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Paul Barber believes it has been a pretty good week so far on the route back to Premier League action.

But Albion will tread carefully and consult with players every step of the rest of the way.

That will include a week ahead which could see training stepped up to the more full-on stage two.

Barber and many of his players spent part of last weekend watching Bundesliga action on television as the game returned in Germany.

The unanimous Premier League vote to approve stage one of training was passed on Monday.

And Albion report no problems or Covid-19 positives in the days since then.

Barber said: It has been a pretty good week, from seeing the Bundesliga get under way at the weekend, watching the games.

Even though the atmosphere was strange, looking at the TV it was strange, it was good to see football.

Good quality players, good teams, great stadiums and, even though it was empty, it was good to see.

Then getting the protocols, being agreed unanimously was important, we all worked hard on that and every club had their own individual concerns and points.

We really worked hard behind the scenes to get as many of those points across to the Premier League and they did their best to accommodate as many of our points as they could.

Then, of course, we got the players to support it, which was vitally important and training has got off very well.

All those things are small steps towards what ultimately we want to achieve, which is to get back to playing.

Getting back to playing is not just about concluding this season, its about making sure were in a position where we can support the wider game as well.

If we can finish this season, get next season underway, then all of the solidarity payments that go through the Premier League to the lower levels will hopefully give those guys a boost as well and enable them to get through a very difficult period.

It is a rebuilding process and so far, so reasonably encouraging.

Barber said: I think its a really good foundation, with the players going back this week, the pitches looked amazing, the weather has been fantastic, they would have seen the level of detail that staff have gone into to make sure the protocol is followed.

Disinfecting balls, disinfecting corner flags, grass, goalposts, all those things have been debated over the last few weeks and, when you see the environment that has been created and hopefully the players are feeling its as safe as it can be, recognising its a global pandemic and there are some risks there, then thats a little bit of confidence today that they didnt have a week ago.

If the detail of the next two protocols comes through quickly and gives us time to assess that, then of course we can start to look to move forward.

That detail was, as of yesterday still an unknown but it will be passed on to the players when possible. Their agreement is fundamental to Albion voting in favour.

Barber said: We havent had those discussions.

We have to break this down into pieces and deal with each piece in detail. The Premier League have done their best to show us what each piece looks like.

Were now looking towards the detail of the next two pieces, which is the return to larger groups of contact training and playing.

I think the one thing we all must keep in our mind is that there are nearly 40,000 people that have died from this virus in the last two months in this country alone.

When you have a backdrop like that, it would be incredibly insensitive and disrespectful not to take into account anyones fears individually, collectively and certainly within a club.

So for me its been really important to allow Glenn (Murray) either personally or on behalf of the group with Lewis (Dunk) as captain to express any concerns or fears they have.

We have to address those fears, whether they are public or private.

Suppressing them doesnt make any sense because theyre still there.

Id rather they were actually out and on the table for us to consider and to try and allay as quickly rather than players harbouring those fears without telling us. We can then assemble the appropriate experts to provide that reassurance.

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Why this is being rated 'a pretty good week' for Restart - The Argus

Despite the stay-at-home order, a pop-up drive-in movie theater is coming to downtown Chicago. The temporary outdoor venue is aiming for showing movies six nights a week to 300 vehicles, which seems to the standard for permanent outdoor movie theaters. The "event" will be hosted byBucket Listers, according to Chicago Sun-Times.

Some details are not yet public, notably the location, but it is said to have close proximity to the downtown area.

The tentative list of movies to be shown has not been announced either but you can have a hand at picking the films. Bucket Listers has promised great classics like The Sandlot, E.T., Back To The Future, and more, but you can nominate movies by sending them an email. You'll also want RSVP even though there isn't a date or exact location. Chicago Sun-Times reports of 60,000 people have RSVP for events tentatively scheduled throughout the country.As far as safety concerns, organizers promise contact-less concessions and clean bathrooms. And ticket prices will be $40 per vehicle.

If you're looking for closer outdoor movie theater options there are a few options.

Many of these outdoor movie venues have come up with plans to practice social distancing.

JBLoveis of Q98.5'sLil Zim & JB In The Morning,weekday mornings from 5:00 a.m. to 10 a.m. Follow him onTwitter,Instagram.

