Institute dates are May 9-14,-2011 and it’s FREE!

Deadline to apply is April 20

Read and hear all about Leadershape at: http://hslc.cofc.edu/leadershape/index.php

More about Leadershape: http://www.leadershape.org/About.aspx

LeaderShape:

Want to learn how to change the world in six days?  Want to improve your resume to impress future employers?  Want to learn how to work with others to accomplish your vision and goals?  This short video tells you how…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_VX6q-elR4

Students are encouraged to take advantage of the LeaderShape® Institute at the College of Charleston.  Through the Higdon Student Leadership Center, the College of Charleston will host its fifth LeaderShape Institute, May 9-14, 2011 at Bonnie Doone Plantation (www.bonniedoone.org) in Walterboro, SC.  This is an excellent opportunity to meet other College of Charleston students who want to make a difference in themselves and their community. This event is free to any student who registers before the deadline. There are only 60 slots available so space is limited. Note: participants leave campus on Monday, May 9 around 1 p.m. and travel by chartered bus to the off-campus location and return to campus on Saturday, May 14 by 2 p.m. We hope that students will take advantage of this great opportunity to further enhance personal leadership skills and our campus community.

• Apply online http://hslc.cofc.edu/leadershape/index.php Deadline is April 20, 2011. Call 843-953-6356 for additional information.

More about LeaderShape…

The program content of The LeaderShape^® Institute (www.leadershape.org ) reflects key leadership issues of vision, partnerships, integrity, and results.  In addition, all participants leave The Institute with a “LeaderShape Breakthrough Blueprint.” The LeaderShape Breakthrough Blueprint is a well-conceived vision and plan of action for the participants to implement back in their organization or community. Since 1986, there have been 30,000 participants graduate from sessions of The LeaderShape Institute. In fact, this year alone, there will be close to 3,500 participants who go through The LeaderShape Institute. The LeaderShape Institute will be conducted over 70 times this year, at over 65 different college campuses and organizations As well as being an opportunity to develop skills to improve their organizations, participants praise The LeaderShape Institute as a time of great introspection.  The week is structured so that participants first gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their own strengths and weaknesses, ultimately enabling them to be more effective leaders in their organizations.

Past participants summarized the experience the following way:

“The Leadershape Institute opened my eyes to a network of individuals that provided me with opportunities of teamwork and cooperatives.  The knowledge and friends I gained made Leadershape an unforgettable experience.”

“The Leadershape Institute gave me a unique opportunity to go outside of my box – in terms of meeting new people, learning about myself, and learning how to interact and act as a campus leader.”

“The LeaderShape Institute is a once in a lifetime opportunity to leave campus and share with like-minded students a week long complete immersion in leadership”

Specifics of the program include: a Team Challenge Course (a half-day outdoor team-building experience), an evening with a Guest Leader Forum in which participants are exposed to “real world” role models in education, business, industry, or other professions, quality facilitators from a variety of backgrounds, and learning and sharing in small groups.

In recognizing the importance of your role as a student organization advisor, we want to know what we can do to make your advisory role a better and more productive position.  What are we doing right? What needs tweaking? How can we be an efficient tool? How can we teach you about Student Life? Your feedback will help us cater to your needs and construct valuable tools for you to utilize.  We want to know how we can be of service to you, just as you have been of service to our student organizations.  Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

If you can please take a minute or two and fill out a quick survey.  Your feedback will allows us to better serve the student organization advisors  at the College of Charleston.



The College of Charleston is accepting nominations for its 2011 Excellence in Collegiate Education and Leadership (ExCEL) Awards through Friday, March 18. Sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Programs and Services, the goal of the awards is to honor individuals and organizations that create a campus environment that promotes diversity and excellence. Nominations may highlight excellence in teaching, student learning/leadership, civic engagement, athleticism, individual contributions to the campus community, and/or professional, social, and cultural leadership. The ExCEL Awards Program is scheduled for Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. and located at the College of Charleston’s Physicians Auditorium,   (3 College Way). The reception for nominees, recipients, their families and friends will immediately follow the ExCEL Awards Program.  The reception will be held at Alumni Hall.

