Student Leadership and Involvement News Blog

GivePulse Volunteer Database

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GivePulse is an online community enabling everyone to list, find, coordinate, and measure their impact in the community. Whether you are a volunteer, student, faculty, donor, or community member, GivePulse provides a platform for all to logistically manage and coordinate experiences and tracking. GivePulse allows you to understand the impact you have on the community.

Creating Your User Account

There are two main ways you can log in and create your User Account on GivePulse.

The first way is through Involvement Link.

Log in to Involvement Link

Click on the Service Tab

Service Opportunities will be published from GivePulse on Involvement Link. You will be able to search by date, causes, and type. Click on the opportunity you are interested in registering for and you will be brought the GivePulse Database. First-time users will be prompted to set up their user account.

The second way to create your account is by going to mtu.givepulse.com on your web browser.

Click Log in via MTU

Sign in with your Michigan Tech ISO and password.

Registering for Volunteer Opportunities

Once your user account is set up with GivePulse, you can start registering for events/volunteering opportunities.

Find the opportunity you would like to volunteer for and click the green Register button. Depending on the opportunity you may need to answer different registration questions. You will receive an email once you have completed registering.

Impacts

Impact is the term used to describe all the potential ways you will be engaging with the community. An impact can be funds donated, funds raised, goods donated, hours trained, or volunteer hours served.

Whether you have served your community at an event you found through GivePulse at Michigan Tech or you volunteered on your own, you can track your impacts.

Log in to your GivePulse Account and click the green Add Impact button. This is your opportunity to reflect and track on your community engagement experience.

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Hosting Your RSO Elections on Involvement Link

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Organization officers have the ability to create elections within their organizations. To create an organization-based election, follow the instructions below.

Defining Election Parameters

Head to the Action Center for your organization, and then click on Elections in the organization tool drawer. If you do not see this tool you do not have access to manage this tool for your organization.  From here, click the Create Election button.

Identify the Name of the election, if it should include instructions and any additional (custom) instructions that should be included.

Below that, you can choose if your election should be active and the date range your election should be available. When the election is set to Active and it falls within the date range, users will be allowed to access the ballot.

You can also choose to display an alert on the organization’s homepage when the election is active and voting is open by checking the next box. The last option is whether or not to allow users outside your organization should be allowed to vote in the election– checking the box will limit it to only users within your organization roster.

When you’re finished with these settings, hit Create.

Setting up the ballots

You can create as many ballots as needed. Each ballot can be accessible to the general user population or any number of eligibility lists. A user will see each ballot they are designated to see. To start creating your ballots, click Create Ballot.

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Enter the name of your ballot, then determine if the ballot should be general access by selecting Enable or Disable. If you select Disable, you’ll be prompted to enter settings for each of the available eligibility lists.

Eligibility lists are set up by campus administrators and are shared to organizations. If you are not seeing an eligibility list that you expect to see, contact your campus administrator.

Setting Definition
Allow Users on the list can access the ballot
Deny Users cannot access the ballot, and supersedes being on an allowed list
Ignore List will not be used for the ballot, users cannot access the ballot

Once you’re fine with your eligible users access, click Create to advance to the next page. You’ll now be taken to the form builder with a limited selection of question types.

Please see Form Building for complete instructions on creating or editing questions. The builder will automatically save your progress as you create questions. At any time, you can revise the title and access of your ballot by clicking Form Properties in the upper right corner.

When you’re finished, click Back to Ballots in the upper left corner. Repeat this for any additional ballots you need to create within the same election. Once all your ballots are ready, be sure to set your election to Active to ensure users can vote when the election starts, and the prompt to vote will display on your organization homepage if requested.

Seeing the Election Results

Navigate to your organization’s Action Center through the Manage view of your switchboard. Open up the organization tool drawer and select Elections. 

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Select the election you want to view. From there, you can click on the Results tab to browse the ballot results.

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You can select the “Export All Votes” button to download your results into an excel file or you can view the snapshot of the current results displayed on the “Results” page. Click on a specific ballot in order to view individualized ballot response counts. The option to Export All Voters will only appear for community administrators and will not appear for general organization officers.

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K-Day 2020 Registration – RSOs

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As a registered student organization, you can register for both the virtual and the in-person K-Day. We recommend that at a minimum, you should register for the virtual K-Day. K-Day registration will close Friday, September 4 at noon.

