2013 Teachers’ Assistant Guidebook
“Every year, many, many stupid people graduate from college. And if they can do it, so can you.” - John Green
College! Thank you so much for joining the Teachers’ Assistants team at Young Presidents’ University Rocky Mountain University Graduate Program. We at YPORMUGP understand the commitment and dedicaAon it takes to create truly only-‐in-‐YPORMU events. Throughout its fiEy-‐plus year history, our university’s legacy is based on groundbreaking and award-‐winning events. And those events are completely the result of the efforts of our teaching assistants. Our efforts this year will be driven by three simple ideas: Be completely prepared. Having everything in order, well in advance of your class, allows for errors and makes it easier for our enAre team to operate as close to flawlessly as we can. Keep it simple, stupid. There’s no need to over think your event. It’s the professors that make an event. Create a program that brings out their best. Being the best is o8en underrated. Shoot for blowing your students’ minds. If you miss, you’ll sAll impress the hell out of them.
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Creating Your Class
“The professional world was much more unpleasant than I thought. I was always wishing I could get back that enthusiasm I had when I was doing shows in college.� - Fancis Ford Coppola
Creating Your Class As a university, we are focused on a few key goals for this educaAon year. A few facts, more than 90% of our students have been in school for less than five years. And, while this is fairly normal for a typical university, it’s preTy unusual for a YPO chapter. As such, our chapter has the chance to create our own standards of excellence. Cast a broad net. We barely know each other. Try and create events that will aTract a wide swath of the chapter. Make it easy for people to aTend. Give us opportuniAes to interact with each other. Play big. Embrace risk with your events. Not in every way -‐ we don’t need to use Segways to get from the parking lot to the event, unless we do! -‐ but look for opportuniAes to be creaAve. Surprise your students. Break trail. Try to challenge your students to think and see the world differently. This, aEer all, is the purpose of college. Engage. Being a TA is a serious responsibility. There’s no geZng around it. Embrace the challenge and give the effort your best. Open your heart. Try to nurture meaning and depth at your event. Have fun? Absolutely. Be silly? Probably. Go deep? For sure. Pay it forward. Is there a chance to create a legacy from your event? Can students form a small group to follow up on ideas discussed? Is there a way for the university to give back to the community as a result of what we learn? Be creaAve. 4
Creating Your Class Alexander Graham Bell said, “Before anything else, preparaAon is the key to success.” He was preTy smart, so let’s assume he was right. The following is basic Ameline for each event. There will be other deadlines throughout the year, but these are the key ones to remember. AddiAonally, please see the markeAng checklist later in the book. Completed Four Months in Advance of Your Class • Meet with your team and Dean Frampton to brainstorm your event and make key decisions. • Meet with Moire to hash out the key details. • Confirm your the biggies: venue, professor, caterer. • Create your event schedule, from arrival to departure. • SeTle on a final, approximate budget. • MarkeAng checklist completed. Completed One Month in Advance of Your Class • Meet with Moire to confirm all class details and responsibiliAes. • Professor preparaAon complete. • Final budget. • Venue preparaAon. • Catering menu. • IniAal deposit invoices submiTed. • MarkeAng plan. (All markeAng will be done through a bi-‐weekly newsleTer. Those wishing to do something beyond this should be ready to ship at this point.) • All contracts in place. • MarkeAng checklist completed.
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Creating Your Class Completed One Week in Advance of Class • Small details addressed. Where will name tags go? Where will people sit? How will the AV work? You get it. • First round of invoices submiTed. Day of Class • Knock it out of the park! Get the details right. Five Days A8er Class • Survey sent to membership. • Invoices submiTed. • Pictures posted to the various sites. • Charge no-‐shows $150. Thirty Days A8er Class • All reimbursements submiTed. Any not submiTed by this date will not be repaid except in extraordinary circumstances. • YPO Event Award submiTal completed. • Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.