All nominations can be completed online.  Please copy and paste this link in your browser.

http://www.cofc.edu/excelawards/nominations/nominationform.php

The ExCEL Awards also serves as a fundraiser.  This year we are accepting donations to help support multicultural and first-generation students study abroad.  To make a donation, please copy and paste this link in your browser.

http://www.cofc.edu/excelawards/donate/index.php

If you have questions about the ExCEL Awards, please contact Rebecca Goss at 843.953-5660 or gossr@cofc.edu.

I recently attended the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) National Conference, and not surprisingly there were a lot of education sessions on the use of social media and its impact on our student leaders.  Considering that 99% of college students have a Facebook profile, and 43% have a smart phone, it is not hard to see that as professionals who work with students every day, we need to meet them “where they are”.  Which leads me back to our campus and one of the biggest questions plaguing us as professionals; how we do, or do we at all, change our communication style to more effectively reach our students?

As a young professional in the field, I fell that I have a bit of an advantage when it comes to communicating with students vie text, or Twitter, or event Facebook.  But what about those who are a little bit more reluctant to embrace all this new and emerging technology?  What about those don’t think it is appropriate to create a Facebook profile just to speak with their students?  There is no one clear answer, but one thing I can suggest is to have a conversation with your students (face to face) regarding your expectations for electronic communication.  It is important to recognize that your preferred style of communication may not be the same as your students, and when you spend 90% of your day communicating with students, you learn quickly that one method is no longer good enough.  I know it seems funny to have a face to face conversation regarding how you will communicate with your students electronically, but believe me it is worth it.  Because of the accelerated expedition of modern technology and how we communicate with each other, one form of communication that may seem completely rude to one generation is perfectly acceptable to another.  Time, location, and the manner of which communication, and communication devices are used thus becomes the corner stone for your conversation with your students.

Within the past five years it has become increasingly easier for our student organizations to create a digital face/brand for their organization.  Thus changing how leaders operate and managing their organizations.  As the structures of our organizations are changing, some argue that the behaviors needed to be a leader of a student organization in the digital age are changing too.   Dan Ashlock, Jr. at Arizona State University suggests that along with a standard set of leadership behaviors our digital age students need, the following behaviors as well:

Creativity

Consistency

Flexibility

Focus

Organization

Persistence

Responsibility

(Review a detailed description of the digital age leadership behaviors)

Does this mean we have to start training a new type of leader?  Should we expect them to adapt to these changes on their own?  I sometimes wonder, by the time we figure these questions out new and modern forms of communication will surpass even this conversation.

As we continue to define our relationship with our tech savvy student leaders, let me share a few tips I picked up that might guide our digital practice:

•       Develop special training for virtual leaders

•       Enhance leadership development programs with virtual skills

•       Define whether campus policies extend into the virtual world

•       Establish effective advisor/student leader relationships with technology.

•       Social media and technology should be critical in establishing identity and brand of student organizations.

•       Be sure to establish boundaries for social networks – advisor vs. friend vs. student.

•       Set up technology expectation with student leaders – when/how often will you and the student check email, Facebook, texts, etc.

•       Don’t try to manage difficult situations on-line – some advising challenges still require face to face time.

So whether you warmly embrace new technology, or you feel like it is just one more thing you have to try to figure out, in my opinion, it’s here to stay.  The conversations will continue and as professionals we will continue to incorporate these new behaviors into our practice in an effort to use them not only as a “time waster,” but as a learning tool as well.  To close, let me pose this question, is technology hurting our helping?

The following books are great resources if you choose to learn more about this topic:

The Virtual Student: A Profile and Guide to Working with Online Learners, by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt

Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, by Charlene Li

Online Social Networking on Campus: Understanding What Matters in Student Culture, by Ana M. Martinez Aleman and Katherine Lynk Wartman

References

Ashlock Jr., D, Heisermna, J. (2011, February 20).  Advising the Virtual Student Leader, National Association for Campus Activities National Conference, St. Louis, MO.

We are asking advisors of student organizations to nominate deserving students for both the New Student Leader Award and the Cistern Award.  The deadline is March 16.

The linked nomination forms, included above, outline the purpose and criteria for each award.   Check out the web page for a more detailed description of S.A.L.A.

http://hslc.cofc.edu/sala/index.php

Events and Programs

For many the Compass: A Guide for Student Organizations is a collection of rules that regulate how student organizations receive and spend allocated funds, but there is more to the Compass than budget dos and don’ts.  Now I know everyone reading this has already read the Compass front and back, and some have even committed it to memory, but for those few who are unfamiliar with the overall contents of the Compass, I have created a series of blogs that will highlight particular sections of the document that sometimes get over looked.  The inaugural blog is going to cover the “Events and Programs” section of the Compass which can be found between pages 29 and 33.

