ResEdChat Ep 43: Understanding NACURH on the Campus, Regional, and National Levels

Crystal Lay:
Hello and welcome back to Roompact’s, Res Ed Chat podcast where we highlight cool people who do cool things and talk about cool stuff in residence life and college student housing. I’m your guest Host Crystal Lay, and I use the she/her series pronouns. Today we’re going to be talking to two wonderful humans, Jamie and Tommy, about advising NACURH. I have the pleasure of seeing them almost every day here at Northern Arizona University. Now, when I think about advising student groups and residence life and housing, I think about my experience advising community councils, hall councils, and NACURH earlier in my career. But I also know that these organizations are part of something larger, and that is what we’ll be talking to you about today. I’ll start off by having our guests introduce themselves.

Jamie Lloyd:
Hi, my name’s Jamie Lloyd. I use the she/her pronouns. In the world of NACURH and advising, I currently serve as the NACURH Advisor, so there’s two of us who work with the corporation overall in advising some really great student leaders. In addition to that, though, in the past I previously served as a Regional Advisor in the Intermountain, and for about 10 years served as a campus level RHA and NRHH Advisor after advising on campus throughout grad school.

Tommy Newsom II:
Awesome. My name is Tommy Newsom II. I use he/his/him pronouns. In the NACURH world as well, I also serve as a Regional Advisor within the Intermountain, specifically focusing on NRHH for the National Residence Hall Honorary. Prior to that, I’ve been a Campus Advisor and also advising NRHH as well at Northern Arizona University. I’ve had a chance to advise really throughout my graduate school and a little bit of my undergrad. And so I’m excited to get to talk a lot about NACURH in general.

Crystal Lay:
Thank you both for being here, and thank you both for your commitment to student leadership and learning and service during your time. It’s so appreciated, and I think folks who are advised are really, really special and needed, so thank you. So for our viewers, let’s start by talking about what is NACURH and what is the structure and format or breakdown? How would you best describe that?

Jamie Lloyd:
For sure. I think for a lot of people, they know NACURH as the conference and oftentimes have maybe just attended that NACURH conference. That happens typically in May or June. But really NACURH is a nonprofit corporation that’s been around since the 1950s, and really grew out of campus student leaders who were on college campuses, predominantly in the Midwest at the time, who wanted to connect with one another, share ideas, figure out how to improve their living experience. And so started joining together annually at these conferences and really out of that, grew some structures that allowed for them to do that more formally and creating support and resources on all of our college campuses that choose to participate in things like an RHA or an NRHH chapter. Currently, our structure is really threefold, so we have the NACURH level or national level. Most of the institutions involved in NACURH are in the United States, but sometimes we do have schools who participate from elsewhere.
So we often talk about NACURH being in North America since we have some Canadian schools currently involved. And at the NACURH level, really the structure is about the corporation and how we operate as a nonprofit, the larger services that we offer. So affiliation and how you get involved, some of the big picture resources as well as sort of driving the vision of the organization overall. And then the middle level is the regional level. So the level that Tommy currently works with. And that level really is separated into eight different distinct regions that cover all the time zones across the US.
And in those regions, there’s regional boards that do regional conferences, committee work that provide a lot of that direct support to the campus level. And then really, we have all of our campuses. So no matter how many campuses are involved in NACURH, if they have some type of organization like an RHA or RSA or all the many other names, or if they have a chapter of NRHH, then that’s the campus level. And oftentimes they’re the group that’s working to facilitate things like hall councils, community councils, hall government, and the like. So those three levels operate in so many different ways with different structures in place, and no doubt over the last nearly 70 plus years that the structure has grown out of needing to provide more structure and technology for people who are connected on college campuses.

Tommy Newsom II:
I think what I would also add is that it’s specifically student run, which I think is kind of a unique component as well. And so when Jamie kind of talks about the regional board or the NACURH executive committee, those are all individuals that are student leaders. Some are in undergrad, some are in graduate school, depending on where they’re at in their own college journey. But a really unique part I think when we talk about different ways to get involved within student affairs or just higher education.

