#86 - Apply for NIRSA Involvement

I am pretty sure when I wrote this goal I had some idea of applying for office or the NIRSA Assembly, but since what I ended up with entails weekly conference calls, so I am counting it.

NIRSA is (newly renamed) Leaders in Collegiate Recreation, a professional organization for Campus Recreation students and professionals.  I have been involved since 2006, when DePaul Campus Recreation so generously took me along with them even before I was a Campus Recreation professional and before I started school at DePaul.

As quickly as I can tell it, I decided I wanted to be a Campus Recreation professional in 2006 after failing at finding a PE teaching job in Michigan, moving to Chicago, and disliking the recreation jobs I found.  I contacted one of the professional, Gerald Ashley, at the University of Michigan, where I attended undergrad.  He told me to contact the director, Bill Canning.  Bill put me in contact with Gale Stewart, who told me I needed to get my master's.  She also, however, put me in contact with Jen (then) Doughney (now) O'Keefe and Dana McPherson.  They gave me a couple part-time positions as a CPR instructor and a private swim lesson instructor, both of which I continued to work well after I started full-time work.  Jen then encouraged me to go to the annual NIRSA conference, that year in Louisville.  She arranged it so that if I could get there (paying the $600 some for attendance and driving down), she would make sure I had a spot in their room.  More than that, Jen introduced me around and found me as many free meals (even paying for one herself) as possible.  I am in incredible debt to DePaul Campus Recreation, and that's not even counting Moe McGonagle's help as my professional adviser and her continued mentorship.  Lucky for me, "paying a debt" in NIRSA generally means "paying it forward," something I now feel not obligated but energized to do.

I have now attended 8 NIRSA annual conferences and many state conferences, Lead Ons (student-led regional conferences), and extramural tournaments.  I love NIRSA.

I did do a stint on the NIRSA Sports Officials Development Program Soccer Committee.  I put in 3 years but I didn't feel like I actually contributed nor do I feel like it strengthened my connections with other professionals.  Well, maybe with the exception of Nicole Green, but she's a friend from undergrad and one of my favorite people in the world, so maybe our professional connection got a little stronger but I have a feeling we'll always be in each others' corners anyways.

T
his year I was determined to find a place to really serve NIRSA.  At the Region VI (west coast) Lead On in the fall, I connected with Chad Ellsworth, the Director of Campus Recreation at the Arizona State Downtown campus and our Region VI director.  He quickly folded me in and got me onto the Region VI Conference Planning Committee.

Five of us convene weekly over the phone.  We mostly get work done but I do enjoy the banter in between the work.  My job, besides attending the conference call, is to connect with the Program and Registration committees to make sure everyone is on the same page and we are all meeting our deadlines so we can have a great conference up at UCLA in November.

This is the first time I've been so active so regularly in a professional organization.  I was very active in IIRSA (the Illinois state organization) and put in some pretty time-intensive weekends during tournaments, but this is satisfying in a different way.  I feel like I'm committed and I want to make sure our regional conference is more than worth the time and energy of the students and professionals who will attend.

Thank you, Chad, for the opportunity!