AWARD Copy School back on track as AWARD and The Communications Council reduce fee to $200 which will be donated to The OASIS Centre
Following a string of stinging comments on the CB Blog over the last few days, AWARD Chair Mark Harricks and The Communications Council has announced that AWARD Copy School will be rescheduled for November with a new approach.
Taking on board Ray Black’s suggestion to open up Copy School to young writers and high potential students who may not otherwise be able to afford it, Copy School will be now offered at a nominal fee of $200 which will be donated to The OASIS Centre.
The OASIS Centre is a refuge for street kids run by the Salvation Army and has had a long association with our industry. Copy School tutors, who represent some of our leading industry writers and creative leaders, generously donate their valuable time to teaching and mentoring the students.
“It is a wonderful and unique opportunity for young creative talent to learn from the best and for the industry to give back by encouraging and training them,” says Black (top), founder of AWARD Copy School.
Says Harricks (left): “The intense discussion around cancelling this years’ course has highlighted the passion that exists in the industry for it, the intention was always to take it offline and work out how to repackage it. It was obvious the demand was there, but that cost was the barrier. Our discussions with Ray over the last few days has resulted in a positive way forward. With Copy School now highly affordable and accessible, we hope that it can offer a greater opportunity to more young people and create momentum for the course.”
Contact Tesha@communicationscouncil.org.au for enrolment details.
26 Comments
Commonsense prevails
Not so common, common sense, but at least it’s not nonexistent.
Maybe social media is good for something after all, and to all those who claim that anonymity on the blog is a bad thing, ask yourselves if this outcome would be the same if people hadn’t commented upon the story with such ‘stinging’ remarks aimed at the CC, and if those remarks would have been made at all, if they weren’t capable of being made anonymously.
Now lets see if we can translate this over all the communications council courses. As someone that has already spent 1000’s with them the approach of charging young creatives 1000s is still disappointing for the community.
The backtracking comments by the AWARD Chair are still spinning in the corner of the room, like a dervish.
CC’s doing the right thing, but only after being called out for doing it all wrong.
In the real corporate world, someone would be sacrificed at the alter of PR. In the faux world of CC, being caught out is just an opportunity for a new story to twist, or so it would seem.
Looks like the new ethics are all about exposure, instead of right and wrong, and this episode is a case study waiting to be documented with regard to policing by the crowd in cyberspace.
CBB should be applauded for providing the forum for this kind of community activity that drives best, and yes most ethical practice.
If it was free anyone would do it. You’d have hundreds of students that aren’t really committed wasting everybody’s time. I agree with having a (very small but significantly substantial) fee that covers the cost of administration and their wages. It’s the only way to weed out those who are serious or not.
I thought the initial decision was part of a business plan? I therefore assume the response was just a complete load of rubbish? Please don’t insult our collective intelligence again by peddling the old ‘business plan’ excuse. You would have been better off simply saying it was a fucking stupid decision in the first place. Now you’re donating the fees. Very noble. Great new business plan. Why not make it free to benefit the students if your not making a profit anymore? Yep, you’re definitely acting like a council now.
Your first free writing lesson: (no admin costs will apply, CORRECTIONS in CAPS)
If it WERE free anyone would do it. (the subjunctive should be used for the conditional case of ‘if’, and the simple past tense applies here)
You’d have hundreds of students WHO aren’t really committed wasting everybody’s time. (students are presumably people and not objects)
I agree with having a very small but SUBSTANTIAL fee that covers the cost of administration, and THE WAGES OF THE ADMINISTRATORS. (significant and substantial are redundant, and this revised point about ‘administration’ and ‘wages’ may have been what you were trying to say, assuming that ‘their’ refers to the administrators’, although it’s difficult to be completely certain).
It’s the only way to weed out those who are NOT SERIOUS. (hopefully you wouldn’t want to weed out those who were serious along with those who were not, but considering the logic in the bulk of your argument, anything is possible)
Good luck with your future career, in accounting.
Well done Mark. And Ray you deserve another medal.
So $200 is a ‘nominal fee’?
@ @on the balance
You didn’t make a point, you simply corrected grammar.
