Once a gorilla Always a leader JACOB C. MENDEZ Pittsburg State University Regional Communications Coordinator of Technology MACURH 2010-2011
1 TO NCC S,RBD, AND ALL OF MACURH Freshman year seems like a long time ago.that is however when my life began.the day I moved into my new residence hall my freshman year, the first thing I asked my Resident Assistant was when the first Residence Hall Assembly (RHA) meeting was. My first year of involvement with RHA was filled with personal milestones such as being selected to serve as Food/Facilities/Fundraising Committee Chair, chairing a homecoming event, and being named representative of the semester. During the spring semester of my freshman year, I was elected into the position of Vice President / National Communications Coordinator.That year I attended my first conference, No Frills 2008. Finishing up my first term I attended NACURH 2008 at Oklahoma State University. Starting my second year I was elected into the office of President.Throughout this year, I reshaped Pittsburg State s RHA and helped improve the organization as a whole. We were selected as the Student Organization of the Year and won the Homecoming Sweepstakes competition under the leadership of the executive board. This was also a very interesting year. I was a second year executive board member and a first year resident assistant (RA). I found this year to be very challenging, but this was a stepping stone on my way to where I am at today. This year during my second term as President I helped train and transition a brand new executive team. My knowledge of the organization helped make the transition for others fairly easy. During the fall semester I had to step up and fill in the position of NCC as well as President due to a vacancy left in the executive board. I did not look at this as a burden but more as a blessing. I was able to get back to where I started, the NCC boardroom and gain more boardroom experience. Throughout my extensive conference experience and leadership positions within my home RHA, I have gained varied depth and insight into the MACURH organization and am grateful to present you my bid for the Regional Communications Coordinator for Technology. I hope that MACURH will select the best person for this position.thank you for your consideration. Sincerely yours, Jacob Mendez
My Education 2 Pittsburg State University B.S Ed., History and Government Education Anticipated Graduation May 2012 RHA Food/Facilities/Fundraising Committee Chair: Fall 2007 Collected information regarding residence hall concerns (through voice and email) and write appropriate legislation to address the concerns. Met with the Gibson Dining Hall Manger on a monthly basis to express suggestions and offer concerns. Coordinated the fundraising endeavors of the council. RHA Vice President/ National Communications Coordinator: Spring 2008 Served as the liaison to the Collegio, Kanza, and other appropriate entities. Performed the duties of the National Communications Coordinator (NCC) job description explained in the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH) by-laws. Attended all appropriate conferences. The VP/NCC shall organize all conferences attended by the council. Informed RHA representatives of appropriate events and communications with other residence hall associations. Advised the publicity of RHA and the Publicity Committee. RHA President: Fall 2008- Present Preside over meetings of the legislative body as a non-voting member. Cast the deciding vote if a legislative vote ends in a tie excluding elections or impeachment proceeding. Enforce the constitution. Oversee the concerns of any representative desiring to submit legislation and review all legislation submitted. Have the final say in the interpretation of the constitution according to Robert's Rules of Order. Advise the Recognition Committee of RHA Developing the Gorilla Diverse Experiences as a Gorilla Resident Assistant: Fall 2008 - Present A Resident Assistant (RA) is assigned to each floor or wing. Act as an excellent source of information regarding both personal and college related matters. The RAs are responsible for creating a floor community, providing a variety of social and developmental programming, and enforcing policies and procedures. The RA is a personal liaison between the University community and the residence hall student. Phi Alpha Theta ( History Honor Society): Spring 2009 - Present What made me a Gorilla A professional society whose mission is to promote the study of history through the encouragement of research, good teaching, publication and the exchange of learning and ideas among historians.
