Men NOT Allowed to Say NO on Sadie Hawkins Day

Sadie Hawkins Day allows single women to ask for what they want... and get it!

San Rafael, CA, October 18, 2012 -- (For Immediate Release) Contact: Tom Andrews, 415/507-9962

Once a year single women can ask for whatever they want...and get it. At this year's annual Sadie Hawkins Day Dance, Friday, November 9, 2012, 8pm-Midnight, men are not allowed to say no if a woman asks them to dance. The party is at Handle's at The Pleasanton Hotel, 855 Main Street, Pleasanton CA 94566.. Contrary to popular belief, Sadie Hawkins Day does NOT occur on Leap Day. It happens every November 15.

"Single women have lots of complaints about single men," says Rich Gosse, Chairman of The Society of Single Professionals, the world's largest non-profit singles organization. "One of the biggest is men who turn them down when asked to dance. How rude! At our Sadie Hawkins Day Dance, men will NOT have that option. Sadie Hawkins Day is a wonderful opportunity for single women to be assertive and get what they want in life, rather than follow the disastrous strategy of playing hard to get."

Rich Gosse, author of eight books on dating, is available to the news media to discuss Sadie Hawkins Day in the context of bachelorettes fulfilling their romantic needs, by calling 415/479-3800.

Sadie Hawkins Day, an American folk event, made its debut in Al Capp's Li'l Abner strip on November 15, 1937. Sadie Hawkins was "the homeliest gal in the hills" who grew tired of waiting for the fellows to come a courtin'. Her father, Hekzebiah Hawkins, a prominent resident of Dogpatch, was even more worried about Sadie living at home for the rest of his life, so he decreed the first annual Sadie Hawkins Day, a foot race in which the unmarried gals pursued the town's bachelors, with matrimony the consequence. By the late 1930s the event had swept the nation and had a life of its own. Life magazine reported over 200 colleges holding Sadie Hawkins Day events in 1939, only two years after its inception. It became a woman-empowering rite at high schools and college campuses, long before the modern feminist movement gained prominence.

Adults of all ages are welcome. $20 at the door includes dancing to current hits and oldies. Coat & tie/dressy attire is recommended. Anyone who wishes more information about this and many more singles parties may visit http://www.ThePartyHotline.com or call 415/507-9962.

Media Contact:
Rich Gosse
Society of Single Professionals
205 Mark Twain Avenue, San Rafael CA 94903
415-507-9962

NextPlane 'UC Exchange' Enables Companies to Build Real-Time Collaborative Business Communities Across Unified Communication Platforms

NextPlane Invites Companies to Join the Growing Community of UC Exchange Members with Free Directory Listing and Federation Services.

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (October 18, 2012) -- NextPlane, Inc., the market leader in cloud-based federation services for unified communications (UC), today announced UC Exchange, the next step in building real-time collaborative business communities for UC platforms. UC Exchange is a UC federation service with a searchable directory of more than 100 (and growing) federation-ready organizations where companies can easily federate with customers and partners using a secure management portal. Since UC Exchange is a cloud-based service there is no additional hardware or software required to participate.

Today, more than ever, companies need to put customers and partners at the heart of their business. With the NextPlane UC Exchange service, enterprises are able to break their organizational boundaries and connect with their business partner ecosystem in real time to increase efficiency, productivity, and gain a competitive advantage. UC Exchange improves real-time collaboration with such features as searchable directories, UC-to-Skype federation, UC-to-social media federation, and a secure management portal.

UC Exchange already serves more than several hundred thousand users from global organizations spanning education, manufacturing, supply chain, pharmaceuticals and health services, telecommunications, transportation, and technology. UC Exchange users currently exchange billions of presence, chat, voice and video messages per month with business colleagues within their ecosystems.

"The benefits of unified and social communications are maximized within those enterprises that extend their solutions across their end users, partners, customers, and suppliers. However, in many organizations, UC and social media platforms remain isolated islands of communication with an inward focus," said Bill Haskins, Senior Analyst with Wainhouse Research. "NextPlane's UC Exchange marks a major step in breaking down communication barriers between organizations, and enabling users of UC and social media to participate in secure, federated, and collaborative business communities."

Key features of UC Exchange include:

- UC Federation Services - enables any organization to seamlessly federate across Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Google, OpenFire, Isode, and eJabberd platforms.

- Secure Management Portal - allows searching the Members Directory for federation-ready partners, managing federation requests, and accessing usage reports.

- Directory Services (Available December 2012) - provides a searchable "phone book" of validated contact information based on employee profiles received from contributing members.

- Microsoft Lync and OCS to Skype Federation - enables end-users to call users on Skype from their Microsoft Lync or OCS client.

- Google to Skype Federation (Available December 2012) - enables end-users to call users on Skype from their Google client.

- Voice Conferencing Federation - enables end-users on Microsoft Lync or OCS, to initiate conference calls and add colleagues on Google or vice versa.

