farner(in)

Anyone who follows me on Twitter probably knows that I haven’t been having very much fun lately.  I’m the Fundraising Chair for Alpha Phi Omega, a community service fraternity here at IUP.  I have what should be a pretty easy job description – make the fraternity money.  I had a few ideas of things I wanted to do that I feel would have been pretty successful but, unfortunately, things got mixed up along the way.

We started the semester almost broke due to poor money management from previous officers.  This meant that I had very little money to spend in order to make money.  We decided to make working security at Heinz Field events mandatory for every brother and pledge.  This meant that I not only had to be a fundraiser, I had to become an expert in scheduling and logistics.

On top of the Heinz Field requirement, we also required that brothers and pledges complete three fundraising hours for the semester.  So not only was I scheduling everyone to go to Pittsburgh to work security, I was also trying to plan other fundraising events – just so people could meet their requirements.  Of course, there were snags along the way; Heinz Field switched security firms on us, we had to go through all new training with their new company and not everyone could make it.  I was forced to try and strike a fair compromise between those who had already worked games and those who wouldn’t be able to.  Things got messy, so I played the cards I was dealt – even though they weren’t that great.

And here I am today.  I feel that I made the best out of a poor set of circumstances, yet at the same time, I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get to do a lot of the things I wanted to do.  We missed out on doing Homecoming shirts for the first time in who knows how long.  I wanted to experiment with online sales as a type of fundraiser, but again, I felt like I had to focus more on creating physical events so that people could meet our fundraising requirements.  I was bitter for a day or two, but I’ve grown to accept it as a life lesson.  Not everything is going to turn out the way I want.

So what can YOU take away from this?  We all have dreams, goals, ideas, ambitions, wishes, wants, needs – but sometimes, things don’t go the way we planned.  I’m not telling you that you’ll never hit that homerun someday, but base hits are okay, too.  Aim for the rafters, but don’t feel like a double or triple constitutes failure.

And when you strike out completely, go down swinging.

Riddle me this – how does a university celebrate a successful alumnus like Chad Hurley (a founder of YouTube), yet remain completely ignorant as to why he was successful in the first place?

I don’t have the answer, though I wish I did.

A quick scan through IUP’s Marketing course schedule reveals that the university does not offer an Internet Marketing course.  A similar search through the Communications Media department shows one course called “Internet and Media”, though the course description leads me to believe that they’ve just now discovered those wonderful “web page” doohickies.  Hardly reassuring.

More troubling to me is the lack of early adopters on campus.  There are four or five students on Twitter (including myself and two friends I recruited) and one IT guy.  Not a single professor is on Twitter.  The university has no official presence on the service, either.  I won’t even talk about FriendFeed or any of the other lesser-known social networks.  

I’m left with this question – what on earth are the students learning about regarding the internet in Marketing and Communications?

Social media is where the future of advertising will take place.  Social media is slowly changing the game in terms of interaction between media entities and the everyday guy or gal.  Social media is connecting users around the world in a trillion different ways.  College students need to know this - they need to see it, play with it and be taught how it will affect their job someday.

YouTube didn’t invent online video – it became wildly popular because it made online video social.  Until this university acknowledges this new medium, they’ll be left in the dust as others move forward.

A few minutes ago, I received this email from Helen Kennedy, our university’s Associate Vice President for Human Resources.

To All University Employees and IUP Students

On Sept. 12, you received my communication on the Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air Act. PASSHE is required to be in compliance with this law and has taken the position that smoking is prohibited on all 14 PASSHE campuses, both indoor and outdoor, (including the regional campuses) and the Dixon Center. PASSHE’s interpretation of the law is that “educational facilities” where smoking is prohibited, includes the entire campus. IUP will adhere to both the law and PASSHE’s position.

The Department of Health is responsible for enforcement. Information can be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of Health at www.dsf.health.state.pa.us or by calling the Clean Indoor Air Helpline at 1-877-835-9535.

The Human Resources website has been updated with additional information about this issue. It includes information for employees and students who may wish to transition to a tobacco-free life style. This information is available at www.iup.edu/humanresources (click on policies; then click on smoking).

More information about on-campus programming for tobacco cessation is available through IUP’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Program in the Center for Health and Well-Being (724-357-1265).

Helen Kennedy

Associate Vice President for Human Resources

Have an IUP email address? Want to play with a new web app? Here’s your chance.

Go to Yammer.com and create an account using your IUP email address. For identification purposes, it’s probably best to use the address that contains your first and middle initials followed by your last name (ex. s.m.farner@iup.edu). Once your account is created, you’ll automatically be added to the IUP.edu network.

What you’ll find is a site much like the popular microblogging service Twitter. The difference? It’s only for people on your network. Yammer recently won best startup at TechCrunch50, an event where new startups show off the service or web site they’ve created.

Play around with it and let me know what you think. I can see this having TONS of potential uses on a college campus.  It could serve as a student-powered information machine or as an outlet for people to talk about whatever they want.  Just as Twitter has, in multiple instances, been the first source of breaking news such as earthquakes and other natural disasters, Yammer could be the fastest way to spread news to 15,000+ students.

But first, we have to adopt it.

Well, here I am.

Life has been crazy the past few weeks.  I dealt with the passing of my great grandmother, I said goodbye to the wonderful people at Ritter Insurance Marketing and I made my way to Indiana, Pennsylvania.  I was an Orientation Leader for this year’s Welcome Weekend – we moved in over a thousand new freshmen Saturday morning and afternoon.  We also entertained 2,000+ students at the student union building on Saturday night.

