Newsletter Articles
April 16, 2013
A Student-Based Team Approach to Prepare for Emergencies
Ryan Rudesill, Interim Coordinator of Intramurals and Sport Clubs
Mo McAlpine, Associate Director
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Editor’s Note: This article is Part 1 of a two part series. Part one focuses on ‘Developing an Emergency Response Team’ while the next issue of the Newsletter will cover ‘Red Shirt Reviews’.
Imagine you are working the front desk at a recreation facility and a student rushes to the counter in a panic, informing you that a participant in a group exercise class has become unresponsive. What do you do? How do your co-workers respond? The broader question: how prepared are you and your staff to deal with this or a similar life-threatening situation?
At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UW-L), this exact scenario happened in the Recreational Eagle Center (REC) when Clare (who has granted permission to use her name) became unresponsive toward the end of an evening kickboxing class. Due to the efficient and courageous actions of student staff members and participants in the class, Clare’s life was saved. The teamwork of these college students with UW-L University Police, EMS, and the medical team at Mayo Clinic Health System was critical to her survival of a sudden cardiac arrest. Most vital was Clare’s relentless fight for her life while surrounded by supportive family and friends. Approximately one month later, she was back on campus attending classes.
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April 16, 2013
A Student-Based Team Approach to Prepare for Emergencies
Ryan Rudesill, Interim Coordinator of Intramurals and Sport Clubs
Mo McAlpine, Associate Director
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
Editor’s Note: This article is Part 2 of the series, focusing on ‘Red Shirt Reviews’. Part one discussed ‘Developing an Emergency Response Team’.
In Part 1 of this series we looked at how to form an effective Emergency Response Team (ERT). The current article will describe the role of the ERT in performing ‘Red Shirt Reviews’ – hands-on, mock situations that simulate emergencies. The purpose at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UW-L) is to create a non-intimidating environment with real life situations for staff members to practice and become comfortable implementing EAP’s.
Steps to implement Red Shirt Reviews
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April 16, 2013
What are you doing about it?
Alison Epperson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Health Ed.
Murray State University
Communication today is an extremely broad topic that can cover a vast array of information dissemination. A majority of our communication today takes the form of person-to-person, email, phone conversations, and texting. While technological advances have certainly created significant benefits via quicker routes of information dissemination, they have certainly not gone without their share of notable shortcomings.
Facebook, Twitter, texting, email. Instant, spontaneous, and silent, these forms of communication are effective in reaching the target audience quickly, but run the risk of unintentionally offending the receiver. All forms of communication implies a certain “tone.” As a result, we’ve resorted to adding smiley faces 🙂 to represent positive communication, and ALL CAPS and bold, to underscore a point, while Italics may be used for sarcasm.
Likewise, responding with a simple “K” often implies anger, disappointment or an end to the conversation. Furthermore, electronic methods of communication can often lead to carelessness, and as a result, we may find ourselves saying things that we would not normally say in person, lends itself to dishonesty, increases spelling and grammar errors.
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February 05, 2013
Christopher Schmoldt
Assistant Director, Sport Clubs
Florida State University
Sport Clubs at Florida State University (FSU) are registered student organizations that have been formed for the purpose of competing and or participating in a particular sport. Each club’s level of competition or activity is unique and is dependent on club leadership. Sport Clubs at FSU are student initiated, student-led and student-managed, providing an opportunity for the development of leadership and other transferable skills, and to contribute to the overall college experience.
Florida State has 45 instructional, recreational, and competitive Sport Clubs for the 2012-2013 school years ranging from Lacrosse to Rugby to Bass Fishing. Sport Clubs at FSU are required to travel or host annual seminars in order to remain an active club within Sport Club Program. This helps to differentiate them from the 600 other organizations on campus. So for example, in the case of Martial Arts groups who may not travel as a group to competitions, they will host a seminar each week with an instructor from their discipline to provide demonstrations to students.
FSU employees 6 student club program assistants who are supervised by a full time professional Sport Club Program Director, who in turn is supervised by the Assistant Director of Intramural Sports and Sport Clubs within the Campus Recreation Department. Due to the number, size and diversity or our Sport Clubs, each club is required to have a minimum of three active officers or leaders of their organization who go through training each year. We require a President, Treasurer, and Safety/Travel Officer while also encouraging the use of a Vice-President, and Secretary.
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February 05, 2013
One strike and you’re out!
David Munro
Director of Athletics
University of New Brunswick
Saint John Campus (UNBSJ)
Athletics Directors can count on the fact that every day presents different and unique challenges in the area of Risk Management. And so it was on this particular day. Nothing out of the ordinary. The only thing pressing was the time frame to get all the games played without delay as visiting teams were travelling 4-5 hrs and not staying overnight.
The varsity soccer teams were scheduled to play at 2:00 PM (women) and 4:00 PM (men) with the football club set for a 6:00 PM start. It was sunny and quite warm for a fall day. The women’s game was therefore very pleasant and the conditions were perfect. Just the kind of scenario we all hoped for when the day began. Even the opposing team was happy with the venue, the changing rooms, the field and the officials.
The women’s game ended on time and the men’s game started at 4:00 PM as scheduled. The temperature was still warm enough that people hadn’t really notice that the clear blue sky was now cloud-covered. Still, all in all, it was nice. As the game moved into the second half, dark, ominous clouds had gathered up a storehouse full of rain waiting to be unleashed just as the weather forecast had predicted. We were hoping that the men’s game would finish before the downpour.
None of us can control the weather, even if we sometimes think we can do so by “wishing” the sun to be present for the entirety of the event. The soccer game would have continued during the rain, as it was being played on an artificial turf field. However, a much bigger issue emerged, one that we weren’t completely ready for. It was supposed to rain but that was going to be the extent of it.
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February 05, 2013
How a Point System Can Assist with Club Compliance
James Wayne, M.S.
Coordinator-Sport Clubs
Illinois State University
Do you have difficulty with Sport Clubs not attending meetings or submitting paperwork by established deadlines? Who doesn’t, right? Whether it is forgetfulness, busyness or complete disregard for the program; some groups just find a way to not get it done.
As part of our Sport Club program assessment and benchmarking project with state, peer and national institutions completed this past spring and summer 2012 at Illinois State University, two of the many new items we completed and implemented this fall were our:
– Points-Based Funding Model
– Compliance Program
The two processes work hand-in-hand to celebrate club successes and reward clubs for compliance with department expectations. We have tried to focus on the carrot…and not just the stick (which is still necessary sometimes)!
The points-based funding model was developed from a format utilized by the University of Central Florida (thank you Catherine Garland). Clubs earn points for submission of documents by established deadlines and attendance at meetings as outlined by our Sport Club Handbook and annual calendar, amongst other items. At the conclusion of the academic year, those “points” are converted to student-fee allocation dollars for the clubs. Two-thirds of our regular season funding budget is allocated based on the points their club has earned in the current year toward their upcoming academic year’s budget. It is a bit of delayed gratification at work, but it encourages our clubs to have strong, committed leadership each and every year. We utilize 10 total categories including club travel, registration, trainings, meetings and club sanctions in which clubs can earn points.
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