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Stop Hunger Now!

Monday, July 19th, 2010

Our tRP office turns into a massive operation!

On Saturday, July 17th a big group of our amazing team members came back to the office (on a weekend!) for a day of community service. Working with the group Stop Hunger Now, our team members (and their families and friends) set after a lofty goal of packaging 150,000 meals in one single day. These meals will be sent to schools and orphanages in Haiti and Swaziland.

The day opened with a training session and intro from the people over at Stop Hunger Now. They showed our group a short video about where the meals were headed and why they were going there. We were all shocked the learn that worldwide, a child dies of hunger every 6 seconds. Stop Hunger Now exists with the purpose to end starvation from hunger in our lifetime. Since we love people with aggressive and, not to mention, socially conscious goals- we knew we had to do whatever we could to help.

With our hair nets on and training complete, we hit the assembly tables to sign up for jobs such as packaging the meals, sealing, running the packages to the weighing station, boxing, labeling, and then getting the boxes onto the truck. Music was playing, and the Stop Hunger now folks made it fun for us by ringing a huge gong every time we hit a milestone of five thousand meals. For two hours, we were having fun and working hard, and huge cheers erupted every time a gong went off.

By the end of our two hour shift, we were spent but were able to take home a sense of accomplishment and pride for a job well done. We were also humbled to know that each package of rice we created each feeds one person for 6 meals (almost a week).
To get involved with Stop Hunger Now visit www.stophungernow.org

Posted in Charity, Fun, Team Development Events, community service |

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Camp Pendleton Mud Run

Monday, June 21st, 2010

tRP team post Mud Run

MUD. Lot’s of it! That’s what the team of 8 Rubicon Project team members from the LA office experienced on Saturday, June 18th at the Camp Pendleton Mud Run.The Mud Run is a 10K race through mud, water, and obstacles. All proceeds go to the YMCA Armed Services- nice!

After a 5:30 am wake up call, we met at the office and piled into cars to carpool down to Camp Pendleton (close to San Diego). When we arrived, we joined 5,000 other trail runners, military personnel, people in costumes, and lot’s of smiling faces ready to get dirty! In the “chute” (the area where we all gathered waiting to take off on foot) there was a huge dance party and our energy was alive and kicking. After taking off, some of us ran for fun and others ran to compete (nice job Bill Willits who took 7th place!) but we all met up at the end to congratulate one another and relax.

It was a great bonding day for us and honestly, a ton of fun! The best part was the lake swim and the 30 foot Mud Wall crawl. Boot camp? Here we come…

If you or anyone you know is interested in doing the Camp Pendleton Mud Run, you can sign up here : www.camppendletonraces.com/. A great way to support our Armed Services!

Posted in Charity, Fun, Sports, Team Development Events |

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Life Across the Pond

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Our London rockstars hitting the lanes for quarterly team night

Our Rubicon Project London office will soon be turning one year old! In celebration of this important milestone, we want to take a moment to reflect on the last year and how exciting it’s been. In May 2009, we were an American company with our heart set on global expansion. With our strategic plan in hand, we hired a few key team members to build out the team and hit the ground running in London. After painting walls, Rubiconizing the office, and exploring the neighborhood- doors were open for business!

Over the past year the team has grown to include seasoned industry veterans, folks with tons of energy, and big wins happening every week. While the winters might be dark, life in London is an exciting experience in the growth of what is now a global company- the Rubicon Project! As we continue to build our team, we are outgrowing the current office space and looking forward to a near future move to a bigger office nearby. Cheers to London!

Posted in Celebration, London, Team Development Events |

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March Madness!

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Our LA team at Q's Billiards

March is one heck of a month- not only because things are super busy around here but also because it’s March Madness! On Monday, April 5th the #1 seeded Duke Blue Devils were pitted against “Cinderella story magic” that is the Butler Bulldogs. Coast to coast (Los Angeles and New York) our Rubicon Project team members took this opportunity to celebrate the end of the tournament with a championship watch party at our local watering holes.

To make things a little more fun and reminisce on times past, the theme of the day at work was “support your alma mater”. Our team members were sporting Michigan State zip ups, UC Santa Barbara t-shirts, and representing schools from all across the country. It was fun hearing the rivalries commence and even better to hear “hey I didn’t know you went there! Cool!”. Nothing like getting to know each other a little bit better.

