VIDEO DAY...THE FIRST ADVENTURE OF THE GOLDEN CAP COUNCIL

I can't imagine that there is anyone out there who hasn't heard the Pepsi Refresh project all over the radio.  It's quite the promotion.  Pepsi is giving away over 1.3 million dollars a month to ideas that are unique and have life changing concepts.  Of course in our social media world it's not being totally determined by a team of Pepsi executives.  Pepsi has jumped on the "voting" wagon.  They are only taking 1,000 applications a month, nationwide, and then anyone can vote, up to 10 times a day, for their favorite idea.   Pepsi decided on 3 levels of finance, 5k, 25k and 250K and the applicants decide.  The applications as for milestones of execution, a financial outline, photo's and a video (if you choose).  YBR's next chance to submit would be midnight of May 31st.  The council and I held 2 extra meetings the week of the 4th to create the financial outline and discuss a video.   The financial outline was quite an eye opener for the council.  We decided to go for the entire pot of gold...we'd take the $250,000 and break it out for office space, salaries, equipment (YBR Radio) etc .  A one year cushion would give us the base we needed to really get a solid footing for our growth thru new partners and the radio launch.   Well as you can expect the $250,000 didn't go very far and the Golden Cap Council was in awe of what we COULDN"T keep on the list of expenses.  It was a good exercise for them and I believe gave them much more respect for the value of a start up and the expenses it incurs.  Next step, our video.  We had 3 minutes or less to convey the value of YBR to everyone in our networks and Pepsi.   We decided to have each member of the Golden Cap give a 20 second speech as to why they had wanted to be a part of YBR Project.  When I asked the council where they wanted to film, Baba in his youthful wisdom said,  at our homes.  The council's homework that weekend was to create their own script and we would discuss before we headed out on our roadtrip.  That following Tuesday, May 11th, we met and spent an hour brainstorming the scripts.  We wanted consistency in the beginning and end of each but agreed that the meat of their passion to be a part of YBR should be their own.  Each council member did just that and we packed ourselves into my Avalon and headed out.   We stopped first at Lilly's house, then to Baba's, then Porsha's, then Andiana's.  Yifei would have to be filmed the next week.  It was quite the day.  Everyone put their script on cheat sheets so they could read from them while I filmed.  They were all nervous and giggled alot but I captured some great video to work with. We even stopped for a Dunkin break along the way.  Driving gave us a chance to really get to know each other and we were able to discuss even more ideas for the video.  We decided that it would be really cool if we could get some Pepsi t-shirts or a Pepsi banner and gather some of the Kansas (FY) students to yell, "Please Vote for the Yellow Brick Road Project".    Next stop....Pepsi marketing team.

MAY 4TH, 2ND MEETING OF THIS NOBLE SORCERESS AND HER GOLDEN CAP COUNCIL

Well we made it into week 2.  Now we needed to make a list of everything that had to be attacked in the next 9 weeks.  We also had to dive into L. Frank Baum's book and dig out every character we could find.  I had thought, some months back, that it would be fun to connect the characters and references in the book with the people and opportunities in the Yellow Brick Road Project.  I had the opportunity to discuss this concept with a group of non profit marketers at a recent marketing class and the response was overwhelmingly positive that this concept would make YBR very unique, so I jumped in.  The book is no longer copyrighted so I knew that I could do such, while MGM still has a copyright on the movie.  We drafted our list first.  Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, The Pepsi Refresh project, a newsletter, this blog, YBR partners, our value proposition, take "business" styled photos for the council's Linkedin page and finish registering everyone for the Boston Business Xpo. (This would be a great place for the council to experience their first foray into business networking and it was FREE!).    You can't grow a business today without a base in social media.  For YBR social media will be the base for everything we do moving forward.  Each council and every participant of YBR will have to have their own social media network, why?  because that is how they will build out their dreams.  Ironically some social media sites like Twitter have a much older user group, so it's important to introduce that marketing tool to an age group of 18.  I digress, the day went swimmingly...haha.   We got thru more than 1/2 the list that day.  There was still a bit of awkwardness, the council was still shy about speaking up in our brainstorming, but I knew eventually that would change.  Baba had to leave for a scholarship meeting and Yifei still had a few weeks left on her other internship before she could join the council full time, so Porsha, Andiana, Lilly and I dug in and came up with the character references that you see in the Great Humbug dictionary.  Not all will be referenced at all times, but as we build out our Newsletter (Ozcot, named for Baum's own home in California) or our website (The Great Oz) or meet our partners thru the Throne of Rubies, you will begin to discover how much fun it is to bring to life some old friends, learn some new ones and eventually the characters of The Yellow Brick Road Project and Yellow Brick Road Radio will feel as natural as the characters you have come to love in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

