last blog

This week I was working on my paper until tuesday when I found out that it wasn't due for almost two more weeks. I'm going to try and hammer it out over the weekend so I can work on putting together my presentation next week sometime. I also got some information in the mail from Azusa Pacific University about some of their programs and have been reviewing that. It feels good to be almost done with everything, but i know i still have a long way to go before seeing anything really implemented.

My biggest joy this week was probably finding out that I had another two weeks to get my paper done. The biggest challenge because of that has making myself do much of anything. It seems like all my other classes had things due this week too and it was nice to get some of those things out of the way.

My leadership lesson learned this week is probably that the most important thing may not be the most beneficial thing to do. This class is probably the largest amount of work and the gravity of the work is the greatest, but by doing some of the other things instead I was able to take some of the pressure off myself for the next week.

Question for the week: I don't really have a good one, but since we need to comment on posts, What was the one thing that you took away from your project more than anything else when it comes to leadership?

TJ April 12-16

This past week has been very stressful with everything going on and all my classes wrapping things up. This week Kendra and I spent most of our time on the project working on the paper. Tuesday, I met with Dr. Millard to talk about the next board meeting for [X]change and how my paper was coming along. Our last board meeting of the school year is coming up this next Tuesday. Other than the final board meeting, all our focus will be on the presentation and paper.

Greatest joy: Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!!

Greatest challenge: Finding time to work on the paper will all my other papers, projects, and presentations that are due this week and next.

Question: Anyone else ready for summer with all this warm weather we've had the past few days!? I am.

Kendra April 12-18

This week most of my time was spent working on my final paper. It has actually been kind of cool to re-evaluate our project when we are coming to the end of our part of it, and to see what we have learned and what results we really have to show. I have learned a lot of information even just writing the paper that I never stopped to take the time to think about while working on our project. So its been good to sit down and evaluate the effectiveness of it and how we have really made a change. While sometimes I just think about how long the paper is taking, there have been many times I am writing and it just comes to me that I have learned so much through this experience. My 90 are completed, that makes me feel a little more at ease too, since I was worried just a few weeks ago about getting all my hours. Next week, Tuesday, TJ and I have our last board meeting for this school year! That will be our handing off of the project and board meetings to the Executive Director of [X]change, and I am looking forward to the new ideas that he will bring to the group!

Greatest joy: Being ALMOST done with everything and moving on to graduation!

Greatest challenge: Giving up on our project since I am going to be leaving and not getting to see the progress that they will make with the organization after I am gone.

Leadership lesson: I have definitely learned that sometimes you just have to pass off something that you really care about and have a passion for, and part of leadership is picking the best people to take your place. I think its important to invest in others so that when you leave, there will be someone there to pass the baton on to!

Question: How is everyone’s paper? And how are your presentations coming? (Keep your head up, we are almost done!)

Ben's Final Blog

This week has been a lot less stressful for me when I found out that everything was due in two weeks instead of one. At the beginning of the week I foresaw many late nights working to complete this project. Now I can relax a bit, and span out the time that is needed to complete this project. I have almost completed the rough draft of the proposal. It's coming along very nicely. The more I work on it the more ideas come into view for how to make it better. I hope to have it completely finished by Monday, and then possibly reviewed by Dr. Millard on Tuesday. Once it's reviewed I'm sure that I'll have some revising to do, but I will be closer to the light at the end of the tunnel.

There were two greatest joys for me this week. The first one was hearing that the project isn't due till later. That took off a lot of stress on my part. The second joy was to see the proposal starting to form and take it's shape. The biggest challenge is dealing with senioritis. It's down to the last week, and it's tough to be motivated at times.

The leadership lessen I learned is that sometimes you just have to keep working at projects even when they don't look like they are taking shape. The more you work on them the more they will eventually start to form and take shape.

The question of the week: Is anyone excited to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

Micah's Blog 8

This week has been great! I have not really done much for my project except for presentation preparation. My 90 hours are completed and it is a great victory. The project has been researched, re-researched, talked about, and surveyed. I can only depend on the people in charge to start to make the class work in the coming year. It feels sort of like a challenge because I am not in control but I know it is really a victory that they see the vision and there is a syllabus to follow. The leadership lesson for this week is that when things are not in your control it does not mean the project is going in the wrong direction. Giving up leadership is a big part of leadership.

Question: Is anyone else having to give up their leadership for their project to succeed?

Becky's Last Blog!! (4/11-4/16)

This week I have just been working on my paper trying to remember everything I did this semester. I have had a lot of really busy days and am having a hard time finding time to work on it. But hopefully I can finish it up this weekend. I asked one of my friends if they would be willing to read it and see if everything flows and makes sense so that will be helpful.

One joy this week was getting the paper extended!

One challenge this week was trying to figure out how I am going to make everything fir together in my lit/ review.

A leadership lesson I learned is that I still need to work hard on this project even though it is "done" in my mind. The implementation is done but I still need to evaluate it and write about it so that other people can learn about it. Hopefully my paper will help communicate the vision better.

Question: Who wants this semester to be done??? I DO!!!

TJ April 5-9

This week we had our 3rd board meeting. It went pretty well. That same day I met with the three other student officers to discuss the nonprofit organizations and their biggest needs from the needs assessment we conducted last semester. Kendra and I started working on the paper this week and I feel like we've got a lot done so far. We spend a lot of time taking notes on the articles we found to make it easier to write the lit. review and we've also split up the other sections of the paper to get things done faster.

The greatest joy from this past week was knocking out a few sections of the paper. It's very encouraging for me to get smaller sections done at a time. The greatest challenge from the week would probably be dealing with the lit. review. It's just a pain to have to think about another one.

The leadership lesson I learned this week was that you get much more accomplished when you aren't doing everything yourself. It is very nice to be able to work on the paper with Kendra, we work well together and make better use out of the time we have to work on the paper.

Question: Where are you guys finding the majority of your sources?

Ben's Week April 9

This week was pretty productive. I got started on creating ideas for the portfolio. Like I said in last weeks post, it is good to just get things started. I think that I am going to have solid ideas to present to the Red Cross board when it's all finished. I should have the rough draft done in the next couple of days. The next step is setting up meetings with the president of the board and the staff to present what I am proposing. This next week should be extremely productive for me.

My biggest success would be getting the ball rolling on the proposal. I've been putting it off for awhile so it's good to see it getting started. My biggest challenge is definately being motivated. Seniortis is hitting really hard right now.

The leadership leason that I've learned this week would to be take the baby steps needed to get the ball rolling on projects.

My question for the week is: Is this nice weather making anyone not want to work on there projects?

Becky's Blog 8 (4/2-4/6)

This week I sent out an email to the women who attended the event, asking to meet with us over dinner so we could talk about what to do in the future. Two people showed up and we recruited another helper! I hope that we are able to carry this through to next year. I also met with Megan to talk about how to make this project sustainable. Some ideas were to still consider making this a student organization and to come up with different levels of commitment to the group. We probably will not do as big of an event next year unless more people volunteer to help. We will hopefully have lunch and invite guest speakers and even go to a women in ministry conference next April together.

One challenge this week was trying to get people involved. I send emails and it's hard to get people to respond.

One joy this week was actually getting someone who is willing to take care of all the paper work. It was also exciting to brainstorm ideas for next year. I just hope I have time to follow-up on some of them.

A Leadership lesson this week was that I realized I may not have communicated my vision very well to people. This may be why they are not responding to helping out. I did hear some comments about the event that were not positive, such as some people did not attend because they saw it as some feminist movement. Another lesson was to take help you can get. I was not sure if our new volunteer was adequate or committed to help us lead, but then as we were talking I realized that even if she is not the best leader, Jessica and I could help mentor and empower her and hopefully pass this off before we graduate.

