Although all Excelia students interested in getting involved in the school’s clubs and associations benefit from special guidance, MiM students going into Year 4, as elected representatives of our clubs and associations, can join the Association Management Track specialisation. In fact, this year’s group has already started! Next academic year promises to be just like their minds... well-organised and busy !
Fun celebrations + professional development… it’s all possible with the Association Management Track
As you read this, preparations for the inter-campus Integration Weekend are well underway! There’s going to be a lot of fun, of course, but a great deal of work needs to be done beforehand to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Already 50% has been done, if only in terms of logistics, compared with 20% at the same time last year...
“There’s no such thing as winging it!” points out Valérie Léo, Head of Campus Life. “The Association Management Track is comprehensive and highly rewarding. It is a way of guiding our students, highlighting their commitment to, and involvement in, student life, and providing them with the necessary professional skills via this perfectly adapted track in a very supportive environment. They are aware of their responsibilities, of their role as elected student members, of being ‘in the spotlight’, of the need to set an example, of representing the school and the student community as a whole. This is the best way to ensure that our Clubs and Associations are recognised, appreciated and promoted”, she adds.
With a range of specialisations to choose from, Year 4 students on the Master in Management programme can now opt for this management-style track, a special format developed jointly by Student Life, the programme team, and the teaching team. They applied to their programme and to the Clubs and Associations, and then had to attend a recruitment interview with the Campus Life Manager before being able to join this specialist track.
These ‘student organisers’ for the 2023-2024 academic year will be responsible for running an association in the same way as you run a business, taking on board all its different facets… internal organisation, partnerships, accounting, communications, marketing, finance, cash flow, prevention and safety, diversity, sexual and gender-based violence, etc.
Watch the Integration Weekend 2022 Aftermovie
Project management, workshops, encounters… discover the exciting daily life of these students!
Usually, the Association Management Track would start at the end of August, causing practical and financial difficulties, such as having to find accommodation before the beginning of the new academic year. Starting it earlier means it is easier to better prepare for the year’s Clubs and Associations’ projects, and to tackle the September events, such as the Clubs and Associations Forum, without being overworked.
From 15th to 31st May, some twenty students received training in project management, job specifications and recruitment tools, and took part in a team-building workshop around the theme of ‘magic’, with the magician Serge Avril! “Observing the tricks, understanding them, reproducing them... The students were all starry-eyed!" says Valérie Léo, who had prepared an evening for them at the end of the workshop during which they laughed, danced, sang, and drank delicious alcohol-free cocktails. “The students understood that a successful party depends on the energy of the participants and the dedication you put into preparing it!” she explains.
In June, as part of a work placement within their Clubs and Associations, using project charters, planning tools, and risk analysis, they are working on all the projects and activities available to students for the start of the new academic year.
In September, after having recruited around forty students to run the various clubs, associations, and some 450 SCAP modules (for which ECTS credits are awarded), they will have lessons in team management, assertiveness, and conflict management. They will also have the opportunity to meet up with the police, the fire brigade, A&E doctors, a psychologist, members of the UMIH 17 union of bar and discotheque professionals, the prefecture, external prevention associations, the municipal prevention team Veille sur tes amis, and all the departments of the City of La Rochelle.
They will all then take a first-aid certificate, and around sixty students will be taught basic life-saving techniques.
“The guidance we provide throughout this Association Management Track acts as a solid framework, with a strong focus on prevention, particularly on potentially high-risk behaviour. It’s not about simply accepting things the way they are… it’s about being creative and inventive, and experiencing 100% of the pleasure of commitment and achievement!” concludes Valérie Léo.
