Patrick: Week 4 ( February 7-11)

This week, I gained a new appreciation for the process of "student outreach" as an interesting conundrum in non-profit management. I refer to "student outreach" as a conundrum here because I can see both sides of the puzzle. I remember attending Quad Day Freshman year. I was almost overwhelmed by all of the great opportunities for involvement that appealed to me. Not surprisingly, I added my name and email address to multiple organizational contact sheets. Initially, I was excited to receive the weekly mass e-mails from these groups telling me about all the exciting events and opportunities of which I could be a part. As that first semester progressed, however, these e-mails more frequently occupied my Trash Folder than my To-Do List. I wanted to be involved in so much and yet had time for so little.

Fast forward to this week as I prepared to delve into the organizational side of "student outreach." I started by identifying Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) that seemed to align with our organizational interests and mission. I then composed an e-mail introducing these groups to ACLGF and the funding opportunities we have made available to students currently and in the past. I was quickly able to discern the importance of my outreach efforts given that our organization has existed since about 2006 in one capacity or another but remains relatively unknown among students. In one way, this made my job exciting because I not only got to write to these students to offer them a chance at either event or project funding, but I also got the privilege of informing them about our new office location on Green St.

My excitement proved to be a bit unwarranted, however, given that I have only received one response to my e-mail thus far. Like I said before, I understand. I've been on the other side of the dilemma as well. However, because I feel student outreach is an area where I can really prove my worth to the organization if I am successful, I continue to hope for some additional productive responses. Now I know how the organizational "waiting game" feels. It feels even stranger given that we are still in our developing stages. In closing, to borrow from the classic movie Field of Dreams. I hope that if I continue to build it, interested students and faculty will come!