» Speaking out

Death sucks

staci baird — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:44:37 +0000

When my sister was killed in 2001 I kept thinking, “I wish I could’ve said good-bye.” I thought that knowing that someone’s time on earth was coming to an end would be better than having them abruptly taken away. I was wrong. No matter how it happens, death sucks.

A friend of ours was diagnosed with cancer a little over a year ago. She’s fought hard. Real hard. Chemo and the whole nine yards. She twittered about her experience until recently, when the doctor’s dropped a bomb.

“It’s terminal. There is nothing more that can be done.”

I met this woman, Rannie Yoo Reid, for the first time at the Hard Knox Cafe in the Inner Richmond. She is a petite Asian gal whose face was left disfigured by the surgery that removed her cancerous parotid gland. She was wearing a hat because chemo had caused her hair to fall out and she had decided to just shave it all off. From the very start of our conversation, over chicken and biscuits, she was open and brutally honest about her cancer and how it made her feel. She’s a foodie, like me, and lost a lot of her ability to taste certain kinds of food during her chemotherapy. I appreciated the fact that she was so real. Everything about cancer sucks. Why not be honest about it? I respect her for not acting like it isn’t a big deal. It IS a big deal. A HUGE deal.

Our friends got married in their PJ’s in bed about four days before she died.

I can’t even begin to imagine what their last days together were like, knowing that there was going to be an end to their relationship much sooner than there should’ve been.

We attended her memorial with about a thousand of her friends. It was amazing how many people she touched during her life. My sister’s “celebration of life” memorial was equally amazing. Although, it’s a blur. I have a tape of the celebration, I have yet to watch it… I think I will next year, on the nine year anniversary of her death.

My sister Shannon circa 1984. I’m pretty sure I had something to do with her crazy outfit and the skates. I was the big sis!

If there’s one lesson to be taken from death, it’s that you should live your life. What that means is entirely up to you. But to me, that means spending time with my friends and family and remembering that even with all the stress life throw my way, at least I’m living it.

It’s taken me some time to post about this…. I’m never quite sure if I should be talking about it, telling people… but it’s part of who I am today. I don’t want to not talk about it just because it makes people uncomfortable. I think we are doing everyone a real disservice by not talking about death and dying. Everybody does it. Acting like it doesn’t happen is B.S. It happens a lot. To bad people, good people, and eventually, to all of us.

Please don’t stop the music

staci baird — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:59:11 +0000

For as long as we’ve lived in San Francisco (almost two years now) we’ve been listening to KNGY-FM 92.7 “Energy”. The morning show with Fernando and Greg was hilarious. From Greg’s Sassy Sports segments to the Homo vs Hetero quizzes, they had me up and laughing first thing every morning.

And yes, I said, was.

According to a story on The San Jose Mercury News Web site, the independent station was sold. And the worst news of all, “it was widely reported on Internet sites Friday that many staffers, including the popular morning team of Greg Sherrell and Fernando Ventura (“Fernando and Greg”) had been fired.” Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Nooooooooooooooo!

So, Friday night I headed down to the Lookout so I could tell the two DJ’s in person, that I was sorry.

The place was packed, and most of the ex-station employees were wasted by 7 p.m. But it looked like everyone was having a good time. Fernando told me he’s going to take a trip to Tahoe to get away for a little while. I told him that’s what I would do too, take a break. But I want to hear them back on the radio soon! And that actually could happen sooner than later, for two reasons. First, I believe, KNGY is (errr was) San Francisco’s only pure dance station. Second, I believe, Fernando and Greg were San Francisco’s only openly gay morning show DJs. These two reasons alone should be enough for San Francisco to find a way to get the station and the morning show back on the air.

SFGate.com list of Bay Area Radio Stations: FM.

According to radio-info.com, there is an intense discussion going on in the site’s message boards about the loss of dance music radio and whether or not a mainstream “Current Hit Radio” station can compete on KNGY’s signal.

This morning on Facebook I found a link to a new group called, “Save Energy 92.7 FM.” Of course, I joined. I’m really hoping we can make something happen. San Francisco needs a dance station, and I need my Fernando and Greg!

Dear United Customer Service,

staci baird — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 04:43:22 +0000

I’m tired, I’m angry and I’m armed with a blog.

We were supposed to be at a conference in Knoxville, Tenn. today, instead, we were stranded at O’Hare for almost seven hours.

It wasn’t because of weather, it wasn’t due to a mechanical issue and it wasn’t our fault.