In the end, Cinderella didn’t get the Prince as we all watched Butler lose by two points in the last second. But, after good co workers, good food, and good drinks it was hard to go home disappointed. See you at the Big Dance next year!

Posted in Celebration, Fun, New Team Members, Team Development Events |

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Dishing Up Hope

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Courtney Chapman and Solomon Ko making a difference at the Midnight Mission in Downtown LA

Margaret Mead once said “never doubt that a group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Our old friends at the Midnight Mission on LA’s Skid Row have been hit harder than ever with the economic downturn, a combination of dwindling donors and record numbers showing up looking for hot food and place to sleep. They reached out to us for help in a time of crisis and we responded with 100 team members willing to help. We greatly look forward to continuing to work with the Midnight Mission to help those who need it most.

Over the course of 2 months, 100 Rubicon Project team members will take turns heading to the Midnight Mission for lunch service. In those 2 months, we will serve approximately 2,500 homeless and needy folks who come to the Mission for a warm meal at lunch time.

The amazing people who work over at the Mission (many of whom are graduates from the drug and alcohol rehabilitation program they promote) inspire us every time we go there. They make work fun, and remind us how important it is for organizations and companies to give back to the community in which they exist. Join us!

Some Facebook quotes from our team members:

Kate Hennig: Community Service day at the Rubicon Project: serving lunch at the Midnight Mission

Brad Rodriguez: Just finished volunteering at the midnight mission with my awesome coworkers from @rubiconproject

Courtney Chapman: dishing up some lunch at Midnight Mission in Downtown LA

Posted in Team Development Events, community service |

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End of Year Wrap-Up in Words, Pictures and Video

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

How do you summarize an entire year at the Rubicon Project? It’s a combination of new technologies, new customers, new partners, new team members, new programs, new initiatives, and a lot of great inspiration and creativity. 2009 proved to be a phenomenal year for our company, we practically doubled the size of our team, added 3 new offices, and continued to focus on developing a strong and innovative company culture. It has always been our goal to create an “experience” not a “job,” and 2009 proved to be the year of excitement and focus. Some areas of change and impact that we are proud of include:

Community Impact:
Community outreach and service is something that is bred into the DNA of our company and all of the team members we hire. We recognize how fortunate we are, and are committed to giving back to our local community. In 2009, we expanded from local community impact to global community impact. After opening offices in New York, London, and Sydney, we have been able to effect change not only in Los Angeles but internationally as well. Some groups we have volunteered or supported in the last year include: the Midnight Mission (LA), LA’s Best After School Program (LA), Heal the Bay (LA), Tree People (LA), Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen (NYC), Morgan Stanely Children’s Hospital (NYC), City Meals on Wheels (NYC), Ted Knoff Foundation (SYDNEY), Community Chest (HONG KONG), Toys for Tots (US), NY Cares Coat Drive (NYC), Coach ART (LA), and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (US).

Education:
We firmly believe in empowering our team members to take on as much industry knowledge and career skills as possible. The continuation of our Rubicon University program, which takes internal team members who are experts in certain fields and puts them in front of our team-at-large to be a “professor” of sorts, continued to be a big success. This year, the company also invested in a “Rubicon Library”, which houses books (team members make suggestions!) focused on improving management skills, how to inspire others, how to effect change, or how to reach your full potential.

Sports:
In addition, we also saw the creation of Rubicon Project sports teams, which provided some tough competition and a lot of fun memories. Active in the areas of softball, basketball, kickball, tennis, and soccer, the Rubicon Project is proud that our team members take any opportunity to be athletic, have fun, and forge friendships that aren’t just about “business”. None of our teams took home a league championship but that is definitely part of our goals for 2010!

Team Development and Bonding:
As a company, we devote resources to providing each manager with a budget for creating and planning team bonding events. It is important to us that our team members feel appreciated and connected to one another, and these events tend to have 100% participation. Whether it’s taking the team out for bowling, a nice dinner, or on a sailing adventure, our team knows what it is like to connect with other team members outside of “work.”

Cheers to 2009, and especially to our wonderful team members, who are the heart and soul of this organization. After looking back at the past year, I think we are all excited for what we will accomplish in 2010!