AWARD Copy School is not an advanced grammar school.
Why don’t you write to Apple and correct them? It’s ‘Think Differently’.
Or “Take an Alka-Seltzer and you’ll feel better quickly’.
The point was the correction, Bear. Maybe you were out foraging for berries, but on the balance’s argument wasn’t copy, it was prose, and illiterate prose at that.
We thought that a critique of the AWARD school program should at least be articulate, just as a point of departure. Maybe it’s outdated as a concept, but understanding how the language works before you begin to learn how to manipulate it for the world of advertising should be a prerequisite for the course.
I agree with bear. Best books are written dumb. Write the way you speak. Untwist your knickers and bash out some good stuff.
All deliberately ungrammatical (ooh that’s going to shit you too).
There are people who know how to write properly, and people who know how to write well. Judging by your subject matter, you’re clearly crap at both.
BTW depending on which century you’re from, your free advice sucks, it’s whom not who.
Ten points for being an untalented asshat tho.
What did it cost originally?
It would never be whom, in any century. Who is the subject of the verb are. Whom is the objective case.
You’re clearly not bright enough to know the difference between writing properly and writing well, nor truthfully in understanding either concept, so we’re doubting that any of your mangling of the language was intentional.
By ‘best books are written dumb’, you may be referring to your reading list, but not to ours, nor to any literature that any of us are familiar with. ‘Finnegan’s Wake’ may be a reinvention of the language, but not because Joyce didn’t understand grammar. Same with Stein or Hemingway or DeLillo or Pynchon or any colloquial writers of note. They were never writing ‘dumb’. They had to know the language cold in order to subvert it.
Lastly, your argument about paying for the course that’s being taught by volunteer teachers, and at volunteered spaces was beyond ignorant, and despite it’s grammatical muddling, hopelessly vapid.
Ignoring your obvious shortcomings, however, we can see that you do seem to know something about asses and hats. Congratulations, as this rare knowledge should take you far, just not as a writer.
@ @on the balance.
Who is “we”? Are you using the ‘royal we’? Considering your pompous tone, I wouldn’t be surprised.
You stick with critiquing your Hemingway, Joyce and Pynchon (great writers all) and the advertising copywriters will write stuff dat soundz gewd to da ppl of 2dai.
And we’ll get paid for it.
Haven’t you got some theses to correct?
All our passions have been running very hot on this issue and that’s good to know enough people out there care about what we are determined to do with AWARD Copy School.
Mark Harricks, AWARD Chairman and I are now concentrating on getting the word out to young writers who want to learn from some of the best in the business.
AWARD Copy School will be from Monday Nov.11 to 15 inclusive and will be held in The Newspaper Works boardroom, Pyrmont. Call Tesha, 8297 3877 to enrol.
Grrrr, little cub, grrr, and we’re doubting you get paid much.
We, meaning, all those of us with a least two digit IQs, one more than you and your furry friends.
@ @Bear
A few posts ago you asserted that ‘On the balance’ had been ignorant.
Now you’re casting aspersions on the salaries and IQs of people you don’t know.
Not very academic of you, but very ignorant.
And you used one too many commas, ya silly duffer.
Ah, Bear, now you’ve gone and got your fur all ruffled.
There’s always something slightly special about men who take animal names as their pseudonyms. It’s usually an over compensation for one shortcoming or another.
Sorry, but your hair shirt is showing. Good luck with that in the forest.
@ @Bear
Who said I’m a man?
Your ignorance is almost impressive.
Love that common sense and people power has prevailed here. Keen to develop my copywriting abilities I was quick to contact the CC to enquire about the Melbourne course. Unfortunately this re-instatement of the course (and price reduction) is only available to my tanned contemporaries in the beautiful city. So I guess I need to add flights and accommodation to that $200.
Can we all fire back up and get this course held in Melbourne?
No self-respecting woman would ever call herself Bear, but keep digging, little furry one, your hole is getting deeper.
@ @Bear
At first I was surprised by your arrogance.
Then I was amused by your ignorance.
Now I just pity you.
Anyway, I’ve fed the troll enough so this will be my last post in this thread.
Gewd luck 2 ya
unBearable