Crystal Lay:
So it sounds like there is the campus level and then there’s regional and then there’s national, right? So those are the three levels. Now, when I was an undergrad, I was inducted into NRHH graduate school at Eastern Illinois. I was an honorary member of NRHH, and so that was really, really special. However, I never participated as a student in NRHH, RHA, nothing of that sort, although being inducted and again, advising. And so as you think about the three levels, what is that student participation or pathway? What would that look like if I’m a first-year student who wanted to kind of engage with all three levels? Does that make sense?

Tommy Newsom II:
I think so. I can maybe start. I think one of the first parts really is starting with the campus level. How do we get students involved? I think for a lot, whether it’s hall councils or community councils, hall governing boards, depending on what an institution calls it, is really that first stop shop to really find out what is leadership, how do you define that for yourself? And then creating leadership opportunities to get involved I think is a big part of that. Once they do get involved at whether it’s their hall council or things, I think that’s where a lot of the exposure begins at regional or national levels. And so with NRHH in particular, as an example, there’s a lot of opportunities to talk about of the months or OTMs. And so being able to come just learn about what are the things that we can write about and celebrate successes?
And so that starts to get some initial exposure and traction, right? Then being able to participate, especially if you’ve been into an elected position such as you’re a residence hall association rep, or if you have some sort of other community council chair type things, those also allow a little bit of exposure. I will say that sometimes can feel like a pipeline of once you get involved, it’s much easier to know about the behind the scenes or some of the regional or NACURH level of things happening. But it really is that first level involvement. And I think as Jamie alluded to earlier, the goal is how do we bring all of those bigger level picture resources or services back to the campus level? So if you do get to attend a conference, that’s a really great way to both learn of what are other institutions doing from events to leadership development to even just general, what is the structure that we should have on our campus that makes the most sense, especially when it comes to engaging students post-pandemic?
I think that’s been a really big focus overall. And so we’ve been able to host a conference at NAU, which has been really awesome. And so both taking students to be able to get involved and also asking for volunteers that are first-year students has been a really cool way where they get to see all the behind the scenes, interact with some individuals that they might not necessarily always have a chance to connect with. But I think it also really highlights the importance of why an NACURH exists, and whether that’s through conferences and getting to make connections, or if it’s really just learning about who do you want to be as a leader? That’s often a theme that you’ll hear throughout NACURH.

Crystal Lay:
So now I’m curious, I would love to know your student involvement journey. How did you get involved? What was that special moment where you’re like, yes, this is the thing for me?

Jamie Lloyd:
Yeah, I can start us off. I always view mine as being twofold, because I think there was my student journey and then my professional journey. And I think while they definitely connect that they’re very separate. As an undergraduate student at the University of Northern Colorado, I participated in Lead On, which was a pre-collegiate leadership program that many campuses have something like that. And so I came to campus early and I did it because it was a leadership program and I got to move in before everybody showed up. So two things, and I remember there being exposure to RHA and NRHH and Hall Councils, and I was uncertain. I was a little skeptical about it. I was like, “I don’t know about this.” And I was most skeptical about RHA actually. I was like, “Hall Council sounds fun, why not?” And I sometimes would show up, but it was homecoming that got me really plugged in and I was excited to build a float.
And so we can blame homecoming I guess for my entire professional journey, because that’s what ultimately makes me get involved. My sophomore year of college, I was a resident assistant and the staff I was on happened to have a lot of the folks who were connected to RHA. I think they must’ve just been in cahoots to really convince me that maybe that was a pathway. So there were so many of them. And so they convinced me to apply to go to IACURH 2007, which was at Arizona State University in Tempe. And I was like, “Okay, cool. I’ve never been to Arizona. That sounds cool.” And so I attended and goodness, people talk about you get the conference bug, and I was like, “We need to host NACURH. We need to do everything.”And I was sold. From there, I happened to become the RHA President and did that for a little while.
I ended up joining the regional board because there was a vacancy that was supporting RHA presidents, and I wanted RHA presidents to get supported, including myself. So I was like, “Sure, I can do that.” And then in grad school, I returned to the organization as the Intermountain’s Regional Director when there was a need and did that for a year as I finished up my master’s. So that’s student side of things. So probably all that initial stuff of getting involved and dabbling. But when I think about my NACURH experience now, it’s really tied to professional pathways I chose around really enjoying advising, and I had a lot of successes as a community council advisor and was like, “Okay, well either I have really easy student groups to work with or maybe I have a propensity for this.” And so when I searched for my first full-time job, I ended up in a role that was primarily focused on student leadership, which included advising RHA and NRHH.
So I was able to do that. And then when I came back to the Intermountain region and started working at NAU, advising RHA and NRHH was a part of my day job, which is definitely a bonus when you get to do it as a part of your day-to-day. And much like that student experience where there was a vacancy and a need to fill the regional advisor position, and the Intermountain became vacant midyear. And some folks were like, “Hey, you know stuff and you like advising and you’re around, are you available?” And I said, “Sure.” And ended up doing that for five and a half years. And in the midst of that was like, “You know what? I probably still have a little bit more to give.” And so pursued this NACURH advisor position, which I just wrapped up my first year of a four-year term. And goodness, what a journey, because no one would’ve told me that I would’ve been an career advisor when I attended Lead On in 2006.

