Service In Action '09: Champlain Students Making a Difference

Alternative Spring Break is a wonderful thing. Last year we had a group of student who went to New Orleans and helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity. This year a different group of students are heading to Washington, DC to help out local food banks and homeless shelters.

Not only is this a way for our students to give to a community, it is also a life-changing experience for the students who go.

They are often, for the first time, seeing a level of poverty and challenge that they have never seen before. They learn just how much one person can make a difference in the lives of someone else and they gain a much more intimate understanding of how interconnected we all are as human beings.

They leave very soon (next week is our break) and while they have done a great deal of fundraising, they are still $1500 short of their goal. They are looking for help to raise that money so they can offset the cost of the trip. If you are able to help out, go here: https://secure.champlain.edu/annualfund/ and designate your donation for THE CENTER FOR SERVICE AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT who helps to coordinate the Alternative Spring Break. Consider how your donation will help not just our students but the people that they will be helping.

Now that's paying it forward.

Real School Choice

I've been wondering a lot lately about school choice and the concept that parents should have the ability to send their children to an educational facility that fits the families needs.

Many families elect to send their children to the public school in their neighborhood/district because it makes the most economic sense and they want to be part of that community.

I am not one of those families. That's not to say that the school district where I live is not successful, but when it came time to select a school for my daughter I was very clear that it would be a private, catholic school. Why? Because I went to a private catholic school when I was a child and I believe that the education I received there built a strong foundation for who I am today.

Educating the "whole child". It's part of the mission of the school my daughter goes to and as I see her moving through her education I realize just how important that is today more than ever. The children in my daughter's school are well-behaved (for the most part), respectful and helpful in their attitudes. They are learning how to read and write and how to think both qualitatively and quantitatively. They are learning the basics. And their learning environment is safe and is something that I, as a parent, actually have a say in. No one is "making out" in the hallway. No one is afraid to go to school. The kids are dressed appropriately (I LOVE uniforms...even if my daughter doesn't). I can talk with her teachers and have access to the school in a way that my friends who have children in public schools just don't seem to have.

While public education struggles with budget shortfalls and continually "reinvents" itself I hear from other parents who have children in the public school system about how they worry about their children. It is often about an environment issue between smoking, drugs and pregnancy and violence. So legislative bodies bandy about the concept of school choice and we have "no child left behind" and our children are caught in the middle.

And we are left wondering if we have a choice.

I know we have a choice. I am an example of that choice. My daughter is an example of that choice.

Here in Burlington we are lucky enough to have several private catholic schools as well as several other different religious schools. They are located throughout the city. They are convenient and offer an education for the whole child. Regardless of your faith there is an opportunity here to explore your school choice -- if your public school isn't performing the way you want it to, take a look at what the private school's have to offer.

My daughter's school has small classes so she gets individualized attention, she's learning French and has access to computers and science. It's a traditional education without a bunch of bells and whistles and when she completes eight grade, I'll know she has a solid education that will allow her to take on anything in high school -- she'll be ready (not sure if I will be!).

As an educator myself, who sees what a difference a strong elementary and high school education mean for the students I teach, it's an investment in my daughter's future that I'm happy to make.

St. Joseph Catholic School, where my daughter goes, has an open house on March 2nd and 3rd from 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. You can call them at 802-864-5623 to set up an appointment. To find out more about other Catholic schools in the Burlington Area check out: http://www.catholicschoolsvt.org/

A club, a cause, an event worth going to

The Champlain Campus is starting to buzz about a fundraising event that is being organized by the college's International Development Club to help raise money for a local non-profit Global Reach Partnerships.

Students have gotten sponsorships, a venue, and are recruiting local high school basketball players to participate in a Slam Dunk competition -- all to benefit an organization that is focused on helping refugees connect with mentors and role models here in Vermont. The Slam for Sudan is the event and here is what they have done so far:

1. Created a Website: http://www.theslamforsudan.org/
2. Created a Facebook Fan Page
3. Created a Facebook Event
4. Created a Twitter Account

They have also garnerned some great sponsorships:

1. Ben and Jerry's


2. Jay Peak


3. Ralph Lauren


4. Bogner


5. Essex Shops and Cinema


6. The Inn at Essex


7. Eating Well


8. Late Night Saturday


9. CHAMP Radio Station


10. The Links at Lang Farm


11. Champlain College

What I love about this is the fact that students on campus are fired up about this. The organizers are passionate and excited. They are working to connect as many people as possible to a cause that they believe in. It's a great example of how passion can help drive forward an idea. The idea itself, to involve local high school basketball players from around Vermont and to get sponsorships for the different segments of the event and give out prizes...Wow! (note the different parts)

The BEN AND JERRY'S Slam Dunk Contest

and

The JAY PEAK 3 Point Shoot Out

It's a wonderful blend of marketing techniques for a good cause that is local and helps make a difference.

