We have been mentioning that some changes were coming soon with The Source newsletter, and this is the 'official' announcement of the biggest change. We have decided to move the newsletter on to its own site, www.thesourcenewsletter.com. Starting with the November issue, all of the upcoming newsletters will now be available on the new site, and in a new format.

We listened to your suggestions and hope that you like the new look and feel. You will now be able to immediately write comments about the articles and provide instant feedback. Of course, you will still be able to get The Source via RSS if you so choose - please look at the right-hand side of the new site to find both the RSS and email subscription options. In addition, you will also be able to download all previous newsletters in PDF format.

The Source - October 2008

We've all had these moments in our sourcing and research careers - that moment when you've been trying out a new search technique, or exploring a new resource; that moment when something just clicks and you say "A-HA!!" These are some of the best moments in our careers because that's when we make a connection and understand either the search string, technique, or site we've been trying to manipulate is going to produce some good results for us.

In the October 2008 issue of The Source, we have articles with many of these 'a-ha' type situations packed into them. Read, pay attention to the visuals, and apply the skills and you'll have some more of your own 'a-ha' moments.

In this issue:

• Discovering the Real Value of Talent Communities
• Sourcing Military Talent   
• Sourcing Internationally   
• Sourcing 24/7

In addition:

• Ask the Sourcing Dude   
• Technology Tip of the month

Please provide us with your feedback!

• Faster Than A Speeding Email
• SourceCon Through The Eyes of The Audience
• Making Hits Out Of Near Misses
• SourceCon 2008: From The Editors

• Technology Tip of the month
• This month's Spotlight

Shannon Myers

3rd SourceCon Challenge Winner 2008

Congratulations to Shannon Myers who is the official winner of the final sourcing challenge. She will be joining our previous winners Julia Stone and Joshua Kahn at the final table to compete against our 2007 Grandmaster champion Michael Notaro at SourceCon2008. An unofficial congratulations to Jeremy Langhans who actually solved the challenge first by a few hours, but as Jeremy will tell you, he was playing along for the thrill of the chase (like good Sourcers do) as he is a speaker at SourceCon2008 and was ineligible to win any of the 2008 challenges.

If you are interested in knowing how Shannon solved challenge 3 and beat out Nita Villarreal Mentza who came in a very close second, click here for her synopsis.

A little bit about Shannon...

Shannon is the Managing Partner of Walton Search, recruitment and sourcing firm that specializes in the Healthcare Industry. Shannon began her career in a combination of photography and higher education, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and working as both a photographer and in Student Affairs at fine arts colleges. She made the transition to recruiting in 2001 as a Project Coordinator/Researcher sourcing candidates for commercial construction positions eventually making her way to a full cycle recruiting in healthcare. She is originally from upstate New York and currently resides with her husband in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Nita has been working in recruiting for about 20 minutes! She decided to crawl out of her immersion in motherhood on February 1st, 2008. Imagining it would be difficult to find a job that was virtual, part-time, and fun, she answered a MomCorps.com posting for a research position. She held not one of the desired skills, but wrangled an interview. Now she's a part-time-virtual researcher for Boston Search Group and she's having huge fun.

Nita has done a few things in her working life. She famously left college in the 80's to bartend up and down the east coast. Then she famously left college again in the 90's to go beauty school. She owned a hair salon for 10 years before getting hijacked from Vermont to Connecticut for love. Luckily, it worked out. She was in direct sales for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield but left to finish school. She finally graduated Magna Cum Laude from Albertus Magnus College in May of 2004 - 7 months pregnant.

She enjoys downhill skiing, biking with her kid and dog in tow, making jewelry, and building Lincoln Loghouses. She has a motorcycle license and a cosmetology license. She is happily married to Brian and is the mother of Rio - a four year old girl, and Jack - an eleven year old terrier.

She found the Sourcecon challenge while surfing the net for ways to improve her skills. She jumped into the fray of the much more experienced sourcers because ignorance is bliss. She is thrilled to pieces with finishing and can't wait for the next contest!

If you would also like to see how Nita, who is someone that is very new to the sourcing world went through the process of solving challenge 3, then click here for her synopsis