David M. Frye
  David M. Frye, Owner, WideSky.biz

About David M. Frye

Owner of WideSky.biz

David M. Frye
WideSky.biz
46 Dover Circle
Franklin, MA 02032-1548
402.450.2072
creativity (at) widesky dot biz

Communications

Daily life often bombards us with messages—spoken and broadcast into every sliver of silence and flashed and plastered upon every screen and surface. The typical tactics of media and businesses entail increasing messages’ energy, frequency, and volume in hopes of overwhelming the competition and gaining slices of our attention.

In contrast, organizations may employ clarity, precision, and focus in drafting communications to offer their clients and partners the particular information they need and desire to make decisions about their personal and commercial relationships.

In this competitive context, people with the skills, experience, and knowledge to wield wisely the tools of the written word offer businesses and organizations advantages over their competitors in gaining and retaining the attention of their constituents and in turning that attention into decisions to acquire goods and to access services.

I bring both a combination of education, practice, and wisdom to the challenges of communications and a desire to use these gifts to advance the mission of an organization as it engages its constituents to their mutual benefit.

Strengths

Analytical Creativity

Energized by projects that demand both analysis and creativity, I use these talents to create outcomes that meet a project’s needs.

Collaborative Productivity

Drawing upon my diverse experiences and talents, I relate well with people in diverse fields and find common ground with them on project teams.

Incisive Connectivity

Combining experiences and capabilities from varied fields, I see connections among seemingly unrelated trends and can find innovative solutions to challenges.

Strengthsfinder® Signature Themes

  • Input
  • Learner
  • Intellection
  • Futuristic
  • Ideation.

Experiences

Communications in Small Business

  • Guide owners of small businesses and leaders of non-profit organizations to describe their constituencies; determine how to use the Web to foster communications; and create texts, designs, and code to implement Web designs to meet customers’ expressed desires.
  • Perform sample edits of book-length manuscripts, diagnose issues requiring attention to prepare books for publication, and recommend editing services to address diagnosed needs.
  • Assess books’ main messages and authors’ biographical highlights and write marketing copy to appear on the books’ covers.
  • Photograph, edit, print, prepare, and publicize thematic exhibits of original photography appearing in diverse venues and shows.
  • 2007–present | Owner, WideSky.biz, Denton, Neb.
  • 2007–present | Freelance Editor, Author Solutions, Bloomington, Ind.
  • 1993–present | Freelance Writer, The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn.
  • 2009 | Technical Assistance Consultant, Compassion Capital Fund, Lincoln, Neb.

Computer Support in Publishing

  • Researched, designed and tested plan for organizing, standardizing and using reference design files.
  • Customized SharePoint Intranet site for Press staff.
  • Debugged SQL-based Crystal Reports queries.
  • 2008–2009 | Archival Project Associate, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, Neb.

Communications in Corporate Management

  • Designed and edited quarterly magazine to educate 100,000 readers about the organization’s mission and to encourage donors to contribute to the organization’s charitable foundation.
  • Implemented system of customized magazine inserts to provide readers with focused updates on agencies in their states.
  • Devised Web strategy, created site, and improved it across multiple revisions to meet growing user traffic and advances in technology.
  • Outlined protocols for constituent database and managed staff in achieving increased data integrity and consistency.
  • Managed deployment and operation of a private, four-site videoconferencing network to reduce reliance upon cross-country travel for internal meetings.
  • Evaluated the cost-effectiveness of a centrally housed resource library, presented the case to governance for its dissolution, and oversaw the dissemination of its holdings.
  • Led multi-disciplinary management team to study, to evaluate, and to recommend remediation of agencies facing troubling financial circumstances.
  • Created standard presentations for management reporting to governance and edited reports to meet those standards.
  • 2005–2006 | Vice President of Mission Advancement, Mosaic, Lincoln, Neb.
  • 1997–2005 | Director of Communications, Mosaic & Martin Luther Homes, Lincoln, Neb.

Communications in Non-profit Leadership

  • Offered leadership to volunteer groups.
  • Spoke publicly on significant issues.
  • Counseled individuals in the midst of personal crises.
  • Developed expertise in practical written and oral communications.
  • 2009–2010 | Interim Pastor, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb.
  • 1995–1997 | Hospice Chaplain, Hospice Care of Nebraska, Lincoln, Neb.
  • 1994–1997 | Visitation Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, Lincoln, Neb.
  • 1991–1994 | Parish Pastor, First Lutheran Church, York, Neb.
  • 1989–1991 | Parish Pastor, First & Grace Lutheran Churches, Potter & Gurley, Neb.

Education

Wrote thesis developing a novel methodology for measuring the behavior of Web site users in an environment of free choice, drawing upon personal experience as a student researcher in high-energy physics at Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill.

  • 2000 | Master of Arts in Journalism, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Neb.

Developed proficiency in public speaking and in applying complex systems of thought to individuals’ everyday issues and challenges.

  • 1989 | Master of Divinity, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa.

Graduated summa cum laude in major field while serving as college newspaper’s managing editor for a year and as a tutor in the Student Writing Center for three years.

  • 1984 | Bachelor of Science in Physics, Lebanon Valley College, Pa.

Enrichment

Experienced intensive professional conferences to explore new fields, understand emerging trends and make fruitful connections.

