Travel Tip

This is something I discovered a while back. It could be really helpful for any of you who have to book your own hotels. Are you tired of overpaying for semi-decent places to land at night. I was! I paid $108 for a Comfort Inn in Barrie once!

Check out Hotwire. This is an American site that I've had a lot of luck with for booking great rooms at great prices. Here's a few things you need to know if you try it.

- They charge in American $$. Our dollar is close enough though these days that the deals are still great.

- You don't know the actual hotel until you've paid for it. You choose based on a rating system and a general geographic area.

- You can't specify the type of room...ie: non-smoking, king bed. I've had about 98% great rooms nonetheless. The couple of times I did get bad rooms, I was able to switch once and lived with the other because I was just staying one night there.

I use it now for almost all my major centre bookings. I've stayed in Sheratons for $75/night, Hilton Garden Inns for less than $70, and Comfort Inn and Suites for less than $60 to name a few stops. If you're willing to risk a little this can be a great tool to a comfortable stay.

Noel Levitz & Stamats

If you're not already receiving these free e-newsletters, sign up! Have them filter into an inbox subfolder, and read them when you need a recharge...

Noel Levitz: Strategies and Strategy Watch" Noel-Levitz periodically sends out reports, newsletters, white papers, and other information to keep campus professionals informed of current trends and best practices. "

Stamats: Quick Takes and Applications" Insights into integrated marketing, communication, and research for colleges and universities by Dr. Robert A. Sevier and other Stamats marketing professionals.

Some white papers:

• Making Sense of the Retention Puzzle (pdf)
• 10 Ways to Revitalize Your Recruitment Communications (pdf)
• Stamats White Papers (registration required)

sweet freebies

Seth Godin is one of my favourite authors on marketing, change, and entrepeneurship. Click on the titles and book images below to download them (legally!) for free (a couple are links to sites that give more info and download links).

• Knock Knock (on websites that work)
• Who's There (on blogs that work)
• Everyone's an expert (on 'lenses')
• Unleashing the Idea Virus (on how ideas spread)

A Quick Introduction

Hello Friends,

To start my contribution I thought I should offer a quick word of introduction to all my fellow recruiters. My name is Tim Kantel and I'm the Ontario Rep for St. Stephen's University (my fancy title is Marketing and Recruiting Officer). I'm based out of my home which is in Carleton Place, Ontario which is just outside of Ottawa and travel throughout mostly Ontario and Quebec raising students and awareness of SSU. I'm married to Sarah and have a 2 1/2 year old son Evan and another on the way at the end of this month.

My connection to Christian Higher Ed comes naturally as my Father is actually the founder of St. Stephen's University. I've been in and around SSU for most of my life except for about the 7 years before I came back on staff last September. I hold the claim to fame of being the first Recruiter that SSU ever hired back in the middle 90's and as I think about that time, this is one reason I'm really excited about this blog. Back in those days I wish I had the chance to be as connected to a community of colleagues like this. I would have loved to known the secrets and tricks of the trade that I had to figure out on my own. As we post and talk amongst ourselves here, I hope that we can all pick up information and suggestions that will make our lives easier and let us be more effective in what we do. As well it will be great to make new relationships and share road stories with people who understand!

So aside from Recruiting, I've done a lot of sales work in my short career selling everything from websites to Fair Trade coffee so I'm looking forward to sharing some of the things I've learned from that side of my life as well.

Anyway, enough about me....

Tuition Increases and Google Alerts

Here are two articles that may interest you: the higher cost of higher education and tuition statistics in Canada.

And a tip: Does anyone out there use "Google Alerts"? It's a pretty cool way to filter the vast amounts of information available online... They are self-defined as: "... emails automatically sent to you when there are new Google results for your search terms. We currently offer four types of alerts: 'News,' 'Web,' 'News & Web,' and 'Groups.' "

For example, I have a couple of alerts set up under "news"... one for "Christian Higher Education" and one for, "Helicopter Parents." So anytime there is a new article in the top ten Google News stories or new website in the top twenty, I get an email with a link to it. I got notified about Trinity Western's new president and Tyndale's new property on the minute the story broke. Sweet.

DC

some resources...

Since we're promising "Tips, Tools, and Trivia" in the tagline, here are a few things to kick us off...

1. Basic Evaluation Form ... effective evaluation can create efficiency and more effectiveness for next time.
2. Assistant Enrolment Advisor Job Description... you know you need help, but do you know what you would do with 5 or 10 extra hours a week if it were offered to you? Do you have an articulated job description yourself? How are you measuring your own success/effectiveness? Here's somewhere to start.
3. Ten Trailblazers for the Recruitment Road: basics for the battle; Take a look.