How did you spend Halloween?

Since I was at the Net Impact Conference, had a flu while I was there, I came home exhausted on Sunday and just slept.  Which means that Halloween Day, I had a bunch of homework to do before class that night.  So much that I was late jumping into the shower, and taking off for Seattle. 

My home phone rang twice while I was getting ready, and so did my cell phone.  I ignored both, deciding to return the call enroute.  I looked at the caller display, and saw it was my daughter.  So immediately I'm thinking . . . it's something really good, or it's something really bad, but whatever it is, it's something.

So I called.  And here's the gist of this conversation . . . "Mom!  I've been trying to reach you!  I'm married!  You're the first one I called!"

If I'd been here at home, I might have fainted.  Driving at 75 mph, however, does not lend itself well to falling over in a dead faint. 

"Mom!  Did you hear me?  I'm married.  Logan and I got our rings a couple months ago.  We knew we were going out tonight, and we just decided to go to the justice of the peace, and we're married!  We even wore costumes, and people laughed and talked with us in the courthouse." 

Never occurred to me that I would not be present for my child's wedding.  Never occurred to me that my child would choose to get married without me there.  I barely know her new husband, even though they have known each other for 3 years.  They were so busy while living in Missoula, that I saw them once a year for a couple days at a time.  Not enough time to know someone, the way I know my daughter.  Maybe that's a delusion; I really must not know my daughter.  Or I would have seen this coming, somehow. 

Like many things this fall, this blindsided me.  I spent Halloween in a daze, not in a "maze."  Which leaves me to wonder what else is coming down the pike this quarter? 

The "Net Impact" of my Net Impact Conference Experience . . .

. . . or why I will not ever volunteer at this event again. A little history here for the benefit of my readers.  I have been a Net Impact Seattle Chapter member for several years.  The chapter has been rather disorganized with few meaningful events here in the Puget Sound, so my membership monies simply contributed to the whole of the organization's work, rather than to my professional development and networking in this area.

For BGI, however, the university's Net Impact chapter has grown in engagement and is now THE entity in which to join and become active.  Because BGI/NI meetings are held on Thurs/Fri of the intensives, however, I have not been able to participate, because I'm an Evening MBAer. 

When the annual conference was announced and was in Portland, I immediately signed up to attend.  Eventually we started receiving emails, beseeching BGIers to "volunteer" because they anticipated a large crowd and the more volunteers, the better.  So I did. 

We got our volunteer assignments the night before the conference kicked off.  I went through the list with fine tooth comb, and never found my name.  This could not be correct, because my conference fee was reduced $500 based on working 8 hours during the conference. 

I reported in for volunteer training, then reported to the Volunteers Lounge for check-in, and found that yes, I was supposed to work all of Thursday, two half-day shifts with a 45-min lunch break.  The volunteer shirts did not make it to the conference ~ were being held at the Canadian border for some reason ~ so we were instructed to wear our volunteer badges at all times. 

I took off, went to my first duty station and found that it was jammed with volunteers!  I hung around, saw that no one was leaving this post, and returned to the Volunteer Lounge, to find out what I was to do.  Over the next 36 hours ~ basically 2/3 of the conference ~ I reported in, found I was not needed, ran back to the Volunteer Lounge, got new assignments, and pretty much missed all the seminar sessions that I really wanted to attend.

And there was no real opportunity to network with folks ~ to meet new faces, make new connections, share stories and best practices ~ because all I did was run from one end of the conference center to another, attempting to do the work I had agreed to do, and never got to.  I did actually work in unscheduled capacities half of Thursday, and half of Friday.  My real seminar attendance was relegated to Saturday, the last day of the conference.  I met a few people,  have emailed with them since, and that was what I had planned on from this event. 

My advice? . . .  pay the money and go as an attendee, and enjoy the sessions, the opportunities to meet folks from all over the world, and to learn from the excellent session presenters. 

I am a Project Team of One . . .

Let's see . . . I've covered Social Media, Marketing and Sales, and now let's talk about Dal LaMagna/Foundations II. 

This saga has a prelude.  I live in rural East King County, 33 miles due east of Seattle, which is nowheresville to most of my fellow classmates.  We do have mass transportation ~ (2) bus routes a day, 5 days a week.  One arriving at 5:15 am; the other returning at 8:00 pm.  Yes, the bus gets used, but not by me because this schedule has never worked for my life, as a working professional, single mother, and community volunteer.  That last part?  I'm a community volunteer in my own community, here in East King County-ville.  And that would be North Bend, WA. 

Back to Foundations II . . . for this class, we must have a real client with a sustainable project of some sort.  I reached out to our Community and Economic Development Director, to see if she had a project in mind that a fabulous BGI grad school team could tackle on the city's behalf.  And she did. 

Proudly I walked into our first class, and presented the project opportunity ~ to research, analyze and recommend a sustainable urban ag use of The Central Meadow of the Historic Tollgate Farm, whichis bordered on one side by Ribary Creek and the other, by the North Fork of the Snoqualmie River.  There are big plans for this 380 historic farm site, including:  preservation of the historic farmhouse as an interpretive center;  an archaeological dig of Snoqualmie Indians ancestors; a 5-mile path circumventing the property, to be used for recreation, runners, walkers, bikers, etc.  And the Central Meadow use must be an economic development driver. 