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Preparing Your Syllabus
“A college education should equip one to entertain three things: a friend, an idea and oneself.� - Thomas Erlich
Creating Your Syllabus Just as success in business is the result of marshaling limited resources to achieve a specific objecAve, so to is the success of a YPO class. Take the Ame to answer the following quesAons. You’ll be asked to bring your answers to your pre-‐class meeAng with the Dean. And, yes, it’s a test. Due by July 1. Define the specific audience for your event. “Everyone” is not an acceptable answer. What three words will students use to describe your incredibly successful event? What is the Atle of your event? Why on earth will that excite anyone? Is your Atle informaAve, exciAng, a liTle bit wiTy? If not, try again. How does your event reflect the College! theme for the year? Is this a trade school class, a liberal arts class, an architecture class? What do you want students to take away from the class? What do you want them to remember? What specific thing do you want them to learn? How can that lesson carry forward from the event? What emoAons do you want students to feel? Inspired, inquisiAve, awed?
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Preparing Your Classroom
“The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think� - Albert Einstein
Preparing Your Classroom SomeAmes a plain old classroom is exactly what is called for. SomeAmes it’s really beauAful outside and class should be held on the quad. Deciding where to host your event is almost as important as who the professor is. The following quesAons all need to be answered. Use the check boxes to make sure you know the answers. Is your venue interesAng and/or unique? Does it properly reflect the vision of your event and the theme of the year? Have you signed a contract with the venue? Are all of the extras wriTen into the contract? Do you understand the Aming of payment? Is the venue central? A central locaAon would be within 20 miles of downtown Denver. Is the venue the right size for the event? Don’t host in an auditorium if you’re going to have fiEeen people at your event. Is catering access sufficient? Do you have to use a specific caterer? Is the lighAng appropriate given the ambiance you want to create for the class? Will the enAre audience be able to see the professor, ask her quesAons? Will you be able to get the temperature right for a large group? Make sure you focus on this ahead of Ame. Does the venue have close, ample parking? If not, are you ready with valet? Triangulates don’t care to walk much when rushing to an event. Is the seaAng close to the professor? We like to give people lots of chances to sit in the front row and few to sit in the back. Did you verify sound quality, reliability and clarity? Ask for a demonstraAon. Did you verify onsite audio/visual folks will be at the event the whole Ame? No? Do! Have you idenAfied possible interrupAons? Road noise, hallways, crazy people are all risks. Do you have all the electrical access you need? What are you going to do if it rains on your gorgeous outdoor dinner? Is there a place people can put an umbrella when they check in?
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Preparing Your Classroom Are there security issues you need to worry about? Have you planned your seaAng? For smaller events, please consider a horseshoe format. For larger events, are you going to assign seats or just let people wing it? Are there enough chairs? Does your decor reflect the College! theme of this year? Will there be centerpieces? Can I see over them, because I hate when I can’t. Do you want a photographer? You probably should. See Dean Frampton for informaAon. Will you play music for your event, show a movie? If so, make sure you know who will manage what, what will play when, and how the heck to make sure that all works before we actually start having cocktails. Is there a welcome table? Where does it go? Is it big enough? Does it look good? Is Moire ready with name tags? Does she have the names of special guests? Only you will know the answer to “who else is coming.” Tell someone. Are you sure you want to tell people where to sit? Have you goTen permission from the Dean and Moire? When is your walk through? About five days in advance sounds preTy good to the Dean. Are you going by for like an hour on the day of the event? Are you geZng there really early? You should.
