Passive Leadership Programs

The idea behind a passive program is that you find information on a subject or possibly present objects that could be easily figured out or interpreted, which could educate people through a single sighting or multiple sightings. For example if you want to do a passive program on healthy eating, you might put together a bulliton board with a variety of definitions regarding specific terms related to healthy eating (i.e. Trans Fats, Fiber, Calories etc.) with information on healty excercise, a food pyramid, and maybe some Q & A or other expert advice.


Here are some quick ideas for Passive Leadership programs:

1. Daily or Weekly Leadership Quotes.

2. A bulliton board with a variety of different leaders and their biographies. Look to do a variety of leaders and consider including Government leaders, Christian leaders, leaders that are visible Minorities, Recent leaders, Past leaders etc.

3. Read a book on leadership and write a summary of the book and include any numberical lists that might be interesting to read (i.e. John Maxwell's 21 Inrefutable Laws of Leadership or Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.)

4. Put together a blank bulliton board with cut out letters that for your residents to write their favorite leadership quotes, or even who they look to as leaders.

5. Create a list of Bible verses that have to do with leadership or could be used to help become a strong leader. Print off this list and post it for people to see (rooms, apartments, bathrooms, or halls).

6. Create a cut out of a person's body and point lines to the various parts of the body that could help describe leadership qualities. Then on 3X5 cards write about these metaphic qualities (i.e. knees for constant prayer, feet for walking away from temptation, head for growing intellectually and making good choices etc.).

7. Search on the internet or talk with faculty and staff to find out their favorite books on leadership. Then you can either create a book list (say who recommended each book), consider finding out the Library's LOC number to include on this list to make it easier to find.

I hope this helps you think of how to present one of these ideas or maybe think of another thought. Remember if you have seen something or have thought of an idea that you would like to share, please reply.

Leadership Reduced // God is Green

FROM: Travis Keller

Leadership is very complex. I have read several books on leadership along with attending conferences that include "leadership" break-out sessions. It is intriguing to read and hear all the different perspectives and ideas that surround the buzz-word topic. I have discovered that my own leadership is flawed if I do not experientially demonstrate any concept or behavior that I wish to communicate.

I have been accused lately of being a "tree-hugging-hippie" because I am a non-violent activist who has taken up reducing, reusing, and recycling. Sarah, Kyla, and I have bins in our kitchen area for the recycling of plastic, metal, cardboard, and paper. When a bin fills up I take the materials to the Knox County Recycling Center on Columbus Road. I hope my attempt to "live green" leads others to do the same.

As lovers of creation, the staff of Oakwood Hall is planning to initiate a large recycling campaign. Many automobile manufacturers and social organizations encourage people to "Live Green" by reducing oil usage and automobile emissions along with caring for streams, lakes, and rivers and preserving the natural habitat of creatures. I would contend that followers of Jesus should follow the lead of said associations not as conforming citizens but as worshipers of our Creator. God is green. He has entrusted humanity to care for ourselves and the rest of creation. We are to control our consumption and reuse our resources as stewards of Creation and as leaders.

May we reduce leading others to our own demonstration.
Live Green.

Leadership Programming

Reslife Staff,

Last year our new programming model had a great start with many of our RAs planning and presenting a number of great programs. Next year should be an even better year for our programming plans, we want to learn from this past year to help in our planning and training.

One of the areas where our staff members had a tough time was choosing and presenting a 'Leadership' program. We are committed to developing Leaders and teaching Leadership, so next year instead of eliminating Leadership from our programming model, we want to develop a greater understanding of Leadership and how to plan for these events next year. So over the next month, I would like to talk about Leadership programming to get each of you thinking about all of you programs next year.

This week I would like to talk about "Responsible Citizenship".



Believe it or not Responsible Citizenship can be a great area to look for Leadership subjects. Here are just a few ideas to consider or to spark new ideas for programming for Leadership or other programming areas:

1. Getting involved in Student Government or the Student Newspaper to benefit MVNU and MVNU students.
2. Living a life of integrity by speaking honestly, not gossiping, or not cheating.
3. Not wasting or taking Cafeteria food (Ask Todd how much this cost Pioneer and eventually students).
4. Impacting people through volunteering.
5. Learning to use a schedule or day planner (Talk to Academic Support for help).
6. Responsible use of electricity on campus (how does this impact costs).
7. How can MVNU students become mentors (Youth ministries, Big Brothers/Sisters etc.).
8. How to be a successful student by being a respectful student (let me know if you want to talk about this one).
9. Good stewardship and fiscal responsibility for college students.
10. How college students can reduce, reuse and recycle at MVNU and in Mt. Vernon.

Please respond with ideas of you own, especially if you have ideas regarding number ten. Enjoy the rest of you summer and check back soon.

Extreme Makeover: Resumé Edition

Yesterday I worked with my brother on his resumé. After a couple of hours of updates and editing I think that we were both pretty happy with the end result. This process gave me the idea for a great program for College Students who are beginning to look at their career search with resumé preparation.

There are a variety of ways this could be presented, but I envision having a student or two dig out an old resume and then a person experience with resumé preparation or someone that reviews a lot of resumé would pick it apart and build it up to become more attractive and readable. Along the way the presenter should explain the changes and offer suggestions that might assist the audience.

This could be a fun way to teach resumé preparation with a currently popular theme. The tough part would be finding ways to continue to implement the theme through the program. If you are interested in help with this type of program, talk to Elaine Blair our Director of Career Services.

Room Rush

Every year the most anticipated day for Residence Life, after move in day (and for some when RA positions are announced), is Room Rush.

On April 4th, 2007 we will be holding our annual event where students can sign up in housing groups to be placed in their 2007-2008 housing assignments. Students can sign up in groups of 2, 4 or 6 and they can also indicate housing preferences.

Our staff tallies the number of academic credits for each group and figures out the average credits. Then groups are put in order and are placed into housing, based first on greatest number of credits and then on preferences.

Housing assignments are usually posted within two weeks of Room Rush. Posting day, to the surprise of some students, ends up being more anticipated than Room Rush. This is one day where the campus divides into two groups of people: those that like ResLife, and those that do not.



If you would like more information about Room Rush or Residence Life at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, please call us at 740-392-6868 ext. 4600.

Interviews, interviews, and still more interviews

This week starts our annual interview marathon for next year's RA staff. We will be looking to hire students that will be strong leaders, good students, compassionate Christians, and selfless servants. This is usually a difficult yet enjoyable time. We love meeting new students, talking more personally with current RAs, and looking forward to what the Lord has planned for 2007-2008. We know that there is a lot of need for prayer over the next few weeks, so here are some of our requests:

1. Pray for peace for our candidates. This process can create a lot of nervousness and we know that it can be frustrating for students we have to turn down.

2. Pray that God will give us wisedom.

3. Pray for our collective patience. These four days can be long and monotonous for our staff and by the last day of individual interviews we are not alway at 100%. We want to give each student the attention and fairness that they deserve.

4. Pray that we can put together the best teams that can serve our residents in the best way possible.

Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. We know that this is an important task and we are excited about what is ahead.

Student Video

Here are some of the Cedar guys and a Redwood guy putting their talents to good use: