Thanks to everyone who participated in our #SAchat focused on Creative Student Leader Training. This week’s topic produced over 450 tweets from several student affairs professionals, graduate students and undergraduates interested or working in the Student Affairs field!

View transcript here. (Note: we’re trying a new transcript platform. Click “transcript” on the left to read the discussion. Check out the other links to see lots of data, including top tweeters. Feedback welcomed!)

What are some other topics you would like to see us cover? Please let us know your ideas and feedback to keep #sachat growing strong. Until next week, (if you haven’t already done so) please make sure to LIKE our Facebook Page. Thanks for your continued support!

Curious what Student Affairs folks read about the most in April? Below are the top 5 posts for last month:

1) Best Advice I Ever Got…

2) Tips for Summer Interns: We Only Get What We Give

3) Tips for Candidates New to Post-Placement Anxiety

4) I Don’t Want Your Idea. Show Me Your Product.

5) Creating Committed Teams

If you’re baseball fan, it’s not too difficult get excited about Spring Training. This is especially true if you’re a Cubs fan – let’s be honest, it’s the most optimistic you’ll likely be all season.

It’s a time to assess, focus on fundamentals, establish goals, and mentally prepare for the long and demanding season ahead. For most student affairs professionals, our Spring Training is the summer – there are some exceptions (orientation, academic advising). But, for most of us, the absence of students on campus provides us a similar opportunity.

I think there is the perception that the lack of students on campus means our work comes to a halt. How many times have you been asked if you work during the summer? We know better. Yet, I do think that there is an opportunity for us to relax too much, enjoy the absence of pitter pattering feet and constant murmurings in our hallways too much – a few more YouTube links find a way into our inboxes and Facebook status updates tend to become more regular.

While certainly there is value in decompressing, I would challenge all of us to be intentional during this time. Much like Spring Training, the summer provides us the opportunity to assess, focus on our priorities, and set goals for the coming year.

Credits: Arizona Foothills Magazine

Assess

Reflect. How did you do this year? How successful were your efforts? How effective was your opening? Training? Programming? Advising? How did you do achieving your learning outcomes? Take the time to evaluate your processes. Review assessment data. Identify changes in practices that need to be made and implement changes now. Taking the time to assess your efforts now, will allow more time to better implement these initiatives during the year.

Fundamentals

Likely your position has one of the three following responsibilities (if not all): supervision, advising, and assessment. Take some time to focus on these fundamentals. Reflect on your experience as a supervisor. What did you do well and where can you improve? Read a book or article on supervision styles and identify best practices that resonate with you. Revisit group development, team dynamics, or participate in an Advisor Recognition Training session. Take a look at your assessment efforts. What types of assessment need changed, which questions need updating? Participate in an assessment webinar or read an article to better understand how assessment can provide value to your efforts.

Set Goals

For many of us, the Fall represents the start of a new year and thus the Summer provides an excellent opportunity to set goals. What are your professional goals? What conferences will you attend? What are your departmental goals? What goals were accomplished and what goals need to be established to better address your department’s educational priority? Establish action plans to meet these goals and identify benchmarks to measure progress. Often times during the academic year, there is little time to identify goals as we move from one process to another. By taking the time to assess and identify goals now, we have a better idea how to approach our efforts during the year.

Regardless of when your “downtime” occurs, whether it be summer or late fall, be intentional about how you utilize this time. Resist the urge to become idle. Taking the time to focus on your fundamentals will allow you to better perform when it’s your time to bat.

You can connect with Matt on Twitter @mbloomingdale.

Everyday the #sachat feed is full of great resources, professional musings, and important questions that have been posed to the community. Here is a highlight of some of the tweets from the stream during the last week. We know this list is only scratching the surface, but we hope it will encourage you to keep the conversation going. Chat on!

If you want to be a leader in the student affairs profession, you should develop a skill set in assessment #LINAS #sachat #saassess #saass

April 25, 2013 1:38 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@dljaggers

Dametraus L. Jaggers

“Don’t be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.” #ColinPowell People get complacent. #sachat #EDHE5305

April 24, 2013 6:46 pm via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@SaraHazel42

Sara Hazel Harrison

“One of the biggest components of delegating work is having trust in those to whom we are delegating.” #sachat

April 23, 2013 2:57 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@ParadewithaM

Mairead Kiernan

Having an “open door policy” is a passive course of action. Take your message TO the students. Don’t wait for them to come to you #sachat

April 27, 2013 8:03 pm via Twitter for iPadReplyRetweetFavorite

@WimerAlberto

Wimer Alberto

“Unshackle yourself from the expectations of others- a boss, a partner, a faculty member, a colleague. Don’t hold yourself back.” #SAchat

