Murray State’s Residential College Association (RCA) hosted the South Atlantic Association of College and University Residence Halls (SAACURH) Regional Business Conference, bringing in 28 universities and 150 attendees.

The latter organization, one of the largest affiliates of the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH), was founded in 1968 to promote satisfactory experiences for students living on college campuses.

The SAACURH region comprises universities in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and the Bahamas.

Each region within NACURH holds two conferences each year. The Regional Leadership Conference is held in the fall, and the Regional Business Conference is held in the spring. The organization relies on member schools to host both events.

RCA President and Conference Chair Nicholas Novotka said Murray State has been affiliated with the organization for decades.

“It’s a business conference because it’s small,” Novotka said. “You’re meant to only bring five people at most per institution, whereas at the spring one…you’re encouraged to bring sometimes 10 people because it’s a leadership conference, so there’s more networking, games and opportunities.”

In contrast to the Leadership Conference, Novotka said the Business Conference incorporates more legislation and case studies.

“They would have a presentation about, say, you’re put in a situation where you’re the president for the year, but you have no exec,” Novotka said. “How do you go about recruiting people and planning for the rest of the year? People then give their input. …It’s a way for people to learn from other people from across the country, in our region, what to do.”

The conference also allowed students to present bids for board positions. It allots awards for the region’s best residential college programs and the students and advisers behind them.

Novotka said Murray State’s role was to build a space for such activities to happen.

“All we had to do was literally provide the avenues for 150 people across nine or so different states to be able to travel, whether by air or car, shuttle them if they need to from the airport, house them in a hotel,” Novotka said. “It allows everyone to network, learn things, get perspectives.”

Novotka said the conference was the most influential learning experience in his life to date.

“I’ve said this a lot over the course of the few months, but it literally takes a team to put something on like this,” Novotka said. “I think that is a perfect example for anything you do in the future. You want to put on a big event? You want to work on a huge project? You want to make a change? You need a team of people behind you to help make it happen.”

The team of students took about five months to prepare for the conference.

Hospitality Co-Chair Tessa Bradley said being a part of the team taught her to be more communicative and open to asking for help when she needed it.

“None of the chairs had ever worked on anything of this scale before, so we all had to rely on each other to give feedback and advice,” Bradley said. “Transparency really was key to the success of this conference because without it we wouldn’t have been able to work together as a team and support one another’s efforts.”

Bradley’s position meant she was responsible for coordinating breakroom activities and purchasing snacks and goodies for attendees. At first, she said planning was difficult because the group did not have a set budget or know how many people would attend.

“Trying to get things done with minimal information was stressful at times, but our advisor and conference chair always helped to point us in the right direction,” Bradley said. “We just had to work with what we had, adjust our plans as the conference crept closer and have faith that everything would turn out right in the end.”

Though several team members came in unaware of their responsibilities, Novotka said they became independent with patience and teamwork.

“It showed them there’s more than just what happens in my building down the hall,” Novotka said. “There’s a whole thing above us, there’s opportunities that you just have no idea about. Once you get involved…the sky’s the limit, really. Doing the conference just really showed that.”