Reach the Students

Last night, my alma mater SHRM chapter at University at Buffalo had their first executive board meeting. They are off to an exciting year. They began finalizing guest speakers, topics and events in August so they are well on their way to a successful semester.

I have a particular fondness for this club, as I acted as Chapter Liaison and President my junior and senior years, respectively.

We had challenges that first year. The last eboard left $0 in the treasury, no keys to the office, no way to access the UB domain club site and ... no members. We had to wing it. We had no local SHRM Chapter Advisor and a faculty advisor who openly took the "hands off" approach. We were 4 HR students, with relatively little HR experience, coursework or leadership guidance. It was hard.

This year, I have decided to dedicate myself to the club and students from a professional perspective. There are a few tricks I've learned over the years and I want to encourage their success.

I'm going to be conducting leadership training for their executive board this year. I have been debating between a Franklin Covey Focus type course or a team building day. They are putting in their hours for this club and I think they should get a few fun perks out of the deal as well.

The assigned UB domain site is not user friendly. They have to rely on connecting with an MIS student who will be available to continously update the site. It doesn't always work out well. Working with them, we will create a user friendly site outside the UB domain, perhaps on a blogging platform, that they can easily update and create an online club community on.

Along with that ... social media training! There are some valuable HR resources out there I wish I would have known about when I was graduating.

Do you want to get involved with local college SHRM chapters? They are all listed on the SHRM website, with their faculty advisor. Most local professional chapters have liaisons that deal with the college chapters, but my best advice would be to contact the faculty professor who is mentoring the group. It will get you quick easy access to them.

The hardest thing to see while at college was the lack of students willing to participate in something that might help shape their future. The lure of a night at the bar, a movie or naps were much too tempting. So what can we do to change this? Get involved. Help them. Provide value. The students are up and off to their first semester .... give them a call!