Tags: 2009 review, community service, rubicon, rubicon project
Posted in Charity, Fun, Team Development Events, community service, team development |

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Q4 Community Service: Tree People

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

the Rubicon Project team hard at work

On Friday, December 4th our entire LA Headquarters headed to South LA in partnership with the nonprofit organization TreePeople. Our mission: plant 30 trees in the Mt. Carmel Community Park as part of our Q4 community service event. Inspired by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s pledge to plant 1 million trees in LA, we wanted to do whatever we could to participate. Over 100 Rubicon team members broke into teams of 5 and went to work digging holes (3 feet deep!), planting the trees, making sure they had a proper environment to flourish, and even naming them. Ultimately, it was one of the best events we have ever had because of the tremendous team bonding that took place and the impact we had on the park in the community. We highly recommend TreePeople for any corporate or community service event. They truly are changing the landscape of Los Angeles, something to be very proud of! If you are interested, email Ryan Allen at rallen@treepeople.org.

From Leon Boroditsky (our tree planting supervisor from the LA Recreation and Parks Department ): “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit.” -Nelson Henderson.

From Ryan Allen (our TreePeople leader): “It was a great day working with the volunteers of the Rubicon Project. They worked extremely hard at Mt. Carmel, a South LA city park that really needed the trees. I’m looking forward to the next service event TreePeople and the Rubicon Project can partner together on in working to help green our community of Los Angeles.”

Posted in Team Development Events, community service |

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Blurring the Lines Between Work and Fun

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

Our Yield Management and Ad Operations teams at bowling team night

There is work and then there is fun. If you work at the Rubicon Project, sometimes the line tends to blur (considering people talk on the phone and throw footballs back and forth with people at the same time). But, in this blog post- the topic is FUN only.

Every manager in our organization has a budget they use to plan a quarterly event for their team members to get out of the office, have fun, and bond together. These outings are well worth the price when considering the amount of team development (not to mention fun and memories!) that result from these type of events. Teams across our organization have done everything from go cart racing to a night at the driving range, all in the name of cutting loose and enjoying each other’s company.

Let’s use a perfect example from this quarter: Our Yield Management and Ad Operations teams headed out for dinner (hamburgers and milkshakes at the Counter) and then headed to a local bowling alley where they tied up their bowling shoes and hit the lanes. There was a lot of cheering, laughing,and high fiving to be had that night and with 4 new people on their team it was a perfect event for team bonding experience outside of the office. After all, there is more to life than just work!

Posted in Celebration, New Team Members, Team Development Events |

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Midnight Mission: Thank you!

Monday, August 3rd, 2009

Every quarter, the Rubicon Project picks a local organization to partner with for our company wide community service project and event. This quarter, we were fortunate to work with the wonderful men and women at the Midnight Mission- a group of folks who inspire us daily by giving their heart and soul to those who need it most.

The Midnight Mission is located in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles and first opened it’s doors as a refuge to the homeless men of Skid Row. For almost a century, the organization has been dedicated to providing outstanding services to homeless men, women, and families who need shelter, food, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, counseling, education, training and job placement.

Our community service event this quarter sent 3 different groups from the Rubicon Project to the Midnight Mission to serve food (and most importantly, big smiles) to folks who call Skid Row “home”. It was an educational, humbling, and very worthwhile experience that none of us will forget.

Quote from David Johnson, a Rubicon Project software engineer:

“I want to thank the Rubicon Project for coordinating this event with the Midnight Mission. It was an enlightening, humbling, and overall very positive experience of which I am glad to have taken part. I thank you for getting the Rubicon Project community involved with such inspiring organizations”.

If you or anyone you know would like to volunteer or donate time to the Midnight Mission, please contact Mai Lee at mlee@midnightmission.org.

the Rubicon Project and the Midnight Mission: What a team!

Posted in Charity, Team Development Events, community service, team development |

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Rubicon Olympics: The Technology Team Takes the Gold

Friday, March 6th, 2009

Congratulations to the Technology team! They won the first-ever Rubicon Olympics, a series of competitions that pit team against team in an all-afternoon melee to determine who rules all of Rubicon. The games required skill and dexterity: from ping pong and darts to Wii tennis and horse, we brought an epic competition into our own little game space. Players scrambled from event to event, running outside for a quick round of horseshoes before rushing off to the semi-finals for foosball. The Olympics culminated in an entertaining tournament of liquid pong. So even though the technology team took home the gold yesterday, everybody was a winner as we ended the day with red cups and reracks. It was a good day to be a ping pong ball.

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