What Does an RD Do During the Summer?

I get asked this question a lot.  The answer is pretty simple: a lot.  But it's more relaxed, I get a lot more time off, and there's much less stress than during the school year.

There are very few knocks on the door, which is nice until I begin to miss the interaction and get eager for the residents to return. Despite the fact that they don't live here during the summer, I interact with a number of former and future residents through text, email, facebook and the occasional phone call (and wedding!).  Sometimes it's about a challenge they're facing, sometimes it's a housing question, sometimes it's a breakdown and they just need someone to talk to.  I like this interaction.

Beyond this random interaction, there are four major summer tasks:

1) Housing: determining where students are going to live within the dorm which involves looking at their preferences, matching them up with a roommate or two, placing them in a hall, removing them when they cancel, changing them when I learning new information.  Talking with returners about turning in their housing fee, whether they're coming back or not, roommate changes they've decided over the summer, questions about moving in early or late...things like that.

2) Organizing: My office area and storage area get neglected during the school year.  Breaks give me a chance to sort and organize so these spaces are useful again.  It also gives me the chance to organize my email and the documents on my computer.

3) Planning:  I love planning.  As an RD team we plan the RA/Student Leader Fall Training Activities.  As an RD, I plan programming for the dorm (this year I'm working the content for a small group for people who didn't grow up in the church, framework for a dorm council, and editing my leadership training among other things), training for my RAs (theoretically our weekly meetings include personal and professional growth so I have to find resources for this), my budget for the year, how to improve my file system and other systems.  I also spend a bit of time making complicated to do lists and prepping documents (like signs about kitchen guidelines and signs for move in day)

4) Building next years RA team: One of the best parts of being an RD is investing in the RA team.  I'll be communicating with them through facebook & email as well as through text and phone calls.  Sometimes, I even send them snail mail.  I can use the summer to get to know them better and prepare them (and myself) for serving as a team in the coming year.

Not an exciting expose, but it's the basics of what I do during the summer as an RD.  Because the schedule is a little more relaxed, I'm free to do other things in my personal life like clean and reorganize my apartment, cook, take classes, read for fun, and spend more time with my family and friends.  I get to breath, reestablish healthy habits and prepare my soul for another school year.