’s Green Belt-level knowledge through a structured online venue and phone interview. If they identify knowledge gaps during the assessment process, they will give students up to 12 assignments designed to strengthen their Lean Six Sigma knowledge and address any deficiencies.
After the initial online assessment and phone interview, the Green Belt Refresher is primarily a self-study course. Instructors are available to interact with students via the online environment, email and phone.
Geographic information science and technology have a long history with both federal and regional government. In fact, the Library of Congress contains the world’s most comprehensive collection of maps, and geospatial intelligence has played a vital role in resolving numerous historical conflicts between nations. But how does the government use GIS today?
Government GIS Data Sharing Continues to Grow
One of the common challenges for how the government uses GIS has been in sharing spatial data among different agencies. This has been a key problem even when considering state and local government organizations, but it can be even more difficult to determine how to effectively share information across the local, state and federal level. As noted by some researchers, as much as 80% of data stored by the government has a spatial component. However, differences in operational processes, the structure of the data itself and different policies regarding sharing have contributed to complexity in creating standardized ways for governments to implement spatial data sharing practices.
Many of the examples for organizations implementing sharing programs and building out spatial data infrastructures come from individual organizations. However, organizational leaders have started to look toward particularly effective practices to use as a model for larger scale sharing.
For example, the Los Angeles County Office of the Assessor was recognized with the 2018 URISA Exemplary Systems in Government Award in the enterprise systems category. The organization developed an Assessor Portal that showcases an abundance of information about real estate and property values, including square footage, type of building (e.g. single-family, multi-family), year built, address and numerous other data points. Users may search either by address, legal assessment description or via a map-based interface.
Government GIS Applications for Public Health and Safety
One of the major shifts in the government using Geospatial Information is the push toward publishing GIS applications and data for both government and non-government users to view. This can be especially useful for bringing awareness to multifaceted problems that might be difficult to understand without a visualization of the scale or potential consequences if issues are left unaddressed.
For example, research published in 2018 by the Appalachian Regional Commission, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky found that residents living in the Appalachian Region were not as healthy as other Americans, on average. To help others truly feel the impact of this finding, the organizations published a series of reports in the form of interactive maps, which allow users to filter a range of spatial and health information, such as morbidity rates, poverty and other indicators of health.
The ability to identify specific problems and key areas of strength for specific regions can be invaluable in improving the effectiveness of outreach. For example, one of the published maps shows the density of mental health providers, which can be instrumental in determining which communities may be in the greatest need of additional counselors or therapists.
Note: The USC online M.S. in GIST program curriculum includes a spatial data acquisition and integration track as well as a data visualization track; this program is GIS professionals who are interested in solving some of the challenges related to data sharing.
Federal Government GIS Applications for Disaster and Air Quality Mapping
One of the popular examples of GIS in government is the mapping of national problems. For example, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) publishes a robust set of earthquake data. This information can then be used to assess the risk of major earthquakes in specific regions and develop strategies for mitigating damage before a disaster occurs.
The National Park Service also leverages GIS for monitoring air quality across its parks. The NPS overlays spatial information with a variety of environmental measures, including ozone, visibility, particulate matter, nitrogen and sulfur deposition, as well as atmospheric mercury. This is helpful for stakeholders ranging from environmental researchers to public health officials, since the visualizations provide an easy way to view areas with problematic air quality, including the issues that impact specific regions.
There are a few current trends that offer clues as to how the government will use GIS moving forward. As illustrated in an infographic published by Gov 2020, key links between current GIS technology and the future include:
Geotagged mobile and social data will lead to government agencies being able to send safety and alert information directly to users based on their locations.
Machine learning will become a bigger part of GIS applications, enabling organizations ranging from law enforcement to disaster relief groups to develop spatial models to more accurately predict risks such as crime.
Remote sensing and imaging will evolve, enabling improved monitoring of public infrastructure. Government agencies will be able to use this data to identify infrastructure in need of repairs and better allocate their resources.
There will be growth in the number of road signs and utilities with internet connectivity. This will empower utilities and disaster response teams with highly accurate, real-time data they can use to respond to problems like power outages faster than ever.
As all of these trends evolve together, it will likely elevate the importance of data sharing and of open data practices between agencies at the local, regional and federal levels. The availability of more spatial information and the push toward real-time GIS data will necessitate automated sharing, and platforms that multiple agencies can access, since the volume of data and speed at which it is collected will become unmanageable for over reliance on manual processes.