The event is on March 25th and it will be interesting to not only watch the club utilize different marketing techniques to publicize the event, but to watch the community get involved to help an organization that is there for a new group of people who have come to and become part of our community.

Two of Champlain's faculty, Tom Myers and Scott Baker are board members with Global Reach Partnerships and several of us have students from the club in our classes.

So take a few minutes to check out this charity event and if you are local -- sign up! And if you aren't local, plan a trip to Vermont at the end of March. And if you can't do that, use their PAYPAL donation tool to donate some money to help this important organization do their work. Friend them on Facebook, visit their website, add their event, follow their twitter!

Guest Post at Danny Brown's Blog: Small Business and Social Media

As promised in my last post, I have written a guest post for Blogger and PR Professional Danny Brown. It came from a Twitter conversation I had with Danny (who I follow on Twitter @dannybrown) late last year. He felt that 2008 was THE year for Social Media -- and I politely disagreed (smile). Out of that conversation came his request that I provide a guest blog post at his site.

I finally got it done today and he posted it lightening quick! Here's the link: http://dannybrown.me/2009/02/01/small-business-not-ready-for-prime-time-yet/

Enjoy.

Articles, plans and musings

Here I sit and it's already almost February and my "I'll blog more frequently" resolution is blown. Ah well, such is the challenges of squeezing in thoughtful commentary in the middle of the beginnings of a new semester!

Some interesting recent thoughts that have floated in my brain and floated out include...

1. I wrote an article for Business People Vermont on Blogging and Micro-Blogging. You can read it here: http://www.vermontguides.com/2009/01-jan/cc_blog.html
2. The White House has a new Website which you can see at http://www.whitehouse.gov. (make sure you put that .gov on the end...) BUT they do NOT have an official twitter account...yet. For that article check out: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126660&intsrc=news_ts_head (Thanks to local Vermonter Morgan Brown for the heads up on this one!) Oh...and their blog...still sucks. No great changes there!
3. I'm working on a thoughtful blog piece for Danny Brown over at Social Media PR. We twittered about it around Christmas and now it's time for me to deliver. What's the topic? Small business and social media acceptance/use of course!
4. David Gibson over at Propeller Media Works has asked me to participate in a social media workshop sometime in February. I told him I would be there. It should be fun.
5. Finally, what the heck is happening to our MEDIA? (Note, this is a foreshadowing of a blog post that is formulating in my head.) There's so much chatter going on in the social media circles I follow about news media (especially journalists and print) and how they need to make a shift and then there's the changes at local presses all over the country. When the news is even more important than ever it is interesting to see it collapsing. I have some thoughts on this from a different perspective. But that folks...is another post entirely.

Well, it's off to the trenches -- getting students ready to lead the marketing decisions of the future!

What I read on my Winter Break

Being a college professor has some perks. One of which is the break between the Fall and the Spring Semesters. It's an Oasis. Really.

I've taken this wonderful break from all things social media related, work related and news releated. I can't really say I went "off-grid" since I did play Warcraft quite a bit and monitored my personal email....but work-related stuff went "poof" for a few weeks.

You should try it.

It is AMAZING.

Anyway, during this time I also read some books. One of which has NOTHING at all do to professionally, so I won't talk about that (smile). However I did read a new book (thanks to a friend's Amazon Vine) prior to "publication date".

Let me start by stating clearly that I highly recommend this book. I will be figuring out how to incorporate it into my classes -- most probably the Marketing Management class. The book: It's "The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation" by Marty Neumeier. It comes out on January 15th. Here's the Amazon Link (unfortunately I was unable to find the book site -- there is one for ZAG: http://www.zagbook.com/, but not for this one...yet).


Let's get to it...Why do I like this book? Because it addresses creating a culture of innovation and how to do it, points out the shift in business from linear/production line thinking to more design-oriented thinking, and it links successful "nuggets" to how designful practices have helped companies to innovate and foster creativity across all programs and departments and disciplines.

I liked the presentation of the book overall -- the "Whiteboard" concept that all three in the series from Neumeier (Brand Gap and Zag) have. Quick, to the point, and easy to take away information. As a marketing prof, it provides some interesting food for thought around the concept of wicked problems, the aesthetics of management, deep design, the use of metateams, the application of stage-gate investing, the "Thinking Hat" process for meeting management, brand training and the design learning loop (this one I REALLY like).

