TIPS AND TRICKS OF THE TRADE

Steve Frieder Heather Fehn

Marquette University The College of New Jersey

Critical Incidents

Working with Cabinet President’s House Complaints Working with Spouses

Events Organizing Email Speech Writing Calendaring Athletics Executive Searches

Professional Development

THANK YOU!

COMPLAINTS

�  Respond quickly

�  Include the student

�  Listen �  Express what you can do

�  Connect caller with most appropriate person

�  Stay on line until connected or walk individual over

�  Stay calm, don’t accept abuse

�  FERPA

�  Tracking complaints – accreditation and ERM implications

EXECUTIVE SEARCHES

�  Cabinet level searches

�  Presidential searches

�  Open vs. closed vs. hybrid searches

�  Working with search firm – understanding the campus culture

�  Committee charge

�  More than 1 unranked candidate with pros/cons

�  Applicant review

�  Preliminary interviews

�  On campus interviews

�  Transitions

SPEECH WRITING

�  Learning the speaker’s voice

�  Rely on the experts

�  Don’t hesitate to ask for “bullets”

�  Listeners like stories!

�  The power of endings

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

�  NAPAHE is a great start!

�  Webinars

�  Board Professionals/Association of Governing Boards

�  American Council on Education (ACE) is for you too!

�  Networking all year long (Round Table)

�  Ask for opportunities on your campus

�  Represent your president (especially when calendar conflicts arise)

�  Sit on a task force or committee

WORKING WITH CABINET

�  Serve as a resource to your cabinet members

�  Advise on how/when things should be brought to the president/provost/board

�  Encourage members to work together, create connections

�  Allow cabinet to bring things to president, within appropriate time frame (build trust)

�  Meeting without the president

CRITICAL INCIDENTS

�  Learn how your campus addresses critical incidents

�  Ask to be apart of your critical incident group �  Eyes and ears for institutional leadership

�  Serve as a resource for the group

�  Participate in drills

�  Ensure president/cabinet/board play key roles in table top or other drills

�  Be responsible for communication

�  You’re always on duty

ATHLETICS

�  Where does athletics report?

�  Division I, II, III – what are the differences?

�  NCAA Compliance

�  Admissions implications

COMMENCEMENT

�  Who’s in charge? Who makes the decisions?

�  Make it a campus wide event, everyone is responsible

�  Making changes, creating buy-in

�  Rain plans

�  Speakers…

WORKING WITH SPOUSES

�  Build trust, set expectations

�  PA as a resource/ambassador/translator

�  Calendar

�  Travel

�  Campus Engagement

EVENTS

�  Building community with your president/provost

�  Events on campus/off campus

�  Advancement events and travel – foster THAT relationship

�  Presidential stamina – event frequency

CALENDARING

�  Setting priorities

�  Who’s in charge of the calendar?

�  Get ahead of things, do advance work

�  Who has access to the calendar?

�  Use the technological resources – link documents, etc

ORGANIZING EMAIL

�  Track what comes in and what goes out.

�  Who manages the president’s account

�  Pros/cons: Public vs. private accounts

�  And what about the paper stuff – more tracking

PRESIDENT’S HOUSE

�  What is it used for?

�  Who manages it?

�  How often is it used?

�  How often are contractors in the house?

�  Private space