June, 2007

Brian
Original post
Club/Org Recruitment — View Comments
29
Jun 07

Recruiting new members… A brief “How-To”

This time of year I start to hear that all-important question from my student leaders – “How do we recruit members this year?” When I meet with these students during our summer get-togethers, this is one of the hottest topics of discussion. Every student club & organization is looking for the best way to solicit new members.

Here are five sure-fire ways to help your student leaders attract new members.

1.       Reach out to the incoming first-year students.
I love summer orientations with the incoming new students. These students have the most energy and are the most eager and willing to get involved. In fact, many are already talking about starting new organizations and joining ones that suit their interests. If you can make contact with these students early on, perhaps during summer orientation or freshmen-specific programs, you’ll be in good shape. The typical incoming freshman is looking for a way to become connected to the university as quickly as possible. Involvement in an organization is one of the easiest ways for them to make that happen.

2.       Face-to-Face Interaction
This is a no-brainer. Recruitment starts with your student members. They must believe in their organization and believe in getting their friends and classmates involved. They must be able to articulate the purpose of the group and do so enthusiastically. True recruitment is a result of one student raving about his/her experience to another student who in turn wants to become a part of that experience.

3.       Strong marketing campaign.
Although most student activities/affairs professionals will tell you that face-to-face student interaction is the number-one way to get students to buy in to your organization, I would argue that a solid marketing campaign is just as effective. Start early. Use slogans. Use photos of students, but not just any students – smiling students! Give away branded (imprinted) items… if your budget permits, of course. Get your organization in the student newspaper, on the Web, on Facebook, and on the walls throughout your campus. You want people to know that your organization exists and is alive and well at your institution. A student club that has poorly designed marketing materials gives off a lackluster impression to prospective members. (Look for more a marketing blog from me next week…)

4.       Advertise the perks of membership.
Students are selfish beings. In fact, we all are.  Remember Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs”? This theory is based on the assumption that we have basic needs that we need to satisfy. Our students have needs, and they usually join our clubs & organizations in order to meet their personal needs. What is it that your organization can offer to students to help fulfill their needs? Once you figure out what that is, make sure your students don’t hesitate to spread the word.

5.       Have a plan.

If your students don’t have a plan, I can guarantee their recruitment campaign will be rather unsuccessful compared to the group who sat down during the summer or early fall and planned out their recruitment efforts. There needs to be a conscious and collective effort by everyone in the organization in order to get members. I don’t believe in leaving recruitment up to a single committee chair, because recruitment is the responsibility of the entire group membership. It’s important that you and your students believe in this philosophy, as well.

Chuck Steele
Original post
Community College / Commuter Schools / Low Cost Programming / Marketing / Series Programming — View Comments
29
Jun 07

Alter Ego Productions

Lower your costs. Increase your hipness. Who can argue w/ that?

We’ve been running our Alter Ego Series for about the last six years. It all started w/ the idea of supporting local music. This is the setup. Each show is themed – pop punk, metal, alt, etc. We do four bands per show, and charge $5 at the door. Each band gets 15% of door sales, but we also give the bands tickets to sell in advance. That’s where they can really make some money. For those tickets, we tell them we need to get $2 back for every ticket they sell. So they can keep up to 60% or they can discount the tickets (to motivate fans to buy in advance). We use a ticket consignment form, and settle up w/ them before the show starts. This setup works for us because the bands do a large share of the promotion, and we can’t lose money on the show.

Another important piece is the name/branding of the series. In the beginning, we created "Alter Ego Productions" to downplay the fact that this is a student group. We wanted to give the impression that we were an independent group who is renting out space at the college. Over the years, that has pretty much gone by the wayside, but we still don’t put "Student Activities Program Board" on any of the promotion. Alter Ego Productions maintains the reputation for being a cool place to play or see a show within the local music scene.

Our audience numbers range from 50 to 150, which we consider a sellout for that room. These shows also create a following for the Alter Ego brand, and really help when we do our bigger concerts which typically sell out at 600 people.

