A Concert in a Residence Hall???

You all know that I've hosted a few concerts in my residence halls - well, to be exact: there's been four now. Three at my past institution; one here. One of those was a campus-wide event and actually hosted in our Student Union - but it was organized by one of my RAs and me, so we'll still count it as a ResLife event.

I often get the question: How did you get to know those bands? OR Why did you decide to host a concert?

Simple. I got an e-mail one day from a band member, who said that they were interested in playing in my residence hall. The e-mail included a link to their music. I listened to it. I liked it. I asked how much the concert would cost me. The cost was affordable. I went for it... and the rest is history. ;)

Hosting a concert isn't a big deal for me. I've always liked organizing events (I am after all the girl amongst my group of friends who has always loved organizing our sleepover parties - with themes - which is probably why in the most recent years they've all taken place at my house...and yes, we still have sleepover parties at 27. You're never too old to have fun. But I'm going off on a tangent....).
So yes, I've always liked organizing events. And I've always loved having music, dance, theater and art in my life.

But when I talk to other ResLifers, hosting a concert is something challenging if not impossible - a hurdle they don't want to tackle.

I just don't get it. I seriously don't. So I was hoping, maybe some of you can help me understand. And if you can't, maybe I can at least use this post to answer some of those questions about how to host an event and take away some of the mystery of organizing such an event.
I mean, those folks in Student Activities do it all the time - so why not us?

So what does it take to host a successful concert in a residence hall?

1) Find a band. There's lots of them out there. Yes, we ResLifers don't have the money to host one of those well-known campus acts that our colleagues in Student Activities book - but there's plenty of very talented young musicians who're traveling the country eager to play a show for any of us at a price that us ResLifers can afford. And if you don't know any of them, I can help.... Check out See The World at www.myspace.com/seetheworldmusic. I love their music and I've worked with them before - trust me, they're great to work with. :)

2) Decide what type of concert you want to host. Is it "just" a concert (I've done that as a kick-off for the year event) or do you want to connect it with another event or a special cause (e.g. I've hosted an Invisible Children Benefits Concert or most recently our Service Splash concert. I'm currently working with some friends on a Hunger Concert, where attendees will be asked to bring a canned food item to the show). You know your residents best. What will get them excited? What do you want to accomplish by hosting this concert? I've found that my events tend to be more successful if I connect it with some cause - get people invested prior to the concert - and then have the concert as a thank-you/end-of-the-service-project event. But that really depends on the student culture on your campus.

3) Decide on a date, time and venue. You want to contact the band first and find out when they'll be in your area. The earlier you can contact them the more flexible they'll be able to be with your date.

4) Get a contract from the band. This includes negotiating a price with the band. Negotiating sounds scary, bust just remember: they don't want to rip you off - they just need some money to survive and get their music out to people. Be honest about what your budgetary constraints are and I'm sure they'd be happy to work with you. Maybe think about combining with a few other residence halls - or get your Area Council/Hall Government or Residence Hall Association involved. Also, talk to your supervisor about how to get that contract approved. I know for most of us it takes a while to get these contract approved. So start thinking/talking about this early.

5) Figure out the promotion for the event. If there's a service aspects or if it's connected to some other event, obviously think about all those details.

6) Host the event.

That's really it.
Simple, isn't it?

So yeah, I just don't get why others don't do that.

Wait, you say. What about the sound equipment? How can I turn my residence hall into a live music venue? Simple. See The World, for example, brings all of their own equipment. All you have to provide is a few plugs.

Lodging? you ask. Well, if you can provide it, that'd be great. But work with the band. They may have a van and be willing to crash in their van. Or maybe you have a few empty residence hall rooms where they can stay for the night. Or a lounge space that can be locked. They're traveling musicians. They don't expect a luxury hotel room. Now, if you have one of those, they of course wouldn't say no to that either. But just think about what resources you have available and let them know; I'm sure you can work something out.

