** Setting the Tone & Developing the Agenda: On campus, the President of La Raza has many decision making responsibilities, but not to worry, your Executive Team, which consists of you, your Executive Vice President, your Public Relations Officer and your advisors, will collectively manage any situation that arises.  As President, it is important for you to effectively utilize the other members of your Executive Team, because your team sets the tone and subsequently the agenda of the organization for the entire year.  Your Executive Vice President manages internal affairs and makes sure the other officers are completing their respective tasks.  This allows you to focus on the External Agenda and Internal Agenda items that should be established by your board each semester.   Agenda items are completely at your discretion and can vary significantly due to the broad nature of our mission statement.  Use your creativity and take the organization and the Latino Community to whichever fruitful paths you please.  Examples of External and Internal Agendas are listed below.

During the 2004/2005 academic year, the Executive Team at the Delaware Chapter of the CALR focused on:

• Externally, La Raza focused on introducing our organization to the regional Latino community in an attempt to establish community allies and partnerships.  
• Internally, La Raza focused on introducing our organization to the campus Latino community.  We also focused on selling the vision of La Raza, setting the organization up and strengthening it administratively.

During the 2005/2006 academic year, that same chapter focused on:

• Externally, La Raza focused on further strengthening our relationships with outside entities & engaging in activism on a National Scale.
• Internally, La Raza focused on coalition building with our African American counterparts: The Black Student Union, strengthening our organization on campus, combating hate crimes, and forging new unprecedented avenues of communication with the University's campus newspaper, The Review.

During the 2005/2006 academic year, UD La Raza focused heavily on building a relationship with our African American counterparts in The Black Student Union.  Together with the BSU and the UofD Chapter of the NAACP, La Raza challenged hate on campus, co-faciliating several forums on race relations.  The Coalition also indicted the campus newspaper, The Review, with charges of being insensitive to minority students and minority organizations on campus.  Our indictment was followed by town hall forums and meetings with the entity, eventually leading to The Review taking unprecedented steps towards becoming more sensitive to the needs of minority students. On another note, La Raza hosted his Excellency, Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States, sent 100 UD students (mostly La Raza and BSU members) to Washington DC to participate in the Millions More March, sponsored a inner-city Children's Book Drive that collected 2200 books , and initiated a voter registration campaign aimed at minority students.

As President, it will be up to you and your team to set the tone and the agenda for each semester.  Plan events well, continue to contribute to our community in unparalleled ways and you will successfully maintain the prestige of our organization.
 

** The External Face of the Organization: The President of La Raza is the external face of the organization.  Politicians, dignitaries, La Raza Alumni, political candidates, CEOs, professionals, researchers, activists, members of influential private, public and non-profit organizations and intellectuals from the outside community will be contacting you in an attempt to advance mutual agendas and provide opportunities to you and your members.  As president, you decide which endeavors the organization adopts and how active La Raza is within the regional community.  You and your Executive Board are students first - do not over-extend yourselves and remember: "When La Raza Comes, We Come Correct!!" - maintain the history of excellence of your organization.  If you decide to take up an initiative, do it right or decline the invitation.

Maintaining Relationships with Community Allies:  As the outside face of the organization, you should develop and maintain relationships with key entities and figures within your respective community.  Your counterparts in Delaware focus on maintaining relationships with organizations such as The Governor's Advisory Council on Hispanic Affairs (GACHA), The Latin American Community Center, The APRI Institute, Delaware Hispanic LLC, and Voces Sin Fronteras.  The leadership of these organizations think highly of our organization and love to see Latino college students making moves.  Build strong personal relationships with power players within your regional Latino community and they will take care of you and your members, leading the explosions of your respective resumes and the opening of many doors for you and your members.

** The Internal Face of the Organization:  Internally, the President of La Raza plays a limited but key role.  You will be responsible for running meetings, representing our organization to other entities on campus, delegating authority, and maintaining relationships with other key presidents on campus.  All internal La Raza Affairs should be handled by your Executive Vice President.  He or she is responsible for making sure that all of your other officers are completing their tasks so that the organization does not deviate from the path set by the Executive Team.

Building and Maintaining Coalitions on Campus: It is important for the La Raza President to build and maintain coalitions on campus.  As the President, you should develop personal relationships with key figures on campus, especially the Presidents of The Black Student Union,  our cultural sister organization - LASO, all of our Latino Greek organizations, and the other Latino student organizations.  You should exchange cell phone numbers with these individuals and do whatever you can to build strong personal relationships with them.  Encourage other members of La Raza to do the same and know which of your members are also on the boards of other key entities.  In times of crisis, individuals who serve on the boards of conflicting organizations can often bridge the gaps resulting from a conflict.  In any event, do what you can to maintain unity within and between the African American and Latino communities - this unity is important for all students at West Chester University - especially those within the community your represent.

