[Ntso] NTSO December Minutes and January Meeting

[John & Frances Fennessy]

Hello Non-Traditional Students!

I hope that your holidays were a time of rest and relaxation for you, and 
that you are ready for a busy semester full of education and activities. We, 
here at the NTSO, are looking forward to a successful year of exciting 
events.

To be a strong organization, we need to continue to grow and create a 
presence at the university. We will be working to do this in a number of 
different ways. One of the first steps will be to have a membership drive. I 
would like to encourage every one of you to continue to support NTSO by 
bringing at least one friend with you to our next meeting. If you haven’t 
been able to attend a meeting, please try to make just one this semester. 
SHSU has over 3,000 non-traditional students, and we have approximately 200 
of them in our organization. In our meetings, we reach approximately 40 of 
our members. We can be a very strong organization; we simply must avoid 
becoming stagnant.

Please be sure to read all the way to the end of the minutes. There are a 
number of announcements from your officers that you will be interested in, 
including the announcement of our next meeting!

Frances Crawford Fennessy
NTSO President

NTSO
Non-Traditional Student Association
General Assembly Minutes

December 2004

Call to Order:  The meeting was called to order by Frances Fennessy, NTSO 
president.
Officers in attendance: John Fennessy, vice president, Ralph Bales, business 
manager, and Valerie Johnson, secretary.

Special Attendees:  It was our honor to have Dr. Bernice Strauss from the 
SAM center as a guest speaker.

Again we would like to thank Leah Winfield and Student Activities for all of 
their support and especially for providing the meal.  It was great!  Dr. 
Keri Rogers also joined us.  We would also like to thank her for her 
continued support.  She takes valuable time out of her busy schedule to 
support NTSO.  Thank you both!

Minutes:  We are very pleased to announce the continued success of NTSO!  
Our second meeting had the names of 24 individuals sign-in on the attendance 
sheet.  Thank you all for coming and helping to make our organization great. 
  It takes many hands to work together and make this a success.  This is an 
exciting time and we are really looking forward to the New Year and a 
semester of growing together.

John Fennessy is involved in the Relay for Life sponsored by the American 
Cancer Society.  Last year was the first year Huntsville actively 
participated in this event.  This is a fun filled overnight activity that 
mobilizes communities across the country to celebrate survivorship, remember 
those who lost their lives to cancer and raise money for the fight against 
cancer.  This is an American Cancer Society signature activity.  You can 
visit this webpage, or contact John, for more information: 
http://www.cancer.org/ and look under more ways to help for a link to relay 
for life.

Start date and time
4/15/2005 6:00PM

End date and time
4/16/2005 6:00AM

Agenda
7:00pm - Opening Ceremonies 7:00pm - Survivors lap 9:00pm - Luminaria 
Ceremony

John will be organizing a team to participate in this event.  If you are 
interested please be sure to contact him at roughneckbooks at hotmail.com.

Dr. Strauss presented her stress management program.  For those of you that 
don’t know Dr. Strauss, she works with students at the SAM center.  She is a 
warm, funny, and very giving, supportive person.  It was really a treat to 
have her take time from her busy schedule to speak with us.  A few 
highlights from her presentation are:
1.	Life is busy and can be stressful.  Non-traditional students have a 
tremendous amount of stress placed on them from the demands of all areas of 
their busy lives.
2.	Managing stress well involves a certain level of selfcare.  How can we 
manage the many daily stresses or care for others when we neglect ourselves?
3.	A stress contributor is multitasking, or feeling like we have to do all 
and be all.
4.	Three programs offered at SHSU Sam Center:
a.	Traditional Study Skills Program
b.	Study Skills for the Highly Motivated Student
c.	Working on a Non-Traditional Student Study Skills Program
5.	Time management and stress are closely related.  We over commit.
6.	Stress is not always bad.  It can be positive.
7.	Best stress relievers are diet and exercise.
8.	Nurture your soul.  Small things can renew your spirit and freshen your 
perspective.
9.	Use positive self-talk.  What discussions do you carry on in your head?  
Talk positively to yourself.  What we say to ourselves can have a huge 
influence on how our lives progress.
10.	Non-traditional students don’t ask for help very well.  Oftentimes they 
feel as if they must be the do all, know all, and carry all.  There is 
nothing wrong with asking for help.  This is actually a strength and not a 
weakness.
11.	Higher education is about building character.  You are a worthwhile 
investment.  Holding on to that and valuing it can serve you well.  
Education is only a piece of your life.  It does not need to be how you 
define your life.
12.	Lastly, use humor.  We take ourselves too seriously.  Humor provides us 
with an understanding of where we stand in the world.

She ended with a relaxation technique.  It was a very enjoyable time.  We 
are so grateful for the opportunity to spend some time together.  Please 
take the time to drop Dr. Strauss a line and thank her for her contribution. 
  You can reach her at the SAM center at 294-4455.

We regret that some of you were unable to make it to this meeting.  We hope 
to see you next month.  Also, we wish you and yours the best the season has 
to offer.  Here’s hoping everyone had a great semester and here’s to a brand 
New Year!

President’s Corner (Frances Crawford Fennessy) - I just want to thank 
everyone for continuing to support NTSO. We are preparing to swing into full 
speed with our activities this semester. To begin with, we will have our 
next meeting on January 27. In March, we will have our one and only 
fundraiser, a yard sale. As you begin your spring-cleaning, please keep our 
fundraiser in mind. John Fennessy will be updating you with the details 
soon. In addition, we will begin prepping for our formal soon. The formal 
will be held on Saturday, April 30. Please keep that evening open for this 
event. You may want to secure a babysitter now. Ralph Bales will be updating 
you about this project and we will begin selling tickets to this event 
shortly. Finally, I would like to remind you that we will elect new officers 
at the end of this semester. If you are interested in running for a 
position, it may be a good idea for you to work directly with the officer 
who is in this position now. Thus, you will have an idea of what the 
position requires and a little experience too.

Vice President’s Corner (John Fennessy) - Our next meeting will be on 
Thursday, January 27. Again we will have guest speakers. Kelly Prew and 
Sandra Clifton of the Huntsville Family YMCA will be visiting us and talking 
about the services that the YMCA can provide to non-traditional students, 
such as ourselves. They will also discuss scholarship opportunities for our 
children. J I would like to encourage everyone to remember that the Student 
Activities Office makes a strong investment in our organization by providing 
our lunches. If you RSVP, please make every effort to attend. We will be 
meeting in the LSC, on the 3rd floor. If we can, we will meet in the foyer. 
If we have a large RSVP, we will meet in the large meeting room adjacent to 
the foyer. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP by December 6 at 
roughneckbooks at hotmail.com.  As always, if you need to leave at 12:30 or 
enter at 12:30, you should feel free to do so. Please RSVP by Monday, 
January 24.
We are also looking for Relay for Life participants. Relay for Life is on 
April 15. NTSO will have a team for this event. In order to participate, we 
must have one person from our team walking on the track at all times. We 
need your help. Please email me at roughneckbooks at hotmail.com if you are 
interested in participating!

Ralph’s Corner – We are getting geared up for our formal ball that will be 
later in the spring.  I am looking for suggestions as to a theme.  So far I 
have a cruise theme, Mardi Gras, murder mystery, and black and white.  
Please email your suggestions to me, or feel free to catch me at our monthly 
meetings.  This is going to be a great time, and I am really looking forward 
to it.  We’ll need your support to pull this together and make it all work.  
Remember, it’s your organization.  When everyone gives just a little we will 
make it a huge success.  Thanks for your support.

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