Joining the Social Media Dance Moms

As I am sure you can tell from my post last week I watch dance shows. I can barely make it through a Dance Mom show with the Abby Lee Dance Company crew simply because I can't imagine other parents being that horrible to one another. I grew up in this environment and never once did I see any mom take out another. I am sure there were stage moms of course but they only skimmed my world.

At my son's studio there are over involved moms who complain a lot but I see those same moms at work so nothing new. Why am I talking about this? Well let me tell you I stumbled upon a dance show last night called Dance Kids ATL. I started watching and the fact this studio did hip hop and breakdance primarily really caught my attention. On top of that I loved the moms. They were supportive, not divaish and understood when the choreographer spoke to their kids. I even took to my twitter (@CourtinCanada)to mention this.

I woke up this morning to tweets back from some of the Dance Kids ATL moms! How encouraging is that!

This demonstrated to me exactly what I read in The Cluetrain Manifesto Chapter 3 - Talk Is Cheap chapter which I have to say I throughly enjoyed reading. This would be like a wired conversation. By responding to my tweet not only will I continue to watch this show, I will tell people about it and if I lived in the Atlanta area I would likely check out the studio. They brought a human voice to the show and helped to create a community around it. Twitter is allowing these conversations that would never have been possible before social media.

Of the 95 Theses the one that I identify with the most is #3 Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice. In January I took a new position at Western where I not only supervise the front line staff but I also manage the social media for The Registrar's Office. When I took it over they had another area of Student Services running the day to day messaging. They were just using prescheduled messages pulled from an important dates section in the schools Academic Calendar. This meant there was no human voice to their tweets. The same information was being posted to Twitter & Facebook. I really enjoy talking to applicants, students and alumni on social media. When they have questions they can just ask and receive answers. I also enjoy finding out things that students are finding hard to navigate or confusing. It helps me to create new YouTube videos and update step by step instructions. Right now I manage @westernuReg , https://www.facebook.com/UWOSCentral , Western University Student Central YouTube and we will be contributing to the Reddit account that Western currently has. We haven't decided if we will host our own for the Registrar or just answer Western's.

I think the more ways a student can get answers to their questions the more enjoyable their university experience will be.

Week One for dance done and blog post for class

Dance week one ... summary ... tired :) My week was spent driving from the North end to Lambeth Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. It just occurred to me that I might not have explained the type of dance my son does. Kian does ballet, jazz, hip hop and break dancing at Elan Dance Arts.




 I accomplished something I was proud of I dropped my son at dance at 4pm and left him til 8pm. In the past I have generally hung around the studio in case he needs anything. He is getting close to 10 years old and now that he is on the comp team I am determined to teach him to fend for himself. He needs to become more independent and responsible for himself. Yes, I am saying that to myself more than to him lol. On Saturday he had an hour break between classes so we bought him a gift card so that he could purchase lunch at Subway by himself. When I picked him up he admitted he was scared at first when he went to buy lunch but I think he was proud of himself for doing it alone. I was proud too ... crazy the things that make you proud.

The one thing I really want to be sure to avoid this first year of competitive dance is that I NEVER want to be a dance mom. Those ladies on that TLC show are nuts. Even the cheer moms are crazy. I don’t want to live through my son ... I grew up dancing professionally so I have already lived the life he is starting. I just want him to be happy and do something he enjoys. I still remember what it was like to grow up in a dance studio ... I wouldn’t change that for anything.


For my class this week’s blog needs to touch on the impact structure has on the marketing function and how structure impacts the culture and operations. I feel like I am in a Greek class and I don’t speak the language. Please bear with me as I work through the assignment.

I have worked at Western University since I graduated with my degree in 1997. During that time I moved from Administration to a Faculty and then back to Administration where I am now. Each area of the university is unique. Some operate under a hierarchy, others more of a matrix. It also varies depending on the level of job you do within the same area. Managers have a different structure than staff. We have Faculties, Departments, Schools and Administration.

The culture of the office you work in really does determine what you can accomplish in your role. In my current position I have a lot of autonomy but must ultimately report to my manager. When placed on a project team I then also have a project manager to report to. This I find very liberating as you can complete tasks and feel like you have accomplished something. If I think we can make a difference to even one student I now have the ability to try to make that change. In a previous faculty position it was completely different. We all reported to the dean of the faculty. We couldn’t make decisions on our own just make recommendations to the dean. This was very constraining and made day to day work frustrating. I understand why faculties are different from administration each has a reason for the structure they operate under.

Marketing has become something that all areas of the university are involved in. From our viewbooks to our twitter, facebook & reddit accounts we have all become involved in getting Western University out there to potential new students.

Welcome to my world

Welcome to the competitive dance team! Yep ... that is my reality. My son auditioned for his studio dance team in June. I warned him with the first audition that he might not make it. After the call back I again suggested he not get too attached to the idea. Low and behold he made the team. Now he has 6 recreation classes and 7 competitive rehearsals a week. Crazy right ... don't forget to add into it that I also dance 5 hrs a week and my daughter dances too! Yay right. Well add to that a full time job and taking courses for my diploma yep that is my life. So this blog will be for my class and at at the same time I will tell you about my first year being a Dance Mom!