The role of the faculty advisor

As faculty advisor, you have taken on the responsibility of advising/supervising a student group. You are at the forefront of passing on the mission and purpose of AIGA to the next generation of professional designers. The success of student group depends on your leadership and the proactive role you take in AIGA. Communication and collaboration with the education chair and other board members of your local chapter are essential. The national web site (www.aiga.org) can also be an excellent source of information.

Faculty advisor duties and activities

The faculty advisor must agree to take responsibility for certain administrative functions and leadership duties including:

• Serving as a leader to the AIGA student group.
• Creating and maintaining a dynamic student group.
• Completing a new “Agreement between student group and AIGA” annually.
• Tracking student members.
• Responding to monthly emails from the national office on group roster changes, including providing any changes in contact information for the advisor and students.
• Serving as a liaison to the local board through the local chapter education chair.
• Reporting group member counts, programming summaries and other group business to education chair on a periodic basis.
• Meeting with local education chair once a year.
• Obtain a federal tax ID for the group or identify an existing ID that may be used through the school.
• Filing a year-end report of the year’s activities with the AIGA national office by June 1.

In return, the faculty advisor is eligible for a complimentary professional-level AIGA membership. Faculty advisors will receive one copy of 365: AIGA Year in Design and other materials sent to professional-level members, and are strongly encouraged to share these materials with students in their groups.

Faculty advisor administrative duties and activities descriptions

Serving as a leader to the AIGA student group
It’s important for the faculty advisor be educated in the purpose and mission of AIGA. It’s your responsibility to AIGA to advise the student group in all matters related to this mission. It is also your responsibility to guide the students in conducting their group in a professional manner in keeping with the ethics and standards of AIGA. Familiarize yourself with these standards and the mission. Be a consistent resource for your students. Always look for opportunities where you can inform the students on the benefits of being a student member and encourage students to join. Students take their leadership ques from you. However, it’s extremely important to realize the available time a chapter board officer has to offer. A student’s first impression of AIGA is heavily influenced by you. Take this as an opportunity to be a true mentor.

Creating and maintaining a dynamic student group board
Working with the other faculty, you can strongly urge students who excel in personality, leadership skills and passion to lead the student group. Do not dictate the decisions of the student group leadership. A large benefit of being a student leader is exercising and improving leadership skills. Let the students run the organization.

Student officers: As advisor, you should appoint student officers for the student group board. As stated, the students appointed will be representatives of their group and AIGA, so they should reflect professionalism, leadership and be committed to furthering the mission and purpose of AIGA while upholding the standards and ethics of our organization. It is the advisor’s responsibility to ensure that these standards are upheld. Because of the short duration of a student’s time in school, it is suggested that a student hold a particular officer position no longer than two years. When a student group is formed, or upon renewal of the student group, a student group president must be appointed immediately.

Meetings: The student group will hold and the advisor will attend regular meetings. These meetings should be for the purpose of the student board to conduct group business and as a forum for the students to discuss ideas and information. Occasionally, groups should invite all members to participate As a means of recruiting new student members; invite nonmembers to sit in on “social” or “open house” meetings. Meetings can be every month, or every other month. The student president should run the meeting. You are encouraged to meet briefly with your student president to discuss a clear agenda of the meeting before hand. Minutes of the meeting should be turned into the advisor and communicated to the group as whole. The advisor should keep a record of minutes. There are many ways student officers can communicate to the group. Newsletters, e-mails and bulletin boards along with utilizing “e-groups” can be extremely effective ways to keep all members informed.

Programming: Faculty advisors are expected to initiate programming and activities that further the mission and purpose of AIGA. Often the local chapter has an existing programming calendar in which the student group can take part. However, to fully serve the student members, specific programming geared especially for them should be developed. This programming should reflect the needs and interests of the advisor’s specific group.

As an advisor, be available, be thankful, be supportive. You may need to nudge the students to get things done, but don’t do it yourself. Get as many students involved as possible. Students who make decisions for their own group are the ones that help keep the group alive and active.

“Decisions are made by those who get involved.” This simple line can convince most folks to get involved as a leader.

Completing a new “Agreement between student group and AIGA” annually
At the beginning of the school year, faculty advisors will be asked to sign a new agreement between student group and AIGA for the coming year; this serves as a renewal of interest in continuing the student group and of the complimentary membership. The agreement is available at www.aiga.org/studentgroups; it will be e-mailed directly to those who served as faculty advisors the previous year with a request to sign and return the agreement for the coming year. Faculty advisors should review this agreement at this time to insure they are aware of responsibilities. Those who do not fill out and return the agreement will not be considered an active group.

