Friday, December 31, 2010

An Important Message from President Kim B. Clark


NOT the actual message from President Kim B. Clark

The week before Christmas, my wife got a rather urgent message from a well-trained if not comical acolyte of Brigham Young University-Idaho.

Apparently, a "very important" Christmas message from President Kim B. Clark -- the name and title were emphasized several times in the conversation, my wife says -- had been returned to the University by the United States Postal Service. The acolyte was calling to determine my mailing address so that this important message from President Kim B. Clark could be delivered in a timely fashion. My wife, a little bemused at the zealotry on the other end of the phone, swiftly delivered our mailing address and the important message was duly dispatched. It arrived the day we left home for a vacation. It was a nice Christmas card including a nice signature from President Kim B. Clark, but it hardly qualified as urgent or important.

It does mean, however, that I'm in the system.

As did the card, featured above, from the distance learning folks at BYU-Idaho, whose august ranks I am a member of (as an online adjunct faculty member) and whose august ranks I tried to join but was rejected because, oh I don't know why. Someone else got the job, which I'm used to.

It does mean, however, that I'm in the system.

It's an odd little family, this BYU-Idaho. Not that I don't like the cards and the special attention -- who wouldn't -- but it's just amusing to feel the sense of urgency on their behalf in getting these messages out to us in their mass produced, form fill fashion. Especially to a schlub like me who has tried two semesters in a row to teach an online class but hasn't been able to do so due to lack of students. Not that they're not trying, they reassure me. I hope they don't want to send a card to that effect. 

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