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		Get the Word Out: Marketing the RA Position By Paula Polglase Assistant Director of Residence Life James Madison University Does it seem a little early to start thinking about staffing your residence halls for next year? October and November are exactly the right times to put the wheels in motion for a successful marketing campaign for RA staff. I am the Assistant Director for Training and Selection at James Madison University. We are a comprehensive, four-year institution that serves traditional age students. We hire 160 RAs each year - approximately 1/3 of which are returning. My goals are to have twice as many applicants as new RA positions, to increase the number of minority RAs, and to have no one on campus say that they did not know that RA selection was taking place. This article will discuss the timeline used for marketing your selection process and suggestions for getting the word out about your open positions. JMU's RA applications are available February 1 and are usually due 2 weeks later. RA candidates have an administrative interview, a hall director interview and a group process interview. We typically send out notification letters by the second week in March. The Marketing Timeline: Perhaps the best way to share with you my process for marketing is to go month-by-month. October Although it seems too early to start thinking about selection, October is the perfect time to begin. I set up 3-4 meetings with our student graphic designer, student web page developer and other interested parties. In the past these interested parties have included our professional hall directors, graduate hall directors, and RAs. In October I will ask the Hall Directors to facilitate a discussion at a staff meeting on ideas for marketing the RA position and ideas for theme. Our main goal for October is to identify a theme and make some decisions on marketing items such as posters. The theme plays an important part in JMU's marketing campaign. Over the past couple of years we have centered our theme around the purple shirts that RAs wear when they are on duty. Our 1999-2000 campaign used the phrase "It's your life . . . live it!" This was accompanied by several phrases: "Live it as a leader . . . Live it as a friend . . ." with the final phrase being "Live it as a Resident Adviser." The accompanying photo was of a group of resident advisers - the photo was black and white except for the purple shirts. The 2000-2001 campaign also centered on the RA purple shirt. We did two posters. The first was of a purple shirt with the tag line "We're looking for leaders to fill this shirt." The second was of a group of RAs and it said, "We're looking for leaders just like you!" Ideally, both theme and concept are decided upon in October. It was very important to include our student designers in these discussions. They were able to tell us what was possible graphically and what would appeal to students. October is also a time to review your budget. JMU sets their budgets for the following year in March. Therefore, it has been over 6 months since I projected the budget for selection marketing. I work with the student graphic designer on variations of our ideas. For example, an 11/34 poster in full color, 3 color, two color or one color. I then contact publications for updated prices to compare to my allocated budget. This is also a time to decide on quantities. November November is used to formulate a plan for how we want to utilize our theme. For JMU RA selection we traditionally do one or two posters and one other printed item. Last year the additional item was a sticky note, the year before a bookmark. We work backwards from when we want the posters to hit the residence halls. You must factor in time for a photo shoot (if you use one), design time, and printing time. The positive side to using a student graphic designer is they are significantly cheaper than a professional or even in-house publications designer, they are in-tune to what draws students' attention, and it can add a significant piece to their portfolio. The disadvantage is their time schedule. In order to get the posters in the halls by January, the design needs to be completed before exam week in December. This is the main reason for starting work in October and November. If you are able to use a student graphic designer I suggest sitting down with that person and planning out when you need to see a rough layout, first and second drafts. If that person has not worked for you before I also recommend a meeting with you, the student designer, and your publications/printing office. We aim for a November 1 photo shoot. Our photography office usually has a two-week turn-around for photos. Depending on your plans for the photo this can be done earlier or later. Last year the student designer "cut out" the photos on photoshop which was a time consuming and tedious process thus requiring us to stick to our time schedule of an early November shoot. November is typically the time when our office starts receiving calls about the RA position. I put the interest meetings on the Event Center calendar that all students, faculty and staff can access through the JMU Web page. We also try to update our departmental web page by early November. There is a staff selection section on the page where we list the important dates and job descriptions for all student positions in our department. This web page is listed on all of our printed material and we refer students to the page quite often. December I set up a meeting the first of December to review the RA application with our head support staff person. The application is tied into the overall look of the marketing campaign. Due to the quantity of applications that JMU orders we have this printed, although there is discussion of going to a fully on-line system within the next year or two. We currently utilize an application booklet that includes a job description, timeline for selection, and tips on interviewing. The last two pages of the booklet are