Seriously, this could be one of the easiest events you've ever organized. It's just scary because it's not something we usually do.
But come on - wouldn't your students LOVE to see a concert in their very own residence hall? [And trust me, it totally increases your "cool" factor as a Hall Director. Especially if the students see you talking to the band before and after the event - which you'll have to do anyway because you'll have to talk to them about some details for the show.]

And if you still have some questions about what goes into hosting a concert or if you're interested in actually making one of those happen in your residence hall community, just comment on this blog and I'd be happy to answer any questions and/or even help you organize the event. :)

And even if you don't feel ready to host a concert yet, do yourself a favor and check out See The World at www.myspace.com/seetheworldmusic. I think you'll like them.

On having a life, Service Splash and more

It's Saturday and I'm hanging out in my apartment. This is the first Saturday in a month that I'm actually NOT working and am just hanging out doing nothing - or at least NOTHING work related.

I moved here to have more balance in my life and to actually "have a life" but that really hasn't happened. One weekend, we had the RHA Area Council Training that I basically ran since my RHA just isn't there yet - then I went to a conference with RHA, then we had Open House. Last weekend, I finally didn't have an official meeting/conference/work-related thing but I still spent the majority of the time getting ready for our big annual event. I was putting up flyers, finalizing some of the service things we'd worked on and and and. That didn't leave much time for relaxing. The thing that makes it so hard here to have balance is that, even when we work on weekends or in the evenings, we still need to be in the office Monday-Friday from 9 am-5 pm. Yeah, that's only 35 hours - which leaves 5 extra hours to work at nights an don weekends, but let's be honest: there's A LOT more time that I spend doing extra things after-hours. I have RHA meetings every week and they last about 1 1/2 hours, Area Council - 1 hour, Staff Meeting - 2 hours; there's at least one or two programs every week; on-call shifts; and and and. I just don't think it's fair that I have to take annual leave when I want to sleep in one morning after having been in meetings until midnight the day before.
I talked with my supervisor about how I'm stressed and how I feel overwhelmed with all the night-time and weekend commitments and her suggestion was that I change RHA meetings to every other week (which they already are...but I meet with Exec for the weeks in between), change Area Council to every other week (also not a good idea...I thought one of the focus areas of our department for the semester was to build up Area Council!!!!) and to stop going to programs (hmmm, what about getting to know your students, having a presence in the building???) - I'm just not okay with that. I could do those things but then I'd feel like I was not doing my job well and I don't want that. So I guess I'm stuck with being overwhelmed and stressed. :(

But this weekend, at least, it's all about relaxing and hanging out with friends. We had our big area-wide program on Wednesday (Service Splash) and it went well. At one point, we counted about 100 students - and there were a lot who came in and out...so I'm sure we had more than that. We made over 100 teddy bears for children in hospitals, collected almost 700 non-perishable food items and raised $150 for a youth center for teens who identify as LGBTQ.
The concert, of course, was a lot of fun as well. And as I mentioned, I absolutely love having people stay with me. It forces me to have more balance in my life because I can't just come back and sit on my couch and do work...and I'm a lot more cautious about agreeing to go to certain meetings or take on extra tasks.

The guys had the show at my school on Wednesday, then another one about 2 hours away from here on Thursday (I of course met up with them...I couldn't go with them because I didn't get out of work in time...and helped with selling merchandise)...yesterday they had the day off, so while I was at work (being grumpy about having to be at work - especially because I asked to get the day off but wasn't allowed to since two of my colleagues were already gone and we can never have more than two of us leave at one point), they hung out in my apartment, our pool and also worked on booking more shows for the rest of their tour and promoting their music.

Okay, back to the fact that I couldn't take Friday off - because that's still a sore spot. I get the rule that we need to have half of our professional hall director staff here so that we have enough people to respond in case of an emergency. But I just asked if I could be out of the office that day - I even explained that I'd be in town and would be willing to come back and respond to any emergencies. So why couldn't I do that??? Well, I couldn't, so I ended up sitting in my office, in a horrible mood, staring at the computer screen and getting hardly anything accomplished that day. Was that really worth it?

But anyway...