Another perk, especially for community colleges like us, is that we do get some high schoolers at our shows which is a great way to get them on your campus and leave them with a "cool" image of the school.

Alteregologo

Del
Original post
Series Programming — View Comments
29
Jun 07

A Summer Music Series

Things that work

I’ve just returned from performing at a couple of Summer shows.  As unusual as they are, I’ve done Summer shows on a lot of campuses for many years, and I’m always impressed with the interest and attendance.  Students enrolled in Summer classes pay student activities fees, so they are entitled to programs even if the campus is slow.  It’s important to make the programs fit into the needs and desires of Summer students. 

For several years, I performed at the University of Arkansas during the Summer.  They did an early evening concert series outside of their main cafeteria.  Students would flow out of student center and sit right down to listen to the music.  The activities staff knew how to do events right in the traffic flow and at the right time, so that students couldn’t miss the event.  I performed on their campus once on July Fourth while they grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for their students.  It was the traditional July Fourth Family Cookout, but with the “campus family.”

We all grouse about the most common way to get students to attend any event:  free food.  I just performed at the University of Tennessee (for the 15th summer in a row), and they have used a number of food giveaways.  They used to give away free snow cones.  How cool and cheap is that?  They got crushed ice from the athletic department and flavored syrups from Sam’s Club.  Then they shifted to ice cream.

Ice cream is a consistently popular food giveaway in the Summer.  At Boston University, they would give away three away three five-gallon containers during my Noon concert.  Students would line up thirty minutes in advance to get their scoop!  Part of my job, as a performer, was to keep them happy before the ice cream was ready.  I would actually start to perform at 11:30, and the ice cream wasn’t brought out until Noon.

The folks at the University of Tennessee found away to eliminate the hassle and mess of scooping ice cream.  They now giveaway ice cream novelties:  nutty buddies, pushups, ice cream sandwiches, etc.  It’s also great because students can grab them and run.

Look at scheduling your Summer programs at the right time and the right days.  Boston University, the University of Tennessee, and  Virginia Commonwealth University always scheduled my shows during summer orientation or a parents’ visitation.  It makes the campus look so inviting to those new students and parents to see something happening.   And it guarantees an audience.

Western Carolina University uses their Summer Concert Series for multiple purposes.  They are scheduled during summer orientation for the students and parents.  But in addition, they also promote them off campus, and view their Summer Series as a community outreach.  There were almost as many community residents at my concert last week as there were summer students and orientation students.

If you are doing Summer programs, I’d love to hear what works for you.

Jennifer
Original post
Leadership Training — View Comments
29
Jun 07

Development By Challenge: A View On Using Ropes Courses as Leadership Development

Research presented by Camille Bunting & John Donley at the Bradford Woods Research Symposium stressed that “if a person is supported to move out of his/her comfort zone, and has a powerful experience, then powerful conditions exist for positive change” (1).  I support this education assumption by taking student leaders to camp. Our “camp” is a day on a challenge ropes course. Working at an institution with many students from urban backgrounds makes going out into the wildness a huge step out of their comfort zones.

Before participating in a challenge course, however, it’s important to develop goals the group would like to achieve. The goals can be educational, developmental, or recreational in nature. Often with the student leaders I work with, the group chooses to develop leadership skills through personal challenge and activities in teamwork. Loading into the van in the wee hours of the morning, there is much complaining and many questions – mostly from the anxiety of not knowing what will face them during the day. I give very basic information and stress that the day will be a “challenge by choice” and it’s up to the leader how far he/she would like to involve or challenge themselves. A typical day at camp will be 4 – 10 hours. Challenges begin by starting off with team energizers in a field (trust falls, name games), working through low elements (ground based obstacles, low roped activities), and finishing up with high elements (pre-fabricated course in trees or with utility poles).

It’s important to make sure you’re using a challenge course that is certified and one that puts SAFETY FIRST. YMCA’s and local church camps often have some version of a course at reasonable rates if you don’t happen to have one on your campus. If you’re looking for a retreat that will focus on group interaction, development of leadership skills, and problem solving then a day at camp may be exactly what your students need. Outcomes of a day at camp are numerous – with a growth in self-confidence, experience in positive risk taking, and teamwork topping my list.

