I see that ATEK's leader (I won't disgrace the title "president" in reference to him) has commented about my post on the ATEK Open Discussion forumwhere Breanna Horn (National Council Hogwan Rep) started a thread titled, "A different Take 0n ATEK" which says,
"A post I found about ATEK's online visibility at Kimchi Icecream and ease of access for teachers. Any thoughts on the post? Is there anything about this we can/should/have already addressed?"
The response from ATEK's leader?
"Well, part of it is that we haven't had a comms officer in a few months. Rob is in now so I expect great things. Also, this guy didn't do any research before writing his story. We have access to almost 2,000 teachers on Facebook now - twice our membership. And, the bloggers write stories - however misinformed. I think the NEW newsletter, a new comms officer, and some really big success stories from us in the near future will turn the current PR picture around. I should mention that the perception of ATEK is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was a year ago at this time" (my bold and italics).
Thank you for completely missing the point of If ATEK falls in the forest, does it make a sound? Musings on why ATEK isn't communicating with the expat community . . .
I'm feeling a new blog post coming to me: 100 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Join ATEK!
Does anyone else find it incredibly bizarre that ATEK's leader himself points out what I about write in my post? He says,
"I think the NEW newsletter, a new comms officer, and some really big success stories from us in the near future will turn the current PR picture around" (my bold and italics).
I wonder if he realizes that he seems to be admitting there have been problems, that there has been a lack of communication "from us" to the native teachers, and that the "PR picture" has problems that need to be "turn[ed] . . . around" . . . which is what I was trying to convey through my post . . .
Seriously, very not impressed!
Oh, and I might as well illustrate further why I'm just a wee bit pissed off. A couple days ago I sent EIGHTEEN IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS to help improve ATEK that I spent time and energy writing up and sending to Rob . . . yeah.
1. "The Faces of ATEK" - Do a photo shoot where the faces of ATEK each do a one minute self-introduction video (or 30 seconds) and introduce themselves, tell a little bit of bio info, and then say what they do for ATEK.
This will HUMANIZE ATEK for the native teacher community, and make it less of some kind of abstract entity.
It doesn't have to be a pro video (maybe later in the future) and could even just be someone's netcam or point and shoot camera in their apartment that they self shoot for now.
I've noticed that X is an ATEK member, I think. Why not ask him if he'd be willing to volunteer some of his time to do a photo shoot of the council? . . .
2. Have an "ATEK forest" with animated/flash trees. Tree 1 would be the structural tree with links to picture/video/role/title/rank/name of ATEK's leadership. Tree 2 could be the 'useful teaching sites' tree with links to teaching resources. Tree 3 could be an ATEK site map that links to the major categories .....and so on.
A community made of 'trees' ....
3. Print up on sheets of A4 paper (6 cards per sheet to be cut up) the basics of ATEK and then have a volunteer media blitz in major cities around Korea where ATEK members walk around handing out small pieces of paper with the ATEK website and basic info on it to native teachers walking around popular foreign shopping and drinking areas.
4. Is there an ATEK monthly newsletter [THAT IS NOT ONLY FORMEMBERS]? For now it'd need to be something VERY simple in form and design otherwise it'd be a nightmare in terms of time and energy to produce. It could have things like: dates and basic descriptions of ATEK's activities over the past month, highlight the biggest thing done in the past month, 1 teaching tip for each level of school and type of school from hogwan to elementary to high school to university, new and interesting teaching websites, TED video of the month link, and so on.
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Click on the link below to see pictures and read more at Kimchi Icecream: The Second Serving . . . . I've moved over to wordpress.com and will be blogging there from now on.
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