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Swiss Army Knife

February 27, 2015

So this was my week (and I am not making this up): Monday: Meet with college emergency team to deal with report of student with alleged guns in a backpack. Cops scour the campus, suspect flees to nearby mall, which immediately goes on lockdown. Helicopter moms launch full assault. Cancel lunch plans. Tuesday: Deal with Monday’s “safety alert.” Labor over every word of my press release; carefully explain to media the police report shows it was second-hand info about something someone said that someone else thought might have happened last week. Stress how important we take matters of safety. Scratch lunch. Wednesday: Review proposals for college communications and marketing audit. Meet with president and the development director to discuss progress of capital campaign. Attend lunch meeting for institutional signage for upcoming construction project. Strangely, no lunch is served. Thursday: Roll out summer registration promos across media and social. Help prepare photos for new college staff ID rollout tomorrow. Break own rule and answer phone even though I don’t recognize number. Subsequently get suckered into buying an exclusive state tournament sponsorship package. Buy Cheetos from vending machine only to remember I gave them up for Lent. Friday: Professional development day – facilitate two sessions on enrollment ideas (while suppressing my inner fight or flight response), hastily prepare and report said ideas to 245 fellow employees as they eat their lunch and ignore me. Do photo retakes for people who are horrified by their ID photo received 30 minutes prior. Retreat to my office and write a therapeutic blog post to the only people on earth who would understand. If it wasn’t for NCMPR, I would not have survived this week. Since joining this group nearly 10 years ago, I have learned so much from so many people who are waaaay smarter than me. Thanks to you guys, I’ve managed to become the marketing equivalent of a Swiss Army knife. Did I say knife? Oops. I didn’t mean… Yes, officer this is my ID but…. Wait. Let me finish this blog…. Is that a TV truck?

By Jeff Ebbing
Marketing Guy
Southeastern Community College (Iowa)
West Burlington, IA