Leadership Notes

High expectations, high performance

By Maureen McGonagle, CRSS, DePaul University, NIRSA President

A few months ago when I was a guest speaker in a physical education class, a student asked what our department did to motivate and get great performance from student employees. While we certainly offer some reward and recognition programs, what we “do” more than anything else is expect our students to be great. We identify students who have the necessary skills and potential, we provide quality training and resources, we clearly articulate our expectations, we provide accountability, and then we expect them to impress us. And more often than not, they do.

Our membership expects NIRSA to be great too. And the same efforts are necessary with our volunteers: we need to identify leaders who have the necessary skills and potential, we need to provide quality training and resources, we need to clearly articulate our expectations, we need to provide accountability, and we need to expect them to impress us. And more often than not, they will.

Over the last year a concerted effort was made to develop resources that will position volunteer leaders to be effective and successful. Some of these efforts have been posted on the website (e.g., committee descriptions) or used in training (e.g., state/provincial director responsibility matrix); other efforts will be posted or utilized soon (e.g., leadership opportunities document, regional vice president responsibility matrix). While many of these behind-the-scenes efforts were invisible to many of our members, I believe the investment will soon be apparent in higher quality volunteer experiences, increased results from committee work, and clearer expectations for elected leadership.

Some have heard the “high expectations and accountability” message ad nauseam. But the way our members have completely embraced the message is extremely impressive: George Brown, incoming Region II Vice President, sent his first email message to his state/provincial directors just two days after being elected. Jacque Hamilton recently proposed and championed a project that led to reactivating the Wellness Committee, which she is now chairing. Andy Milton, chair of the Intramural Committee, has communicated more with his committee in the last two months than some past chairs have communicated in an entire year. Laura Hall eagerly took the reins on a Governance Work Team project that wouldn’t have been completed without her leadership. Bill Sells has proposed a truly ambitious set of charges for his Curriculum Committee. Cody Sims, a new NIRSA professional, enthusiastically agreed to chair the Instructional Committee when there were no returning members to provide leadership. Stacy Smith, state director of the Virginia Recreational Sports Association, sent out an impressive state newsletter just one week after the Annual Conference. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. High expectations, high performance.

Every year we try to make improvements over the previous year, and there were some remarkable successes last year. Kudos to every member who made a difference, whether by serving on a committee, submitting an application for an elected position, writing an article for the journal, volunteering at the COC, presenting at a NIRSA conference, serving in a leadership role, etc. And special thanks to two members who just completed their service on the NIRSA Board of Directors: Tamra Garstka and Dennis Corrington. They devoted countless time and energy purely for the benefit of our association, and we’ve all benefited from their efforts.