Tommy Newsom II:
I think for me, there’s some similarities to what Jamie mentioned. So I wanted to get involved. At the initial time, it was specifically I knew that it could help me become an RA and thinking about housing. And so that was definitely a large motivation in my undergrad. I went to the University of New Mexico and they had a similar part where there was opportunities to get involved early, specifically their programming model that they had. There was an RHA block party that starts right at the beginning of move-in, and then they have an NRHH mystery event. And so you’d have to show up to find out what was going on, and then it was like, “Wow, there’s so much cool stuff happening.” And so that was the initial part where I was like, “This is exciting. I’m meeting people, individuals who also have similar interests.” And so it made me want to run for the community council president.
And so that’s how I started to initially get involved. Similar to Jamie, I also was like, “I don’t know what this RHA thing is. I’m not sure if it’s as helpful if I want to be an RA.” So I was like, “I’m going to do the president thing.” But looking back afterwards, I realized that RHA really is about student voice and how do we create both an opportunity to provide space for experiences and to be able to enhance what the experiences are? And so my second year while I also had a chance to become an RA, I also was still getting involved with RHA. That was really the first time I went to a conference. And so I got to go to Brigham Young University where they hosted the regional leadership one. And so similarly I was like, “This is awesome.” We did bid for NACURH a couple of times, but that’s okay.
It was not the time yet for that. But I think even just the excitement behind the scenes processes, I learned that I really like a lot of that. It was the same time I got inducted into NRHH. And so, I felt that I was ready to step up into some bigger leadership opportunities and run for a position. And so I think because of that, I got much more involved on the NRHH side of the NACURH world. And so that has always been a really special passion for me in particular. And then kind of fast-forward, UNM has a neat structure where you can become a student hall director as a senior or kind of post two years of being an RA. And so I had a chance to also then advise my first community council, and that was a really exciting part, just getting to help and think back to what are the experiences or opportunities that I had as a first year student and how can I help create similar ones or bigger ones for incoming students?
And so I think that’s what really got me involved in the advising role. Fast-forward to coming to NAU, there is a opportunity to advise NRHH, and so I applied for it and got the role for that. So I was really excited. I got to do a co-supervision model with a larger run organization versus what I did in grad school where it was a little bit different with community council still. And so that’s one when I learned that I really like advising in a co-advising style model. But I think related to that is getting to work with students outside of my immediate scope or focus.
And so all over campus was one that was really cool. And I think just because NRHH is really focused on that service and recognition, that became a huge part of just what is the services we’re really trying to provide? And so I think similar to what Jamie mentioned, I felt like I had more to give. And so I’ve then stepped into the regional advisor position at Intermountain. And so I think that is a big part that conferences help initially teach you, but also I think reinforce of that the whole organization was really about how do we provide service? And so that’s I think why I got involved, but also I continue to remain involved in NRHH and NACURH more broadly.

