Gulf South Conference Hosts Annual SAAC Meeting
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Gulf South Conference and its Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) held their annual meetings this past week in Birmingham.
All 14 conference institutions were represented at the meetings that were held from July 26 to July 28.
The festivities started off with a bonding session on Wednesday night, with the participants going to one of the local Breakout Games.
On Thursday morning, the group went to Better Basics in downtown Birmingham. Better Basics is a non-profit organization that focuses on enhancing the lives of children and their families through literacy. The GSC SAAC spent the morning cleaning books in anticipation of the new school year. In all, nearly 1,400 books were cleaned, helping 340 students.
That afternoon, the participants sat through a series of presentations. Neverthirst talked about their charitable endeavors, BB&T provided tips for financial wellness, the DiSC assessment served as a valuable tool on how to work with different personalities, and North Alabama shared its new program Connect1. Connect1 focuses on student-wellness, outreach, and interpersonal connections in an increasingly digital world. This program is currently a finalist for the NCAA Division II Award of Excellence.
One student-athlete from each school also filmed an interview that will be turned into a feature for the league. Those SAAC spotlights will be released throughout the year.
During the business meeting on Friday, Union’s Kristen Pickens was selected as the new Vice Chair and will serve alongside UAH’s Kip Owens. National SAAC representative Juwan Burney (Delta State) gave the group a report on the national meeting. The group also unanimously approved a new trophy design. The trophy will be utilized in 2017-18. There were also beginning talks on establishing a new Code of Conduct for the league.
Click
here for the 2017 GSC SAAC Meetings/Community Service Engagement Facebook album.