Tag Archive for student affairs

A Student Affairs Playbook

June 11, 2012 / / 7 comments

As part of the team that is helping manage the saPRO/saGROW initiative started by Ed Cabellon, I suggested creating a calendar that shows the cycle of a typically year in higher education (mainly student affairs but it can expand!). The calendar would then not only prepare mentors for what to discuss with their proteges (“mentees” is a word that bothers me) but also give the proteges a heads up of what to prepare for.

Upon being challenged by Lisa Endersby (@lmendersby) I had to rethink the word “calendar” because was that really the point? I think this document will end up being more of a playbook. Here are the plays, here is what to expect, here is how you can make it work, etc.

The main idea behind this is to use the collective brilliance of the #highered and #SAchat communities on Twitter to populate a thorough playbook of events/issues that pop up thoughout the calendar year. For example I started it with burnout, which happens typically in October and April (in my opinion/experience) every year.

I not only want to provide a playbook of the rollercoaster that is the cycle of higher education, but also how to combat and prepare for such things. The link below will bring you to a GoogleDoc Spreadsheet where you can contribute. You may cringe at the sight of a spreadsheet but in my mind when it comes to sorting who submitted what and for what period of time, a spreadsheet makes the most sense.

Here is the link: bit.ly/saCalendar

I hope this works and I hope in the end it will result in a thorough (albeit general) view of the calendar within student affairs and higher education. 

Take a moment to contribute. Can’t contribute? Please share it, that alone is contributing to the effort.

Rock on and kick today’s butt.

Conferences 3.0: Attendee Bill of Rights

June 7, 2012 / / 5 comments

These days, staffing is tight, budgets are tighter, and it’s often a challenge to get to any conference, nevertheless multiple conferences. That means as conference planners, we need to make this experience count for our attendees.

In the spirit of Conference 3.0, we have devised a basic “bill of rights” for those attending student affairs conferences or, well…any conference.

As conference planners we believe attendees have the right to…(lines in parentheses are personal commentary from blog authors)

Technology
- Free WiFi.
          (Ask any attendee if they would have paid $10 more in their
          registration for free WiFi and I doubt they’ll say no way. In fact, I’ll bet
          $10 they wouldn’t.)

- Tweet, blog, or even text during sessions.
          (It doesn’t mean they’re not engaged – in fact, it could mean they’re 
          engaging even more than folks in the session that are staring blankly
          at the presenter.)

- Electrical sockets with power strips.
          (Our devices spread the conference experience and entice others to
          consider attending next year. No juice means no spreading of
          message.)

Get Inspired
- Get inspired by conference speakers, presentations, and the overall experience.
          (This is the opposite of apathy. Leaving a room with an eyeroll and
          sigh means lack of inspiration.)

- Enjoy the conference!
          (This isn’t just another day at the office. If they don’t enjoy it, they
          won’t return rejuvenated. If they don’t return rejuvenated, what did
          their institution pay for?)

- Have a fresh conference experience every time.
          (Recycling is great for the environment not for conference
          experiences.)

- Make their own name badges.
          (My personality doesn’t come through in Garamond font size 16.)

- Not sit through another boring PowerPoint presentation.
          (If someone can’t present without reading, well, they’re not
          presenting.)

- Learn something new – preferably several things.
          (This does not include them discovering that they suddenly like dirty
          martinis or mini quiches thanks to the three socials they attended.)

- Be provided with opportunities to engage beyond the conference.
          (How are they going to take what THEY’VE learned and put it into 
         practice? How will THEY continue to build on the relationships THEY’VE started:
- Make connections and network; start new conversations and continue old ones.
          (Perhaps conferences should offer a directory of who is attending via
          a GoogleDoc complete with voluntary information provided by  
          members. It will be like the original Facebook, the one that was
          printed.)

Get Frustrated / Give Feedback / Leave
- Complain. They do. We won’t please everyone, but we promise to address it, solve it, and empower them to help.
          (Let’s be honest, you are halfway through this list, and you probably
          already have a complaint about the list.)

- Have access to session descriptions before the early registration deadline – they should be able to know what they’re paying for.
          (Would you pay a cover to get into a restaurant without seeing the
          menu?)

- Leave a session if it is not what was in the description.
          (No bait and switches here. If they don’t like it, they can leave.)

- Join a session late.
          (For having left one that was not up to par – or even because they
          were networking in the hallway.)

- To judge me as a conference planner. Their feedback is important and we want to hear it.
          (It helps if it is constructive. Yelling about the lack of cookies isn’t
          constructive.)

- Evaluate individual presenters and sessions, as well as the overall conference format in any way they see fit.
          (Tweets, blogs, pictures – we hope they’ll share it and be prepared to
          be approached for more of their thoughts beyond 140 witty 
          characters.)

- Skip conference sessions to see the city – especially if they’re not getting any of the rest of these rights and especially if they had to use personal vacation time to attend.
          (No one goes to a city check out hotel ballrooms unless they are
          shopping for remote wedding locations.)

Above all else…
- Be judged by their knowledge – not their position title.
          (Just like on Twitter, hierarchies do not always match knowledge  
          shared.)

- Wear what they are comfortable in.
          (If jeans and a polo works for them, it works for them. If a suit and
          tie works, then a suit and tie works. Who are we to judge how
          people want to present themselves?)

We think this is a pretty good list, but we’re open to the ideas of others – in fact, we’re sure there are other rights that should be included.

What rights do your conference attendees have? What rights would you like to see as a conference attendee?

Join the conversation on Twitter at #conf30 or by sharing your thoughts in the comments below.

This is cross-posted on my co-conspirator’s blog as well:http://tech.kristendomblogs.com/ you can follow her at @Kristendom.

Here is the number to ACTION, call them back.

May 18, 2012 / / 5 comments


Thanks to Twitter, I have people I consider colleagues from all over the country. These are people I learn from, interact with, bounce ideas off of, and try to connect with outside of Twitter. Many of these colleagues are the innovators, the doers, the box pokers, the instigators, the (dare I say) “radicals” that Eric Stoller is searching for. These are the people that more often than not find themselves in situations where they have to fight harder, longer, and with more tools than others. This is because when you try, you will make mistakes, you will fail, and you will disrupt the status quo.

The most recent example was a colleague who is trying to buck the trend of conferences being a rinse, wash, repeat system. This innovator went so far as to completely sketch out the vision with supporting articles to provide the conference committee a holistic picture of a new program layout.

Sadly enough, when the call for programs for the conference went out it hadn’t changed in the slightest. Actually, the date on the form was still last year’s. This is why things haven’t changed.

We can do better.

We can do so much better, and we need to. We cannot continue to facilitate conferences the way we have in the past. A wise man shared with me this quote when confronted with someone who disregards change as progress. “Funny you say that, you know once upon a time we washed our clothes by hand but I think you’d agree that the washing machine worked out ok.”

We can do better.

I’ll lead the charge. People have already linked arms with me to form the front lines so the voice of the movement is full of a wide range of experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm.  The call to action is here. You can either answer it or let it ring.

The choice is yours.

This is the first of a series of thoughts, plans, and calls to action around planning conferences. The series is organic. Add your voice to the conversation. Comment here or write your own post and link to it from the comments. If you don’t have a blog, I’d be more than happy to host your thoughts on my blog. Let me know.

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