OFFICER APPLICATION

For the 2016-2017 school year.

Position applying for: Administrative Vice President___

Only one position per application.

IMPORTANT GUIDELINES

-Please attach a resume.

-This application applies to candidates for the positions of: President, Executive Vice President, Professional Vice President, Internal Vice President, External Vice President, Administrative Vice President, Academic Vice President and Financial Vice President.

-Presidential candidates must have previously held a position on the ABSA officer panel.

-Incomplete and/or late applications will not be considered.

-All applicants must purchase tickets to and attend the End-of-Semester (EOS) Banquet.

-Important mandatory dates and events:

  • Thursday, April14 @ 11:59PM: Application Due.
  • Friday, April 15 @ 11:59 AM: Confirmation of candidacy eligibility.
  • Friday, April 15 –Sunday, April 17: Interview with current officer(s).
  • Thursday, April21 @ 6:15 PM: Elections
  • Location: MEZ 1.306
  • All candidates must arrive promptly at 5:15PM
  • Business Professional attire for candidates
  • Friday, April 22 @ 11:59 AM: Elections Results Announced
  • April 26, April 27, and May 3: Intranet Trainings (Academic and Financial)
  • Friday, May 6 @ 12:00 PM: New MASO President Luncheon (president only)
  • Friday, May 6 @ 3:00 PM: Mandatory New MASO Officer Training
  • Sunday, May 8: End-of-Semester (EOS) Banquet
  • Official Officer Induction
  • Formal/Evening Attire
  • Tickets must be purchased in order to be eligible.
  • No refunds

OFFICER CONTACT INFORMATION

Sabeeha Islam / 214-684-7022 /
Amanda Shang / 832-240-5626 /
Lucia Hua / 281-889-1481 /
Julia Hoang / 469-544-1534 /
Sang-YopKwon / 940-765-1809 /
StevenYen / 972-989-5238 /
JohnnyVo / 469-463-5729 /
AlexHui / 214-906-0268 /

BASIC INFORMATION

Name: __Ruochen Wu______Classification by year: __freshman______

E-mail:__ Phone:__(269)779-0235______

Major(s): _economics______Expected Graduation (Month, Yr):_5/2019_____

Previous position(s) held in ABSA: __media director______

Other organizations involved in and positions planning to hold for 2016-2017:

Learn to be- member/tutor______

______

Hours planning to take in Fall 2016: _16__ Spring 2017: _16__

Other obligations (i.e. jobs, internships, etc): Please be specific.

I have an internship during the 2016-2017 school year that requires 40 hours for an independent focus_ project.______

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

Please answer all of the following questions on a separate sheet of paper. Maximum 3 pages typed.

  1. Why are you running for this position?
  2. What contributions have you made to ABSA as a member?
  3. Why do you feel that you are qualified for this specific officer position?
  4. Based on your observations, what were the biggest weaknesses of the branch for which you are applying as officer? What would you plan to do next year to solve these issues?
  5. What specific plans and new ideas do you have for ABSA, and how do you plan to implement these plans in this particular officer position?
  6. Additional comments.

PLEASE REMEMBER

Applications are due in hard-copy formatande-mail attachment by Thursday, April 14, 2016 at 11:59PM to the current officer of the position to which you are applying.

  1. Why are you running for this position?

I wish to be administrative vice president because ABSA is a warm community that I love working both with and for, the position offers invaluable professional development, and because I really enjoy the work admin branch does.

ABSA is the organization that awed, challenged, and rewarded me like no other. From the start, I’ve been the recipient of so much guidance and friendship. After better understanding the structure and purpose of the organization, I believe that I am capable of giving back by sharing my personal experience, tangible technical gains, and passion.

Secondly, I see no better way to further develop professional and leadership skills than as a VP, whose job requires effective communication, level-headedness, and organization at all times, whose demanding job will be a continuous learning experience.

Why I chose the administrative branch specifically is because it is the conglomeration of my values: creativity and people. The support work that admin does incorporates creative freedom and is genuinely fun. Because everyone has a different artistic touch, the way admin annually runs things will vary and always has some unpredictability. Admin’s role can be understood as the metaphorical gravity, unifying the massive web that is ABSA. The organizationon top of spanningthrough multiple generations splits off into numerous groups, branches, teams, and committees each with different agendas and skillsets Administrative branch is the one that pulls everyone together and connects this widely heterogeneous group of people, for ultimately, the people are what give meaning to ABSA.