Crystal Lay:
I like the service, I like the giving back. It sounds like there was some shoulder tapping and folks saying “You would be really good.” That happened in your journeys. I think something that I’ve noticed as more of an outsider is there’s also this piece about community and feeling a part of something that happens for students who participate. So wondering if you all could talk more about that of maybe that one student or just something you noticed where you can really say that maybe the student decided to stay at school or feel like they were valued, because they were part of what feels like a really special opportunity when you live on campus.

Jamie Lloyd:
Yeah. I think the thing that stands out to me is actually from my time specifically advising at the community council level, probably in part because it is that ground level in the place that I was also living. And I think the several community councils I advised, that I knew that my responsibility and with the staff team I was supervising was to create spaces that felt like the students living in the community could own that space and could learn how to run a meeting and could plan events together. And while their motivation may have initially perhaps been to become an RA in the future, that oftentimes it was giving them a space to come and hang out for an hour every week. And if they happened to be hooked by wanting to plan the event that we were talking about, great. If they met someone that they became friends with even better.
But I think being able to see some of the students that I worked with who were involved in community council plan those first events or to work through some of those first weird group dynamic things, and to be able to talk about, “Oh, well actually this is a thing we can expect with a group and let me tell you why,” which I think there’s not as many opportunities sometimes to directly share a theory with a student and then go like, “That exists.” So that was a cool moment that I remember. But I think as people connected to one another when they were ready to then see the bigger picture of like, “Cool, we’ve been focusing on this place, but actually this other meeting has people from all across campus and maybe that’s where other humans that you want to get to know also are and dabbling in that.”
And then I think with NRHH, feeling like sometimes it was a way to connect students to something where they could give back themselves. Especially I think thinking about our students being oftentimes service-minded individuals anyway, wanting to be able to participate in activities but maybe not wanting to get involved in some of the organizations that only focused on service was always something that stood out to me as people got involved. And seeing people, I think probably the students who end up going to student affairs in the long run are the ones that stand out because they’re still in the field, but the people who showed up to community council and then did all of the things and maybe they do care now or they do something in residence life is always really cool to see, even if that’s not the norm of all the community councils I may have worked with.

Tommy Newsom II:
Yeah, one of the parts that first came to my mind was my first year of graduate school at Kansas State, and my supervisor is someone who was like, “I don’t really know how to advise. It’s not like my favorite thing to do.” I was like, “Well, I’m excited. I feel good about it.” But as I was thinking about that experience over the course of the year and teaching [inaudible] or just some of the processes of how do these things work, what I distinctly recall as our final meeting where I was like, “Cool, we’re going to wrap things up. Here’s a reminder of just hopefully you can reflect on the year.” And I distinctly remember multiple individuals being like, “I don’t want to adjourn.” And so they kept dissenting adjourning because they weren’t ready to leave the space. But I think that really speaks to what you mentioned, Crystal about there’s such an opportunity to create community, especially I think for those groups of students who they found how to work together and they got to experience some really cool things that obviously some challenges happening.
But I think those are one of the moments that was sort of a culmination of because you decided to take the leap and find out, well, maybe I will get involved in this community council part. I think it was a really defining part, especially as Jamie mentioned. My timing in grad school, I got to then see some of them at the NACURH annual Conference later on. And so that was a really neat part where they were either first year students and now they were the national or the NACURH Communications Coordinator, or maybe they’re the RHA President at annual conference. And so it was a cool opportunity to reconnect.
But I think the other part is a lot of the students kind of talked about had they not gotten involved, who knows what would’ve happened. For some they were like, “I was trying to decide if I wanted to be at this school.” And I think for others were like, “I knew I wanted to go, but I was having trouble making friends.” And I think especially now, I kind of mentioned this earlier, but I think post-pandemic as a lot of that skill building is being rebuilt, I think this is a really great avenue for students to not have to seek that out on their own, but knowing that there’s a structure already existing to help build and bridge some of that community as well.

