Getting Started

Before investing time in a project, consult your committee director, Exec members, as well as other UA members who have experience working on similar issues. Also, be sure to do thorough research to understand the issue.

• What is the problem? Who is affected? What causes the problem?
• What has been done to solve the problem? Why is it insufficient?
• Why is it worth solving? Why now?
• Why by us? Is this within the scope of the UA?

• What would you like to achieve in the short term? in the long term?
• What are your other objectives?
• What are barometers of success? What is failure?
  • Projects often start off in one way and end up in another - you may not achieve your original goal but succeed in other ways.

This is the time to involve Steering partners, relevant administrators, and other non-students - in that order (see Guides and Guidelines on how to write emails to administrators.) While coming up with potential solutions, you should consider the following questions:

• What are other ways to generate ideas (e.g. discussion paper, committee discussion)?
• Who else is working towards the same objective? How do you collaborate with them?
  • Many times, other student organizations have more efficient channels to handle administrative issues, with greater expertise in certain problem areas. Start with the UA Steering list to figure out which groups would be good to collaborate with.
• What do others do to solve the problem? What can we learn from their experience?
  • Actions by peer institutions are often quite motivating examples to include
• Is it feasible? Sustainable? Cost-effective? Risk-effective? Legal?

• Who are your strategic partners? How do you involve them (e.g. set up a meeting, send a email)?
• What is the appropriate vetting process?
  • Progress Report or Discussion Paper: consensus likely
  • Resolution (debate/vote): consensus unlikely (ask Speaker if unsure), or to establish a service, allocate funding, promote or endorse any non-Penn-affiliated group
• Who should you consult? How? (e.g. survey, beta-testing)
  • See Guides and Guidelines and Doing Research
• What is your action plan? What is the fall-back?

• How are you communicating to the public?
• How do you follow up and ensure that goals have been met?
• How do you institutionalize the project or sustain it in the future?
• Are you satisfied? How can you improve your project?

So... your project “failed,” but wait - it’s not the end!

• Did it fail?
  • Projects are like missiles - they can misfire, but it is rare that nothing can be salvaged. What can we get out of the work that was done?
• Why did it fail? What will you change?
• How can you prevent someone else from doing the same thing?
  • e.g. the perennial quest to instill Dining Dollars in Wawa now completely discouraged by a UA guide to bursar, PennCash, and Dining Dollar$ - Documentation is EXTREMELY important.
• What next? (Return to Stage 3)