Tips for a S-L Committee

First of all, deciding on a name is basic yet vital. Depending on your campus culture and already existent committees (of sorts), the lexicon you use may foster or thwart participation.

Words like: Committee, Board, Advisory, Working, Council, etc... are used interchangeably and in correlation with each other. Some may denote higher levels of involvement and commitment. Choose wisely...

*Also, just for the record... It has been debated for years, and will probably still be challenged, but this is the proper notation of: service-learning (two words, with hyphen separation)

Consistency is a good thing.

ESF already has their S-L Committee, which is called the Service-Learning Advisory Council. It is currently inactive as apparently in the past faculty felt their time was being wasted. When I informally surveyed faculty members during our individual meetings, many grimaced at the thought of attending these meetings again. When I searched for the root of these reactions, I was told that the Council had no purpose or meeting agenda. Instead the meetings were a time of socializing and refreshments.

So, if you have a S-L Committee of some sort at your site, what are your meetings like? Does anyone have any past sample agendas or meeting minutes? If it's possible to say, what do you think the purpose of your committee is (networking, learning about S-L, recruiting new faculty to S-L, etc).?

I've had some experience with this type of thing.
As of last year we had a Service-Learning Working Group.

My supervisor became very busy and I went in his place (though I had been going anyways)
We helped to run a conference last October based on Service-Learning.
We used to have guest speakers come, we'd talk about what we were doing, and how we could support/help each other in our S-L programs.

There was an administrative change when a new VP of the campus came in, and many departments got moved around. As a result of this, and other factors, the SLWG ceases to exist this semester.
Additionally, we had an Experiential Education Committee that has not met, and suffered low attendance while I was here. It no longer meets. To get these people together again I fear would take a lot of work. Perhaps there only needs to be a meeting 2 times a semester (weekly meetings seemed too much) and perhaps more would attend.

Advice to VISTAs:
Being in an institution as a fleeting (1-3 years) member, it allows us to have a 3rd-person bystander's view of the situations at our campuses. Use this to your advantage. Sometimes, it is difficult and you want to be "IN" when sometimes it is best to be on the outside and look at the situation from a different perspective. Offer advice after evaluating, and see if that doesn't help.

Liz, since your campus has already had a run at the committee, that dissolved for the most part... I would start off with some research about what caused that to happen. Talk with your Supervisor and any others that were directly involved with its formation. The reasons are often as simple as the points you listed... basically having no direction.

This is where key faculty come into play. Getting one or two professors on board that believe and understand the pedagogy of S-L. You don't want to form a committee of people who don't really "get it". The committee should consist of a diverse group of COMMITTED (hmm, ironic...?) people to move your program to the next level, whatever that level may be.

Side note: Doing class presentations and holding informational meetings for faculty, to teach them the basis of service learning, is still useful. It will eventually create those key players we speak of.

I'd suggest a representative from a strong community partnership, the president of a Student Group, you and your Supervisor, to start. Hopefully there's one or two faculty/staff members lurking around ESF that will jump on this S-L train. Choochoo.

Once you get at least a small group together... having a short, sweet, and effective agenda will be a necessity. I'll search in my arsenal for the agendas I used in the past... to be continued...