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Shows like So You Think You Can Dance, Dancing with the Stars
and have created a resurgence of interest in dance. Capitalizing on
this trend, our Student Association’s Activities Coordination Board decided to
tap into this energy by creating a homegrown
show that captured the trend but made it our own: Plattsburgh’s Best Dance Crew
(PBDC).

The campus was a buzz about PBDC, but even so, we were wondering how successful
the program would be. To add to our anxiety, on the night of the event the skies
opened up and panic pervaded our already tightly wound nerves as we waited with
baited breath to see what the turn-out would be. Since this was a non-ticketed
program, we had no clue as to the number of people who would be in attendance. Facebook
numbers hardly ever reflect reality, but we would have been happy with the 200
FBers indicating an interest. Additionally, we built into the show a raffle,
campus celebrity judges (people like Penny our Dining Hall card swiper) and
opportunity for the audience to vote for the overall winner. The question was:
would it be enough to get those 200 people out on a night like this?

The doors opened, our preshow started and the audience poured in. They just
kept coming, and coming. To put it into perspective, our undergraduate student
population is 5,736. When the show was over, we recorded just over 800 in
attendance. That’s roughly 14% of our student population! (Our comedy series
typically brings in between 200-300.) The result, as my students have put it,
was an Epic Show.

Twelve student leaders worked for months to pull this show together. During our
Monday Quarterback session everyone concurred this was a special program for
our campus that yielded results beyond our wildest expectations, and while not
proven scientifically, be believe that the homegrown infusion of a current
interest got folks to buy in. I encourage you try to it.

Some of elements we use:

• Created
  a limited edition shirt for committee and give-aways
• Required
  Auditions
• Prize
  $100 Mastercard Gift Card Per person on Crew
• Held A
  Teaser Show Day of PBDC (61syx Teknique also performed in at show)

  (hope to post a link with more photos and video – soon)

   
  Photo with ACB Entertainment Committee and Winners of PBDC

Those of us who facilitate students activities know that a
lot goes into brainstorming, planning, advertising/executing, and evaluating our
programs. We can spend days, weeks and sometimes even months going through the
process. Though these more sophisticated programs are a blast to plan and
execute, simple programs that require very little planning can also be
favorites and successes.

One of the things our office does to supplement our
programming calendar is to coordinate monthly Random Days of Fun such as
International Talk Like a Pirate Day (just for fun), Bubble Wrap Appreciation
Day (a great stress reliever), and Licorice Day (accompanied with the history),
just to name a few. These activities occur in the college center just outside
our office. We table for two hours, handing out items and using the theme of
the day to interact with our students. The days go largely unpublicized and
tend to grab the students by surprise – making it random fun!

Last year was our first time implementing these Random Days
of Fun. One gained so much popularity it has become the kick off to this year’s
RDF series. September 19^th will mark our 2^nd annual
International Talk like a Pirate Day celebration. Therefore,
we gunna once again celebrate by spendin' a pair o’ hours handin' out temporary
tattoos, eye patches, chocolate coins 'n other scurvy pirate booty. Additionally,
we gunna take pictures 'o students wit' scurvy pirate apparel.

Days like these have been very successful due to the buy in
from our colleagues. Administrators like our Vice President and our Director of
Residence Life get in the spirit by going by their Pirate Names http://www.froggynet.com/cgi-bin/pirate.cgi
for the day.

I encourage others to consider adding Random Days of Fun to your programming
calendar. Get started with International Talk like a Pirate Day http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html.
For more ideas, visit http://www.brownielocks.com/