We were at the very back of the plane from SFO to ORD. I mean the very back, as in the last row of seats before the lavatory. When we landed (25 minutes late) I asked the flight attendant if she could radio ahead and let our connecting flight know we were on our way. She said, “You’ll make it, you’ll be off of here in 10 minutes.” Then, I asked her if she could help us get to the front of the plane any faster. She just said, “You’ll make it.”

Well, we didn’t make it from Gate C to Gate F. We got to the gate about nine minutes before our flight was scheduled to take off. The agent at the gate wasn’t very helpful either. She said the doors were closed, and although she hesitated, she didn’t even try contacting the plane. Then she told us the next flight to TYS was departing at 1:38 PM. It was 6:54 AM. I was so furious I had to walk away from the counter. She printed us boarding passes for the 1:38 flight and we headed upstairs to have a little chat with customer service.

And what did United Customer Service do for us? NOTHING. Not a damn thing. We didn’t get a food voucher, a hotel voucher, a discount on our next flight, nothing. Hell, we didn’t even get an “I’m sorry.” Oh, but good news! Our bag was on the 6:01 AM flight and would be waiting for us in Knoxville.

Great, can my bag sit on the panel in my place? I didn’t really get a chance to debrief it on all my talking points, but I’m sure it would do me right.

At least the customer service agent wasn’t bitchy, the flight attendant and the gate agent were. The customer service agent said she could get us on a 7 AM flight back to SFO, but because our tickets were non-refundable we could only get credit for a future United flight.

*sigh*

So, why should United care about one or two little customers like us?

I’ll tell you why, because we add up.

And the more of us you piss off, the worse it’s going to get for your company, United. Some of us that you piss off will “air” our grievances online, and then you end up with a story in mainstream media, like this one, “United passengers air their bitter grievances” with highlights that include the following:

United had the industry’s highest rate of passenger complaints to the Department of Transportation for all of 2006: 1.36 complaints for every 100,000 passengers boarded.
In the University of Michigan’s 2007 American Customer Satisfaction Index, United scored at the bottom of the industry.
The most recent Airline Quality Rating, done by Wichita State University and the University of Nebraska, ranked United No. 8 of 18 big and small airlines for 2006.

So United, if you want to stay in business for the foreseeable future, I suggest you work on improving your customer service skills.

Not your mother’s journalism job

staci baird — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 05:55:30 +0000

Journalism students often moan and groan that they don’t want to be reporters or editors or even online producers for that matter. Usually, I just shake my head and try to figure out why then they are enrolled in a journalism class and majoring in journalism.

Me. Of all people. Who am I to judge them?

I didn’t go back to school to get a graduate degree in journalism so I could be a reporter. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE traditional media and I know the roles of reporter, editor and producer are very important in our society. However, those jobs aren’t for everyone.

I decided to go back to school and study journalism because I wanted to improve my communication skills. I also wanted to explore new media and see if, coupled with my technical experience, I could find a place in today’s digital society.

Help Wanted: Seeking hip, witty individual to evangelize our XYZ product and web site to the masses. Must be familiar with “insert internet buzzwords here” and all the hype that surrounds it. What works? You tell us – better yet, show us – and the job is yours. You will be an agent for change within our organization. Helmet required.

The good news is there are a lot of cool, exciting jobs out there just waiting for curious journalism grads who know how to write, edit and disseminate messages. Oh, and knowing a thing or two about some of the strengths and limitations of the internet as an unique medium is helpful too.

Here are a few recent real job postings I found. All of them require communication skills. None of them existed 10 years ago.

Online Community Manager:

Develop plans and processes to build the community and foster vibrant groups.
Recruit, motivate and manage a team of community moderators and contributors scattered across the country.
Interact with members of the community on a regular basis to gather their input, to encourage their participation and to formulate new functionality to meet their needs.
Establish and help enforce standards within the community to minimize conflict and hurt feelings among members.
Understand user interface and design well enough to formulate changes to sections of the community site that may need improving.
Interact with editorial team to integrate non-UGC content into the community where relevant.
Work with audience management team to market the community to new audiences.
Stay abreast of industry trends and competitive community web sites.

Web Analyst:

Conduct data analysis on website activity for multiple client sites
Work closely with interactive team to implement data-driven marketing strategies
Identify opportunities through analysis of customer behavior, product sales, referral sources
Perform email analytics including list segmentation and subject line, copy and offer testing
Assist with email deployment including list management
Team with interactive and usability teams to optimize sites
Evaluate, recommend, deploy and utilize appropriate data collection and analysis applications
Analyze site performance and trends using path analysis, funnel reports and other analytical data to determine factors impacting visitor behavior
Design and develop daily, weekly and monthly reporting with appropriate detail for target audience
Provide analytics back to email, online media and PPC teams for channel optimization

Associate Search Manager

Setting up accounts and campaigns
Building and managing keyword lists
Working collaboratively to write text-based creative copy
Processing change requests, including bid management
Coordinating creative upload and editorial review
Providing regular and ad hoc reports

Maybe one of these jobs is right for you?