Question: Do you have any ideas on what we can do in the future for this group?

Becky's Blog 7 (3/28-4/1)

This week I met with Dr. Cherry, Prof. Bernius, and Jessica to evaluate the event. It was a great time to reflect and see what went well and what could be improved. Reading the evaluations from the women who attended was a great help. I also emailed Mari Gonlag, the director of The Center for Women in Ministry thanking her and letting her know how the event went. Then I mailed the receipts to her so that we could be reimbursed.

One challenge this week was when I emailed Mari Gonlag. THe agreement in the beginning of this project was that we had $3,000 to spend before this school year is over. We spent about $2,200. So I asked her in the email if this same sort of thing will happen again next year. She said sorry but you can use the $800 that is left over. So now I'm a little annoyed because we could have saved so much more money so that we would have more for next year. So now we have to strategize on how to get money for next year.

One good thing was looking over the evaluations and seeing that we did meet the need and that the women want to do more in the future.

A Leadership lesson I learned was to debrief quickly and accurately. If we put off evaluating we will forget some things and it won't be an accurate evaluation. We must also be honest when evaluating so that we can do better next time.

Question: Do you have any ideas for raising money that does not involve too much fundraising?

Micah's Blog 7

Guess I was a little late on this blog... I have really made headway on my paper and am almost done. As for my project I have not done any work on it this week. I have worked a little on my presentation so I guess my victory is getting things done and my defeat is no headway on the actual project. My leadership lesson this week is that when things are done ahead of time better results of things like papers and presentations are happening. This is something that I have had to do but has really helped the quality of my work.

My question of the week is: Is anyone else seeing the quality of their work improve because they are forcing themselves to spend copious amounts of time on the project?

Aaron week April 5-11

This week was a stressful week for me because of my team project and all the things that needed to be fixed at the last minute. So I probably didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I did get some emails sent out to registrars and professors at other schools to get some more info on classes that they teach or groups that exist at those schools. I've gotten a few back already, which is encouraging.

I've decided that since I don't have a lot of concrete things to show for my project I'm going to try and write a kind of pretend syllabus for a senior seminar course. I might look into getting input from this year's freshmen about what worked well in world changer's and what could be done better/would be worth revisiting in the future. Then we can see how those topics could be incorporated into a senior seminar.

My biggest joy this week is actually getting done with the team project and not having to worry so much about that any more. The challenge has been not having a lot of time to work on anything else. The challenge for next week is going to be finding the time to do my paper and still make progress on the project itself.

Leadership lesson learned: be prepared to change everything

Question: odds of getting paper moved back?

Kendra April 5-11

Well this week we had our 3rd board meeting out of 4 for the semester, so that went pretty well! I am definitely learning new things every time we have a board meeting and I feel like I have gained a lot of personal experience through this part of our project (since that has been the biggest part). We FINALLY finished editing our bylaws this week and we have them in final form! But that was definitely a success for us, since we have been editing them and working on perfecting them all semester with the Board of Directors. (I’ll attach a picture so you all can see at least the first page) The rest of TJ and I’s week was mainly spent on working on our final paper; we didn’t have our weekly meeting with Dr. Millard because of having the board meeting but we will pick up with that next week so we can figure things out for our last board meeting on April 20. We worked on a lot of smaller parts of the paper and also we have started doing the literature review, what a long process! Well, hope everyone else’s papers are going well!

My greatest joy this week was definitely finishing and perfecting the bylaws to their final form.

My greatest challenge this week was probably getting started on the paper, it’s hard for me and TJ to find time to meet and discuss it, but once we got together I feel like we got a lot accomplished for the time we spent. Now the challenge will be finishing it before next Friday…

The leadership lesson I learned this week is not to procrastinate, I feel like if I would have stayed on top of this paper all semester and wrote it in pieces, it wouldn’t be such a daunting task, knowing that it’s due next Friday. I am usually someone who gets things done early, so it’s hard for me not to worry about it, but I will just have to work extra hard to get it done.

Question: How is everyone’s lit review coming along? Are you finding all the sources you need?

Ben's Week of April 2

So I wasn't sure if we were still suppose to post over Easter break. So just to be safe I'm going to go ahead and post one anyways. Sorry about the lateness of it. This past week was a pretty good week for my project. I gained direction in the area of doing my Lit review. I was pretty uncertain about this part of the paper so it was good to get a little better understand of what's going on. I started my paper, and tried to get the ball rolling on that project. I am still struggling with the proposal part of this project. My goal for this week is to have a good rough copy of the proposal itself.

My greatest joy was starting the paper process. I think the hardest part of any assignment is getting the ball rolling. So seeing that project start was a joy. The hardest part was the proposal, and not knowing what to do.

My lesson in leadership that I learned this week was that starting a project helps you gain momentum. I think that sometimes you need to just jump into projects as leaders to get them moving.

Since this post is late, I'm going to not post a question this week.

Aaron's week march 28-April 2

Almost forgot to post with Easter break here. I haven't done a ton with my project this week because I've been busy with other things. I did manage to get the rest of my research on CCCU schools done and sent to Dr. Fry. I'm so happy to be done with that.

I'm really starting to feel the time crunch now, with less than a month of school left and a presentation to do, a paper to write, and the project to try and finish. I hope to get some deeper research done this weekend and try to write up a syllabus or plan for a program next week. I'm not really sure what exactly that will be.

A leadership lesson I learned this week is that sometimes when you're leading change it looks different than you expected and you have to be okay with letting it go where it needs to. That's not really a great way to phrase it but I hope it's understandable.

Biggest joy: endless research ended Biggest challenge: the next few weeks

Question: Are the rest of you feeling the pressure of the end of the semester yet?

Micah's Blog 6

I got this e-mail this week that made my hard work seem worth every bit of it.

This week has been a lot of hard lit. reveiw work and interviewing. I have found that with each stressful day my project grows into something important. It has been a challenge to keep going but with the end in sight I am considering this project more and more a victory. I am hopeful of the long lasting results this class will have and am excited to see how the RA program improves.

My leadership lesson for the week has been the importance of authenticity. Brandon Hill has recognized that I have been diligent in this project. He could not see me do the actual work but he knows from my attitude towards the project that I am being authentic. This makes me feel good about my approach to the project and confident for my presentation.

My question for the week is...how is everybody doing with the literature review?

TJ March 29 - April 4

This week seemed to go by rather fast. I didn't do too much on the project this week. I met with the other student officers on Monday night to go over so possible names for the organization and talk about some other stuff. This week I also met with Kendra to look at the bylaws and the minutes from the meeting. She did an awesome job with those this week.

My greatest challenge of the week was probably just the stress of thinking about the paper for this class ontop of all my other papers. I think Kendra and I both are stressed about this paper and what is expected from it. The greatest joy is finally having a final copy of the bylaws to present to the board.

I can't really think of a leadership lesson that I learned this week.

Question: How many people are more excited about easter break because you can catch up on papers and homework than you are about the actual break?

Kendra March 29-April 4

This week I spent more time working on the bylaws and fixing them up from the last meeting. We got many suggestions on how to improve the bylaws and make them more professional for the organization. On Monday, I worked on getting things ready for my meeting with Dr. Millard on Tuesday. I typed up the minutes of our last meeting so we could get his approval in the meeting. The meeting went well with Dr. Millard and although it was a little longer than usual, we got a lot of stuff done and finished the bylaws up (to I hope the final form). We will have to look at them at our next meeting to have the board members approve them, but I think they have come a long way from when we started them! I also sent out the minutes and bylaws to all the board members via email to look at before the next meeting. On Thursday, I worked on making copies of everything for each board member for our meeting this Tuesday. I hope that we will finally get them approved so that we can move on to something different and actually start our work with the community organizations.

