Hello everyone, and a pleasant good day to you all wherever you are reading this from. I feel it's fitting to start this blog/journal off the way I would start a sports broadcast off because this is about my saga as a Bearcast Radio sports director this year!
Before I begin dissecting my strengths and weaknesses as a director, let me tell you a bit about myself, and where I am right now. My name is Duane McDonald, and as of this post, I am 66 days away from finally graduating from the University of Cincinnati (thank goodness). Although my major is in journalism and my minor is in English Literature, I have been a part of Bearcast Radio in the Electronic Media department of CCM since my freshman year in 2006. Over the last five years, my knowledge of how the media operates has grown exponentially through my experience with student radio, writing and through my internships at Channel 9 and at GoBearcats.com. I am truly blessed to say that the experience I have gained through those aforementioned things have led to me being hired as a part-time producer at Clear Channel Communications back in February. Now that I have a "real world" job so to speak, I am learning new things everyday that I hope to apply to my director position during my final 10 weeks of school.
Although I know that this job came along at just the right time, I have a hard time trying not to play the hindsight game. You know, "if I knew back then, what I know now." However, there are some things I believe I have executed well during my tenure as one of the leaders in Bearcast this year. For starters, the "Bearcat Blitz" event that we held during some of the UC Football home games on Sigma Sigma Commons I feel was a nice success for not only us, but for UCast as well. An event such as that one proves to me that Bearcast and UCast can work on similar projects together in the future, which will definitely help both entities grow.
Since I consider myself to be a modest person, I do not necessarily like talking about what I do well. I find it self-serving, and I feel that other people who I am around on a regular and semi-regular basis can better describe my strong points as a director. Unfortunately, I am my own worst critic, and I find it much easier to point out my weaknesses. One thing that I feel I could have been better with this year is finding ways to recruit new people into our sports department. This is mostly due to my own time limitations between school and work. However, I still believe that I have not performed well in generating ideas for recruiting new talent.
Another weakness of mine is motivation. I absolutely hate to make excuses because I hold myself accountable for my own actions, good or bad. However, my motivation in general has been very low this year, mostly because my motivation in school has plummeted this year. A lot of college students are on what I like to call "the five-year plan," and I am no different. However, I have reached burnout stage with school this year, and I feel that burnout has permeated into my director's position this year. I love being a part of Bearcast, and I am still very grateful for the responsibility bestowed upon me. However, the indifference I am experiencing with school has led to me not putting forth the effort I believe I am capable of. Instead of generating exciting new ideas, I feel like I am maintaining the "status quo."
Summing everything up, I would say that I am pretty average as far as leadership goes. Hopefully, I can make a difference in these final 66 days.
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