Washington, August 16, 2021 -- After a year of virtual learning, educators are reuniting this August in celebration of National Wellness Month before heading back into the classroom for in-person instruction.

The reunion was inspired after nearly 365 days of virtual learning, alarming attrition rates and mental burnout for DC metropolitan educators. The event seeks to encourage self-care, reduce stress, and promote healthy routines inside and outside of the classroom.

“As a community, we must acknowledge the need to bolster support around our teacher leaders. This should be followed by intentional actions to ensure that teachers are equipped with resources and the knowledge to positively influence the generation of students that we presently serve,” said Teresa Lasley, founder of Instructional Gym. Instructional Gym is an innovative professional development and wellness program that provides F.I.T. (focused, intentional, tailored) instruction to combat the presence of teacher burnout. For its one year anniversary this August, Instructional Gym is focused on helping teachers prepare to go back to the classroom. The series of events curated for this school year is centered around the theme “How to add more bounce, more boom and more balance to your instruction”. Each will be an optional 20 minute hands-on session representing three forms of fitness exercise: HITT, Boxing and Yoga.

There will be consultations with teachers around creating spaces that advocate self-care, passion and excellence as well as classroom spaces that nurture joy and student achievements.

The Back to School celebration, dubbed “Teacher Reboot,” will be taking place on August 20, 2021 at The Sandlot Southeast, 71 Potomac Avenue SE Washington, DC 20003. A ticket for the event is $20 and can be purchased at bit.ly/teacherreboot. Interested guests can win a free ticket by engaging with the Instructional Gym social media community. This event will be taking place outdoors and all COVID-19 protocols will be adhered to.

For more information about Instructional Gym, visit our website at www.instructionalgym.com. To arrange for an interview or to learn more, please contact LaWanda White at 202-497-8393 or email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Standardization Administration of China has released a new national standard – GB/T 40270-2021 ‘Textiles-General technical requirements based on consumer experience’.  

Product standards have traditionally been constructed from the perspective of product processes and technical levels; they give no consideration to the consumer experience.

GB/T 40270-2021 introduces an assessment index system based on the subjective perceptions of the consumers, i.e., visual, tactile and olfactory. It applies to end-use textile products, such as clothing and household textiles. The aim is to make enterprises pay closer attention to consumer demands. This will lead to the products that give better customer satisfaction.

Among the technical points in the standard are:  

• General safety – textile products must conform to the requirements of GB 18401 or GB  31701 (products for infants and children)
• Quality requirements – textile products must conform claimed related product standard
• Visual perception (characteristics) – textile products include fiber shedding degree, pilling, resistance to pile loop extraction, force to rupture pocket seams, seam slippage of pocket seams, bursting strength of hosiery toe, colorfastness to washing (staining), colorfastness to light yellowing, shedding of glitter and appearance after laundering or dry-cleaning. Each testing item has its corresponding applicable products or specific parts of product
• Tactile perception (characteristics) – textile products include prickle, water-vapor transmission rate, tactile sense for permanent label (including brand), tactile sense for zipper, tactile sense for touch and close fasteners, length for floats, slip resistance for hosiery. Each testing item has its corresponding applicable products or specific parts of product
• Olfactory perception (characteristics) – textile products shall have no pungent smell

Stakeholders are reminded that this standard will come into effect on December 1, 2021.

SGS Softlines Services

SGS has a worldwide network of over 40 state-of-the-art laboratories specializing in testing of apparel, footwear, and home textiles. Their committed team is drawn from multi-disciplinary backgrounds, allowing them to carry out a comprehensive range of physical, chemical, and functional testing services for components, materials and finished products. SGS helps companies ensure quality, performance, and compliance with international, industrial, and regulatory standards worldwide. In the end, it’s only trusted because it’s tested. Learn more about SGS’s Softlines Services. 

SGS SafeGuardS keep you up to date with the latest news and developments in the consumer goods industry. Read the full China Releases a National Standard GB/T 40270-2021 Textiles — General technical requirements based on consumer experience SafeGuardS. 