For virtual registration:

  • Log in to Involvement Link
  • Select the organization you would like to register for virtual K-Day
  • Select “Manage Organization” from the top right corner
  • You should see “Upcoming Virtual Fair Events” with the K-Day information and a blue button that says “Sign Up”  Click that to complete your registration.

You will need a short description and a link for a Zoom (or virtual platform of choice) meeting.  The virtual meeting should be set up for Friday, September 11 from Noon – 5 PM.  Prospective members will be able to select “Meet Online” during that time for your organization and talk to officers/members that you have on the call.  If you cannot have someone on the virtual call for the entire 5 hours, please note the times you will be there in your description.  Students will only be directed to use the meeting link from Noon – 5 PM on that day.  

**You will not be able to edit your description, so please make sure it is what you want.  Also, it has a 200 character limit. 

For in-person registration:

You can register through Involvement Link.  Once you log in, the link will be on your homepage.  Some things to note:

  • Your organization will get to choose their top 3 dates/times, but you will only be able to have a table once. 
  • There is a limit on the number of organizations that can be approved, so your organization might not get a space.  
  • If your organization wants to bring food, it must be pre-packaged.
  • Minimal activities will be allowed.  They must be compliant with University policies, as well as local, state, and federal expectations in regards to COVID-19. 
  • You are allowed to have 1 or 2 people from your organization at your booth.  No more than 2 will be allowed at a time. 
  • Power is limited and we cannot guarantee it. 
  • Once your registration is confirmed, you will receive more information on expectations for the day of your event. 

Please send any questions to Rochelle at raspence@mtu.edu.

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Behind the Scenes: Pets of SLI

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Angus

Angus is a 3 year old pitbull who just celebrated his “Gotcha Day” with Beka. Rescued from the Michigan Humane Society in Detroit, MI at 10 weeks old. He loves digging in the snow, playing fetch, and playing with his cousin Kodi, a black labrador retriever. He is not super motivated by food, but loves peanut butter and scrambled eggs if you have any left over. Angus is enjoying having his people work from home but doesn’t understand why we are not always playing outside when it is sunny. 

Charlie

Meet Charlie, he is a 4 year old rescue, that makes it his mission to keep a smile on his mom’s face.  He loves cuddling, especially under a warm blanket. His favorite place to nap is in front of the wood stove or in his beehive cat bed.  When he is not napping, he can be found in his tower watching the birds or grabbing a toy from his toybox to play. His favorite game is playing fetch – but only if you are throwing a red ribbon!  

Hubert

This is Christine’s favorite succulent (nicknamed Hubert). It accompanies her during workdays from home. Little Hubert loves basking in the sunshine (just like Christine!) and always emanates a soft and comforting green hue. Hubert also loves good vibes, smooth jazz, and water. 

Liam

Liam Michael is a sassy Siamese/Maine Coon mix who loves to snuggle.  His favorite places to hang out are window sills, his Hot Cocoa Cafe box, and anywhere with soft blankets.  When he is not napping, you can find Liam playing with his favorite unicorn toy from his friend Charlie, licking windows, or trying to jump in on Zoom meetings with his mom.  

Millie

Mildred June, aka Millie, is a 3 year old pitbull and has been with Stefani since she was 12 weeks old. Born on a farm in Trenary, Millie is a true blue yooper who loves the snow, going on long hikes, and jumping in the truck to go off-roading with her family. Millie’s favorite toy is a stuffed skunk which she often carries around all day but tennis balls are a close second. Millie is a trained medical alert dog and she takes her job very seriously, ensuring that her mom never is caught off guard. She’s pretty thrilled about this whole working from home thing and can be found snuggling up to one of her parents while they work or jumping into Zoom sessions to say hello. 

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Behind the Scenes: Students of SLI

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Hey Huskies!  The office of Student Leadership and Involvement has some amazing students that work here.  We wanted you all to get to know them a little better! 

Meet Jaina!

Year: 4th year

Major: Mechanical Engineering Technology

# of years working for SLI: 2

I have another year of university left so as of right now I’m starting to get prepared for starting senior design in the fall with Blizzard Baja. For the summer I plan on continuing working with SLI and moving back to Houghton. For the office currently I have done more miscellaneous things such as: website review, assisting in USG work, and assisting in social media posts. Outside of that and school work, I’ve been mainly playing video games now that I have more time to reconnect with older friends, on Saturdays I play dnd with my friends in Alpha Phi Omega, and overall getting a ton of dog cuddling time in.

Meet Alex!

