Southeast Missouri State University will host its first Student Organization Leadership Workshop on Saturday, Feb. 6, for student leaders to learn about ways to grow and properly run student organizations.

"The main goal of the workshop is just to impart information on our student organizations so we can strengthen them," PJ Davis, graduate assistant for campus life, said. "We look at all of our student organization leaders as role models. And if students see that you getting involved was successful, you're having fun with it, you have the resources, you're making it look cool, then other students are going to want to get involved too."

The conference began because an involvement ambassador, Shelby Melton, pitched the idea of a program aimed at student organization leaders to Davis last semester.

"There always has been the Friday Night Leadership conference in the fall, and that's really become more of an RA conference and really nobody else gets anything out of it because it is so geared towards Residence Life," Melton said. "So I really wanted to see if, through this office, we could do something that student organizations could use."

Melton added that the conference would allow for students to choose from a variety of workshops. The workshops were designed to be able to help those who have been heavily involved on campus as well as those who are taking their first leadership roles.

"[The organizations] are all so different," Melton said. "Some of them have national chapters; some of them are just connected to the campus department. Some of them are just a couple of students who got together because they have a hobby. They are all so different and they run things in different ways."

Davis said there are around 200 student organizations on campus and that she hopes this conference is a way for the involvement ambassadors to be able to reach out to those who haven't worked with the organization in the past.

The involvement ambassador program began last year to help students become involved on campus, particularly at the beginning of their college career. The student involvement ambassadors meet with students about what organizations might be right for them, as well as organizations to learn what students might want to join their organization.

"Our goal when we started [planning the conference] was that we do our 'help us, help you' sessions to get more students involved, but a lot of organizations are busy or have meetings all over the place," Davis said.

Davis said that it was a good opportunity to meet with many organizations that haven't sought the involvement ambassadors help in the past. The program will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the University Center ballroom, and will last until 4 p.m.

"It's going to start off with a keynote session that's going to be hosted by Dr. Debbie Below and we're going to have a free luncheon, of course," Davis said. "Then we're going to break off into four different sessions. There's an adviser session just for the advisers to go over the things that they need to know to make their organization better."

Davis said the topic-driven student workshops will include team building, how to run meetings, LGBT and diversity education, fundraising tips, how to plan an event, branding and leadership styles.

Students can RSVP for the program through a Wufoo form on the Southeast website. Davis added that Campus Life and Event Services has added an incentive to get more students to come to the event.

"For every single member that you bring, you get entered into a raffle to win $100 in funding for your student organization," Davis said. "And that's money coming from Campus Life's budget to be used however you want. You can do food, T-shirts, if you guys just want to catch a cab to the mall that day, we'll just foot the bill."

Davis said there would be additional workshops offered for those who can't make the full-day conference.

"We are having a follow-up adviser session for any of the advisers who can't make it on Saturday, because we do know that it's Mardis Gras," Davis said. "And then Campus Life is also hosting our Southeast Gateway Connection trips, so some students might be on that, but we are having a follow-up session on Feb. 9 hosted by Michelle Irby in the [University Center] program lounge."