- UC to Social Media Federation - enables end-users of Yammer, Chatter and Twitter to authenticate with their social media accounts and post to social media feeds, send private messages and participate in group discussions, all from their UC client.

- Microsoft Lync and OCS to XMPP Hosted Group Chat Federation - enables Lync and OCS end-users to participate in group chat rooms hosted on XMPP-based UC platforms.

"UC Exchange accelerates building real-time collaborative business communities, irrespective of the underlying UC and social media solution being used," said Farzin Shahidi, founder and CEO of NextPlane. "UC Exchange does this in two ways: First, we provide a free directory service to allow organizations to easily find and federate with their 'federation-ready' partners. Second, we offer subscribing customers access to federation services and a searchable directory where their end-users can search for the contact information of their colleagues in partner organizations, directly from their UC clients."

NextPlane is offering UC Exchange membership at two levels:

Directory Membership - Free membership that gives member organizations access to the Management Portal, a listing in the Members Directory, the ability to search for Federation-Ready partners, the ability to accept inbound federation requests, free federation with Gmail.com, and basic usage reports.

Community Membership - Fee-based membership, which includes the ability to make directory-driven outbound UC to UC federation requests, user-level Directory Search, plus additional federation services such as federation with Skype, Social Media federation (Yammer, Twitter and Chatter) and XMPP Group Chat Federation. Community Members also receive additional benefits such as policy enforcement, advanced federation analytics and reporting, and 24/7 support with guaranteed service levels. Annual subscription fees for Community Membership are based on the number of users, domains, and federation features required.

For more information, visit http://www.nextplane.net or contact sales at sales@nextplane.net.

About NextPlane
NextPlane Inc., is the provider of 'UC Exchange,' a cloud based community focused federation service for unified communications (UC). UC Exchange enables member organizations to find, connect, and collaborate with business partners across a wide range of UC platforms and includes powerful features such as UC Federation Services, centralized Members Directory, Social Media Federation, and Skype Federation. Using a unique federation management portal, organizations can search a member's directory for federation-ready partners; manage federation requests and access reporting and analytic tools.

UC Exchange Federation Services enable seamless federation across Microsoft Lync, OCS and LCS, Cisco Jabber XCP, Unified Presence Server (CUPS) and WebEx Messenger (formerly Cisco WebEx Connect), IBM Sametime, Google Apps, Jive OpenFire, Isode M-Link and eJabberd. Organizations can connect users from different companies regardless of their underlying UC platform - with enhanced presence, instant messaging, multi-user chat, voice and video - all as if they are on the same UC platform. Moreover, UC Exchange enables its member organizations to federate their UC platforms with social business communities such as Yammer, Salesforce.com's Chatter, Twitter, Skype, LinkedIn, and XMPP hosted chat rooms.

Contact:
Farzin Shahidi
NextPlane, Inc.
(650) 305-7404

Tom Woolf
Woolf Media & Marketing
(415) 259-5638

New Addition to Impact Investment List welcomed by FRA

FRA has backed moves to add Ecotrust Forest Management (EFM) to the open source ImpactAssets 50 2012 (IA 50) database of socially responsible impact investing funds.

Seattle, United States, October 18, 2012 -- Forestry Research Associates (FRA) has backed moves to add Ecotrust Forest Management (EFM) to the open source ImpactAssets 50 2012 (IA 50) database of socially responsible impact investing funds.

The list is created each year and gives investors a guide to the top investment products that can deliver good returns, while delivering social and environmental benefits.

The funds listed under the IA 50 have a total of $10.2 billion invested in them and cover a huge range of geographical locations. A spokesperson for EFM, its CEO, Bettina von Hagen, stated, "EFM is honoured to be named among the 50 best impact investment fund managers in the world. We are committed to demonstrating an alternative approach to managing forests in the region - one that can be financially competitive, while at the same time beneficial to the health and resilience of ecosystems and rural communities."

FRA supports a wide range of forestry investment initiatives, including plantations run by firms like Greenwood Management in countries like Brazil and Canada, which are densely forested. The fact that plantations growing alternative, non-native timbers are managed in these locations, helps to protect the native forests against illegal logging.

In Brazil, Greenwood Management's plantations produce charcoal that is used by the Brazilian steel industry, which used to use native forests to produce their charcoal. "In this way, plantation projects, if sustainably managed, can help to reduce the impact of deforestation," stated FRA's analysis partner, Peter Collins.

Investing in impact investment funds and ethical investment products has become more popular since the economic crisis as a reaction to the volatility of the stocks and bonds market. Mr Collins added, "Investors want something more tangible in exchange for their investment and forestry funds offer just this. Investors with Ecotrust Forest Management and Greenwood Management are investing in timberland with established and growing trees."

About Forestry Research Associates

Forestry Research Associates is a research and advisory consultancy that focuses on forestry management, sustainability issues and forestry investment around the globe.

Media Contact:
Peter Collins
Forestry Research Associates
620 Vineyard Lane
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 316 8394