If the student organization you advise wants to produce an event on or off campus the “Events and Programs” section will actually be quite helpful.  This section provides essential information regarding the event management and preparation portion of the planning process.  Important areas include:

RESEARCHING VENUE AVAILABILITY AND THE FACILITIES RESERVATION PROCESS

One of the essential first steps in event planning is determining where your event is going to be held.  For our veteran programmers, you all know how hard it can be to find viable space on campus to host events.  This section outlines how organizations can find spaces and even some areas you might not have thought of initially.  The section also provides brief instructions regarding the next steps in the process after a space is reserved.

ADVERTISING

The worst thing that can happen to a program is no one shows up.  Once you have a great space, and the money to produce a program, you need to tell people about it.  This section offers up a few tips to ensure attendance at your programs, including, but not limited to remembering to start advertising at least two weeks before your event.  This section also reiterates the helpfulness of an event planning check list, or similar check sheet, that can be used for any program and helps planners cover necessary tasks.

AMPLIFIED SOUND POLICY

Did you know that there are only a few outside areas on campus where events can take place, that include amplify sound, that do not require prior approval?  The Amplified Sound Policy, which is included in its entirety in the Compass, outlines where the Amplified Sound Policy applies and what the process is for amplified sound event approval.

CATERING

ARAMARK Food Services is the hospitality provider for the College.  That includes dining hall services as well has catering for programs and events.  If your student group is planning to host an event that includes catering they first need to start with Norma Luden, Coordinator for Business Services.  She will help with the paperwork Aramark requires for catering orders.  Norma is also the person to see if your organization needs to go to the grocery store, or Costco, etc. to purchase additional food and supplies for meetings and programs.  If the catering expenses are going to be over $50, your students need to start with Norma, it will save them vital time during the planning stages.

AUDIO VISUAL ASSISTANCE

Many of the facilities on campus that are used as programming spaces come with very basic audio/ visual support, in addition, many of the spaces provided have no audio/ visual support.  The Office of Events Support can help organizations that need basic equipment.  If the event is held in the Stern Center, the building has the ability to support a range of programs as well.  If additional resources are needed, beyond what the Stern Center or the Office of Events Support can provide, organizations can contact the Office of Student Life, where they will be provided with the names and contact info for many off-campus production companies.  In any case giving advance notice (two weeks minimum) of needed equipment is preferred and allows those involved to serve our students in the best way possible.

WAIVERS AND INSURANCE

When student organization events involve trips off campus, or elements of risk, the groups responsible for the event are required to provide prior to, or fill out, a legal waiver (depending on the nature of the event).  In addition, if the organization is contracting a third party vendor who is bringing an “at risk” element to the event, that vendor will need to provide a certificate of insurance.  Any reputable company will have a certificate of insurance and be willing to provide it on site.

OFF-CAMPUS PROGRAMS

In most cases when organizations host events off campus, catering and audio/ visual support need to be arranged with a third party vendor or the off-campus venue.  When dealing with off-campus events, it is important to have knowledge of appropriate waivers/ paperwork needed, and the need to start the process in Norma Luden’s Office.  Regardless of an events location, contracts and arrangements for payment need to originate from her office.  It is also important to note that although the event is held at an off-campus location, organization members will still be held to the same policies and procedures as on-campus and can face both on and off-campus sanctions for violations.

STUDENT ORGANIZATION SPONSORED EVENTS WITH ALCOHOL

The College of Charleston has in place an Alcohol Use on Campus or During College Sponsored Events Policy, which mandates certain restrictions when it student organizations host events that include alcohol.  The policy should be read and understood by any organization thinking on planning an event that would include alcohol.

Many of the questions asked of the Office of Student Life often refer to the “Events and Programs” section of the Compass.  While it does not give anyone a detailed road map, or “how-to”, for every program imaginable, it helps answer many general questions people may have when they get started.  The best knowledge though is learned through experience.  Hosting programs is a great way for students to learn a range of skills, and time should be allotted after each program to evaluate what worked and what can be improved upon.  Once that occurs, our organizations need to teach each other what they learned and share the information so the process is not re-invented every time.