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Feeding the Kids
“Believe it or not, lots of people change their majors and abandon their dreams just to avoid a couple of math classes in college.� - Danica McKellar
Feeding the Kids Look, people like to eat. And, generally, they like to eat good food. One of the best ways to ensure bad scores is to screw up the food. One of the easiest ways . . . well, you’re preTy smart. You get it. On the other hand, we don’t like to make things easy. Your budget for food should be no more than one third of your overall budget, and a quarter is beTer. Have you selected a caterer? Did you make sure that you have a complete and thorough contract? Did you get a final catering head count? The caterer and Moire need to get this five days in advance of the event to ensure there’s enough food. There’s nothing more easily annoyed than a hungry Triangulate. Did you lie to the caterer about your budget? You should have. Tell them you have less than you do. Does your menu reflect your vision for the event? Who is geZng chairs? You? The caterer? The venue? We’re going to need places to sit. Have you arranged for the caterer to give leE over food to wedontwaste.org? Please do. They will come and pick up the food at the end of the night. Wine and beer maTers. Liquor less so. See if maybe you can BYO. Will the caterer handle A/V needs? If the venue won’t, this is probably a preTy good resource. Make sure the caterer knows that everyone has to wear soE shoes and dress well. Really. Did you ask the caterer to just generally keep the noise down during the professor’s lecture? Have them stop refilling water. Ask them to not clean their bar during the presentaAon. Ask them to stop talking to each other. Did you taste your food ahead of Ame? You should. Plus, it’s a fun event. Did you remember that people have dietary restricAons? BeTer have gluten free and vegetarian opAons.
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It’s a School Day
“College is the best time of your life. When else are your parents going to spend several thousand dollars a year just for you to go to a strange town and get drunk every night?” - David Wood
It’s a School Day Alright, this is it. You’ve aimed high, you’ve goTen into the weeds on the details, you’re ready to party. Since you meet with Moire son month before your event, you already know who is responsible for what. Place YPO signage. Coordinate and pay for parking. Set up a welcome table with name tags. Bring the professor’s thank you giE. Set up the logisAcs for book signing. Check that catering is set up. Verify the seaAng count. Is coat check ready? How simple will it be to get a coat at the end? Make it simple and quick. Check lighAng. Check the sound before the professor arrives. Have the professor run a quick sound check. Make sure they know how to use the computer. Shovel the snow. Check the room temperature. PracAce your opening remarks. Are you ready to have a liTle chapter ice-‐breaker at some point during the class? What chapter business has to be presented? Are those people ready. Are you ready for Q&A? How will the event end? Know this. There’s nothing worse than event that just tails off into the night. Call it done and let people sAck around, if they want. Close the open bar unless you’ve planned on it being open.
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Telling People
“Using Google to find pithy quotes is more a sign of laziness than intelligence.� - Dean Frampton
Telling People We’ll have four tools for markeAng. And, unfortunately, most of them won’t work without you. NewsleKer Dean Frampton is sick of geZng e-‐mails from YPO. StarAng as soon as humanly possible, Moire will begin sending a bi-‐ weekly newsleTer to all of the members. That newsleTer will have informaAon about the next two events, photos from the last event, chapter news and the classifieds. That’s it. Almost no other e-‐mails. Every other Friday. E-‐Mail You get to send two. Two weeks before your event: a current guest list, direcAons and other details, and a bit of markeAng for the event. We’ll include the registraAon link. Two days before your event: preTy much the same thing. App We’ve got the best app in YPO and we’re going to use it. There will be a calendar, there will be reminders. There will be photos. Course Catalog/Facebook We’re prinAng a small, simple, course catalog and facebook. It will have informaAon about each of our members and each of the events, plus some random silliness. Yearbook We’re making one and you’re going to have to help us do it.
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Telling People Here are the things you have to provide to the Dean and Ms. Moire. Course Catalog/Facebook (June) Edit the Dean’s take on your event. Four Months Before the Event A great descripAon of your event. About a paragraph in length. Driving direcAons. Parking informaAon. Final Ame. Final venue. Dress code. One Month in Advance of the Event Menu Completed descripAon for warning e-‐mail and newsleTer. Survey quesAons. The Dean will edit. Five Days A8er Event A wriTen paragraph describing your event. Photos from your event. Thirty Days A8er Event YPO Award ApplicaAon
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