Subscribe here to receive SGS SafeGuardS direct to your inbox.

For further information contact:

Louann Spirito
Consumer and Retail — Softlines
US & Canada Softlines Business Head
Tel: +1 973 461 7919

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Website: www.sgs.com/softlines

LinkedIn: sgs-consumer-goods-&-retail

About SGS

We are SGS – the world’s leading testing, inspection and certification company. We are recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. Our 93,000 employees operate a network of 2,600 offices and laboratories, working together to enable a better, safer and more interconnected world.

Wilton, CT, USA, August 10, 2021 -- University Archives will hold back-to-back online auctions on Wednesday and Thursday, August 25th and 26th, starting at 10:30 am Eastern time both days. The August 25th auction will be a general sale offering collectors a variety of autographs, rare books, historical documents and memorabilia. The August 26th auction will be a smaller, specialized Judaica sale.

“Our August 25th sale offers collectors a great opportunity to acquire exceptional items from the presidential, science and international categories,” said John Reznikoff, president and founder of University Archives. “Early American enthusiasts, military collectors, and aficionados of art, music, and literature will also find many treasures. The auction will be organized by category.”

Reznikoff added, “The Judaica auction on August 26th, 100 lots in all, will offer many unique items relating to the history of Judaism, the formation of Israel and World War II, to include autographed material from Judah P. Benjamin to Ariel Sharon. There will be dozens of lots relating to the Founding Fathers & Mothers of Israel. The sale will be organized alphabetically.”

The catalogs are up for viewing and bidding now, on the revamped University Archives website (www.UniversityArchives.com), as well as the platforms LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com and Auctionzip.com. Phone and absentee bids will also be accepted. Both of the auctions will be conducted from University Archives’ new, state-of-the-art, 6,000-square-foot facility in Wilton.

With 363 lots, the August 25th auction is the larger of the two. The major categories will include Presidential (from Washington to Biden); Science (multiple lots of Einstein, plus Robert Hooke, Marie Curie, Richard Feynman, others); Sports (Olympics, Muhammad Ali, Ty Cobb, Michael Jordan, others); and Literature (Robert Frost, James Joyce, Ivan Turgenev, Jules Verne, others).

Other categories include World Leaders (Russian czars, Soviet leaders, Kim Il Sung, Victoria I, others); Art (Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Norman Rockwell, others); Space and Aviation (Apollo/Soyuz program, Neil Armstrong, Orville Wright, Soviet cosmonauts, others); Early American (Rev War, John Hancock, Hamilton, Burr, others; and Music (Bob Dylan, others).

More than one-third of the sale is dedicated to U.S. Presidents and First Ladies. An expected top lot is a one-page autograph letter signed by Abraham Lincoln and dated just weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, on July 22, 1863. It’s addressed to Freedmen’s Inquiry Commissioner Robert Dale Owen and has slavery-related content. In it, Lincoln refers to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, the Supreme Court, and the plight of American “freed-men” (est. $50,000-$60,000).

The original Lincoln free franked transmittal panel that accompanied the abovementioned letter is offered as a separate lot. The panel, inscribed overall and signed by Lincoln (as “A. Lincoln” upper right), is expected to finish at $7,000-$8,000. Also, a 346-acre land survey in Augusta County, Virginia, drawn, signed and docketed by a 21-year-old George Washington in 1752, the same year the future president would inherit Mount Vernon, has an estimate of $30,000-$40,000.

A working scientific manuscript inscribed in German and signed by Albert Einstein around 1938, in advance of a work later co-authored by him and Peter Bergman titled On a Generalization of Kaluza's Theory of Electricity, has an estimate of $40,000-$50,000. In the Judaica auction, a letter written and signed by Einstein in German in 1921, discussing the Rutherford-Bohr atomic theory, the Theory of Relativity, and the Stark effect of electricity, should hit $12,000-$14,000.

