Month: October 2006

(or, damn boomers, still.)

NYT article on CC’s & retirees.

most people won’t be retiring. he’s including volunteering work as work.

the usual demographic stuff: americans are getting older. 30-ish% of Pac NW population will be boomers. fewer younger workers.

[okay, just so y’all know where I am on this…. I am 32 years old, right in the heart of Gen X. I have been hearing about the boomers for my entire life. it’s like living in the vicinity of a gravity well.]

values of boomers. “entitlement”! heh.

missed something. programs that are more holistic, for people planning the next phases of their lives. not just jobs, but also civic engagement. interesting. pointed out handout photocopy of brochure.

financial calculator. opportunity to sit down and think about finances, actual readiness for retirement, because most people haven’t done it. most workshops have a vested interest in selling something, and they don’t. good point.

they use a “loaned executive” program, like United Way!

lots of partnerships.

used by some companies to get people to retire early. hm.

“libraries for the future”?

don’t have the money to offer it to the public; now just through employers. looking for $$$ through foundations.

place to gather — build social networks. (as an alternative to the workplace.)

25% of 77 million people (over 65? boomers?) will go back to school at some point.

every 8 seconds, another boomer turns 60. 2 weeks ago the 2nd presenter hit that number himself. “maybe you had had this experience too” getting AARP letter when turning 50. [oh, no, of course a boomer couldn’t be an old person. ::rolls eyes::]

“how elders will save the world” (recent book title)

separate initiative from their existing senior classes or community education.  (do the folks working in that feel snubbed?)  again, using outsiders.  new classes charge twice as much. “workshops”  focus on luxury education, as far as I can tell.  (of course rich boomers get better food than the plebes.)

“high touch” — so…what this morning’s presenter was talking about, with the needs of students getting out of generational poverty, but who gets that treatment? people who have time and money to take these sorts of workshops.  I find that troubling.

one-day: $120; half-day: $60.  (usually)  concludes with reception.  since viticulture center, includes wine.

marketing: schedule, incl. CE; direct mail; web; email newsletters becoming more of their primary marketing; and of course word of mouth.  branded separately from the rest of the college.

q: where do they get email lists? students on registration, so building slowly.  students want to be connected in this way.

q: who do you see as competition? willamette u is doing something similar.  (I almost went there.)  elderhostel.

q: “our class schedule, while we still have it” — go further? he’s not in charge anymore.  somebody will be talking about it at the roundtable.  (I’ll be at that and hopefully have a good summation.)

this guy sat next to me at lunch. spurred a good chat about legalese & forms, etc.

not going to be as formal or professional as anything else. “the jello of presentations”

writing is like talking which is like breathing. (if you skip the talking bit, I feel the same way.)

why don’t more admissions/higher ed marketers write like people?

HUMAN.

mention of Cluetrain Manifesto. “way we should be thinking right now.” conversation, etc.

1st ever powerpoint “proud to leap forward into the mid-90s”

liebling quote. funny.

noel coward. “never bore the living hell out of it [the public]”

linus pauling “best way to have a good idea is to have lots”

robert altman “playing it safe isn’t even playing”

have you ever looked at lots of admissions publications at once? totally rocking “suck factor” graph.

all sound the same. selling the same thing. you have 15 seconds to say pretty much the same thing as everybody else.

but also not taking risks, over-reliance on focus groups.

exercise: You’ll get the classes you need for not too much money without having to travel too far. (no use of the trite phrases)

the research you’re getting tells you that people want just information, no hype. problem is most research is crap. good at telling what people say, but not what they mean. most people haven’t seen enough good stuff to know what good stuff is.

myspace, youtube. making connections. [Ken had an incredibly good idea just before lunch, which I think we should give a shot.]

“excellence”? Icky. what’s a human way to demonstrate excellence?

some examples.

stuff he wrote for Reed. (very Reed-ish, definitely. hyper-clever. sort of the opposite group from the stories this morning. also: holy crap, is he going to read all of that?!)

great design is more important for capturing; then the writing can involve. interesting point. cute piece. (is it terrible for me to admit that the super-typical UPS viewbook of brick buildings & leafy trees was what propelled me to apply there? oh, and their then very-late application deadline.) dean (? pres?) threw them into the wall.

using 1st person. nobody does it, but it’s the most authentic voice.

“you don’t need to give a roadmap to someone who already knows the way.” (hmmmm.)

OSU text in 1st person; interestly, sort of a fiction-like anonymous narrator. Pretty good stuff, really. I like the idea. he used their tagline stuff well.

line fed through the audience. silly. but useful: what does all this have to do with US?

Portland CC. mentions the hell that is our incredibly broad audience. again, sharp clever writing. we have some sharp clever people, maybe we should use that more.

a story that’s more about your partners in the conversation than it is about you.

what do the humans attending your school hope to find?

