...starting a new student organization is hard. Especially when you're not a student. And never were at the institution you're at. When you start the week of Thanksgiving. Just before finals.
Part of my organization's MO is to have specific goals and then exceed them. Under promise and over deliver, we (apparently) always say. This is all well and good until you get an Americorp grant with very specific deliverables late in the semester (For example, the Colorado and California chapters that started this year are off like gang busters. I have yet to meet a student.) This might be a good time to throw in a disclaimer that nothing I say on this site necessarily reflects WISPIRG or Americorp and I am of course not submitting my current time for hours. I should probably add that somewhere or another. I feel like I've seen it on other people's sites.
Anyway, our motto is under promise and over deliver. Well one of our mottos. We have quite a few. So obviously my recruitment goals are quite high. In this case, given the circumstances, these high goals might be ever so slightly out of reach. Other than that, I'm really enjoying my "entering the community" efforts. Yesterday, I went to an open forum with the Interim Chancellor and nearly all the Vice Chancellors. Most of the other people in the audience seemed to be faculty or staff, so I had a great chance to get a feel for what kind of role the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee plays in the UW system and current projects the University is working on. This year I'm working on two public campuses, one a technical college transitioning to be a more comprehensive community college and the other a commuter school transitioning to more accommodating the needs of traditional students. Not exactly the types of institution I've had any experience with, so I'm enjoying learning more about how different schools meet the needs of different students. Living with the organizers for Madison College (formerly Madison Area Technical College) and UW-Madison was also a bit of a crash course in public organizations. I have one advantage in that I'm not asking for any money (thanks to being a grant funded program), but at this point I think I would take a funding fight in exchange for working on a normal timeline (as in, starting before November).
Happy Thanksgiving weekend, everyone!! Enjoy the long weekend and excuse to overeat!
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