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A Pop-up Drive-In Movie Theater Coming To Chicago - q985online.com

Broker/owners seem to have a love/hate relationship with online internet leads. They often struggle with the feeling of obligation to deliver leads to their agents, and with the high cost to generate leads and the unfortunate management that glean little results.

The lack of success with internet leads is usually based on the real estate agents who should be responding to and nurturing those leads, but instead, complain that internet leads are bad. I assure you, they are not bad. There is no type of online inquiry from a human being looking at properties that is bad. The inquirer may not be ready to pull the trigger at that very moment or they may not have enough for a down payment at this time, but they arent bad. As long as there is intent, it is viable. There are many agents and teams that have wildly successful business models that include internet leads.

I had a front row seat to developing a process to manage internet leads at a corporate level in 2002. That was the year the company I was working for asked me to start up the internet lead management program. I didnt know anything about internet leads, or the online shopper, and I had never managed a call center. Zillow wasnt a thing yet, and there were not any brokers who had figured out how to effectively manage leads.

The consumer was starting to show interest in looking at properties online. Unfortunately, the agents were not showing the same interest in responding to those inquiries.

Fast forward to 14 years later. We had evolved the program to have nine full-time staff working seven days a week facilitating over 50,000 online leads a year in five states. We were earning over $4 million dollars in profit annually in the internet lead department from referral fees and millions more in company dollar retained in each company and paid out to agents in commissions.

I had a hard-working staff leading the program that was creative and unafraid to try new things. If something didnt work, we scrapped it and moved on to the next strategy to improve nurturing and conversion.

The consumer, agent and the lead aggregators have evolved dramatically since 2002. The pandemic has pushed even more consumers online to search for homes. Many have determined that living in a crowded metropolitan area or a small apartment may not be for them any longer.

Virtual tours are here to stay and may shorten the house hunting time by giving the shopper a more real viewing experience and allowing the process of elimination to be virtual, instead of in person, which saves the agent time.

There is a lot more data science, artificial intelligence and algorithms that factor in now, but some things havent changed. Many real estate agents still dont value online leads, so they dont engage the prospect long enough to achieve success. If the inquiry is made on a listing that is no longer available, then the listing agent will often ghost the prospect. Its not just about selling a listing, its about securing a new client. So many buyers being ignored. To have a successful online lead management program as a broker, there are some things that must take place.

Brokerages need to:

Contact people fast, really fastwithin 15 seconds of the inquiry.

Make sure your website is easy to use, engaging and informative so the prospect has a rewarding digital experience.

Seek out your team of eAgents who understand and will patiently court and build rapport with the online shopper for as long as it takes. Offer the listing inquiry to the listing agent, but if they dont accept the lead within the designated time period, route it to an eTeam agent for immediate response.

Have a highly trained staff (in a call center environment) that is tenacious and willing to try new things to move the needle on conversion. If you want to outsource it, make sure you have control on how your leads are managed, scrubbed and distributed.

Get some routing and lead management software, and a call center phone system that all seamlessly integrate.

Actively coach and observe, through management software, the eAgents interactions with theprospect.

When an agent marks a lead dead, dont let it die there. Have your call center reach out to the prospect and reassign it to an eTeam agent if its still viable,

Constantly monitor the performance, through reporting, of the eAgent team and make changes to remove team members who dont meet established metrics.

Dont get hung up on how long an agent has been in the business. Some of the best eAgents are newer to the business. Monitor leads seven days a week with extended service hours24/7 is even better.

Offer easy-to-use marketing tools and scripts for the agents to generate customizable drip campaigns and keep the dialogue and engagement moving forward.

Provide best practices to the eAgent team to share success stories and training tips Communicate with your eAgents regularly and provide report cards and acknowledge successes

Establish a decent SEO budget to ensure your company website shows up in searches

Make sure your website has your call center contact information on every page and a call to action button. Develop partnerships with outside aggregators whose only job is gathering online leads and distributing them out to brokers. Some are now working on referral fee-based models versus per-lead fees. Make your peace with them, they arent going away.

Have a strategic plan and someone at the helm that is motivated to achieve success.

I hear real estate agents talk about lead fatigue. The field is crowded with everyone fighting for the same leads, but ifyou have a solid plan, an easy-to-use website, excellent software and marketing, a strong lead management staff, and an enthusiastic and dedicated eTeam of agents, internet leads can be a very profitable business line for a brokerage and their agents.

