Using a rewards program to track student involvement & inform programming

1. Using a rewards program to track student involvement & inform programming Student Government & Student Affairs #naspatech9

2. The Path • Overview of People Involved • History of TallyCats • How it started • How it works now • Initial Results • Future Goals • Conclusion & Lessons Learned • General Discussion/Comments

3. The People • Katelyn Banks • TallyCats Coordinator (SGA) • Todd Cox • Student Government Advisor • Jack King • Student Affairs IT professional • Chip Carter (not present) • CSGold/ CBORD representative

4. Program Overview • Tally Cats is a Student Government incentive program designed to reward students who get involved on campus. • We focus on events that promote: • Diversity on campus • Campus traditions (school spirit) • Educational topics • Student Government events • Connection with the surrounding Lexington community

5. How it Started

6. History of TallyCats • Concept has been talked about for years • 2007 Leadership Summit • Student group discussed the idea • No follow-up or funding available • 2008 Leadership Summit • Student group discussed the idea • Little follow-up and no funding support • 2008 Emerging Leadership Institute (Fall semester) • Student small group decided this was their leadership project • Approached Student Government about implementation

7. History of TallyCats • Student Government developed a proposal (Spring 2009) and approached the following campus groups: • President’s Office • Provost • Athletics • Public Relations • Student Activities Board • A collaboration between the groups listed above was born. Each committed financial backing to this initiative ($3,500 each)

8. History of TallyCats • Student Government began to implement the program by focusing on technology • Contact: Chip Carter • Database:CSGold • Scanners: CBORD MC50 (pocket PCs with wifi) • Programming: Custom; created on site by a CBORD Rep • Began to realize the importance of other aspects (marketing, incentives, staffing, etc.)

9. Multi-faceted Approach

10. Roll Out Process (Fall 2009) • Promotions • T-Shirts • Brochures • Cups • Incentives • Donated by UK departments • event tickets, iPod nanos, free semester of books • Some were purchased • TVs, digital cameras, flip cameras and one (1) laptop • Staffing • TallyCats Co-Coordinators • SGA executive leaders • Senators • Website • General information • Incentives listing • Calendar (40 total) • Student Activities Board • Athletics • Student Government Events

11. How it Works Now

12. Easy as 1 – 2 – 3 www.tallycats.com 1) Show up! 2) Swipe ID! 3) Score Swag!

13. Show Up! • Students can check out the TallyCats website or the UK Campus Calendar for the events • Additional avenues of marketing include… • Twitter campaigns • Brochures • TallyCats team shirts • Campus newspaper ads & articles • Fliers & posters

14. TallyCats Event Profile • Types of Events • Awareness and Diversity events • Career Planning sessions • Sporting events • Guest Lecturers • Art Gallery Openings • Concerts • Philanthropy Events • Who can submit events • Registered Student Organizations • Colleges • Departments • Academic Groups

15. Submission Process • Student Organizations/Departments submit their event via www.tallycats.com • TallyCats Coordinator accepts or denies the submission. • If approved, the Coordinator adds the event to the Campus Calendar and tags it as a TallyCat event • RSS feed pulls in the TallyCat events to www.tallycats.com & www.uksga.org

16. Swipe ID! • TallyCatteam member responsibilities: • Pick up the scanner • Program the scanner with the appropriate code/point value • Arrive at the event 20 minutes beforehand • Swipe IDs until 15 minutes into the program • Return the scanner the following business day • Participant responsibilities: • Provide their student ID to be swiped

17. Technology Back-End • (Wireless) Mag strip card readers • CS Gold Server Software • IIS 7 Web Server (Win 2K8 SP2) • MySQL Server • PHP5 • Custom CMS

18. Data Path • Student ID Card (track 2 data containing Student ID number) • Swipes into wireless reader • Wireless reader validates student status as current (either online or offline) • Reader then stores/transmits data indicating student checked into this particular reader • We have certain codes marked in the system as certain values • Server then increments total point value by indicated check-ins for that day

19. Score Swag! • Partnerships between TallyCats and Student Organizations • Student Activities Board Concert & Event Tickets • Parking Passes • Free Semester of Books • Athletic Tickets • Autographed Footballs and Basketballs • Other prizes purchased by Student Government • Apple products (iPods, iPads) • Flat Screen TVs • UK Apparel (hats, jerseys, polos, sweatshirts, etc.) • Laptops • Digital Cameras & Flip Cams

20. Incentive Structure • TallyCats awards prizes at the end of each month, semester, and academic year • Students who earn the most overall points at the end of each month are put into a random drawing for 10-15 prizes a month • Semester drawings pertain to the points accumulated during that previous semester • The yearly grand prize is awarded to the most active student of the year

21. General Benefits • TallyCats not only benefits our student users, but is also valuable to Student Organizations & Campus Groups • The TallyCats calendar provides a free avenue to advertise events • Students engaged with the TallyCats program are more likely to attend these events (i.e. increased attendance) • Ability to run statistical analysis to determine if the program is succeeding in increasing retention • Ability to create attendance lists

22. Initial Results

23. First Year Results • 95% of participants were undergraduates • 46% - Freshmen • 20% - Sophomores • 16% - Juniors • 13% - Seniors Retention • 4% increase Fall-Spring • 7-10% increase Fall to Fall

24. Fall 2010 Survey Analysis Participant Statistics • 90% were Freshmen participants • 70% of participants had attended at least 3 TallyCats events Survey Results Highlights • 91% participated during K Week (opening week activities) • 76% plan to participate in the future • 84% are satisfied with the TallyCats program • 75% valued TallyCats as a way to get involved on campus and for being rewarded for that involvement Recommendations or Improvements (based on Survey Results) • Prizes that students would like to see offered: • Tickets to basketball games • Gift cards • T-shirts • Electronics (primarily Apple products) • Plus account money • Make TallyCats workers at events more visible and easy to locate

25. Future Goals

26. Future Expansion • Integrate local community events into our TallyCats program (town/gown relationship) • Revamp the incentive structure to reward more students for their participation • Staff 150-180 TallyCat events throughout the academic year (~1/day) • Incentivize for “bringing a friend” with door prizes

27. Future Expansion • Event Planners • Event profile report (demographics of who attended) • Ability to download an attendance list from the server • Student Affairs Profession • Tracking of student involvement data (retention) • Utilize trending data to inform programming decisions • Better able to assess programs via electronic surveys to participants (ex. Cats Cruiser)

28. Future Expansion (Tech) • “Middle-man” reporting server to clean up reporting • Technology upgrade to replace our current scanners. • QR Codes • Location-based check-ins • Tie into campus Student Data Warehouse for deeper reporting • Modify programming choices • Create metrics for event profiles

29. Conclusions

30. Lessons Learned • Incentive level doesn’t matter to most students; they just want to get something (can even be a t-shirt) • Staffing TallyCats with busy people doesn’t work. We implemented a team approach in spring 2010 and have used it since (20-25 students). Freshmen are the best because they are not over committed • Technology can be our friend or enemy. Having a good calendar and website are paramount to having a successful program.

31. Lessons Learned • Picking a color theme for branding is very helpful (see highlighter yellow shirts for team members) • A hands on approach to training is much more effective than large group trainings. It requires more time on front end, but results in less issues later in the year • Monthly meetings keep the team up-to-date on changes and helps with scheduling • Systemize the internal processes like scheduling& team reminders as much as possible. Utilize technology like Google Docs to share the information easily.

32. Partnerships • Student Affairs • Student Government • UK IT • Cbord • Apax Software

33. General Discussion