The UHP Community Outreach Roundtable is a student-led meeting, attended by students who are active leaders in organizations at the University of Cincinnati. We meet bi-weekly to either lead or listen to presentations on various leadership topics, and take that information to apply to our organizations.
Reflections
Leadership Presentation
I presented at the first roundtable meeting about team building and leadership along with my peer Juan Alvarado. Juan covered the different styles of leadership, discussing Autocratic, Democratic, and Laissez-Faire. After listening to his explanations, I reflected on my own leadership styles and came to the conclusion that I have exhibited all three types of leadership depending on the situation. As Vice President of External Affairs in Kappa Kappa Gamma, I work on many events throughout the year, including fundraisers for the JED Foundation, social events like Sapphire Ball, and small external department meetings. During events like fundraisers and social events, I was a mix between the Laissez-Faire and Democratic leadership styles. Because these events were so large and complex, I had to create the big picture and allow the members in my department to execute the details. For smaller events, I was more hands-on, especially when it came to risk management. In cases of emergencies or last-minute changes, I had to micromanage certain situations if my department was unable to.
After reflecting on this, we moved onto a TED that I watched in preparation for the presentation. I listened to the TED talk titled "Teamwork Reimagined" by Kevin Cahill, which emphasized the importance of "we" thinking. This is a mindset that productive leaders use to create a positive collaborative experience on their team. Organizations need to clearly lay out their mission and ensure that every member is in agreeance with this mission. Some of the benefits of "we" thinking are reduced frustration, a stronger feeling of support, and higher productivity and creativity. Researching this leadership method made me think about my own organization and whether or not we incorporate "we" thinking.
Our executive board in Kappa has over 20 people, so it can be difficult to unite everyone on one single cause. However, I realized that I can utilize this method in my own external department by aligning everyone on the same values. For example, there is a philanthropy coordinator in my department whose job is to solely work on raising money for our philanthropy and encourage service. While the philanthropy coordinator could still lead all of these events, we could incorporate the other members in the department to strategize and work toward a singular goal. I think utilizing the skills of our event coordinator and public relations coordinator to elevate our philanthropy events could help us raise more money for the JED Foundation.
Fundraising Presentation
I also presented at the next roundtable meeting about the different forms of fundraising. I covered the basic types of fundraising, such as year-end campaigns, peer-to-peer, and ongoing online fundraising. It was interesting to see different methods that my organization has not tried. I enjoyed hearing the different methods my peers used in their own organizations as well.
We were also challenged to make a SWOT analysis of our own fundraising methods, which I have found very beneficial for my external department. I have encouraged each member to make their own for their individual position!
Marketing/Engagement Presentation
I read the presentation about marketing and engagement, led by my peers at the roundtable. They presented on the best ways to market your organization and utilize marketing to encourage donations/participations in events. This presentation made me reflect on Kappa Kappa Gamma's methods of marketing and understanding its audience.
To begin, the presentation emphasized the importance of understanding an audience. I took some time to reflect on who Kappa targets its events (which are usually fundraisers) to, and realize that we only communicate to others in the Greek community ay UC. While this has its benefits, because other chapters at UC are often eager to support us, there is lots of untapped potential on campus and other groups we could be marketing to. For example, we could advertise our events such as our annual soccer tournament to intramural leagues on campus. We could also market our hot dog fundraiser to night classes or commuter students as a cheap meal to grab after class. I will encourage my public relations chair to carry out new and more creative ways of reaching out to the UC community, and brainstorm more audiences we could target.
The presentation also discussed recruiting for your organization and how to encourage members to join. This topic is not very flexible to Greek life, because there is a strict process to recruit members that applies to every chapter on campus. Even so, a method we could implement more into our recruitment is to encourage positive mindsets during practice. Being in a sorority requires hours of practice months in advance, and this can come with an overall reluctance and negative attitude from the chapter. Fostering an attitude of positivity during practice leading up to recruitment can help achieve a welcoming environment for potential new members.
