Consult/Train

Student Government Retreats
Recommended Time of Year: Within one month of new officers being sworn in; within one month of the start of the fall semester or quarter; within one month of the start of the spring semester or quarter

Whether it’s your newly elected executive board, or the entire senate, it is critical for you to have a training retreat. The SG Consulting Group recommends either the beginning of the academic year or at the end after the election of the new officers.

This strategy allows the body to acclimate with one another and begin to discuss goals and issues in the coming term. During the retreat, your SG’s “corporate culture” usually will start to develop, and that is best facilitated by outsiders.

Student Government “Regroup” Retreats
Recommended Time of Year: Mid-year, Post-Christmas vacation; Post-Spring Break; Mid fall semester

The “regroup” retreat should be a time to set realistic goals for the rest of the year, refocus on goals and plans that reasonably can be accomplished, and develop a plan to be the most effective group possible during the rest of your term of office.

Suggested Content
Retreats usually incorporate the “Student Government Effectiveness Test” and the “Test Your Administrators” quiz, which are tools to assess your strengths and weaknesses as a Student Government and also understand how your administrators view the role of SG on your campus. Realistically, the entire retreat can review these two tools, but we can incorporate other workshops such as “How to Get Publicity for Your SG” and even team-building workshops such as “How to Make Students Care About Your SG,” “50 Tips to Improve Your SG Elections,” “How to Battle Negativity” or “Stomp Out Gossip” and many other workshops.

We will develop an agenda based on your unique and specific needs.

For Executive Officers

• Administration and delegation
• Meeting facilitation and preparation
• Principle-centered leadership and decision-making
• Training and inspiration of others

Legislative Sessions

• Consensus thinking and action
• Meeting management when you’re not the manager
• Parliamentary procedure training
• Educated policy-making

Specialty Training

• Creating an SG from scratch
• Developing a regional alliance between multiple institutions
• SG-image enhancement and public relations
• Improving relations between students and the administration
• Elections analysis

The One Day Site Visit includes these benefits:

• TOTAL OF 9 HOURS OF CONSULTING
• Includes four hours of private consulting during the visit, two hours of pre-visit, two hours of post-visit, and one hour of follow-up
• Three one-hour workshops on subjects of your choice, including all handouts and materials
• Detailed written Consultant Report with recommendations based on in-person, phone, and e-mail interviews with key administrators and student leaders, and research conducted on your behalf

The Two Day Site Visit includes these benefits:

• TOTAL OF 13 HOURS OF CONSULTING
• Includes eight hours of private consulting, two hours of pre-visit, two hours of post-visit, and one-hour of follow-up
• Five one-hour workshops on the subjects of your choice
• Detailed written Consultant Report with recommendations based on in-person, phone, and e-mail interviews with student leaders and administrators and research conducted on your behalf.

One-Day Phone Consultation
The One-Day Phone Consultation includes all services from the One-Day Site Visit, excluding workshops.

Two-Day Phone Consultation
The Two-Day Phone Consultation includes all services from the Two-Day Site Visit, excluding workshops.

If you need additional consulting time, ASGA charges by the hour for the Consultant’s time.

Non-ASGA Members
Student Governments, their officers, and advisors that are not currently members of ASGA also may receive consulting advice by phone on an hourly basis.

As part of an on-site visit, the Consultant will observe one of your regular SG meetings, videotaping it to be able to review carefully and take detailed notes. Based on accepted meeting practices within Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised, the Consultant will review the meeting video and meeting notes and will prepare a briefing for organization members and leadership.

Finally, the Consultant will offer a workshop or coaching session to help improve the effectiveness of future meetings.

Review & Recommendation
The basic level of service is a review of the SG’s current document and a list of recommendations for improvement. The review consists of a line-by-line reading of the document. Using the Review features of MS Word, the consultant adds comments directly to the document, identifying concerns and raising questions. The recommendations are based upon models of good practice outlined in the most current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised. These include: the enumeration of duties of members and officers, the allocation of power between constituent groups comprising the SG (e.g. branches, boards, committees, officers); the process of member and officer selection; the appropriateness of disciplinary processes, and the method of amending documents. Additionally, the consultant will offer recommendations on the order and number of sections within the document, the method of indexing all parts of the document, and appropriate words and phrases that improve the clarity of the document. As the document dictates the structure of the SG itself, the consultant might also offer recommendations on significant changes to the manner in which the SG is arranged in order to improve its efficiency and service to the student body.

Organizations selecting this service receive a MS Word copy of their document with consultant comments (usually 75 to 150) in the margins, and a formal list of recommendations, mutually 5 to 10 pages in length. Organizations are given 30 days in which to clarify the comments of the consultant or may choose to request an additional level of service – a review.

Rewrite
There are times when the constitution or bylaws of an SG are so contradictory and confusing that it appears impossible to correct the problems. In other cases, the task of improving the document would benefit from assistance by a consultant who stands objectively outside the culture of the organization. For organizations looking to get a fresh start with their documents, ASGA offers a complete document rewrite service. At this level, the consultant reviews the current document, offering in-document comments to help the organization see some of the existing problems. This is usually followed by conversations with representatives from the SG and other members of the institution. With this input, the consultant develops a first draft of a new document. The draft is shared with the organization, comments and suggestions are gathered, and a second draft is developed. The process is repeated and, if necessary, a third draft will be offered. The organization has three months to work with the consultant on the process. When a new document is complete, the consultant can also offer suggestions on the process of adopting the new document.