biz briefs 3-8

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By local and wire sources

Property managers meeting in Waimea

The Big Island Chapter of the National Association of Residential Property Managers holds its monthly membership and luncheon meeting from 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 15 at Refael’s Mean Cuisine, Opelo Plaza in Waimea. The meeting is open to members, affiliates and their guests.

Guest speakers Deborah Chai from West Hawaii Mediation Services and Dr. Shay Bintliff of North Hawaii Community Hospital will make presentations and host question-and-answer sessions.

Cost is $18.50 per person and includes lunch. Call Linda Sasaki at 329-8097 for more information or to make a reservation.


Therapeutic riding instructors certified

In its first ever on-site certification process conducted in Hawaii, the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association certified three Big Island therapeutic instructors.

Mary Beth Hilburn of Therapeutic Horsemanship Hawaii, which operates out of Horseplay Equestrian Center in Honalo, and Heidi Brough and Michelle Schipa of the Give A Buddy Independence program in Honokaa all passed the certification process. Four additional candidates from Oahu and one from the U.S. mainland also received their certification.

NARHA sets high standards for its instructors and therapeutic riding centers and Hilburn, Brough and Schipa are now the only certified instructors on the Big Island.

The Therapeutic Horsemanship Hawaii program operates on Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m. and offers riding and horsemanship skills to people with special needs from age 4 to adulthood. There is a registered physical therapist on site to evaluate and supervise the participants. For more information, contact Nancy Bloomfield at 937-7903.

The Give A Buddy Independence program is conducted at the Honokaa Rodeo Grounds from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays. For more information, contact Heidi Brough at 896-6849.


Time is running out to update computer clocks

Springing forward in the computer age just got more complicated.

At 2 a.m. Sunday, daylight-saving time starts three weeks earlier than usual on the U.S. mainland in a federal effort to save energy. But millions of computers, servers and networks are programmed to move the hands forward on the first Sunday in April.

So information technologists are racing against the computer clocks to make the software fixes. Otherwise, heat and lights in some buildings could come on an hour later than they should. Meeting rooms might be double booked. Sprinklers might go haywire. Doors might lock and unlock when they aren’t supposed to. People could be late to meetings with their bosses if their computerized calendars aren’t tweaked in time.

Moving daylight-saving time up three weeks isn’t producing anywhere near the anxiety Y2K did heading into the year 2000. Doomsayers then were predicting havoc because computers would not recognize the 00. But the technology industry mobilized, fixed the problem and Y2K fears ended when the ball finished dropping in Times Square.

For most people at home who do not tap into work e-mail or a network, the new start for daylight-saving timecould pass virtually unnoticed. TiVo and other digital video recorders have made fixes. Those with older computer systems might have to hunt online for software fixes called “patches” or endure having a clock out of sync for three weeks.

By local and wire sources