I’ve
been on the executive board of an RSO on campus since my sophomore year. There
are 10 spots on the board, and each academic year people apply for specific
roles on the board. Because students who have been on the board before
generally apply for higher positions than they held the previous year, there
are new students coming into each role every year. While the returning board
members are always willing to offer advice to new board members, the change
incurs a sort of transaction cost on a yearly basis – the cost of the time and
resources spent getting up to speed on the requirements of the new positions,
and for the new board members of just teaching them how the board works on a
basic level. This process improves every year, but there’s still a long way to
go.
The
executive board itself consists of 10 people with defined jobs. In addition to
those defined jobs, each board member is required to attend weekly board
meetings and spend at least 2 hours in our club’s cubicle in the RSO Complex.
Most board members also devote additional time and resources to the RSO through
coming to events, helping other board members with responsibilities, and
sometimes spending their own money to achieve an objective of the organization.
I consider this additional effort to be a transaction cost – it’s a necessary
part of being on the board that doesn’t serve any direct goals or provide any
direct benefits.
I
would argue, though, that these additional costs are largely outweighed by the
benefits. As this RSO is a major-specific organization, holding a position on
the executive board is a huge asset on a resume for any internship or full time
job in the field. And if a board member builds a reputation for helping others
and making sure that things run smoothly even if they have to make a personal
sacrifice to do it, other board members will develop a respect for the person
and be more willing to help them with whatever they’re working on. The general members
develop respect for board members as well, which is powerful networking that
can help later down the line. Our profession is very small, so developing a
good reputation early is incredibly useful.
I'm glad you brought up the credential building as at least of the reason for serving in the RSO's leadership. Other people who have written on the topic hadn't talked about it, so it is good that you did.
ReplyDeleteI wondered why you didn't mention the particular field. Is it Economics? Or something else? In either case, it might have helped to discuss further how the RSO membership complements or competes with course work in the area.
The since you described the Executive Board, it might have helped to explain why 10 members make sense. Might fewer member work better? Or would an even further expanded membership be more functional? Since we are interested in structural questions, your answers on this would be useful.
As students do graduate and new students join the RSO, and overlapping generations approach to leadership is necessary. But it is not necessary that there are 3 seniors, 3 juniors and 3 sophomores. It could be that a group of sophomores take over leadership mid year from an exiting group of seniors and that pattern repeats two years hence. It would be good to know why one pattern is better than another.
I didn't mention the field for the sake of anonymity, but it's Actuarial Science. I hadn't thought of discussing the RSO as a complement to or competitor with the course work, although to me it's really both. It's a complement because the course work teaches what future actuaries will need for actuarial exams, while the club teaches soft skills needed on the job as well as helps make connections with future employers. It's a competitor because time spent at club events is time that students could spend studying for exams. It's an interesting trade off, although we generally find that students who spend more time at club events are generally much better off when they go to look for full-time employment.
DeleteThere are 10 positions at present because of past precedent, but we have been revisiting this recently. Next year our needs are going to be shifting from what they've been historically because we'll be responsible for organizing a new conference and we won't be responsible for handling a different one. We're also looking for a way to fill in the gap between the board members and the general membership. We'll discuss next year's changed positions as board elections draw closer. Our solution to the other problem for this year has been to create a committee that acts as an option for mid-level administrative involvement - the committee isn't part of the board, but they're more involved with the club than the general members. This was also a tie-in with the next point you made: the efficiency of board member succession year to year.
We don't currently have a system to ensure that the "right" allocation of students from each academic year is put on board. Half of the positions are selected through interviews and half are chosen through elections, and as such the distribution is usually somewhat random (but skewed toward upperclassmen). This year in particular, however, we discovered that there would only be one rising senior that could apply to be on the board next year, and usually we like to have experienced board members in at least the President & Vice President positions, if not in more positions as well. That's the other part of why we created the committee - so that we would have members with some administrative experience who could run for those positions.
This is a very interesting blog post because I have always been interested in joining an RSO, but I have never taken the initiative to do so. This was very insightful in how an RSO functions in a college setting. It seems as if the transaction costs for developing and incorporating new members into your organization is unavoidable. This is applicable to any sort of position such as a job where training is required in order for the individual to perform at a level that is required by the organization. Congratulations on your involvement in this RSO. It seems as if it would be very beneficial for finding a job especially if is related to your major.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, congratulations on being apart of the Executive Board. It seems very time consuming and like a great accomplishment. I think it was great that you mentioned the transactional costs associated with having to change board members on a yearly basis. The transactional costs with this RSO are lower than a lot of other RSO's on campus, however. This is because there are a lot of organizations on campus who have different board members every semester, more positions to take into consideration, or more training. I do agree that these costs are outweighed by the benefits. It not only helps an individual better their resume and increase the chances of doing well in an interview, but it also helps the RSO if the members apart of this organization are doing other things, such as internships. These internships can teach students new skill sets, best practices, etc. that they can bring into their organization to help the efficiency of it. I think that being apart of an RSO on campus and having a leadership role is crucial to having a successful college career.
ReplyDelete