Effective Community Building Model

 Build relationships with individual residents

·         Distribute interest surveys to students at an opening floor meeting.

·         Frequently interact with individual students on the floor.

·         Meet individually with each student (formally or informally) in October, November and February.

·         Meet individually (formally) with each student who moves on to the floor within two weeks of that student moving in.

·         Write in the interaction log about 10 minutes a day, plus a 50 minute block per week – including individual and monthly pages.

·         Encourage any student who is leaving on-campus housing to complete on-line exit survey.

                                           

Build roommate relationships

·         Meet with each roommate pair and complete a roommate agreement in September. (Required for all first year students; strongly encouraged for every roommate pair).

 Build floor community

·         Complete the Community Living Agreement process as outlined.

·         Community Builders: Bring the floor together twice a month (once in January 2010), (considering the needs of the community and in consultation with the Complex Director).  Two of these during the semester must be academically related.  Thisdoes not include the required bulletin boards below.  In October, one of the Community Builders should be Homecoming related (if possible) and in the years Boxes and Walls is done, that should be a Community Builder for the given month.

·         A planned (including publicity) floor meal is required each week for the first six weeks.

·         Recruit Floor Reps/Event Planners, hold elections for these positions as directed by the ACD, and keep in contact with the Floor Reps & Event Planners.

·         Change bulletin boards on every floor every month (exceptions are December, February and May).  Bulletin boards can be passive or interactive.  Any month one of the two required Community Builders is not academically related, the bulletin board must be.  Bulletin boards do not count as Community Builders.

·         Make door decorations for all floor residents for opening in September and January.

·         Door decorations must be put up for any new person on the floor.

·         Hold floor meetings as required by the department and as deemed necessary by the RA/ACD/CD.

 Build hall community

·         Support and encourage student attendance at LIT events and meetings as directed by the ACD/CD.

·         Each residence hall will have one alcohol education program fall semester as outlined by the Assistant Director for Community Development.

·         Host Diversity Advocate programs as outlined by the Assistant Director for Community Development.

·         Programs offered campus-wide must be in an accessible building.

 

RAs can plan additional activities or events for floors or halls individually, as teams, or in coordination with LIT/RHA.

Notes

·         Floor meetings – non-required floor meetings can count as one of the community builders.

·         One additional floor meal (just taking a floor to a dining facility on campus) is allowed a semester (outside of the first six weeks)– is the maximum that will count toward required community builders however, we do encourage you to eat with your floor members often.

·         For a Community Builder to count, everyone on the floor/wing must be invited.

·         Community Builders having “0” attendance numbers may not be counted toward the required community builders.  Complex Directors will make decisions about those on a case-by-case basis taking effort and intentionality into consideration.

 

 

 

Forms that will be used include the following

ü  Interaction log (on-line)

ü  Roommate agreement.

ü  Community agreement.

ü  On-line Community Builder Report (Evaluations for community builders, floor meetings or bulletin boards. Evaluations do not need to be completed for door decs).

ü  Purchase approval forms (if applicable) – used to request funds for the program.

ü  Hold Harmless Agreements (if applicable) – for off-campus or “risky” programs, consult with CD. 

 

Resources

o    Pro Shop (Clem and Wells) – there are samples of diversity and other bulletin boards that are placed in each Pro Shop that RAs can utilize

o    RA Manual– there are sections in the RA Manual which is located on Portal that focus on Community Builders and programming

o    residentassistant.com – web site with different ideas for ice breakers, programs, etc.

o    Campus and Community Events – Invite your wing/floor to go to events on-campus or in the Whitewater Community

o    Res Ed Staff – Res Ed staff can be good resources for programs and program ideas

o    RAs on staff or from other complexes – connect with your fellow RAs. Ask he/she what has and hasn’t worked in the past, brainstorm or share ideas, or collaborate on programs.

 Please use the Portal Webpage for tons of information and resources: https://webapps.reslife.uww.edu/documents/ra_docs.php

RA Requirements

Each month you will need to complete two programs/community builders in conjunction with the direction given to you by your Complex Director, the interaction log, a bulletin board (see exceptions below in monthly breakdown), and six floor meals in each of the first six weeks. Additional required items/tasks may be added in addition to these monthly requirements, but you will receive adequate notice.

 

□    Each month you will need to do something related to academics- including but not only academically focused bulletin boards.

 

Monthly Breakdown:

	Door Decs	Semester Opening Meetings	Semester Closing Meeting	Bulletin Board	Community Builders/Programs	Floor meals	Interaction Log
August	X	X (Aug/Sept)		X
September					XX	XXXX	X
October				X	XX (one homecoming related)	XX	X
November				X	XX		X
December			X		XX		X
January	X	X		X	X		X (new students only)
February					XX		X
March				X	XX		X
April				X	XX		X
May			X		XX		X