My greatest joy this week was working with Dr. Millard on the bylaws, I feel like we got a lot accomplished this time and I just have to keep reminding myself that every step is a little closer to the end result!

My greatest challenge this week was really more to do with my paper than my project, but I just am feeling overwhelmed and am trying to figure out how to start and I really want to get more than a good grade, but to be able to effectively portray the importance of TJ and I’s project in my paper.

A leadership lesson I learned this week was the importance of really investing in someone else, Dr. Millard does a really good job of this. He doesn’t just take over and tell me what to write in the bylaws, but he explains everything I am doing so that I can understand and use the things I am learning later on.

Question: How is everyone feeling about the things you are learning from your project? Do you feel like you are able to apply leadership principles you have learned in the past? I know I have, even when I am not thinking about it!

TJ March 22-26

Monday, I met with Dr. Millard and Kendra in preparation for the board meeting. Tuesday morning we had our second board meeting which went great. Thursday, I met with Kendra to work on the bylaws and the minutes from the board meeting and with Chris to talk about some different things about the organization. I feel like this week moved along well and I feel like we are on track with the board and board meetings, although I am worried that we might not get as involved with the five main organizations as we wanted to this semester but we will see.

The greatest joy this week was the success of the board meeting. At the meeting, the student staff positions were elected for the next year and Dwight, Chris, Heather, and myself were elected into student staff positions. The greatest challenge was getting e-mails back from people and getting ready for the board meeting at the last minute.

A leadership lesson I learned this week is that being flexible is a good thing. Kendra and I had print-outs for the meeting and had to reprint them several times. We had to do this because people kept e-mailing us things to add to them at the last minute.

Question: Has anyone experienced something totally unexpected in this whole experience? (either good or bad)

Becky's Blog 6 (3/20-3/26)

Well, I forgot to post because I have been taking a break from my project this week. The event went well last saturday and I received a lot of good feedback! They all want to do it again. The schedule ran smoothly and the speakers were great. Everybody loved getting free stuff too. Only 16 showed up which I was disappointed about, but then I remembered that success is not about the numbers but about how much people were impacted; and they were! People said they had some things confirmed in their lives, and the speakers were able to get to know more people because there were less of them. One thing I would like to change next time is making it shorter, because by the third speaker everyone was really tired, but then they asked a TON of questions during the panel discussion so I don't really know, I thought they were a good trio. Basically, getting the event over with was both a challenge and a joy this week. And my leadership lesson was that it's about quality not quantity.

Do you have any ideas of how to make this project lasting? It is lasting in their hearts but hoe can I recreate this event without having the money provided?

Ben's March 26

This week was very productive for me. I finally finished up my research for the board development. I am very pleased to be done looking through the data bases. I had a board meeting week that I attended. I got to talk to the staff for a little bit to gain some more information that I needed for the project. I told them that the development proposal would be ready for the next meeting. I also had a meeting with Megan to help give me some direction in regards to creating the proposal. Overall it was a very productive week.

My greatest joy was finishing up the research. It was a very long process, and it was good to see the project progressing. The biggest challenge is trying to figure out how to professional make a proposal. I'm really sure what direction to take in regards to creating it.

The leadership lesson that I learned was that it's good to see the small steps being created. It's a wise idea to create those short term wins. I think that it really helps to keep motivation up.

I really don't have a good question for everybody this week.

March 22-28

I feel like this week was not as busy as last week, as far as my project, but there was still a lot of stuff to do in other classes and when we had our board meeting. On Monday, TJ and I met with Dr. Millard to go over bylaws and get them perfected (or so we thought) for our board meeting on Tuesday morning. We also went over what we would need to print out for each member of the board the next day, such as the list of names for the organization. So TJ and I worked on that a lot on Monday morning getting everything ready that we would need for our meeting. On Tuesday morning, we had our meeting and it went well, I think. I felt a little more organized than last time, since we had already done one board meeting. Then after the board meeting, TJ and I spent a lot of time going back over the bylaws and correcting them after the meeting, since we had reviewed them at the meeting and had made a lot of changes. Thursday night TJ and I met again to work on finishing corrections to the bylaws and typing up the minutes for the meeting to send to each board member.

My greatest joy this week was probably getting the second board meeting under our belts! It felt good to have one more productive thing with our organization happen!

My greatest challenge this week was working on the bylaws, again. I just feel like it is almost a tedious task, and we don’t seem to be getting anywhere by it. I know that progress is happening, but it seems like it’s taking forever.

A leadership lesson that I learned this week is that change takes so long to come about that I can see why some people give up. But I really have to just keep my eyes on what we are working on and know that it is for a good cause, and change will happen but it is sometimes slow.

Question: Aaron and I were talking earlier this week and I had a thought. Do the rest of you think that this project would be more effective and we would be able to cause more lasting change, if we had a whole school year to work on this project? I just really feel like it would give us more time to really focus on it and implement lasting change!

Aaron's march 22-26

I'm almost done with researching CCCU schools. I've been through 101 out of 109 and I can't wait to finish. Once I'm done, I'll send the second half of my notes to Dr. Brian Fry and start looking deeper into things that he wants to know more about. I think I might try to go in and talk to him about the UNV 480 idea because I'm still really interested in it.

My biggest joy is almost being done with endless hours of browsing through webpages. I can start talking to real people next week. My biggest challenge is finishing strong. As I get close, I've noticed a tendency to want to rush and I've had to slow down and make sure that I do things right to the very end.

A leadership lesson I learned this week is that you can't get sloppy in the end stages. It's tempting to rush through and just get things done, but it won't benefit anyone.

My question this week: Is anyone else feeling that the implementing phase is still far off?

Micah's Blog 5

So this week has been pretty unpreductive. I have tried to set up meetings and everybody is becoming very booked. The end of the year is approaching and no one is very available. I think this week has been a challenge overall because I cannot name a victory. I tried to start my paper but scrapped it because I felt it was not good and decided to wait for Tuesday when we will talk about it. The leadership lesson I learned this week is that even when you're really early you still may have to wait on others. Patience is important.

My question this week is: Has anyone else started their paper or began to think about what they are going to present?

TJ March 15-19

This past week was pretty busy but also pretty good. I didn’t really feel like much was done towards our project but I know Kendra spent a lot of time working on the bylaws. Monday I spent some time working on the bylaws. Tuesday, I had a baseball game which is why I missed class but Kendra and I did have time to meet with Dr. Millard to go over the bylaws and the next board meeting. Thursday, Kendra and I met with Dr. Millard and worked on the bylaws some more. Friday, I finally got a hold of Adam at the Boys and Girls Club to talk to him about the next board meeting. Saturday, I spent even more time working on the bylaws.

The greatest joy this week was definitely getting a hold of Adam and being able to talk to him. Earlier this semester Dwight was my contact with Adam, which made it easy for me but not the best for communicating. I had been able to e-mail Adam and he responded but every time I would go to the Club to talk to him or call the Club he was never there. I was very happy to actually talk to him this week!

The greatest challenge this week was letting Kendra take the reins on the bylaws. My schedule was pretty busy this week so I did not have the time needed to rewrite them. I knew Kendra would do a good job but it was really hard for me to not be involved and not have any control over it.

The lesson I learned this week was to be persistent. When we wrote the bylaws for the last board meeting we knew they weren’t perfect but we didn’t expect to have to change so much and add so much. The bylaws we have now look nothing like our first draft. It was kind of irritating but the product we have now is definitely much better than the first draft.

Question: Being over halfway done with the semester and our projects, are all or your projects where you envisioned them at the beginning of the semester or have things changed a lot?