The back story: Part III

staci baird — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 07:05:31 +0000

While mulling over my resume one day, I realized that my helpdesk background was branding me as something I could never be, and would never want to be anyway. I needed something to round out all the technical training and experience; something to prove I was different from the other geeks. Given my personality, I could never be content just working in tech support.

I am a people person, someone who values people above all other things. It is important for me to listen to people, really understand and communicate their needs. When you work on the helpdesk it is all about quantity, not quality. The more problems you can solve, the more trouble tickets you can close… and most IT professionals are task-oriented individuals. I am better at creating relationships with end-users than I am at quickly solving technical problems.

It was my last technical support job, and a family tragedy, that made me realize that I wanted to return to my roots, both physically and mentally.

First class to meet in the Multimedia Newsroom.

I decided to relocate to Kansas. When I first started contemplating a move to Kansas, I thought about pursuing an MBA. But, after working at the University of Kansas in the J-School lab for a semester, I decided to take a different path, and I applied for the journalism program instead. After all, the professors and staff were people I really respected. Why not try the journalism thing again?

A lot has changed. The possibilities for journalism and journalists are endless; especially for someone with a slightly technical background and a taste for breaking the rules and living on the edge. It is my belief that technology should work for the end-user. And, I realized that I offer a unique skill set because I am able to translate and communicate technology to non-technical people.

After completing my graduate coursework I moved to Knoxville, Tennessee to join my sweetie, Jay. I had hoped to land a job at the University of Tennessee or E.W. Scripps.

I met Dr Jim Stovall at the University of Tennessee in September 2006. There are many people you will meet in your life and your career and sometimes you know right away when you click. Dr Stovall and I clicked. We share many of them same philosophies about new media and journalism. That fall, I was lucky enough to work with Johnny Dobbins to help Dr Stovall build the Tennessee Journalist website (TNJN.com).

TNJN.com is the website for the University of Tennessee Journalism and Electronic Media department. It is 100% student operated, with content created by students in JEM classes as well as volunteers and TNJN staff. In some ways, I guess you could say it was my baby. And I couldn’t be more proud of how my baby has grown up. There is nothing more satisfying then to see the work the students are doing.

The CNBC office in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.

But this guy named Art Lenehan kept contacting me about a job opportunity with MSN Money in New York. New York! I always wanted to live in big city. And New York is THE big city. Who would turn down an opportunity like that? Besides, this job intrigued me. MSN was experimenting. There was a small team of multimedia journalists already in place and Art wanted me to come work with them. When I finally met Art (he drove to Knoxville to talk to me about the job) I knew I had to go. I liked this guy. I liked the way he talked and the things he said. So, I packed my bags and headed to the Big Apple. However, my relationship with Jay was really important, and I guess I always knew something would have to give.

I was in New York a mere four months, but I loved every minute of it. If I could’ve convinced Jay to move I would’ve stayed. But he wasn’t ready to leave Scripps. Then, rather suddenly, I found out about a job opening at Scripps. It’s funny where and when opportunities pop up.

At the Scripps Interactive Summit in Atlanta.

At E.W. Scripps I worked for Eleanor Cippel in a little division carved out by the company’s Entrepreneurial Fund. As project manager, I helped take ideas for new businesses from employees at our newspapers, put together business plans and implement the ideas. Some of the “start-ups” I helped launch include: Knoxmoms.com and the iMoms.com network, WagNBrag.com and Rootclip. I worked with amazing entrepreneurs who were able to accomplish amazing things and overcome a variety of start-up-like challenges.

In October 2007, Jay accepted a job with a start-up called Mochi Media in San Francisco. Of course, I was not far behind. In January 2008, I started my new position as Senior Internet Marketing Manager in Lucasfilm‘s online division.

The title is great, but what do I really do?

Chillin’ with Yoda on the Lucas campus.

I manage day-to-day tasks, like where’s that mp3 of the Stormtrooper’s blaster? Can someone please approve the Lightsaber animation for the homepage? Let’s build a site map and discuss the content we can get from the developers… but I also get to help shape the future of LucasArts online presence and the overall strategy for our game websites. How do we build a fan base like starwars.com and a community around our newer titles?

I’m not helping promote world peace or fighting for our First Amendment rights, but I am doing something pretty cutting edge and cool with my journalism skills. And I’m working for an organization that is known for its innovation, creativity and technology. I can’t imagine a better fit for my background and skills.