This weekend, I was away on the 2009 Student Leadership Retreat with other "student leaders" from UMass Lowell.
Because it was an exhausting (and emotionally draining) trip, by the time I got back, I made the decision not to go layout.
This was a painful decision because I felt guilty for not fulfilling my role as E-I-C, but at the same time, needed some relaxation time. I warned my other editors that I wouldn't be at layout this week, and they kind of joked about it.
When I announced to everyone that I wasn't going to be around, I felt bad- I didn't want to make it sound like the paper couldn't run without me- I KNOW that's far from true. I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn't going to be around and that people needed to really step up.
I was a little offended when they started making jokes about how this layout was going to be "fun" and "what did I do anyway?". I do a lot and sometimes I feel underappreciated. Okay, I ALWAYS feel underappreciated. But that's besides the point.
I think my staff finally realized that I am a big help- I got some texts around 8 when they were far from done about how I'm good at keeping everyone on track. At least I'm good at that, right?
Anyways, tomorrow is another big general meeting and I hope the turn out is as good as its been!
Monday, October 5, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Cracking down
It's no secret or surprise that there is a lot of drama going on at the Connector.
Although it is fair to say that all clubs have their fair share of problems, our jobs at the Connector are a little different than most clubs on campus. Because we are the only group that puts out a tangible product, our stress levels tend to run a little higher than most, and our dedication, I believe, is far stronger than most.
We devote three days a week to our stupid paper- THREE DAYS!!! Our general meetings on Tuesdays are fun because we have lots of excited students and free pizza, Thursdays are not as fun because we have to meet for an editor's meeting, which means we begin to develop a collective panic as we realize what has (or hasn't) come in yet for articles. And Sundays? Oh, the Sundays- we spend each Sunday from 11 am until we are done, which is about 8:30 (on a good night), laying out the paper. It's A TON of work, and the worst part of it is that after we have been fighting with the stupid computers and program for hours, there are still SO many mistakes we find later that week.
There are other problems we have at the Connector, too. The most recent ones have been involving staff members, and more specifically, editors.
Now, I wouldn't be a decent editor if I went and put every one's business on the Internet, but I did want this blog to be honest. I want to be able to share with the world (or at least myself, in a visual way), the ridiculous amount of ridiculous crap I have to put up with on a ridiculously scary daily basis.
My biggest issue right now with my editors is this: they all are constantly saying that they want to quit. I have had to deal with this since last semester; editors getting so fed up with feeling overworked and under appreciated (the story of my LIFE), so they think the logical thing to do is just leave.
This semester, I'm really, REALLY over it.
In the past, personal problems with the E-I-C (me!) have been a big issue. I have tried to be friendly with all my fellow staff both editors and contributors alike, and so far, I don't seem to have any drama with anybody. My managing editor is pretty much the male version of me except way cooler, and I think the two of us do an outstanding job making everyone feel comfortable at the Connector. I have even taken a cue from my boss at my job and started having "One-on-One" meetings with each editor. These meetings are simply just to check in on each editor and make sure they aren't having any major issues. I want the theme to this year to be "A PERSON FIRST, A STUDENT SECOND, A CONNECTOR MEMBER THIRD" (something I certainly don't follow myself). I want them to know that if they are feeling like the workload is just too much that they can (and need to!) speak up about it.
Even despite these meetings, though, I still have editors threatening to quit. Left and right, it's always "I'm over this" or "I've had enough" or "I will leave...seriously I will". I'm SO over it!!!! It's infuriating because a) it's SUCH a childish thing to do (in my eyes anyway). You take a leadership role like this one, and you stick with it. You don't just quit when it gets hard- you work through it and ask for help. and b) it's just reallllly annoying-especially when these threats are discovered through such modern devices like texts, Twitter, ect.
I have an editor's meeting tonight and I seriously feel like telling my staff that if they are thinking about quitting, I want them to do it NOW. Or else I don't want to see, read or hear about it for the rest of the semester.
I've got to start cracking down and being a more authoritative figure rather than a friend. =(
Although it is fair to say that all clubs have their fair share of problems, our jobs at the Connector are a little different than most clubs on campus. Because we are the only group that puts out a tangible product, our stress levels tend to run a little higher than most, and our dedication, I believe, is far stronger than most.