Ben's March 19

This has been a great week for my project. It's been a week that has kind of refreshed my spirits. The first task that I did was to create a calendar that stated how many hours per day I need to work on the project to get in all my hours. Also on the calendar it shows how much time will be put into class, research, board meetings, the proposal, the presentation preparations, and also the paper. The next task I did was to find more articles on the topics that needed to be researched. I think this is the last set of articles I will need before starting on the proposal. I also started to read and take notes on these articles.

The greatest joy was creating the calendar. It really helps to see what I need to do before this project can be completed. It kind of showed me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The greatest challenge was doing the last bit of finding articles. I'm not a big fan of searching through the databases.

The leadership lesson I learned is that rest is important. I think taking spring break and the next week off have really helped. It's good to take a break, and rest when we need it.

My question for the week is: Does anyone see the light at the end of the tunnel like I have?

Aaron's march 15-19

more of the same this week for me. Just researching what other schools have and what we can do better. Honestly it's getting a little tedious. I got a response back from Dr. Fry on the first half of my research this week. He highlighted some things that he'd like more information on so hopefully I can finish up the second half of the research in this next week or so and get started on that.

My biggest challenge of the week is just continuing to do the tedious work of going through different schools websites and catalogs and taking notes. I've got something like 30 schools left to look at out of 109. My biggest joy would have to be that I'm almost done with that part.

A leadership lesson I've learned this week is that leadership isn't always exciting. For me this week, it's actually been pretty boring.

I honestly can't think of a really good question this week, so I guess I'll ask have any of you experience the feeling of tediousness in your project and how have you dealt with it?

Kendra's March 15-19

This week we spent a lot of time researching and perfecting (well trying) to perfect our bylaws for the firm. I feel like I spent a lot of time just looking at good templates and we also had to come up with job descriptions for each of the officers in order to finish the bylaws. On Tuesday, I felt like I spent all day doing things for the project, but it was a good feeling! We met with Dr. Millard and he kind of gave us a path as to what we should try to accomplish before our next meeting, and it didn’t seem long, but the bylaws were one of the hardest parts. I feel like I just keep working on them, and there is always something to fix, like I am not going anywhere. But I know we are, it just seems like I wish we could be done with the bylaws! Wednesday I spend a little more time going over and proofreading them and spent time compiling a list from online and various sources of what job descriptions should look like or include and the kinds of things that officers of a non-profit organization do. On Thursday, we met with Dr. Millard again and he went over all the bylaws that we had updated thus far, and then made more corrections and adjustments. Then we set an agenda for our next meeting which is going to be Tuesday at 8am! Yikes!

My greatest joy this week was really learning things about non-profits and how they work. I am not really a huge fan of researching, but I actually enjoyed doing it this week. It gave me a chance to really explore different non-profits and how they do things and it helped me to understand and get a better view of what kinds of things the officers do.

My greatest challenge this week was that when we finally finished (or thought we did) the bylaws, then Dr. Millard suggested that we send them to Dr. Starcher to look at and go over before Tuesday. Well, I thought they were done, but he had noticed many things that weren’t exactly right and that we had to go back and fix  However, I was happy to see that we only had a few minor things instead of changing all the bylaws so it shouldn’t take us too terribly long to fix some things.

My leadership lesson for this week is that you have to PERSEVERE! Even when you feel like you just want to give up and be done with a project, you have to push until everything is completely perfect, no matter how long it takes! God has really been teaching me this, as I am a senior and sometimes just find myself lacking motivation for this and everything else relating to school!

Question: Is anyone else starting to feel your senioritis kicking in (even if you’re not a senior) and you can tell in this one and other classes? What are some suggestions you can give me??

Becky's Blog 5 (3/13-3/19)

This week has been CRAZY!! I have had to spend most of my time pulling together all of the last minute details for the event which is TOMORROW! I don't even remember all I have done. I basically had to go shopping for food and prizes. I picked up the books and did last minute printing of the programs, packets, and signs. One thing I found helpful that I wanted to share with all of you was that I needed folders and pens for everyone, and Russ suggested going to the Wesley Seminary and asking them to provide promos for the event. they gave me folders and pens and brochures for the event. Great resource!

The greatest joy this week was seeing everything come together. I am really looking forward to seeing how this event will come out. It was also great to have Jessica back. I found myself not as upset with her when I saw her. I was thankful for God's grace to extend mercy on her. She has been very helpful this week. I missed her organization.

The greatest challenge this week was making sure I have everything we need. Some things I didn't think of until it was too late. For example, I forgot to get the Speaker's checks situated. I didn't realize I needed their address and social security numbers and what not. I felt really dumb when this happened but I had to remember that I'm new to this! I have also been challenged with being really TIRED.

A leadership lesson learned this week is that I finally know what it is like to be a leader: when anything goes wrong it's your fault. This can also be good too, in that if anything goes well you get recognition. Yet, with that I am really trying to learn to be humble too.

Questions: What do you do when somethings goes wrong and it's your fault? I'm not asking for myself, I'm more asking so you stop and ask yourself.

Micah's Blog 4

This week has been a really rewarding week. I have only had one big challange and several big victories. M challange this week is that Brandon Hill was fully booked for meetings so I have to wait. My victories are that Bill looked over the syllabus and really liked it, He said that the class sections and tuition problem is up to someone else, and I am doing a good job. This was so encouraging to me! I have been trying to get the syllabus to look just right and I think I have it. After I meet with Brandon I will know for sure but this is a big victory for this week. I have learned one leadership lesson this week and that is that it is better to meet in person than through email...especially when they never return emails.
I have one question for the rest of the class that is more about curiousity than anything else. Does anyone else think they know what a good class size for LDR for RAs would be? I was thinking 15 to 20 because there would be either 3 groups or 4 groups of 5.

Ben's Down Week

This was a rough week for the project. I had a lot of other tasks that didn't involve my project that I needed to complete. I didn't get to spend any time during the week on the project itself. I did however decided to work on the project this weekend. This weekend I plan to create my final outline to complete the project. I need to assess what I've done, and see what I need to add. I also need to see if there is anymore items I need to research on.

I didn't really have any joys with the project this week since I didn't actually work on it. The biggest struggle was finding the time to actually work on the project itself. I think to solve this I need to work on better time management.

The lesson that I did learn this week was that it is refreshing to take a break from the project at hand. I'm hoping that since I didn't have the time to work on it that I will be refreshed, and ready to really hit it hard this weekend.

The question that I have for this week is how is everybody's implementation phase going?

Becky's Blog 4 (3/7-3/12)

This week I worked on the details for the event. I worked on mailing the cards in campus mail and on emailing the speakers the questions women asked as they registered so they know what to expect. I also tried to keep Jessica accountable for getting the housing situation set up for the speakers and talked to my boss at Baldwin about using some of their materials for the event. Yesterday I met with Dr. Cherry and Russ Gunsalus about the event to ask about details. We talked about the schedule for the day, how we are paying for the stuff before we are reimbursed and about any other things that need to be done before the event. After that meeting I contacted The Firm to help make signs to direct people to Henry West, then I email Nathan Lamb about getting promos for Wesley Seminary since we are handing out packets of information about Women in Ministry we wanted to use their folders. I also talked about my event in class to get people to sign up and I worked with Melissa Fipps to get housing situated since Jessica never got to it. There may be more stuff I did but my head is swimming from all that is done and all that needs to be done.

The greatest joy this week was receiving encouragement from Dr. Smith, the head of the Religion Department. I also loved seeing my sign and hearing from people that it really stands out nicely. It was great to get more women to sign up to. Right now we have 21 signed up; I was hoping for more, but for the first event it may not be too bad.

The greatest challenge was once again, working with Jessica. She never told me she was going to be gone in Iowa all week so I had so much to do on my own. She was also supposed to have housing done before Spring Break but since she didn't the Alumni House became booked. But thankfully, we were able to get them in somewhere else. I feel that this project has been totally on my shoulders and I am beginning to feel the pressure. Hopefully she will help more next week when we really have to work to pull everything together.

