On April 8-9, The Chart staff went to the Missouri College Media Association spring convention in Lee’s Summit, Mo.

Here’s the back-story. Back in January, we had to pick the entries for each newspaper category such as news writing, feature writing and photo page spread, just to name a few. We did not end up receiving the entry forms until two weeks before they were due. That certainly gave us plenty of time to make decisions.

Soon after that deadline, it was extended another week. I believe we were not told of this right before they were to be due the next time around.

After that, we did not hear from the president of MCMA for a long time. If we did, it was either late or if there was something that was supposed to be attached to an e-mail, it was not there.

Once the end of March approached, we had not heard anything about the itinerary for the convention. The president had said in one of the many e-mails that were not sent until the last minute the schedule was still being finalized. This was, I think, a week before we were all going to drive up to the Kansas City area.

When we finally were given the itinerary, it was two days before the convention.

I could not wait to go to Lee’s Summit and have a break from the action of being in the office. The two-hour drive was quite enjoyable, listening to every spectrum of music in the world. We all met at the hotel and just chilled.

Central Missouri State University was hosting the MCMA conference, and we had been told the conference was going to be at the hotel where we were staying.

That’s not true.

We find out at the last possible minute on April 8 the newspaper critique some of the editors were going to was not at the hotel. It was actually at CMSU’s Lee’s Summit campus. With five of us going including the adviser, we drove to the campus. Our advisor missed the entrance and swerved, making a screeching noise. Smoke came from the tires, and tire marks were embedded into the road. The editor-in-chief and I almost hit them.

Then, of course, it was not a critique in order to find out what we could improve on. We just stood up in front of the other schools and explained our paper. That was it.

The next morning I had breakfast with my fellow staff members, and two of us went out to explore, including stopping by a shopping mall in Independence.

The business meeting was the most boring of them all. We elected new officers and the city the next MCMA conference will be held at — St. Louis. What made things worse, the officers this year did not know parliamentary procedure. They kept forgetting important issues.

MCMA in general was a catastrophe. The banquet was OK; the awards portion of the night was interesting. Unfortunately, we did not receive Best In State this year. We did in fact go away with a bunch of awards. Overall, we did great.

I just wish the convention could have been more organized and the communication better between everyone.