We devote three days a week to our stupid paper- THREE DAYS!!! Our general meetings on Tuesdays are fun because we have lots of excited students and free pizza, Thursdays are not as fun because we have to meet for an editor's meeting, which means we begin to develop a collective panic as we realize what has (or hasn't) come in yet for articles. And Sundays? Oh, the Sundays- we spend each Sunday from 11 am until we are done, which is about 8:30 (on a good night), laying out the paper. It's A TON of work, and the worst part of it is that after we have been fighting with the stupid computers and program for hours, there are still SO many mistakes we find later that week.
There are other problems we have at the Connector, too. The most recent ones have been involving staff members, and more specifically, editors.
Now, I wouldn't be a decent editor if I went and put every one's business on the Internet, but I did want this blog to be honest. I want to be able to share with the world (or at least myself, in a visual way), the ridiculous amount of ridiculous crap I have to put up with on a ridiculously scary daily basis.
My biggest issue right now with my editors is this: they all are constantly saying that they want to quit. I have had to deal with this since last semester; editors getting so fed up with feeling overworked and under appreciated (the story of my LIFE), so they think the logical thing to do is just leave.
This semester, I'm really, REALLY over it.
In the past, personal problems with the E-I-C (me!) have been a big issue. I have tried to be friendly with all my fellow staff both editors and contributors alike, and so far, I don't seem to have any drama with anybody. My managing editor is pretty much the male version of me except way cooler, and I think the two of us do an outstanding job making everyone feel comfortable at the Connector. I have even taken a cue from my boss at my job and started having "One-on-One" meetings with each editor. These meetings are simply just to check in on each editor and make sure they aren't having any major issues. I want the theme to this year to be "A PERSON FIRST, A STUDENT SECOND, A CONNECTOR MEMBER THIRD" (something I certainly don't follow myself). I want them to know that if they are feeling like the workload is just too much that they can (and need to!) speak up about it.
Even despite these meetings, though, I still have editors threatening to quit. Left and right, it's always "I'm over this" or "I've had enough" or "I will leave...seriously I will". I'm SO over it!!!! It's infuriating because a) it's SUCH a childish thing to do (in my eyes anyway). You take a leadership role like this one, and you stick with it. You don't just quit when it gets hard- you work through it and ask for help. and b) it's just reallllly annoying-especially when these threats are discovered through such modern devices like texts, Twitter, ect.
I have an editor's meeting tonight and I seriously feel like telling my staff that if they are thinking about quitting, I want them to do it NOW. Or else I don't want to see, read or hear about it for the rest of the semester.
I've got to start cracking down and being a more authoritative figure rather than a friend. =(
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Week 1 & 2 Summary
Last Tuesday, Sep. 7, was our first official meeting of the year. And it was PERFECT!
The week prior, as I wrote about in my last post, was a huge disappointment. However, everything Week 1 lacked for in substance was made up for aplenty by our first real meeting. Students were literally pouring into our office in McGauvran Student Union hoping learn about the newspaper, and see what we're about! (I'm sure our advertisements for giving out free pizza at the meetings should be credited for the large turnout as well.) We literally needed to be creative with furtniture in the office because we ran out of seats before the meeting even began!
The beginning of the year is always the most exciting, in my eyes. The first few weeks of schools, many students are trying to find their niche at UML, and hopefully, some will find home in our paper. Already, we have a handful of freshmen who I absolutely adore. Even though I have nothing but good things to say about them, I will keep their names anonymous for confidential reasons. These students, though, are seriously amazing. They bring a new level of energy to the paper and I am absolutely ecstatic to work with them! Seriously- I have been on the paper for four years now, and I can't remember the last time I got to see this much enthusiasm in new students!
Other new, exciting things are happening at the paper as well. This semester, we have created two new positions the Connector has never seen before: a Campus Life Editor, who will be in charge of overseeing the Campus Life section and finding content to fill it with, and a Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor, who will aid our current A&E editor, JM, with work while he moves on from college and establishes a nice life outside of UML.
I am also taking in a lot advice from my summer boss and learning to organize a little better. My love for making lists is FINALLY paying off- I have a "Sunday checklist", a reorganized photo station, and best of all, a weekly theme to discuss at Thursday night editor meetings.
As of now, we only have a few real problems to tackle. They all involve printed embarassments in the paper. We need to work on avoiding little (or like this week, BIG) mistakes at layout on Sundays. One article accidentally got printed twice, and one article didn't get printed at all, because of a sloppy run through job by a few of us. Mistakes like these are due, plain and simply, to exhaustion. We spend Sundays from 11 a.m to 8 or 9 p.m working on the paper, and at certain point, we are ready to just LEAVE and go home. I'm hoping that by cracking down on copy editing and article managing throughout the week BEFORE layout on Sunday will alleviate some of these problems.