A leadership lesson I learned this week is to keep persevering, especially when the end is near. Also, I have learned not to be disappointed because of lack of numbers but to rejoice that that many people are coming to begin with.

Questions: Do you have any suggestions on increasing numbers? Do you think people are not signing up because they have to register a week in advance? What helps you commit to doing something?

Aaron week 4

This week has been really good for me. I was a little low on hours at the beginning of the week, but I've put in 9 so far and I'm up to 46. I hope to have 50 after today. I've really just been working on the same stuff, looking at what other schools offer or require as far as bible or Christianity courses. I've found that a lot of them have spiritual formation courses and senior seminar courses. Most of the time these aren't required for all students, but it's helpful to see that they exist and descriptions of them.

The more I look into things, the more I'm becoming convinced that some type of senior course is the way to go. Coming in, all students take world changers. I don't think anyone really appreciates it at the time; I know that I sure didn't. I heard the term UNV 480 this week, and after talking with Megan I think that might be a direction to pursue. Something that is a lot more discussion based than the freshman class of world changers. Maybe completely throw out the book reading, and treat it as a senior seminar. Talk about some of the same things that are in world changers again. I went to a couple world changers sessions this semester and, during the discussion period on Postmodernism, I felt like I had a ton that I could contribute to the conversation. But there wasn't time for it. I appreciate what we had in world changers a lot more now than I did then. I think that we would all benefit from revisiting those topics in a senior seminar type course and discussing how they fit into our lives as Christians.

My greatest joy this week may very well have been getting so many hours. But I'm also really intrigued by the idea of UNV 480. The greatest struggle for me has been making myself sit down for hours at a time and just research all theses programs that other schools do.

I guess my question this week is how does something like the UNV 480 course I described sound to all of you? Would it be beneficial, knowing what you know now, to revisit how the topics discussed in world changers apply to your life after school?

Micah- Blog 4

This week has been great for the project. I have been writing up the syllabus for the class and starting to get some of the class requirements in mind. I feel like that has been the real victories this week. I have had some draw backs with emailing professors in the leadership department. Some of them are not getting back to me with some vital feedback so I keep resending emails. I am starting to get frustrated in that aspect.

Overall the project is really coming along. There is some structure of the class starting to appear and the feedback I have been getting has been re-enforcing. My work this week has been overwhelming because I have a RA retreat this weekend and we are not aloud to do homework. I find this to be against the policy of the school with RA's that school comes first and it has been angering. I did, however, get in my hours and am happy with the progress thus far.

My question for this week is: Does anyone know a way I can get professors to better respond to emails when I do not have the time to meet with them?

Kendra Project

March 8-12

This week has been a pretty good week for us as far as our project goes! We got to have our first board meeting on Monday, which was very good and let us feel a sense of accomplishment for all our work. I felt like we could have been a little more prepared, but there were several compliments that we received from other members of the board. I feel like for our first time doing a board meeting, however, that we were professional and gave it our best! Then on Tuesday morning we met with Dr. Millard for our weekly meeting and that was good because he was able to debrief us and talk to us a little bit about things that we could have done better and how to improve for the next meeting, but he did say that for our first one, he thought we did a nice job. Then T.J. and I spent about an hour after that typing up the minutes and notes from the board meeting, so that we could send that out to all the board members and they could add anything that we might have missed.

My greatest challenge this week was definitely that we didn’t have enough time to work on preparing for our board meeting, since we were coming right from spring break, we felt a little bit unprepared jumping right into having the board meeting. I think this added to our stress quite a bit since T.J. and I both like to be prepared before and not wait until the last minute to do things.

BUT, my greatest joy was definitely having the first board meeting and getting that behind us, and knowing it was a success. Now I think we know what we need to do for our next one and have a little better idea of how to prepare!

One leadership lesson that I learned this week was that we needed to study more about how board meetings are run and maybe have more information about some different things in our organization so that we can inform the members in our group. I guess this is just something I had to live and learn from, so I will know better next time!

Question: Does anyone have any tips for us as we prepare for our next board meeting? Or any tips at all on bylaws for a board?!

TJ March 8-12

This week was an exciting one for Kendra and I. Monday we finally had our first board meeting! It went very well and I received compliments from several members who were in attendance. There was a couple of things we forgot or could have done better but the good news is we have three more meetings to improve! Tuesday we had our weekly meeting with Dr. Millard where we discussed the board meeting and the goals for the next week and then class after that. Other than that we haven’t done a whole lot this week other than e-mailing the minutes to the board.

The greatest joy this week was definitely having our first board meeting. It was huge relief to get through it and it was awesome to hear we did a good job from people who have had plenty of experience serving on boards.

The greatest challenge this week was probably preparing for the meeting Sunday night and Monday morning. It was pretty stressful and a little nerve-wracking Monday morning.

The leadership lesson I learned this week is how to run a board meeting. We did a good job with the meeting but there was a lot learned we could do better. There will probably be other opportunities in my life to serve on a board, whether that be in a church or for a business or organization, and knowing how a board meeting runs will be very beneficial.

Question: Did anyone have trouble jumping back into your project this week or have trouble thinking about it over spring break?

Ben's Blog 3

This was a very productive week for my project. I finally got an interview in with the Red Cross staff. I gained some very helpful information regarding the topics that I have been conducting research on. They told me some information that will help me in my future progress. It will help me to gain some directions in what I need to research. I also gained information on an idea for implementing the idea to the board of directors.

The greatest joy for me this week was getting the interview with the staff. It is something that I have been needing to do for awhile. It's good to see the baby steps being completed. The greatest challenge was not having the time to work on my project this week. I had a lot of other homework this week, and it was challenging to find the time to work.

The leadership lesson that I learned was that getting first hand sources are very helpful. I think that talking to people is a very valuable resource. As leaders we need to figure out the best ways to tap into information.

I was wondering how your every body's implementation phase is going?

Kendra--Feb. 22-26

February 22-26
This week was a pretty slow week for TJ and I’s project. As all of you know from last week, we had to push back our board meeting because some members could not be there at the time we scheduled. So that meant that we had extra time to work on and plan our meeting and the things that we would need for it. TJ and I talked a little bit on Monday about our project and the small things that we needed to do, such as notify other board members about the change in meeting times. We also talked a little bit after class on Tuesday about steps we would need to take before the next board meeting. With all the other stuff that we both had to work on this week in other classes, we were able to push back working on stuff for our board meeting to the week after spring break.

There weren’t really many challenges this week. But as we have tried to keep coordinating schedules, I am just realizing that it is a lot harder than we thought. Since there are like 7 people or so on the board, we are required to make sure that everyone is there and that is hard to get everyone’s schedules to match up. But I better get used to it!

My greatest joy this week is that we finally get a much needed week off school! YES!

A leadership lesson that I learned this week was that sometimes there are little things you have to take care of before you can achieve the bigger goal in the distance. You never realize all the smaller things that achieve the bigger goal and it can be frustrating if you don’t remember that even doing the small things will help in the end.

Question: Any suggestions for how we would go about finding leadership students who would want to get involved with our project? (We are going to ask our board members for suggestions for students who they think would benefit and excel at something like this.) But anyone have any other suggestions???

HAVE A GREAT SPRING BREAK :)

TJ Feb. 22nd- 26th

This week was a pretty uneventful week for Kendra and I. Monday was the only day Kendra and I met up to talk about the project. Other than that, we didn’t really do much. The board meeting that was supposed to be this week was pushed back to the week after spring break so we just pushed back everything we were working on as well. Personally I didn’t really face any major challenges this week because I did not do much with the project. The greatest joy is definitely the fact that spring break is next week!!

