Before Hardy Hasenfuss, there was FranklinCovey (website). Stephen Covey is the author of the best-selling self-help book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". His company conducts professional development training and sells the Franklin Planner. In response to a Freedom of Information request, MERS provided me a list, by year, of all payments for services and materials provided by the FranklinCovey company in the years 2000-2004. The totals are below. Click here to see the detail as provided by MERS.

2000	63,213.35
2001	13,874.19
2002	312.51
2003	87.78
2004	7,297.34
5-year Total	$84,785.17

In October 2000, the entire MERS office - about 30 people at that time - attended a 3-day session conducted by a Franklin-Covey trainer. We were taught to:

    1. Be Proactive
    2. Begin with the End in Mind
    3. Put First Things First
    4. Think Win-Win
    5. Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
    6. Synergize
    7. Sharpen the Saw

I heard at the time that the training alone cost $1500 a person.  Added to that was the lost time from work, the big meeting room at the Sheraton (a few blocks from the office), a nice buffet breakfast and lunch each day, a $30 coupon for dinner for each of 2 nights, a $50 Franklin Planner, and gifts each day (a bag, a desk clock, and a shirt - all with the MERS emblem on them). During the sessions, there was snack basket full of candy and gum, a first aid kit with Tylenol and BandAids (in case we got a paper cut), cookies, fruit, or brownies at break time, all the coffee and pop you could drink, and balloons around the room that had on them "Have a Great Day", "You're Special", "Best Wishes", and the smiley face. We were encouraged to stay at the hotel the first 2 nights at company expense, which seemed strange. I didn't take them up on it, but I heard from those who did that milk and cookies were delivered to their rooms at bedtime.