OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Structural Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the structural frame
2. Apply the structural frame to your personal case situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

During my term as Student President I worked with five other student officers to
plan, host and run Student Life events for JohnWood Community College. I ran monthly
meetings with the entire organization and led weekly officers meetings. I was also office
manager for the student life administrator. The monthly meetings followed an agenda
where we talked about the larger events we were planning, the calendar for the following
month, and any feedback from the students. At each meeting the officers gave individual
reports on what they were working on. At our weekly meetings we worked on the
logistics for each event and who was in charge of what tasks. We also brainstormed for
new events and ideas to bring to our monthly meetings. As office manager, I worked
directly with our faculty advisor and most of my tasks aligned with my responsibilities as
president. I would create promotional materials for events, buy any product we needed
for events, create the agendas for officer and full group meetings, meet with faculty to
discuss Covid-19 guidelines and manage the food pantry deliveries for any students in
need.

The biggest obstacle we faced that year was the pandemic and how to operate
under a new light, as did many other organizations. We wanted to maintain all the regular
meetings as well as the average of 10 events each month. The restrictions were
continuously changing due to higher cases in our area, so we were constantly coming up
with new ideas on how to get people together, but apart. We were determined to keep a
steady number of active members in SGA because most members were academic
scholarship students. Scholarship student’s two main requirements were to maintain a 3.0
GPA and be a member of SGA. To keep your attendance in SGA it was a requirement to
be at every monthly meeting and attend a minimum of two events per month. We wanted
to plan enough events to give plenty of options for students to choose from to meet their
requirements.

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2) Describe how the structure of the organization influenced the situation.

Every year SGA plans events on the same day and time each month for students
to be able to plan ahead and work it into their schedule. Monthly meetings are always on
the second Monday of each month and regular events are on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or
Thursdays at 3:30pm. Our larger events, like our fundraisers or volunteering events, were
either on Fridays or Saturdays. There are six officer positions that are filled each year by
sophomores who are voted in by any current full time students. These positions are
President, Vice President, Treasurer, Student Trustee, Secretary, and PR Secretary. Each
officer is also in charge of a Blazer Activity Team (BAT). These teams are responsible for
planning each category of events. The ‘Trail Blazers Live’ team was in charge of
planning social and craft events such as, Bingo, Paint Night, Friendship Bracelets
Making, Haunted Trails and Secret Santa. ‘JohnWood Way’ was the volunteering group
and hosted most events at our local soup kitchen, Meals on Wheels or road clean up days.
‘Green and Gold’ was considered the school spirit team and planned any themes for our
student section at any athletic events and any intramural sports. The last BAT was
‘Beyond the Classroom’. They focused on events for personal and professional
development such as, financial planning, investments and credit, Donuts with Dean, and
Pizza with the President.

This set structure of how SGA was run every year before us set standards that we
were required and wanted to follow as an officer group. We had to change and adjust how
we did things to meet these expectations based on restrictions of gathering in groups.
Trying to change the structure and expectations to fit Covid-19 guidelines would have
been too much change to successfully do in a single year. The structure also helped us
have a starting point on what we could and could not do. The original structure also
pinpointed which events we should focus on to make happen for the year. The larger,
more popular and fundraising events were priorities for us to find ways for them to work
during covid. They would be the staple events to keep students engaged in SGA. One of
my favorite changes we did was host the monthly meetings outside in our courtyard. I
was large enough for everyone to be socially distant and created a more fun environment
for us to meet in. Most meetings were held on zoom once it became too cold outside,
however they still have outside meetings when the weather is nice enough. Some of the
changes we made stuck for the following years because they worked better than previous
years.

3) Recommend how you would use structure for an alternative course of action
regarding your case.

The structure of SGA aligned more with a lateral structure while the school itself
aligned with a vertical structure. I would keep this structure for this case because of the
collaboration among students. I would even spread the roles out into more of the

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 scholarship students to take pressure off of the officer team. We held a lot of meetings
during my time with SGA and that’s when we were always our most productive. Having
scheduled meetings was also the easiest way to know that everyone could be there. These
positions and involvement was not considered a job and was mostly just an
extracurricular activity for us. All of the students we worked with went to school full
time, had one to two jobs and/or were athletes on campus. SGA was one of many things
they agreed to commit their time to, so the easiest way to get everyone together was
planning out required meetings. SGA’s goal is to create an environment beyond the
classroom to give students a campus life that they might be missing out on from a four
year university, but might not get at a traditional community college. The best way for
officers to plan and coordinate events that students will want to attend is to collaborate
with them on what they are wanting to participate in. We worked for the entire student
body and made sure there was a type of event for everyone.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

I wish I could have been more prepared for the year as a whole. Typically, the
officers meet with the advisor over the summer to start planning for the coming school
year. We were unfortunately able to meet at least in person to be able to do this. I would
have pushed for more zoom meetings for us to have a better understanding of our roles.
When the school year started the officer team really had no idea what the year was going
to look like or what we wanted to accomplish within that year. I also wish I would have
delegated more of my work to task forces. I wanted to oversee all events going on
because of both my positions as president and office manager. I was so invested into SGA
as a whole that I could have shared more of my work with scholarship students. SGA is
also known for getting people leadership experience even if they don’t hold officer
positions by helping and supporting the officers. I wish I would have taken more
advantage of that resource.

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 Reference

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2021). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (7th ed.).
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass