The best crossing sign ever... period

So it has begun…  My journey started with a trip to Waltham, MA for a day and then a week in Columbus, GA that I am finishing up today.  It seems that I may be destined for a small hiccup at the beginning of each city.  Waltham started with an early flight (good), but no reservation for a hotel (not so good).  Fortunately the travel agency was able to get me a room even though the hotel was booked full.  After a full day of training the following day I flew to Atlanta and drove down to Columbus, arriving around midnight.  Everything went smoothly with the hotel and after a few hours of sleep I was up again to start again.  This time the fault was all mine.  After getting lost for an hour on Ft. Benning, and dialing the wrong contact number I finally found my way with a little help from the visitors center; or so I thought.  After checking in, and being told I was done for the day, I returned to the hotel to take care of some administrative work only to receive a phone call and email saying I hadn’t checked in!  Frantic, I call the correct contact number, find out where I’m supposed to be, which was right down the road from the hotel, and meet up with my group.  A little make up training and I was back on track fortunately.  The rest of the week has been medical, gear issue, and training (aka. death by PowerPoint). Quick side note.  During the briefings yesterday the PowerPoint slide show stopped “working”.  So the guy giving the brief continued on while his counterparts tried to figure out what was wrong.  It reminded me of the Zoolander scene where Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller are bashing on the computer trying to get to some files within it. After watching them for a few minutes I offered my assistance and corrected the problem in 3 seconds flat (for anyone who knows power point, an error popped up and took them out of the slide show so it was simply a matter of selecting the slide show again in the menu bar).  Go power point Rangers!!! (that’s for you Mike Bailey).

So here I sit in Starbucks, getting in some good coffee and breakfast before checking out toady.  Pondering what the next few weeks will bring.  Tomorrow it’s off to Sterling, VA for another week of training and sight-seeing hopefully.  When I initially packed my apartment up and moved back to Huntsville I was apprehensive, stressed, nervous, unsure.  As the days have rolled on, I have realized that this wasn’t because I am going to a strange place in a strange land, but more because once again I am packing up my life and putting it in storage with no real sense of home.  I’m excite for the trip.  Each day as it draws nearer I become more excited for what will come.  I know that the experiences I gain will stay with me and the moments shared will last a life time.

~BJ

However, I did have a few comments that weren’t as polite, but they didn’t include foul language or anything offensive. For example, there was a student from Drexel University that tweeted: @DrexelRecCenter I appreciate the info but a post for every occurrence of an event might be overdoing it! (Drexel University).
Another example is from Boston University’s Recreation Center: @FitRec why r u always so cold? (Boston University).

In both of these examples it seems that students use twitter as a feedback source. Although these examples may not be the most appropriate way to handle situations or request change, these comments could be used to improve services.

While researching within Facebook, I found very few comments on photos, statuses, and wall posts. So similar to Twitter, I do not feel that there would be a need for censoring on Facebook. The comments that I came across were mostly on photos of events that were either held in the recreation center or promoted by the recreation center; these comments are positive.

I don’t feel that censoring students posts, tweets, or comments will be necessary, due to the respect that students have for campus life as a whole.

From a recent trip to Columbus, GA. Two more after the jump.

Columbus, GA, originally uploaded by R. Walker.

Columbus, GA, originally uploaded by R. Walker.

Columbus, GA, originally uploaded by R. Walker.

Want to find an old friend, or local activities and companies? Facebook is the place! Within Facebook there are networks. These networks connect you with people in the same city, country, workplace and even school. Networking with people around you on Facebook, it’s easy to find common things amongst one another, such as activities. In Columbus State’s case, it would benefit the recreation center to have a Facebook page, in which it would serve as a informational source for it users, and promote to others within the same network.  Facebook being as popular as it is, would be a great, informative source for Columbus State’s Recreation Center.

Facebook offers two types of pages. The first is a regular page, which has to be  friend requested. The regular page offers: photo uploads, wall posts, status updates, and informational section. The second type of page that Facebook is a fan page. The fan page does not require an accepted friend request to interact on the page, you can simply like the page. When the fan page is liked, it is immediately added to one’s activities. Unlike, a regular page on Facebook, the fan page has the option of posting discussions. This could be a good way to listen to the student body and improve the services that the recreation center offers. As far as promoting the usage of the facility and for informational purposes, I would recommend  a fan page, because it can be liked by anyone viewing the page; no friend request is necessary.

