"Pass the Torch Day" seeks to offer a formalized structure for Wesleyan student groups undergoing board position changes at the end of every academic year in order to facilitate student leadership development, student group effectiveness, and the retainment of institutional memory across school-year transitions. Wesleyan’s on-campus student groups, while being great resources for affinity and organizing, run the risk of dissolving when there is not attention paid to leadership and management for every year. Amazing student groups have become inactive across Wesleyan’s history simply because of gaps within leadership and management, and this presents an even larger difficulty for maintaining legacy and longevity within important missions of community-building and resource distribution.
"Pass the Torch Day" is a program made up of a series of workshops that both facilitate the passing down of knowledge from current leaders to newly elected leaders, as well as explains the process of attaining resources and services from on-campus offices and committees. These workshops will include information about funding (different funding bodies, contracts, reimbursements, etc.); collaborations across offices/committees and departments (including the CFA, Concert Committee, the Student Budget Committee (SBC), etc.); and miscellaneous campus resources such as Cardinal Print, the Box Office, how to post on the Master Calendar, campus-wide emails, and Usdan TVs and poster/tabling spaces.
Attending these workshops will not only expedite the event planning process for student groups during the school-year, but will also offer the following benefits:
• Your student group will be officially registered and ready to go before you come back to campus in the Fall!
• Your student group will be able to: submit early funding requests starting after July 1st; book dates for Fall events during the summer; and will be guaranteed a table at the Fall Club Fair (first Friday after classes start).
• Your student group will be given time and space to meet with outgoing/incoming leadership and pass down important information as well as set goals and refine mission statements for the next year.
• Your student group will have the chance to network with other student organizations as well as campus departments that offer support for reaching your goals.
Not attending "Pass the Torch Day" will result in your student group not being officially registered until the end of September/start of October, as that is when mandatory training and group re-registration will occur.
Those who may participate in Pass the Torch Day must be the primary and / or financial contacts of student groups - max 2 people per group, one outgoing leader and one incoming leader. Dinner will be provided!