Executive Report #1

HOLY HOMECOMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Homecoming is right around the corner! This has been GAB’s main concern for the past few weeks. As the programming chair I am right in the middle of this concern. As a GAB executive board member I have two meetings weekly that I must attend. We have our executive board meetings on Mondays and then our general member meetings on Wednesday. Both of these meetings are extremely important but vary quite a bit for being the same organization.

Our executive meetings so far seem to be the logistics side of GAB, it is the time for our team to get together and go over what each executive member is doing and then the support they need with their upcoming tasks. The president facilitates these meetings and unless something specific for an executive member has something to present to the team. An example of this would be that our VP of Finance had to present the budget to the group so we all knew how much money we had for the year. This is where my personal goal comes in because finances stress me out quite a bit and when I was told that my budget was cut I was on the verge of tears. It is stressful to hear how much you have, adding up how much you need and then realizing what you have decided to spend. With high budget events like homecoming, money is something that is quite intimidating. Therefore, my personal goal is to better understand budgeting and all that it entails and to feel comfortable with spending a significant amount of money. The rest of the meeting was facilitated by Tiana and a quick presentation on time management was done by Andrea (the intern). Overall the meeting went smoothly and we were able to figure out all of the budgets. A team goal that I have for these meetings is to have everyone there on time and to have our meetings done within 30-45 minutes. As an executive board we all get along so tangents tend to happen, eliminating some of these will decrease meeting time. By decreasing meeting times members who have class immediately after have an accurate amount of time to get to class. Personally I think implementing some of the techniques from the article we read about shortening meetings would help our group especially defining our clear purpose at the very beginning.

The Wednesday prior to our above executive meeting (we didn’t have an exec meeting because of Labor Day) we had our general meeting. We had more members than usual which was a nice surprise. Our membership chair began our meeting with a great ice breaker that was funny and engaging; it was a game of truth or dare using balloons that you had to pop to see what you had. For the most part everyone seemed to be engaged in the ice breaker and you got to know interesting things about the group. After we went through our ice breaker we discussed the idea of a general member retreat and what who would qualify for this retreat. The majority of our meeting was focused on homecoming, we discussed marketing tools for each homecoming event and then I took comedian suggestions. Tiana facilitated most of the meeting and our homecoming discussed I was a support to her.  A personal goal for myself during the general GAB meetings is to get to know the general members more and show that I care about their ideas. As a group goal I would like to see all members participate and share their ideas and to eliminate side conversations so the entire group is benefiting from discussion.

In terms of my position in GAB as a whole, I would like to have homecoming finished by the beginning of next week. A personal struggle I face is asking for help so I would like to diminish my pride and work as a team, even if that means asking for help. Another goal is to use all of my office hours wisely and be patient with others that I have to wait for to move forward (reservations, contracts, and clubs). I also want to have some personal stress relievers that I can do quickly so that if I need to take a second away to remove myself from a stressful situation and then be able to move forward on my tasks list with a clear mind. Going over budget this week I feel will eliminate a lot of stress and insecurities I feel within my position.

While we have a lot as a group to work on, slowly everything is coming together. A definite plus is the amount of people we had at our meeting and that will make upcoming events a lot easier because we will have the man power to accomplish the tasks and events we put on for the student body. Even though homecoming is extremely stressful I feel that the new things being implemented like contracts and workshops will really increase the quality of homecoming. By increasing the quality of homecoming it will be more fun and appealing in the following years.

Facilitation Observation Analysis

Pacioli held their first meeting on August 29, 2013. The meeting was during lunch time in a classroom in the business building. There were about 30 people there and pizza was provided.

The meeting began with an ice breaker that was extremely clever and inventive. The ice breaker was to through a ball with questions all over to the members of the group, which ever person received it has to say their: name, major, year and then answer the question where there right thumb was on the beach ball. The only thing that went wrong with the ice breaker was limited time, there were too many people and not enough time to have everyone do the specified ice breaker. However, the officers managed that unexpected turn very well and transitioned the icebreaker so that everyone introduced themselves in a row.

The next point for their meeting was their mission statement. The mission of Pacioli is to provide resource both during college and post college careers. They spent a fair amount of time speaking about the mission of the club and had it projected through the whole meeting. Therefore, it is easy to assume that each member comfortably understood the mission of Pacioli.

