When 260 CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators descended upon Clearwater, Florida, earlier this month, they found themselves in the middle of a conference unlike one most had ever attended.

This year the NCAA's continuing-education conference for CHAMPS/Life Skills coordinators, "Leadership is A-Mazing," was modeled after the student-athlete experience at the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference. Like the student-athletes, participating life skills coordinators were divided into color teams, and they participated in a variety of unique exercises, from initiative games to a cook-it-yourself lunch.

"It was the NCAA Foundation Leadership Conference experience condensed down into two days for the coordinators," said Lori A. Hendricks, NCAA education outreach program coordinator. "The entire conference design was new this year."

Coordinators became part of color teams, which were consciously assembled to achieve diversity of NCAA division as well as race, gender and years of professional experience. The resulting small groups of individuals were led by facilitators through many of the conference's activities.

"One of our goals was to build a community and connect life skills coordinators with each other," Hendricks said. "At a large conference, it is easy to feel anonymous, and people are unlikely to be candid in discussions. This format allowed for a more intimate, honest and open exchange of ideas regarding current issues facing intercollegiate athletics."

To enhance opportunities to make connections, coordinators also were invited to sign up for "Topic Talks." Coordinators could identify a topic that interested them, such as mentoring or launching a new life skills program, and eat dinner with others who were interested in discussing the topic.

Another new element of this year's conference was "The Breakfast Bugle," a daily four-color newsletter that was distributed to the participants. Packed with photos of student-athletes from the 1999 Leadership Conference, the newsletter also included inspirational quotes, the conference's goals for the day and highlights of other NCAA programs.

In addition to its motivational qualities, the newsletter also helped eliminate many routine announcements. Because it was such a success, the NCAA education services staff plans to produce a similar newsletter next year, as well as a slightly different one for participants in this year's Leadership Conference.

Student-athlete involvement

Yet another new element at this conference was increased student-athlete involvement, which manifested itself in a new Leadership Fair and in an unusual talk-show type student-athlete panel.

In the past, coordinators had been able to access a Resource Room, which featured posters and additional materials from a variety of successful life skills programs across the country. This year's Leadership Fair replaced that with an interactive experience that permitted coordinators to speak with student-athletes who had participated in successful programs, getting ideas for implementation on the coordinators' own campuses. Coordinators also were invited to play timed games against each other, in one case racing to see who could design the most nutritious meal -- out of Play Doh.

"We were trying to get away from what was expected," Hendricks said. "And we also wanted more interaction between the coordinators and the student-athletes. Student-athletes who had attended the Leadership Conference were invited to submit abstracts on campus initiatives that had worked for them, and life skills coordinators were invited to encourage other student-athletes to submit abstracts as well. We used several different ways to share resources and exchange ideas."

The student-athlete panel was another new program that held some surprises. Bill Shirk, student services coordinator at Florida State University, acted as the host of a late-night talk-show type program brought up student-athletes in small groups to discuss their experiences at the Leadership Conference. The student-athletes also discussed issues on campus, ranging from use of the drug "ecstasy" to alternatives to hazing initiations. The student-athletes also offered practical tips for getting student-athletes involved in life skills programs and campus-wide initiatives.

Another unexpected twist in this year's conference was the addition of initiative games, something that the student-athletes always seem to enjoy at the Leadership Conference. Participants engaged in a variety of trust-building and team-building activities, from learning to fall into their color team's arms to guiding each other through a "blind and mute" exercise that challenged them to think outside the box. Again, the intent was to give coordinators yet another set of activities to take home and use on their own campuses.

Leading the way

Because much of the conference was geared around the student-athlete experience at the Leadership Conference, the topic of leadership was foremost on the agenda.

Keynote speaker Michael Josephson, founder of the nonprofit Josephson Institute of Ethics, spoke to attendees about the importance of character and how that manifested itself in leadership.

"We thought it was appropriate for him to speak about character development because you can't separate leadership and character," Hendricks said. "He affirmed that the coordinators could impact character development on their campuses."

In yet another effort to put the coordinators and the student-athletes on the same page, the coordinators were introduced to the same leadership model that the student-athletes had learned at the 1999 Leadership Conference. Developed by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner, authors of "The Leadership Challenge," this model centers on five leadership practices: challenging the process, inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, modeling the way and encouraging the heart.

Participants also had a chance to determine their strengths and weaknesses relative to the model, examining ways to enhance their abilities to lead others on campus.

Just as the student-athletes at the Leadership Conference identified issues of concern on campus, the coordinators spent time on that as well, using brainstorming to identify top problem areas in intercollegiate athletics.

Specific topics were placed into general categories, with five issues emerging as the group's top selections: student-athlete welfare, character, diversity, institutional support and community building.

Coordinators who were interested in a particular topic could then join in a small-group discussion of the issue, sharing with others their thoughts for addressing the problem on campus.

Preconference workshops, which were held all day on the Saturday preceding the conference, again gave coordinators a chance to focus on particular topics of interest. Coordinators could choose from six different topics: violence prevention; diversity; Stephen Covey's Seven Habits; alcohol-abuse prevention programming; communication education; and the use of role playing and educational theater.

During the main conference, coordinators wrote action plans identifying the issues they would like to address on their own campuses.

Like the plans written by student-athletes at the Leadership Conference, these plans included steps for data collection, resources, communications and implementation.

Participants also had a chance to practice their leadership skills in an exercise that took many by surprise. What appeared to be a "working lunch" on the agenda, complete with a speaker addressing the issue of limited resources, was actually a do-it-yourself surprise.

In a process quite similar to what the student-athletes had undergone at the Leadership Conference, color teams of coordinators sat down, expecting a catered meal. But they were given raw ingredients, no instructions, some cooking utensils and grills, and told to fix lunch for each other.

Two groups learned even more from the experience when their grills failed to work-- an unplanned lesson but one that reflected what often happens in real life on campus.

NCAA institutions adding the CHAMPS/Life Skills Program this year

Alfred University

Augusta State University

Austin Peay State University

Baldwin-Wallace College

Belmont University

Bucknell University

University of California, Riverside

Cameron University

Central Missouri State University

East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania

Eastern Washington University

Elmhurst College

Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck

State University College at Fredonia

George Mason University

Indiana University, Bloomington

Kean University

University of Massachusetts, Boston

Metropolitan State College of Denver

University of Missouri, St. Louis

Nicholls State University

North Dakota State University

St. Augustine's College

St. Cloud State University

Saint Joseph's College (Indiana)

St. Mary's University (Texas)

Southampton College of Long Island University

Southeast Missouri State University

University of Southwestern Louisiana

Tarleton State University

Texas A&M University-Kingsville

Trinity College (Connecticut)

Wittenberg University