Yesterday (Jan. 30, 2008) marked the one-year anniversary of this blog. It all began with a post I called Welcome to the conversation. With that note, we encouraged readers to visit this blog for updates on the name change process and to share their views about it.

Did we accomplish what we had hoped? Let's look at the numbers.

Over the past year, we've posted 83 entries on this blog. Those entires received a total of 494 comments, giving Name Change Conversations a conversational index of 0.17. (The conversational index is calculated by dividing the number of posts by the number of comments or trackbacks. An index of less than 1 is considered very good. A more intuitive way of calculating the effectiveness is to look at the ratio of comments per post. In that case, our "index" is 5.95 comments per post. Again, a pretty good indicator of reader interest.)

Based on this simple metric -- measuring the level of conversation we've had on this blog -- I think it's safe to say that we accomplished what we set out to accomplish.

With most of our name change work now behind us, I don't know how much longer we'll keep this blog online. But I'd like to keep it around for historical purposes.

What do you think? What should become of Name Change Conversations? Tell us in the comments section. The usual rules apply, as spelled out on day one: "focused on the topic, cordial and respectful in tone, and as brief as possible."

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 05:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

The wait is over. Departments may now order any of three suites of Missouri S&T stationery using the online form.

Our graphic design team created three suites of materials -- business card, letterhead and envelope -- for campus use. Business cards of each version are shown below.

1. The standard green suite, for general business usage.

2. The recruiting suite, for use with student recruitment mailings, fact sheets, etc. Business cards are two-sided and formatted vertically.

3. The three-color package, which incorporates the official school colors of silver and gold with green. This package may also be used for general business correspondence as well as correspondence with alumni. Business cards are available in horizontal or vertical format. The vertical cards are two-sided and available in silver, gold or green on the reverse.

For those who need letterhead immediately (if you just can't wait for a printed version), a downloadable version of the standard green is available.

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A lot of bloggers begin the new year with a look at upcoming trends. Here at Name Change Central, we meant to give you our forecast a little earlier in the year -- but better late than never, I suppose. So, to help you keep straight with all the changes, here's a side-by-side look at the old and the new.

* Missouri S&T is the "official" nickname for the campus. Not MST. Not MUST. Not MOST. Not MS&T. For more about the name usage, see this section of the Missouri S&T Editorial Style Guide.

** Effective with the Spring 2008 issue.

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We interrupt this blog to tell you that, with only 68 "daze" left before the 100th St. Pat's Celebration in Rolla, the Best Ever Blog has emerged from the primordial ooze of virtuality. No blarney.

The Best Ever Blog will be your source for information about this year's event. We hope you'll also use the blog to share your St. Pat's memories, photos, thoughts, etc.

Not only will it be the 100th year of the famous or infamous celebration, but it also will be Missouri S&T's first ever Best Ever.

But is the Best Ever Blog the best blog ever? We're a bit biased toward our own brand of social media, but we're willing to give the new kid on the blog a shot.

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Faculty, staff and students: Looking for official Missouri S&T logos, letterhead, PowerPoint templates or guidelines on how to abbreviate the university's new name? Look no further than the Missouri S&T Identity Standards website, http://standards.mst.edu .

The standards website is still a work in progress, but makes the following information available to the campus community:

• Downloadable Missouri S&T word marks (logos) and guidelines on how to use them (http://standards.mst.edu/logosgraphicidentity/brandelements.html).

• Downloadable PowerPoint templates (http://standards.mst.edu/logosgraphicidentity/powerpoint-templates.html).

• Information on ordering business cards, letterhead and envelopes (http://standards.mst.edu/logosgraphicidentity/letterhead-envelopes.html), including links to downloadable "standard" letterhead for immediate use. Keep in mind that we're still working out some details on our ordering system, so please be patient.

• And my personal favorite, the Missouri S&T Editorial Style Guide (http://standards.mst.edu/style_guide/index.html), an essential resource for faculty and staff responsible for writing and editing newsletters and brochures, updating web pages, or creating other written content. The style guide includes a special section on how to abbreviate the new name (http://standards.mst.edu/style_guide/abbreviations.html).

• Access to new photography, including images of new Missouri S&T signage (http://standards.mst.edu/logosgraphicidentity/photography.html).

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

What began as a discussion among this university's board of trustees in the fall of 2006 became reality today. At the stroke of midnight today, Jan. 1, 2008, the University of Missouri-Rolla became Missouri University of Science and Technology.

But as regular readers of this blog know, the renaming was not an overnight occurrence. And talk about renaming the university began long before the fall of 2006. Talk of renaming this university goes all the way back to the early 1960s, when UMR came into being from our original name, the University of Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (better known as the Missouri School of Mines, or MSM).

Then as now, not everyone was elated by the decision.

I'm not sure what the communications process involved back then. Blogs were not a part of the picture, and stakeholders were likely not as involved or as savvy to the ways of marketing and communications techniques as they are today. But whatever the processes employed by the university back then, it's evident that not everyone got on board. Even today, 43 or 44 years after the fact, a few alumni remain bitter with the decision to switch from MSM to UMR.

Over the past 11 months, we've tried to use this blog as an avenue to talk about the name change with our alumni, students, faculty and staff. As we said when we launched this site last January, we wanted it to be:

• a source for useful information about the proposed name change.

• a forum [for] discussion about the issues being raised by the proposal.

• an avenue for providing up-to-the-minute information about the proposal.

When this blog experiment began, the idea of a name change was still in proposal form. It is now reality. But even after moving from proposal to recommendation to unanimous endorsement from the University of Missouri Board of Curators and on through the process of picking a logo and other details of the implementation, I'd like to think that this blog has achieved its purpose.

I hope you agree. But if you don't, well, that's fine. It's not like we haven't had our disagreements in the past. But I hope you can at least agree that this forum has allowed you to freely express your opinions about the name change and to participate in a process that we have tried to make as open as possible.

In my opinion, "transparency" and "conversation" were two of the most overused buzzwords of 2007. But those two terms best express what we have tried to do with this blog. We have used this blog to make the process more transparent than it would have been otherwise, and we have used it to try to engage you in a meaningful conversation about this change in your university's identity.

We don't want the conversation to end. As always, your comments are welcome. Just remember to keep them relevant, respectful and as brief as possible.

Happy New Year from Missouri S&T!

Posted by Andrew Careaga at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)