The next area they discussed was their events. They discussed going to the first football game together as a group and wearing ties. They then explained that they want this event because they want freshman to feel comfortable and have someone to go with to the game and they want to be a united front at the game. Another event they are planning on participating in is ASU cares and homecoming. The only critique I had for their event part of the meeting was they lacked dates on the agenda and then gave the wrong date for homecoming. By adding dates and times to the agenda, pacioli club could eliminate some confusion.

Dues were the next topic covered and they require $20 dues. One thing in particular that I enjoyed was the fact that they immediately relayed what dues will be used toward. Dues include trips and the trip they hope to take to Denver.

The next thing they discussed was the trip to Denver they are hoping to take, they aspire to visit business firms, a graduate school opportunity and then for fun go to a Denver Bronco’s game. They were extremely enthusiastic about the trip.

They then offered advancement in the club by stating that they needed a representative. This was kind of simultaneous with the closing of the meeting. The closing felt sort of rushed because they were running out of time and I believe had more people show than expected so time for  the ice breaker took more time than was allotted.

Overall, I think this meeting was extremely professional which is to be expected for a business club. While there were a few times members were engaged I think the unity of the club would benefit from more time to offer ideas. The officer team really presented themselves as a strong functioning unit and cohesively worked together in facilitating the meeting. By some of the conversations and how well the meeting flowed it was apparent that a lot of preparation time was spent. The space seemed a little too small for the meeting but everyone still seemed to be engaged. I think Pacioli would benefit in allotting time for their members to be involved and empowered during meetings. While empowering the members would be beneficial I would like to also mention that all members seemed to be engaged and when Alfred asked how many people would like to join the club all hands went up. The fluidity of the meaning was extremely smooth and easy to follow.

Executive Report #2

Z-day is this weekend, which for me personally is just more added stress. Z-day is a great event but with homecoming only two weeks away, the pressure is starting to build. Last minute questions and concerns from the clubs are piling on top of last minute procedures GAB needs to do for homecoming. This year Tiana and I have really worked on presenting homecoming as a united front to the clubs and also presenting it in a manner in which clubs understand both parties are accountable. I am really struggling with comments and questions clubs come to me with (sorry friends of the class) because if they listened during the senate meetings or maybe read the packet a lot of concerns they would be able to address themselves. I want to be a teacher and I have worked with a lot of young kids, working with the clubs is quite similar except for they lack the respect young children treat you with.

While I am in the midst of the tough stuff, GAB was able to have some fun at our last meeting. We made a lip syncing ad and were able to goof off and just have some fun. Times like this really remind me of the fun and reasons I am in GAB.  In this moment I am ready for homecoming to be over and done with but I know that while in the midst of homecoming GAB will have some fun and it will make all the crap worth it.

Something I am personally working on is really keeping everything organized in a manner that the person after me can benefit from my homecoming binder. Every year our organization learns new ways to execute homecoming and I feel that this year we are really trying to implement the necessary steps to have a successful homecoming. Hopefully these new changes will succeed and will be a beneficial guide for future homecomings.

As an organization, I would say GABs immediate goal would be to recruit enough people to have the resources for homecoming. Also, allow for our members to have some fun in the midst of homecoming. It is important that our members feel like they make a difference as well as enjoy most of their time.  A personal goal of mine, as of right now, would to increase my patience with the clubs. I am personally really struggling with their lack of commitment and desire. I really wish they understood how much effort GAB puts into it and how discouraging bashing and disrespecting our efforts really is. Another goal is really working on my stress level, I am not known to be cynical but these past days I am noticing a lot of cynicism coming from myself and I really dislike it.

Something that I really benefited from class in GAB was the budgeting and event planning worksheets. Budgeting is something I really dislike and don’t particularly understand and while I feel like I still have a lot to learn, the lesson somewhat put my mind to ease. I have seen the event planning worksheet before and always kind of dismissed its importance. However after the class I did an event planning worksheet for all the homecoming events and it has really helped. I did add a to do list sticky note to each event planning sheet and it really helps me keep on track.

Even though right now I feel as if I eat, breathe and sleep homecoming, I am looking forward to when it will actually be here and the product of hard work will be seen. It will be nice to give a high five to my team after a successful homecoming.

Vision Statement

GAB is an organization that strives to provide fun activities that will encourage student involvement and act as an educational relief to Adams State Students.

Executive Report #3

Homecoming… WOW! I knew homecoming week would be rough, but I definitely underestimated how rough. If it was at all possible to peek into my brain during this week it would have all been homecoming. During class, I was thinking about homecoming… I am pretty sure I didn’t learn anything in my classes last week. (OOPS) I also had nightmares every night during homecoming week, like Loni got snowed in and couldn’t get here, or I slept through an event and I awoke to an angry mob with pitch forks. ALL very scary stuff, I hope to never have them again or at least until next homecoming!