One lesson in leadership I learned this week is that knowledge is power and to empower constituents you need to give the information they need to work effectively. (I learned this today in LDR 420 and it really doesn’t pertain to our project at all but it’s what I learned!)

Question: Is everyone else pumped about spring break? Is anyone going somewhere awesome?

Aaron Week 3

This week I went in to talk with Dr. Brian Fry. He told me that the general education courses are being talked about and also that they haven't been talked changed in a very long time. It's encouraging to see that there are already circles that are looking into what I'm proposing.

What I'm currently working on is continuing to look at what other schools do to help students gain not only head knowledge but the practical skills and tools to deepen their relationship with Christ. I have shifted my focus, however, from the academic side of things to the student life side of things. I've been looking at things such as chapel, residence life, and ministry programs. One interesting one I've found is Anam Cara, a ministry at Anderson University that links upperclassmen, underclassmen, and faculty/staff in one on one mentoring relationships. Anam Cara means soul friend in the Celtic tradition.

My greatest joy this week was finding out that there is already a discussion happening about my cause. The research is largely missing, though, and that is what I'm doing right now. That is also the greatest challenge at the moment.

The leadership lesson I learned this week is to keep my thinking broad. I was being narrow in thinking by only looking at academic courses before. There's a lot of great things outside of classes that can be done too. I'm not sure exactly how it can tie in to creating a new course yet though.

I guess my question for the week is does anyone have an idea for how a mentoring system could possibly work for our campus, or could it?

Becky's Blog 3 (2/20-2/25)

This week has been some more running around. I finally got our advertisement sent to the print shop and our budget done. I also got our books ordered through the bookstore. Now I am just waiting for people to respond to the email that was sent out and register for the event so we know how many are coming. I'm not sure if having them fill our a form is a great idea because I don't think they want to take the time. So if I don't get many more responses I will just ask them to give me their name.

The greatest joy this week was getting the advertisement approved and sent to the print shop. It feels good to cross things off the list. Plus, Dr. Cherry said we are doing a great job pulling things together. The greatest challenge was feeling like I am still doing this on my own. I am trying to come up with ways to get Jessica involved more but it's hard when I could do it in no time. I suppose I wouldn't be as dedicated as I am if this wasn't for a class so her being a volunteer, this makes sense for her to be that way.

A leadership lesson I've thought about a lot lately is making sure everything I'm doing is done out of servant leadership. That I'm thinking about what the people want and not necessarily what I want. Also, using other people's ideas on the team even though I don't necessarily agree. For example, I wasn't too keen on the book Jessica picked out for the event, called Why Not Women, which is a discussion about why women can be leaders in the church. I was looking for more something on how to lead as a woman in ministry. But Cherry seemed to like and it and they both read it so I had to let it go and trust them. Sounds like one of the dysfunctions of a Team, making sure we trust each other.

Question: So I'm thinking I will have enough hours, and I feel maybe Jessica isn't as involved because she feels she doesn't own the project anymore since I have done so much. Should I confront her or try to find a way to include her more? What are your suggestions of how I can motivate her?

Random question: What are you guys doing for Spring Break? I'm going to visit a friend in Tennessee and stopping at Mammoth caves and the Smokey mountains...and I get to add TN to my states I've been to!

Micah's Blog 3

This week I met with Stephanie Santarosa and Ezra Johnson. Both interveiws were very product and almost lasted an hour. This was a victory for me. I brought in a bulleted list of things I was trying to achieve in the class and was looking for some feedback. I got grilled and hammered with questions. It was hard to answer some of them and a lot of them I answered with "I don't know yet." This felt like a loss to me. All together it was a great experience. I learned what I need to work on and what I have done really well. Here is a short list of what I will be working on now that my research seems close to where it should be.

• Are the credits toward the major or minor, toward leadership or elective?
• What would be an incentive for ARDs, RAs to help?
• Class times- Different class sizes, class limit, different sections?
• Can you take the class for a second year? What does that look like?
• Who are the professors, what is their teaching load, how do we balance it?

These questions were the big questions that were thrown at me in the interviews. Although my answers for these questions were not great I left the meetings feeling like I was on the right path. My question for you guys is....is there any bulleted items that you could add to my list of things to look into?

TJ Feb. 15th-19th

Tuesday after class, Kendra and I had our weekly meeting with Dr. Millard. We presented him the progress we had made over the past week. We talked a lot about the first board meetings and tried to nail down an agenda for the meeting. Tuesday evening, Kendra and I headed over to the Boys and Girls Club to try to track down Adam. We had no such luck. It seems very odd that Adam is very rarely at the Boys and Girls Club when the club is open for the kids. Not only was he not at the club, no one even knew where he was. Since Adam was planning on leaving the state on Wednesday, I asked Dwight to try to contact him on this cell phone. I ask Dwight to do this because he has worked with Adam several times and was comfortable calling his cell phone. Wednesday, after my class, I went up to talk to Dr. Starcher and ask him if the date we had planned for the first board meeting would work for him. Unfortunately he had a standing business division meeting scheduled at the same time. Thursday, I talked to Dr. Millard and informed him that we could not get a hold of Adam and Dr. Starcher could not make the scheduled time for the board meeting so we decided to push back the first board meeting until after spring break.

The greatest challenge this week was definitely working out schedules for the first board meeting. Kendra did the majority of the work sitting down with Kelly to work through the Center staffs’ schedules but it was still very frustrating trying to track down Adam and having to go to Dr. Starcher’s office twice to get a hold of him.

My greatest joy this week was getting ready for the final preparations for the board meeting. After our meeting with Dr. Millard on Tuesday I was so excited for the board meeting and it really re energized my spirits for this project. Although the board meeting was pushed back I am still very excited about it and ready to present to the board!

On lesson I learned this week was that you can’t let little things get you down. It would have been pretty easy to get depressed about not being able to get a hold of Adam or especially the board meeting being pushed back but you just have to stay focused on the goal. We shouldn’t focus on the setbacks but stay excited about the goal.

Question: Has anyone else been experiencing major setbacks likes the ones Kendra and I have this week?

Ben's Blog 2

This week I focused on some minor "house keeping" task. I created a excel sheet for my time log. This was very helpful to see how many hours I have banked so far, and to also to track my progress. I also had previously printed out a lot of articles to be read. I finished up reading those articles. Two of them very pretty long and a bit dry, and the other two were shorter in nature. I found some very valuable content in these articles that I think will be helpful to the overall project. I have researched and read quite a few articles now. I plan this weekend to go through those article notes and try to make sense of it all. I feel like I have a lot of loose ends that need to be tied back together.

My greatest joy was getting through all the articles I have researched this far. It was nice to see that I had read that many, and also taken detailed notes. The greatest challenge would be getting through some of the articles. One of the longer articles I read got pretty dry at times, and was very hard to focus on. It feels good at the same time seeing a small step being completed.

This week I learned that is about keeping on when you don't feel like it. It's about taking baby steps to get what you want accomplished. I have been doing better with time management, and this has helped me to be more productive.

For my question of the week I was wondering what has been the best way for research? Do you gain the most out of articles, interviews, or surveys?

Aaron's blog 2

This week I attended a couple sessions of world changers to try and get a feel for the direction they're moving in. Content wise, I didn't see a lot of difference in the lecture portion. For some reason though, it seemed to be more interesting to me than it was freshman year. I'm not sure if that's because I actually find it interesting now or if it's a difference in the way it's being taught. The wednesday portion of world changers is now being held in college church in the great room. It's a little more discussion based than it has been in the past. Following the class on wednesday, I sent Dr. Garner an email with my thoughts on how the class was. I suggested to him that he look into making the discussion part longer, possibly a two hour block, because you just can't get really deep into the issues in the short amount of time that there was. I have not heard anything back from him yet.

