Q: Ray,
In your role, you work closely with the national officers. How do you work with them to ensure they can fit their OA travel into their full time student schedules?
A:
I believe this is an important question for every adviser who works with a youth member. Helping the officers to balance all of their responsibilities as an officer and a full-time student is not always the easiest task. We set clear expectations for each section chief to understand the duties of the national officers prior to running for election. Once the officers are elected we encourage them to keep open lines of communication with their families, professors and advisers. This helps all parties to stay informed.
As a matter of standard practice, I also reach out to school officials and to the professors or teachers of each national chief and vice chief, writing as many as a dozen letters each semester so that the officer’s election and duties are understood by their institutions and to encourage as much flexibility in their scheduling as would be fair to the other students. We have found that as long as we communicate clearly what their role is all about most professors have been very supportive of our officers.
Ray