Not many school’s recreational facilities are utilizing Facebook, however, Valdosta State’s Recreation Center is on Facebook. Their page is a fan page, and includes information such as: the hours of operation, class schedules, photos of the facility and activities held there. The Columbus State Recreations Center’s Facebook, should be very similar to VSU’s. Since the majority of student’s dabble around Facebook, I think its a good way to inform the students about activities, hours, etc. We could also send out messages to supporters of the page updating them on the different activities that are being held.

Creating a Facebook fan page for CSU’s Recreation Center can only benefit its promotion. This form of social networking would be helpful in spreading the word of the recreation center’s activities, to people in the Columbus State or Columbus, GA network.

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I have developed a plan of action to establish an online presence that will most certainly benefit our company. This strategy is based around the creation of a blog through WordPress to serve as a central hub for our digital operations, with YouTube and Digg acting as our secondary resources. This systematic approach to establishing ourselves on the web through linking everything to our blog should simplify our potential clients’ online experience with the Johnston School of Music.

In my exploration of online communities, I have determined that a blog should be our primary online tool and the “headquarters” for our presence on the internet. The blog is becoming an increasingly popular and useful medium through which companies and individuals alike are able to reach a mass audience with whatever content they choose to share. Websites such as WordPress offer a free basic blog with the option to upgrade certain features, such as giving the user the ability to create a custom URL address and offering extra storage space for media such as videos and audio clips. With a blog for the Johnston School of Music, we would have a place to identify our company as the best choice for music instruction in the area and to educate the public about what they should expect should they choose to attend our school. We can post anything from event and class schedules to our competitive rates for classes, and we could even post testimonials from current and former students. We could embed videos and audio clips from student performances in our blog, or even add media from well known and accomplished artists which could provide inspiration and motivation for potential students to want to take music lessons.

Given the vast amount of websites that offer free music lessons, I believe we should consider also using the blog as a place to teach as well. We could provide a jumping-off point for potential students with free beginner level lessons and tips to get them started on their musical education. Since they can receive free lessons from so many other sites anyway, we should also offer this service but with the promise of the further expanding of their musical knowledge and faster results should they come in and take lessons from one our experienced instructors. It is through this mixture of complimentary online lessons and the intimate and detailed face-to-face instruction that the student will receive that will separate the Johnston School of Music from the rest of the pack.

In order to ensure the success of our blog, we must remain active and keep things up to date. Through my weekly analyses I determined that the most successful blogs (on the basis of amount of visitors and comments) were those that constantly updated their content and their posts. This persistence in updating seems to keep the blog “fresh” and encourages readers to come back to the blog again and again. We must also publish only quality and appropriate content as we want to maintain a high sense of professionalism that our potential clients will recognize. Keeping an active and solid online presence is vital in maximizing the effectiveness of our blog, as well as that of our secondary resources.

YouTube could also prove to be a valuable venue through which to implement our online strategy. As I suggested before, I believe that we should offer videos of student performances along with those of renowned musicians in order to encourage potential and current students and to promote our school. YouTube is a powerful tool through which we can achieve these goals. With traditional commercials on television, the cost of producing and airing this form of old media could very well outweigh the benefits and amount of new clients for our academy. With YouTube, we can create a free channel specifically for the Johnston School of Music, dedicated to celebrating the work of our students and in turn providing an excellent place to advertise the quality musical education one will receive if they choose to attend our school. We can also provide beginner video lessons from our instructors to showcase their knowledge and teaching ability. We can link our JSoM YouTube page back to our blog so that should a person find our YouTube videos useful, they can easily navigate to our central blog and get information on how to further their musical education by attending classes at our school.

While our WordPress blog and our YouTube account will certainly be the most useful forms on online media we will utilize, I do not think it would hurt to use Digg as a free extra web service to advertise our school. As Digg is a large database for linked articles rated on the basis of voting from Digg users, we could post articles concerned with the benefits of music lessons and link those articles back to our blog. While the articles from a small Georgia based music academy may never be the top links on Digg, it seems like using the service is easy enough and would provide another means through which to get our name out there.

It is evident that the world is changing, and in order for our company to stay relevant and to succeed, we must change with it. As we establish our digital presence through these online communities, I think we will find that our school will be revitalized and we will see enrollment begin to steadily rise. Over the course of the next few months, I will continue my research with a focus on social media sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter to see in what other ways that we at the Johnston School of Music can further confirm ourselves as active players in the global online community.