Teresa R. Howe, founder of TRH Real Estate and Relocation Consulting, has a 30-year track record of developing and managing highly profitable programs and services for the real estate industry.For a free assessment of what services might be right for your company, contact Howe atteresa@teresahowe.com. For more information, please visitteresahowe.com.

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Brokers: There Is No Such Thing as a Bad Internet Lead - RisMedia.com

Who We Are

Democracy for America is a member-driven, people-powered political action committee. Our mission is building and empowering a broad coalition of grassroots organizers to elect the New American Majority -- people of color and white progressives -- to fight for inclusive populism at all levels of office in all 50 states.

Over our decade-plus of activism, DFA has consistently been on the front lines of our nations most prominent political and ideological battles. We make progressive change happen using our time-tested election-member-issue organizing model:

Here at DFA, we believe that YOU have the power: That's why every endorsement and issue campaign we run is inspired and informed by the knowledge of our on-the-ground, grassroots members. DFA members arent an email list or an ATM for candidates blessed by Washington insiders -- they are the source of our strength and some of the smartest, hardest-working progressive activists our country has ever seen. Were proud of all that the DFA family has been able to accomplish together since Gov. Dean founded our organization in 2004, and we look forward to being a vital part of the growing progressive movement for years to come.

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Democracy for America : About Democracy for America

The United Kingdom is a parliamentary democracy based on universal adult suffrage. It is also a constitutional monarchy. Ministers govern in the name of the sovereign, who is the head of state and government, commander-in-chief of all the armed forces of the Crown and the supreme governor of the established Church of England. The constitution is unwritten, and relies on a combination of statutes, common law and convention.

The UK is a union of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Crown dependencies (the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man) are largely self-governing with the UK responsible for their defence and international relations.

Parliament is bicameral, with an upper chamber, the House of Lords (89 hereditary peers, 678 life peers and 25 bishops in March 2011), and a lower chamber, the House of Commons (650 elected members). Elections to the lower chamber are held every five years.

The prime minister and cabinet lead the executive. The prime minister is appointed by the sovereign, and is usually the leader of the party who commands a majority in the House of Commons. The prime minister chooses and appoints the cabinet.

The UK Parliament enacts primary legislation, except where these matters have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament and Northern Ireland Assembly. The executive consists of the members of the cabinet, other ministers, government departments, local authorities, public corporations, regulatory bodies and other organisations subject to ministerial control.

Devolution changed the responsibilities of the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, although they still retain UK Cabinet seats.

The judiciary determines common law and interprets statutes. The United Kingdom Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in civil matters for the whole of the UK, and in criminal matters everywhere except Scotland. In England and Wales, the High Court of Justice has three divisions, Chancery, Queens Bench and Family, which deal with certain more complex civil cases, while the county courts try the majority of civil cases. The Crown Court has jurisdiction in the most serious criminal cases providing trial by jury.

England has had a single crown since the 10th century and a parliament since the 13th century. The constitution evolved as a struggle for power between them. In 1169 Henry II of England authorised an invasion of Ireland, following which a large part of the country came under the control of Anglo-Norman magnates. Wales came under English rule in the 13th-century during the reign of Edward I. In 1603 King James VI of Scotland succeeded to the English throne, thus uniting the two crowns; in 1707 both countries agreed on a single parliament for Great Britain.

The modern Conservative party evolved out of the 18th century Tory Party and the Liberal Democrats out of the Whig party. The Labour party, representing working people, emerged at the end of the 19th century.

The deep divisions in Northern Irish society, dating from the time of the Irish independence struggle at the beginning of the 20th century, were exposed in an upsurge of violent conflict in the 1970s, which lasted into the 1990s. Many members of the Protestant majority were Unionists who wanted to remain British, while many Roman Catholics were Nationalists or Republicans who favoured unity with the Irish republic.

In 1997 the Labour party won their first general election since 1974, and Tony Blair became prime minister. In 2007 he was succeeded as Labour party leader and prime minister by Gordon Brown. In the May 2010 election no party won an overall majority. The party with the largest number of seats, David Camerons Conservative party, formed a coalition government with Nick Cleggs Liberal Democrat party; Cameron became prime minister and Clegg became deputy prime minister. It was the countrys first full coalition government for 65 years.

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Government in the United Kingdom |UK Democracy