I'm off on Monday, so I'm really excited about that. :) The guys have a show today and tomorrow - but Monday they have off. So that'll be nice. And I'm just excited that I'll actually get to sleep in on Monday. ;) I'm not excited though that that's one day of my annual leave - I need to save vacation days, so I can take some time off next summer and go home to Austria for my friend's wedding - and then continue to India for another friend's wedding. Yup, it'll be a summer of weddings. :)

Definitely worth it...

So the event hasn't even happened yet but it's already been worth it. The bands who're playing at our event tomorrow got here today...and we've just been hanging out this evening. Well, as much as I was able to with an RHA Executive Board Meeting, a meeting with our two student MCs for the event tomorrow, Area Council and a program. But just having people in the apartment, talking to people who are neither RAs nor students nor colleagues - it's kind of AMAZING! :) It makes me feel like I may actually have a life...even when we're just sitting around my apartment, all staring at our computer screens being anti-social. Haha.
I seriously wish I always had friends staying with me. Anyone want to move in with me?

One day...

Every year, I plan some big event and then a few days before it, I'm stressed and I keep asking myself, "Why??? Why did I do this to myself?" But you know what, in the end it's all worth it.

Two years ago, our Spring Break Service Trip was that event. Last year, we did another service trip AND I decided to organize this Invisible Children Challenge...adieu having a life. Haha. This year, it's Service Splash.

We started planning during RA Training. Since I work in a new residence hall (did I mention that yet? The building just opened this Fall. 1,000 residents, 2 professional staff members, 20 RAs, 6 themed lounges, a convenient store, a fitness center and aerobics room, a game room, an active swimming pool and a lazy river.)...anyway, since it's a new building, my colleague and I wanted to start some new tradition. Service Splash will hopefully become that. The idea is to do service for a month or so and then celebrate with a party/concert by the pools.

Our RAs were excited. I told them I could bring in two bands (yeah, I have some connections there...LoL). They picked the service organizations and the activities: making teddy bears for children in hospitals and collecting food and hygiene items for a youth center for teens that identify as LGBTQ.

We started off strong. Everyone was excited. We had high goals - maybe a little too high goals. Then, the event came closer and closer. We weren't getting the number of donations we'd been hoping for. Our "sewing parties" for making teddy bears had low turnouts. And my and my colleague's staff didn't get along anymore. We had a huge argument over t-shirts...his staff wanted to order shirts (and I totally agreed with them...haha...I mean, we had an offer for getting t-shirts made for $10 each...with three different colors...you can't do better than that!) and my staff wanted to make shirts (which would still cost $6) or not have shirts at all. The t-shirts really weren't the reason for the argument - there's been a lot of hidden tension, mostly due to personal issues - but it was the last straw on the camel's back. My staff had been grumpy and unmotivated for a while and this didn't help.

Some of the returners decided to take some initiative (good) and come up with a plan (also good), but chose not to involve me at all (not so good), which led to them coming up with some pretty unrealistic plans (bad). They presented it at a tension-filled staff meeting (argh) and then got frustrated when I had to shoot some of their ideas down (in the nicest and politest way possible).

And here is where my own stubbornness came in. I was not going to let this event fail. I've spent too much time and effort on it myself, not to speak of all the money we were spending on it, and the fact that I'm friends with the bands who're coming down for the event and I will not let them play at a catastrophic event. So I couldn't to work, to fix, to problem-solve, to promote...sleep has been optional lately, weekends have been filled with work-related tasks.

And now it's one day before the event. It's 1:50 am and I'm about to crash for the night (my body doesn't agree with this sleep-being-optional thing...I guess I'm getting old). I still need to clean my apartment (the guys in the bands are staying over in my apartment), I need to put up some more posters tomorrow morning (they really should have gone up tonight but that just wasn't going to happen), I need to iron a bunch of clothes (just did laundry), I need to do some more laundry and I need to go shopping (I don't think the guys would appreciate the lack of food in my fridge...and the few things that are in there are all Vegetarian meals). And then there's of course the shopping for food for the event, going over the script with our MCs, organizing the raffle prizes, and and and.

