On February 26, 2008, the Junior Leagues of Georgia held its annual Day at the Capitol and Legislative Reception. The Junior League of Athens was privileged to serve as host of this year's event.

The twelve leagues in the state of Georgia each have a Public Affairs committee that are members of a state organization entitled State Public Affairs Committee (SPAC). SPAC organizes this event each year and serves to coordinate public affairs activities of member Leagues to assist Leagues with their public affairs programs; study and disseminate information to the member Leagues on state and national issues germane to the interest of the Junior Leagues; to provide a channel for possible mutual action and to represent the Junior Leagues of Georgia at the state and federal levels on public affairs issues.

The events included a private meeting with Attorney General Thurbert Baker, Secretary of State Karen Handle, and Lt. Governor Casey Cagle. In addition, we toured Grady Hospital and the Capitol.

The day commenced with a reception we hosted for Georgia legislators at Central Presbyterian Church located directly across the street from the Capitol.

Here are some photos from the day.

News outlets everywhere are buzzing with the unsolicited $44.6 billion cash and stock bid for Yahoo! stock Microsoft waged on February 1, 2008.

Called "the next major milestone" for Microsoft by it's chief executive Steve Ballmer, the deal would pay Yahoo shareholders $31 a share, which represents a 62% premium from where Yahoo stock closed on Thursday.

According to cnnmoney.com, a Microsoft-Yahoo combination would create a powerful number two player in the online search business, which Google commands. It would also be one of the biggest tech deals ever, on par with Hewlett-Packard's $25 billion acquisition of Compaq in 2002.

As it stand now, Google reigns over 58.4% of the U.S. market, while Yahoo has 22.9% and Microsoft's share is just 9.8%, according to comScore, a research firm that tracks Internet traffic. So...I guess only time will tell if the search engine giant, Google, will be surpassed if Yahoo! gets empowered by Microsoft.

AACA Delivers Holiday Toys to St. Mary's Members and sustainers of the Athens Area Cancer Auxiliary collected toys this holiday season at their annual Tinsel & Toddy gathering. The toys were donated to the Pediatric Unit at St. Mary's Health Care System. St. Mary's Pediatric Nurses were on hand to collect the toys to distribute to patients. Pictured (L to R - toys.jpg) are Ashley Wheaton, AACA Holiday Service Co-Chair Allison Lumpkin, AACA Holiday Service Co-Chair Tonia Pintar, Erin Hanson, Christine Kemp, and AACA President Natalie Rittle.

Members of the Athens Area Cancer Auxiliary recently delivered 60 gift bags to St. Mary’s Hospice House for families who have loved ones requiring care at the facility.

Athens Area Cancer Auxiliary representatives including President Natalie Rittle, President Elect Kathryn Rodrigue, New Member Chair Alison Bracewell McCullick and New Member Co-Chair Kelly Jones presented Christy Odom, St. Mary’s Foundation Director and Suzanne Hughes, St. Mary’s Hospice House Patient Care Coordinator the bags. Each bag was filled with personal-sized items donated by AACA members and sustainers and included such items as shampoos, lotions, chap stick, tissues, gum, mints, candy, and more to comfort the families during their stay at the St. Mary's facility.

Assembled at a New Member Information session, potential new members of the Auxiliary helped assemble the packages while learning first hand of AACA’s mission: to join in the fight against cancer by working to eradicate the disease through education, awareness, service projects, and fundraising efforts to and support local cancer causes.

For more information about the Athens Area Cancer Auxiliary, or if you are interested in joining, contact Alison Bracewell McCullick, 770.363.2396 or email AACA.

The most recent issue of Time Magazine names the best 25 sites on the Web. Included on the list are:

• Amazon
• BBC
• Citysearch
• Craig's List
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Ebay
• ESPN
• Facebook
• Factcheck
• Flicker
• and 14 more...

To view the full article, visit Time's 25 Sites We Can't Live Without.

Yahoo! News reported this week that although the real estate market is experiencing a slump, industry Web sites are on an upswing.

With house shopping happening more and more online instead of door to door, real estate Web sites have spruced up their curb appeal. With features such as online mapping capabilities, photo galleries and virtual tours as well as detailed pricing searches, consumers have access to homes right at their fingertips.

The article reports quotes Pete Flint, CEO of www.trulia.com who says the housing market's downturn has played to the strengths of real estate Web sites.

"Although it's unfortunate what's going on in the housing market, it's really the online sites that are benefiting because consumers are spending a little bit more time before they make decisions and traditional real estate brokers are rethinking the way they're marketing themselves," Flint said.

In addition to the large sites like trulia.com and other listing services, individual agents are beefing up their efforts to provide better service to customers and potential customers online.

Just among the local agents and real estate companies who have become clients of Plexus over the past few years, a similar trend is occurring.

Agents want all the necessary features on their personal sites including listing capabilities, mapping, photo galleries, document uploads and more. And perhaps the biggest trend is that of optimizing a real estate site so that it is appearing near the top of the search engines.

In our experience, real estate SEO - especially in the Athens market is perhaps the most competitive around. Agents are busy vying for the coveted top spots ranking for "Athens Georgia real estate," "Athens homes," "Athens Georgia neighborhoods," "Athens Georgia real estate agent," and more.

So, according to the trends, if you have a real estate Web site lacking in the abilities to:

• immediately post and update listings with multiple photos and accompanying information
• have potential clients contact you directly from your site instantaneously
• regularly communicate with clients and interested parties with up to date listings and information
• improve your search engine ranking

Then, watch out for your competition because they are certainly stepping it up!

President George W. Bush stands with members of the University of Georgia Men's 2007 Championship Tennis Team Monday, June 18, 2007, during NCAA Championship Day at the White House.

White House photo by Eric Draper.

Okay, so I got a call at work yesterday and the first thing I hear is, "I heard I have to have a Web site in order to come up on the Google."

My response...."ummmm yes." But that's not all.

I think what people don't realize is #1 the importance of a quality site and #2 the extreme importance of optimizing it. If you are in a competitive industry at all, it will take some work and extra steps to "make your site come up in the Google."

At Plexus, the sites we build intuitively come with search engine optimization tools built in but that doesn't guarentee that you will automatically rank first in a search engine query - there is much work to be done if that is a goal you have for your site.

First, you must think like your customers...what are they typing in to find you? This will help you identify your key words - then you have to optimize your site based on these words. There are several tools in doing this including keyword density, search engine copywriting and more.

Second, you must analyze your competition and see what activities they are engaging in that is making them rank higher than you.

And third, you have to make sure your site is linked on other highly ranked, relevant site. Link popularity is key to a highly optimized site.

While these are just the bare bones of search engine optimization, it is important to engage if you, too want your site to "come up on the Google!"

Coaches Will Glenn and Manuel Diaz with Honorary Team Captain, Raul, a recent cancer survivor.

On May 22, 2007 the Georgia Men's Tennis Team completed an undefeated season and became the 2007 National Champions!

During the week, Lesley Platek created a video to commemorate the victory! Watch it here!