The Resident Assistant’s Bulletin Board plays an important part in the success of your residency. The board says a lot about you, your range of information and your organizational skills. Yet, this board is primarily for the benefit of your residents. It should never be self-serving. It should always be interesting and loaded with important information.
If your bulletin board fulfills its purpose, it will be a place where residents meet to catch up on events, share a laugh or make plans to get together. That is exactly what you want your board to be.
These goals do not happen by accident. You will be sending a fair amount of time, clipping, creating and posting interesting and relevant topics that will benefit the residents. Remember, the purpose of the RA’s bulletin board is to engage the residents. Give them something in common to attend, participate in or discuss. Good things will happen.
Here are a few popular postings for Resident Assistant Bulletin Boards:
• Things To See
• Things To Do
• Health News
• Drug Awareness
• Where Are You From? – Post a map and encourage residents to label their hometown
• Where Have Your Been? – Post a map and ask residents to mark places they have visited
• Cultural Awareness events
• News of the day – post the days leading new story
• Peer Pressure topics
• Movie Reviews
This bulletin board should be different, interesting, contain important contact and emergency contact information. If the RA gets it right, residents will congregate here, even if it is to agree to disagree. Don’t be afraid to post controversial news reports. Get residents communicating with each other and with you. It is healthy. It is beneficial and it adds character to your residency.
Keep your bulletin board from being repetitious. Vary the format. Encourage diversity. Encourage residents to make suggestions, postings and contributions. They just may find that they have more in common than originally realized.
Most institutions require RA’s to change their bulletin boards once a month. Successful RA’s are more aggressive and strive for change every two weeks. As a Resident Assistant, you are a friend, a leader, a disciplinarian, a mediator, a programmer and peer counselor. Your bulletin board must never compromise any of these important roles that you bear. Use humor, not sarcasm, be accurate with the information and be culturally sensitive. Your bulletin board is an extension of yourself, and you are the person residents go to when in trouble.