Monday, July 20, 2020

Learn to (& with) Schmooz

In June, I won a prize. It wasn't the lottery but something that was also rewarding, except I didn't quite realize it back then.

To be honest, I don't think I even understood what I won. What is a "Core Values workshop"?
Last Tuesday, July 14, I found out the answer with some of the members of the Association for Media Literacy.

I was introduced to Schmooz Media via Noa Daniel and The Mentoree. Noa has written a much more eloquent account of their experience honing and developing their group's mission statement. You can read Noa's reflection here.
I won't go into too much detail about the process of the workshop. Noa said that for her and her team ...
It was the core value workshop with Zoe Share that has grounded so much of our work so far this summer. A group of Mentors gathered with Zoe and Alan of Schmooz Media to help us discover our core values as a community. 
I was intrigued by the process, especially because all of it was conducted online. It was also deceptively simple but led to profound insights. We met twice (Tuesday and Friday to finish up) and I was grateful that this was possible because we were able to have two more of our board of directors join us.


Big thanks to Neil Andersen, Carol Arcus, Michelle Solomon, Chelsea Attwell, Sarah Bayne and Nina Silver for joining us. (Please note that Carol's camera was malfunctioning on Friday, so I photoshopped her image from Tuesday into our Friday group photo.)

You may wonder why it would be helpful for volunteer organizations to consult with a social marketing agency. The general public may be suspicious of marketing agencies, and I think this may be due to how we approach media in general. I've heard classroom teachers refer to strategies used to attract attention as "media tricks". The implied message with that sort of approach is that media is "bad" and that "the media" is trying to do something deceptive. The AML does not like to place value labels on media texts; rather, we examine them as "interesting". For instance, anti-maskers may describe the public service announcements shared by various governments and organizations as propaganda because they don't like the message. If we understand how to effectively convey messages to appeal to our audiences (targeted or not), then we can do what we want to do better. (By the way, please wear a mask!)

Tangent: thanks to Wesley Fryer (@wfryer), Mythili Thedchanamoorthy (@mythedch), Kim Davidson (KDavidson_TDSB), Angela McCabe (@fujismiley) and Julie Millan (@jsm2272) for trying to help me find the particular "persuasion campaign posters" that I've seen on bus shelters. Once I find the ones I remember, I'll add them here. In the meantime ...




Zoe Share, the founder of Schmooz, told us that social media is the tool but being social is the goal. The aim of this particular workshop is for an individual or group to determine using fair, democratic, methods what their guiding principles are. Too many times a mission statement is drafted without input from the people who are the heart of the organization. Knowing exactly what your team is all about, and being able to succinctly articulate this in a few sentences can help businesses and non-profit organizations grow and even help make decisions. After the Friday workshop, I had the chance to chat briefly with Zoe about her work with Schmooz, perceptions around marketing companies, and the use of social media by businesses and corporations, especially when it relates to socio-political events. Zoe decried some of the disingenuous responses to #BlackLivesMatter and emphasized that people must be true to their core values. She said, "Sometimes the right response is to be quiet, shut up, and do the work". It was delightful to see how passionate Zoe was about her work, and the joy she finds from helping people discover how to embody their values.



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