Tracking student members
Keeping track of student members is one of the main duties of a faculty advisor. At the beginning of (and throughout!) the school year, remind students to update their AIGA profile (www.aiga.org/profile, under “Change my address”). Student groups can do this at regular meetings, or faculty advisor can send out e-mail reminders. They should provide their mailing address, home address, e-mail, expected graduation date and major. And, as of early 2003, students can now link themselves to the student group, or unlink themselves when they graduate or change schools. You might want to recommend that students without e-mail addresses sign up for free e-mail utilizing www.yahoo.com or www.hotmail.com.

At any time, you can login to your own profile and view a roster of students related to the group. There is also an option to get a list of students’ e-mail addresses, to make it easier to communicate with group members. You should also appoint a student membership officer to assist you in keeping track of members. The monthly e-mail from the national office which will prompt you for roster changes should aid you in keeping track as well.

In May each year, the national office sends each student an e-mail reminder to keep AIGA informed of his or her current address through the AIGA website. Because students change addresses frequently, it can be easy to lose track of them; fortunately, we have e-mail addresses for approximately 95 percent of students, and they have proven to be amenable to using the web to update their contact information. Help transition student members into professional members. As you collect your current students, collect addresses of former students and their employers. Pass along these addresses to your current students and the local AIGA board.

Responding to monthly e-mails from national on group roster changes
At the beginning of each month, each faculty advisor will receive an e-mail containing news and updates, as well as a reminder to login to the AIGA website and check the current roster for the group. When they login to www.aiga.org/profile, faculty advisors have a special option to “View Student Group Roster.” The roster lists each student’s name, daytime and home phone numbers, e-mail address, mailing address, expected graduation date and major, as provided by the student. Faculty advisors should encourage students to login to the AIGA website and update their profile, including making sure they are linked to the student group. The faculty advisor is asked to reply to the e-mail indicating whether any students are missing from the roster or whether any students have graduated or left the program.

Serving as liaison to local board through the local chapter education chair
If the chapter hierarchy is correct, the faculty advisor reports directly to the education chair. All information to the local board of directors should come from the faculty advisor through the education chair, and vise versa.

At the beginning of each month, each chapter education chair will receive an e-mail containing contact information for the faculty advisors of official AIGA student groups, i.e., those who have successfully completed and returned the agreement between student group and AIGA. If the chapter has not identified an education chair, this e-mail will be sent to the chapter president. Advisors are expected to respond when contacted by their education chair and a request for updated information has been made. Periodically, the education chair will contact you to request information to share with the local board and to inform you on local chapter activities. It is vital that a faculty advisor be available and responsive for this exchange of information to occur. Advisors are encouraged to bring any ideas they have for programming and events to their local education chair.

Reporting group member counts, programming summaries and other group business to education chair on a periodic basis.
On a periodic basis, your education chair will contact you requesting your latest member counts and program summaries for the purpose of reporting it to the local board. Your education chair may contact you to simply ask how things are going with the group. Successful communication between advisor and education chair assists in keeping a thriving student group. As faculty advisor, you are expected to have this information readily available and to report it in a timely manner. At any time, if you have programming ideas or questions you would like addressed by the board, you are encouraged to relate that to your education chair.

Keeping a record of programs and activities of the group is necessary, as these will be compiled to form the end-of-year report which is turned in to the national office.

Meeting with local education chair once a year.
Once a year faculty advisor and education chair should meet. Ideally this should take place right before the school year begins. Here, it can be possible to share a programming plan and address the state of the student group. Faculty advisor and education chair can discuss any needs of the group, questions and ideas. At the direction of the education chair and with the agreement of the local board of directors, an outline of programming, group goals along with action steps should be established.

Obtain a federal tax ID for the group or identify an existing ID that may be used through the school.
Federal tax ID numbers are only required for student groups who operate independently of an established AIGA chapter. These groups are generally more than 100 miles from the nearest chapter. We require a federal tax ID in order to allocate the funds directly to the student group. In the case of student groups within 100 miles of an AIGA chapter, we allocate the funds directly to the chapter.

Filing a year-end report of the year’s activities with the AIGA national office by June 1.
By June 1, the faculty advisor is required to send a report of activities of the past year; these reports will be incorporated into the AIGA website. At the end of the school year, the national office sends the faculty advisor a reminder to turn in the end-of-year report. The report can be in the form of a multiple paragraph description, or perhaps a list of activities and events that your group organized throughout the year. The report can be emailed to aiga@mail.aiga.org.