April 28, 2013 9:50 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@daniellequinone

Danielle Quinones

Annoyed & confused when people describe themselves as, “lover of life” or “people person.” What do you really mean? Say it instead! #sachat

April 27, 2013 12:08 am via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@BerwickJessica

Jessica Berwick

Are Fridays quieter in your office? If so, what are you doing to address competency development for yourself? #sachat

April 26, 2013 10:05 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@drbbourke

Brian Bourke

How do you keep staff positive and working as a team at the end of April? We’re all tired and irritable. #sachat #stuact

April 25, 2013 8:04 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@donnallo

Erin Donnally Drake

How do you develop a vision for yourself? #SAchat #sagrad #reflection

April 24, 2013 4:14 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@CJArchibaldu

Christine Archibald

“Currently the culture of higher education does not foster, require or reward higher learning.” Thoughts? #sachat

April 23, 2013 3:00 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@HaifaDBKe

Haifa Dbouk

Why we should all try to be a Genius http://t.co/nOaORL2uTO from @bernadettejiwa #SAideas #SAchat

April 26, 2013 8:22 am via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@JoeGinese

Joseph Ginese

How resilient are you? Take a look at @thisissethsblog post today: http://t.co/w0MDGb0ei1 #sachat #acuhoi #glacuho

April 26, 2013 6:13 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@LaurieABerry

Laurie Berry

5 Ways to Be a Better Leader Online http://t.co/hGZI0EsOGt #leadership #sachat

April 25, 2013 8:44 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@TonyDoody

Tony Doody

What is College? @jselingo shared his thoughts. What do you think? http://t.co/yiREbw6nIT #SAchat

April 25, 2013 6:20 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@EricStoller

Eric Stoller

I’m sure that many of us have participated in summer internships through programs like NODA and AUCHO-I. The internship process can and should be an exciting experience for both the host institution and for the intern. It’s a time for learning, personal and professional growth and experiencing a new place. The internship can go by quickly that’s why it’s important for everyone involved to make the most out of it. Here are a few things to think about as you prepare to host or be an intern.

Image from here.

1. Make a plan-you put together a job description and now you have to make it come to life. Not everything can be based on “well whatever the intern wants to experience” the intern will want to experience EVERYTHING! It’s the fun part of being an intern. Ask yourself the following question “when this intern goes back to their school I want them to say this about our institution” Some internships have specific goals like supervision of conferences or orientation support that need to happen but I encourage you to still have a plan for what you want to have this person accomplish. On the flip side if you don’t have something that is predetermined like conferences or orientation be intentional about the projects that your intern is taking on. Make sure they can be completed or have a clear goal in mind. Don’t send them on the quests that have no answer because you want a pair of fresh eyes on a project

2. “Have you met Ted?” One of the first steps to making someone feel welcome is to provide an opportunity for them to meet the people in the neighborhood. One way not to do this is to have the intern randomly introduce themselves or lead them around from office to office. This can be an awkward encounter of the first kind. You can’t lead them around or shove them into someone’s office doorway then what can you do? You can organize a meet and greet. In the years that I supervised AUCHO-I interns I would hold a meet and greet that included bagels and a Noshbox from Einsteins and invite all of the summer staff for a brief meet the interns nibble. This enables them to meet everyone at the same time and provided informal introductions. The calendar request was for no more than 30mins. I took a few minutes and said what the internship was (explained it every year just in case someone forgot or there were new staff members) then turned it over to the interns to intro themselves and mingle. I would end the internship with a similar breakfast to say goodbye. Like a good book a proper internship should have a begging, middle and ending.

3. Buddies from around the way-Another great way to network yourself as well as provide additional resources for your intern is to connect them with colleagues around the way that are also hosting interns. When I was an AUCHO-I intern I was able to attend a regional AUCHO-I intern conference that was put together by the interns in the area. I also visited two other schools in the area while at the impromptu conference. As an intern supervisor I worked with a colleague at a neighboring institution to set up a visit day for our intern that was always well received.

4. Bye Bye Bye-Have your interns present the story of their experience to those they worked and interacted with. I was asked to do this when I was an intern, and it was one of my first outside of the classroom presentations. Being able to articulate what I did in a presentation was a valuable reflection experience. As a supervisor I had my interns do the same thing. About a week before the end the internship they would present their experience to an audience. It was a great way to hear about all the ways that they had connected with people, places and with the department. When given permission I sent the previous year’s internship presentation to the next intern as a resource.

