Rachel Messenger
Bob Rodda
Julia Zimmer
Lowry Center & Student Activities
The College of Wooster
• Run a "brown bag" series of professional development programs
• Series could include:
– Colleagues providing updates from areas
– Professors and graduate students presenting on research topics and/or
findings
– Individuals developing a conference presentation
– Attendees sharing activities from professional associations
– Individuals debriefing from professional activities
– Others
• Consider purchasing lunch for the presenter/facilitator
• Keep track of who attends
• Provide an incentive for attendees
• We’re not talking Oprah’s Book Club here. What we
are talking about however are the benefits that come
from a group of colleagues reading the same book.
In addition to reading the book, a date is arranged
where everyone meets to discuss the book itself.
This allows for thought-provoking conversation and
brainstorming among colleagues.
Books to consider:
• Souls in Transition: The Religious and Spiritual
Lives of Adults
• Binge: What your College Student Won’t Tell you
• The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good
People Turn Evil
Ohio Link is a GREAT way to
finding good book titles!!
Use your university library to find books of
interest that you can check out for FREE!
A different staff member or group of staff members
present a certain topic/chapter at each book club.
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• This allows for studying new concepts as well as
honing presentation skills.
Try these reads:
• In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America’s Best Run Companies
• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap…And Others Don’t
• Strengths Finders is a book and ideally a
facilitated activity similar to MBTI that is a
personality assessment.
– Focuses on strengths rather than deficiencies.
– Can bring in a trained facilitator to do it.
– Use someone on campus who has done the
research.
The Career Center is a good place to start.
• Look for books on the topics you are interested in
learning more about.
– Topics like service learning, leadership development,
educational theories, student employment, or a hundred other
topics.
• Buy them and read them.
– Be sure to check customer reviews to make sure you are getting
what you are looking for.
• Check out the ACUI Bookstore on-line or at the
Annual Conference. Many titles carry a discount.
• Join forces with faculty at your institution and gather during the summer
prior to the new academic year
• Discuss the book assigned to first-years.
• Not only will each of you interact with one another and build relationships
through the reading but you will also provide a foundation of commonality
with incoming freshmen.
Consider these ideas:
•Attend first-year book related activities planned on-campus.
•Discuss the book with new students and others.
•Replace books with journal articles or case
studies to keep things exciting and different!
Read professional journals to stay current
Read professional association magazines
like ACUI Bulletin
Subscribe to and read the Chronicle of
Higher Education.
• Rotate responsibilities at staff meetings by
having different people facilitate the meeting,
lead an ice-breaker, or select and develop the
program.
• Host a Panel. Build in time for a Q & A.
• Hot Topics
• Students
• Faculty/Staff
• Find someone’s passion and exploit it!
• Tap the talent on your own campus and
community.
• Invite a faculty or staff colleague, especially
friends, to present on your campus.
• From your campus or a nearby campus
• Cost – maybe a slight fee, mileage and a meal
• Get staff and student employees together to
discuss what everyone wants to learn more
about as a staff.
• Pick a few topics and then learn about them.
• Come back together to share/discuss lessons
learned.
• Run by experienced personnel
• Discuss hot topics, current trends, and “big” picture
items at your institution or in higher education.
• Participate in reflection and evaluation
• Use to educate staff without traditional Student Affairs
background.
• Audit a class. Learn and gain insight into the
classroom experience.
• Advise a student organization of interest.
Collectively, they may allow you to expand your
involvement and participation on campus
beyond your job. They may also facilitate
enhanced relationships with students.
• Professional organizations:
– ACPA, NASPA, NACA, APCA, ACHUHO-I, ACCED-I,
NAFSA, NACAS, NCLP, NIRSA, NODA
– OASPA, OCPA, GLACHO, and NEOHO
• An intriguing opportunity is to attend a program
of an association that is NOT your primary one
or related to your specific job to hear different
perspectives.
• Local Chambers of Commerce may offer a "business
skills series".
• Topics may include:
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Customer Awareness: Exceptional Service
Discovering Waste in Your Workplace
How To: LinkedIn; Networking: How to Work a Room
Team Building=Improved Performance (parts 1 & 2)
Budget Principles & Practices
Healthy Habits During the Workday
• Register for ACUI’s monthly Hot Topics virtual
roundtable phone session.
– Held Second Wednesday of the Month
– Noon to 1 pm eastern time.
• Focus on an identified topic with presenter/facilitator;
potential for unlimited participants on campus.
