Get Ready for Staff Training and Move In!
Hello Friends! It’s hard to believe it’s time to start preparing for move in! To help get you ready, we’ve compiled a number of updates for you in this quarter’s Roompact Recap. We’ve also created a checklist for you of common tasks to accomplish to ensure you’re ready to go on day 1!
Happy Birthday! And thank you!
This June 12th, Roompact turned 10! Thank you for all of your support over the last decade. Here’s to exciting things to come.
Training
Online Training and Walkthroughs
Have new staff that you want to get up to speed or need a refresher yourself? Don’t forget you can access guided walkthroughs on our training page. It also include a video recording of our twice annual software training over Zoom.
Live Zoom Training
Speaking of which, we’ll be holding our next live training over Zoom on:
Wednesday, September 13
2:30-5:00pm Eastern Time
Register in order to receive the link. A recording will also be sent directly to you and added to our training page.
Software Updates
We’ve got a software update coming out imminently for fall opening! Soon Administrators in Roompact’s software will notice a new Organization Settings option under “My Account” in the upper right or your screen. Organization Settings will give you more granular control over how Roompact’s software works for your campus. The first option we’ll add to this new feature is the ability to your staff members with a Hall Director permission level to access the Insights feature.
The default behavior of Roompact’s software only allows Administrators to access Insights, but, by enabling this new option in the Organization Settings, you can allow Hall Director-level staff to also access Insights. We expect most schools will want to turn this feature on, although some schools give Head RAs and other staff access as Hall Directors and may not wish to allow them to use the feature. This gives you control to make that decision based on how you use Roompact’s software.
You can now re-order Categories in Forms!
Each category you have in Forms can now be re-ordered. All you have to do is use the up and down arrows next to the category icon to move it into the order you want.
RA Door Dec Competition
Roompact is holding its sixth annual door dec contest! This contest is open to student staff (RAs, CAs, etc.) at schools who currently use Roompact’s software on their campus. The door decs must be sent by September 30th at 11:59pm local time to be considered.
The team at Roompact will judge all submissions and choose ten winners. We will publish a post announcing the winners and highlighting all of your amazing entries. Each Top 10 Winner will receive a $50 Etsy gift card.
Looking to give your student staff ideas for door decs and bulletin boards? We’re created a Roompact Topics page just for them.
Upcoming Conferences
We look forward to seeing you at these upcoming events. Stop by our booth and say hello! We might even have some new socks to give away. 😉
- ACUHO-I Academic Initiatives – October 2-5, Columbus, OH
- NEACUHO – October 11 to 13, Springfield, MA
- MACUHO – October 18-20, College Park, MD
- Institute on the Curricular Approach – October 22-25, Long Beach, CA
Heading to the Institute on the Curricular Approach? Roompact is pleased to announce its fifth annual user’s conference scheduled for this fall on Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 between 12:30pm and 2:30pm at the Hilton Long Beach.
Special Episode of SA Now
Roompact was pleased to be a sponsor of this special episode on the future of the RA role!
As resident and student staff needs have expanded, many housing and residence life leaders are rethinking the traditional resident assistant (RA) role. Drs. Paul Gordon Brown, Heather Kropf, and Glenn DeGuzman discuss shifting needs, explore possibilities, and share promising approaches and concerns. Join these three leaders, innovators, and changemakers for this exciting conversation.
New Episodes of the #ResEdChat Podcast
The Roompact ResEdChat podcast is a digital variety hour of presentations, webinars, and interviews on topics of interest to residence life and education professionals who work in college and university housing.
Check out our latest episodes:
- Ep 24: Rachel Aho on Giving Constructive Feedback
- Ep 25: Gustavo Tiffer on Pivoting to a Career Off-Campus
- Ep 26: Chris Trautman on Setting Healthy Professional Boundaries
- Ep 27: Delton Gordon and Luke Hams on Re-Imagining RA and Student Staff Positions
- Ep 28: Sam Ferrigno on Supporting Neurodiverse Students on Campus
- Ep 29: Dr. Gregory Thompson on Campus Politics and Building Relationships
- Ep 30: Susan Robison on Accessibility in Residence Life
- Ep 31: Chana Bailey and Norton Mitchell on Partnering with Custodial and Facilities Staff
- Ep 32: Kassidy Giles on Applying For and Starting an ACUHO-I Internship
- Ep 33: Keith Edward’s New Book, “Unmasking: Toward Authentic Masculinity”
- Ep 34: Celebrating Roompact’s 10th Anniversary!
From The Blog
NEW Pro-D in a Bag Series
The Roompact “Pro-D in a Bag” series provides all the details you’ll need to create a professional development opportunity for your staff around a given topic. Each facilitation guide outlines free and open source videos to watch, articles to read, quizzes and inventories to complete, and suggested questions for discussion and activities. You can facilitate this as a professional development lunch or integrate it into a staff meeting. Send your staff members the link to the facilitation guide beforehand and it will give them all of the information they need. It’s like professional development “in a bag.”
- Transitioning From A Program Model To A Residential Curriculum (1 hour)
- Get Up To Speed On Residential Curriculum Basics (1 hour)
- Evaluating And Enhancing Your Residential Curriculum (1-1.5 hours)
- Designing a Roommate Agreement Process to Reduce Roommate Conflict (1 hour)
- How Might We Re-Imagine the “RD” Role? (1 hour)
- Green Move-In, Green Move-Out, Greening Campus Housing (30 minutes)
- How Might We Re-Imagine the “RA” role? (30 Minutes)
- Invisible Work in College Student Housing (15 mins)
Looking for a job? Are you a Roompact school that wants some help in advertising your job openings? Just send us an email with the title and a link to the posting. We’ve compiled a list of job openings at Roompact schools.
