Residence Life Professional Answers:

One of the best trainings I've seen on policies and procedures was in a game show format.  Basically, everyone in the room was provided with a copy of the student handbook (that included the student code of conduct) and also had a copy of the policies and procedures.  The room was divided up and questions were asked to the group and they "competed".  Everyone that got a question right received a little prize and the winning team got a pizza coupon from our on-campus night-time delivery.

This might be a fun way to make policies interesting during training, rather than boring!  Good luck with the training!

Steve Crudup
Resident Director, O'Connor Hall
Dickinson Community
Binghamton University

Perhaps there are a couple of things you could try.

The easy way is to talk about situations or act out situations in which policies are broken and then discuss which policies were broken and how.  If you are really creative you may be able to come up with a set and a skit where between 5-10 policies are violated. While you are acting it out, have half the group taking notes/writing down what happened. 

Then take a break: ice breaker or meal.  When you get back from break have the group talk about the incident and see how many violations they come up with.  Normally this exercise shows that those who take notes during rounds/a confrontation/ an intervention have much better recollection. 

If you don't have lots of time, it may be good to discuss policies and then give out a quiz to all the staff (multiple choice with rationalizations for policies). Peer grade them with new and returner RA's paired up. After that, your supervisor can "grade them" and give out an award at the end of Spring training to the highest scorer.  You'd be surprised how often seasoned RA's have a misunderstanding of what is behind policy. MAKE SURE YOUR HALL DIRECTOR IS WILLING. 

Another exercise maybe to imagine that the RA staff is about to open a new hall.  The RA's are responsible for instituting policy in this hall.  Start from scratch and see how many policies your fellow RA's would want to establish--this exercise can take some time and may involve setting goals for what you want the hall to be like, etc.  When you are done, compare your list to the policies of your institution.  Be sure to discuss the rationale behind the policies...IE Halogen lamps are attractive, cheap and give out good light, but they are also the #2 cause of fires in residence halls. 
Good Luck--

Hope this helped!


Holly Habicht,
Residence Life Coordinator
Georgia Tech

As a refresher we have done a Jeopardy type game for reviewing policies.

Another way to make it fun and exctiting is to make it a incremental horse race, where each teams horse moves forward one space/length when the team answers correctly. Yet another way is to set it up as a true/false scenario and have one side of the room designated as true, one as false. People move to the side of the room according to what they think the answer is. This exercise allows you to use more difficult questions and is good for facilitating discussion


Trey Reckling
Resident Director
Savannah College of Art and Design

Be sure to check out ResidentAssistant.com PREMIUM for a comprehensive list of teambuilders and games

Residence Life Professional Answers:

Hi Jennifer!  Thanks for contacting ResidentAssistant.com!  My staff loves the toilet paper relay and it only takes a few minutes.  You need a pretty LONG space to do this but it can be quite narrow.

1. Split the staff into as many teams as you want.  There should probably be at least 4 on each team.
2. Give each team a roll of toilet paper.
3. When the whistle sounds, the first member of the relay team places the roll of toilet paper on the ground and begins rolling it out along the floor.   If the paper rips, they have to discard the ripped piece and go back to where they started from.
4. When that person gets to his/her teammates on the other side, the
teammate must begin to roll the toilet paper back up again.
5. This goes on and on, back and forth until one team finishes!  First
one to finish is the winner!

Hope this is helpful!

Adrienne Otto Frame
Residence Coordinator
Mahoney Residential College
University of Miami

In response to your question of 20 minute or less staff developments, I would have to ask what your intentions would be.  If you are just trying to get your staff to know one another and/or interact, I highly suggest a board game of some sort...like Taboo or Guesstures.  I have seen even the most un-interactive staffs enjoy these types of activities.

In general...I have a suggestion.  Instead of trying to figure out what to do, have your staff do the developments!  Give them the 20 minute time limit and have them draw for dates.  Tell them they have to come up with something to teach and/or an activity that will take up the time slot.  I have done this with my staffs for the past few years on the urging of a co-worker and it has worked very well.  They might say it's extra work at first...but it becomes more of a stage for them to show what they know and to decide "who does the best staff development".  I have even thought of having an award that the staff votes on at the end of the semester for "best staff development".

If you are trying to meet a specific need, it may be a little more difficult to limit a discussion to 20 minutes.  For Diversity issues, I would recommend using sections of "Collaidescope" (I know the spelling looks wrong, but it's how the makers spell it), which is a game that discusses several diversity issues.  I have also looked up articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education and/or on-line and given them to my staff ahead of time for them to talk about at the meeting.  Mostly, these have been issues we've been dealing with in our hall or on-campus, so that they can see how it relates to them.

Best of luck with your staff developments!  If you come up with any good ones...please share! ;)

Steve Crudup
Resident Director, O'Connor Hall
Dickinson Community
Binghamton University


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