Year: 5th year (Accelerated Masters student)

Major: Civil Engineering with Geotech Focus

# of years working for SLI: 3

This is my last semester here at Michigan Tech as I am graduating with my completed degree. After graduation I will be moving downstate to Lansing, MI to start my new full time job. I have worked in the Student Leadership and Involvement office (or Student Activities when I first started) for three years now and I have enjoyed every minute of it. Some of the events I have really enjoyed helping to plan and work are Cardboard Boat, K-Day, and Student Leadership Awards. RIght now I have been working remotely from my Houghton home to make next year’s USG spreadsheet they use to keep track of all student funding.  While sitting in isolation I have been binge watching a lot of TV shows and Facetime/Zooming with my friends and family. While at Tech I have been very involved in both MUB Board and the Huskies Pep Band! Here’s a picture of me with the other graduating conductors at the last home hockey game this year! (I am the one with the headset on)

Meet McKenzy!

Year: 4th year 

Major: Communications, Culture and Media focus in Media Production

# of years working for SLI: 2

I still have one year left here at Michigan Tech and after graduation I’m still working out what I want to do but what I do know is I always want to be able to create and be able to find new ways of communicating and engaging with people. This semester has definitely been an interesting one and it’s allowed me to spend more time on expressing myself through digital art. Working with SLI for the past two years I have grown so much in my skills and I’ve been given a lot of freedom in creating graphics and posters which helped me do that. From helping with summer programming where I got to decorate rocks and eat ice cream to creating a new HuskyLead logo to designing the awards, posters, social media graphics and presentation graphics for Fraternity and Sorority Life Awards and Student Leadership Awards. Working with all the wonderful ladies in the office I have been able to learn new things, be pushed to think outside of the box and really enjoy every day I’m in the office and can see everyone. At Tech I got involved in MUB Board, Women’s Leadership Council, CinOptic Enterprise, and even Club and Intramural sports. Being involved has given me a lot of valuable lessons as well as great memories. But for now I watch way too much Netflix with my plants in between doing my school work and my remote work for SLI. Here’s me and my snake plant, Rhea! I really like plants.

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Spring 2020 HuskyLead Sessions

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HuskyLead is a leadership development series open to all Michigan Tech students. 

This program encourages all students from campus leaders and student organization officers, to individuals who just want to learn, to elevate their leadership skills by learning the best techniques, tips, and tricks for their personal, organizational, academic, and professional success. Check out our Fall Sessions below!

Wednesday, January 15 –  “College: Am I Doing This Right?” – Focus on your goals, and learn how to say NO to over-commitment. Attend the first HuskyLead of the semester being held in Library East Reading Room from 4-5 p.m.

huskylead115

Thursday, January 23 –  “Get it Together” – The opportunity to learn skills in building an effective and long lasting organization that serves the needs of all. Attend this HuskyLead being held in MUB Alumni Lounge A from 5-6 p.m. 

huskylead123

Tuesday, March 17 –  “Seize the Awkward” – Everyone experiences stress and mental health differently, gain the tools to be able to reach out and support friends who may be struggling. Attend this HuskyLead held in Library East Reading Room from 4-5 p.m. 

seize the awkward

Wednesday, March 25 –  “Effective Transitions” – Focus on transitions in your life, whether that is starting a new job or being at home for the first time since starting college. Learn how to manage your lifestyle in an effective manner. Attend this HuskyLead being held in the Library East Reading Room from 4–5 p.m.

transitions

Wednesday, April 1 –  “Financial Well-Being” – Attend this HuskyLead held in Library East Reading Room from 4-5 p.m. 

financial

Thursday, April 9 –  “Getting into the Nitty-GRITty” – Becoming a leader takes passion and perseverance, in other words “grit”. By attending this HuskyLead in MUB Alumni Lounge from 5–6 p.m., students will learn tips on how to persist and build mental toughness to reach long term goals. 

grit
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Involvement Link: Creating a New Event

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Involvement Link has many great features to help your student organization be successful including the calendar. To feature your organization’s event on the calendar (and on the Michigan Tech Calendar!), just follow the steps below.

Note: Only primary contacts and positions with full access over Events can create events within an organization. If you do not have the proper permissions, you should first refer to your primary contact or your site administrators in order to request the required access.

Manage your organization by selecting Manage from the switchboard and choosing your organization. When you are at your organization’s page, use the top left-hand side menu. Choose Events in the organization tool menu and click on the blue Create Event button on the top right.

