Chad Nuttall | chadnuttall.com

International Members Left Out of ACPA Credentialing

Chad Nuttall — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 16:27:22 +0000

On January 11 ACPA announced a new “Credentialing Implementation Team.” As an engaged member of ACPA I received the e-mail like everyone else. I gave it a quick look – but I must admit I didn’t think too much about it. However on January 12 – Eric Stoller wrote an interesting blog post on “Certification for Student Affairs Professionals.”

One giant thing stuck out for me. Eric had cited a line from the joint ACPA/NASPA report from 2010 on “Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Practitioners”. The quote was that the “preferred means of entering the student affairs profession is via a master’s degree in college student affairs administration.” I actually could not find this sentence in the 2010 report. However it does exist in the February 2006 Preliminary report from ACPA’s Task Force on Certification.

Here’s my issue with this line. The US approach to College Student Personnel/Administration Masters programs is particularly vocational. Courses are built around preparing Student Affairs and Higher Ed practitioners. Many programs have internships and assistantship opportunities where graduate students get to try and learn from various areas of Student Affairs. Not all jurisdictions have this defined path into Student Affairs positions. For example here in Canada we essentially have no Student Affairs masters programs. In fact, many Student Affairs professionals have an undergraduate degree. This is definitely changing and Canadians are seeing more and more positions in Student Affairs recommending/requiring a masters degree. However the path of undergraduate -> Student Affairs Master Program -> Position Student Affairs is rare; particularly for Student Affairs generalists. Many Canadian Student Affairs professionals with a masters degree completed it part-time in topics such as Higher Ed, Teaching and Leadership or Business Administration.

Granted ACPA is the American College Personnel Association. However on the main page of their website under the ACPA logo is says “College Student Educators International.” I can not dispute the benefits of being plugged-in and involved with ACPA. I appreciate the research and expertise that pour out of this organization. The US is truly a leader in Student Affairs. However I believe ACPA missed an opportunity to benefit from other perspectives and engage the international membership in this competency and credentialing process. It is no surprise that the entire Credentialing Implementation Team is based at US institutions.

I want to acknowledge ACUHO-I in this area. I know they are actively engaging international members in several initiatives. A few examples that I am familiar with: Jenny Owens from the Student Housing Services team at Ryerson University participated in the early development of the Certificate in Occupancy Management. ACUHO-I also honoured my supervisor Glen Weppler with the Global Initiatives Award in 2011 for his contribution in helping internationalize the organization.

All that said. There are certainly folks from around the globe that would love to be involved in the discussion in any way possible. I believe as a field – we will all benefit from the conversation.

Global Leadership

Chad Nuttall — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:34:38 +0000

This week there has been some tense political situations in Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan and the Ivory Coast. It got me thinking about leadership development around the globe. Country’s like Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia are examples of nations struggling to create strong governments in recent power vacuums.

Most of my favourite leadership books are are quite American. It got me thinking about global perspectives of leadership. Are there good books on leadership from a non-western perspective that we all (as global citizens) should be reading? Can leadership be taught globally without colonizing international leadership with western perspectives?

On January 26th, 2011 I posted the following message on twitter:

Anyone familiar with any leadership education (book, courses, articles, etc.) that is not based in a Western world view? Please RT #sachat

The List:

Whale Rider

Cry, The Beloved Country

Art of Happiness

Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

The Art of War

Salsa, Soul, and Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age

The following folks chimed in. I want to thank them for their suggestions:

kiakahamcg Jan 26, 11:11pm via Twitter for iPad
@chadtweets as cheesy as it is, the movie whale rider. Or the book cry the beloved country.

Hanigsberg Jan 26, 10:13pm via Web
@chadtweets Dalai Lama Art of Happiness?

shawnbrackett Jan 26, 9:30pm via Twitter for iPhone
@chadtweets “The Four Agreements” by Miguel Ruiz. Originates in Toltec culture, very applicable, and simple. http://j.mp/glN8of

Rob_Em Jan 26, 9:30pm via Web
@chadtweets Art of War by Sun Tzu? I’m only half joking… http://goo.gl/ja6Q8

LisaTetzloffJan 26, 9:15pm via Web
@chadtweets You might try *Soul, Salsa & Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age* by Bordas #sachat

I must admit – I have some reading to do.

