Another day in the life of the "Student Activities Guy"

09-09-09

After writing about a day in the life of my job last week with a cookout, musician, and hypnotist – I thought it would be fun to do it again for another day of fun filled activities. With another free cookout for students, the kickoff to the Eagles Nest, and our Live Band Kirkwood Idol event, it went something like this…

I arrived on campus a few minutes before 7, turned on my computer, and noticed that over 30 students had signed up overnight for the Eagles Nest. I spent some time getting names updated on the membership list and began preparing for the day’s activities. First it was some quick poster designs, filling helium balloons (with the help of Lisa, one of our work study students), and getting as much advertising out as possible about the Live Band Kirkwood Idol event taking place outside the bookstore.

After some email catch-up, more preparation for the day, and the other randomness of working in Student Life, we began loading up the car for our cookout down in Agriculture. At this point it was close to 9:30 and we were loading tents, coolers, the sound system, and large stacks of plates and napkins. We arrived down at Washington Hall and began setting up for the cookout and spent a few minutes putting Live Band Karaoke posters around as well. Shortly before 10:30 we were set-up and I got the first round of hot dogs cooking on the grill. For the next hour and a half we served close to 500 hot dogs while we listened to my non-country music playlist of music (sorry Aggies, I’ll do better next time :). I also took a few minutes and grabbed a hot dog and chips for my lunch.

A few minutes after noon, we began cleaning up and loaded up Sammy’s Shuttle with our Student Life gear (Sammy’s Shuttle is the name we gave to our 6 passenger golf cart). We came back to the office and began unpacking and cleaning up our first of three events on the day. We thought the Volleyball match (and kickoff to the Eagles Nest) would be a great way to advertise for the Live Band Karaoke so we made a cardboard cutout of a guitar for Sammy the Eagle (our school mascot) as well as a sandwich board he could walk around with between volleyball games. Felicia (work study student) did most of the sandwich board while co-worker Mark and Chris (work study in Student Life) helped me set-up the stage outside the bookstore. With the help of another student from KAPS, it took us just over a half hour to set up the 12’ by 24’ stage that the karaoke band would perform on.

I made it back to the office to see that another 10 students had signed up for the Eagles Nest since I’d last checked my email. I added them to the list of members before making a few more signs to hang in Johnson Hall to direct fans from the volleyball over to the Live Band Kirkwood Idol taking place after volleyball was over. I did a few other Eagles Nest odds and ends before finalizing the updated list of 472 members a few minutes before 5:00pm.

Sharon, Mary, and a few students helped get everything set-up down in Johnson Hall as we were finally about to kick off the Eagles Nest for the semester. For those of you who might not know what I’m talking about – The Eagles Nest is the official student section for the Eagles Athletic games. We went “live” with our website (www.kirkwood.edu/eaglesnest) on July 28th and have had a steady flow of students signing up ever since. Tonight’s volleyball match seemed like the perfect time to hand out the Free Eagles Nest t-shirt that everyone had been waiting for.

A few minutes before 6:00, while the Eagles Nest was about to “hatch” – I was meeting the members of the “Karaoke Dokies,” our band for the evening. I helped them get a few things set-up and made sure they had the power that they needed to run all of the sound for the show. I also took the chance to grab a bite to eat thanks to Kathy visor who brought a few sandwiches over from the Kirkwood Pig-Out (annual staff/faculty get together). As the band continued to set up, I made my way back over to Johnson Hall and found a line of students waiting to pick up shirts for the Eagles Nest. We found out quickly that we don’t have nearly enough shirts as we ran out of smalls and mediums on opening night.

I wandered around the gym as the teams were still warming up. It was the Kirkwood Eagles with a 7-1 record against Southeastern, the other team at the top of the conference with a 5-1 record. I glanced over at the “Eagles Nest” section and noticed there were not many empty seats before I looked back toward the entrance to Johnson Hall and saw another line of students waiting to get in. As the match got started, students still made their way into the gym and found spots to sit. It was more than the “Eagles Nest” section seemed to have room for as members in their new blue shirts filled close to every seat in the gym.

The Eagles cruised to a 3-0 win over Southeastern, winning 25-17, 25-14, 25-13. The last count that I heard on Eagles Nest was that we had over 140 students sign-up at the match, and another 160 students who had previously signed up in attendance. Unofficial numbers had over 300 students in attendance on the night raising the Eagles Nest total to over 600 members!

As the match ended, much of the crowd made their way over to the bookstore area where Live Band Kirkwood Idol was just getting started. Live Band Karaoke (we call it Kirkwood Idol) is a fun and exciting show to say the least. It’s similar to karaoke, but instead of the speakers behind the singer – it’s a live band, and students have the chance to be the lead singer! With a perfect night in the upper 60’s/low 70’s, close to 20 students got on stage to sing and dance for the few hundred students in the audience. It was a great feeling to finally have an outdoor music event that wasn’t rained out (like in ’07) or postponed (like in ’08). I would also like to thank our nights judges, who volunteered their time to help determine 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners on the night… Nick Borders (Financial Aid Advisor), Joe Hruska (Women’s Basketball Assistant Coach), and Sharon Blanchard (Housing Coordinator) – They did an amazing job!