And of course tomorrow (or really later today), I'm in the office in meetings from 9 am until 5 pm, then I have a quick break, then another meeting at 7 pm and then one at 9:15 pm. Yeah, that'll leave me lots of time to work on that to-do list mentioned above...argh. Oh well, what can you do?

But you know what? In the end it'll be worth it. Because we have made over 100 teddy bears for children in hospitals AND we have collected almost 600 items for the youth center. AND I know once the bands start playing at the event on Wednesday, I'm going to have a blast.

But next year, someone please remind me not to get myself into one of these large-scale projects again! Thanks! ;)

Hierarchy

The last two years, I worked in the CHANGE Living Learning Community - a community that focused on non-positional leadership. We believed that everyone can be a leader, that leadership can happen in any part of an organization and that organizational structures should be as flat as possible. I spent countless hours trying to convince my residents, who were used to strict, hierarchical structures from high school student government and other organizations that they'd been in, that people don't need to hold a position, that there doesn't have to be a president and that we could actually work together more effectively in a group setting where everyone has a say and contributes what he/she is best at. It took a while, but eventually they caught on and started to appreciate and value non-positional leadership.

The Residence Life department I worked in was - while technically set-up pretty hierarchical - flat enough where I could walk into the Director's or Associate Director's Office and ask a question without stepping on anyone's toes or being sent away without an answer and being told to follow the chain of command. Most of the time, I'd go to my direct supervisor, but it was nice to know that I could go and ask a question to someone higher-up in the department - especially if it was something they were directly working with.

Not so much in my new job. I very quickly came to the rude awakening that having a flat organizational structure is a luxury and not the norm. When I have a question here, I'm expected to go to my direct supervisor first. Many times I get the answer, "I have to ask our director" and then the waiting starts. Did I mention that I'm not a patient person?
And if it's a bigger change or something involving money, I get to write a proposal first, send it to my supervisor, who will then forward it to our director. Yeah - proposal-writing - NOT my favorite thing to do. It just feels like such a waste of time. Our director's office is just down the hall - can't I just walk there and ask the question? We could talk about it; if he has any questions, I could answer them right then and there - and then he could either make a decision or think about it and get back to me later.

I tried to be patient. Maybe I just need to get used to this new system, I thought. I wrote proposals. I asked questions of my direct supervisor. I tried not to step on toes. But I'm not sure how much longer I can do this....

It just seems that this system is so much slower and more frustrating. I'm not sure how my messages are presented to our director, since I'm not part of those conversations. I don't know if my supervisor will be able to answer all questions, or whether or not she's going to argue and fight for what I want. And I'm starting to lose my patience with how long everything takes. A few weeks ago, I asked if I could use one of the guest apartments for a band that's coming down for a concert in a residence hall or if I could at least borrow some mattresses (I know we have a ton stored on campus). I really don't understand how that's a difficult questions. I get that I may not be able to use the guest apartment, since it'd have to be cleaned afterwards and all that. But what about the mattresses? They're just sitting there, in that storage room. I'd go pick them up myself and return them afterwards. No extra work for anyone. But when I asked my supervisor and suggested that I just go talk to our facilities manager, so he knows that the mattresses didn't just disappear (not that I really think he'd notice but I wanted to be upfront and honest), she said that it'd have to be approved by our director first. And of course she'll be the one to go and ask. Hmmm, yeah, that was three weeks ago.

Argh!!!!

Note to self: When I'm in a director position - or even just a little higher up in Residence Life - I'll do everything I can to create a relatively flat organizational structure based on the concept of non-positional leadership.

Welcome to a new year!

Hello everyone and welcome to a new year!

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, WELCOME BACK and THANK YOU for your continued support! For those of you who have just checked out this blog, WELCOME!

I started a new job this year. It's only October and it feels like I've been here forever. The job has definitely had its ups and downs already, so there'll be lots to blog about. But, since this is the first blog of the year, I wanted to give you a little bit of information about me (especially for those of you who're new to my blog; but I hope that there'll be some new things for my veteran readers as well).

