University of Wisconsin - Stout | Groups

Virtual Student Org Resources

Stay connected in your organization

Year 2020 has brought an unprecedented amount of change. But that doesn't mean your work within your student organization has to stop. If anything, it's more than important than ever to stay connected with your orgs during this period of social distancing.

Take some time to review various resources to support you in managing your org in a virtual environment!

Keep in Touch

The Involvement Center is here to support you!

Contact our staff individually depending on your need or feel free to send general questions to involvement@uwstout.edu or call 715.232.1772.

Hosting Virtual Meetings

We encourage virtual meetings whenever possible!  There are a variety of platforms to explore for hosting a virtual meeting.

Microsoft Teams

As an Office 365 campus, you can sign in and use all of the features available to you for Microsoft Teams. Our Learning Technology Resources links to a number of short and easy tutorials to get you acclimated to Teams.

Below are a few of the tutorials you may want to start with.

Explore and sign up for an account

Quick Start
Set up and customize your team
Start chats and calls
Manage a meeting
Set up and attend live events

Zoom

Zoom offers video conferencing and has a basic free plan, which includes the ability to host up to 100 participants, unlimited 1-1 meetings and 40 minutes for group meetings.

Explore and sign up for an account

Tools in CONNECT

There are a variety of CONNECT tools to help you maintain strong communication with your org members and fellow officers.

Best Practices for Hosting Virtual Events

  • Continue to create or edit existing events in your CONNECT page
  • Add the word "Virtual" in every event title
  • Add the "Virtual" event tag to every event (in the event creation form)
  • Add links to virtual meetings (on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) instead of room locations in the event creation form. Also, add these links to the front and center of the event description
  • Encourage members to continue to register on CONNECT as normal and maintain accurate attendance tracking for your org

Email Builder

If you weren't already using CONNECT's email builder, now is the time to start! Send user-friendly emails, design using easy drag and drop tools, track who's reading and more.

Forum

Create online discussions using the Forum. Allow your officers and members to weigh in on important topics. You can create specific discussions by topic and get your members posting and joining in on the conversation.

Access the forum by:

-Go to your left side navigation of your Group Page
-Scroll down to More Tools
-Click Forum

Run Elections with Surveys + Forms

If your org is transitioning officers this semester, let CONNECT help with an easy election process.

Org leaders can simply create an online election form that allows you to share information about each candidate and let each member vote anonymously.

Learn how to create an election form in your group page