Can You Make It Pretty?

Virginia Moreland has been with Tennessee Board of Regents – The College System of Tennessee since 2012, and she attended her first NCMPR national conference the following year, in New Orleans. In 2025, the conference will return to New Orleans, for NCMPR's 50th anniversary – with Virginia as NCMPR president. In this Meet the President episode, Virginia shares why she's focused on getting new members involved, her love of pop culture ... and that time she was a McDonald's mascot.

One way Rowan College at Burlington County (RCBC) in New Jersey is keeping employees engaged and boosting morale is through its annual report. It’s an important document, but not always the snazziest. Greg Volpe—RCBC’s executive director of strategic marketing and communications—discusses why the college has turned its annual report into a puzzle ... and tarot cards ... a calendar ... a cassette tape ...

Community colleges are full of great stories that represent a diverse student body. How can the college's marcom team find those stories? How can they tell those stories without falling back on tokenism, tropes or stereotypes? Sally Cameron, an NCMPR president emeriti and former vice president of college communications at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts, and Liz Cooper, associate director of public relations at MassBay Community College in Massachusetts, share how they do it. They'll also present on this topic at NCMPR's national conference in Seattle this March.

Chelsea Hayes is the marketing communication specialist at New Mexico State University Alamogordo, and she's a staff of one. She shares her tips for small teams, including how to set boundaries and advocate for more help.

Three topics that come up A LOT in marketing, especially at community colleges:

1. Too many boring meetings.
2. Dealing with clients who think they're marketers.
3. How to handle creative burnout.

Chris and Jenny Schell are the co-founders of Design Rangers, a Colorado Springs design firm that specialize in camps (not meetings), asserting your expertise in marketing, and tips to keep yourself engaged when the burnout is lurking. They chatted with Can You Make It Pretty? live at the District 4 conference in Colorado Springs on Oct. 13, 2023.

Four NCMPR president emeriti, who have a combined 103 years of marketing and communications experience at community colleges, discuss how they stay excited about the job, how to beat imposture syndrome, how marketing can get a say at the college president's table and a whole lot more. NCMPR's 2023-24 president Jeff Julian guest hosts this episode, which was recorded live in St. Charles, Missouri, at the joint District 3/5 conference Oct. 6, 2023.

Panelists:

• Jeff Ebbing, from Southeastern Community College in Iowa, who was NCMPR president in 2022-23
• Lynn Whalen, from Lincoln Land Community College in Illinois, who was NCMPR president in 2019-20
• Heather McDorman, who is retired from St. Charles Community College in Missouri and was NCMPR president in 2010-11
• Alan Campbell, who is retired from Eastern Iowa Community Colleges and was NCMPR president in 2001-02

Saddleback College wanted to launch a targeted digital marketing campaign, and it wanted to ensure it got the details and audience right. As an HSI – Hispanic-Serving Institution – the California college needed to speak its audience's language, both literally and figuratively. Jennie McCue, Saddleback's executive director of marketing and communications, talks through how it selected its vendor, the research conducted, and the (successful!) results of the campaign.

How can you get the most bang for your budgeting buck with your vendors? And build the best relationship so you're not stuck in the awkward position of having to break ties with your vendor? With experience on both sides of the college/vendor relationship, Cheryl Broom – CEO of GradComm and former community college marketer – shares some tips for community colleges to ensure a fulfilling, fruitful relationship with their vendors. Plus, co-hosts Stephanie and Matt start with a bit about how their colleges use AI for their communications.

In college, Fiona Lytle thought she was going to be a dentist. Like so many community college marketers, though, her path changed. Today, Lytle is the chief communications officer and legislative liaison at the Colorado Community College System. She's also NCMPR's 2023 Communicator of the Year. Fiona shares how she got into her current job role, some tips for marketers on working with government officials and the importance of creating a personal brand.

Identifying something that is unconscious can be tricky. How can we even pick out a problem if we don't realize it's happening? TaChelle Lawson – president of FIG Strategy & Consulting out of Las Vegas and a diversity, equity and inclusion trainer – discusses unconscious bias: What is it? How does it affect our relationships and our marketing? And how can we address it? Here's a hint: It may not ever become a comfortable topic, but it does it easier.