I have never thought of myself as a natural leader, but in all of my classes, the instructors emphasized that graduates of the Information School typically go on to be leaders in the field. The general message was "You are going to be a manager whether you like it or not." Though group projects offered opportunities to lead over a short period of time, I thought I would learn more about leading and managing by taking on a leadership position in a student organization.
Society of American Archivists--UW Student Chapter (SAA-UW)
Because of my involvement in archives in the past, I chose to serve as a co-chair of the Society of American Archivists, UW student chapter (SAA-UW), one of the many student organizations in the Information School. During my first 6 months at the Information School my primary interest was in archiving, and I worked in the UW Special Collections as a curatorial assistant. Though I no longer wish to pursue archiving as a career, I believe that students who are interested in archiving deserve a strong advocate despite the fact that they represent a minority in the MLIS program.
As co-chair, my main role is to organize and facilitate events that align with the goals of SAA-UW, as well as the vision the officers established when we were elected. Throughout the year the club plans a variety of activities relating to archiving and preservation, including tours of local archives, career and student panels, and networking events with local archiving organizations. This year some of our events had never been attempted by past officers, for instance, we organized a Home Movie Night in which students, UW library staff, and members of the community showed older home films. Though our national organization requires us to meet the needs of the archiving community, I wanted to push further than this mandate and reach out to the broader community.
Challenges
This year I took IMT 580, an MSIM managment course, in which we learned that there are 4 main parts to management: leading, organizing, planning, and controlling. Organizing and planning were skills I already considered strengths, however, leading and controlling do not come as easily to me. Learning how to lead peers who had a strong interest in archives primarily involved frequent and positive communication to ensure engagement.
There was one officer though, who seemingly had no interest in participating with the club. Nearly all emails went unanswered, it took weeks for her to complete a task, if she completed it at all. One of her main duties was to update the club website, and I tried motivating her by asking if she had an interest in a larger redesign of the site. Apparently, this form of motivation was ineffective, and the lack of incentives made controlling very difficult. Ultimately, I learned that motivation for this person was to be reminded that the group counted on her to complete certain tasks. Though she never fully engaged with the club, I did learn that firm and strong communication is one way of controlling people in a difficult leadership situation.
Achievements
One of the first changes I noticed after becoming SAA-UW co-chair was that by being elected to the top leadership position, people automatically treated me as a leader. When I told the officers that I wanted to plan an event that allowed us to travel to the University of British Columbia to connect with our peers there, they agreed with me and brainstormed about funding. If I assigned tasks to officers, they generally responded quickly and completed tasks successfully. I found that if I confidently directed strategy and trusted the officers to perform tasks well, that I could lead easily.
Due to this environment of trust and effective planning that I helped create, our club experienced one of its most successful years. Nearly every event planned exceeded expectations in terms of attendance, we established new traditions, and strengthened annual events. Because of this experience I believe that I can lead more confidently and effectively in future, and as well as helping create a strong example for next year's officers.