“the complete secrets of creativity, free of charge”

emergent properties (koestler?)

points where the lines intersect, where lines are everything you’re working with.

bad writers borrow great writers steal; the hemingway classic

to explain is to destroy – goethe

wc fields to finish.

q: how do you deal with administration that gets scared by wacky ideas? compromising photos? everybody thinks they’re a writer.  if you have an edgy written message, don’t show it to anybody until it’s been designed.  “big dramatic stupidness helps too”

q: writing for OSHU foundation?  very easy because so much cool stuff was going on.

[if you liked this, you’ll like Attack of the Zombie Copy!]

on the break I thanked the previous presenter, talked to Ken and (?) from Kwantlen, called C on the phone.

came in late while I got another cup of tea.

I’m feeling sceptical about this presentation, because the schedule made it sound like this might turn into a vendor pitch.

hathaway shirt guy 🙂 is talking about crisis mgmt, starting with Tylenol, which I just barely remember. and now nobody trust any damn corporation.

“gut feeling” — he talks about people getting it from TV, print, radio. (our research has said person-to-person. and what about the web?!)

information gathering preferences by age. the kids nowadays don’t watch tv, read the paper, or listen to the radio (at least not for news). and he uses “echo boomers”

ah, now we get the web. um, his numbers on the screen contradict his spoken words.
“blogs have become huge in the last several years” — wow, look at me. 🙂 being all huge & sh!t.

in crisis mgmt: “nothing like this is going to happen to them” pretty typical psychology, really.

proactive approach to crisis communications? ah, so that’s the idea of where reputation mgmt comes in.

issue identification, proactive response, rules of behavior, social dues strategy, communications mgmt.

his slides are lousy. way too many words, and he reads from the slides too much. (despite having a pretty little macbook)

example of Tillamook cheese people. 24 areas of interest, from customer trends to manure & odor control; prioritize.

and CHANGES based on that research, getting ahead of what people might freak out about in the future.

do practices match stated values?

missed some stuff while I was checking work email. of course, if he distributes slides, it’ll be pretty much the same thing.

imagine that: listening to people who you effect, and taking actions based on what you hear, gives you a better reputation.

q&a now or later? ::crickets::

cuter presentation (to go with blond woman) — media fragmentation.

ad effectiveness declining & cost is going up.

trust in media is really low, esp. in Oregon apparently. people get through fragmentation & lack of trust by turning to people they know & trust.

HBR paraphrase: make your loyal customers into your marketing dept.

value of word of mouth has gone up insanely since the last 70s. (67% to 92%)

stats she shows look a lot like our survey results.

she skipped what looked like a really interesting slide.

WOM works when product is exceptional (passionate users), when client has means to engage with others, and when supported internally.

trusted communicators (does that map to one of the tipping point categories?) – subject masters, love product, tell others proactively, sought out by others.

WOM is mostly about voice (face to face or phone)

oh, hey, this like that guy that used to volunteer at the BG Clubs, the camera nut.

“friend” coupons. samples (what would a CE “sample” look like?).

be careful about internet coupons. 🙂

“tillamook park cleanup” — building a lot of enthusiasm among community advocates.

5 questions to decide whether to add WOM efforts

1. current effort exceeding expectations? [no]
2. is product unique/exceptional? [hmmmm]
3. are people talking? (even negative is starting point.) [dunno]
4. is there communication infrastructure? [not really]
5. do we have passionate support of internal groups? [hmmmmm]

q: effectiveness of enewsletters? varies a lot, but you should use it if you have great info to share. too much blasting reduces effectiveness. way to include an “offer”? (student pricing at event?)

missed a question while making notes.

find programs that have most WOM and “invite a friend” — to sit in on a class or activity?

what are we doing that’s great? [awards, strong registration, kick-ass grads]
PCC was running a radio ad for CE, if you register early your friend could register half-price. how did that work for them?

q: disheartening info about reach. what about using testimonial approach in mainstream media “best of both worlds”? (is it best of both worlds? something to chew on for later.) not entirely dismissive: just not the best/only/most effective tool.

“if I were using new tools I would use the internet” ! and again with the blogs.

q: example of successful use of blog in educational setting? doesn’t have an example.  I should go find her and point her towards some of the resources I’ve been gathering.  he talks about influencing leaders, and research you can buy (!) — someone else in the audience talked about instructors using blogs.  woman talked about Susan G Komen offering expertise on breast cancer to answer questions on other people’s blogs.  (now THAT is a good idea.)

yes, the program is broken. (I noticed that yesterday; I almost pulled it apart, but stopped when C rolled his eyes.)

blah blah blah while I get my space setup.

and now the MC, who of course jokes about how they screwed up the program on purpose. ::rolls eyes::

“Education for All: Interrupting Poverty Barriers”

speaker was single mom who got it together with a start at Mt Hood CC.

“you know you need to know your audience”

family was migrant farm workers, cotton & fruit, moving from Arizona up through to WA. “houses that were condemned or should’ve been”

people in poverty are least likely to become education, continuing trend.

study in the 40s, replicated in 2000. 4 of five barriers diminished (geography, religion, race, gender (perhaps “problem” with boys in ed is more about race & poverty?)). some pretty egregious examples of educator attitudes re: race, altho it’s gotten better. no noticable progress on increased education among poor.