• Format may include a short presentation but allow for
question and answers.
• Upcoming Hot Topic Virtual Roundtables
– December 8: Student Organization Officer Transition
– January 19: Peer Supervision
– February 9: Breakfast Programming
ACUI Webinar
• Participate in an ACUI Webinar via an on-line
conference call.
– Gather a group of people around a speaker phone.
• Cost ranges from free to $200.
• Topical categories include:
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Sustainability
Civic activity
Fund development
Student leadership
Assessment
Student employment
Renovation and construction
Next Webinar: Assessing Leadership Programs
December 9 at 1 pm EST
Archived ACUI Webinar
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Purchase an archived ACUI Webinar
Use it for personal or staff development
There are currently 34 of them.
Cost: $99
• ACUI, ACPA, NASPA, etc…
• Post a question to get help and
suggestions, share resources, or start an
idea exchange.
• Monitor replies on all topics.
• Research online resources and develop a
file for various topics
– Look at other institutions’ websites
– Look at associations’ resource libraries
• Design and conduct a research project.
• Connect your research to an ACUI priority and
apply for support from the ACUI Research and
Development Team.
• Present your findings on campus or at a
conference.
• Publish your results in the Bulletin or in a
separate publication (ACUI or not).
• Lead your working group through the
SWOT exercise
– Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats
• Identify your current situation
• Establish priorities for action and set goals
to work toward
• Lead your working group through the
SPAR exercise
– Services, Programs, Advocacy, and Research
– Identify your current situation
• Set goals to work toward
• Lead a staff meeting to share something
you know or facilitate a group discussion
on a relevant topic.
• Present or facilitate a session
– At a Student Retreat
– At a Conference
– Through Human Resources
• NEOHO (NorthEast Ohio Housing Officers) is
currently trying to pinpoint people within
the regions that are experts (or nearexperts) on given topics.
• This allows us to have connections to
people on an array of topics that can train
us/present to us for those subject areas.
• Volunteer and serve on a department or institutional
committee or task force.
– Examples might include: First Watch, Judicial,
Alcohol, Assessment, Commencement, Orientation,
Family Weekend and more.
• Form a professional development committee for your
department or institution.
• Actively engage in volunteer positions for community
endeavors.
– Examples might include: Community clean-up after
community disaster, 4th of July celebration, and First
night events
• Participate and/or volunteer to present during
Admissions events for prospective students and
their parents.
• Chance to learn about what is on the mind of
high school juniors and seniors as they consider
colleges and especially their perceptions of your
school which could help in thinking about future
planning.
• Hold meetings via telephone to discuss
ideas and issues with fellow colleagues at
different institutions
– Conserves money
– Utilizes the little time you have in a day
• Take time to discuss an issue on campus over
wine and cheese.
 A great way to take things out of the office
without going too far.
 Depending on taste, refreshments could be
tea and crumpets, salsa and chips, beer and
brats, or caviar and champagne.
 Could also be a picnic lunch or over a potluck
dinner
• Involve the entire staff
– including students
• Keep an Open Process
– Generate ideas and priorities
– Discuss in depth at staff meetings
– Finalize only after buy-in from all staff
• Eliminates (reduces) the mystery with resource
allocation
• Establish a Search Committee
 Membership includes classified and student staff
 Task include advertising, screening, interviewing, and hiring
 Everybody learns something new and develops by-in to the
process and the new hire.
• After a staff member has served on a
couple of search committees, ask them to
chair a search committee.
 For example, student activities staff have chaired searches for
the building service staff.
• Volunteer to participate in on-campus interviews
of applicants. Look at top-level administrators to
hourly employees.
• Learn from each situation. What to look for in
candidates? How to conduct oneself in an
interview? Learn about the different jobs and
their responsibilities.
• Offer your opinions and insight about the
candidates.
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Become a mentor to a new or young professional.
Seek a mentor yourself!
Supervise a practicum student.
Eat lunch with someone you don’t normally eat with and
swap ideas.
• Identify key people on campus, in your local community,
and in professional associations who can share their
skills, wisdom, and connections with you. Devise a way
to meet them.
• Volunteer for a position in ACUI or another professional
organization
• Regionally
• Leadership Team
• Education Councils
• Internationally
• Board of Trustees
• ACUI Program Teams- many have application process
• Task Forces- many have application processes
• Write on a subject for a professional
publication.
• ACUI’s opportunities
– Feature article in the Bulletin. Researched
and documented.
– Book Review
– Union Spotlight
– Profile
In Your Community:
– United Way
– Leadership Wooster
– Advise Sorority/Fraternity
– Coach Sports Team
– At Church
– Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts
– Civic Events
– Others
• to present at a
• Join one or more of the ACUI
Communities of Practice
– Small Schools, Social Media, Auxiliary
Services, Facilities and Operations
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Chance for networking
Talk about issues of mutual concern
Primarily email exchanges
Meetings and dinners at the annual
conference
• Facilitate a Community
• Create and Facilitate a New Community
• Identify a New Topic to Pull Colleagues
Together
• Support from the Central Office
• Arrange with a recommended colleague to
shadow them for a half or full day. Maybe share
a meal.
• Learn what it is like in someone else’s shoes.
• Have a chance to talk about professional values
and style.
• Get new ideas.
• Allows for inspiring, competent colleagues
talking with young professionals with outcomes
that seminars can’t achieve.
• Swap positions/offices for one day with
other staff.
• Learn hands-on the responsibilities of
fellow staff.
• Invite other institution’s staff to your
campus.
• Give a tour and offer refreshments or
lunch.
• Sit down and talk.
• A great way to build relationships and feed
off of each others ideas.
•Contact other professionals at nearby schools and
arrange a visit.
•Bring a list of questions about how that colleague
handles specifics and about general institution
philosophy that informs decisions.
•Find similarities and differences between
institutions and look for ideas that could potentially
be adopted.
• Visit an Institution (near or far).
• Have a specific operation or program you want to
see first hand.
• Return with several new ideas for how to do
things differently (better?).
• Invite a few colleagues to meet at a convenient
location for a 1/2 day brainstorming, idea
sharing, and interactive discussion.
• Include lunch, campus/office tour, laughter,
encouragement, and rejuvenation.
• Tour other schools that are within easy driving
distance, even visiting several campuses in one
day.
• Take a vanload of people along.
• Plus, the staff at the host institution can learn
from their visitors as well as have an opportunity
to show off their programs they have pride in.
• Invite others to conduct a program review.
Reviewers could come from your campus
or from other campuses.
• Walk the building and make observations
• Ask for insight on particular programs and
services
• Meet with local/regional colleagues on a
regular basis to swap ideas and build
relationships.
• Easy to do in big cities and on big
campuses.
• Arrange regionally.
– Examples include small schools in NW Ohio,
GLCA (Great Lakes College Association)
schools and Ohio 5.
• Host your staff retreat at a different student
union each year.
• Schedule a meeting with the staff at the union
and take a tour.
• During your retreat, develop annual goals and
combine goal-development with some type of
staff development exercise (StrengthsQuest,
Myers Briggs).
• Attend regional conferences
• Network within your area while meeting
educational content goals
• Carpool with close-by institutions and save
money in your travels
• Enter a marketing or promotional piece in the
annual competition at the annual and some
regional conferences.
• Visit the display of winners
• Review the winners when they are published in
the Bulletin
• Cost: may include mounting, postage/shipping,
and entry fees. At the ACUI Annual Conference,
the entry fee for the first entry was $20 with $15
for each additional piece.
• Be part of ACUI’s premier student
leadership program
• Week-long summer program with two
sessions in many years.
• Work with a group of top-notch student
leaders from across the country.
• Free but there is an application process.
• Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute
(UIFI)
• Leadershape
• NACA Summer Institutes
• Others
• Attend a Drive-in Workshop
– Network with others from nearby schools.
– Volunteer to facilitate/lead a session.
• Organize a drive-in workshop
– For nearby schools
– Keep cost moderate
– Recruit facilitators from on and off campus to
present on areas of interest
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Below is the list of professionals who shared their experience and
observations to this collection of ideas. Without their contributions, this list
and program would not be so rich.
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Candy Holt, University of Montana
Mark DeVibiss, Wittenberg University
Claressa Morton, Shenandoah University
Julie Long, The College of Wooster
Kay Robinson, University of Central Oklahoma
Mary Edgington, Pennsylvania State University
Rich Steele, Georgia Institute of Technology
Carolyn Farley, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Ann Claussen, Moravian College
Gail Ferlazzo, Iowa State University
Aaron Kuntz, The College of Wooster
Helen Wood, Northwestern University
Geoff Combs, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Kate Leishman, Kalamazoo College
Feel Free to Contact Us
• Rachel Messenger: rmessenger@wooster.edu
• Bob Rodda: rrodda@wooster.edu
• Julia Zimmer: jzimmer@wooster.edu