Only one more week Adams State!  Whether it’s your first, last, or somewhere in between semester, CONGRATS on making it through!   Now, it’s time for just the last leg of the semester, and it’s Winter Break time!

Now for some friendly reminders….

The AS&F Office will be closed for Winter Break December 20, 2010, and will resume normal office hours January 18, 2011.

Clubs: A club fair will be held January 27, 2011 from 10-2 in the SUB.  Emails will be sent out soon for sign ups, but please remember to check in with your club and let us know if you will be participating.

Last, but not least, here is the meeting and quarterly schedule for Spring 2011:

January 22, 2011—–>Mandatory Retreat
January 24, 2011-Meeting
January 31, 2011—–>Bills due for 3rd Quarterly (no exceptions)
February 21, 2011—–>3rd Quarterly Meeting
March 7, 2011- Meeting      
March 21, 2011—–>Bills due for 4th Quarterly (no exceptions)
April 4, 2011—–>4th Quarterly Meeting
April 18, 2011-Meeting       
May 2, 2011—–>Last meeting of Spring Semester

Presenting a bill or an idea before any group can be a daunting task;  for those of you planning on presenting to AS&F Government, we wanted to help you feel more prepared and like you can breath a little easier before your presentation  with some tid-bits of advice for presenting: 

• Practice, and make sure that whoever from your group is well-prepared to answer questions that may come up.  The executive board and program assistant are in the AS&F office many hours a week, and any one of us would be willing to go through your presentation with you so that you can be more prepared for the types of questions that will commonly be asked.
• Choose only 1 or 2 presenters.  Although it is nice to see how many people are passionate about your presentation, it is very distracting and confusing to have more people than necessary at the front of the room.  An idea that might help if you would like to showcase the amount of people passionate about your presentation is to let those people remain seated and recognize them during your presentation.
• Especially if you are requesting money during a quarterly, be prepared with a budget of the amounts you need total for your group, but also be prepared with the money you need at the quarterly you are presenting at.  There is only so much money per quarterly, and more often than not, a motion will be made to cut funds that may be able to wait until a later quarterly.  If you prepare your group for this prior, you may have more control over the bottom-line.
• Check in again, a day or two before your presentation with the executive board to ensure that things are good to go with your PowerPoint and bills.
• Make sure that your presentation and points about why your group should receive funds are clear and are valid according to the constitution.
• Breath!  Public speaking is challenging for most, but remember that AS&F exists because of your funds, and it is encouraging for us when others present, speak up, and get involved.

Here are some more general presentation tid-bits that may help:

Before the Presentation

1. Public speaking can be an anxiety-producing situation, but this anxiety can be reduced in a number of ways. The best advice is to practice, practice, practice. While rehearsing the presentation, check your breathing patterns. Take a deep breath, and speak at your normal pace. Create notes with bullet points to ensure all the key topics are covered, and have extra notes with more detailed information for audience questions. Check the order of the presentation to ensure that one key point flows logically to the next. Practice with any visual aids to minimize potential technical difficulties and to learn how to effortlessly integrate them. Know your subject thoroughly. Practice in front of people who know nothing about the topic, then ask them to critique the presentation.
   

   Presentation Opening and Body

2. Begin the presentation with a story or another attention grabber. State the value that the audience will gain from the presentation. Engage the audience by asking members what they expect to learn. List their responses on a flip chart, then briefly explain the three to five points that they will learn from the presentation. For the body of the presentation, use the PREP (point, reason, example and point) technique. State the position or point of view, provide a reason for the position (this is a good place to provide background/historical information), give an example of why the position is important and then restate the position or point of view. During the presentation, check the audience’s understanding of the material. Ask members questions about the material. If someone gets a correct answer, reward him with a piece of candy or small trinket. When the other audience members notice rewards are given for listening, they will become more engaged with the material.

   Use humor during the presentation. Even if a mistake is made, make a joke of it and move on. The audience will appreciate that you made light of the situation and that you are not taking yourself too seriously.

   Closing

3. At the closing of the presentation, restate the three to five key points for the audience. Return to the original audience expectations list, and check back with the members to ensure their earlier learning expectations were met. Allow the audience to ask any clarifying questions. If you are unsure of the answer to a question, document the question and get the contact information of the person who asked it. Reply to the question as soon as you can, and consider including it in future presentations on that topic.

Read more: Oral Presentation Strategies | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/way_5270763_oral-presentation-strategies.html#ixzz16nzXOExM

On Monday, November 1st, AS&F Executive Board held an open forum for faculty only to discuss feedback, and ideas for the year.  

AS&F has the greatest appreciation for the faculty who took the time out of their day to sit down with us and offer us such valuable insight and feedback.  Your opinions will not go to waste; you have given us the opportunity to see where AS&F needs improvement or change, and we value your opinions.  Here are some of the topics discussed within this forum:

1. Current bi-weekly meeting time: The faculty stressed that although it may not be possible to move the meeting time, which is currently 5pm on bi-weekly Mondays, that it is difficult for many faculty and students to attend because of Monday night classes and obligations.  An idea was brought to AS&F about the possibility of moving at least some meetings to lunch time so that more of the faculty and students are able to attend.
2. Opening voting up to all ASC:  The faculty discussed that AS&F should open up voting to all of ASC when passing bills.  It was discussed that this may not be feasible as of yet, but researching effective and efficient methods in which this type of open voting can take place should be researched.
3. Qualifications of the AS&F Executive Board: The faculty present did not believe that students serving on the executive board should be required to have prior Senate experience.  It was discussed that being a part of AS&F is a great learning experience and everyone on campus, regardless of experience within Senate, should be able to run in the campus election.  The faculty also believed that going to a more open election process may improve involvement and reduce the cliques that are common to student run organizations.
4. AS&F can learn from other institutions: Simply put, to make sure that we are continuing to learn and grow as an organization by networking and making contact with other schools to see how they do things, and also share how we do things to open feedback.
5. Commuter and ADA Student Involvement: It was discussed in the forum to possible open a commuter seat on the AS&F Government to ensure that even students who do not live on campus, or in the immediate area, as well as students who require ADA needs, are having their voices heard.  In addition, the faculty spoke about offering Senator seats by majors instead of schools to ensure every department is having their unique needs voiced.
6. Graduation Speaker: The faculty stressed that they believe the Graduation Class Speaker should be someone of High Academic Honors, instead of a selected graduating AS&F executive board member.  The possible process that was discussed was to have all graduating students with a 4.0 apply to be the class speaker if they so choose, and to pick amongst these students.  The faculty felt like this would allow students with both High Academic Honors and Campus Involvement to be the graduation class speaker.

AS&F stands for Associated Students & Faculty, and we are very appreciative for the opportunity to ensure that all included in the name, AS&F, are heard.  We open the conversation to continue if anyone has further ideas, opinions, or feedback.  Please just comment below, or feel free to stop by our office today!  🙂

AS&F has joined forces with the local Alamosa Pizza Hut in The Fight to End World Hunger.  Six AS&F clubs have chosen to fundraise monies for the cause, and all donors will recieve a coupon for a free personal pan pizza from the local Pizza Hut.  Be on the lookout for these students to join the fight with us!

Here is some more information on The Fight to End World Hunger from http://www.fromhungertohope.com/about/:

Yum! Brands annual World Hunger Relief campaign is the world’s largest private sector hunger relief effort, spanning 110 countries, 37,000 KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food restaurants and over one million employees, to raise awareness, volunteerism and funds for the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) and other hunger relief agencies. Multi-Grammy Award winner and pop superstar Christina Aguilera serves as the global spokesperson for World Hunger Relief.