Crystal Lay:
I really enjoy what you both shared. And I think about the role of the advisor, it sounds so important, because typically these are volunteer roles. Sometimes for the advisor, most times for the students who are involved, right? And it’s a big time commitment and investment to make sure that folks are having community for themselves, but also creating community for so many students who live on our campuses. So I want to name that. And so as you think about advisors, what are your top two maybe tips or best practices for advisors? Now that could be on the campus level or that could even be those folks that are preparing their delegations to go to a NACURH thing, IACURH, pick your CURH. But what are some things that you would share with advisors? Some tips?

Jamie Lloyd:
Absolutely. It’s probably like the topic that I care maybe most deeply about. I think there’s a few different things, and no matter the level you’re advising at, most of it is showing up and being willing to put in the investment. I think you’re right about the volunteer nature of some of these roles, especially when you’re involved at the regional and NACURH level. Our 14 regional level advisors and our additional advisors who support some entities as well as the three consultants and the two NACURH level advisors, all are people who do it in addition to whatever day job they have.
And so the level of investment that advisors have just at those levels in addition to whatever campus structures may exist, definitely speaks to a need for folks to make time in what’s already really busy life schedule. I think about reflecting back on the few years where we were really working with COVID as well, that there was some strain there around how do you show up when maybe your job was also caring and supporting staff or students who were in COVID housing? Or when you were managing a different area because you were short-staffed? How do you utilize advising as a place that maybe was the one place that your cup could get filled when you weren’t getting maybe a lot of positive student interaction or student interaction that felt real?
So I think showing up is always, for me, the first step. Our students know when we care about something and if we’re willing to put in the time and to listen to what they want to do when they’re also choosing to be somewhere and they’re not getting paid, that can speak volumes, whether we’re advising an organization or a club. I think the other thing for me is it’s maybe a tip, but it’s also just a philosophy of, I think sometimes advisors at any level are really quick to say that, “Oh, well, my philosophy is that I’m really a hands-off advisor. I just want them to do them and I’m going to be there.” And when I hear that, I understand where it’s coming from that there’s a desire to allow the students to take the organization where they want to. But I think what happens in practice is that it’s used sometimes as a cover for not wanting to be in sort of the mess of it or to help a leader or president of an organization navigate how to improve or look towards the future or to make a positive change.
And I think sometimes advisors feel like their hands are tied with being able to also help the organization grow. And really I think our best advisors are advisors who can turn on the hands-on, I’m going to help get you started. We’re going to work together to make this meeting agenda and have you practice and talk through it, but the next time you do it and then show it to me, I think it’s those advisors who can switch back and forth and kind of ebb and flow are the ones who I think enjoy it the most, but also the ones who see the most success. But those who choose to be hands off, it’s really hard to have a lot of fun and to enjoy the thing you’re investing time in. If you’re like, “Well, this is your thing, it’s not mine. I am just going to watch it happen.” It feels kind of icky sometimes. So that’s really, I think philosophically my two best tips.

Tommy Newsom II:
I think that’s a good segue because I was going to start with team building in particular for me is the core. And I think that allows you to identify what are some of the skills or areas of growth in allowing you as the advisor then figure out, cool, how do I work with individuals? And then also the collective. I think especially being able to empower if it’s a president or a chair or depending on what it’s called at that campus, and I think this is also true at the campus level, the regional level and the NACURH level. So because I think that really sets the foundation for how does your team function, what do they want to focus on, and then how does that translate to the community that they’re serving? Whether that’s regional to campus level or campus to the individual community councils, or if you’re the community council to your building.
And so for me, I think that’s probably the biggest one is setting up some good team building so they learn how to work together and what they want to work together on. And then I think related to that, and this is more for campus level advisors or if you’re looking at regional and the NACURH level, there’s always the ability to do strategic planning. I think oftentimes it can be scary because you’re sort of resetting each year because of the natural progression of student leadership, but I think that’s a really important part of how do you help students begin to see three to five years out? That’s something that we did this past year year at NAU and kind looking at our residence hall association and kind of thinking about the, here’s the previous strategic plan. And they had said, “I have some comments or thoughts,” and I was like, “Great.”
Now if you were thinking about this as a student five years from now, what would those comments and thoughts be to help you kind of navigate that? And so I think that’s also where the regional advisor or a campus advisor in general plays a really big role of, they tend to be around for longer, and so still helping students kind of decide where do they want to go? But also being able to give a framework of and how does that look over the course of time so we’re not being shortsighted? So I think those are my two specific tips.

