Group Management

Feel free to make a copy and use the SALP constitution template while creating your group's constitution. Having a current constitution that has been reviewed and is supported by all current leaders is required by SALP. 

Student organizations should strive for their membership base to be almost all current PSU students.  Student organizations can also have community members, alumni, faculty, and staff participate in events. However, these non-students cannot be voting members or hold leadership positions.  Non-student participation can be restricted at any time.  Please talk with your advisor if you are having challenges with a non-student or student so they can help you troubleshoot how to proceed. SALP requires that student organizations maintain at least an 80% enrolled student membership.  

Student groups should follow their constitution when determining their election process. The policies on elections and voting can be found in the SALP Policy Manual - Student Organization, Leadership, Membership and Participation section. Only PSU students can vote in elections and run for a leadership position. 

Consider creating community agreements with your fellow group leaders at the beginning of the academic year. Community agreements are a set of ground rules created together by group participants (e.g. group leaders) and can be used to create community and inclusivity, group respect, individual and group accountability, and can serve as a guide should conflict arise. They serve as a base from which rich and trusting conversations occur and thus trusting relationships are built. Most importantly, community agreements should be created collaboratively, and be a "living document" which is referred to and revised as needed throughout the year. 

When creating community agreements with your fellow leaders and group members, also consider what the space holds when you have members come and go and when you have guests. Ask yourselves, how to include new members who have not been a part of the original creation of these agreements. Ask yourselves how to embrace guests and hold them accountable to the group’s already agreed upon community agreements. 

Some examples of these agreements may include: 

• Use inclusive and respectful language

• Use "I" rather than "we" statements

• Engaged listening

• Ask WAIT - Why am I /aren't I talking?

• Confidentiality - "What's shared here stays here, what's learned here leaves here" 

• Take care of yourself 

For further support in creating community agreements in your student group, talk to your advisor / coordinator and also watch this community agreement video. 

Conflict management is a critical leadership competency. A common myth is that conflict is inherently bad and should be minimized or avoided altogether. Properly managed conflict, however, can lead to greater innovation, performance, and even improved cohesion within a team—creating an environment for open and honest dialogue. Of course, if it’s not managed properly, conflict can also have the opposite results.

Below is an assessment that you and the rest of your organization can take to assess how folks within the group deal with conflict individually and how as a collective you can leverage each other's styles to manage and resolve conflict.

Working Out Conflict within the Group

Remember that different people have different leadership and communication styles. 

Does the conflict in your group stem from people working and communicating in different ways? Can you come up with some solutions to accommodate different work and communication styles?  

Here are some helpful tools to resolve conflict...

Helpful 

• Active Listening    

• Reflecting and confirming what you have heard  

• Accepting and validating the present emotions   

• “I” statements    

• Ask clarifying questions 

Not Helpful

• Distracted or Selective Hearing

• Saying what you find interesting or contradicts your side

• Ignoring emotions

• “You” statements

• Making assumptions

Contact Advisor for Support

Your group advisor or coordinator has many resources to through conflict and challenging situations.  You can ask them to meet with your group or you could ask them to hold a workshop on Communication or Leadership Dynamics.  

They are here to help!

Effective meetings provide communication and structure for an organization.  Organizations get together to discuss goals and progress toward their goals, to work through problems, to make decisions, to give support to fellow members who need it and just to be together as a whole to share in the fellowship of the organization.

Meetings vary greatly from group to group depending on the number of members, the mission of the organization, and activity level of the group.  Despite the differences in organizations, there are some basic tips to help meetings run more smoothly and keep members coming back.

• Have concrete goals for each meeting. Set an agenda and ask for additions or changes at the beginning of each meeting.

• Make sure all members are aware in advance of the meeting day, time, and place.  You might use mailings, phone calls, postings or e-mail to keep in touch. E-mail the agenda as a reminder.

• Always start meetings on time!  This will prove to the other members that you know how valuable their time is.  You will receive a lot of positive reinforcement for your consideration, as well as help others to be on time.

• Prepare an agenda.  Type the agenda and have enough copies for every member.  This will also keep structure to your meeting.  Here is a skeletal outline of a basic agenda:

  • Attendance

  • Review of last week’s minutes

  • Announcements/Correspondence

  • Executive Board/Committee Reports

  • Old Business

  • New Business

  • Responsibility Sign-Up

  • Comments, Questions, Concerns

  • Time to Socialize

• Have a process for group decision-making that is consistently used.  In a larger group, it would be easier to have a show of hands, while a smaller group may always seek to reach consensus.

• Keep track of the discussion and decisions made at meetings.  Have a secretary or individual be responsible for taking notes at the meetings so minutes can be sent out to members.  It is a good idea to keep a file of minutes for the year to look back on during evaluation time or just for information.  A good format for minutes would be the following:

  • Members Present

  • Members Absent

  • Reports/Updates

  • Progress on Old Business

  • New Business

  • Assignments and Responsibilities

  • Next Meeting (day, time, place)

• Establish group decision making processes

  • Voting models

  • Consensus

  • Decision by authority with or without discussion

• Consider method(s) to distribute meeting minutes to attendees in addition to members not in attendance

• Don't be afraid to change up your meetings either!  Have a guest speaker and/or some light refreshments once in a while.  Conduct fun, new icebreakers at the beginning of meetings (especially early in the year).

Robert's Rules of Order

"Martha's Rules": An Alternative to Robert's Rules of Order

There are many ways that groups and individuals can make decisions. One of the most important factors both for clarity and equity reasons is that the entire group knows how decisions will be made and when individual decisions should become group decisions or when to consult with others in making a decision. When members of the group do not know how decisions are made, it can lead to exclusion and inequity. 

Here are a few resources to help think about various ways of decision-making:

En'owkin: What It Means to Be a Sustainable Community - "A non-adversarial approach to collaborative decisionmaking culminating in true consensus making"

RASCI - for Project Work - Determining who is Responsible, Accountable, Supporting, Consulted, and Informed

SALP has a requirement of at least 3 eligible leaders and at least 5 members at all times. Leadership and membership transition can occur at anytime of year, but is very common during the end of spring quarter. Work with your advisor as you navigate leadership shifts. 

Some considerations: 

• Throughout the year, think about your individual legacy and the legacy of the entire leadership team. 

  • How do you want to be remembered? 

  • What materials will be helpful for future leaders? 

  • Leave the club in a better place than when you started, so that improvements and growth continue after your departure. 

• After elections/appointments, introduce the incoming leaders and your SALP advisors. Ensure that all parties have each other's contact information.

• Have a leader who is a dedicated historian who compiles and retains artifacts for the organization. These artifacts may include photos, event posters, and documentation of programming. 

• Share a repository (e.g. SALP group shared folder, Slack channel, Discord channel) with incoming student leaders. This repository should include historical artifacts, meeting minutes, and log-ins to social media sites. 

• If your group uses a repository or site that is not "owned" by SALP, consider the ownership of that site. Remember to pass on ownership to incoming leaders or your SALP advisor in the interim. Otherwise, there is a likelihood that all of the information and hard work may be lost.