It was really foggy and wet as I made my way from Manchester to Rindge but on the up side – it wasn’t snowing. Even in the rain and mist Franklin Pierce campus is gorgeous. How fortunate are the people who get to work and study in that atmosphere.
We started the morning listening to and learning from Kathy Eneguess, NHWHEL chair and president of White Mountains Community College in Berlin, NH. Kathy and I had met previously when I presented at the New England Regional Conference of Small Business Development Consultants held at the Mt. Washington Hotel last year. Kathy has a very cool way of being, she’s very engaging in subtle ways. Something about her knowing smile and the pace of her cadence tell me she’d be fun to just talk to, and at the same time I get the feeling she’s not likely to sit around wasting time “just talking” about anything. She seems to me, a very purposeful women.
Kathy was our MC of sorts and led the business activity of the conference as well and introduced us to our speakers, the first of whom was Kim Mooney, PhD. Kim is the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Franklin Pierce University (and our host for the day – thank you Franklin Pierce!). Kim told us about a Franklin Pierce certificate program for Women in Leadership. A great idea! The really awesome part to me is that this certificate program is open to, and designed for, non-matriculated students (yes!). I think this is the kind of opportunity to both learn from and to educate the business community. It is just exactly what we need all over the state. I’m certain the student aids in the room beamed as Kim also let it be known that she felt we could all learn from our students, especially with respect to the changing communication and technological landscape. I think she’s right.
The last speaker of the morning was Betsy Gardella, president and CEO of New Hampshire Public Radio. Betsy talked to us about change. She reflected on her days in college using computers, which involved punch cards and hoping for successful print outs. She admited that if not for “Spell Check” she may have never left her self-correcting typewriter. Things do change, and people do find new ways to communicate and participate. At NHPR she has seen change not only in how radio is consumed but in how the news is reported. So much comes from the listener now, as they are first “in-the-know”. NHPR has seen huge increase in their public insight network which now has four thousand members here in New Hampshire. I think the economy has probably played a big role in the adoption of social media. People want “to do something” in times of crisis, anything to help. Participating, responding and reporting all let us “do something”, I’ve recently become a member of the network myself (you can sign up too).
I led one two hour workshop on institutional social media policy development. We had some great conversation there and I was fortunate to have a great mix of individuals at varying levels of social media adoption at their respective organizations. After the workshop I hurried back to the hall to prepare for my keynote presentation.
I tweeted: 11:40 AM Apr 9th
“First session on sm policy complete..one person said it was the best two hrs of her life…only cost me a few $ 
#nhwhel #fb”
“Prepping for keynote…hope I don’t bore them or offend anyone…little nervous …I really respect these women. #nhwhel #fb”
See, I was really challenged to come up with the content for this session. I have so many shared core values with this group of women. I could have spoken about social media for marketing and advancement, or social media for community development and donor cultivation. I could have really enjoyed talking about social media as an educational resource and the use of these tools in the class rooms around the world. I could have talked a good talk about any of those topics, but I didn’t. Instead of entertaining these amazing educational leaders with the latest and greatest gadgets, I took the opportunity to ask them to make some real changes, I asked them to step up to social responsibility. I asked them for social media education. To make change at their institutions, demanding social media education for faculty and staff as well as students. You coulda heard a pin drop
