SHADOWING EXPERIENCE

Shadowing Experience
Ryan Deighan
University of Rhode Island

SHADOWING EXPERIENCE

Student Organization Leadership Consultants

Orientation Leader Retreat
February 8, 2015
Group:
Orientation Leaders
Group Contact & info:
Sean Thompson, seanthompson@uri.edu
SOLC Contact:
Nate Sousa/ Caitie Runyon
Goal of Retreat:
To build group cohesion and challenge the
group with conflict
# Participants:
40-45
Date:
2/8/15
Time:
12pm-2:30pm
Location:
MU Atrium 2
Facilitators:
Nate and Caitie
Food Requests:
none
Special Requests/Needs:
none
Retreat Agenda:
Time/
location
12:00
12:15
12:40
1:20
1:35
2:00
2:15
2:30

Topic/Activity

Facilitator

Introduction
Ball name game
One Duck Fell in the Pond
Body Part Intros
Blindfold Model Game
Community String Web
Debriefing / Evaluations
Depart

All
Caitie
Nate/Caitie
Caitie
Nate
Caitie
Nate/Caitie
All

Handouts:
- Evaluations at the end of retreat
General Supplies Check list:
- Foam balls
- Blindfolds
- PVC piping
- Yarn

Notes/Supplies neede
Multiple foam balls

Blindfolds, PVC pipes

Yarn

SHADOWING EXPERIENCE

*Meeting notes not available. I was giving a tour during that time. *

I attended the retreat for the URI Orientation Leader team on Sunday February 8th.
This was certainly a unique experience for me because I am a member of this team so I
was able to shadow the retreat from an SOLC standpoint while experience it hands on
through a participant standpoint. We met in the Memorial Union Atrium 2 with
approximately 45 individuals (including the SOLC team members).
This is a fairly new group of individuals, composed of both returning members
and members that had just been hired (like myself). Due to this, the team cohesion has yet
to have had the chance to build stronger so I believe this was one of the main goals of the
retreat. The orientation leader team will be spending over a month together through eight
rounds of orientations so it is crucial to make sure everyone on the team feels active and
have a sense of comfort when with this group. Returning members may feel close with
one another since they worked together for a long period of time so making sure the new
members were integrated with returners was an important aspect. Every single orientation
session is different and proposes a new challenge every time so another main goal of the
retreat was to work on how to face these challenges individually and as a team to help
prepare us for this summer.
The first activity to kick off the retreat was the name game with the foam balls.
The group was arranged in a large circle and the individual holding the ball would have
to yell someones name and then throw the ball to that person. That person would then
catch the ball and reply thank you (person that threw the ball)! I feel like this was a

SHADOWING EXPERIENCE

great activity to start the day off with because it allowed everyone to participate and have
a refresher of names in case if someone wasnt sure. This activity was enjoyable because
people would sometimes miss the throw or get hit with the ball when not looking,
breaking the ice in a way and creating a pleasant atmosphere. From a participant point of
view I felt that this helped mend the gap between returning and new orientation leaders
because I felt comfortable throwing to a returner whos name I knew and it made me feel
closer as a team which was one of the goals. Easily one of the most frustrating games I
have ever been apart of was honestly one of the most rewarding, which was the blindfold
one. Two members from our team were selected to sit in the middle of our circle with a
blindfold over their eyes. The SOLC leaders then constructed a model out of PVC pipe
that the two participants would have to replicate. One by one we went around the circle
and gave the two participants instructions on how to replicate this model but there was a
catch; we could only use three words. Anytime the people in the circle would talk or say
more than three words, the SOLC leaders would change up the model on us making it
more difficult. This was a microcosm of the orientation experience when you think about
it because we are never going to have the same sessions, there will always be something
new to challenge us as leaders and we must rely on our team to help us out when need be,
so this activity helped achieve the goal of challenging us as a team with new problems.
On our first orientation leader meeting after this retreat, we debriefed about it and
went around and shared our positive and negative experiences with the retreat. I gathered
an overall consensus from our group that we thought the activities might have been a
little bit too long. A lot of people on our team started to lose interest/motivation to
continue being an active member of the games. We played the duck game, where you go

SHADOWING EXPERIENCE

around the circle and repeat the same four lines over and over again, gradually increasing
as phrases were completed. This activity was really fun for a lot of people but individuals
that were out early in this game were annoyed because this game took a very long time
and they couldnt participate. This was a flaw I noticed during the retreat. The individuals
kicked out of the game were encouraged to heckle the people still in the game, but not
everyone wanted to do that so they kind of just sat around. The blindfold game took a
very long time as well. I found that I lost my cool during the stressful parts of this
activity and strongly lacked motivation to continue. Nate kept moving the model on us
over and over again, which set us back every time. When debriefing about the retreat
almost everyone felt annoyed with how long we played this game for, which is something
I think I would change if I were to facilitate.
Being a part of this retreat as well as shadowing the retreat was certainly an
educational experience for myself as a leader. I learned that even though an activity can
reach a main goal you are trying to accomplish, maybe sometimes it is best to take a step
back and see how the participants are reacting to it. You most certainly want to make the
retreat an enjoyable one for the participants as well as educational, to get the main points
across. I now understand that this can be difficult at time when trying to facilitate a large
group so this is something I will keep in mind for future retreats. By watching how Caitie
and Nate interacted with our group was important as well because as a leader it is
essential to keep the group organized, controlled and most importantly, engaged. I loved
attending and shadowing this retreat and Im looking forward to more in the future!