Use Your Public Relations Officer: Your public relations officer should be skilled in designing flyers and handbills.  Use this officer to effectively reach out and advertise events, community meetings, town hall forums, and general unity between La Raza and its allied organizations, such as LASO and the Black Student Union.  White flyers with colored ink are ideal for parts of campus where the vast majority of racial and ethnic minorities reside, while colored paper and black ink is acceptable for the rest of campus.  Targeting your resources in a strategic way will maximize your success.  Remember: extra resources should be dedicated to maintaining our image and prestige on our home turf.

** Facilitating Meetings:  Organizational meetings are the pillars of La Raza and include Executive Meetings and Community Meetings.  You are expected to head all Executive Meetings and some if not most of the Community Meetings.  Keep ALL meetings highly organized.  La Raza prides itself of organization, efficiency and effectiveness.

Who sets the meeting times and dates? - Your Executive Board will set all meeting dates and times.  You may attempt to co-sponsor meetings with your cultural Latino organizational counterpart.  If so, you should have someone coordinate with LASO to determine the dates of our co-sponsored meetings.  Community Meetings and should take place about once a every 4-6 weeks.

What types of meetings should we have and how often? - Typically, La Raza should have meetings 3 to 4 times a month. 

Community Meetings: Community meetings take place once a month or so and give us the opportunity to engage a large segment of the Latino Community at the University.  Community meetings may be co-sponsored with our sister organization LASO.  The La Raza Officer(s) who facilitate(s) the community meetings is up to you and your board.  Although our Constitution does not require you to head all community meetings, you should nonetheless play a key role.  It is important for the community to know that you are doing everything that they expect from you.  Sometimes working externally and/or behind the scenes is not enough.  People elected you and want to see you in action.

Community Meeting Ideas: In the past, the topics and focus of community meetings have varied.  Some have been open forums for the constituency to raise up concerns for La Raza to address.  Open forums should take place at the end of the semester because most people don't have complaints at the beginning.  The concerns that stem from these open forums can help you guide the organization.  Is there a problem that needs addressing on campus?  Does the community want you to focus on professional development such as providing resume building/writing seminars?  Find out what the community wants and needs and then deliver !!  This is a great way to for you to leave a lasting legacy at the University!  Other community meetings have been fun educational activities, such as Jeopardy with disturbing Latino facts and figures under the categories of The Prison Industrial Complex, Health Disparities, Income Disparities, Revolucion, and La Raza - a category based on organizational trivia. Other great ideas for community meetings including hosting one that pushes for our members to participate undergraduate research program and to apply to become Resident Assistants through the Office of Residence Life.

Community meetings should never be boring - add spice, flare, and empower those in attendance by inspiring them - make them want to return!!  Community meetings should also be considered great opportunities for member recruitment.
 

Our Alternative Approach: After your chapter of La Raza becomes well established, it is not uncommon to have only ONE intro community meeting at the beginning of each semester.  Subsequent to this meeting, La Raza may function solely as an organization with Executive Meetings, which are open to the public.  Your brothers and sisters in Delaware took two full years to transition to this model.  It may take you more or less time, or you may decide that this alternative model is not for you.  For additional info on this model, please contact aleman@larazacenter.org.
 

Executive Meetings: The second type of meetings that the La Raza board has are called Executive Meetings and they should take place approximately 3 times a month.  Executive Meetings  are primarily for La Raza Officers - but they are open to the public.  Executive Meetings should take place every week or two.  You facilitate these meetings, which should be organized and include a typed meeting agenda.  Keep the meetings as short as possible - usually they last approximately 60-90 minutes.  If a certain initiative needs a lot of time, form an ad hoc committee to work on the tasks and then report back to the Executive Board.  Executive Meetings should be an arena where members exchange key information, vote on key organizational decisions and plan for the future - these meetings should not be a venue where EVERY organizational decision is made. For more info on facilitating meetings: please click here to download a PDF document on the subject matter.  The format for the Agenda you should use follows - please note that this format is used in professional arenas across the country and is very effective:
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Executive Meeting Date: Executive Meeting Location: 1) Greetings/Call to Order 2) Reading and approval of the agenda 3) Reading and approval of last meeting's minutes 4) Executive Report: 5) BOARD REPORTS: ** Administrative Board ** Fiscal Board ** Delegation Board ** Legislative Board ** Programming Board 6) Old/Unfinished Business 7) New Business 8) Special Presentation (optional) 9) Open Floor/Announcements/Closure For more info on facilitating meetings: please click here to download a PDF document on the subject matter. .

Where is the best place to have meetings? Executive Board Meetings should be held somewhere accessible and comfortable.  This can be a university provided meeting room, a conference facility, or even someone’s apartment.  Exec meetings are great – they serve as an opportunity for the La Raza familia to get together, enjoy food (when provided), and bond – all while serving the community and getting things done.

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** Call An Executive Board Meeting: Your officers are great assets. Bring everyone up to speed with what has happen or will happen and design a plan of action.  Keep the meeting and its findings private and consider hosting a town hall forum.

** Town Hall Forums:  Town Hall Forums have been effective ways to respond to injustice.  If you decide to hold a forum, contact the President of our sister organization, LASO and seek their counsel.  When some significant event occurs and requires a Town Hall Forum, La Raza and LASO should cosponsor the event, which should take place during one of LASO's regular meetings or La Raza's community meeting. 

