Subject: Considering a retreat with your advising staff and not sure what to do? (July 2005)

Here are some ideas recently presented on the Administrator's list serve. If you'd like to follow up with one, please contact Linda Chalmers at Linda.Chalmers@utsa.edu for the contributor's name and e-mail address. Thanks.

• We have retreats twice a year and always include a debriefing of the semester. First, everyone lists what went well and we write it on newsprint. This generates a nice long list of successes and kudos. Next, we list what did not go well, which then leads to a third list, goals for the coming semester. The goals are typed up on nice paper, signed by the advising team, and then posted in a public place. At the next retreat, we start the debriefing cycle with a check of the previous goals list, and then the cycle starts up again (if goals were not achieved they sometimes are placed on the next goals list). We find it is good way to both recognize achievements and pinpoint problems in a supportive environment.

Contributor: Katie Dustin, UC-Berkeley, kdustin@berkeley.edu

• "I'd recommend doing an exercise around developing a mission statement for your office - it gives people a chance to talk about why they do what they do, what's important to them, and how they see the work of the office fitting into the University mission.  There are many ways to approach it. Be creative, and have them work in groups.  We tend to revisit this on a yearly basis in some way, and it's very successful."

• "We play one or more games for camaraderie.  We've written down our greatest fear, passed the fears around so each has someone else's fear.  Then each reads the fear in hand and tries to identify whose fear it is. At our last retreat we passed each the name of another on staff.  Then each had a few minutes to write down the answers to a series of questions about the other such as:  if she were a car, she'd be a ______; she likes to spend vacations doing this __________; his major in college was __________. After all questions were complete, each one read the questions and answers and told whom she'd answered about.  Then the one about whom the answers had been fabricated had to tell the true answers. . it makes people laugh which makes them feel close and also reveals something about each one."

• "Team building exercises are a great way to connect your staff with each other and reinforce the mission of the office in a fun way. There are many great exercises that can be found through a web search or through various books. For example, plug into your search engine "employee relations>team building" and just see what comes up or check with your HR training department for resources or possibly a trainer to facilitate that part of the retreat."

• ". I asked the (22) advisors to generate a list of their biggest concerns in our office. I analyzed their feedback and selected 8 repeating issues (we did 4 issues in the morning and 4 issues in the afternoon). The set up was like a mini-conference.I asked attendees of each session to be a scribe and create an outline of the sessions (to be shared with the others). Next, I identified resource people in external offices to present an "outsiders" viewpoint.. (no) formal presentations, but conversation, explanation, and brain storming. I compiled all the outlines at the end of the retreat and this will form our guiding projects for the next year, and shared the master document with all participants including the resource people...The time and energy was worth it, because the pay off was more than I ever expected.

• Another idea maybe utilize your career center to take a personality test, and identify how people are alike and different, generate ways you could work with those that are similar / different, and use the expertise of the Career Center professionals to guide the process.

• Whatever you do- don't give up!"

Contributors: Advising Administration list serve participants