For Interns:
1. Don’t skate to one song and one song only-be open to whatever the experience will bring you. You could be traveling to another part of the country working in a place that you know nothing about. Sit in on any meeting, hang out with people or explore on your own. Take every opportunity to soak it all in. Just being a fly on the wall can teach you a lot about how different departments work to fulfill their mission and values.

2. GOALLLLLL!- Have a clear vision of something that you want to accomplish over the summer. Make sure you share your thoughts with your supervisor so that they can help you accomplish your goal within your other tasks. You decided to do an internship so that you could grow, learn and develop your skill set. Don’t sit back and wait for this to just happen through osmosis. Be proactive in your own development.

3. “Have you met me?” As an intern it’s your perfect opportunity to set up meetings with different offices, directors and vice presidents. Student affairs people love to share the story of their journey with up and coming members of the field. By sending an email to set up a meeting or grabbing lunch you are making someone’s day because they are able to wax poetic about their experiences and offer advice.

4. Bring the beat back-You are going to learn a lot of stuff over the summer that could be helpful to your department. Make sure that you share your experiences and what you learned with your home institution. Sharing ideas and knowledge are how we in our profession continue to advance and grow.

Being an intern and hosting an intern is a great way to continue to expand the knowledge base of our profession. When we are intentional in our planning towards being success hosts and interns everybody wins!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our #SAchat focused on Best Practices for On Campus Interviews – for the Interviewers. This week’s topic produced over 320 tweets from several student affairs professionals, graduate students and undergraduates interested or working in the Student Affairs field!

View transcript here. (Note: we’re trying a new transcript platform. Click “transcript” on the left to read the discussion. Check out the other links to see lots of data, including top tweeters. Feedback welcomed!)

What are some other topics you would like to see us cover? Please let us know your ideas and feedback to keep #sachat growing strong. Until next week, (if you haven’t already done so) please make sure to LIKE our Facebook Page. Thanks for your continued support!

Indiana University (IU) has a long history with basketball.  This March Madness was different not because IU was a contender, but because of the spotlight put on the academic advisors.  It’s a tradition that on Senior Night, every single senior thanked their academic advisors for helping them do well in their studies and getting them to graduation and this year was no exception.  Also, one of the juniors, Victor Oladipo, and his advisor were interviewed by the Indianapolis Star.  Click here to read the article (there is a video, but the article tells the advising story).

I sent this article to an advisor/colleague and she emailed me saying “How cool would it be to advise those guys?” to which I responded, “I feel the same about the guys I advise”.  I advise mostly males in the Engineering and Technology programs on my campus.  I honestly look forward to going to work each day and being around such bright, intelligent, focused young men is inspiring and rewarding.  My students won’t be joining the NBA like Oladipo, but I have no doubt that some will leave their mark on the world as they have on my life.  Shouldn’t we all feel blessed to be difference-makers and academic supports to the students we serve?  I think so.

Image borrowed from HERE

Recently I watched a colleague struggle significantly with a committee she was heading up. Once a group of 10 active and reliable members, her group dropped to 8, then 7, and now stands at 4. The work the committee was doing ground to a halt. My friend was responsible. The work piled up, and she ended up putting in (even more) long hours. She lamented to me that of the people who had stopped coming to her meetings, only one had actually given notice. I saw the same issue again this week when I showed up to a task force I sit on – only 3 people there. Our leader made light of the situation, but I could tell he was upset that people had just stopped showing up.

We’ve all done this at least once in Student Affairs, and, we have at least had it done to us once. If you ask me, the most unfortunate part of it all is that it is widely accepted that it will happen, and people step off of committees/work groups/task forces usually by just never coming again. Rather than sharing with the planner or the group the reasons for leaving, and trying to find a replacement on the team, people quietly slip away. Most of them do not even get themselves removed from email lists for fear of bringing attention to the fact that they were a part of the group, and now are not.

I get it – we are busy, busy, people. We over commit. We don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. We have a hard time saying no. We want to help. We join things that are not within our position descriptions, and then our jobs kick into overdrive. There are a lot of reasons that are not at all malicious. In fact, I would imagine that the vast majority are not meant to be harmful. The issue lies in the fact that this can happen over and over in a group, and then the person in charge is left holding the whole thing together with duct tape, chewing gum, and their bare hands.