Other than all the crazy stuff and frightening dreams, I am quite proud of how homecoming turned out. I recognize there were some mistakes, big and small. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of smoothness that most of the events had. Also our team was amazing! I was really worried that we would be in the storming process throughout homecoming. While there was conflict I felt it was minimal compared to what it could have been. Everyone took over their roles very smoothly and I felt that as a whole our team was able to encourage one another and worked well together. I really noticed how well we worked together at the medicine show, we had all hands on deck and everyone did their job great. People even felt comfortable enough to switch with one another to take breaks. While I am not the president, I really enjoyed seeing how well everyone worked together and how easy it was to delegate positions. In comparison to last year, when I was a freshman and an usher and had no clue what to do I felt as though most of our members felt comfortable with their positions. I really noticed a difference from last year to this year.

Another thing I really noticed, especially during the lip syncing competition is that while I may think something is going awful and nothing is right. The audience and clubs may not even notice the chaos. Personally the beginning of the lip syncing competition was terrible. Terrible to the point I wanted to pull out my hair. Tiana was not there so the leadership of the event was placed on me and everyone and their mothers were asking me questions all the while I was trying to accomplish something. Not having Tiana was very hard because normally we split the work and handle everything that way. At the lip syncing I felt alone, although I wasn’t. However, once the event got going and I had a mini melt down and Aaron and Trell helped bring me out of it, I began to realize that people were really enjoying the event and was having tons of fun. The place was packed! Once I realized no one else really saw the chaos and they were enjoying themselves. When I realized people were enjoying themselves I was able to enjoy myself.

Some personal goals I wish to accomplish for next homecoming and throughout the years to come is that I realize the fun that homecoming can bring and try to have fun. Also I really really need to work on accepting changes in plans. I am one of those people who hate change and in the position I am it doesn’t work. Change will happen often and at the worst moments, I personally need to work on accepting that positively. This week I really tried to work on promoting people and the good jobs they were doing. I won’t know if I did a good job until later, so if I didn’t I really want to work on doing so because I was soo extremely proud of my team.

Some goals for GAB are to be ready for homecoming earlier. I think possibly implementing run through would be beneficial and assigning positions early could help our organization run a little more smoothly during homecoming. I also would like for all volunteers to have clipboards with in case of emergency numbers, numbers for the advisor, president and vice president. Also I would like them to have any information that may help them. What that looks like exactly I am not sure, I was thinking along the lines of seating charts and programs.

While Homecoming was stressful, there were some really great moments that make the madness worth it. I will begin working on next year’s homecoming as soon as possible and I am quite excited to try making things run even more smoothly next year. I am excited to do some fun stuff with the team now and actually praise them for the amazing work they did.

 

Funding Proposal 

 This year we are doing an “I AM Grizzly” week that incorporates different issues that need to be addressed at Adams State University. “I AM Grizzly” will be a week long of different events with different topics addressed each day. The day in which my committee and I are doing is “People First Day” is designed to promote Adams State University students and faculty to recognize people before any other aspect about a person. The highlight of this concept is applied to individuals with disabilities (ß look at that! I just applied people first language), promoting the elimination of the r-word in people’s everyday language is an aspect in which we will promote people first.

 

To accomplish this event we will have multiple facts, statistics and quotes posted throughout the entire campus. We will also have banners for individuals to pledge to eliminate the derogatory use of the r-word from their vocabulary.

 

            Financially this events budget is $255.00 dollars. Most of the money will go toward buying banners for people to pledge, the next most costly item will be stickers that we will provide to people that say “ I pledged.” These stickers are $14.00 dollars for a roll of 100 stickers and we are purchasing two. Each pledge banner is $25.00 and as of now we are considering getting approximately eight, which would be $200.00. The rest of the budget will go towards markers and supplies like tape to post our banners for the event. The statistics and quotes will either be printed using one of the student life centers or we will take money from one of the banners to have them printed in the print shop.

 

To obtain this money we have put in a request with senate for 40% of our event. In order to receive this money as a whole group we prepared the budget proposal for senate—Thanks Michelle! You were a life savior. We broke down our events into different categories including promotional items, food and activities. Most of our budget for “People First” was in promotional items. The other place where we will receive money is from the multicultural budget that was set aside as a parachute for our class.