MOST OUTSTANDING ORGANIZATION NOMINEE
University of South Alabama Vietnamese Student Association
What are the purpose and goal(s) of your organization, and how has it met or exceeded those goals?
The purpose and goals of our organization included rebuilding our VSA as well as spreading awareness of the Vietnamese culture within our local community/campus. Unfortunately, due to COVID, the year that USA VSA was officially re-established, we were unable to do much and only had 2 general meetings. With that being said, the 2021-2022 school year was the first school year our VSA was actually able to do events, fundraisers, etc. We had two big events, both of which were much more successful than we had originally thought. We also had 4 general meetings each semester, as well as mini events in-between the school year (such as a potluck), and multiple fundraisers! Furthermore, we were able to build quite the name for ourselves within our campus. We got a lot of recognition from members of SGA, and we even partnered with other organizations on our campus (such as the Chinese Student Association) to do events. I believe it's safe to say that we had exceeded our goals for our VSA, as this school year went very well for us. It's scary to put plans in motion, especially when we had no prior experience in certain things. However, our hard-work and diligence paid off as we were able to have successful meetings, events, fundraisers, and were even able to create quite the reputation for ourselves within a short matter of time.
Address how your organization was outstanding in the following areas: recruitment, marketing, outreach to campus community, use of resources, officer training and event planning.
To begin, I would say that in terms of recruiting members/outreach, we did very well. We consistently had 20-30 members show up to our general meetings, and our 2 big events had a huge turnout. This then goes into our marketing for such events. Due to our constant marketing/advertisement, we were able to make the turnout for our events much bigger than we had expected. Furthermore, I would say that our outreach to our campus community was nothing less than outstanding. Our VSA collaborated with numerous organizations on our campus, and we even had organizations reach out to us to make them milk tea for their own events. To continue, because of our outreach within our campus community, we received a lot of recognition. So much so that we were told that Vietnamese language classes are being put under consideration on our campus! We utilized our resources very well as an organization. We reached out to other VSA members when needed to ask about how they did certain things such as elections, as well as the GC board. In terms of using our resources available on our campus, we were able to utilize SGA as well as other faculty members on our campus. We reached out to a faculty member by the name of Justine Burbank, and thanks to her, our VSA was able to build many new connections with the already existing cultural clubs on our campus. In terms of officer training, we spent a great deal of time outlining to new officers what was to be expected of them, and always emphasized that if they had questions or needed any help, to please ask another eboard member. We always emphasized communication, as we believe it's an important skill in order to have a successful executive board. Lastly, as mentioned above, we had 2 big events this school year. For our events, we constantly advertised as well as asked for help from our members and school in order to ensure the success of our events. We planned well ahead of time in order to make sure things went smoothly. We also ended up opening a new position in the fall semester called "event coordinator" in order to help make sure that each and every event ran successfully.
How did the organization work together to maximize strengths and overcome weaknesses?
Every so often, us board members would ask our interns, as well as our general members, things that they wanted to see us improve on. We opened this discussion up quite frequently, as we as an eboard strongly believe that communication is key. Furthermore, we recognize that we are not perfect, and that at times, we will have slip ups. With that being said, we welcomed criticism from anyone and everyone, which helped us know what things we did well, as well as the things we did poorly. By creating a space where we could receive such feedback, we were able continue doing the things we did well in the same manner, while at the same time, changing up our strategy in areas that were lacking.
Provide specific examples of how the student group demonstrated growth and development in the 2021-2022 academic year.
Because this was the first school year to where we were actually able to plan events and execute them in person, all of us board members had a lot of learning to do. Although 3 of us have been on USA VSA eboard since 2018/2019, we had to plan things and execute them even though we had no prior experience in doing so. Our members were very receptive and understanding of our situation, so although things didn't always go as planned sometimes, it all worked out in the end. Our members always helped with our fundraisers, event planning, etc. which was a huge change from our other years in VSA. No one really wanted to do anything during COVID, however, our members this year were really eager to help out even when they weren't asked to. This helped give us eboard members the motivation we needed to do our best for our members, as they were giving their best to us. This whole year has been a huge learning experience for every single one of us, eboard members and general members alike. However, we successfully created a community to where everyone felt welcomed, and many of our members came to me expressing how grateful they were to have a VSA on our campus. They were able to create new long-lasting friendships, as well as create new memories and gained new experiences.