Begin practicing what you have learned through your eCourses and training.

Below are some ideas of activities and projects that you can pursue to enhance your knowledge:

Business and Financial Analysis

• Ask to be cross-trained in basic financial duties in your office.
• Learn to read and analyze your department's financial reports.
• Volunteer to create or redesign department budget spreadsheets to see if there are ways to display information, group budget items, accounts, etc., more effectively.
• Talk with a general accounting or budget and institutional analysis staff member about how money comes to campus, deans' offices and department.
• Monitor one part of your department's budget for a year.

Communication

• Write instructions for a departmental procedure.
• Write an article for the Staff Assembly newsletter.
• Attend faculty meeting w/ current MSO or supervisor.
• Attend a college MSO meeting.
• Write an article for a departmental newsletter.
• Volunteer to give a presentation at a departmental or committee meeting.
• Develop a web page.
• Develop and present training on a departmental process.

Community Building

• Work with Campus and Community Relations department on campus book project.
• Work with Campus and Community Relations on diversity education.
• Attend a Staff Diversity Administrative Advisory Committee (SDAAC) meeting.
• Attend community events on campus such as Picnic Day or Soaring to New Heights.
• Form a network of peers doing similar jobs in other departments.
• Attend student-organized culture/community celebrations.
• Visit an office/person you make referrals to.
• Plan a retreat with colleagues and include team building exercises.

Analysis and Planning

• Study space plans for units and think about different ways space could be used.
• Ask the dean's office for strategic goals and the mission of college.
• Participate in the strategic planning process.
• Create a "process document" or work plan to define on paper one task/responsibility.
• Volunteer for an upcoming or ongoing space survey project.
• Learn more about what each unit contributes to the running of your department.
• Volunteer to create a database and reports to handle a set of data in your unit.
• Analyze a process to look for ways to make it more efficient or more cost-effective.

Leadership

• Join a committee.
• Volunteer to lead a meeting.
• Lead a group project.
• Take a leadership role on a campus committee.

Human Resource Development

• Volunteer to deliver your department's new employee orientation or develop a new employee handbook.
• Volunteer to participate on hiring committees.
• Observe the recruitment process of one recruitment from your department.