So hey, does that mean that we have to be martyrs? No. What it means is that we can do just a few things to have both the boundaries we need, and be the support for our colleagues in their endeavors:

• Find out what you are agreeing to: ask some questions before you jump into the fray. What kind of time commitment do you think this will be? What will be expected of the members of this group? How do you see my skills/efforts fitting into the project? What is the timeline you are working with? Having just a bit of information can help you to determine if you are going to be able to commit or not.
• Commit: When you say yes – say yes. Put the meetings on your calendar out as far as you need to, show up to the meetings present and ready to go, be engaged from the start, and keep that going until the finish. I find it so sad when people seem surprised I make it to all the meetings, or do the work asked of me (not to paint myself the hero here – I have definitely done the opposite too). If you are well-informed about your commitment, and them make it, you should be able to do most of what is asked. Be that awesome person people can rely on (of course this will mean you will get more invites to evaluate, and possibly to say no to).
• Have boundaries on your commitment: If you do not think you can do everything asked, or can’t make most of the meetings, come up with a way to be involved where you can meet your commitment. Suggest you show up to a few meetings to consult, or meet separately with the leader to talk about things. Perhaps you can take on one piece of the project and do it on your own time, or read the meeting notes and weigh in. If you can fill a need and help out, do it.
• Say no: It is a really hard thing to do in a culture of “yes” and a group of people who are committed helpers. I know that this often flies in the face of what you hear and what you see either on your campus and in Student Affairs. We feel peer-pressured into being yes-only people. I believe that often “no” is better than a “yes” if you really can’t meet the commitment being asked.
• If you have to step down: Go out and find someone to take your place. Who do you know that could be a part of the group? Pitch it to them and see if you can make a switch. Doing this demonstrates your commitment to the group, keeps that much-needed spot on the team filled, and upholds your own boundaries and needs.
• If you can’t find a replacement, but still need to leave: Be up front with the leader of the group at minimum, the whole group at best. Don’t just stop going and hope that no one notices you are no longer there. People notice. You don’t want a reputation for being someone who does not meet commitments. On some campuses once you have a reputation – it’s not going away

I think there are also some proactive things group leaders can do as well:

• Help those you ask to be well-informed: If you know the commitment you are asking for, tell people. Give them not just an idea of the cool topic, important outcome, or necessary goal. People who join your group well-informed are more likely to stick with you.
• Ask what else people are up to: Sometimes it is good to get a sense of how committed someone is before you ask them to join your group. If they seem very busy, perhaps you should look for someone else. You could ask the person you thought of first whether or not they have recommendations as to who you can ask.
• Don’t always ask the same people: This can help with the over-commitment issue, but it is also awesome to meet new folks with new projects. I have met some amazing people on campus because a group leader brought together folks I would never have thought of.
• If you see someone is no longer in attendance: Check in with that person. Let them know you are aware they are no longer coming to meetings, and ask them what is going on for them. Most people do not leave groups out of spite, so seeking to understand is really helpful. This might also provide you with some feedback on how your work is going. People might have left because they felt things were not productive, or did not like the direction being taken. That can improve your work moving forward. The final positive about this approach is that it holds people accountable, helps you to understand what is going on, and may help keep the relationship you have with that person intact for future endeavors.

In the end, we will all be on both sides of this fence. We want to serve, create, help, and say yes! Increasing communication to start, and keeping it going as things move along is key to having successful and useful group attendance.

We asked #SAChat superstar @OberBecca to reflect on her #RunForBoston movement. 

In the wake of the bombings at the Boston Marathon people were left wanting to join together to show their support. Twitter was full of people pledging to Run For Boston that night or the next morning. I wanted to find a way to bring us all together in our efforts and created a Google Form for people to log their miles together. I shared the link with friends on Facebook and Twitter, sharing it with every running group and
fitness hashtag I could think of. I thought maybe my close friends and colleagues would log their miles, but never expected it go viral.

Since Monday night, it’s become a movement of support, empathy, and strength. Some of us are runners, some are joggers, some are walkers, and some are lacing up for the first time; all of us want to #RunForBoston. Whether you run your 26 miles miles or walk 2.6, you can log your miles in the form and share why you Run For Boston.

Within 48 hours, over 2100 runners logged 9000 miles and the list continues to grow quickly. These miles aren’t about raising money, but about showing our support for the runners, families, rescuers, and Bostonians. They are about being a part of something bigger than ourselves and being a part of a community.

One runner runs “For those who have to learn to walk all over again” while another says “Because my brother-in-law crossed the finish line 15 min before the explosions. Because Boston is my city. Because we are strong.”

Log as many runs as you like for as long as you like, the form will remain active and I will continue to share totals periodically on Facebook and Twitter (@OberBecca). To access the form and read stories of other runners, visit beccaobergefell.com. Join other runners on Twitter with the #RunForBoston hashtag and read the incredible (and sometimes heartbreaking) stories shared by people from across the United States and
several countries.

A special thanks to the #SAChat community for being among the first people to log their miles as they #RunForBoston and for sharing it so widely!