Norovirus Hits #NASH74: A Case Study in Crisis Communication

As many of you have heard, including from the school administration a few of us from Mount Allison went to the 74th Annual Conference of the Canadian University Press. There were many great presentations from journalists and other experts, helpful round-table discussions from those at other papers from around the country, and inspiring, informative, and sometimes hilarious keynote addresses. However, all you heard was probably something like this headline: Painful norovirus infected 75 people at Victoria conference
Thankfully I left unscathed by the virus. however many others didn't. While it must have been a nightmare for organizers, by most accounts they did an excellent job communicating with delegates throughout the ordeal. I find myself in the majority but there are those who claim that the way in which they communicated (e-mail, door-to-door checks, and Twitter) was inadequate. I collected the most relevant posts from throughout the night and asked the interwebs (but primarily the others who were at #NASH74) what they thought. Below is that story.

Canadian University Press Archipelago (74th Annual National Conference)

I got in yesterday to the Canadian University Press' 74th Annual National Conference known as Archipelago (as each member paper is like an island in an archipelago). Anyway it was a long flight in but it has been a great conference so far. I'll be writing more specifically about what I've learned later this week for my report/presentation to the Argosy Editors' meeting on Wednesday but right now I'll provide some information on the presentations I've appreciated/learned the most from so far and the ones I'm most looking forward to tomorrow and Saturday.

So far:

And still to come:

and a professional critique of Argosy.ca by Josh O'Kane, a web editor for the Globe and Mail:

It has been really busy couple of days and I'll be exhausted and I'll have a lot of academic and other work to catch up on when I get back but I think it'll have been worth the time and energy coming out here to meet with hundreds of other people working for student newspapers and to learn from working professionals.

There will be more posts as I process everything over the next few days. Between now and then you can follow me @GeoffatMtA. I'll be mostly @ replying @CUPnash so I don't spam everybody not at the conference so if you want to see everything in your feed you'll have to check my profile or follow CUPnash as well.

Flying back to Canada for the last time (?)

I just finished a bit of self-reflection over the break including writing a narrative about my life. I thought about coming to the US from Canada and not really thinking about going back to live in Canada until I visited Mount Allison and I may not be back to live here for a number of years. Only time will tell.

It's been an interesting experience to have my preconceived notions about what's  best (and even what's acceptable in terms of prices, customer service, competition, the role of government, cultural protectionism, etc) which has led to many spirited debates with friends who agree to continue believing the other is completely wrong.

To give you an extent of the price-gouging I've experienced, witness the frozen pizza for $13.69. That's one of the few things which most people there agreed was over-priced.

But right now I'm not worried about food prices. Due to the joy of scheduled posts, right now I should be on a plane from Boston to Halifax going through Canadian customs one last time.

Today's flight will be the last time I'll be flying 'back' to Canada for the foreseeable future (albeit at that point I can only see to May, after which I'll be attending graduate school in Syracuse (NY), New York City, Boston or Los Angeles). At this point it is up to four separate groups of admissions professionals which of those options I'm able to choose from. That's a bit nerve-wracking but... no it's pretty much entirely anxiety provoking. There is a small sense of relief after submitting the applications.
However, even knowing it's partly a numbers game (and I've got higher than last year's class average for GPA and GRE scores) and partly qualitative analysis (who has the best references, best personal statement, who seems like they'd be a good 'fit') for the school and that there's very little I can do at this point to positively affect their decisions I and millions of others awaiting graduate school decisions won't exhale until we receive that fat envelope (or long e-mail).

Although this upcoming semester will again be incredibly busy (5 courses, 2-3 PT jobs, volunteer work, and hopefully some fraction of a social life) I'm feeling rested and prepared for it. The break has given me ten days off of most the hectic pace of everything this past semester. I was able to catch up on sleep, detox from excess stress and caffeine, and finally finish a book given to me last January.

A week from today I'll be off to represent The Argosy at the 5-day annual conference of the Canadian University Press along with two co-workers. Then I'll be putting what I learned there into practice creating roughly bi-weekly content for the paper, providing input to Mount Allison website redesign project, and (pending the final okays) starting a 3rd social media-related side-project.

For right now thought, I'm probably listening to a song like the one below trying to get some shut-eye on the short trip to Halifax:

It may be a while until I'm able to post again. For now I wish you all the best in the new year.

"Top Ten" Break-Up Songs

Breaking up with someone or being broken-up with is rarely an enjoyable experience. As with most things in life, some good music can come in handy to speed recovery

It was about 20 months ago that I last posted a break-up song list so I figure I should provide an update in case there's anyone out there in need of a musical outlet and hasn't found the hundreds of other lists very helpful (Spoiler: I looked elsewhere first too).

I tried to include balance weepy with more optimistic music and avoided repeating any of the songs from the previous list. I also avoided angry songs but there's always Bens Fold Five, Stroke 9, The All American Rejects, or OK GO if you're feeling a need to be bitter.

Here's ten of my favorites in the order you might listen to them over a few day. What would you change from this list if you had to limit it to ten?

Bright Eyes - A Perfect Sonnet
The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight 
The Rolling Stones- Paint it Black
The Mountain Goats - Woke Up New
Foo Fighters Times Like These
Elliott Smith - I Better Be Quiet Now
Johnny Cash - 'Hurt"
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue
Cat Stevens - Wild World
OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

Welcome to Gryffindor House...err...I mean Mount Allison

So I mentioned earlier, Mount Allison's colours closely resemble those of Gryffindor/Hogwarts and the new scarves only highlight the similarity. Now there's a new poster alluding to Mount Allison's resemblance of a certain fictional school. Small class sizes? Check. Independent learners? Check. Professional Quiddich team? No...not yet anyways...

Edit: Mount Allison University does, in fact have a Quidditch team. Their official, SAC approved Mandate is to "Have a bloody well good time learning and playing the muggle quidditch."


What do you think? Is Mount Allison anything like Hogwarts?

A better orientation

I was just walking downtown from campus (near the corner of Landsdowne and York) and someone drove up and asked me where Convocation Hall was. I pointed right behind his car at the gigantic building with the big letters saying "CONVOCATION HALL" on it in big block letters.

It was a pretty dull interaction in and of itself but it got me thinking of my goals lately and how I've always been close to what I want but I just didn't have the right orientation to find it. Kind of like being on a railroad track that doesn't quite reach the station. You have to just be facing the right way to find what you've been looking for.