Week 6

My efforts this week were focused on arranging hospitality needs for the Powerade Invitational Tournament players coming to Hoop City in San Antonio, Texas this spring. One perk the players have by participating in the tournament is having the chance to win tickets to the NCAA Final Four.

I have also been working on a couple articles for the efast and preparing presentations for the annual conference. I am especially excited about going to the annual conference this year because I will be able to see old friends and finally meet the NIRSA members I have been working with from a distance.

NIRSA National Center Fun Fact of the Week:
Kent Blumenthal, the NNC Executive Director has a fun way to recognize and celebrate outstanding NNC accomplishments. Everyone in the office knows that something exciting is about to happen with Kent rings the gold bell three times. When we hear the bell, everyone rushes to his office to hear about the newest exciting developments. Recently we have had a couple of very exciting Bell Ringers:

-The first campus recreation textbook, Campus Recreation: Essentials for the Professional, produced by NIRSA is now published and available for classroom use!

-Multi-year sponsorships are now in progress for basketball and football intramural programs at institutions nationwide. Powerade and Champion are a couple of the partners, with more on the way!

Week Four and Five

Currently, NIRSA has partnerships with POWERade, and Champion. With the NIRSA Champion partnership program now underway, the program photos are rolling in. It is exciting to see all the basketball players in their Champion hoodies as they get recognized for being the team of the week! NIRSA works with the participating schools to support them throughout the program.

As the 2008 NCCS National Volleyball Championship begins to approach some of my responsibilities have begin shifting to organizing event management details for the tournament.

In addition to the NCCS National Volleyball Championship, I am gearing up to help with event planning for the 2008 POWERade Invitational Championship to be held at Hoop City during the Men’s Final Four in San Antonio, Texas. Each school participating in the 2008 NIRSA-POWERade partnership have the opportunity to send one of their basketball teams to the tournament.

NIRSA National Center Fun Fact of the Week: This week the NIRSA staff held their monthly Fitness Walk. Not only was it great exercise but it also provided a great opportunity for our team to build relationships with each other and support our NIRSA values.

Week Three

This week 20 NIRSA member institutions became participants in the Champion sponsorship program. As you can see I am busy this week packing up each school’s hoodies, posters, banners, and additional program material. By learning how to use the Webinar technology, I get to host and facilitate the online training sessions.

NIRSA National Center Fun Fact:
Bring your dog to work! Playing with my colleagues dogs around the NNC center is always a morale booster since my dog Alex is in Nebraska and my two pet turtles are in Iowa.