Crystal Lay:
I heard show up, have a balance between hands-on and hands off, teamwork or team building and then strategic planning. Those are wonderful tips. Wonderful tips, y’all. My last, second to last question maybe, is one of the places I think advisors get stuck is the startup. Recruitment one or two your top secret, this is the thing to do, or thoughts about how do you recruit people? Things that you’ve seen that maybe worked and maybe there’s no special formula, but I feel like that’s a place where people get stuck in the beginning. It’s like, how do I get people to join or get involved?

Tommy Newsom II:
I have kind of two that I’ll briefly say, and I’m thinking about this from a community council or hall council advisor lens specifically. I think the first one is that being able to have some sort of welcome event can be really beneficial, especially towards the beginning of the year. I think partly it just gives a lot of students to be able to say like, “Oh, things happen in the community and if you want to see what types of things you can create in the community, here’s the first place.” And so I think that has been a really effective strategy that I’ve seen, especially depending on how you set up that initial sort of welcoming event. I think the other part of it is being able to translate what it looks like for individuals in high school. I think oftentimes when we talk about student government or maybe you’re a part of NHS or something like that, that helps I think ease a little bit of the, I don’t know what this community council thing is or what is this enigma of NRHH?
It’s like, “Well, did you do service stuff in high school?” “Great.” This is kind of a similar concept. And so I think that’s the other part that helps break down some of the, I think truthfully some of the just, I don’t know what this is and I’m scared to get involved because I don’t know what I’m getting into. And so I think the more that you can compare it to something that might be a transferable experience is really helpful.
And then I think part of that is also saying, and the skills you build from this will help you in a variety of ways. I know that’s one of my goals this year, particularly at the regional level, is like, because you did this, here’s how this might show up in a resume, or here are some things where it’s gotten people moving forward. So I think that helps, especially with so many students trying to figure out, is this going to actually help me get a job at the end of my career or at the end of my collegiate journey? And so I think the more that we can speak to that helps with some of that buy-in and understanding what it will mean for them in the future.

Jamie Lloyd:
I think I would add two things that maybe are structural in nature. I think one is I think any campus who has been operating with a structure needs to take the time, especially if you haven’t done that since the pandemic, to critically look at what your structure is, how we know it is or isn’t working. If we’ve not done anything to check on that, what structures do we want to put in place? I think some really easy things are making sure if you have a dedicated time in pro staff or grad training, that’s a great starting point to how do you start to tell the story because your advisors believing in the organization’s value and the impact it can have for the community itself. We know that involved students are students who maybe are less likely to participate in other activities, that could be detrimental to building community.
And so if your hall team is bought in, then that gives you some initial investment, but also how do your students involved talk about why the organization is important, what are the connections? Is it a group that focuses on event planning? Is it a group that wants to do governance? Is it a group that really is trying to blend the three? And whatever the case is, it has to work for the campus environment and community. Working in Oklahoma versus in Colorado versus in Arizona, RHAs operated really differently of what that focus was. And I would venture a strong guest to say that for a lot of campuses that some of that governance dropped off, some of that event planning dropped off with the pandemic.
And so if that’s a need that needs filled, how does the organization make sure that its structure matches that? Then really I think something that I think a lot about as I talk to advisors sort of around the country is when we think about recruiting, some of it is really making sure that the investment from residence life departments and whatever that structure looks like is there, and that investment isn’t always financial, but that is definitely helpful of, if the group feels like they can’t put on things or they can’t do things, or if the student leaders involved are pulled too many different directions because perhaps they have to be an RA to also be involved, that starts to create some dynamics that might make it really hard for the time investment to exist.
And so for an advisor being able to talk about the value from an assessment lens to advocate for additional resources, and it might be the connection on campus. Is your campus RHA and NRHH potentially competing with another org on campus? And is there opportunity to collaborate to figure out where are the stepping stones and how can all of them work together knowing that it’s oftentimes for whole campus community. And I think when we do those things, recruitment is easier because you’ve built investment, but also that there’s something worthwhile coming out of it, even if it doesn’t have to be a lot. But for a small campus to be able to put on a really cool signature event for an NRHH chapter or RHA might mean that there’s another really cool weekend event that students can go to that might not otherwise exist, and doesn’t necessarily have to be planned by a hall, which is really cool.

