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One of my least enjoyable programs happened at Louisiana State University a few years ago. I was hired in to speak on a Monday night at 8 p.m. for a mandatory Interfraternity Conference educational session. All the men had to be there -- initiated members and pledges. Only problem: the New Orleans Saints were playing Monday Night Football, and opening kickoff was at 8.
The advisor wasn't a sports fan, and he didn't see the big deal. "The program's only an hour. It's not like they are going to miss the whole game," he said. Boy, did he miss the point. The men were so angry to be there, I could see them shooting daggers at me throughout the speech. I shortened the program, and when I ended it, they leapt out of their seats. They didn't even politely applaud. I did the very best I could, but I was set up to fail miserably.
I felt like Hillary at a Young Republicans meeting. It was ugly.
OK, so to help you avoid a similarly unfortunate situation, please check the following things before you plan a speaker or some other large event:
- Check your basketball schedule, particularly if you are at a school where people care about basketball. Or hockey, or women's lacrosse. Whatever sport your school cares about always takes precedent over all other events.
- Don't plan anything on Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, the night of the Academy Awards (Feb. 24, 2008, by the way), Superbowl Sunday (Feb. 3, 2008, by the way), or the NCAA March Madness Final Four or Final (March 21 and 23, 2008, by the way).
- Jewish holidays... people never plan anything on Easter or Christmas, but they'll damn well plan their leadership retreat over Yom Kippur. That's bad form. If you're not sure of Jewish holidays, just Google "2008 Jewish Holidays," then block those days off your calendar.
- Monday Night Football. Fraternities really like to sit around together, drink adult beverages, and burp while watching the game... any game. Plan your program so they have time to get back before it starts.
- The season finale of popular shows. I spoke once on the night of the season finale of Grey's Anatomy. The women and the gay men were pissed. First thing I said from the stage was, I hope somebody is recording Grey's or I'm going to kill myself! And, I put my hand on my hip while I said it. I managed to survive that program and even got some applause at the end. God forbid you speak at an engineering school on the night of the Heroes season finale. There could be violence.
There are probably more, but these are the big ones. Put these things in your programming calendar at the start of your term as an officer. A little time on a search engine and you can find out all of these "dates to avoid."
