Surveys and Such

"Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value"
-Albert Einstein

The past week or two have been extremely busy around the office. Between Heather leaving last week and the fact that Amy and Erin, two of our three Chapters Coordinators, are leaving within the next few weeks, the office has been buzzing with last minute projects and tying up any loose ends.

With Heather leaving, most of my work last week was focused on helping her finish up whatever projects she was working on. A major project was getting together a fundraising packet that will be sent to all chapters at the beginning of the school year. This will be a great tool for chapters to use when they are in need of funding, however it will be even better for those chapters to raise money for the Active Minds main office in D.C. As I've said, in this economy many non-profits need any help they can get, and we're hoping our 200+ college campuses can pull through and help us financially!

Last week was exciting because we're trying out some new ideas. We spent a majority of the week creating a survey for Counseling Center Directors, as well as one for chapter advisers, which will be e-mailed to them today. This survey is going to be extremely helpful in getting feedback from schools that have Active Minds chapters on their campus. We really push for chapters to work closely with their counseling centers, however not everyone is as accepting of Active Minds on their campus as most counseling centers. We want to know the underlying cause of this - is it miscommunication between the chapter president and the counseling center? Or is it a misunderstanding of the goal of Active Minds?

Many people think Active Minds is a peer-to-peer mental health group which it is not. It exists to de-stigmatize mental illnesses so people are more willing to come out with whatever problems have risen in their lives. This is done by bringing events to campus such as National Stress-Øut Day, National Day Without Stigma, and Mental Health Awareness Week (among others). We encourage all our chapters to produce these events on their campuses, because they can truly change a student's life by making them feel accepted in the community when they were feeling low and depressed.

Another exciting project that's just recently started is an Alumni network! This is a group being formulated by two of our Student Advisory Committee members - Asher and Amanda - that we are hoping will keep everyone in touch who has helped Active Minds along the way to the success we are seeing today. They are still trying to solidify the details of how the Alumni network would work, so if any has any ideas or comments feel free to let us know! You can do that by hitting the "comment" button on the bottom of this post, or e-mail me at jeremy@activeminds.org.

At the end of last week three of us took a trip over to visit George Washington University to check out some facilities. What a gorgeous campus GWU has, and their classrooms are so modern and technologically up to date. The people we met with were so warm and welcoming that we are so excited to work with them on conference planning. If you're planning on joining us for the conference you can buy your tickets today on our website at www.activeminds.org by clicking on "Programs/Events" and "National Mental Health on Campus Conference". The conference is open to anyone, so definitely join us! This year's conference is titled "Uniting Voices, Inspiring Change".

This year we're trying to focus the conference on Veterans and mental health. With so many veterans of our armed services coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq this is becoming a huge issue. There needs to be more resources out there that are available to veterans so we can ensure their mental health. Many veterans come back feeling hopeless and all they need is a shoulder to lean on and someone to talk to. Obviously they might not want to share their experiences, but knowing they have that option is what matters most. We need to focus on the brave men and women to ensure that we give back to them just as much as they've given to us.

I think this post's quote is truly wise and inspiring. So many people work towards being as successful as possible. Einstein captured true success in his quote - if someone works towards becoming a valuable part of our society in whatever way they see fit, that is how one becomes a successful person. It's not through monetary wealth or becoming a CEO or President of a company but how you are effecting the lives of others and how closely you live your life in relation to your personal values. If you stand by those values, then that is success. So, don't look for the job that makes the most money or one in which you only care about telling people that you're the CEO of a corporation. Rather look for the job in which you can carry out your personal morals and values.

With that, always keep in mind that we are all working towards a similar goal, so why not help each other out!