A Beginner's Guide to NACA

If you're reading this, you probably already know that I work in campus activities. If you don't know what that is, use context clues. Your junior high English teacher should have covered that. And you thought that the things you learned in school wouldn't come in handy!


Anyway, NACA is the National Association of Campus Activities and I just got back from the national convention. I'm not going to take the time to explain it now because I want my illustrations below to show it to you (a picture's worth a thousand words and all that). 


As usual, I want to include a disclaimer: NACA is a valuable organization and I wouldn't spend my university's money on it if I didn't have proof that it was worthwhile. We learn a lot from ed sessions, are affirmed in what we're doing as a programming board, and save a lot of money by block booking. However, like all things, it's also very silly, as you're about to see.


First of all, for those of you who are unfamiliar with NACA, I've come up with a few slogans that might come in handy...

On the note of performers, NACA showcases a number of musical acts. A lot of them are up-and-coming (folks who participated in "The Voice" and "American Idol") and, well, Bowling for Soup, Hanson, Blessid Union of Souls... I've mapped out the musical act selection process; it's actually incredibly scientific. Note that the x-axis represents to progression of bands from up-and-coming to down-and-out; the y-axis represents popularity from garage band to stadium filler.

And last but not least, let's talk CAMP. Such a weird place, I can only hope to begin to describe it for you...