Migrated site from Blogger to WordPress

Chad Nuttall — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:03:02 +0000

Migrated site from Blogger to WordPress this afternoon. I’ve been meaning to do it every since Google/Blogger announced they were no longer supporting remotely hosted sites. I’ve been unable to add new posts to my blogger blog for quite some time.

The migration went relatively smoothly thanks to the Blogger Importer tool and I’m quite happy with the result.

Helpful Links: Writing Academic Conference Proposals

Chad Nuttall — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:38:00 +0000

This weekend I spent some time crafting a proposal to present at an academic conference. I’ve presented at a number of professional conferences but I’ve not had the opportunity to present at an academic conference. Before I started putting together the proposal I found a couple of helpful articles.

- Writing Academic Proposals: Conferences, Articles, and Books

- How to Write an Academic Conference Proposal

- How to Write a Proposal for a Conference

Good luck with your proposals!

ACPA Technology Advisory Committee

Chad Nuttall — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:34:00 +0000

Hey all,

Wanted to make a quick post to let you know that I have been selected to be on the ACPA Technology Advisory Committee (TAC). I am very excited!

I am looking forward to interacting with the my colleagues on the committee. The call for members stated specifically that they weren’t simply seeking tech experts. Which was questioned by some. I don’t work in IT – but I am excited about the how those of us in Higher Ed can use technology for our work.

I hope my involvement on TAC will build nicely on the technology initiatives I have introduced during my time on the Ontario Association of College and University Housing Officers (OACUHO) board of directors.

from Gavin W. Henning
to Chad Nuttall
date Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 10:48 AM
subject ACPA Technology Advisory Committee

Dear Chad,

Congratulations. As chair of the ACPA Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) I am excited to welcome each of you to TAC.

There were a number of committed, skilled applicants and we thought you would be an asset to the committee.

We have a lot of work ahead of us. As you know, we are tasked with developing the association’s long term Information Technology (IT) strategic plan and evaluating and recommending technology initiatives aimed at furthering the association’s strategic initiatives. In addition, TAC is tasked with evaluating large-scale IT project requests to determine their applicability to long- and short-term association goals and, when necessary, to priority rank IT initiatives. We already have project request on our docket to evaluate.

Thanks for your commitment to ACPA and I am looking forward to working with you.

Sincerely,

Gavin

**************************************************************

Gavin W. Henning, Ph.D
Associate Director for Assessment
Office of Institutional Research
Dartmouth College

Happy Holidays!

Book: The Effective Executive

Chad Nuttall — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:18:00 +0000

This is in no way a review. Just a post to recommend the purchase and consumption of Peter F. Drucker’s The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done.

My first exposure to Drucker was one of my first supervisor’s in Higher Ed – Todd Coomber. Todd was one of my most valuable mentors and is now a very close friend. In Todd’s e-mail signature he had the following quote:

“A practical education must prepare (…) for work that does not yet exist and cannot yet be clearly defined.” – Peter F. Drucker

I remember seeing it once when he sent me an e-mail and Goggling it. I knew then how iconic Peter Drucker was in the world of management. At the time I didn’t spend a lot of time reading books in management because I was knee high in books to read for my undergrad.

Now that I am a Manager and also a Master’s student studying Management in Higher Ed – I do spend some time reading books on management. One such book is the Effective Executive.

Drucker wrote this definitive guide to Getting the Right Things Done in 1969. When David Allen (famous for Getting Things Done) was only 24.

According to Peter Drucker in the Effective Executive, there are five habits of the mind that have to be acquired to be an effective executive. [source]

1. Executives have to know where their time is being spent.
2. They must focus on outward contribution. Focusing more on results rather than work.
3. Build on strengths first, and then give attention to areas of weakness.
4. Concentrate on the few major areas where superior performance will produce outstanding results
5. Make effective decisions.

The book is excellent and you don’t have to take my word for it. The guys at Manager Tools gave it 5 stars. They call it “the greatest management book ever written.”

It’s a undeniable classic and should be on reading lists for no other reason. The fact that it is great is just a bonus.