Now that the pace seems to have slowed down, I’m finally starting to settle in.  In the next three to four months, this blog will probably cover very little about Central Pennsylvania.  From a social media standpoint, these will be the last few months in which I view the topic through student goggles.  There is, however, the possibility for something very cool.  As most know, I graduate this December (God willing) and will then venture out into the “real world”.  I would love to work in social media.  What better way to chronicle the trials and tribulations involved in a job search than with this blog?

I would also like to do a lot more video this semester. It seems as though funny things happen when I don’t have my Flip with me.  I saw a cop speed down the road and swerve around a car to pull over a cyclist yesterday.  Things like that need to be recorded on video.

I suppose that’s all for now.  I’ll eventually get back into posting regularly now that I’m here and growing used to my schedule.  If you’d like to get in contact at any time, you can do so via the Contact link in the top menu bar.  Until next time – adios, amigos.

So, it seems we’re in a bit of trouble.

The Mu Chi chapter of Alpha Phi Omega is now, for all intensive purposes, broke.  We were sitting on a hefty sum of money at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year, and we’re now in the red.  How did we get this way?  Reckless spending, failure to collect dues and little to no income from fundraising projects.

For the 2008-2009 year, there are new officers with totally different philosophies on how things should be done.  I am totally confident that each one realizes we’re in a bad situation at the moment and is doing their best to get us out of it.  In this post, I’m going to lay a little bit of my fundraising plan out.

1.  Ask Businesses for Donations

I am not above begging local businesses to donate to APO.  We do a lot of service projects in the community, probably the most out of any group on campus, and that is not cheap.  I have already drafted a letter I”ll send out which kindly asks for any donation, big or small.

2.  Sell Advertising

The Alpha Phi Omega web site is not even finished yet, but when it is, I plan on selling some ad spots to any business that will pay the price.  Paying for an ad might be more of a goodwill gesture by a business at the start, since we won’t have much traffic.  It will at least give a business something in return for contributing to us.

3.  Find a Sponsor for Everything We Do

I mean everything.  I will look into getting a sponsor for homecoming t-shirts, date auctions or whatever other ideas we come up with.  I want to spend as little of our own money as possible and I’m going to try my hardest to spend zero of it.

As we get closer to the beginning of the semester, things will begin to take shape.  By then, the web site should be complete and I will have hopefully heard from businesses regarding donations and advertising.  At that point, I’ll be able to judge how successful these tactics are going to be for the coming year.

Have ideas?  Drop me an email or leave a comment.

Guess who’s back?

I’ve scrapped my earlier plans of taking a course on campus at IUP in favor of taking an online class and coming home early.  Not only does this mean I get to enjoy nightly volleyball, I also get to start work immediately on my various projects.  I’ll get to start posting more heavily for WebpageFX and I’ll also get to work on (re)launching Be of Service.  Even more, I’ll get to roam about Harrisburg, eat sushi with cool people, Tweet-up with my fellow Central PA Twitterfolk and write more about this area.

Sweet.

By the way, is anyone looking to hit up Blogworld in September?  Las Vegas?  Let me know.

For my Major American Authors course (ENGL 436), our final exam format is this: we’ve been given a sheet with five questions on it and told to choose three. Today at 2:45 PM, we will walk into the classroom, sit down and write the answers. On top of that, we are allowed to use one page of notes and the actual books we’ll be writing about. Why was this not a take home exam?!

I could have this done already.  I could walk in today, hand it in and leave.  It would be so much easier.

On top of that, I also have a paper due tomorrow for the same class.  This paper was not anywhere to be found on the syllabus but made a surprise showing at the end of the semester.  It’s kind of like a large woman who’s pregnant but you can’t really tell, and then one day WHOA, she’s carrying a baby.  I also have to finish my story for Bible as Lit (an apocalyptic thriller, I’ll post it when I’m done) and also find some pictures for the rest of my scripture-folio.

I’ll end with this awesome paper I wish I could turn in.

In my first encounter with Google Notebook, I’ve compiled a list of links for almost all the plays we’ve covered in class.  There are also some of the time periods and genres thrown in for good measure.  The links all point to a plot summary of some kind, so you can do what I’m going to do and give them all one more lookover before the test.

Without further ado, the glorious link to ENGL 217 final exam nirvana.

So, I’m thinking tonight I’ll be pulling an all-nighter.

I want to get a quick update in here before I start researching and writing my first blog post for WebPageFX.  I got an email from the big cheese there asking me to write about a specific topic (social networking for traditional businesses), so there’s a sneak peek at what to look forward to.  It’ll actually be nice to get that written and posted since it’ll get me on payroll for the week.  Keep an eye out for that post to be published sometime tomorrow.

Now, to answer the question you’ve probably had since you started reading this post – why will this weekend own my soul?  I’m booked SOLID.  I have to write a paper for African American literature.  Unfortunately, my weekend is also jammed full of Alpha Phi Omega activities (a fundraising project, walkout, Relay for Life and the initiation of our pledges).  Next week I’ll get a bit of a breather (four days) until I have another final.  Not sure how my schedule worked out that way, it just did.

I hit the $10 mark on CashCrate for the month, which is sweet.  Next month I’ll get a check for whatever amount I end up making by April 30.  Right now it’s at $10.25.  Pretty cool for not really doing much.

I’m still trying to figure out what to do with a lot of the web property I’ve staked my claim to.  I suppose this summer I’ll have more time to figure that out, but I really feel like I’m neglecting a lot of sites I was really excited about when I first launched them.  I’m thinking I might just do complete relaunches and keep myself on a schedule to juggle them all – maybe two or three posts a week for each.  We’ll see.

Okay, I should get started on paid work! :-P  Until next time, keep your tech glasses on.