Bulletin Boards are an act of expression, a work of art and a fun way to share something with your residents. Last year, I was just getting the hang of the art of bulletin boards and now I'm finding a way to truly master my craft. A bulletin board can often start with a concept and then it becomes something beautiful like what you see below.
Let me explain the thought process by my very first bulletin board for the year. For first bulletin boards, I like to make the board match my door decorations, which for this year I decided to be little Mickey hats, as you can see from the bulletin board. Now from there came puns that were Disney related. I try as much as possible to avoid taking ideas from Pinterest. I let it be more like an inspiration and I strive to take ideas in a new unique direction. Being a Disney fan for my whole life, this was something that came pretty naturally as a thought. "We want you to be the happiest residents on campus" okay so we have a beginning title, next step how do we make it visually appealing. I discussed with my CO-Alex who is also a large Disney fan and we thought it was only a given that we include the classic Disney Castle. Lucky for me, Alex is immensely talented at drawing and was able to make that beauty come together. I think I am a woman of little details, because spoiler alert, I am a not a drawer in the slightest, but that does not mean I cannot make some damn good bulletin boards. I think everyone is an artist with different strengths, I use my creativity and try to make the big picture in my head come to life. I do what I can to make visually appealing bulletin boards that will hopefully wow my residents and the rest of the people in my building. Plus it's fun too.
This bulletin board is what changed my method for the rest of the semester. I found the beauty in creating your own border, which ultimately takes your bulletin board automatically to the next level, at least in my opinion. This actually arose as a solution to the lack of the borders that were available to our building team, so I saw more post-it's and I thought why not. I truly think it helps to make the board more fun because it adds even more thought into the creation of the board. More effort to me almost always equals a more successful board. Effort goes a very long way. This bulletin board in particular was inspired by one of my hall council programs my freshman year with the same title. It also was meant to give me something I could connect with my residents about as I was struggling to get to know them initially due to the new hallway set up and the dancers on my floor always being so busy with practice. Now I look forward to checking in with them now that the semester is over how their goals are going.
So obviously, the border thing continued and look at how cool it made this board. If you can't tell, the border is made up of wilderness explorer patches. I even got some random residents to help in creating them so it's a fun representation of a wide variety of patches some inspired by adventures, experiences, and just some inside jokes. This is a good example of a board that reflects doing something you love. During the time, I was very into hiking and was personally researching different hikes in the area, so I took it to the bulletin board and helped to show my residents, "Adventure is out there!" This bulletin board continued to develop starting with one layer of balloons and then multiple to add a 3D like factor, then adding pictures of the hikes and the badges, once again, set the bulletin board to a new level. Also shoutout for Alex for helping me make that mini house.
This is probably my very favorite bulletin board thus far. It was something I wanted to do last year, but I just never got around to it, so this year I planned accordingly. I wanted the opportunity to encourage residents to join the Residential Education Office fam. Since the beginning my co and I have tried to stick with a Disney theme, she was consistent, I skipped one but I knew when thinking of this one, we were going back to Disney. I thought of this title and honestly was so proud, I have a thing for Disney quote/puns or whatever you'd like to call it. From there, Alex, the talented drawer she is drew us as the Little Mermaid(s), which I was SO SO impressed by. Then again the little details really helped it come together, the seaweed, the fishies, and the gadget and gismos of plenty. It just all came together as you can SEA.
Bulletin boards are one of my favorite aspects of my job as a Resident Advisor. It allows me to be creative and have fun with art. It even throws me back to my high school ASB days. Last year, I painted a huge sunset, boy was that fun, just for the sake of an awesome bulletin board. After all, it's gonna be on the wall for a month, you might as well put something up you're proud to look at every time you pass it. My bulletin boards will (hopefully) never make anyone bored 😉
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