“who all’s talking to you about college?” complete silence followed by “don’t you know you’re at the alternative school?” from a student.

“you get an attitude from a lifetime of not having your needs met”

making information more known about financial aid. we could continue to do better on that.

(wow, my class on race, class & gender back at UPS gets me *something* 🙂 as in, I’m the only person in the room who learned anything in school about history of poverty in the US)

the meaning of school pictures in the context of poverty: the lack of personal history, no one cares. (we did almost always get the smallest possible set of pictures, when I was a kid.)

she’s the only person in her family who hasn’t been incarcerated (“and not because I haven’t broken the law”) — brother: “those two people in that great big house with all that stuff didn’t need it” 30k year/person for prison.

poor people interact with 4 groups of people who are making it: judicial people, educators, social service, health care…who are all trained not to get personal/close with the people they interact with. (mmmm…folks like Mom….)

most empowering thing to people in poverty is to learn about poverty.

350 families a day get their water shut off everyday in Portland.

the rotten teeth effect. (don’t get me started.)
ability to cope with social/personal problems (drugs, alcohol, child abuse) all stunted in cases of poverty.

women in poverty in US: same infant mortality rate as Malaysia.

structural causes of poverty.

basic literacy issues. personal story of the GREs, and those word comparison problems. (SATs were much the same, as I remember them. of course, I did absurdly well at them, but they don’t have much bearing on a whole hell of a lot.) brother is very well read, but can’t pronounce anything, and she used him as a resource to comprehend her texts. and the problem of phonetic spelling. (like Elizabeth!) and she used her daughter to help her take notes. (like me grammar-checking mom’s college papers.)

every country teaches it people what they need to belong. as explanation of buying shoes, phones, tvs, etc. vs other stuff that has an opportunity to increase long-term success. “might as well get it and we’ll figure out how to pay for it somehow”

problems finding research on generational poverty (vs immigrant, temporary, working-class) — most people studying are looking in from the outside.

her book: “See Poverty: Be the Difference” — stories, research, activities.

comparing dire/generational poverty to people’s perceptions of being poor, esp. temporary middle-class poverty. (which was my experience.) it seems like the big difference is whether a person knows people (well) who have benefitted from education.

what is the meaning of a “job”? horrible hard work that takes you away from your family vs. stability and financial success. a different kind of conversation, one that takes a lot more time.

68% of people in her research, when they deal with professionals, walk away not knowing what they’re supposed to do next. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT.

she keeps having trouble with her computer, but her talking doesn’t really need the visuals.

generational — working poor — immigrant — depression era — situational: differences in attitude, locus of control, internalization, barriers.

got $408 in welfare, $395 for rent. when she got evicted, was sent to money mgmt classes! wtf.

did exercise at Mt Hood, write down everything you do in a week, and then matches things from that list to professions.

professional titles are intimidating.

“you’ve got to become bilingual.” — from one of her college teachers. started with reading the paper. seems like the struggles with black english; having to go from a “home” language to middle class English. “siop”

her pilot group got housing, which was an important difference. (material reality matters a hell of a lot more than anything else, really.) build partnerships with orgs that do other things.

she had never heard a middle-class person’s life story. helped to externalize the poverty. it sounds like the approach was very much like my experience with getting out of depressive states: start where you are and take very small steps. way more help than you’d think someone should need. and recognizing visible improvement, no matter how small.

“human beings who stepped outside of their job description” (also VERY important point)

“the question is: did she get educated?”

the increasing class separation in America is going to send us to hell.

(find her site)

q: how do siblings regard her? a lot of research says you have to leave family behind, but she’s very close to them. 2 brothers have gotten BAs. lots of family have gone through exact same degrees; brings people into the comfort zone. other 3 can’t read & write, but want to. “education meant stress” (getting there on time, being right, wearing right clothes) seems a lot like other middle/upper-class attitudes with tearing people away from “less than” backgrounds.

q: how large a population is generational poverty? what’s the distribution? $19k+/year for family of 4, doesn’t include transportation, child care, health care as costs. (one estimate is it should be $30k) 37 million from census, could be double. “little katrinas going on all over the nation” data isn’t sorted that way.

q: what do you see that’s successful? [missed some of this because handouts were coming through] she has a poverty comprehension assessment tool.

q: what do we do to educate policy makers? she speaks regularly at an elite private school, asks about attitudes (pretty lousy) towards people in poverty, and those are who are going to be the policy makers & professionals.

the communications handout would be good to distribute through advising, financial aid, other front-line staff. outreach?

q: within families, how old are kids usually when they see their poverty, believing they don’t have any options? at all ages; shows progression of facial expressions in school pictures. terrible education story. (some teachers just suck, esp. with students who aren’t “good” students.) her son brings her kids in trouble all the time.