Most institutions have chosen to involve parents through some type of advisory group. However, the structure of these groups differ from campus to campus.
If you currently: 1) work with a parent group 2) are creating a parent group, or 3) are interested in restructuring, please provide feedback on the following questions.
1. How do you promote serving on the council/board to parents? How do parents "apply"?
2. How often do you meet and what does the group do throughout the year?
3. How do you balance the board socioeconomically, so ALL parents feel their input is welcome, while also increasing fundraising among parents & families? Basically, is your board primarily based on parent feedback/sharing or development, or both?
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Greetings from WWU -
I made a resolution in Boston that I was going to try and be a better blogger - I confess to being a digital immigrant - and hope the following information is helpful to some.
The Parent Connection group at WWU has been in development since fall 2001. It was a very conscious decision on our part to not position the group as an advisory group or council. In spring 2005 a half-time classified position was secured to coordinate our twice annual family weekends and coordinate the Parent Connection.
Our Parent Connection group has a couple of primary areas of programming - 1. Members receive a monthly e-newsletter with updates about campus life and tips on timely issues related to their students experience and how they can be supportive 2. A series of meetings, hosted by families in their homes, allows us to go to families in their communities; we bring along a campus speaker, answer general questions and enjoy a fun potluck dinner. We have 7-10 of these meetings in winter quarter and summer send-offs 3. Parent Connection members volunteer to contact families new to WWU during the first 6 weeks of fall quarter - a time when parents are adjusting to their student being gone and off to school. A friendly phone call and connection with peers has worked very well.
The nature of our programming and outreach, and lack of a dues paying structure, has not required that we establish a council. As our group is young and there is no history of a council, we have been able to develop a group that encourages involvement without the additional effort of supporting a board.
Best wishes - Anna Carey, WWU
Hello from UNLV!
I began recruiting for our Parents Council in Fall of 2006. We currently have 13 families (23 members)- almost hitting my 30 member goal!
Recruitment
I utilize Student Life and Development staff during Parent Orientation and Family Weekend to find volunteer prospects. We also have a link online to apply, although 75% of the members were recruited.
Group Functions
We meet twice a year, once is during Family Weekend. The spring meeting is during a home basketball game. They have recruitment functions (calling admitted families), planning functions with Family Weekend, and marketing consulting for our publications. I'm hoping to expand into career mentoring this year too.
Development
I was clear from the beginning with advancement staff about the Council's role and focus in development. We do ask them all to make a gift, of any size, and they will be calling to thank parent donors. Development does assist with recruitment, but a good majority of volunteers are tapped for their enthusiasm about the UNLV experience, not their capacity to give. Their focus is the advancement of the university, so development is one prong.
Tracy Clark, UNLV
At SDSU, we created our Aztec Parents Advisory Board approximately 10 years ago. The advisory board serves in an advisory capacity to our Vice President for Student Affairs on student life issues and helps raise awareness about parents as partners and constituents. We were intentional about creating an advisory board (not a governing board)—the parents understand up front that they do not make decisions, rather advise and make recommendations to us.
Recruitment of the board/board member commitments:
The board is made up of about 30 volunteer parents from all over California. We recruit the parents through various events like Parent Orientation, residence hall move-in, New Student and Family Convocation and Family Weekend. We use volunteer forms and staff members to help indentify potential members. Myself, the director for New Student and Parent Programs, associate vice president for Student Affairs, or our development officer for parents depending on who is present) will engage the parents in conversation to see if the board would meet the parents’ interest in terms of volunteering and that the parents would meet our needs as well. We strive to keep our board diverse both in ethnicity and perspectives represented (athletics, Greek, single parents, divorced, freshman, transfer, honors, etc.). This plays a factor when we recruit.
I then have a couple follow-up phone conversations with the parent to further engage them and go into more specific detail regarding board member commitments. Then we select the members. Advisory board members are asked to commit to the following:
--Attend two out of three board meetings per year (traditionally held in October, February and June) where we discuss issues such as: student wellness, alcohol and other drug prevention/intervention, student retention, how technology supports student learning, dining services, public safety etc.
--Volunteer and attend Aztec Parents Association and university events (such as: Explore SDSU: Open House, Parent Orientation, Residence Hall Move-In, New Student and Family Convocation, and Family Weekend)
--Serve on university and/or search committees as requested
--Contribute to the Aztec Parents Fund at the Leadership Level
This past year our February meeting was an all day retreat where we sought input from the board on revamping our parent newsletter, the future direction of our parent development efforts and SDSU Center for Leadership and educated them on other key university issues. Our board serves as Ambassadors for SDSU at our events and in their own communities. There is a development component to our board where we ask them to commit to contributing to the Aztec Parents Fund at the Leadership Level ($2500 and above). In addition, the board advises the vice president for Student Affairs on the allocation of resources for the Aztec Parents Fund. We have now moved to board members hosting development events and helping us more directly in the development efforts.
If anyone would like to talk further email me or call 619-594-1653 or mdubord@mail.sdsu.edu Cheers! Michelle DuBord, San Diego State University
I hope this isn't too intrusive, but I've been trying to see if our web site can benefit the parent-student relationship. Our original target was baby boomers, but we've found some students using it to access some of the more mundane family information, such as insurance, warranty and medical information. Since both parent and student have access to their information with the ability for either to update data and scheduled events a two-way link is created between them. Your thoughts and opinions would be appreciated. web: www.mybrainstation.com, email fred@mybrainstation.com
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