I just returned from working with Orientation leaders on a course. A comment from one of my sophomore leaders sums it up best “I didn’t think I could, but now I know I can. No obstacle will stop me this year!”

Research:

1) Bunting, C. J., & Donley, J. P. (2002).  Ten Years of Challenge Course Research: A Review of Affective Outcome Studies.

Dennis Koch
Original post
Diversity — View Comments
29
Jun 07

Intentional Diversity Programming

Diversity Awareness

When we talk about diversity it is pretty much agreed by all that labels are a bad thing!  Unfortunately, when it comes to diversity awareness programs there is a stigma/label that most audience members use as an excuse for not attending.  Oh, that is going to be educational, or boring, or I have heard it all before, etc.  It’s tough to get past labels and peoples preconceived notions of what diversity awareness programming is all about.

I have seen where groups are so frustrated that they just do whatever to say they did something and that doesn’t do the group justice or the message they are trying to communicate.  Awareness can come in many forms on a campus and not with just a lecture or performance.  There is publicity campaigns like the truth ads you see on TV; displays that can be set up in libraries or lobbies; spontaneous round table discussions in dining halls by trained student facilitators; etc.

An idea that we recently tried for our diversity programming was to make it a performing arts series.  It was the same events just with a different name.  The audience still got the same message and materials.  What changed is how the programs were viewed before they arrived.  We saw an increase in the numbers of those attending and the feedback after the events was very favorable.

Do you believe that diversity awareness is locked into a mold?  Do you limit your awareness to the typical?  Do you pick awareness events on the criteria of what they need to know, what they want to know, or a combination?  Do you give awareness the same type of TLC as other events?  Do you feel forced to do diversity awareness programs?  Share your answers, your questions, and/or your successes in diversity programming.  In a meeting today I said I learn from everyone I meet no matter age, etc. and I believe that is what diversity awareness is all about learning from each other.

Dennis Koch
Original post
Series Programming — View Comments
29
Jun 07

Why Series Programming

Series Programming

As much as we would all like to think that we are independent routine is what we enjoy in our life and helps us plan our lives.  Series programming has a number of benefits that seem to be lost sometimes as the word series brings up images of the same old, and boring, and repetitive, etc.  This of course is as far from reality as it can be if your series programs are done with intention.

A movie, coffeehouse, comedy, or performing arts series are all wonderful ways to build an audience.  One of the quotes I am always using is with quality comes quantity.  Meaning when you do a quality event your reputation builds and thus your audience grows too.  This is just one of the ways series programming can be used to help establish an office, committee, board, etc that maybe hosting these events.  Series work can establish creative long-range publicity methods.  Set up a tradition on campus.  Provide a method of progressive training for members and executives who are producing the events.  Create an atmosphere of school spirit.  Give a face-lift to an overused facility or event.

An idea for a comedy series is to label it Comedy Central Comes To (your campus name).  Then book several comedians over several months (the second Tuesday of each month for example) who have performed on Comedy Central, for those of us who are in the know that is almost every comedian that is on the college circuit.  You have added pop culture reference to your series that is familiar and appreciated by your audience.  Then run with it and do the creative inspirational programming that we all are capable of facilitating.

I could go on and on about series programming but we all learn best from each other.  Let’s share some examples of series programming that has worked in the past for you or maybe ideas you have for series programming for one reason or another you are unable to implement on your campus.  This type of programming is why television, movies, authors, music companies, etc are so successful and make money.  They build reputation, they build audience, they create expectations, and they build pride and competence.

Amybeth
Original post
Club/Org Recruitment — View Comments
29
Jun 07

Preparing Organization Members For Recruitment

How can we, as advisors, help our students realize that recruiting new members, who will positively contribute to the organization, requires more than offering free food at a meeting and displaying colorful posters at the beginning of each semester?

