The Chat is Where It's At

I love professional development opportunities. Sitting around with other folks in my profession and trading insight into how they do things is one of my favorite past times. Heck, I love it so much that I created the Business of Small College Athletics workshop as an avenue to encourage growth for Small College Athletic Administrators.

I also encourage my staff and coaches to seek out these opportunities, attend their conventions, and look to grow in any way possible. More than just attending, I encourage them to strive to become leaders of their professional development organization. A goal that I think we should all have.

The challenge with attending workshops and conventions is that they only happen once per year. Creating a list of all of your challenges and taking that list to the convention in search of answers isn’t a very productive way to go about growing. What you need is a consistent group with which to share and learn from. I highly advocate sports pros finding mentors or close friends in the business that they can bounce ideas off of. I also invite you to join us on Sunday nights at 8pm for #scachat.

#scachat is a discussion group for small college athletic administrators that takes place on Twitter. Merely search for the #scachat hashtag, look for the questions (Q1, Q2, etc) to pop up, and then respond with your answers (A1, A2, etc) or questions. The chat lasts an hour, is a great place to connect by following and be followed by your peers, and you never have to leave your couch to participate.

I host the majority of the chats but I’m always looking for folks that are willing to guest host. Let me know if this appeals to you. Similarly, if you have a topic that you want to see discussed please let me know and I will include it in the chat. I hope that you will join us and contribute to an upcoming chat. As I always say, don’t just follow the hashtag…use it!

While I’m still a huge advocate of attending conventions(I hope to see you at NACDA, the NAIA Convention, or BOSCA this year), I encourage you to get started today to find additional sources for professional development. That is, unless you think you already know everything there is to know!