Day 15:
I thank God for photographs that allows us to capture His creation in all of its glory. As well as the joy of human expression that tells countless stories about another of God's creation.
Day 16:
I thank God for giving us work, that we are not to remain idle and just be that way. We get to do what we like (well most of the time) or at least to do something that we can freely explore our interests and to find contentment in work. I know, it's not something you'd normally give thanks for but think about it.
Well, since the roadtrip Monday I've still been on the irresponsible side. Yesterday we had a jamming session, the first one in quite a long time. But it is somewhat good to know and frustrating at the same time that the same problems still plague us. We pretty soon run out of ideas on what to play apart from our "god" of jamming songs, John Mayer. As usual, like almost all jamming sessions, we start off with a "prayer". That prayer is known as the Prayer of the Burning Room. Then there will be a mixed half-baked set of songs that we will just fairly adequately go along for the rest of the session and then we will end the session with another Prayer of the Burning Room. Good times.
Tonight's exam was quite tricky, probably the trickiest of the past questions. Lecturer said that the exam can be completed in 2 hours although it is a 3 hour exam. The only way you can complete it is that you know everything at the back of your hands but that is pretty hard to do considering it is a programming subject. Anyway, I hope that I've done well. I felt quite shaky when doing the exam because I don't know whether the program on paper works or not. Oh well, that is done and waiting for the next one on Friday.
There's a few things that have been going through my head lately that I've been quite peeved about. Let's start with the problem in marketing. I've noticed for a few years now that we OCFers have a problem in marketing. Seriously. Basic principle in marketing, if you don't believe in the product that you are selling no one is going to buy no matter how hard you try or lie. Like you don't endorse people to go visit some foreign place just because you hear it is good but you have never been there before. There have been many people that have come and gone, taken up the role of publicizing OCF July Camps, Belgrave Heights Easter Conventions, OCF Mission Month and the mother of all camps, OCF Australia Convention. And with all of this, there are people who actively turn up to help with publicity but not actually go for the event. Do you see the problem? We keep trying to encourage people to go for these events so that we get to experience various events, people and of course ultimately learn from what God has to say. But people are just publicizing for the sake of publicizing it. If I may go so far as to say, they don't quite "believe" in it or not interested about it. How can we be effective to get people to go if we have this attitude? Whatever good things you have to say about it, people would at the very least, on a sub-conscious level, think twice about going when they find out that the one publicizing it is not going.
Of course the marketing principles are not so straight forward in the real world but it does serve as a rule of thumb. For example, it may be that there are very very few people are actually free to go. But if you market it properly, the power of passive persuasion can change things around. Another example is also probably from OCF historical reasons that are too deep to go into but everyone sort of knows it is there. Getting people to go for July Camps and the OCF Convention are one of the hardest to get people going for two reasons. They quickly fly off at the first few days after their exams to spend time with family and friends. Or it is deemed as expensive. Again I still believe that when an event is marketed properly with the right people behind it, tables can be turned. Theoretically.
While I can understand they publicizing is an act of service that is something that everyone can do in a Christian body, I think we have to be careful about it when we consider helping out when we have little or no intention of going. At best, you'll get a mediocre effort and in the worse case, you are not going to get anyone convinced and that will give a really hard time for the corresponding committees to try and break even on their expenses. I would suggest, in the context of OCF events, if you have been there and done it, it is probably alright to endorse it. If you haven't, don't take up the microphone doing publicity stints about the event. Few are going to believe you.
Posts
Interesting comments on marketing.
My little view on marketing:
(1) The person promoting an event believes (strongly) about the benefits of the event (ie. it is worthwhile attending).
(2) The person works hard on planning the promotion. (Eg. do some research about the event, take time to think about what the benefits are.) Then, sell it confidently/convincingly.
(Suggestion: give solid reasons, like how lawyers argue in court. Avoid (excessive) emotional persuasion. If the audience consists of people who think logically, pure emotional persuasion does not work.
(3) Bonus: bonus if the person promoting it is going to the particular event or have been to previously similar event. (Sometimes, for some reasons, person is not able to attend event no matter how much the person desires to. Eg. Has to be away somewhere else during the period.)
Are you summarizing what I just said? Cos they seem to be about the same thing =P
Although I wouldn't call it a bonus for point #3. I would more likely call it not-as-strict-to-be-a-rule-but-not-too-slack-to-be-a-guideline