David Petroff is the Director of Athletic Communications at NCAA Division III Edgewood College in 
Madison, Wis. and authors the blog entitled "Small School Social", with ideas, advice and tips geared toward athletic communications professionals at small schools and/or those with limited staffs.
Petroff is a member of CoSIDA's New Media Committee and started this blog for small school sports communications professionals to help them produce a strong social media presence - despite not having the resources of the big schools.
Petroff can be reached on Twitter at @DavidPetroff or via email at davidpetroff@hotmail.com.
The one person SID shop is not for the faint of heart, but it’s no place for a martyr either. As snow and cold wraps up most of the nation and my friends in South Florida point and laugh, I was thinking about how valuable mobility is to my job. Not necessarily my physical mobility (I’ve got the quickness of a panther, if you’re curious), but the ability for me to perform my job from nearly any location.
As I’ve mentioned before, the Small School SID’s most valuable resource is always time. Time is the limiting reagent in every sports information chemical process. Time must be protected so that the job doesn’t overwhelm your personal and family life, and as many experts will tell you working longer hours is actually LESS productive.
One way I protect my time is with mobility. It took a couple of years to reach it, but I determined early on that I was going to make sure I could do 95 percent or more of my job from anywhere, if necessary. That meant working with my budget and my supervisors to make sure I had the technology needed to be fully mobile. In my arsenal, I have three laptops, an iPad, a smartphone and mobile hotspot device. It also meant working with IT and making sure I could reliably access all software, servers and printers that I needed, from my home computer, my laptops and my iPad.
The purpose is not to avoid going to the office. I put in plenty of hours there. The purpose is to be able to NOT go into the office when life intervenes. Because of my mobility, it’s not hard for me to ask my supervisor to step away for my daughter’s Christmas concert or run to Home Depot to pick up something for the house. My supervisor knows that even when I’m not “at work” I’m still on top of my job. Isn’t that what the experts are telling us? It’s about production, not hours. So that’s how I’m going to prove my worth to my school. I’m going to establish a pattern of production that says “the job gets done and gets done well, no matter if he is in his office or not.” Really it works out well, since so many of our modern athletics communications duties are based in social media, most of which is built around mobile usage.
Additionally, I live in Wisconsin and winters can be harsh. When there’s a snow day or a wind chill day, there’s simply no reason to put myself at risk on the roadways. With excellent mobility there’s no reason to do so. I can write the game notes, set up the program and be ready to go for tomorrow’s game before I even arrive at campus. Plus, I still have time to play a game with my kids and enjoy their surprise day off with them.
(Beware that mobility can be a double edged sword, where non-stop work encroaches into your home and family at all hours. We’ll have to save that for another blog entry.)
Spending money to save your own time is a good investment. Work hard to make your bosses see that and don’t become . Best of luck to you all through the winter months. If anyone would like to send me a new winter hat, I’d appreciate it.