A very rare document signed by the British scientist and polymath Robert Hooke, relating to the Great Fire of London of 1666, has an estimate of $24,000-$30,000. Hooke served as a Surveyor of the City of London and settled claims following the conflagration. Also, his fellow physicist Richard Feynman’s personally owned copy of T.S. Eliot’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, signed in his name by his wife Arline, should reach $7,000-$8,000.

A gorgeously illuminated Czar Alexander II signed document, in Russian, granting a heraldic device to a Crimean War veteran and naval surgeon, featuring many sumptuous hand-decorated details, is expected to change hands for $5,000-$6,000. Also, a first edition copy of Korean Historic Relics, a book celebrating the flowering of Korean arts and culture, signed and inscribed by Kim Il Sung, the elusive former leader of North Korea, has an estimate of $12,000-$14,000.

A small photocard dated 1864, depicting a seated portrait of the slave, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Sojourner Truth, signed by her with an “x” as her mark, should command $24,000-$28,000. Also, a handwritten copy of the lovely poem Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost, signed by the renowned poet and dated Jan. 5, 1937, composed for Mrs. Emmaline Jones, with a printed photo of Frost, should go for $7,000-$8,000.

A four-page document dated Oct. 20, 1789, signed by Alexander Hamilton (as Secretary of the Treasury), addressed to Stephen Smith, Esq., regarding the paying of tonnage and other duties on vessels, is estimated to sell for $7,000-$8,000. Also, a four-language ship’s passport signed by Thomas Jefferson (as President) and James Madison (as Secretary of State), dated Sept. 29, 1802, requesting safe passage for a London-bound vessel, should knock down for $3,000-$3,500.

In addition to the Einstein letter, highlights of the Judaica sale will include an archive of thirteen letters handwritten by Moshe Dayan on fragile prison tissue and smuggled out of prison while he was an inmate at Acre Prison in British-controlled Palestine between 1939-1941 (est. $30,000-$40,000); and a fabulous archive of artifacts relating to the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army during World War II, including uniforms, equipment and awards (est. $3,000-$3,500).

For more information about University Archives and the online-only auctions slated for Wednesday and Thursday, August 25th and 26th, visit www.universityarchives.com.

Toronto, ON, Aug 11, 2021 -- As employers begin to navigate the Post-COVID workplace, many face the challenge of developing a safe, legal and sustainable plan in this 'new normal'. In the upcoming discussion forum this fall, a panel of Human Resource, Business and Legal professionals provide their perspective on overcoming hurdles in transitioning back to the workplace.

In the virtual forum, "The New Normal?": Managing the return to the Workplace hosted by Janus Conferences, attendees can expect to get insights on legal risks and organization challenges in reopening. Speakers will provide their perspectives on the key steps organizations can take now to mitigate and solve issues and capitalize on business opportunities.

"We are thrilled to offer this discussion forum at a time when everyone is adapting to the dramatic change in the workplace," said Bill Ross, Principal, Janus Conferences. "COVID-19 redefined the way we work. A new organizational roadmap of expectations and responsibilities is needed now, more than ever."

Forum panelist, Shana Wolch, a partner in McCarthy Tétrault Labour and Employment Group, is one of the speakers. According to Shana, "Managing the return to the office presents several new legal challenges for many employers. It will be important to plan carefully to avoid the consequences that a misstep can cause."

"There have been threats and silver linings resulting from the pandemic that have dramatically reshaped the fundamentals of many businesses. Evaluating your pandemic pivots and reassessing your risks and opportunities can determine the future success of your organization," stated discussion forum panelist, Rob Stephen, Senior Consultant, The Osborne Group.

Designed for organizational leaders, the virtual discussion forum will take place on September 28th, 2021, from 9:00 to 10:30 AM. For more information about the event, visit: https://janusconferences.com/

About Janus Conferences:
Janus Conferences are specifically designed for the busy executive or professional. The purpose is to provide an update on topical issues that are changing rapidly. Delegates are provided with information on new trends and developments in order to make informed decisions.

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