Let’s talk YOUNG cosida

If you’ve been to a CoSIDA workshop the past few years, you’ve probably heard of Young CoSIDA. It’s a group of SIDs who like to party. They like to wear their logo on their badge obscuring our beautiful CoSIDA laptop logo.

Most people probably remember such cliques in high school. Not surprisingly YC had a theme party “high school prom” in Nashville earlier this month. Like most of the 800 workshop attendees, I did not get invited. (I did not sit in my hotel room and weep.)

Apparently YC folks were dressed up like the Village People*, or something. (*Village People are known to be flamboyant and perhaps live alternative lifestyles. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. As a card carrying member of CoSIDA, I believe in inclusion of all races, creeds, colors and sexual preferences.)

So are these athletic communications professionals locked in teenage envy? Or, maybe they wanted to re-live fraternity and sorority life in their adult years?

Who knows, but when you wear a “hipper than thou” emblem on your chest at a workshop, you seem to be saying that you are better than the rest. If you are “Young CoSIDA,” is everybody else is the dreaded “Old CoSIDA” in your eyes?

I don’t care if a group wants to go out on the town. Many of us have a good social life during the workshop—and that’s not a bad thing. In fact, most of us hang with the people we know and work with.

The last thing we need in our profession, however, is exclusion and that seems to be a big part of what YC is about. A colleague of mine went to a YC gathering in Philadelphia. He said the focus was on the few movers and shakers and the rest were supposed to watch in awe.

Most importantly, I hope the powers at CoSIDA do not allow anyone who disses the organization by desecrating the CoSIDA badge into official functions—lunches, brunches, table topics--in San Diego next year.

And be careful, we wouldn’t want to see Young CoSIDA folk engaging in Tom Foolery appearing on Facebook.

The Town Hall

The Disgrunted SID blog came up at the Town Hall during the CoSIDA workshop. In all, there was some very good banter going on about the blog, and other topics.

Some folks called on Disgruntled SID bloggers to come forward. Much like some of the anti-blog posts, there was hostility and a threatening nature in the air. A few voiced opinions, but the tension in the room likely prevented others from speaking freely.

Some believe that blogging is cowardly, because most posters use handles.

I would counter that blogging is not going anywhere. Also that it's ironic that SIDS--folks who work in and with media--might endorse suppressing opinions.

What else should've been said at the Town Hall? How about that the anti-bloggers need to lighten up. Read some of those past posts again and you'll see some tongue-in-cheek rants--some of which are funny and well written.

Remember that Disgruntled SID bloggers were not advocating "violent overthrow of CoSIDA."

I'm guessing that most who are in this business enjoy 98-percent of our busy, demanding jobs. It should be OK to take a few moments to vent about what's right, or wrong, about the profession.

Last question: Is today’s anti-blogger yesterday’s book-burner?

Don Hansen's All-Joke team

My football program recently had four players named to Don Hansen's Football Gazette preseason All-American team. However, I am not promoting this accomplishment, if it can be called that. After all, this team is a joke.

This All-American team includes nearly 300 players. Think for a second about what that means. Hansen could name the entire Mount Union roster and not get to 300 players. There is no way there should be 12 All-American punters or 21 All-American quarterbacks.

It seems fairly certain to me that this is a blatant attempt to get as many schools as possible (Maranatha Baptist Bible?) represented on the All-American team so that we will send out press releases promoting his little weekly pamphlet. I, for one, refuse, and so should you. This is the dumbing down of All-American honors and cheapens every honor everyone else with your program has ever gotten and ever will get.

For a while, Don was putting out reasonable All-American teams. But it's obvious those days are over. All of his All-Americans can now be lumped in with the USA Football All-American teams of the mid-1990s -- jokes, all of them.

It would be nice if we SIDs could bring back the team we used to put together. We must make it a priority to find a sponsor for that team again.