ASGA is closing in on 1,000 member institutions. With 945 currently, we certainly will pass 1,000 by the time of the national conference in DC in October.
ASGA is already, by far, the largest-ever organization specifically serving and supporting collegiate student governments. But when we founded ASGA, we thought that we would need 1,200 member institutions to have the resources financially to conduct research at a level that would make us the unquestioned premier organization for student governments. 1,200 remains our eventual goal for members (most of the largest higher-education organizations hover about 1,200-1,500 member institutions out of the universe of nearly 5,000 colleges and universities).
ASGA continues to grow and improve literally daily. Our database gets deeper and more accurate. Our reputation is spreading. It's an exciting time for ASGA's team!
Butch Oxendine is founder and executive director of ASGA, the national professional association that serves and supports collegiate Student Governments. www.asgaonline.com
Friday, June 25, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
12,000 People Hours Yearly
That's what ASGA invests in updating the information we store on every student government in the nation. We now employ five full-time researchers who are totally devoted to making sure our information is the most-current possible.
It's a major undertaking to keep accurate records on all 5,000 colleges and universities. It's a never-ending challenge. But our team can update about 35 schools per day. We go to their web site, college newspapers, SG web sites, and put on our Sherlock Holmes hats to find anything we can about every student government.
We then store it in the SG Database at http://www.asgaonline.com/. Our members can search the SG Database to learn about trends, see research, get ideas and solutions to problems, and more.
I calculated that five full-time workers spend 2,080 hours annually working on the SG Database. Two others, including me, pitch in regularly as well, which is where the 12,000 "people-power" hours come from. No other organization in the world devotes both the time and people resources to gathering information about student governments. That is part of what separates ASGA from any other higher-education organization.
And the SG Database and our depth and breadth of information stored only gets better and better by the day!
It's a major undertaking to keep accurate records on all 5,000 colleges and universities. It's a never-ending challenge. But our team can update about 35 schools per day. We go to their web site, college newspapers, SG web sites, and put on our Sherlock Holmes hats to find anything we can about every student government.
We then store it in the SG Database at http://www.asgaonline.com/. Our members can search the SG Database to learn about trends, see research, get ideas and solutions to problems, and more.
I calculated that five full-time workers spend 2,080 hours annually working on the SG Database. Two others, including me, pitch in regularly as well, which is where the 12,000 "people-power" hours come from. No other organization in the world devotes both the time and people resources to gathering information about student governments. That is part of what separates ASGA from any other higher-education organization.
And the SG Database and our depth and breadth of information stored only gets better and better by the day!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Nearing the end...
Whew! It has been a whirlwind month for me and ASGA. Tomorrow is our annual Orlando New Officers Training Conference. This is an easy one for me, as I can drive from my home near Gainesville.
The last two weeks, we've had ASGA conferences in New York and in Philadelphia. That's three in a row. We've never done so many ASGA conferences so close together.
I'm admittedly pretty tired, as are our speakers. The travel is the worst part. Last week, my flight from New York was the roughest I've ever been on. There was a time, for about 10 seconds, that I thought the plane would crash. I misunderstood the flight attendant, who in a garbled voice over the public address system, said "unless you're having a real emergency, we won't be getting up." I thought she said we're having a real emergency. My stomach sank and my heart started racing! Wow. For a few seconds, I thought this was the end.
For this spring's ASGA conferences, we are at the end. Whew!
The last two weeks, we've had ASGA conferences in New York and in Philadelphia. That's three in a row. We've never done so many ASGA conferences so close together.
I'm admittedly pretty tired, as are our speakers. The travel is the worst part. Last week, my flight from New York was the roughest I've ever been on. There was a time, for about 10 seconds, that I thought the plane would crash. I misunderstood the flight attendant, who in a garbled voice over the public address system, said "unless you're having a real emergency, we won't be getting up." I thought she said we're having a real emergency. My stomach sank and my heart started racing! Wow. For a few seconds, I thought this was the end.
For this spring's ASGA conferences, we are at the end. Whew!
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