Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

My vision for the University of Pittsburgh is for the humanitarian and environmental student organizations to be united, efficient, and effective.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

Problems:
- lack of knowledge of how to maximize meeting, project, campaign, and event effectiveness
- overlap of events
- lack of solidarity among humanitarian and environmental organizations

What institutionalizes the problems:
- lack of sufficient trainings for student organization leaders
- lack of coordination among student organization leaders
- lack of a widely-used student organization events calendar
- lack of a student organization handbook
- lack of people who are designated and well-equipped to advise student organization leaders
- decentralized promotion of student organizations

What communities will you work with?

• Campus community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: Increase the amount of active members in the organizations involved with the HEA
• Forums presenting each organization that are open to the general student body (at which at least 35 students are present)
• A Humanitarian and Environmental Activities Fair
• Events newsletter - sent out and posted as a follow-up to each meeting
• Goal 2: Increase institutional memory
• An activities database
• Meeting minutes - sent out and posted for each meeting
• Organization bios, which document the missions, formats, ages, activities, membership, etc. of HEA organizations
• A website that includes these organization bios, activity logs, upcoming events, and meeting minutes, as well as a forum
• Goal 3: Increase the dedication of humanitarian and environmental activists to their causes, their organizations, and each other
• Meetings at which at least 12 organizations are represented
• Social events for HEA members to which at least 8 people come
• Social events for HEA member organization members, to which at least 35 people come

What is your primary approach? Network and Alliance Building

Why did you choose this approach?

Humanitarian and environmental student organization leaders (including myself) have tremendous passion but often don't have sufficient training to lead, plan projects, and plan events as effectively as is ideal. Assembling the leaders at a meeting and at social events enables them to connect, provide each other with insight, discuss and promote projects, and prevent event overlap. These connections will also enable them to develop friendships, promoting morale and therefore dedication to humanitarian and environmental work. Developing an activities log will enable organizations to reflect upon their histories, increasing their capacities.

Did you have secondary approaches? What are they?

Leadership and Capacity Building

What will your tactics and activities be?

Activities for Forums / Activities Fair:
- holding events at which organization leaders can discuss their organization (organization attendance goal: 10; student attendance goal: 35)
- promoting the events through facebook, flyering, and other forms of advertising
- providing leaders with training beforehand regarding pitching an organization

Activities for Meetings:
- contacting / maintaining contact with student leaders
- planning mini-trainings
- structuring discussion time

Organization Bios
- explaining the mission of bios
- providing a format for bios
- ensuring bios are completed

Activities Log
- explaining the value of the log
- developing the log
- structuring the log
- ensuring log is completed

Events newsletter:
- compile information about upcoming events (sent out with every meeting, meetings usually being bi-weekly)
- coordinate with student leaders

Meeting minutes
- take them
- send them out
- log them

Social events
- brainstorm ideas with the group
- divide up (if relevant) responsibilities
- reserve space
- secure any needed donations
- possibly plan any icebreakers
- invite organization members and the general student body (attendance goal: 35 students)

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

Increasing membership, promoting institutional memory, and encouraging dedication to causes and co-members will strengthen the power, knowledge, wisdom, unity, efficiency, morale, and effectiveness of humanitarian and environmental organizations.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

Skills:
Facilitation
Organizational
Community organizing
Event-planning
Communication
Planning
Strategizing
Social
Research
Technological