SGA...and late night at the RCC

Hey folks,

Just writing tonight following an SGA meeting. It was great to see so many clubs turn out for club reports and I am always eternally grateful for the chance to listen to the great things people are doing.

I was thinking during the whole time there about how quickly the spring semester is going to just fly by! I'm hoping that none of you seniors out there get too sad... but it's amazing to think of how little time we have left before we say goodbye to a class of very dedicated seniors and welcome a new group of wide-eyed freshmen.

Tonight's set of meetings was a real whirlwind, but I wanted to post a little about some things i learned tonight:

- "rebirth" of an organization happens a lot.
There are just as many clubs enjoying long strings of success as there are groups that are working to rebuild. It's this new Yin/Yang theory I'm working on... but go with me here...
- taking on leadership in the middle of the year isn't easy.
For those of you starting new roles as presidents or e-board members, please remember we are here for you. It's not easy starting mid-year so remember your resources!
- leadership is fun!
Hearing all of you speak about your times as RA's, OL's or members of different groups and seeing the passion in your eyes while you try to promote the opportunity to others is really gratifying.
- leadership is tough work, too.
This shout out is to a few of you that had some tough conversations with me today... it's not all fun all the time. However, you know you are learning lessons that will last a lifetime and I hope that all of us OSIL types can be there to help you get through the rocky parts too.

This is a hectic semester for all of us, but we hope that this blog can grow over the next few weeks to be a place where you can hear from us about current happenings with student organizations. Let us know if there are people you'd like to hear from!

Cindy Kane

Getting started...but where are you headed?

Wow – another year, another semester, another opening of classes! Can’t say I’m usually too big on New Year’s resolutions each year…maybe because it’s the fear of committing to things I may have been avoiding or putting off? Yes, procrastination does happen to the best of us, but I’ve been recently struck by how powerful it can be to put your effort behind putting your goals in writing and actually being able to mark your progress along the way.

Many of you have heard our goal setting “mantra” from time to time, but all of you should know that setting out written goals for anything you do in your personal or professional life can be a really powerful experience. All of you have dreams and hopes for what you can accomplish through your involvement on campus. Why not give some thought to setting goals for yourself or your organization in 2008? (we don’t have to call them “resolutions,” do we?)

Before you get started on goal setting, remember the SMART goals approach. Using this approach, you need to be sure that every written goal you set up can meet the “SMART” checklist. You knew there was an acronym coming… so here’s what you need to think about to keep your goals SMART:

Specific
Is your goal written in a specific way?

Measurable
Are you able to measure your outcome?

Agreed upon
Do you have the “buy in” from your members? Your advisor? Your fellow officers?

Realistic
Is this something that is in the realistic purview of your group to address?

Time-scheduled
Is your goal set up to be accomplished along a time-scheduled approach? Does it have a deadline for when you can evaluate your progress? Does it have a timeline for when it should be accomplished?

If all of your written goals pass the SMART checklist to evaluate what you develop, you then should commit to regular review of your progress along these goals to be sure they are a “living document” rather than an exercise in paperwork!

If you are in need of some help with this process, be sure to call us here in OSIL. One of our staff members could guide you through how to do a goal setting meeting with your members or we can even facilitate if the timing works!

Good luck for a very productive semester and please know that we appreciate all you do!

Involved@BSC

Hello BSC!

Your pals in OSIL have decided to get blogging...and we hope that this will help you to expand your resources for being involved on BSC's campus.  We are planning to discuss topics that will be relevant to your organization's success and will post resources able to help you with getting BSC students more successfully involved in the work of your student organizations.

If there are topics that you'd like to see addressed in this blog, we hope you will post some comments!  We hope you will visit us often!