Issue 3 is right around the corner, and I am excited to see how things will pan out next week.
The week prior, as I wrote about in my last post, was a huge disappointment. However, everything Week 1 lacked for in substance was made up for aplenty by our first real meeting. Students were literally pouring into our office in McGauvran Student Union hoping learn about the newspaper, and see what we're about! (I'm sure our advertisements for giving out free pizza at the meetings should be credited for the large turnout as well.) We literally needed to be creative with furtniture in the office because we ran out of seats before the meeting even began!
The beginning of the year is always the most exciting, in my eyes. The first few weeks of schools, many students are trying to find their niche at UML, and hopefully, some will find home in our paper. Already, we have a handful of freshmen who I absolutely adore. Even though I have nothing but good things to say about them, I will keep their names anonymous for confidential reasons. These students, though, are seriously amazing. They bring a new level of energy to the paper and I am absolutely ecstatic to work with them! Seriously- I have been on the paper for four years now, and I can't remember the last time I got to see this much enthusiasm in new students!
Other new, exciting things are happening at the paper as well. This semester, we have created two new positions the Connector has never seen before: a Campus Life Editor, who will be in charge of overseeing the Campus Life section and finding content to fill it with, and a Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor, who will aid our current A&E editor, JM, with work while he moves on from college and establishes a nice life outside of UML.
I am also taking in a lot advice from my summer boss and learning to organize a little better. My love for making lists is FINALLY paying off- I have a "Sunday checklist", a reorganized photo station, and best of all, a weekly theme to discuss at Thursday night editor meetings.
As of now, we only have a few real problems to tackle. They all involve printed embarassments in the paper. We need to work on avoiding little (or like this week, BIG) mistakes at layout on Sundays. One article accidentally got printed twice, and one article didn't get printed at all, because of a sloppy run through job by a few of us. Mistakes like these are due, plain and simply, to exhaustion. We spend Sundays from 11 a.m to 8 or 9 p.m working on the paper, and at certain point, we are ready to just LEAVE and go home. I'm hoping that by cracking down on copy editing and article managing throughout the week BEFORE layout on Sunday will alleviate some of these problems.
Issue 3 is right around the corner, and I am excited to see how things will pan out next week.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Post 1: First official meeting
Tomorrow is the first official Connector meeting of the school year!
Last week, a meeting WAS advertised around campus, but was trumped by all the other awesome student activities events planned to happen on the same night. Needless to say, the turnout wasn't what we all had hoped for. Hopefully, tomorrow night will be much more successful.
***
Here's a little bit about me:
I have officially been Editor-in-Chief for just two papers so far, and I can already tell this is going to be a stressful position. Way more responsibility than I ever could have imagined. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I was just a simple staff writer, and not the one who has to oversee everything.
I've been a member of the newspaper for 4 years now. I first heard about the paper at my Orientation, and I got an email and decided the very first day of school it was something I wanted to check out. I've always loved writing, and although I wasn't too engrossed in the school newspaper in high school (I had this crappy little column called "The Music Box"). For some reason, I was drawn to the newspaper- I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life.
My goal in life- my ultimate dream- is to be a music journalist, and travel the world trying to connect musicians to the general public. But for now, I guess I just have to take it one step at a time and make sure my baby, The UMass Lowell Connector, gets to live just another week.
Last week, a meeting WAS advertised around campus, but was trumped by all the other awesome student activities events planned to happen on the same night. Needless to say, the turnout wasn't what we all had hoped for. Hopefully, tomorrow night will be much more successful.
***
Here's a little bit about me:
I have officially been Editor-in-Chief for just two papers so far, and I can already tell this is going to be a stressful position. Way more responsibility than I ever could have imagined. Sometimes I wish I could go back to the days when I was just a simple staff writer, and not the one who has to oversee everything.
I've been a member of the newspaper for 4 years now. I first heard about the paper at my Orientation, and I got an email and decided the very first day of school it was something I wanted to check out. I've always loved writing, and although I wasn't too engrossed in the school newspaper in high school (I had this crappy little column called "The Music Box"). For some reason, I was drawn to the newspaper- I knew it was what I wanted to do with my life.
My goal in life- my ultimate dream- is to be a music journalist, and travel the world trying to connect musicians to the general public. But for now, I guess I just have to take it one step at a time and make sure my baby, The UMass Lowell Connector, gets to live just another week.
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