Marketing volunteer opportunities/advertising service was also discussed, and I feel like Kappa can do a better job of this. We have raised lots of money for the JED Foundation over the past year through fundraisers, winning Greek Week, and being involved in other events. We rarely advertise what JED is and how we raised that money, and I think doing so would increase engagement for our events and donations.
I also reflected on our social media and content creation. I am proud of Kappa's social media presence and don't see much room for improvement other than emphasizing the importance of JED. We have an established following, are connected with alumni, and have a consistent schedule for posting.
Overall, I think that because Kappa has had consistent ways of marketing for many years, it can be difficult to adapt and target a new market or audience. However, I think constantly reassessing and ensuring we are encouraging the highest engagement as possible will only benefit us in raising money for our philanthropy and increasing attendance for events. This is an exciting opportunity to discuss our methods at executive meetings and brainstorm ways to improve!
Networking Presentation
My peers presented on networking from a professional and personal standpoint, as well as networking for our individual organizations. I was able to reflect on how I've networked so far and how I can improve in the future. There are many opportunities to network on campus by joining organizations or going to career fairs, especially those catered to my major.
The presentation pointed out other opportunities offered by the university through the Student Alumni Council, especially those offered by Senior 100. I'm lucky enough to be honored as a Senior 100, and I'm looking forward to doing service and attending Senior 100 events to network with alumni. The presenters spoke about tips for networking for our organization that I hope to implement into Kappa Kappa Gamma through my position, especially because I am focused on external relations.
To begin, the presentation said to be consistent intentional about how I present our organization to others. To do so, I need to make sure our public relations chair is using similar language throughout every post and being consistent with the values of our chapter. I was also advised to maintain and active online presence, which I feel that Kappa does very well. However, I think we could do better about connecting to people through social media, rather than just following and being followed by other accounts.
On a more personal level, I was encouraged to develop my communication, interpersonal, and public speaking skills. One thing I would like to work on is my self-confidence. I think when entering the professional world, it can be easy to have imposter's syndrome and feel unqualified for a job. I would like to be more confident in what I've learned at UC and be more self-assured during future interviews and job opportunities.
Ethical Engagement and Sustainable Work Presentation
This was the final presentation I experienced in this roundtable and it was the most interesting topic to me, especially given my major. This presentation made me think about Kappa's philanthropy (JED Foundation for Mental Health Awareness), and whether our not our engagement with the foundation is ethical. According to the presentation, toxic charity is helping an organization or cause that you have no connection to and that does not solve a systemic issue. I feel that Kappa could be more connected to the causes supported by JED, but we do activities to promote our own positive mental health. We also give money to a cause that prevents depression and anxiety in young people, so I feel that the cause is more complicated than supporting a single issue.
We also discussed organization sustainability and what that can look like in our chapter. I feel that this topic is very relevant to Kappa, because the executive board is constantly changing and it can be easy for values and traditions to be lost. One thing that my peers encouraged was to promote strong leadership within the chapter, and a desire to lead others. I think that Kappa has fostered this environment successfully, because being on executive board is seen as an accomplishment and an honor, not a requirement. The positions on exec are highly coveted and competitive, so this holds our leaders to high standards.
From a financial standpoint, the presentation emphasized budgeting wisely and diversifying funding sources. All of our funds come from our dues we pay to be apart of the organization, but I think there could be a stronger relationship with alumni to encourage more extra donations.
Final Reflection
Overall, this experience was very rewarding for me. I enjoyed reflecting on my time as a leader in Kappa and strategizing ways to empower and set up the next VP External for success. It can be easy to get overwhelmed with all of the events and responsibilities, but taking this time each week to view my position from a new perspective has made the responsibility less stressful. I also loved hearing about the other roundtable students' experiences in their own organizations and thinking about leadership from a fresh perspective.