Top Nuttall Twitterers

Chad Nuttall — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:21:00 +0000

This came up in my Google Alerts today. Apparently I’m in the Top 10 Nuttall Twitterers.

Nuttall
Aug ’09

Best session/speaker/book you’ve been impressed by?

Chad Nuttall — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 03:31:00 +0000

For a recent article I was asked what the Best Session/Speaker/Book have impressed me. I thought I’d share my response with all of you.

One of the most touching and informative speakers I have seen in the last few years is speaker, actor and close friend – Kawa Ada. Kawa escaped Afghanistan with his family as a young boy and speaks on a leadership and diversity topics.

My favourite books in the last couple of years: StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath, Getting Things Done by David Allen and the 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferris.

What about all of you? Any favourite speakers or books?

804 Murderous Meetings and the 1-on-1

Chad Nuttall — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:47:00 +0000

This is a follow-up blog post for those who attended 804 session @ ACUHO-I on Tuesday afternoon. If you weren’t present at the presentation then this post may be too basic to be helpful. If there is an interest, then Glen and I can do a follow-up post.

Thoughts about meetings from the crowd:
- more meetings there further you move up
- too long
- hard to keep everyone’s attention
- unskilled facilitators
- attendance issues
- can accomplish the same tasks via e-mail
- too busy for meetings!
- difference in meeting culture

2 Major Problems with Meetings from Lencioni:
- Boring
- Ineffective

Lencioni feels meetings lack:
- Drama
- Structure

How meetings are similar to movies from the crowd:
- plot (beginning, middle, end)
- they cost a lot
- leading and supporting characters
- Importance of the first 5 mins
- as it nears the end you know if you can predict a sequel
- roughly 2 hours in length

Types of Meetings (4 from Lencioni, 2 from us)
1. 1on1
2. Daily Check-in
3. Weekly Tactical
4. Monthly Strategic
5. Quarterly Off-Site Review
6. Team Development

Cool Resources on Improving your meetings
- Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable…About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business
- Manager Tools

Thanks for visiting. Please feel free to comment!

Preparing a Resume and Cover Letter for positions in Residence Life

Chad Nuttall — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:00:00 +0000

Over the last few years I have seen a ton of resumes. I don’t work in HR … I work in Residence Life. Those familiar with Residence Life hiring know that you need to recruit tremendous numbers of para-professional staff. Hiring for positions like this is often a lot more demanding then other student, part-time positions on-campus. It often involves a carousel process, scenarios, testing and more. But that is for another post.

This post is about carving out a winning Residence Life or Student Housing resume and cover letter. Many students applying for para-professional Residence Life positions or Grad students applying for GA position don’t have a ton of experiences to pack into their resume and cover letter. Even new professionals can struggle to feel like they have enough concrete examples to validate their experiences.

The internet is backed with great advice from folks in HR on what to include and how to format your resume. However, I have compiled a few tips for those creating a cover letter and resume for positions in Residence Life and Student Housing. This is just one man’s opinion. Consider it along with the others you come across.

1) Don’t open your old resume that you used to apply for jobs in the mall as a starting point. Start from scratch. This is easier said then done … first think of accomplishments and experiences you would like to profile and create a master career management document listing all those accomplishments. This will also help later when preparing for interviews.

2) At each step in the development of your resume and cover letter think about what accomplishments, achievements, awards won, goals met that will separate you from the other applicants. Many applicants for Residence Life positions will have similar backgrounds. What have you done that is different, special, or better than the typical RA?

3) Have I said accomplishments enough? For each position be sure to spend less time explaining your duties – and more time explaining what you accomplished. Many jobs in Residence Life are similar from institution to institution – you don’t need to detail duties. I like to set-up each position on my resume like the guys from Manager Tools suggest [here].

4) Run your resume and cover letter by someone in Residence Life/Student Housing. It is best if you maintain a network of contacts that understand the field and are also familiar with your career. For me I typically run my resume and cover letter by 2 people minimum – my current supervisor and also by my friend Todd. Todd was my supervisor when I was an RA and is familiar with my entire career.

5) The Student Housing field in most areas is small, tight and many people know each other. Networking is essential because many hiring managers will be overwhelmed with applicants and will count on the people they know to recommend quality applicants.

Good luck in your search!