  • 2013 | The North American Association of Benedictine Oblates Directors: Living the Benedictine Charism Faithfully in the World
  • 2012 | Postal History Symposium: Blue & Gray—Mail and the Civil War
  • 2011 | Smithsonian Postal Symposium: How Commerce and Industry Shaped the Mails
  • 2011 | Nebraska Summer Writers’ Conference: Landscapes & Light : Poetry and the Natural World
  • 2010 | Lutheran CORE: Seeking New Directions for Lutheranism
  • 2008 | American Philatelic Society Summer Seminar: Cultural Projects in Postal History
  • 2005, 2006 | International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Leadership Institute
  • 2005 | Sunday Scientist Symposium II
  • 2004 | The Council on Quality and Leadership: Social Capital in America
  • 2004 | IABC International Conference
  • 2001, 2003 | 17th & 19th Annual Q Conferences, the International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity
  • 2000 | Wall Street Journal Technology Summit 2000–The Next Economy: Business, Public Policy and the Internet

Completed a semester of physics and mathematics and taught undergraduate physics students in recitation and laboratory settings.

  • 1984 | Master’s Classes, the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.

Achieved self-taught proficiency in FORTRAN and wrote code to analyze test-beam data for the calorimeter at Fermilab’s proton-antiproton collider detector.

  • 1984 | Student Summer Research Program, High-energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill.

Connections

  • 2012–present | Postal History Society, Publicity Chairman
  • 2012–present | Nebraska Benedictine Oblates, WebPorter
  • 2010–present | Lincoln Stamp Club, Lincoln, Neb., Newsletter Editor
  • 2008–2013 | Lincoln Stamp Club, Lincoln, Neb., Secretary
  • 2008 | Information Technology and Communications Project, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb., Leader
  • 2007–present | Lincoln Stamp Club, Lincoln, Neb., Web Manager
  • 2004–2007 | International Association of Business Communicators, Lincoln (Neb.) Chapter, Board of Directors
  • 2006 | Ministry Support Committee, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb.
  • 2004–2006 | Communications and Capital Campaign Task Forces, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb.
  • 2002–2004 | Lincoln Area Mission Strategy Task Force, Lincoln Cluster, Nebraska Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Recorder
  • 1996–2001 | Welcome Places Advisory Committee, Tabitha Inc., Lincoln, Neb.
  • 2000–2002 | Congregation Council, Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb.

Software

Macintosh

  • BBEdit
  • CSSEdit
  • FileMaker
  • InDesign
  • iWork
  • Macintosh OS X
  • Office
  • Photoshop Elements
  • Photoshop Lightroom

Windows

  • Acrobat Pro
  • Crystal Reports XI
  • Office
  • Sharepoint Designer
  • SQL Server Management Studio
  • Title Management Module
  • Visual Studio
  • Windows Vista.

Published Work

  • Contact Sheet, a collection of poems
  • Devotions, Oct. 1–16, 2013, appearing in The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn. Augsburg Fortress Listing.
  • Million-Line Poem, Day 464
  • “A Commemorative in Conflict: The Fort Sumter Issue of 1961,” Postal History Journal, Postal History Society, June 2013
  • Photograph, Anniversary Calendar, A to Z Printing, 2013
  • Devotions, Nov. 17–30, 2011, appearing in The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn. Augsburg Fortress Listing.
  • “Hard from the South,” Poem in journal, Seminary Ridge Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, Spring, 2012
  • Devotions, Nov. 17–30, 2011, appearing in The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn. Augsburg Fortress Listing.
  • “Traces of Transitions: An Exploration of 1961 U.S. Postal Issues,” Postal History Journal, Postal History Society, October 2011 Title Page.
  • Devotions, Dec. 17–31, 2010, appearing in The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn. Augsburg Fortress Listing.
  • Devotions, Dec. 17–31, 2009, appearing in The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn. Augsburg Fortress Listing.
  • “The Daily Grind,” poem, appearing in Simul: Lutheran Voices in Poetry, Xulon Press, Longwood, Fla. Amazon.com Listing.
  • Devotions, Sept. 4–17, 2008, appearing in The Word in Season, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, Minn. Augsburg Fortress Listing.
  • Bridging Physics and Communications: experimental detection and analysis of web site users’ paths in an environment of free choice, thesis for master of arts degree at UNL. Library Listing.

Awards

  • Single-Frame Grand and Gold, 2013 Greater Reno (Nev.) Stamp & Cover Show, Reno, Nev.
  • Bronze, 2012 Omaha Stamp Show, Omaha, Neb.
  • 2010 LINPEX Silver Bronze Medal and American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors award for multi-frame exhibit and LINPEX Bronze for single-frame exhibit, LINPEX, Lincoln, Neb.
  • 2009 Winners Circle, 12th Annual Art+Soup, Visiting Nurse Association, Omaha, Neb.
  • 2008 Lynn R. Casey Award, Lincoln Stamp Club, Lincoln, Neb.
  • 2008 LINPEX Bronze for One-Frame Exhibits, LINPEX, Lincoln, Neb.

Memberships

  • Academy of American Poets
  • American Philatelic Society
  • International Association of Business Communicators (past member)
  • International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity (past member)
  • Nature Photographers Network
  • Oblates of St. Benedict, Lincoln Chapter, Sacred Heart Monastery of Yankton, S.D.
  • Postal History Society
  • United States Stamp Society
  • Vatican Philatelic Society.

Listings

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