Shortly after 9:30pm the show ended, the winners were announced, and the crowd slowly disappeared. The band began to load everything up while the dedicated crew of Doug, Sharon, and a few student volunteers began to take down the stage and take care of other random duties involved with these types of events. The hardest part of the day came next when we had to get our stage back up the hill. We had two carts weighing in at about 1,000 pounds each. They did have wheels, but Kirkwood is built on a hill and 1,000 pounds is not easy to simply push up the hill. I got my workout for the month before we finally got it back in its place.

About 10:30pm I got the pictures from the day off the camera and uploaded on to Facebook. With just hours before the first Student Senate meeting of the year (11:00am tomorrow), I spent the next hour or so preparing a PowerPoint presentation of pictures and information for the informational meeting. Realizing what time it was with another big day ahead, I decided to call it a night and head home for some much needed rest.

I drove home with a smile on my face while thinking about the food we served for 500, the 300 students in attendance at the Volleyball match, and over 200 students we had for the Live Band Kirkwood Idol event. Working in the “funnest” (I know it’s not a real word) office on campus, there is not another way I’d rather spend my day. Now, I can’t wait for the Student Senate meeting and the next round of events!

(Thanks for reading this novel of a post :)

A day in the life of the student activities guy - September 1, 2009

Another Welcome Week is now behind us and we’re off and running with the 2009 Kirkwood Fall Tour. I thought about writing my first blog on the attendance numbers for events last week or the heavy rain that postponed a few of our events, but I thought it might be more entertaining to take you through a day in the life of the student activities guy J

A day in the life of the student activities guy – September 1, 2009

I left home shortly after 7:00am with my coffee mug in hand and the excitement of the day’s activities. The short drive to work got me thinking about how we were going to get the word out about the cookout, live music, and hypnotist on campus today.

I got to the office and found the “FREE EVENT TODAY” balloons we had stored in our back room and decided to make a few quick flyers to attach to the balloon’s string. I printed a few flyers to anchor the balloons to the floor and had a few printed before our first work-study employees showed up for the day. I had them fill the balloons with helium and attach them to the flyers before they spread out 15 or so across the hallways at Kirkwood. I also got a good stack of “Free Cookout Today” posters printed and hung on the doors of a few buildings near the center of campus where the cookout would be held.

Shortly after 9:00am, we started getting things ready for the cookout and live music. We set up a 6x12 foot stage outside of Iowa Hall, gathered up the coolers and put the pop on ice, and started setting up the sound system and pop-up tents. A few of us spent the next hour or so getting the food outside, tents set-up, and other things set-up for the day. I got a phone call from our musician, Nick Pagliari letting us know he was near campus and trying to figure out where he was setting up. I showed him the stage and got him hooked up to the sound system he would be using for the day. I lit the grill about 10:15am and got a head start on the grilling knowing the line would form and go quickly before long. We had everything set-up and ready to serve about 10:45 as classes dismissed for activity hour and the line of hungry students formed. I had probably a hundred hot dogs cooked ahead of time and was ahead of the rush. Students came through the line and began enjoying their lunch, the music, and the nice weather.

We handed out the last of 450 hot dogs about an hour later as students made their way to their classes at noon. We spent the next hour or so folding up tents and tables and putting away the stage, grill, and all of the other things we had out for the day’s activity.

I spent the next few hours doing some random tasks on my list. I did some preparation for next week’s “Live Band Kirkwood Idol” event, I responded to several emails, and I got a few other things ready for the night’s hypnotist. From about 4-5:30 I got some posters up near Ballantyne Auditorium advertising for other upcoming events, prepared a few things for the four classes I’ll be talking to tomorrow, and grabbed a quick snack before the hypnotist arrived on campus for the evening’s entertainment.

A few minutes before 6, I was putting up a few signs near the auditorium when I ran into Brian Imbus, our hypnotist for the evening. We talked a bit and got the chairs set on the stage, the mic tested, and everything finalized prior to the show. I went back to the office to get a large box of giveaways for the night before welcoming students into the auditorium. Around 7pm, myself and a few student volunteers threw out what we had left of the Fall Tour t-shirts to members of the audience. I hadn’t counted how many seats were full yet, but I guessed it was close to our record for a Student Life event in the auditorium (315 students for the hypnotist last year). We threw out the t-shirts and I made some general announcements about upcoming events and other Student Life activities.

I welcomed Hypnotist Brian Imbus to the stage as the show began. I can’t possibly talk about all of the things that happened in the show, but I can honestly say that if you were not there, you missed out. We ended up with 411 people in attendance, shattering our old record. There were some great dancers, hilarious one-liners, and plenty of friends made on stage. The show lasted about an hour and a half and students left the auditorium with stories to tell and smiles on their faces. After cleaning up the auditorium and taking the duct tape off of all of the chairs on stage, it was almost time for me to head home. I did a few more random things and left the office about 9:15pm. Shortly after I arrived home, I uploaded many of the day’s pictures (Cookout, Nick Pagliari, and Hypnotist) on to Facebook. I posted the pictures to the KIRKWOOD EVENTS group on Facebook if you want to see more.

Shortly after 11:30pm, I decided to call it a day and head to bed. I’m looking forward to another day of fun, another day at Kirkwood, and most of all - another day of helping the students of Kirkwood get the most out of their college experience.