Completing Core Event Details

Enter an event title, theme, description, start and end time, and location into their respective boxes. You can also identify if the event will be co-hosted with other organizations. Required fields are marked by the red asterisk at their start.

a screenshot of the first section of the create event sccreen

You can add up to 18 different times/locations within one event submission. Upon approval, each instance of the event you created will become its own event that can be individually edited or changed. Click “Add Another Date” to create a recurring event.

You can also choose whether to include a helpful map, courtesy of Google Maps, to your event details page. Note that selecting the space will not reserve it. Your next couple of options are about event visibility and are outlined below.

Each field after this point is detailed below:

Field Description
Show-To Determine whether the event should show to the public, authenticated users only, only members of hosting organizations (and cohosting organizations), or only to invited users
Event Categories Associate the event with one or more event categories
Perks Associate the event with one or more event perks (special benefits for your attendees) 
Additional Information Complete any additional fields that may be required by your campus. Depending on your institution’s settings, your responses to these questions may show publicly on your published event page. 


Additional Pages and Event Questions

The next page allows you to customize your RSVP settings. Use this tool to collect information from your attendees before the event or to set a specific attendee limit. 

The third page allows you to customize your event’s cover photo by clicking Choose File and adding an image that you feel will draw attention to your event. We recommend a photo that is 1024px by 600px or larger, under 10MB, and of one of the mentioned formats (JPG, JPEG, GIF, or PNG). The image will run through an image re-sizer, so the larger – the better! If you choose not to upload a photo, a default photo will be chosen for you based on the theme of your event. As this photo will be displayed alongside event details across Engage, it is best to choose a cover photo that is simply an image without text. 

When you’re ready, advance using Next or Skip. Your organization’s branch may require each event submission to provide additional details that will be kept on the private record of the event submission. You will be prompted at this time to complete this information. Fill out the rest of the form and submit for campus administrative approval.

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Fall 2019 HuskyLead Sessions

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HuskyLead is a leadership development series open to all Michigan Tech students. 

This program encourages all students from campus leaders and student organization officers, to individuals who just want to learn, to elevate their leadership skills by learning the best techniques, tips, and tricks for their personal, organizational, academic, and professional success. Check out our Fall Sessions below!

Tuesday, September 10 –  “Get Time on Your Side” – A strategic semester begins with planning. Learn how to maximize the time you have to work with by beginning with the end in mind. Attend the first HuskyLead of the semester being held in Library East Reading Room from 4-5 p.m.

Thursday, September 19 –  “Bringing in the Bystander” – The opportunity to learn skills in bystander intervention in this peer-to-peer program. Attend this HuskyLead being held in MUB Superior Room from 5-6 p.m. 

Tuesday, October 8 –  “Dear Stress, Let’s Break-Up” – Is stress running your life? Need some tools to reduce your stress? Learn how to handle stress so that you can be your best you! Attend this HuskyLead held in Library East Reading Room from 4-5 p.m. 

Tuesday, October 29 –  “Super Hero Dynamics” – Are you ready to form your own super hero team?  Well first you’ll need to develop some super team dynamics.  Join us to learn about how you can make your team excel.  We’ll explore the different stages a team goes through and how you can manage some of the different dynamics along the way. Attend this HuskyLead being held in the Library East Reading Room from 4–5 p.m.

Tuesday, November 12 –  “Failure is a State of Mind” – Everyone experiences setbacks from time to time. Learn how rethink how you feel about failure and use it as an opportunity to grow. Attend this HuskyLead held in Library East Reading Room from 4-5 p.m. 

Monday, December 2 –  “Risky Business” –  Have you ever thought of a brilliant idea for an event that may have some element of risk? Join us in discovering ways to still be able to have all the fun while understanding how to stay safe. Attend this HuskyLead held in MUB Alumni Lounge from 4-5 p.m. 

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Involvement Link: Changing Your Organization’s Profile Picture

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Involvement Link has many great features to help your student organization be successful . Make sure you are keeping your student organization site updated – including the profile picture!

Your organization’s profile photo appears next to your organization in the directory. 

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The photo also appears at the top of your organization’s public-facing page.

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Note: You must be the Primary Contact of your organization or have officer rights to make changes to your organization.

If you meet this criteria, you can change your organization’s profile picture navigating to your Action Center by accessing the Manage view of your Engage Switchboard. Select your organization and open the organization tool drawer. Select the About tab along your organization’s tool drawer. Upload the image under the section labeled Profile Picture. Your image will be sized to fit. Keep in mind that since the photo appears in a circular shape throughout the site, edges of square and rectangular images will be cropped.

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