Last week, I mentioned that I had talked to Dr. Smith and he had forwarded an email on to the general education committee for me. I still haven't heard anything back from them either so I sent him another email today asking if he had. I'm waiting on that one too.

I have started researching what some other colleges require for religion or theology classes and found that several have something such as a basic christian beliefs or doctrine class or a christian thought class that they require. I may contact some of these other schools and ask more about those classes. I also intend to take a look at what IWU currently requires for all gen eds. and see if maybe there's something that really doesn't need to be in there that could be taken out to add another bible or theology course. That will probably be something to talk to the gen. ed. committee about.

My biggest joy this week was being able to sit in and talk to people about world changers, and to see how it's running. It really looks like they're moving in a good direction with the discussion groups. My biggest challenge has once again been finding things to do. I'm hoping that the gen. ed. committee will get back to me soon because one of things I asked them is to let me know what I can do to help in the process.

The leadership lesson for this week similar to last week's. When you don't have anything else to do, do what you think you might need to do in the future. It's hard for me to know what to do without having a response to my email from the gen. ed. committee. One of the things I thought I might need to do is look into what other schools require and what it might be possible for us to add. So that's what I started to do this week.

My question for this week is "do any of you have any recommendations or someone I should talk to or something I should look into?"

Becky's Blog 2 (2/13-2/19)

This week I did not spend a lot of time on my project due to demands from other classes. Although I did spend some time working on the budget with Jessica and trying to figure out how we are going to have four speakers. We were adding up the cost for our four speakers and were a bit frustrated to see we did not have enough left for books, food, and advertising. We decided that instead of getting everyone a book we would cut it down to only giving the first 25 or so to register a book, and then have them as prizes for drawings too. I am bummed about this but it will all work out.

We did later receive bad news, yet good news in disguise. One of our speakers, Kylee Larson cannot make it to our event now. I really liked talking to her and felt she had a lot to share with us, but if it helps us organize our event and open up our budget more then I guess it's okay. I did write her back and asked if maybe she'd like to write a short letter to us with anything she would like us to know about ministry. I would then email it out as part of our advertising possibly. It would give them a little taste of what will be happening at the event.

I am still waiting on our advertising graphic design but we did get to pick out a logo for our group which we named WoMin (women in ministry). This really made me more excited about forming this group, just knowing we have a name and a logo. You can see a picture of it up top. Hopefully we can start advertising this next week.

One struggle in leadership this week was letting Jessica do the tasks I delegated to her. I just want to get things done, but she is busy as well and has put it off a bit. I am learning to keep others accountable though. But it is still hard because I also need the hours, so when I could be adding hours working on her stuff its hard to sit and wait. But I have restrained and am trusting that I will get the amount of hours I need.

Questions: What do you think of our logo? Do you have any other ideas as to how to include the books? Do you have any suggestions on how to keep delegating but still getting my hours?

February 15th-February 19th

On Monday this week, I had a meeting with Kelly (Dr. Millard’s Secretary), in order to find out the best way to coordinate schedule for our first board meeting. Most of our board members are in the leadership department but Adam (from Boys & Girls club) and Dr. Starcher (Business Division). We had picked Thurs. Feb. 25 (11am-12pm) for our first board meeting date and had everyone scheduled except Adam and Dr. Starcher. Kelly helped us a lot by giving us tips on the easiest way to contact people and coordinate schedules. On Monday evening, I spent about an hour and a half writing up the bylaws of the Leadership Consulting Firm, which was not an easy task, and these will be presented at our first board meeting to our board members for tips and approval. On Tuesday, we had our weekly meeting with Dr. Millard and we presented our bylaws to him and he helped us correct & revise them a little bit with his further knowledge of organizational bylaws. We also went over the things that we will need to include in the first board meeting and spent time talking about our to-do list for our board meeting. Then, on Tuesday evening, TJ and I went to the boys and girls club to talk to Adam about having the meeting on Feb. 25 to make sure that it worked with his schedule. Well he wasn’t there and none of his employees knew where he was at, so we had no luck finding him. Another guy who is helping with our project then called him and he said that date was not going to work for him. Then, TJ talked to Dr. Starcher on Wed. afternoon and he also said that date and time did not work for him to be able to make the meeting. This was disappointing because we really wanted these two people at the meeting, they both have an area of expertise that we did not want to lack in our first meeting. So now our meeting is going to have to be pushed back to the week after Spring Break.

The greatest challenge this week was trying to coordinate everyone’s different schedules to have one time open-at the same time as all the other group members. We did anticipate this being a challenge when we started but not something that we thought would push back the progress of our project. I think that being flexible is a good thing but at the same time, it’s kind of frustrating when you make a lot of plans and then they get pushed back.

My greatest joy this week would have to be putting together the bylaws and then having Dr. Millard be very impressed with our progress on this step of our project process. Since this is something that we both has neither done before, it was nice to know that we had Dr. Millard’s (someone who has experience in this area) approval!

One particular leadership lesson I learned was that sometimes everything doesn’t go exactly the way you pictured it and you have to be flexible and sometimes even re-align your goals and time frame for things. I know that it didn’t ruin our project or anything, so it was just something we had to adjust to.

Question: Does anyone have experiences with board formation or board meetings that they could offer us any advice as we are in the process of planning?

Micah's Blog 2

This week has been very productive for me. I met with Brandon Hill and we had a great talk about where the project is going. He informed me that the class would have to wait until fall training of 2011 because of class approvals and deciding with others about how the class should go. This sounds like bad news but it is good. He went on to say that if we are going to do the class right it should take that long in order to make it happen. He is very excited to meet with others and talk about the project.
My next task is to get together with Stephanie Santarosa, Ezra Johnson, Megan Gilmore, and Dan Poff. In these four meetings I will inform them and get information from them to prepare for my big meeting with these four faculty as well as Brandon Hill and Bill Millard. I e-mailed Bill about getting some materials to better prepare for my talks with these four and he is sending me back some good sources soon. Everything seems to be coming together and this week has been very encouraging for me.

My question of the week is: Does anyone else have prior experience in writing a sylabus or class plan? I need whatever help I can get.

Becky's Blog 1 (2/7-2/12)

This week was so crazy I forgot to post my blog on time! Sorry everybody. At the beginning of this week I wasn't too sure what I needed to do to continue my project. We were basically waiting for speakers to respond and forgot about other details such as advertising and working with the budget. I found this out when I met with Cherry and Bernius. I felt a little naive that I didn't think about these things. But, we were able to sit down and write out a strategy to carry out. It was a little overwhelming at first but once I accomplished a few of our goals I felt better.

The first goal I met was securing our speakers. I never thought to tell them that we would be paying them to come and was wondering why it was taking them so long to respond. So once I sent out another email with all the details I got yeses from them all. Our speakers are going to be Kelli Ward, Carla Sunberg, Kathy Resler, and Kylee Larson. We were originally going to only have three so now we have to figure out how we are going to fit four or if we are going to only keep three. I am not sure if we can afford four either, so that is something we will have to discuss this next week.

A second goal I met was getting someone to do the graphic design for our advertising. I was directed to The Firm, a small room up in Student Development where Art majors, mostly graphic design majors, create designs for free as part of their classes. We will hopefully have a proof by this next friday, which we need soon so we have time to print and advertise!

So my greatest challenges were staying organized, thinking about details, and getting advertising going (I pretty much ran around like a chicken with my head cut off until I got somewhere). My greatest joy was securing the speakers and getting the advertising going. I am excited about this event.

