There is a place on all campuses that good projects go to die. Usually, a thing called a ‘committee’ swings in, 7-15 people deep, and picks it apart, retweaks it, postpones it, and eventually.. that good project crawls off into a corner to die a slow, painful, uncreative death.
I hate seeing that happen. I also hate sitting on committees. So when at all possible, I just do things myself.
——–
So here’s the precursor to this post: I previously posted about the Butler Blue II missing mascot costume video. Total time to make it: 1.5 hours of shooting on campus, 5 hours of editing, a few hours to process/upload to YouTube, and it was out of the door by 7am. [Read more about the video here.] [Oh, and for those who thought it was a PR hoax... 4 arrested.]
——–
Last week I was approached by a member of the campus community who had a video idea to promote a contest on campus. He wanted to use Blue II and for it to have a similar feel to the above video. I said I’d love to brainstorm with him, but time to shoot/edit would be more limited since it was an outside project. Then, I get a meeting request…. to the committee.
Truth be told, the meeting slipped my mind. I got busy (it was a late Friday afternoon meeting) and missed it. But it absolutely killed me when I got the email early this week about the ‘video update from the committee’.
NEXT YEAR?!??!?!?!??! I don’t know how the person who organized the meeting took that so well. I feel bad that I was not there to say “we can do this next week, no problem”. But, I don’t know if ‘the committee’ would have allowed it. Scripts to write, lighting to get set, sound checks, and more…. ridiculous.
Next Monday, Part 2 - Creating a video.. good, cheap and fast [pick 2].
4 Comments until now
It could have been worse (although not much in academia is worse than a Friday afternoon committee meeting). Missing a committee meeting can sometimes mean the committee decides on a disastrous path that you must somehow try to fix. I call it “cleaning up after the elephants.” It’s a common practice in public relations.
Committees are both a bane and a permanent fixture in academic administrative life. Might as well get used to it, and try to figure out when and how to involve yourself.
Good luck!
Committee work is just a part of life. At least my life. I have been trying to keep our web task force at a strategic level lately and out of the operational stuff. There is a fine balance between getting “buy-in” and just doing it yourself.
[...] 47. Brad Ward: Social Media and Education Recent Post:The Good Project Graveyard [Part 1] [...]
I agree that there is a time and a place for a committee. Each of you are Directors, and you direct, and that sometimes includes a meeting of the minds. Something like a web redesign is certainly not a one-man operation; it affects a larger crowd.
However, a small 3-minute video for an internal audience (current students and staff)….. not so much, in my opinion. Just get out there and get it done. More on that later.
Add your Comment!