Students Consulting for Non Profit Organizations

"Get on a balcony."

These are the words that my SLA advisor urged our class to execute as she wrote to us from her Chicago locale last week. My first thought was that MelRoc spent some time on the Sears Tower balcony and maybe got a little too excited to share her experience.

Then I reread her words and I realized I had a problem. In order to "get on a balcony," or what Melissa really meant, be a silent observer of a student organization, I had to actually have an organization to observe. Therein lies the rub. The student organization that I had envisioned observing was not meeting for two weeks. My thoughts, however, were expected to be fully realized in virtual ink within a week. Dilemma.

So I had to be flexible. I scrambled, asking any and all friends for possible ideas. I even considered "cold" attending random student org meetings in the union. Thankfully a good friend and roommate invited me to observe one of his student orgs, Students Consulting for Non-Profits.

Students Consulting for Non Profit Organizations, or SCNO in word count friendly terms, is a Fisher College of Business student organization whose mission is to develop communities through pro-bono consulting engagements for non profits.

This organization's mission really excited me and so going into their meeting I realized that I was going to have to put in some extra effort into remaining silent and impartial.

I walked into the classroom on the third floor of Schoenbaum Hall, introduced myself to the exec team, and then quietly took a seat at the back of the amphitheater like seating.

One of the first things I noticed about the organization was the attendance. The meeting began at 7:30, and at 7:25 there were already over 25 members in the room. For an organization of a little over 30 members I found this number pretty impressive.

After a little bit of technical difficulty, and a few jokes thrown out by the exec team, the meeting got rolling. The president, Adam Windnagle, a cheerful guy with a carefree air about him, began the meeting by setting up an icebreaker where each member was to talk to two other members, giving their name and describing their least favorite state. Immediately I could tell that there were a number of newcomers to the organization. At least half, if not more, seemed to be unfamiliar with their peers. The number of new members really hints at the real possibility that this organization faces high turnover, that is to say that the general members don't stick around for a long time.

The meeting then continued with the week's announcements. It turns out that SCNO is already in the officer transition stage. Adam let his members know that they would be looking to replace a number of the exec team who were planning to graduate within this school year. As he described the open positions, a number of officers chipped in as to the responsibilities. The interaction among the officers really gives one the impression that this is an organization run through the collaboration of a devoted exec board and not just a single individual.

After the talk about exec positions, Adam closed the announcements portion of the meeting by alerting everyone to a mandatory "SCNOcial" this Friday. The members were told that they would need to email a valid excuse to the VP of Human Resources if they were unable to make the organization's get together. This idea of a mandatory social makes me think that the organization is trying very hard to get the new members quickly familiar with each other and feeling like a part of the organization.

After announcements, all of the members broke down into groups of five, which were managed by a team lead as well as an exec board member. As I listened to each group discuss their clients and their plan of action for the coming weeks, I could really tell that all of the students seemed very passionate about the mission and values of the organization. Values like the ability to give back to their community and the opportunity to develop personally. Listening to them talk and discovering some of the explicit values really made me also dig into possible implicit values of the organization, such as professionalism, teamwork, leadership, and critical thinking.


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When the meeting concluded I was very impressed with the organization. The meeting ran very smoothly with a very organized and focused exec board. All of the members seemed very excited, and the actions of the group seemed to line straight up with the organization's mission. However, I couldn't help but to see a few areas where the organization could improve. My biggest concern is with the organization's apparent high turnover rate. The mission and work of the organization really demands a lot of its members and it is possible that a number of members have the "one and done" attitude. Another issue that could possibly arise within the organization involved the officer transition process. The organization stands to lose over half it's executive team by the end of the year, most of whom were founding members of the organization. While the executive board seems to be functioning very effectively at this point, they may face challenges in maintaining the organization's vision as new blood steps in.



IMHO (In my humble opinion) SCNO is a very promising organization. I personally admire the work they are doing and I am very impressed by their members. I really look forward in helping to further strengthen the organization with outside input as they move forward. I sincerely hope that my view from the balcony can bring valuable input to the organization.