YBR'S THE GOLDEN CAP COUNCIL MEETINGS: How we got to Day 1

So YBR was a go to pilot with NEU..  Now I needed a team for my Golden Cap Council.  The Queen of the Field Mice and Gaylette felt that I should meet with all the Kansas Winkies (all FY students)who were not already committed to an internship program for their final term.   Kansas' term ends on July 2nd, fifty two (52) weeks from when this amazing group of 45 Winkies started their journey.  There were ten weeks left in Kansas and there was still a lot of internal social media structure to be accomplished for YBR.  We needed to create:  Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, a newsletter, Youtube, the Pepsi Refresh application and in due time the YBR Foundation website and radio show.   It may have seemed like a daunting task, but I knew that this Noble Sorceress, with a well chosen Golden Cap Council would make magic happen.  The Queen and I agreed that the best course of action would be for me to present The Yellow Brick Road Project to the Kansas Winkies to generate excitement.  We presumed that there would be at least 5 or 6 Winkies who would want to intern as the Golden Cap Council.  We were not wrong.  Seventeen Winkies demonstrated sincere interest.  I was even more impressed by these youth when a few of them took the initiative to approach me and voice their passion for why they should be chosen as a member of the Golden Cap Council. It was there and then that I truly knew I had created a project that had value.   The Queen, Glinda and I arranged to meet the following week to discuss which Winkies were worthy of becoming my council.  Part of the Kansas program is that the Winkies must earn the privilege to participate in special projects and The YBR Project was just that.  We all agreed upon 6 Winkies and I contacted them and scheduled one on one interviews for that same week.  Time was of the essence.  These Winkies were all remarkable.  Within each one was the fire and spirit that would give The YBR Project and this Noble Sorceress a boost of energy to start our journey.    As part of their internship with YBR, each must also keep their own blog.  We will be featuring each of these amazing Golden Cap Council members thru their own blogs in coming weeks.  I believe it is better to have them introduce themselves to you and speak in their own words as to why they wanted to be part of YBR and The Golden Cap Council.   All features such as other bloggers who are part of the YBR Foundation, Project and Radio will be under the TOTO title.   I digress, so the Golden Cap Council was chosen.  As we were to meet weekly, Glinda arranged for us to meet at the Curry Center.  Our first meeting was April 27th.  As I expected, my council was shy and slightly nervous.  I had purchased a copy of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz so that the council members would understand the premise of the YBR Project and we could develop the unique way we present our mission to the world, such as connecting the characters and names in the book to the individuals, groups or personalities within  YBR.    Our agenda for our first meeting was:  Introductions: Personal History: Social Media sites and other forms of viral marketing to be developed: The Pepsi Refresh project to apply for: YBR Mission Statement development: discussion of Branding statement and it's application to the Mission statement:  Value Proposition:  Research of other corporate Mission and Branding statements:  Brainstorming of both. Personal Linkedin and Twitter pages for each council member was the homework assignment for the following week.   This council held up like pro's.  Our most significant contribution to our first day was the development of the YBR Project Mission Statement.  It took us two hours of brainstorming and re-wording until the council and I all agreed that we had developed a succinct yet substantial statement that showcased our mission.  The Yellow Brick Road Project's Mission Statement reads:  THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD PROJECT PROVIDES AN INNOVATIVE EXPERIENCE FOR FOUNDATION YEAR STUDENTS SEEKING TO FOLLOW THEIR PASSIONS AND ACHIEVE THEIR DREAMS, BEYOND THE CLASSROOM, THROUGH OPPORTUNITIES IN SOCIAL MEDIA, MINI INTERNSHIPS AND BUSINESS NETWORKING.    My Golden Cap Council was quite proud of themselves.  They laughed when I told them that PR firms got paid big bucks for the same amount of work.  Everyone contributed and I was so proud of all of them.  We started work on the Value Proposition, got thru a solid list of descriptives and laid it aside.  One statement a session was quite sufficient.   We still have to finish the Value Proposition and we will probably re-visit it at our next meeting when the Queen of the Field Mice and Gaylette join us for a bit.   As with every good council meeting, notes were taken and an agenda for the next meeting was discussed.  Stay tuned....day 2 of our journey is next.