The Honors of Being a Gorilla RHA Rep of the Semester- Fall 2007 Recipient of Campus OTM October 2008- Community of the Month NRHH Bronze Pin for Outstanding Leadership- Spring 2008 Homecoming Sweepstakes Winner- Fall 2008 RHA Student Organization of the Year- 2008-2009 RHA Homecoming King Candidate-Fall 2009 Best Floor Program: Willard Late Night Breakfast- Spring 2010 Phi Alpha Theta Historian- Spring 2010 Commitments as a Gorilla next year 3 Residence Hall Assembly I plan on transitioning to a General Body Member. Resident Assistant I will be an RA on a floor of around 35 male students, where I will guide in creating a community. I will have desk duty once a week. I will also enforce all University Housing policies and procedures. Coursework Committed Gorilla I will be taking around 15 hours of course work in the History department. As Regional Communications Coordinator of Technology, my goals span over the area s of: Website Updates Recognition Communication Presidential Relations Increased Chat Attendance Sustainability
4 Website Updates In order to be effective at the RCC- Technology position, I have taken the step to become fully trained on all aspects of website. I may not have all the qualifications currently, but I have already scheduled training sessions with Pittsburg State s Network Services Coordinator. I have also previously had a course in web page design in which I learned some basics and advanced skills. I also have a new Macbook which will be outfitted with all the website programs upon election of this position. This will be very handy because I will be able to work on the website where ever I am. My major goal for this area are too update the website in a 24-48 hour time span upon whenever new information is attained. The way I plan on implementing this action is by setting aside office hours each week as designated website office hours. This will able me to get the website updated and ready to go. Recognition As RCC-Technology I plan on recognizing all the Presidents affiliated with MACURH. I know what it is like to go to a MACURH Boardroom and not know a single person. The way I plan implementing this is by recognizing two Presidents a month by sending a two RHA Presidents of the Month e-mails. In these e-mails they will include information like major, school, activities, and pictures. I figure if the other Presidents in the region see everyone else and relate to them, they would feel like they know their peers better. Another way I want to recognize the Presidents is by sending an e-mail over the list-serve when each President has a birthday. This is something little that makes a person feel better when they receive it. With sending these e-mails I wish to become more personable with all the Presidents in the region. I also want to start recognizing the Presidents that attend the chats on a normal basis. At the end of each month the Presidents that made it to a majority of that months chats would receive an e-card from me. Communication One of my goals is to have a 24 hour turn around on all e-mails or phone calls. The reason why I chose a 24 hour turn around is because at the end of the day I am a student too. I realize that there are times when I will not be able to access my e-mail, so this is why I plan on scheduling two office hours at least once a day during the school week to sit down and respond to e- mails and any other business that needs to be tended to. I also want to encourage the presidents of the region to interact in various ways rather than the weekly chats. I think this will also be aided by my recognition goal. If the Presidents know each other they will become better friends and interact more outside of business meetings. Presidential Relations In my experience as President I noticed that the Presidents did not interact and relate with each other outside of chats and boardrooms. This is why I would like to have an increased amount of interaction and networking with all the President s of the region. I plan on implementing this goal by utilizing the the Facebook page on a regular basis and by having some spirit s item at conferences to distinguish all the MACURH Presidents. I also plan on making a contact sheet that lists all the Presidents in the region. This contact sheet will have all the President s school, e-mail and a phone number information. This will enable all the President s to contact each other to get ideas or information from each other. Increased Chat Attendance During my time as President the past two years I have noticed that attendance in the regional chats is low on. This is why I would make an effort to increase the chat attendance for this upcoming year. One way I feel that we can improve attendance is by taking care of more business in our chats rather than just talking about how everyone is doing. I feel if the Presidents felt like they needed to be in attendance of the chat they would more likely attend. Finally, I feel that if the Presidents are recognized for attending the chats they would have more incentive to attend on a regular basis. I want to make them feel that their participation is important. Sustainability I like the idea of an award for Commitment to Sustainability. I feel like this will give the region a chance to show all the work they are doing on their home campuses. I am also interested in creating a forum on the MACURH website that is dedicated to sustainability issues. This forum will allow the member schools to talk about what they are doing on their home campuses regarding sustainability issues and programs. This will give all the schools a resource when they are looking to go green. This is hard process, so I would like to aid all the member schools as much as possible. I would eventually like to open this forum to all NACURH and let everyone know what MACURH is doing to show their commitment to sustainability. Recently on my home campus our RHA executive board has taken various efforts to make RHA more sustainable. We have moved to having all our executive board applications online through e-mail, paperless meetings, we also volunteer every semester to go sort through recycled paper at our local recycling center. We also plan on doing all our conference applications online thorough e-mail in the future.
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