Presidents of Ball State organizations will have the opportunity to better prepare their clubs and provide a useful leadership philosophy.
In conjunction with Student Leadership Development Board, the Office of Student Life is hosting its third annual Student Organization Presidents Retreat.
The two-day program is an all expense paid trip for one representative per student organization. The retreat is not limited to only an organization's president, but any designated member. Due to restraints, the retreat is capped to the first 50 people who register.
The first president's retreat in 2009 was conducted on campus with 25 participants.
"The initial idea was, and this is still the heart of it, to get presidents together to have targeted development," Mitchell Isaacs, associate director of Student Life, said. "The other part was giving the presidents the opportunity to interact with each other and possibly collaborate."
For the second year, the retreat was moved to Winchester, Ind. where participants engaged in activities at Camp Yale. The recreational park is used as an outdoor team-building facility where students participate in team-building and leadership activities.
"Sometimes presenting people with physical challenges isn't always different than presenting people with interpersonal ones — it's all about how you respond," he said.
A large portion of retreat will focus on interaction and collaboration among students.
"It's about giving them a chance to learn more about how to be an intentional president," Isaacs said. "Giving them an opportunity to meet each other and possibly collaborate more and giving them a chance to consult with each other, and learn how to better presidents."
Kayla Stanton, Student Government Association president, said she is looking forward to learning and gaining information from other presidents.
"When you can get a group of people together who are all having problems and work together to solve them, it's better than having one person talk at you and tell you what leadership is," she said.
Surveys were completed after last year's presidents retreat, which Isaacs described as overwhelmingly positive.
"I think the best feedback I have gotten is the number of people who did it last year who want to come back this year," he said. "My feeling is, if people didn't think they were getting something out of it, they wouldn't sign up to do it again."
With two weeks left to register, there is already a waiting list. However, Isaacs encourages interested applicants to register.
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