The fall 2020 semester has definitely been one of the most challenging ones to date — especially if you hold a leadership position in a student organization.
Currently, I am the president of Transfers for Life, Civil Rights Chair of the Black Student Association, SGA Senator for the College of Humanities and Fine Arts and I am also involved with the Black History Matters coalition. This semester, I was involved in all of these organizations, all while working part-time and interning at First Baptist Church in Union City. Needless to say, senior year has been pretty packed, so if anyone can understand how important time management is, it’s me.
For starters, I would like to clarify that I am in no way a professional time manager. I spend hours on TikTok, I religiously scroll on Twitter at various points during the day and I am currently in the middle of several shows, including The Handmaid’s Tale and The Order.
All of this say, I do love being involved at UTM. Building relationships with people and keeping those relationships strong are really important to me. I am able to do so by holding the position that I do and applying for others when I think they might allow me to do do even more efficiently.
This brings me to my first of three points: define your why. It has been of utmost importance to me to make sure, at least once a week, but occasionally a couple times a day, to remember why I have decided to say yes to so many things. My why is that I love to care for people and I enjoy doing it well.
I wanted to start the transfer student organization because I experienced how isolating transferring schools can be. I am passionate about being the Civil Rights Chair because I happen to enjoy being the middleman with the role of delivering information to faculty and administrators can better serve its minority students. I’m a senator in SGA because I enjoy being in the rooms where decisions are being made for students. What are you passionate about? What’s your “why?”
My second point is this: Google Docs is your best friend. If I’m being honest, it was not even until this semester that I became such an avid Google Docs fan. However, with campus being mostly closed in most cases and transfer students being all over the place and involved in multiple things like myself, this was our lifesaver.
In the case of Transfers for Life, I created a working document for transfers who were were interested, already involved in the club or those who were already officers in the club. In it, I created a space for contact info of each officer and member, I color coded “Old News,” “Things I Wanted Responses For,” “Previous Meeting Information” and potential meeting schedules for members and newcomers to be able to find all of what we had planned and discussed in one place. If there was a specific task that I wanted the club’s secretary to get finished, I would leave it under her name and text her to make sure she noted the changes.
If, by chance, I forgot to remind anyone about their tasks, I encouraged everyone to check the doc a few times a week for updates and changes. It was our first time trying the doc, and in many ways, our first time really being a recognized organization on campus because Transfers for Life is so new, but I think it set us up really well for next semester’s possibilities.
My third and final point is: patience. It is of utmost importance to remember that everyone in your organization, members and officers alike, have lives outside of this club. This even applies to the president. One of the most important lessons in leadership involve you knowing when to cut people some slack and when to be firm. This has been the hardest part for me. I am genuinely a pretty scheduled person, but sometimes I forget that other people are not similar to me in this way.
I learned pretty quickly, though, that it’s a really huge deal to delegate tasks to people and then allow them to have their own freedom to accomplish it. Our minds are not all hard-wired to think the same way, so while I may accomplish things in haste, others may take a more relaxed approach, and as long as things are meeting deadlines and getting accomplished, that’s all that matters.
This one isn’t a number, but as you share your heart with those you are serving and leading alongside, it will come naturally: spend time together. Even with COVID, there are plenty of creative ways to get together in small groups and just enjoy each other’s company. Whether it is Bananagrams in groups of three, volunteering for campus events in groups of two or rounding everyone up for a chaotic Zoom game of Kahoot, it really is a must.
Campus has looked different this semester and a lot of things have had to change, but the relevance and essential presence of a good campus organization is most definitely not one of those things.
