Faith Moldan

After months of preparation and planning members of SDSU’s Residence Hall Association (RHA) will find out Saturday, Nov. 5 if their work will be rewarded with a chance to host the annual Midwest Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls (MACURH) leadership conference.

Katie Jo McGuire, secretary for RHA and chair of the MACURH bid process, is one of nine delegates from SDSU attending the conference held in Lincoln, Neb. this year. McGuire also attended last year’s conference in Kearney, Neb., which is when the idea of hosting the event at SDSU began. While at the conference, McGuire said she started thinking of ways to improve it and what SDSU could offer.

If things go the right way, SDSU could be home to MACURH next November.

“We kicked the idea around last year. We’ve been meeting since August,” McGuire said.

RHA Advisor Troy Alfson said he sees the bidding process as consisting of five parts. First is the decision to bid and the formation of the bid team which starts to put the “nuts and bolts together.”

One of the larger steps in the process is to get the approval of the Department of Residential Life and the Vice President of Student Affairs. The two departments must sign off on the bid, because they assume just as much responsibility for the event as RHA does, if not more.

Once final approval is granted, the team can present the plan at the conference.

“The bid itself must be a complete proposal about every aspect of the conference and how you plan to accomplish it,” said John Buchanan, a second year member of the executive board and member of the Regional Board of Directors for MACURH.

The conference consists of discussions, recognition and programs for campus leaders to bring back to their respective schools. Larger schools have hosted the conference in past years, but the event is a chance for any school to showcase its campus and university.

“It gives us the opportunity to show off our new facilities,” said Tim Wrenn, former president of RHA.

Alfson said, “We, SDSU and Brookings, have the facilities to make it happen. Combine that with a team of students with vision and purpose and MACURH-stock (SDSU’s proposed theme) has a chance to become reality.”

McGuire and the rest of the team are trying to keep the event as local as they can, keeping some of the SDSU flavor.

“We have volunteers lined up outside of RHA,” she said. “The community and surrounding area have been supportive.”

Despite road- blocks, the team has found creative ways to keep going according to McGuire.

Wrenn said, “Doing the work to bring in a conference as big as MACURH is always hard. It’s good to see Katie Jo put in as much effort, along with the rest of her team.”

Alfson said, “Students will have a leadership conference in their back yard – something to be proud of just by being a student at SDSU.”