On Wednesday, December 8 the Office of Student Life Hosted a free webinar, sponsored by the Association for College Unions International (ACUI) , that covered the topic; Student Organization Officer Transition.  The webinar was open to all student organization leaders and advisors, providing an opportunity to learn about a topic that is important to many on campus organizations.  In an effort to share the presentation information with those who could not attend the webinar, a recap of the information is included below.

Jeff Pelletier began by covering the goals and objectives of the session which include:

GOALS:

• Demonstrate how transition affects daily lives
• How transition to/from executive board affects members
• To understand the importance of transition
• To create closure for those transitioning out and support to those transitioning in

OBJECTIVES:

• Provide resources through structured experiences (incoming)
• Feel a sense of closure from position (outgoing)

Moving into the body of the presentation, the information included explains, in a bit of detail, the PowerPoint Presentation.

WHAT IS TRANSITION?

Any event, or non-event, that results in changed relationships, routines, assumptions, and roles (only if one deems it as such, though)

The student leaders through this transition process [changing leadership roles] are experiencing an anticipated transition

LEADERSHIP STYLE QUESTIONNAIRE

Jeff shared a Leadership Style Questionnaire (Northouse, 2009) that helps incoming leaders understand their preferred leadership style.  The questionnaire provides three categories of leadership style (Authoritative, Democratic, Laissez faire) which are determined by a participant’s cumulative score.   Additional descriptions of each style are also included in the questionnaire that provides further insight into each style.

The following suggestions were given, that in complement with the Leadership Style Questionnaire should make this transition exercise more comprehensive.

• Personal 1-1 reflection between incoming and outgoing officer
• Reflect on their individual leadership style
• Reflect on differences and how those may be perceived by organization
• How to incorporate position responsibilities within personal style

Also noted with in the Leadership Style Questionnaire topic was group reflection on various styles.  This can be a valued exercise that can predict any challenges organizations may experience as they move through the transition process together.

THE 4 “S’s”

The 4 S’s are described as Situation, Self, Support, and Strategies, and are an easy way for both in-coming and out-going officers to reflect on their personal transition process.

• Situation –What kind of transition is it?
• Self-Personal demographics and what can they bring to the situation?
• Support –What support system does the individual have?
• Strategies –What is the coping situation?

Jeff shared several ways one can take the 4 S’s and apply them specifically to officer transition.  They include the following:

• The outgoing and incoming officer receive a series of questions to answer and reflect upon with their transition
• For the outgoing officer, serves as a way to find closure in leadership position
• For the incoming officer, identifies ways to find support from outgoing officer and other variables
• Through the recognition of how they are planning on moving through their transition, the process becomes more intentional
• The outgoing and incoming officer will share their 4 S’s and how they plan to make their transition as smooth as possible

TUCKMAN’S THEORY OF GROUP DYNAMICS

The 4 S’s and the Leadership Style Questionnaire were not developed without foundation.  Tuckman’s Theory of Group Dynamics has inspired many of the approaches to leadership transition.

Tuckman’s Theory of Group Dynamics can be described as:

Student organizations moving through stages of group dynamics constantly

• Larger “life-cycle” of the organization as a whole
• Smaller cycle that occurs every year as a new executive board transitions in

The Stages of Group Develop include:

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Preforming
• Adjourning

HOW CAN OFFICER TRANSITION BE IMPLEMENTED?

In closing, Jeff offered some ways that officer transition can be implemented, and noted that each school is different and within each school, each organization operates differently, so he encourages advisors and organization leaders to use these methods in a way that will best fit their organization, not to adjust the organization to fit the methods.

• Transition takes time –start early and let the process unfold
• Tools provided for a successful transition process may be used in a variety of ways:

o   A workshop experience

o   A series of mini-presentations throughout executive board meetings

o   A overnight retreat experience

• This is only a starting point

o   Officers should continue to meet after working through structured experiences

o   Visiting organization’s office

o   Meet with key stakeholders

o   Going over various paper work

o   Training on computer system

o   Detailed transition binder for each position

o   Attending university-sponsored training (if applicable)

There are over 115 Student Organization Advisors on our campus, and if I were to take a general poll asking each advisor what their relationship looks like with their student organization, I would wager I would come up with no less than 115 different approaches to advising a student organization.  Those results would be due, most in part, to the lack of structure given to our advisors as they take on the role of student organization advisor.  As a result, many of our faculty and staff members are not sure where to begin to develop their role as an advisor to a campus organization.  

