+Office of Student Activities and Involvement Performance Improvement Plan:

Retention of Student Organizations’ Active Status

By: Sam Dowell

Client: Raymond Brown

+Ice Breaker

You are all avid belly dancers and have decided to form an organization at JMU called the Bellydance Club.

Using this information, please complete the priority exercise.

+About OSAI

The Office of Student Activities and Involvement (OSAI) at James Madison University is in place to support student organizations, students seeking organizations, and advisors of organizations.

350+ Active Organizations 4768 Users Organization recognition process

Must complete CEO Workshops to become recognized (4 total, 2+ members must attend each one) Money & Finances, Risk Management and Constitution Nuts&Bolts and Organizational Development (Outriggers) Leadership U Conference Must create letter of intent and final constitution

+About OSAI

204 Organizations have been pulled from the active list since records have been kept.

There are two ways a group can lose Active Status Failure to comply with University Policies or Student Org

Recognition Requirements A group chooses to dissolve as an organization (I.e. Lack of

interest, unstable leadership, inability to hold meetings).

+What is Happening

204 Organizations that have been pulled from the active list since 1982.

1981-1984

1985-1988

1989-1992

1993-1996

1997-2000

2001-2004

2005-2008

2009-2012

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

JMU Inactive Organizations

# of Organizatons Pulled

+3 Major Factors

Information on how to keep organizations can keep their active status isn’t clearly communicated.

There is no alumni outreach program in place. Organizations are responsible for setting these up individually.

Students are creating organizations with their friends, and these organizations are becoming inactive once everyone graduates.

+What Should Be Happening?

Organization members that attend CEO workshops should be communicating information given to the other group members. OSAI should be following up with emails.

Founders of organizations should be recruiting members to keep organization going once they graduate. There should be an emphasis on growth for new and young organizations.

Club presidents should want to make a mark on madison. Organizations should be used as networking tool to expand the organizational brotherhood to all current and former members.

+Performance Gap

Communication issue Alumni involvement Organizational growth

+Data Collection

A survey was issued out to all members of JMU organizations. Combination of free answer and multiple choice questions. Broken up into 3 separate parts

General information Assesses the effectiveness of the communication of

standards/policies Assesses the potential of future involvement of alumni of

student organizations

+Findings and Results

How did you find out about this student organization?

# Answer Response %1 Student Org. Night 83 50%2 Beinvolved.jmu.ed

u10 6%

3 On-campus Event 23 14%4 Friends 85 51%5 Other 35 21%

+Findings and Results

Are you aware of the standards/policies that are required of your student organization to maintain active recognition status on JMU’s campus?

# Answer Response %1 Yes 123 74%2 No 44 26%

Total 167 100%

+

Where did you hear about the policies and procedures?

+How would you like to hear about them?

+ Why did you join an

organization?

+Findings and Results

Would you like opportunities to stay connected to your student organizations once you've graduated?

# Answer Response %1 Yes 157 91%2 No 16 9%

Total 173 100%

+Strategies/Ideas

+So What Now? Improve Communication Create a section on the OSAI website under

organization resources that lays out the specific rules one must follow to maintain active recognition status on JMU’s campus.http://info.jmu.edu/osai/organization-resources/

Send out email reminders to students on what they need to do to stay active, especially when organization is close to becoming inactive.

+So What Now?Improve Alumni Involvement

Create an Alumni Newsletter

Plan a couple of Alumni Events

Emphasize alumni interaction and lifelong friendship during workshops and on the website

+So What Now?Improve Organizational Growth Create more on-campus activities where students can go see

what different organizations are all about. (14% subjects joined clubs this way)

Encourage organizations to update club sites frequently on beinvolved.jmu.edu during CEO Workshops

Advertise beinvolved.jmu.edu more so that more students will utilize it as a resource. (6% subjects joined clubs this way) Orientation Frog week Counselor’s Professors who are liasons

http://beinvolved.jmu.edu/organization/jmubellydance

+Questions