NACA stands for the National Association of Campus Activities and is a professional association for professional staff and students who are involved in campus activities (i.e. what this blog is about). I took five students to the regional "Mid-America" conference this past weekend and I have to tell you: this ain't your momma's conference. This conference is 9 am to midnight, constant action, constant entertainment and constant freebies! Here is the group shot of the students and I:
That's Jacqueline, Desiree, Nich, Shayna, Chuck and myself.
We also met up with a couple of gals from Middletown:
Gillian and Ashley joined us for this picture.
The conference is basically set up into three different parts.
1) Breakout Sessions: This is the learning part. We attended presentations on recruiting members, campus activities on a budget, stress management, working with new constituents, social media, etc. And we learned a LOT. We make it a policy for everyone to create a summary of what we learned to take back to the group, so we can hopefully implement some of these ideas.
2) Showcases: These are like humongous concerts / comedian shows / speakers / etc. Various performers have 15 minutes each to dazzle the audience, and then hopefully the audience (all of whom works in campus activities at various colleges) will want to bring the performer back to campus for the whole student body. We saw some amazing bands, hilarious comedians, and really touching speakers! Here is one of the shows:
3) Campus Marketplace: Here is the opportunity for various vendors and agencies to wow us with their cool program ideas from airbrush winter hats to dancing head videos to Hawaiian smoothies and more. It's usually a student favorite, and this year was no exception. We walked away with teddy bears with our face on it, key chains with our pictures, and SO MUCH MORE! Again, the idea is for us to learn as much as we can about these programs so that we can bring them back to our own campus. One of the programs was all about bringing unique animals to campus. Here's Chuck, with Mindy the monkey:
So NACA was great, but exhausting. Speaking of exhausting: tomorrow is CASINO NIGHT!
Casino Night is our very biggest program of the year. We bring in an outside company that has all kinds of poker and other game tables AND the dealers AND a DJ. We have amazing prizes ranging from a color printer to a webcam to a digital camcorder to DVD player and more. This event is SERIOUS. Tomorrow night (Thursday, November 17, 2011), 7 pm to 9:30 pm, Schwarm Commons. Here are a few pics from last year, so you know what to expect:
Best part? It's FREE. Every participant gets $50,000 in chips (ahem. It's not real. Come on, people.) and can gamble however they want. Then you can turn in your chips for raffle tickets (1 ticket for every $10,000 in chips). So actually, you could just come, get five raffle tickets, and enjoy the free food and DJ for the rest of the night without having to gamble at all. But the idea is, the better you do gambling, the more opportunities you have to win a prize.
And the prizes are set up so that you get to choose which prizes you'd like to try to win. Genius!
Last but not least, I want to tell you about an upcoming "Make & Take" event (see previous examples Toilet Paper Art and Dry Erase Boards). This month, we are making "Button Monograms." A monogram is basically your initial - first name or last name. It's great for newly married people, babies, and college students!
Here are a few of our inspiration pictures:
That's a pad of scrapbook paper in the back, a hot glue gun, buttons, and scissors. She freehand drew a large "E" on an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of black cardstock, and then started going to town with hot gluing buttons. She chose fun shades of pink and some shiny jewels to accent.
Slap a frame on that sucker and you're good to go! Isn't it cute?!? We'll be doing this event on Monday, November 21, 2011 from 12:30 pm to 2 pm in Schwarm Commons. Stop by and make yourself one for free!