Leadership lessons would have to be making sure I don't lose sight of the vision, and making sure I keep taking steps to actually meet our ultimate goal. I am glad that I have Cherry and Bernius and Jessica to keep me accountable. It is really hard to make sure I am doing all I can by myself. I hope I can break this by the end of my project.

I will end with this question: Do you think it would be more efficient to have three or four speakers? Based on your answer, what would we have to do differently to accommodate that many speakers? (We have from 12pm-5pm and want to eat lunch and have a panel discussion)

February 8th-12th

Monday February 8th – Friday February 12th

As you all know, Tuesday Kendra and I presented our project to the class. Monday and Tuesday morning were spent preparing for that presentation and creating the power point slides. On Wednesday, we met with Victor Vinluan and he agreed to serve on the board of the Leadership Consulting Firm. We also spent some time Wednesday finishing our project life cycle. Thursday, we had our weekly meeting with Dr. Millard. The majority of that meeting was spent going over the project life cycle and talking about a few of the 5 target organizations. After the meeting, Kendra and I worked some more on the project life cycle and talked about the board meeting coming up in a few weeks. Friday, I met with Dr. Starcher briefly after my class to provide him with a few more details about the Leadership Consulting Firm (which he asked for after our first meeting). I provided him with board member expectations, the Consulting Firm Portfolio, the Project Life Cycle and other information regarding the meetings.

The greatest challenge this past week and the week before has probably been the meetings with the possible board members. It was sometimes stressful going into the meetings because I worried about effectively casting the vision of the Consulting Firm. All the meetings went great so I was very pleased with that. The greatest joy has been the excitement for getting this project up and going and the anticipation of the first board meeting.

One lesson I learned this week was through my first meeting with Dr. Starcher. He asked me some questions that I was not necessarily prepared to answer. I went into the meeting expecting him to think this was a cool project and that he would jump on board. I had to go back and gather some more information before meeting with him again. This showed me I need come to meetings fully prepared to answer any questions that may or may not be asked. Doing it right the first time is much more professional and can avoid wasting time.

Question for the class (especially Ben, TJ, and Aaron): Did Kendra and I effectively present the project on Tuesday or were there other things you would have liked to have seen us address with in the 10 presentation? (I wish we would have had more time!)

Ben's Week

This week's work revolved around two things the project proposal presentation and doing more research on the topics. First off the proposal presentation was pretty beneficial to my project. It really helped me to kind of bring some of my ideas together. I had all the idea thought up, but i haven't actually put them all in one place. It kind of helped to give me some direction in what I wanted to do and where I want to go. The research and reading of articles is the other major task I've been doing. I went through and read two articles this week. I also did research in the data bases and found five articles on the topics of nonprofit boards, board development, and team building. I think a lot of my project is about developing a solid proposal. I think that to be well equipped it's going to take a lot of research to grasp the ideas of the best way to go about developing a board of directors.

My greatest joy this week was completing the project proposal presentation. It was good to be able to see that the project is moving along. It is one more step closer to completing this project. I am all about the step by step process that's why it's so nice to see projects being completed. My greatest challenge this week was finding the motivation to get started. I'm not a huge fan of researching and looking around in the data bases. This is a major portion of my project. Getting motivated to do that step is very difficult at times when you already have a lot no your plate.

A leadership lesson that I gained happened while preparing my presentation. I think that it's crucial that leaders know their direction in what they are doing. As I stated earlier before I did my presentation I hadn't really seen where my project was going in a solid format. I think that I learned leaders always need to know what direction they are heading. They also need to take time to reassess their direction to make sure they are heading in the right direction.

My question of the week is about lacking motivation. Is anyone else going though this problem? If so what are you doing to help be more motivated?

Aaron's week 1

I met with Dr. Garner on Monday to talk about how world changer's is running now and whether or not there was anything in that could be added to the curriculum to further the integration of faith and learning or spiritual development of students. He told me that world changers has shifted directions again (as it does pretty much every semester) to look more at different worldviews and how we as Christians should approach them. He also said that a lot of students come in with their parents theology and doctrine and what he's trying to do in World Changers is to spark discussion on those issues. It's more of an emphasis on why we believe than on what we believe. I intend to drop in on a couple classes of world changers in the next week.

On Thursday I met briefly with Dr. Dave Smith, the head of the Religion department. He is completely on board with the idea of having something like a basic theology and doctrine class added as a general requirement. He asked me to send him an email answering two questions. 1. what is lacking in general education now, 2. what should be included. I sent him a response suggesting the inclusion of something like a basic theology and doctrine class with possible some spiritual disciplines studied in there too. He's going to forward my email on to the general education committee and get back to me on what else I can do to assist in the process. It will probably be more research on how other schools do integration of faith and learning or something along those lines. Something interesting he told me was that IWU is currently last on the amount of bible classes that we require among Christian colleges (I don't know who all is on the list).

My greatest joy this week was finding out that world changers is already moving in the direction that I was hoping it would go and that Dr. Smith was completely on board with my idea and it's something that has already been talked a little about. My biggest challenge was finding things to do. I should have more to do next week.

What I've learned about leadership this week is that sometimes you have to make things to do. I emailed Dr. Garner a week ago Monday and when I went in last Monday he told be he got my email and had been intending to respond. I don't know how much longer I would have had to wait for a response from him, but I was able to talk to him that day and he was the one who directed me to Dr. Smith. I just had to give the ball a little push to get it rolling.

Question: What would you guys think about a basic theology and doctrine class as a gen. ed.

Monday February 8th-February 12th

Monday February 8th-February 12th

On Monday & Tuesday of this week T.J. and I worked on our project proposal and created power point slides to keep you all up to date as to how we were going to go about this project. We spent Monday afternoon & Tuesday working on this part of it. On Wednesday, we got the chance to meet with Victor Vinluan from the Enterprise Zone to discuss with him our project and ask him to participate on our board of directors for the Leadership Consulting Firm. After our meeting with Victor I sent him the portfolio that was created last semester to give him more details and background information about the project. We also worked on our project life cycle that Jill Morrison had given to us to help us set goals & reach them successfully for our project. Then Thursday we had our weekly meeting with Dr. Millard and we mainly discussed our project life cycles and some of the organizations. We discussed many of the details of the organizations and different steps & goals that we would have to take based on the project life cycle to start getting involved with the organizations. T.J. and I worked on tweaking our project life cycle, after our meeting with Dr. Millard, and we also spent a little bit of time discussing by-laws of a board of directors. Friday T.J. met with Dr. Starcher after his class to talk with him and provide him more information about being on the board for the Consulting Firm, he then called me and updated me on what information he had given Dr. Starcher since I hadn’t been able to make the meeting.

The greatest challenge for me this week for me has been trying to look into planning board meetings, this has been something that we have been talking about for awhile when trying to get our project together. For me, I have never been in charge, so to speak, of setting up a board meeting & figuring out what kinds of things we need to discuss. We want to make sure that we are using our time effectively as we approach the board meeting, but it has been difficult with TJ and I never having any experience in this area. The greatest joy has definitely been seeing the consulting firm growing as we have been recruiting board members weekly-that’s exciting!

A lesson that I really learned this week is how to talk to people about something that they might not have even heard of, like Victor, we basically had to start from scratch and help him understand what our Leadership Consulting Firm was going to be doing and what our plan was. I never really had thought about this until our meetings that we needed to help people see our vision and to really give them as much information as we can about how we will accomplish our goals. I just learned that we need to have a plan of action when we go into meetings with people and show that we know what we are talking about and be open to their advice and questions as well.

Question: Have any of you met with Jill Morrison to obtain a project life cycle template for your project? ( I was just wondering because this has helped me & TJ out a lot in aligning our goals & helping us take the necessary steps to obtain & accomplish our goals) This is just to keep you on target as you go along, if anyone is interested I’m sure Jill would set up a meeting with you!