By Stephanie McAlpine, NIRSA Championship Series Committee Chair
The summer, for me, is always a time to pause and reflect upon the previous academic year. It’s a time to reflect upon my challenges and my accomplishments in my work with students. And, of equal importance, it’s a time for us to reflect upon the growth of the NIRSA Championship Series and how that growth can impact the progress and leadership development of our association and its student and professional members.
At each of our institutions, we consistently look to build new programs and challenge our students to become productive citizens, to be active, and to lead with integrity.
We stress the importance of balance and wellness as we encourage them to define their own paths and make wise decisions about what they do, how often they do it, and when they do it.
NIRSA Championship Series is associated with competition, sports, and athletic endeavors. However, as anyone who has played a part in bringing the Series to life will tell you, it’s also much, much more.
Last month, at the NIRSA Summer Meetings, I had the opportunity to meet with many current leaders within the association. Among many things that we discussed related to the NIRSA Championship Series and our goals for the upcoming year were strategies that we might employ to strengthen the events and experiences for both our members and participants. During this conversation, I took the opportunity to address not only what the Series could do to be more effectively, but to reflect upon how we are more than a competition.
After leaving the Gaylord Texan, I felt good about our conversations. I was excited about all that we would be able to accomplish as a committee for our events. But even more so, I was happy that we took a chance to share our stories and engage in “reflection”—a concept I am always preaching the necessity of to the students I work with.
While reflecting, we learned many NIRSA colleagues didn’t know we have over a 100 NIRSA work team members, with many of those members concentrating on professional competencies beyond competitive sports programming, such as research and evaluation, facility management, brand management, and professional development. In addition, this past year there were over 900 NIRSA event volunteers whose roles on their campuses are also not specific to intramurals and sport clubs, but included facilities, aquatics, marketing, outdoor, fitness, and all areas of collegiate recreation.
I would like to think that after our interactions with association leaders at these summer meetings, those leaders will be inspired to think back to our conversations throughout the year and recall how the Series is more than competition—and perhaps they’ll even explain this to colleagues or students on their campuses.
So, NIRSA members, during your own time of reflection, I encourage you to take advantage of the many opportunities the Series presents for the growth of our profession. While flag football regional dates, locations, and national site have been announced, of institutional registration, an innovative idea now in its second year, is still open. Coming soon will be staff applications, club basketball commissioner and assigner responsibilities, and regional basketball dates and locations.
Please don’t hesitate to get involved by reaching out to me or other members of the 2014-2015 NIRSA Championship Series Committee and Work team members to find out for yourself how it’s more than competition.