Our instructor went round the room, and inquired about the projects.  For the first time in my BGI experience, EVERY student had come prepared with a project.  Since we are to tackle these projects as teams, she asked us to talk with others during break, and come back with our teams in place. 

And I returned with a team of three, possibly four.  I was excited, and looked forward to working on the first sustainability project for our community with my BGI buds.  Over the next few days, I set up the first client meeting, and shared with my teammates.  No one responded.  That was strange.  I'm thinking "maybe my email is not working."  So I texted them on their cells.  Still no response.

And I showed up at class, inquiring:  "Are you getting my messages?  We have a client meeting set up."  And that's when I learned that the three of them had dropped this project BECAUSE it is located in North Bend.  They only wanted to work on something BIG, in SEATTLE. 

And yet, they did not want to turn away this project because they might not find something BIG in SEATTLE to do.  So they said:  "We'll get back to you on this by Wednesday, 3:00 pm.  Promise."

And they did not.  They dilly-dallied another 10 days, until they found something BIG, in SEATTLE.  So, I am a Project Team of One, working on the due diligence for the first sustainability project our city has undertaken.  I'm doing all the work, my research has been educational yet completely disappointing because I have not landed on what I feel would be the right project for this property and the goals/objectives of this use.  It has turned into one big search for that most right thing.  I am loving this part of this project, which would have been much easier if a project team had collaborated, and divided and conquered.  Sustainability can be lonely in the burbs.   

At this point, I just want to do a very good job.  I don't think I have enough hours in the day to do a very good job by quarter's end.  I'm mulling over my next best step . . . stay tuned for more posts from the Project Team of One . . .

To continue on the Whining Saga . . . Frustrating busy work in Marketing and Sales

So.  I've spent 20-25 years in marketing, sales and business development.  During my undergrad, I excelled in these classes, earning A+ for my research, analysis, and culminating projects ~ marketing plans. 

So.  I envisioned that my background in the field, plus my new skills in Social Media, would allow me to have one class in which my work would be good from the get-go, would not only meet expectations but would merit "Great work, Karen." 

So.  Yet another humbling experience this quarter with re-dos of every paper I've submitted.  And no "Exceeds Expectations."  Worse, tonight, I received an invitation from my instructors to forego Re-dux #4 of Assignment #2, and find a whole new topic to research, analyze, and write about. 


So.  I have rebelled.  Instead of having me write, rewrite, rewrite again, and now do a start-over, I have asked that my instructors tell me, show me, encourage me, in words, the who, what, when, where and how of completing this assignment, to meet their expectations.  Otherwise, I'm just shooting blanks in the dark and hoping to hit my target. 

And I told them I just want to cry. 

'Whelmed by frustrating "busy work" . . . '

I feel like Linus, the blanket-carrying thumb-sucking friend of Charlie Brown.  The whole of my life this quarter is just not working out the way I envisioned.  I'll start with Social Media . . .

I thought I was an intermediate level social media devotee.  From the beginning, I've been behind, because the choices I made [without knowing what would happen as a result of those choices] have kept me behind. 

Like using my BGI gmail address for setting up my blogs, which do not accommodate Google Profiles, without which, one is not able to post comments to other's sites, nor are they able to post to mine.  This forced a re-dux of both my learning journal and the Personal Beat Blog. 

So I di the re-dux, and reinvited all my classmates and instructors to my two new sites.  Then came the return emails that they were using some other mail address and I needed to reinvite them, using that address.  And so I did.  This meant more busy work, because there was no simple easy way to add gmail addresses, just one at a time. 

Then during online class, I used my personal gmail address and learned that our shared Google doc is associated with my BGI gmail address. So I somehow balanced several windows on my laptop, going between the BB/Collaborate slide show, my notes (which were in a Google doc on my personal Gmail), and the shared doc on the BGI gmail.  Not easy to continously toggle through.

Then, during class, losing the ability to use my mic or to contribute in the Chat Box.  And soon after, I am unable to input into the shared Google doc, as well.  The content of our lessons does interest me, it goes deeper and is more cultural, anthropological in nature, so it is quite frustrating to have these technology issues to contend with.  It takes away from my learning and is one of the reasons I moved to the onsite Evening MBA program.  It happened to me before, and it's happening now, too. 

And our YouTube video project.  I gratefully participated in Miriam's pc-based conversation, and believed that I had great info to go forth and use Win 7/Windows Live Movie Maker.  I had read up about it online, where it stated that I could use photos, videos, Powerpoint slideshows ~ any media basically could be uploaded and converted into a video, with the capability to add audio and music.  I was pretty stoked to give this a try! 

And two days later, all I really wanted to do was cry.  The new Win 7/Windows Live DOES NOT upload Powerpoint or any slideshows.  The audio functionality was nowhere that I could find.  Once I began the project, the software would not allow me to make any changes or updates.  And after starting one project, deleting it, and attempting a start-over with the same name, Windows Live simply would not open.  I literally spent 48 hours over 3 days until finally I created something that I could post on YouTube and submit.  Windows Live Movie Maker, however, had it's way.  It refused to use the timing setting that I gave this project, and just rolled through each slide with no time for the viewer to get it, to understand it, such as it was.  I will never use this software again.  I will make more videos using another software.

And tonight, I'm here, playing catch-up on this class's deliverables.  .  If I don't get caught up tonight, then I'm not coming to intensive this weekend while I do get caught up.  I'm toying with dropping out and retaking the class when I'm not carrying two other highly demanding courses.  Where's Lucy when I need her?