As new student organizations are created, the students are asked to follow a few required steps that help our office prepare them to operate successfully on our campus.  One of those steps is selecting a fulltime faculty or staff member to serve as their advisor.  Each organization has complete discretion as who that person should be.  Once an advisor has been selected, it is up to the organization and the advisor to determine what their relationship will look like moving forward. 

The role of the advisor can be a relationship ranging from an occasional signature on a campus form, to an advisor who is at every meeting, every event, and completely involved with the day to day workings of the organization they support.  There is no one correct way to advise a student organization; it is truly an organic process, but the Office of Student Life is always going to encourage organization advisors to maintain some level of involvement with their organization. Hopefully something a little more than signing a campus form every now and then; but whatever direction the relationship goes, the hope is that it is student driven.  I have included some suggestions of levels of involvement that may create an appropriate or inappropriate advisor/ organization relationship.

 Our office is in place to support the operations of student organizations. When we see groups that are being controlled by a heavy handed advisor, the result is typically a lack of continued motivation by the students in the group that leads to less retention of members, and then in most situations, a slow disappearance of the organization all together.  An important piece of information to remember when advising student organizations is that they are just that: student organizations, created by students and managed by students, with the support of our faculty and staff.

As unique as the advisor role can be, so can be the amount of time any one person has on campus to support an organization.  Balancing responsibilities is probably the hardest part of the whole process, but the support of an on-campus advisor for our organizations is one of the most valuable experiences our students have.  The role of the advisor is essential to the continued growth of student involvement, and is defined and then continually refined by the mission and purpose of each organization.  I encourage all of us as advisors to take a few moments of your valuable time to answer the question, “What is my role as an organization advisor?” it perhaps may save some time somewhere else in the semester, and help you to better support your organization.

One semester budget down and one to go!  Just in case you haven’t heard, SGA has almost completed the final phase of the revamped budget allocations process for organizations this semester.   Two years ago, SGA began making changes regarding the SGA student organization funding request process, moving towards a semester budget schedule instead of the annual process from years past.  The changes have been gradual but in the spring of 2010, sanctioned organizations began this process by presenting a “semester” budget for the first time.

The final phase began this semester with eligible organizations attending one of four Budget Workshops presented that were scheduled two weeks prior to the budget proposal deadline.  The workshops were geared towards information about the budget request form, what is expected in the different spending categories, as well as tips on what not to put on the form.   It allowed representatives to ask questions, even though most of those answers are already available in the Compass, but none the less, the workshops were useful for first-time organizations creating a club budget, providing the a change to get a feel for what was expected.

Club spending has gone very well this semester.  The workshops were very well attended and we had a record number of budgets turned in this year (64 organizations in total) all requesting a part of the $52,500.00 that can be distributed.  The hearings were held over the course of four days and each club had 5-7 minutes to answer questions that SGA Allocations Committee members may have had, allowing the committee to get a better feel for what exactly each organization needed for the Spring semester.

The proposed budgets were posted on Friday, October 29^th by 7pm and representatives could request an appeal if for any reason they felt that the Allocations Committee did not allocation them funds fairly.  Appeals are then heard during the Allocations Committee meeting on Thursday, November 4, adjustments made (if any), and the collective organization budgets are brought before the SGA Senate on Tuesday, November 9^th  for the Senators to review and ask questions about the budget.  The following Tuesday, November 16^th, the SGA Senate will then vote on the total budget.

Any Sanctioned Organizations that missed the Student Organization Summit this fall will have an opportunity to “redeem” themselves financially on January 20, 2011, when an additional Summit Budget Workshop will take place.  By attending this workshop, penalized organizations will be allowed to come before the Allocations Committee with a Contingency Request for the Spring Semester.  All new clubs that did not attend the Summit who passed through the SGA Senate during the fall semester are required as well to attend this meeting.

As always, if anyone has any questions regarding budgets, spending, contingency funds or the Allocations Committee, please do not hesitate to contact me.