DAY-TO-DAY OPERATIONS Best Practices GBC 2012

Issues Overview STUDENT COUNCIL TRANSITION STUDENT CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS BRIDGING CAREER CENTERS AND ADMISSIONS.

Student Council Transition Issue : Knowledge transfer between incoming and outgoing student boards. Solution :  Alumni Advisory Board – Conference call periodically to keep a continuous flow of information about initiatives, issues, solutions and advice between graduated class and current class  Full time Administrative Assistant – Employee working full time with student councils. Enables awareness of past initiatives and implemented solutions.

Student Clubs & Associations Issue : Overload of Clubs and Associations Solution: – Club Approval Process – Continuous discussions to validate club activities – Functionality vs Namesake

Career Center vs Admissions Issue : Huge gap in communications and feedback between Career center and admissions Solutions : – Combined leadership - Allows them to be more aligned. – Increase student council involvement to open conversations and give feedback

Key Advice for Student Councils Prioritize and differentiate – quick wins, social issues and strategic long term issues. Look for a champion – dean, associate dean, professors – that will help you push change Approach administration with possible solutions and not just the issues. Maintain great relationships with student services.

APPENDIX

Constitution / Bylaws No constitution or bylaws for "Student Gov't/Exec Team" What does the executive team do? What positions do you want/would be important to accomplish the goals of the team? Constitution is the framework, bylaws are the more specific instructions -> constitution changes have to be voted on by everyone, bylaws only on exec team Sometimes constitutional changes require two readings (for major changes the readings would be over the course of two years) Need a balance between how much is written down or codified to ensure that students have flexibility to do what works for them Much of the detail comes in election process and chartering process Ensure some continuity in case of a "down" year How do you enforce the guidelines/procedures in the constitution/bylaws? Give someone responsibility for following the rules

Funding and Accountability Require attendance at transition meetings to ensure commitment over a longer transition period Some schools don't provide funding for clubs, just dues and fundraising Without that control accountability came through a prize for club excellence (Darden) submit 5 big goals, present the goals to a prize committee (students and administrators/faculty), get pushback on goals (15 minutes or so per club) Attend 3 other meetings to discuss progress Do a pitch at the end of the year, cash prize to the winners (affinity clubs and career clubs categories) Engaged the administrators & faculty in the student process (CMC director for career club category, etc.), brought great ideas too Committees have 2 student gov't, cmc, student affairs, corp relations, faculty Career club prize bigger than affinity club No corporate sponsors yet but looking for it (named prize) 50% participation in pilot year

Transitions Transition period/shadow period for new leadership team Transition in the middle of the year instead of academic year to enable the transition interaction Anywhere from a few weeks to a few months of transition Workshop or retreat between old team and new team involving leadership training, principles/values Person-to-person meetings, "portfolio-to- portfolio" meetings (social clubs, sports, etc.)

Misc. Charging students for each event has not been effective Started branding from scratch Organizational issues Sometimes involvement can be difficult due to family ties... Biweekly meetings with administration "portfolio" people meet with relevant contacts (alumni relations meets with alumni administration) International representative