LASO should consent to canceling its regularly scheduled meeting in place for the LASO/La Raza Town Hall Forum.  Why is it necessary for LASO to cancel its regular meeting?  Well, if the Latino Community expresses outrage over a particular event, but LASO holds its regularly scheduled meeting - which is a social event or celebration of culture - what message does that send to the community? Lets go celebrate culture or have a great time at LASO and then let's worry about injustice or oppression that is threatening our community!!??  NO!  This mixed message is unacceptable!!  Align yourself with the President of LASO, cancel the regularly scheduled social or cultural event, and place the ENTIRE focus of the community on the issue at hand.  By canceling LASO's regular event and aligning the two largest Latino organizations, the community knows that things are serious.  In the past (at Delaware), when this practice has been exercised, La Raza has packed rooms 209/211 with approximately 200 people, leaving nothing but standing room outside in the hallway (which people still took advantage of in an effort to take action and have their voice heard).  Make sure that your initial town hall forum is for your community only and its allies - its not a good idea to invite offending parties - keep the forum private.

PRIVATE Town hall forums are a great way to calm the community.  Gather everyone and open the floor for suggestions associated with what they want to see happen - how they want to see the situation resolved and how they want La Raza and its allies to respond.  Our members are incredibly bright and will offer great suggestions and/or feedback. 

Again, it is strongly advised that you do not invite the offending party.  Their presence at such a forum could be counterproductive in the event that members of your community are emotionally charged.  If offending parties want to be in attendence, deny their request and set up a meeting subsequent to the Town Hall forum.  This second meeting with the offending party should include you, the boards of all organizations (if the offending party has a board), and the advisors of all organizations (if the offending party has advisors).  A civilized and productive outcome will likely result from a second separate meeting. For example, in 2005, the Latino community was enraged over the Review's (the UD Campus Newspaper) insensitivity towards issues important to the minority community.  We called a town hall forum, calmed the community, got great ideas for how the Review could improve its image while maintaining journalistic integrity - and then met with the entity several times and came to an unprecedented constructive resolution.

 
** Seek Support From Faculty & Staff:  When responding to conflict or injustice, seek the support from key university players: faculty, staff, and graduate students. 

** Email & Facebook Notifications: Make sure that your Vice President of Administration keeps emails to a minimum.  Emails should be sent out to your Executive Board as often as needed, but emails should only be sent to the Community as reminders of Community Meetings - La Raza Events, Etc.  Email notifications of your response to an injustice are important.  People need to know what La Raza is doing about a particular issue.  Whenever emails are sent to the community, the same message should be sent through Facebook.  Additional guidelines about email notifications can be found under your VP of Administration's position description page.

** The Nuclear Option: With a unanimous decision from the Executive Board, the President of La Raza can invoke the nuclear option.  The nuclear option should be used as a last resort to any conflict.  What is it?  Well, what makes La Raza so influential in the region is not only the quality of its membership, but also the influence of its supporters and alumni.  When you invoke the nuclear option, you are essentially bringing down the full weight of La Raza's influence on the elements of injustice that are plaguing your community.  Contact and if possible, set up meetings with La Raza Alumni - ideally past Presidents - to discuss the issue at hand.  After this meeting, you will likely be advised to turn to the media in your area.  Take your cry for justice to the outside community - and you will see the floodgates of good open.  Other powerful supporters of La Raza have also pledged their support to our organization and its cause - their names, positions, and influence will be revealed to you as President.  For additional info, again - contact a past President or a member of the La Raza Alumni Association (http://www.larazacenter.org).

The President & La Raza Alumni and Advisors: Feel free to work closely with La Raza Alumni through our Alumni Association.  These individuals are well connected in politics, business and academia and will undoubtedly be great assets to you and our organization.  Additionally, it will be important for you to use La Raza Faculty and Graduate student advisors.
 

The President's Constitutional Responsibilities: the CALR President is responsible for:
a. Convening and presiding over all Campus Alliance de La Raza meetings
b. Delegating authority to Executive Board members 
c. Strictly upholding and adequately maintaining the organization's purpose 
d. Creating agendas for Executive Board meetings 
e. Conducting all official CALR affairs 
f.  Representing the Campus Alliance de La Raza to outside organizations. 
g.  Developing a close relationship with officers of the DC Headquarters of the National Council de La Raza. 
h.  Disseminating information received from the NCLR. 
i.  Approving Members (Nominated By The VP of Delegation and Latino Affairs) to act as Delegates to National Conventions & Conferences. May Exercise Veto Power, Overruling VPDLA Appointment. 
j. Representing the CALR at the Student Advisory Council on Diversity (meetings are held monthly) 

For any additional guidelines or advice, please feel free to contact La Raza Alumni, Past Presidents, or the Board of Directors of The La Raza Alumni Association.  Once again, congratulations on your accomplishments and please, call on the Alumni for support if and when you need it.

Es La Verdad - En La Union Esta La Fuerza !!  - The Campus Alliance of La Raza