Crystal Lay:
Now, Jamie, as you’ve been talking, I noticed you have this symbol on your shirt and it looks very much like some type of leadership NACURH type deal. I’m thinking it’s the three links maybe,maybe. Can you describe that and then either of you talk about what those three links are?

Jamie Lloyd:
Yes. So NACURH logo is the links as it’s referred, and some time ago it predates me being a student, but some awesome group of former student leaders decided that each part of the links represents a different, I guess, tenant of NACURH. So participation, dedication and caring. And I think these show up mostly right now from a place of participation is around that showing up piece. But do something. If you want to improve your on-campus community, you have to be involved and to get in it. You can’t just watch it happen. The dedication definitely, I feel like I always tie to the time and willingness to give and that sometimes you’re embarking upon a position. I think about our students who take on the student exec positions, which I feel like sometimes can feel like a full-time job, like, hello, you’ve inherited a corporation, like good luck to you.
You’re now overseeing 20 financial accounts and investment accounts and some heavy stuff and without dedication that could be rough. And I think the caring piece for me is always about students have to have places to explore and maybe it’s going to be a little messy. And I think as an advisor in the organization, knowing that a student’s going to come in and want to be able to do a lot of cool stuff and they have limited time, and they’re still students on campus and they might have other roles. So how do we balance that? What time you can give is the time you can give, and how do we continue to challenge the organization to be better? I think the complimentary piece of that is really in NACURH’s mission statement, talks about that NACURH wants to motivate, empower and equip student leaders. And I think those connect so nicely to the links themselves. And the hope of the logo is that it doesn’t have an end, so you can’t see where the links end, and that’s really what people’s involvement often is. Once you’re involved, you can never leave. That’s maybe where I’m at.

Crystal Lay:
Well, unlike the links, we are coming to the end of our time. And if folks wanted to learn more about NACURH, where would they start? Are there resources that you all would recommend?

Jamie Lloyd:
Yeah. I can do the NACURH level. I think if a campus is trying to restart an org or re-envision an organization, or doesn’t know who to contact because of your geographic location, there’s two great resources, the NACURH websites, NACURH.org, and that can get you connected to the right people. The NACURH level folks, including myself, I can make sure to include emails in the show notes for Crystal, and that’s really the level that gets you involved at the broad level and in the door. But Tommy can probably talk a little bit about some of the ground level pieces.

Tommy Newsom II:
Yeah, so I think if you do already know which affiliate you’re a part of, as far as regions go, you can always go to that same NACURH website and then you can search by the different regions that exist. And then each region has all the communication, contact information, things like that. I think from an advisor standpoint, if you’re just wanting to learn more about advising, if you school’s affiliated, there’s some really cool opportunities to do advisor retention training, and so there’s different levels that exist as far as if you’re wanting to do it at the campus level, they might be an art person that’s already trained to do it there.
Otherwise you can also always do it through a variety of different manners, but I think that’s a really important one. For students that are wanting to get more involved, I think really starting with your RHA is a really good place to begin, whether that’s maybe you’re interested now, you want to host a conference with things like that. There’s a lot of different resources that can happen at the regional level because most of those conferences that are hosted are at the regional one. There’s one annual NACURH level, so I think those are just a few other parts, but I sent the links to Crystal as well, so hopefully in the show notes, that makes it pretty easy to be able to pull up afterwards.

Crystal Lay:
And yes, those will go on the show notes. Great resources. You all, this was such a great conversation and professional development moment for myself and hopefully our listeners and viewers as well. Thank you so much Jamie and Tommy for joining me today, and thanks for joining us on this episode of Res Ed Chat. If you have an idea of a topic or person you’ll like us to have on the show, please let us know by reaching out to Roompact. Take care.