Training models for club/org event planners

I have struggled with this issue also.  Here are some of the things we have tried:

Once a semester club executive retreat 1/2 day.  Event planning, form completion, new rules, etc.
One on one meetings with club execs at the beginning of each term to cover the same.
Invite them to attend the Student Leadership Retreat with ASU members. 3/4 day
Districtwide student leader retreat 1 day

Most effective?  Probably the one on one meetings to cover items specifically related to that club ansd their issues. Some clubs need more time, some just need to update forms and get new policy info.

However, this is always the hardest to schedule when you have a ton of clubs! 

Hope this gives you some idea.

You are totally right in that the 1 on 1 meetings are the more effective.  I know we are certainly not "staffed up" enough for that.

Anyone with ideas on how to get our senior leadership on campus to realize that this is the most effective way to assist groups?  This will lead to less stress on all areas, including our activities offices, operations/events staff, etc.

One way to incorporate both experienced leaders and taking them to the next level and training one-time event planners is to create a student organization leadership consultant program (at UC irvine, our program is called CORE -- Campus Organization Resources and Education).  Experienced student leaders (generally students who have been active in multiple student organizations and been on an exectuvie board) receive course credt and perform office hours in the CORE office, and they also create in-person and online workshops about event planning, campus policies, etc.

http://www.campusorgs.uci.edu/core/

I developed this program after a program called the "Peer Leadership Consultant" or PLC program we did at USC.  More info here:

http://sait.usc.edu/ca/services_plc.htm

At UC Irvine, we also do a 1/2 day retreat each quarter, which generally draws in students who are new, but we do hope this information will "live on" through officer transition.  We also do an online training program for all students who make reservations for campus space, which go over campus policies.

Along with our beginning-of-the-semester student leader training, we developed a student leader brochure/checklist. It's based on the office's standard operating procedures and it's a tri-fold that we can easily hand out to students who have questions about things like officer transition, semester planning, using club funds, event requests and room reservations, fundraising rules and regulations and marketing rules, regulations and ideas. Each section has an easy to follow check list of all the things the club needs to complete throughout their planning process and the check boxes help them keep track of where they are in the process.

apologies for the anonymous posting - that was me with the check lists :)

Have you thought about trying to incorporate the experienced student leaders to facilitate some of the training sessions?