- How to do knowledge-transfer in groups with ever-changing members
- Avoiding situations where the burden of labour is always on oldest members
- Avoiding group breakdown when member turnover happens every semester/year

AP	"I can think more on this too but my initial thought is that this is why apprenticeship and mentorship is really important. If you are building leadership and supporting people to learn/grow at every step of the way, then this situation is much easier to navigate. Churches are really good at this so I've read a couple of books about how they grow and this approach to training an apprentice comes from a book called Exponential: - I do. You watch. We talk. - I do. You help. We talk. - You do. I help. We talk. - You do. I watch. We talk. - You do. Someone else watches. In student groups, you have a natural 3-4 year cycle so you can even map this onto that timeline. If you know that on average people are involved for 1-2 years and that they cap out at 3-4, then make sure you have processes/practices in place to train them and get them to a place where they are training others in under 2 years, etc."

Faire face au roulement de membres

Qu'ils le veuillent ou non, les groupes étudiants sont contraints par les périodes définies par le calendrier académique et la durée des programmes d'études de leur école. Ces périodes de roulement s'échelonnent sur un cycle de 3-4 ans [1]. Celles-ci, bien que constituant un défi dans la création d'un momentum, peuvent pousser les groupes à se doter de processus de formation et de développement du leadership. Ainsi, il peuvent adéquatemment faire face au roulement des membres et pérenniser leur impact.

Les passages surlignés sont des connaissances partagées lors de notre cercle d'apprentissage sur ce sujet.

Types de groupes étudiantss

L'écosystème d'un campus est principalement composé de 4 groupes.

Associations étudiantes

Les associations étudiantes œuvrent au niveau du campus, de la faculté et du département, et agissent en tant que « voix démocratique du corps étudiant » au nom de leurs membres. Ces syndicats disposent souvent d'un financement permanent perçu par le biais d'une cotisation qui leur permet de financer des événements, de faire des dons et parfois d'offrir des rôles rémunérés, à la fois en tant que personnes membres exécutives et employées (ex : la permanence).

Positions exécutives élues (ex. SECMV : rôles non-rémunérés, ASFA: rôles rémunérés)
Embauche dans le cadre du programme travail-étude de Concordia (ex: Recherche de campagne, CSU)

Groupes financés par cotisation étudiante

D'autres groupes du campus peuvent être financés par le biais des cotisations étudiantes en obtenant le soutien du corps étudiant. Comme les associations étudiantes, ces groupes disposent de fonds récurrents. Contrairement aux associations étudiantes, ils peuvent se concentrer sur des sujets ou des besoins spécifiques, comme la sécurité alimentaire sur le campus, les subventions pour les projets communautaires, etc.

Clubs et comités

Les clubs et comités de campus sont financés par l'association étudiante ou l'institution scolaire elle-même. En général, les clubs et les comités sont de petits groupes de bénévoles ou de personnes participantes qui s'inscrivent, sont nommées ou demandent à participer. Ils peuvent obtenir leur financement grâce aux fonds alloués chaque semestre par les associations étudiantes à divers projets comme les clubs et les comités ainsi que les groupes locaux.

Groupes locaux ou grassroot

Les groupes locaux ou groupes d'action directe sont des collectifs informels de personnes qui s'organisent sur un campus donné ou un ensemble de campus. Si certains groupes étudiants ont une longue tradition, beaucoup sont émergents et existent pour donner aux personnes étudiantes un espace où s'organiser autour d'une question populaire. Ces groupes demandent un financement en fonction de leurs besoins.

Les groupes d'étudiants de la base courent le plus grand risque de se dissoudre en raison de leur incapacité à relayer le groupe à la prochaine génération d'organisation étudiante.

Cela est dû au fait qu'ils n'ont pas la permanence de la structure qui est exigée des autres types de groupes étudiants. Bien que le caractère informel de ces groupes leur confère liberté et souplesse, l'absence de structure formelle peut entraîner des difficultés lorsque vient le temps pour une génération de passer le relais à la suivante. Ces défis peuvent être évités en travaillant stratégiquement avant le roulement de membres pour créer des systèmes de soutien et d'intégration pour les nouveaux membres, ainsi qu'en développant la mémoire institutionnelle.

Challenges faced

Those lived experiences were shared by learning circle participants. They portrait some consequences of not being ready for student turnover.

Divestment organizers were concerned about groups who won and didn’t know where to go from there
Groups have been struggling to navigate online organizing
There are ongoing concerns related to general turnover and capacity when students graduate (particularly those who have been members of a group for a while
A lack of support from former members leads to more energy and time needed to restart after a high rate of turnover.
Anger towards the school administration leads to forgetting about turnover periods, thus the workload for the next semester is larger.

Running effective student groups

Momentum's Structure Report suggests 5 key elements allow for groups to organize effectively:

1. The capacity to coordinate teams

2. The capacity to facilitate group deliberation and decision making processes

3. The ability to distribute work into roles on teams

4. The ability to set up systems and design programs to recruit people from your target constituencies

5. The ability to train and coach other leaders

This is what we should be striving for when developing our student groups that navigate turnover effectively.

Ways to naviguate turnover

Support and Guidance for New Members

The Buddy System
HUB co-director Jacqueline Tam elaborated on this Many groups navigate turnover by pairing new members with someone who has more experience. This strategy encourages relationship building and offers a point of contact to new members to go to with their questions. Your group can do this in a number of ways: Make being a ‘buddy’ to new members a specific role in your group; Allow new members to choose their buddy; Partner new members with existing members based on their area of interest, for example, if a new member is interested in communications pair them with the communications bottom-liner. It’s important that those assigned to be buddies have a strong sense of the group's identity and activities, their role is to make themselves replaceable by training new members and activating potential leaders. Older members shadowing new members. Assist until the person feels comfortable doing the task at hand alone with minimal support from the older member.

In Practice...
In order to have a sustainable student group, veteran members need to take on the responsibility of building leadership and supporting people to learn and grow. Project advisor Amara Possian on training/skilling up If you are building leadership and supporting people to learn/grow at every step of the way, then this situation is much easier to navigate. Churches are really good at this so I've read a couple of books about how they grow and this approach to training an apprentice comes from a book called Exponential: I do. You watch. We talk. I do. You help. We talk. You do. I help. We talk. You do. I watch. We talk. You do. Someone else watches. As shown in this process, veteran members need to invite new people to do tasks that were taken care of by older members (ex : speak to media).

Institutional Memory

Having a strong base of institutional memory ensures the sustainability of your group by supporting new members to navigate turnover. A lack of institutional memory can lead to role confusion, lost vision, and copycat actions.

Having an established structure with practices to cultivate institutional memory help make those become natural to members.

Create a Blueprint
Create a document that includes everything someone entering a new role would need to be successful. Be sure to include: Essential responsibilities Best practices Passwords Contacts (internal and external ; include roles and ressources linked to each contact) Brief how-to explainers (tasks, school boards, permission to publish on school boards, creating pamphlets, printing posters) General tips For Divest Campaigns : board of directors document with pictures/names/information

Have Strong Onboarding and Outboarding Processes
Onboarding process should include: An overview of the group's mission, values, and structure Introductions to key group members Opportunities to questions A concrete action of next step for prospective members, ie. ask them to join an action, invite them to the next meeting, or plan a social activity Offboarding process should include: Request feedback from outgoing members on ways to improve the group (i.e. a google form, a meeting)

Naviguating turnover is strongly linked to other subjects upon which Learning Circle participants shared knowledge such as...

Back to Homepage

Faire face au roulement de membres qui graduent

Sommaire