If we expect all members of an organization to participate in recruitment then we need to provide them the tools necessary to effectively recruit.   

I can not imagine any college admissions office sending staff or faculty out to recruit for the college without “training” them first.  Therefore, why do we espouse the idea that recruitment is every member’s job without preparing them first?

What exactly do our organization members need to know to be effective when recruiting new members?

Purpose:  Every member should be able to articulate the purpose or vision, as well as, the goals of the organization.  Why does this organization exist and does it meet an unmet need on campus?  Knowing this will help members convey to potential members what role they can play in the organization.

Enthusiasm: Members need to share their positive experiences in the organization with potential members.  Why should I join?  What’s in it for me?  Enthusiasm is contagious.  Potential members will want to join organizations that mirror their interests and where they see themselves fitting in.

Publicize:  Each member should be knowledgeable about all the amazing accomplishments, awards, and distinctions of the organization.  People want to belong to organizations that meet their goals, will recognize their hard work and that are seen as successful in their own right on campus.  We need to encourage students to share proudly with others the triumphs of the group.

Invite:  Just as many sales meetings end with the close, a recruitment encounter should end with an invite!  Members should feel empowered to invite prospective members to a meeting, event, lunch with other members, etc.  A personal contact is more effective than any number of flyers and/or newspaper advertisements. Students join organizations because they like the students they find there.   

While many admissions offices spend a considerable amount of time developing an “elevator speech” for the college, it may be a fruitful exercise for our student organizations to do the same.

These are a few ideas to help organization members see the value of purposeful recruiting.  Recruiting new members is only step one in the any successful membership strategy.  Retaining and recognizing members should also be examined by organizations. 

Amybeth
Original post
Collaborative Learning / Community College / University — View Comments
28
Jun 07

Ten Strategies For Establishing Credibility as an Activities Professional

About five years ago I attended a professional development in-service where we talked about credibility in Student Activities. I found the information shared so valuable and have relied on it many times as I continue to build a quality student development program that oozes integrity and reliability. These 10 tips below were developed by Dr. Pattie Fine, retired Dean of Student Development, Joliet Junior College, Joliet, IL. While one of the strategies below refers to community colleges, I believe higher education is an interchangeable term. Read them over and post your thoughts or add to the list.

  1. Understand the perceived value of your department to the institution.

Take a look at the history of the department within the institution – funding patterns, placement on the organization chart, involvement of the director and the student leaders on campus-wide committees, and past programs produced. Look for clues that reveal the value the institution gives to extra or co-curricular programs. Understanding the value will help you plan to improve your credibility.

  1. Make your true value known to faculty and administration.

Once you have an understanding of your place in the pecking order of institutional value, start your own public relations campaign to strengthen the image.

  1. Establish your work as an integral part of the learning environment.

Always remind folks that student activities are about learning! Too many of our colleagues see the social side and forget there is a learning component to EVERYTHING in student activities. This is a challenge of the directorship! Teaching and learning is the college’s business – take your place in helping the business advance itself.

  1. Know your own personal boundaries.

If you’re not confident and convincing about the role you can play in the institution, then no one else will be. Learn the community college system, its governance, funding formula, enrollment challenges, campus climate issues, etc. Find out where student activities can make a difference in what’s important to the system and plan accordingly!

  1. Support teaching and learning.

Find ways to complement the curriculum. When you demonstrate your interest in doing so, you gain faculty partners that become valuable ambassadors for student activities.

  1. Become a utility player.

Volunteer or ask to be apart of something on campus where no one would think you belong. Expand your scope and the networking possibilities are endless.

  1. Advocate for students.

Use what you hear, observe and learn from your student leaders to help improve campus life. Directors are invaluable sources of student opinion. Conduct forums and ask opinions if you’re not sure what they are. Use the information you receive to actively improve campus life. Your concern will be recognized by upper administration. 

 

  1. Understand how you will be evaluated.

Know how your campus evaluates department effectiveness. Be prepared to fully participate in strategic planning and outcome assessments. If there are no expectations for student activities, then create your own: evaluate and share the results!

