Whether you’re a 6-year RA veteran or this is your first year on the job, chances are that you've experienced that late-night bulletin board struggle at least once. Res Life is closed for the night, the printer in your campus office is out of paper, and you know your Staff Supervisor is coming around first thing in the morning. Aughhh! So you staple a few papers to the board, sprinkle on some glitter, and call it a night, promising yourself that you’ll be better next month.
So what can you do to make your bulletin boards better? While we might not all have the capabilities of Res Life’s very own craft goddess Michele, here are a few tips on how to make your bulletin boards rock!
Bulletin boards are the perfect time to tap into your inner gold (even if you have to reach deep down in there), so get planning! First things first, you have to think of the board’s content. There are great resources that you can tap into on the internet. I’m a personal fan of Pinterest myself. But oftentimes the best sources of inspiration are all around you - your residents! Talk to them and see what they’d like to see up on the board. Residents typically like bulletin boards best when they are interactive, relevant, and aesthetically pleasing.
Maybe they've taken up a recent interest in astrology, so why not post the monthly horoscope predictions for each sign and write the names of your residents under their sign? March Madness is quickly approaching, so how about starting up a Bulletin Board bracket? You can make it a CB and Bulletin Board all in one!
Once you've figured out what you want to do, it’s time to figure out how to do it! If you’re stuck this is a great time to tap into some of your resources, cough cough Michele. Crafty staff members and returners can also give you some great ideas on how to start visualizing your board. When you've got it all figured out in your head, take pen to paper and start drawing out a rough sketch of your board. Making sure it keeps in line with the bulletin board guidelines, hand in your bulletin board proposal to your Staff Supervisor. Once you've got the green light, take a look at these tips to bring your board to life!
- Make your bulletin board title quick and easy to read! Same goes for all of your written text. Residents will be more likely to read your bulletin board if it’s got short blurbs of text, not a doctorate dissertation.
- Make sure your bulletin board seems “balanced.” Try to take up as much space on the board as possible, without the board seeming too squished or having huge gaps of space.
- Be creative with your use of colors, or stick within a “color theme!”
- When possible, try to make your bulletin board interactive or informative! If you’re on West, have residents submit their favorite recipes and put them up on the board. You could also have residents bring you something that is representative of them (a memento, a photo from home, etc.) that they'd be willing to share and post it up on the board to create a “Diversity Wall.” The possibilities are endless when you give yourself enough time to plan!
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