Heard On The Street

GET UP, STAND UP. Conducting meetings while standing makes meetings significantly shorter, but participants less happy, even though "meetings are one of the things many people hate most about organizational life," according to Allen Bluedorn, associate professor of management at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Bluedorn, along with Daniel Turban and Mary Sue Love, has written an article for the Journal of Applied Psychology as a result of the trio's research. The results concern meetings that lasted about 10 to 20 minutes and were single-issue. Shorter meetings "should make the meeting-haters throughout the working world happier, right? ... Satisfaction was significantly higher in participants of sit-down meetings," said a release from the university. One notable outcome was that length and comfort aside, the quality of decisions in standing or seated meetings is the same.

STOOPID COLUMNIST. Information in opinion columns in the Business Journal should not be construed as specific investment advice. Take, for instance, the Aug. 3 "Bidness as Unusual" column by Paul Flemming. In it, the self-proclaimed innumerate columnist railed against the stupidity of state-run lotteries and those who participate in them. Among the rants was a mention of inane winners who take lump-sum payouts that result in a significant reduction in the total winning. Let's do the math. As alert reader Dan Scott (who agrees with the assessment of lotteries as stupid) pointed out, with the investment of the lump sum in a quality bond fund at 7.31 percent interest, the annual income would equal that offered by the lottery's payout only that income would produce forever, rather than the mere 25 years offered by the lottery folks. Let's hope the recent PowerBall winners have an investment adviser as astute as Mr. Scott, and the forbearance not to touch their principal.

PROJECTIONS. Southwest Missouri State University's Career Planning and Placement Center has projected the number of degrees SMSU will bestow between now and the end of the 1999 summer semester. If supply were the only part of the equation determining prices, the four projected undergraduate philosophy degree holders could command top dollar. Alas, demand is a part of the equation, as well. Which must account in part for the 200 various undergraduate education majors who are set to matriculate in the next three semesters. Among the other top undergraduate degree programs are psychology, communications and mass media, and computer information systems bachelor's degrees within the College of Business Administration. The placement center has three career days scheduled before May 1999 and offers various services for employers trying to fill positions. Call the center's office at 836-5636 for more information.

FREE AND IRS. Two words not usually associated with each other describe the cost of seminars and workshops offered by the Internal Revenue Service and Missouri's Department of Revenue. The sessions, open to tax professionals, concern electronic tax filing and count for continuing professional education credits. Morning seminars are designed for tax pros who want to become an e-file provider. Afternoon workshops are advertised as more technical in nature and address changes to the e-file program for 1998, Form 8453, as well as other matters. To register, call the IRS Electronic Tax Administration Office in St. Louis at 314-539-2161.

GAS, NATURALLY. Missouri's Public Service Commission Aug. 6 approved agreements for Ozark Natural Gas Company Inc. to provide service in Branson, Reeds Spring, Branson West, Bull Creek Village and Forsyth. The company has franchises with those towns and will also have customers in rural areas in Greene, Christian, Stone and Taney counties who do not now have natural gas service. The PSC order allows the construction of a pipeline through the aforementioned counties to provide the natural gas.

SLICE OF NICE. Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 3110 S. Glenstone, will hold a book signing for chef Martin Yan of the television show "Yan Can Cook." Yan will sign copies of his 15 cookbooks. He is in Springfield to promote the 1998 Chef's Extravaganza, a fund raiser being held Aug. 29 at the Grand Palace in Branson. Proceeds from the Chef's Extravaganza benefit The Chef and The Child Foundation and the Salvation Army in their efforts to fight childhood hunger. Tickets to various aspects of the Chef's Extravaganza are available at 336-1220 or 800-884-4536 and the cost is $25 to $60.

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