I grew up in Austria. The first few times I came to the US was on vacation with my parents. Then, my junior year in high school, I was an exchange students. That's when I really fell in love with this country. I decided I wanted to come back for college - and I haven't left since (other than on vacations). I'm still not a US citizen - if I could, I would change my citizenship because it'd make job searching so much easier for me, but trust me, it's not as easy as you may think.

I was a journalism major in undergrad but after becoming an RA my sophomore year and then working as an Orientation Leader, I realized that I loved working with college students. Right after undergrad, I went to graduate school and got my Master's in Higher Education and Student Affairs. My assistantship was in Residence Life. After that I worked as a Hall Director and Academic Adviser (yup, two jobs - one paycheck...haha) - it was one of the best and most challenging jobs I've ever had. I wasn't always happy but I learned a lot. After three years of working my behind off in that job, I decided it was time to put my personal life first. I moved to a warmer climate and took on a job as a Hall Director - yup, "just" a Hall Director - no more doing double-duty. But somehow I still haven't been able to get my life back together. Is it me??? Maybe that's something we can try and figure out together through my blogging this year.

Other than that, I'm hoping to share my experiences with you as I transition and adjust to a new institution and student body. I want to share the ups and downs of the daily life of a Hall Director with you; my struggles and challenges as well as my successes.

What are other things you should know about me?
I want to make a difference in this world. I hate how cheesy that sounds but I can't think of a better way to express how I feel. I believe that our purpose in life is to try and contribute to making this a better world for all people living here. That's what I try to focus on in everything I do.
I have a really hard time picking one cause, one issue that I'll focus on. I've had to realize though that I can't do everything. That's why I work in Student Affairs - if I can inspire students to find out what they're passionate about and go out and make a difference in this world, I will hopefully be able to make the change happen that I'd like to see in this world.

I want to be an activist. I try to make my lifestyle fit my beliefs and values.

I believe in animal rights - that's why I'm a Vegetarian. I don't have anything against eating meat; I just disagree with the way animals are treated in the mass production of meat. I haven't found an effective way to change that - and until I have either managed to do that OR until I feel like I'm able to control where my meat comes from (which I don't feel like I'm able to in the US), I won't eat meat. Simple as that. I also don't eat fish. Same reasons!

I don't believe war is ever the right answer. I've gotten very involved in Invisible Children over the past few years. If you don't know what Invisible Children is, go to www.invisiblechildren.com (It's an organization that works with child soldiers in Northern Uganda). Last year, one of my RAs and I organized a several-month-long Invisible Children event at our school. We also participated in The Rescue, an international Invisible Children event, and this summer I was able to go to Lobby Days in Washington D.C.
While I obviously believe in what Invisible Children wants to do, I also love how it is organized as an organization and how it was founded - by three young men who went to Africa in search of a story, came across children in need and decided to do something about it. It's such a powerful story about how a few individual can truly make a difference!!!

I also consider myself a Gay Rights Activist. I believe that everyone should have the right to get married. I've recently gotten involved with a local youth center for teens that identify as LGBT and I'm hoping to deepen that involvement over the next few years.

I don't expect all of you to agree with my views and my beliefs. So why did I tell you all this? Because I'm sure all of these beliefs will come up - directly or indirectly - in my blog this year.
And if you disagree with anything I say, I'd like to encourage you to comment and let me know what you think. I'd LOVE to have debates on here, to share our experiences and how those have influenced what we believe in, to deepen our understanding of other people's points of view.

In Student Affairs, we work so much with other people and we can have a huge impact on our students' experiences. I love that - but it also scares me. It's a huge responsibility. That's part of why I want to learn more about what other people think - to gain a better understanding of where my students may be coming from - and to be able to evaluate my own views and beliefs and how they influence how I interact with other people.

I love writing this blog because it forces me to take some time every week to reflect on what's been going on and how I feel about it. I believe this reflection helps me become a better professional.
So THANK YOU in advance for giving me the opportunity to reflect and share my experiences with you for another year.

I hope you'll enjoy following my blog!

PS: And please comment. I love comments because I love hearing what all of you think.