  1. Ask for feedback.

At least once a year, ask the college community (faculty, students and staff) how you’re doing. Be prepared for the responses and use them to improve. Not all department heads are brave enough to ask folks how they’re doing. Your willingness to do so demonstrates courage and desire to improve.

  1. Remind your colleagues of your obligation to students.

Help those in the college understand your role as gatekeeper of student fees.

Shawn M.
Original post
Leadership Training — View Comments
28
Jun 07

Leadership Retreats that Work

Leadership is a hot topic in higher education as well as one of the top needs expressed by employers, and we have a great opportunity in student affairs to provide co-curricular leadership training events that can enhance a students classroom education. Each year at West Texas A&M University we host 2 student lead leadership retreats. Each retreat serves a different purpose, but both focus on leadership knowledge, skills, abilities, and application. This years retreats will look something like this:

Our first retreat will be held early fall, just a few weeks after school begins. The fall retreat is specifically geared toward incoming freshman (we can accomodate about 80 students and 20 sponsors), and returning sophomores who had become involved in various clubs and organizations the previous year as freshman. This is an off campus invitational retreat in which we invite other regional unversities to join us, which helps to defray our costs. During this weekend retreat we will focus on leadership as it pertains to participating in, and leading campus clubs and organizations. We will cover topics ranging from “Leadership as a philosophy vs Leadership as a theory,” club and organization fundraising, and campus/community outreach, among others. Also, during the retreat, the entire group of participants will be broken up into teams. Each team will complete low ropes course type activities as well as real life problem solving (we take problems that have occured within clubs and organizations, both on our campus and others, for them to solve). Each school attending is also encouraged to prepare a session or roundtable and we provide the topic well in advance. We use our five summer New Student Orientations to advertise to incoming freshman and we send out invitations to regional universities starting early summer. Another alternative way to attract students would be to send post card invitations to them as they register over the summer. The Registrar’s Office could provide that continuously updated list of names.

Our second retreat this year will be held the end of January. Where as our first retreat is only in its second year, the winter retreart has been a long standing tradition at WTAMU. However, the focus for this years retreat is shifting due to the new focus of our fall retreat. This year the winter retreat, also an off campus retreat at a ski lodge in New Mexico specifically for WTAMU students (we can accomodate about 40 students and 10 sponsors) will focus on the next step of leadership. This retreat is geared toward juniors and seniors preparing to graduate soon and enter into the workforce. The leadership training is now shifting from participating in and leading campus clubs and organizations to leading in the workplace and community. We will cover such topics as; leadership as a new supervisor, communicating in the workplace, problem solving, building relationships as the new employee, community and civic involvement, etc. Whereas in the first retreat geared for freshman the problems pertain to campus clubs and organizations, problems given to the teams for this retreat will be real world problems that new employees and supervisors might encounter as they enter into the workplace. Since this retreat is a staple at WTAMU we do not need to advertise as intensely. Usually the various clubs and organizations, as well as Greek Life fill these limited spots.

We have found that by breaking participants into groups with both a staff/faculty sponsor and a student leader works extremely well. Each group is also assigned duties over the course of these weekend retreats, i.e.; preparing meals, clean-up, etc. This also helps to defray costs. We charge $50.00 a participant (WTAMU student), which includes travel, food, materials, and retreat theme t-shirts. During the fall retreat, guest universities pay $30.00 a participant and cover their own cost of travel (usually the biggest exspense). We have also found that many times various campus clubs and organizations will sponsor their students. At times we have even found staff and faculty or departments to sponsor students if those students are student workers within those areas. So, there are lots of creative ways that students can pay for these retreats. We also find that parents are extremely interested in the fall retreat when they see the information during the summer New Student Orientations.

Planning and conducting leadership retreats can seem daunting, if not scarry. But it is amazing how student leaders, and faculty and staff love to become involved. And the dividends are awesome as we see studetns who attended our retreats assume leadership roles in clubs and organizations on campus, and even within the community. Start small if you have never held a leadership retreat, and see what can happen on your campus and within your campus clubs and organizations.

