By Scott Flickinger, Assistant Manager of Intramural & Club Sports at Boston University

We are coming off of a wonderful NIRSA Annual Conference in Grapevine, Texas where we shared tons of analytics, data, findings, and discussions. We were inspired by amazing keynote speakers, connected with new colleagues, and reconnected with our friends and mentors. We have amazing resources available to us, ready to be farmed for the edge we need to push our programs to the next level at our institutions. We are enthused, excited, and raring to get back to our profession—ready to make changes. We never want that feeling to end, so we chant the same mantra every year at the end of each conference:

“CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION!”

And that’s where, for quite a few of us, the conversation ends. We lose touch with those presenters, mentors, colleagues, students, and—most importantly—with that energy. Issues pop up. We get distracted. Plans and ideas fade. Time passes. All those implementations you wanted to make? Forgotten or shot down. Frustration sets in, and it’s status quo again…until next year’s Annual Conference when the cycle repeats itself.

Is there a way to get off of that roundabout? Is there a way to use the excitement and inspiration you found at the Annual Conference to move forward not only for a few weeks following the conference, but for the whole year?

Can I introduce you to a friend of mine named Twitter?

Twitter came into my life around 2011. It was still a growing community, but it was gaining notoriety—specifically as the “text-messaging of the Internet.” I already had Facebook, and I was fine with that. Then a student of mine at Ithaca College showed me Twitter and got me into “tweeting.” It was fun and all, and I didn’t have to commit to writing long posts about how wonderful (or abysmal) my day/week/year/life was. I relegated my “A-List” comedy material to it.

NOTE: My comedy is not A-List. It’s glorified dad jokes and awkwardness…just like my real life. (Audience: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww.)

But since the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, I’ve come to realize how powerful Twitter can be in regards to instantaneous information. The updates people could send and receive on Twitter were light-years faster than anything the cable or national news companies could muster. You could run searches for context words and find information about situations and breaking news well before the TV could even report it. Never before have we lived in a time where the news, as well as our thoughts and ideas, could be expressed so succinctly and immediately.

Because of that event, I took a deeper interest in Twitter. That interest started to pay off in the autumn of 2013 while I was attending the University of Notre Dame’s Flag Football Regional Tournament. Since then, I’ve been able to hone my Twitter skills by tweeting out pictures, updates, and information all pertinent to the realm of NIRSA, the National Championship Series, and rec sports itself—all while maintaining my personality within each tweet…for better or worse (mostly better, I hope).

What I’m most proud of is the personal network I have created through this platform; I really enjoy following many of our illustrious NIRSA and rec sports professionals on Twitter. They share their research and experiences in the collegiate recreation field while also imparting their philosophies on rec sports, higher education, and even life itself. Twitter is a unique way to stay connected to dialogues whether you’re an active participant or just an involved observer.

With Twitter, we CAN continue the conversation…because our community is actually there to continue it. NIRSA tweeters use the hashtag #RecChat to pose questions, post articles, and poll other rec professionals for opinions. And we even have an online meeting once a month on Twitter with @RecChat where we pose a different discussion topic each session; it’s like having a mini-NIRSA one-hour presentation each month with peer-to-peer interaction.

You and other colleagues can contribute answers, or just follow along and gain insight. We even have a dedicated team of rec professionals who maintain and archive @RecChat discussions so you can go back and find that piece of information you need to complete a project or proposal. Most importantly, many of those inspirational individuals you connected with at the Annual Conference, or at some other point during your rec sports career, are available on this platform—and you can reconnect with them to gain the insight and energy you need.

So why am I touting Twitter—and my personal experience with it—to you? Well, because thanks to all of my tweet-navigation, a vast amount of knowledge and networking is right at my fingertips. I have read articles, gained insight, and found information I would have never stumbled across unless I was using this social media platform. I have been able to speak to and meet many professionals through this outlet. I have had a wonderful experience through Twitter. It’s just missing one little thing…

You.

Yeah, you.

We need you to add your insight, your passion, your knowledge, and your love for the profession to this platform. Each of you brings your personal depiction of those traits to the table. The more of us there are on Twitter, the greater the Twitter experience—and our community—becomes.

I invite each and every one of you to give Twitter a try—or retry if you already have it and just gave up on it, or don’t use it often. Do your research and talk to your students and coworkers who have it if you need a how-to-use-it session.

Log in and begin following your NIRSA colleagues, NIRSA entities, and @RecChat so you can continue that conversation and maintain that energy! The next @RecChat is Wednesday, May 6 at 3:00pm EST, so join us and help us continue the conversation!

Oh, and if you’re looking for a friend to follow…@FlickFlackSays you should follow him.

Happy Tweeting!

 

For more information about NIRSA’s social media channels, please contact NIRSA Communications Specialist Nazifa Islam.