RHA attends developmental conference

The conference might be held at MU in 2011 or 2012.

By Luke Udstuen

Published Oct. 27, 2009

Seven Residence Halls Association members traveled to Minnesota State University, Mankato to attend the Midwest Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls.

"MACURH is not a competition, any school can bring delegates," national spokesman Mike Madden said. "It's meant to teach people to be better leaders, and to inspire them."

All of the students' expenses except for souvenirs were paid for, Madden and National spokesman-in-training Paul Reeves said.

"I still need to work out some kinks in the program I brought to MACURH," Madden said. "The projector Missouri State let me use didn't work until about 15 minutes into my presentation. I'm a very PowerPoint-centered person, so it was a difficult presentation. But people seemed to understand my main points."

Madden said hosting the convention is a demanding project.

"It takes a lot of prep work to host MACURH," Madden said. "The bids alone can be anywhere from 80 to 95 pages. There are lot of things that need to be considered, such as transportation, lodging and safety concerns for all participants."

Missouri State was the only school to place a bid to host next year's MACURH, Madden said. That alone doesn't mean Missouri State will host MACURH next year.

Reeves and Madden are looking into hosting MACURH at MU in 2011 or 2012.

"This conference really solidified what RHA is for me, and that I really want to do it," Reeves said.

The two worked closely together throughout the conference.

"I took Reeves to the NCC Board Room where we come up with policies," Madden said. "I wasn't able to be there for the entire meeting, and I left Reeves to take over for me for a portion of it. He seemed to enjoy it."

Reeves also echoed the sentiments of Madden on his experience in the NCC Board Meeting.

"It was surreal," Reeves said. "We'd already gotten most of it out of the way, so it's not like we had any big real issues I had to make a decision on. But it was really cool. It was like I'm a part of this, this is me, I am Mizzou right now."

Reeves is stepping up as a freshman to fill the role of the NCC IT. There were four other freshmen that attended MACURH, Reeves said.

Madden was grateful for the amount of freshmen who participated.

"I'm definitely grateful for the freshmen that I brought to MACURH, and I think they did an excellent job in participating," Madden said. "They are the future leaders of RHA, so it's important to get them involved as soon as possible."