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Attorney, lobbyist, and former Columbus state legislator Pete Robinson ran the end-the-property-tax- freeze  flag up the political flagpole again. Now, we’ll get to see how many Columbus citizens salute it this time.  Twice before freeze-enders got shot down in referendums, and the freeze was upheld in a state supreme court ruling.

Times are different now, Robinson told Columbus Rotarians today. A lot of people who work and use Columbus public services don’t own property in Columbus any more.  Columbus basically depends on property taxes to pay for government services, and since counties that don’t have tax freezes, such as Harris in Georgia, and Russell is Alabama, are more attractive to people who buy new homes, the tax digest in Columbus simply isn’t going to be enough to finance the Columbus-Muscogee County government.

In order to tax those people who live in other counties, but work in Columbus and use Columbus infrastructure, there has to be a change. One is is to depend more on sales taxes – he called it “consumption” taxes – and another is to institute a Columbus income tax. And ending the freeze will also encoruage more people to buy homes in Columbus.

Sales taxes, the most regressive because lower-income people pay a higher percentage of their income than upper-income people, are already high enough in my book.  I’d lean more toward an income tax. Also, I have never thought the property tax freeze was a good idea.  When a new homeowner moves in and has to pay $2,000 in property taxes and his  or her neighbor, who has been living for 20 years in the house next door that is of the same value, pays $100, you know something is wrong.

I asked Robinson if he really thought there was a chance in hell the tax freeze would end. “It has to!” he said emphatically.

I’m sure our new mayor Teresa Tomlinson will be very interested in seeing how Columbus citizens react to Robinson’s position.

• See if you can register early, since some shows offer discounts for pre-registration.
• Go to Staples or Office Depot and get a pack of the blank template business cards or address labels. Use these to print out your name, address, phone number, email address, as well as your wedding date. Other bits of information you may include are your budget, venue(s), number in your bridal party, et cetera. Every vendor you are interested in will ask for this information and this is an excellent way to avoid carpal tunnel and use your time efficiently. It’s also great for entering the many raffles.
• Bring a canvas bag, the kind you get for $1 from Barnes & Noble or Target. Vendors will have business cards and/or brochures to give you,  not to mention all the free samples you’ll be snagging!
• Bring someone… your sibling, your best friend, your attendant, or all of the above! They’ll be able to give you their opinion on various vendors. They can also help carry the tons of information you’ll inevitably walk away with.
• Though you may have a few people with you, take just one business card and/or brochure from each vendor. The expense we pay to be there and represent ourselves is quite costly.
• Take your time. Enjoy mingling and meeting everyone. If you’re interested in speaking to a vendor, let them know. They may be able to talk to you more in depth about what you envision, or if it’s too busy, schedule a time to meet with you at a later date.
• Don’t feel like you have to talk to every vendor, but do visit each one for at least a minute or two. This will help develop what you envision for your own day.
• Many vendors have discounts or specials if you sign your contract the day of the bridal show. As tempting as any deal may sound, schedule a personal consultation so you can sit down and talk about what you’re looking for, and make sure the vendor is the best fit for you.
• Enjoy the fashion show. You’ll get to see how dresses look on real women, and you might see something you like that you were previously set against.
• Stay until the raffles and giveaways are done. There are some amazing prizes and you have as much chance to win as any other attendee.
• When all is said and done, sit down with your besties and talk about who and what YOU liked, and appreciate any opinions they may have. Use the next few days to schedule personal consultations with your favourites.
• For more on what to ask when interviewing wedding photographers, read our blog post here or visit or Helpful Hints section!

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Her political foes tried to paint Teresa Tomlinson as a Democrat. Well, she is. She is a member of the Muscogee County Democratic Party.  But, she was in a non-partisan election so she didn’t emphasize party.   Since she didn’t just win, but won in a landslide, she obviously knew what she was doing.

To win that big she had to have gotten a lot of Republican votes.  Fortunately, people don’t always vote because of party affiliation. Her husband Trip said that while he and Teresa have supported some Democrats, they have also supported Republicans, depending on who was running for a particular office. And, I do admit that I have, over time, done the same thing.

According to the Ledger-Enquirer story about her win, she told well wishers at her election headquarters last night to look around. She wanted them to notice the diversity of the people there, and she said that is the way Columbus is now, and that a new day in politics has been born.   Let’s hope it gets a good upbringing. I’m sure she’ll work to make that a reality, but, as she will soon learn, she’s just the mayor. Council and the City Manager will have a lot to do with raising that baby, also.