At the end of the book there are the "powerpoint bullets" of the book, how to use designful thinking to address wicked problems and a list of recommended other reads. Nice stuff.

Some important take aways for me included:

Design is rapidly spreading from "posters and toasters" to processes, systems, and organizations.

Agility is an emergent property that appears when an organization has the right mindset, the right skills and the ability to multiply those skills through collaboration.

A designer is anyone who tries to change an existing situation to an improved one.

The traditional management model is a veritable thrift store of hand-me-down concepts, all designed for a previous need and a previous era.

Companies don't fail because they choose the wrong course -- they fail because they can't imagine a better one.

While revolution must be led from the top, it rarely starts at the top.

In an age of accelerating change, how you learn is vastly more important than what you learn.

The ability to acquire new knowledge quickly is the fundamental skill that underpins a culture of innovation.

How do you measure talent? How do you increase inspiration? How do you crank up creative joy? The answer to all of these is the same: recognition.

Sweet book.

You have the power

I was interviewed last week by Ken Picard from Seven Days for an article he was doing about the Burton snowboard controversy. It was an interesting interview because Ken wanted to look at the issue from a different perspective. His goal was to look at more of the marketing and imagery trends within the industry as opposed to the "controversy itself".

His piece, entitled: "Antiviolence Advocates Ponder Next Move in Burton Protest" highlighted the marketing side and the imagery impact of messages that "promote" gender inequity or violence of any type.

Ken, myself and Sharon Lamb (who was also quoted in the piece) all serve on the media representation sub-committee of the Vermont Approach to End Violence Against Women.

The important messages from the article (to see the full piece go to: http://www.7dvt.com/2008antiviolence-advocates-ponder-next-move-burton-protest):

• Controversy sells. "Burton may, in fact, have the last laugh — all the way to the bank. As Jake Burton Carpenter admitted, the recent media attention on the controversial boards has only fueled the public’s interest in them; sales of both boards have “well exceeded expectations,” as he put it. "
  
• Burton needs to convey an "edgy" image for the snowboard culture. "Another Burlington resident who works in the industry, and asked not to be identified, suggested that was Burton’s goal with its controversial designs. “In this industry, you need to keep an edge and a core demographic,” he said. “And, if you don’t have the absolute core guys backing your brand, you start to lose a little bit of credibility.” "
  
• Until WOMEN and MEN in the target market step up by NOT BUYING, these things will continue to happen. "Young said the only way companies such as Burton will eschew products and ads that objectify women and sensationalize violence is if their best customers tell them to stop. (that's a quote from me, BTW)"
  
• Bottom line, images of violence and objectification of women CAUSE more violence and gender discrimination. "...research from several different studies revealed that people who regularly consume sexually objectifying images are more likely to see sexual relationships as adversarial and to accept “rape myths” — that is, the notion that women invite rape by their own behavior. ( a quote from Sharon Lamb)"

My personal thought is you can be edgy as all get out and project an image that is youthful, rebellious and anti-authority WITHOUT promoting gender inequity and/or violence. Burton, in my opinion, like many companies has taken the easy road. Let's throw up some naked chicks, call it "tasteful art" and then let's throw up some more violent images and call it "toilet humor". Yeah. That's the trick. It's a cop out is what it is. Where is the creativity that an edgy brand is supposed to have?

Creatives and marketers everywhere -- I challenge you. Be edgy. Create conversation. Move your brand forward. Just don't do it on the backs of women and don't promote violence for violence sake. Rise above it and really show your edge. If you don't, you aren't edgy ... you are just the same as everyone else in a sea of tasteless mediocrity.

A stew of possibilities

Here it is. Finally. That promised blog post.

The pressure to write this has been overwhelming and yet, I seem to keep finding other things to do like grade and prep classes and sleep and play WoW and ... well you get the picture I think.

I've had a bunch of social media swirling around me lately. The discovery of Ping.FM, having multiple classes create blogs for different purposes, Twittering and realizing that there is a way to save your Tweets (I'll get to that in a few), and having people send me requests to "social media" pass their info on...and then there's that internal clearspace thing...and the new Champlain Portal workforce group...

It makes me think about all the possibilities that social media is bringing. Things that I couldn't do a few short years ago, I can do now. So let's get to it shall we?