  1. What contributions have you made to ABSA as a member?

I have been dependably supportive of the organization, and am flexible toaccommodate ABSA’s many different roles.

On ABSA’s social pillar, I continuously show presence, enthusiasm, and curiosity to enrich member energy andtakeaways from events. I indulge in new experiences and always seek new opportunities to learn. This mentality also shapes into how I interact with people. Though I constantly strive to strengthen my friendships with those I’m already close with, I am always one handshake away from meeting a new face and potential friend.

In professional settings, I do my part to represent ABSA positively in the eyes of corporate sponsors and guest presenters. I participate not only through active listening, but also through inquisitiveness, reciprocating ideas to demonstrate attentiveness and cultivate open communication.

I also contribute to the philanthropic pillar, giving my time both within and without ABSA. Besides participating in the activities to help the greater Austin community, I also help volunteer-based projects like thrift shop, informer articles, and dumpling fundraiser run smoothly.

  1. Why do you feel that you are qualified for this specific officer position?

With two semesters of media directorship, I was able to live through and archive many of the priceless memories spread across ABSA’s pillars, branches, teams, and committees. Resultantly, I’ve been able to better understand the grand scheme of things throughout ABSA. In addition to having a broad perspective of the organization, I have a solid understanding of my own limitations and merits. I work hard to produce good content in a timely manner, but am continuously adapting and learning. I take the initiative by seeking mentorship in order to increase efficiency and quality. I am certainly not the expert at any one task overseen by administrative. However, my gaps in knowledge or experience I take initiative to fill by either reaching out to other members or spending hours online learning. Through constantly challenging myself, I am definitely one of the most improved directors this year, and have gained a lot of tangible technical and social skills that I’d be able to share with future directors.

  1. Based on your observations, what were the biggest weaknesses of the branch for which you are applying as officer? What would you plan to do next year to solve these issues?

Two of the biggest problems exhibited in the administrative branch this year are unbalanced director responsibilities and marketing team integration. Comparatively, not all of the directors in the branch have equally time-consuming responsibilities. I am a firm believer that the amount you gain is proportional to the amount given. Marketing team is and has historically been under the administrative branch yet the two groups don’t work as one entity. A change that would address both the issues of task disproportionality and marketing team integration is to have the webmaster work with marketing team. Specifically the webmaster can help guide marketing team through the process of polishing a recent m-team website and participating in HTML and Google Analytic lessons. In addition, I would like to add a marketing team slide in GM PowerPoint that would summarize the takeaways from last week’s lesson and state the time, place, and agenda for the current week’s meeting; this would make marketing team open meetings appear less abstract and more accessible.

  1. What specific plans and new ideas do you have for ABSA, and how do you plan to implement these plans in this particular officer position?

Membership in marketing team has potential to become more of a leadership experience rather than just one of learning. Currently, marketing team members learn from the experienced co-heads, work on assignments, and sometimes give presentations demonstrating their fruition and research. The aforementioned are inarguably valuable has the potential to grow outside of its class-like structure. Members, after having been selected into the team, will have further opportunities to take on leadership positions by becoming for instance,marketing workshop leads. McCombs has a plethora of great marketing faculty that would share their knowledge if given the opportunity. People within marketing team could feel more involved with ABSA if they planned events that weren’t exclusively internal, taking on responsibilities such as logistics or promotion. These events would create a different dynamic for people outside of marketing team as well, for attending larger scale ABSA events hosted by marketing team seems more inviting than attending an open meeting where new irregular attendees without the proper background may feel confused and isolated.

Another change I want to make is to wane the boundaries between different subdivisions of ABSA. There are many opportunities for different teams to cooperate outside of socials. For example, while marketing team analyzes the best way to sell a tech company’s product, finance team could value the entire company and consulting team could looks into that specific technology’s industry. Certainly not every member of all the teams have to participate in any given event, but it’s plausible to group pairs or trios from each team and challenge them with a collaborative project.