Tom
Original post
Collaborative Learning / Creativity / Technology and Programming — View Comments
28
Jun 07

Growing Up Tech – Uneducation

I spent some time on the phone recently with Ed Schlesinger, creator of a software platform called StudentForce. We talked about how comfortable this generation is with technology and how universities are missing an opportunity to allow their students the ability to play with some platforms not just for learning sake, but also to serve a purpose in organizing their academic life, social life, compile financial data, check on grades etc.

Blackboard does allow some of these features. Blackboard, however, is not a flexible system. This generation is growing up with tech that they can bend and mold like clay. So why not have a Blackboard that one can bend a mold in the same way?

Ed also wrote an article on the topic:

“… And I have become convinced that the most revolutionary force for change is the students themselves. Give children the tools they need and they will be the single most important source of guidance on how to make the schools relevant and effective”.

Don Tapscott, author of numerous books that discuss technology’s affect on our daily lives, including ‘Growing up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation’, McGraw Hill 1998; and, one of the most sought after experts on how the Internet is transforming business strategy, government and society included this quote in an article written on behalf of the Milken Family Foundation: ‘The Net Generation and The School’.   

According to this pre Y2K published article, broadband access for households with students was projected to reach forty to fifty per cent by 2000. During March 2007, Datamonitor published a research paper titled,‘2007 Trends to Watch: Education Tecnology’, where the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research (ECAR) 2006 annual survey of US college students was cited. The Educause report stated that “97.8% of undergraduates own either a desktop or laptop computer and spend an average of nearly 23 hours per week using technology.” Without taking too much of a leap, I’m going to guess the majority of those hours are spent using academic, social networking, career search and other consumer oriented applications that are all web delivered (web services).

   I like what he says here, although I bet that 90% of a student’s time is spent online socializing and playing games and only 5-10% looking for a career or using academic tools.

When you have some time, check out an Unconference. From Wikipedia:

"An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is driven and created by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by a single organizer, or small group of organizers, in advance."

Can this same idea be used in education? Can we have Uneducation? The students are able to bend, mold and shape the education they want. That sounds a bit radical in re-reading because the idea may be nice, but there are soooo many institutional policies in place that wouldn’t allow it at first. But maybe there are baby steps we can take to start.

I’m just dipping toe into a big topic (that is a huge conversation in the EdTech blogger world). These things need parsing. The big picture, however, in a quote from Ed’s article:

“The millennial generation has arrived at the schoolhouse doors with its consumer market technologies”

Although, students are the largest (and, probably most disenfranchised) group using systems maintained by Higher Ed, the user experience provided them by institutions is dictated by the limitations of applications built on infrastructure schools currently use to process data. Students represent the savviest users of the Internet. However, when they arrive at their dorm rooms and log in they access important information about their education through ‘portals’ – merely web front ends slapped on client server designed and delivered systems.

These students have grown up using consumer market technologies and expect – rather, demand, at least the same level of user experience when they get to school. And, let’s face it – school isn’t only about classes, assignments and grades. It’s also about sororities and fraternities, parties, dating, establishing life long personal and career relationships, shopping, entertainment and, the pursuit of a career; all life experiences addressed well by the consumer web. Therefore, web services that integrate students’ social networking, media, academic, and career interests while in school and well after they leave (referred to as the ‘student life cycle’ in the Datamonitor report) must work like, and be as efficient as, consumer web technologies students use now on a daily basis.

According to the Datamonitor research paper; “students are driving the transformation of collaboration and social networking applications.” Sound familiar? However, the difference between Don Tapscotts prediction nine years ago and today is that the technology is readily available, the users are experienced, and the methods by which these services are distributed already exist.

Therefore, those who provide students the tools they need thereby, fulfilling Don Tapscott’s prophecy, while meeting the challenges Higher Ed institutions face will win the hearts and minds of faculty, staff, policymakers, the community and the students. More importantly, consistently high and deep adoption by [educated] users will continue well beyond graduation ceremonies.

Nicely said.

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