Social Media for GOOD
It's the giving season and it would seem that some people don't get that. For whatever reason a local Non-Profit dedicated to collecting toys for children was vandalized a little while ago. Someone or someones got their jollies by bust'n up toys. Great. Makes you wonder what the heck is going on in the world today for real. Enter NEW BREED MARKETING. Devin and the gang over there clearly felt that it wasn't good enough to talk about this one, they have taken action. They've created a donation widget that you can use to give money to the cause. You can also share this widget on Facebook and with tons of others...in my case I'm putting it right HERE:



Now that is the way to use Social Media. By the way, you can follow Devin on Twitter by going here: http://twitter.com/devin1682. They've raised over $3,000 so far to help out our local Vermont children. Spread the word, will ya?

Why I need more time to read Twitter
So here are the things I've learned recently because of the people I follow at Twitter:

1. Twitter Grader: A site that helps track your "popularity" on Twitter. Note that you can also grade your website and your press release -- it's from HubSpot. Why is this important? Because this is a business that is trying to get your business so they've created a way to drive traffic and get more people talking about them. If they can do this for themselves...what could they do for your business? Great marketing!
2. Chris Brogan: @Lizschlegel Tweeted about this guy and a recent blog post he had about how to get started in Social Media -- his scenario approach is readable and interesting. I'll be saving this one for my class next semester!
3. FTW: Learned from @agahran with a link to the urban dictionary that FTW means "For the Win" which is often snarky and ends a post.
4. Gender Inequity in Africa: @DaveTaylor linked to a news article from the UN News Centre. This is getting forwarded to my students who are working on the UNFPA Project for sure!
5. Help a Reporter: I've known about this one...but it was because of Twitter. So PR People, you should be following @skydiver on Twitter and you should register at the HARO website for sure.
6. TwitterTake: Another from @agahran. A website that will back up your twitters and export them to an excel file. Why would I want this? Well so I can keep all of this great info of course!
7. OneTeam: I learned that folks from @OneTeam have ordered my recommended books! (Ok, I know, personal gratification listing!)
8. How Businesses can get Started with Twitter: This one is an ongoing gem from @gahlord at Union Street Media.
9. Branding of College Students: This article came to my attention from former student @gracekboyle. Not only is the article cool, but I'm watching a former student ROCK the social media.

This is but a sample. Yes, it's in between the personal stories of people that I may or may not know, but look at all the things I have learned because I've been on Twitter?

Another Cause...and How Students are Learning the Social Media
There's a prof on campus (not me, believe it or not) who is asking their students to get the most "views" of some cause-related vidoes over at YouTube. One entrepreneurial student has reached out and asked me to post her "Vid" so she can get "peeps". So...here it is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfnGOiFJUoo. The cause is 1% for the Planet.

This bring me to the point that will be another post that is swirling around in my brain -- that students aren't coming to college with the knowledge of how to connect beyond their friends with social media -- and that our job at the college level is becoming even more complex so that we can help them sort out the best practices on a moving target that doesn't have clear best practices yet.

Thanks @davidwolfe for PING.FM. You enabler you!

Social Media and the Presidency: Has social media changed our voting engagement?

As our country celebrates it's democracy today -- where we can vote without fear of taking our lives into our hands -- I thought it would be appropriate to consider how social media may be changing our voting engagement.

Not only have the politicians jumped on the social media bandwagon with social networking and twitters and blogs and community sites, but we've seen the conventions and the candidate debates turn into social media events through sites like Twitter and the mash-up of Twitter and CurrentTV.

Today, I Twittered while waiting in line to vote. I included #vtelxn so that my tweets would go into a "local" twitter meme for all Vermont voters.

Today, I'm seeing my Facebook friends "donate their status" to remind people to vote.

Throughout the day I'll probably watch http://election.twitter.com/ to get a flavor of what is happening around the country through people's tweets.

I'll check in at #votereport to see information about polling places -- is anyone having issues? What are the lines like?

Tonight, will I watch TV? Maybe. More likely I'll be online checking the different sites and streaming live commentary from various places.

There are a growing number of ways in which I can feel more plugged in to the election process. It's not about being fed information from the candidates, but rather seeing what others in my social media sphere are doing and thinking has allowed me to feel even more connected.

So as the media talks about unprecedented voter turnout. As we all get engaged this year because of so many issues, I'm left wondering if the social media so many are using is having an impact on the voter turnout. As you see your friends writing about voting and you follow others who write about the lines and what they are doing as they wait to vote, does that pressure you into going to vote? Does it make you feel like part of a bigger movement knowing that you also voted and you can actually see others engaged the way you are? Others all over the country?

It's a known fact in marketing that word of mouth and viral marketing has more power then direct messages from a brand. Social media is the biggest WoM out there right now and part of the voter turnout may, indeed, be because of this phenomenon.

So, get engaged and plug in. Be in the know. And above all exercise your right to Vote.