Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 1896: Gym Rats

“Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.”

Why do we call people who like to hang in the gym,  “Gym Rats”?  Seems rather demeaning and derogatory description.  Maybe it is because once in, they are hard to get rid of and they keep coming back?  Who knows, but we don’t call people, “Library Rats”, or those who are always working, as “Cubicle, Office or Boardroom Rats”.  I guess we could, but we don’t. I suspect that none of the ones that get the description are nearly as envied as those who love and are committed to getting into and being in the gym. Maybe we need to be doing something more enticing to start getting our “Office Rats” gathering?

I’m okay with being a “Church Rat”.  I love being in church and will go out of my way, no matter where I am on a Sunday to find my way into church.  Why?  Well, because while we know we can meet God wherever we are, we can believe that the church is the place that the body of Christ is manifested through us as we each worship, learn, encourage, support, pray, serve and give with each other. As we think about how next week is going to unfold, let’s consider that a little “church work” this weekend wouldn’t hurt in getting us ready for Monday.

Reference: Acts 2:41 (New Living Translation)