perforated and contain the application and a reference form that must be filled out by the student's current RA. I also produce a Staff Guide to Selection which details the timelines and job descriptions for all of the jobs offered through selection: Hall Director, Senior RA, Returning RA, New RA, Program Adviser, Facilities Assistant and Writing Tutor. The Staff Guide is a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 booklet with a cover that ties into the overall theme of selection. I put these into the hands of our current staff by mid-December. Ideally, I would pass these out at an all-staff meeting so that I can quickly go through the information in the book and answer any questions related to selection. On the inside cover of the Staff Guide it lists the RA Responsibilities for Selection - these include distribution of posters, flyers, etc. The last weeks in November and first of December are also used to finalize design work on the posters. Again, the time line for this will vary if you are not using a student designer. January Like most colleges and universities we are typically closed from late December through January 2. The week before student's return is an excellent time to formalize details on all other marketing strategies. I budget for 3-4 ads in our school newspaper. I provide our student graphic designer with a timeline for when those are due to the paper. The past two years these ads have been our posters adjusted to the size of the paper. January is when we involve our entire student staff in our marketing plan. This begins when they arrive back on campus in the second week of January. I usually write an article for our in-house newsletter detailing the marketing and selection timeline. This is followed up with a reminder email to all RAs to read their Staff Guide to Selection. I distribute to each hall a "Recommendations for New RA" form with instructions to go through their hall roster and list the name and PO Box of residents who they think have the potential to be a quality RA. The people they list then receive a personal invitation to attend one of our interest meetings. We have also done variations on this idea. When we wanted to greatly increase our pool of minority candidates a few years ago we asked all RAs to nominate 2 minority students who were then sent a letter inviting them to an interest meeting. Personal invitations take quite a bit of time but are highly worth it if you are interested in strengthening the quality of your pool. Last year I spoke at our Residence Hall Association meeting that brings the president of each hall together. I also presented the RA position at our Multicultural Roundtable that includes the president of each multicultural organization. The coordinator of student organizations included selection material in her monthly electronic newsletter, as did the coordinator of International Programs. This past year each Monday in January (starting when they returned to school) the staffs received another piece of promotional material for their hall. The first poster, then the sticky notes and finally the second poster. I placed any additional posters and sticky notes at the four information booths on campus. Our university also allows us to submit a picture and some limited information on the JMU home page on the web. There are rotating photos/information that come up when you enter the home page. A student can then click on the photo and it links it to our selection web page. February This year our interest meetings were twice a day February 7,8,9. A student cannot pick up an application without attending one of the interest meetings. There is limited time in February to market the position. Two things I did right at the end. One, our dining services has a table tent with campus information on every table in all of their dining facilities. They only run the information for one week so I ran selection information the week of February 7. Our school newspaper, the Breeze, comes out on Mondays and Thursdays. I ran full-page ads the Monday and Thursday preceding the first meeting, and then again on February 7. I also contacted The Breeze the week before the meetings and they sent a reporter out to interview me. Her story ran on Monday, February 7 that was quite helpful. If the reporter hadn't cooperated I would have written a letter to the editor telling everyone of this great opportunity! Meeting our goals Marketing the RA position is a long, involved process that is well worth the effort. At our interest meetings this year we had applicants fill out a quick information sheet, part of which asked, "how did you find out about the meeting?" Students could choose more than one. Here are the results: Poster 96   Breeze Ad 32   My RA 82   Web page 4   Personal Invitation 47   Other 16 I will definitely share with this year's RAs the importance of hanging those posters and of making personal contact with residents to tell them about the job. I was surprised by the few hits on our web page. I believe it's important to continue placing information there and think having information on the main web page will increase visitors. We also met our applicant goals: 166 students applied, 10% self-identified as students of color (this mirrors our campus population). I challenge you to be creative and thorough in your marketing campaign. Involve your current staff in the planning and implementation of your marketing campaign. Lastly, share your ideas! Let your colleagues at other institutions know what you are doing and ask them to share as well. Good luck! About the Author Paula Polglase is the Assistant Director for Training and Selection in the Office of Residence Life at James Madison University. She has worked in residence life for six years and previously held the position of Community Development Coordinator. Paula earned her masters in College Student Personnel from JMU in 1996. Paula has served on the conference coordinating committee for VASPA/VACUHO for the past three years and co-chairs the JMU Student Learning Committee.