4.3 - "The Venue With the Best View in BCS"

Transcript

Episode not seven, three. Because clearly it's 3.

I double checked before we left. Episode three of Coffee Talk. Our guest today is Tawyna Moehlman.

I told you, you didn't trust me. Tawyna is an administrative coordinator at Texas A&M University Department of Recreational Sports.

She coordinates and processes all reservations for all of the recreational sports facilities on the TAMU College Station campus.

She handles scheduling for classes, intramural sports clubs, meetings, special events, practices and many other activities

that utilize all of the department facilities the department oversees

as well as handling all invoicing for the department. That's a lot. Yeah, I stay pretty busy. Since 2019,

Tawyna has been a member of the Bryan College Station American Business Women's Association,

holding the position of membership officer for 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022.

She was awarded the protege of the Year 2020 2021 and the Woman of the Year

2021 to 2022 for the BCS chapter. I'm sorry, that's a lot of numbers, a lot of information.

It is, thank you. You could have just said fiscal year. That's not what you wrote. Well, that's what I found.

I stalked her on LinkedIn. I am on there. Yeah, I like your photo on there too. Thank you.

Yeah. Well, congrats on the awards. We're going to ask about that later because I'm very curious. Thank you. They were exciting. It was good.

And like I asked earlier, How do you sleep doing all of these things? I stay pretty busy.

And you know, the Rec Center is pretty diverse, it's not just the Rec Center. So we have the Penberthy intramural complex, we have the PEAP, the physical

education building, we have the tennis courts, we have the main rec center. We also have the Polo Road new facility.

And then in the fall of this year, we will open the new South Side rec center.

So I've been doing all of this for 20 years here at the rec center. So I just have learned to multitask

and get things done. It has its moments. She's got a system.

I'm sure it works better than our system. I like my system. EMS is my friend. So we dropped EMS,

because the cost of it for us, being so small, was not worth it. Yeah, we we couldn't drop it.

We needed it for the invoicing component. And now I've gone and presented at the National Conference

for them twice and and now it's just part of life for me. So if they try to change, I might

freak out. But yeah, hopefully it'll be after you're long gone. And you have a lot more facilities that you're dealing with. Mm hmm.

And we do have wide variety of things from your just basic dance practices for organizations that come in that want to do practices

for their organization on a nightly or three nights a week, things like that to full blown 500 people seated

banquets to swim meets. We also have all kinds of tournaments.

Our department oversees, I believe it's 33 sport clubs, so we have rugby, lacrosse, you name it.

So we hold tournaments and games and all of that out at our fields. Plus we have intramurals,

so they're on the courts and fields doing all of their programming. And so we're constantly busy seven days a week.

That sounds exhausting. Makes me like my job even more. OK, so besides what we listed,

Tell us a little bit more about your role. So I do all of the scheduling for all of our facilities.

So students or departments, if an outside group

has a need for our facilities, they would have to have a sponsor to come in. So occasionally we get some outside groups that come in,

but mostly student organizations and departments, and they'll contact me either by email, phone or come in.

Fill out a reservation form. I process it. I figure out which facilities best fits for what activity they're doing,

find the time slots for them and then I work around, I also put in all the health kinesiology classes and anything that's scheduled in the building

for each semester. So I just coordinate things around and make sure that, you know,

I can cooperate and get everybody in and try to make everybody work. Exactly.

So how many, if you like ballpark number off the top of your head, how many spaces do you actually book?

Like, how many are there in general? Oh, there's I mean, we have 13 fields.

There's probably there's four courts and probably six or seven rooms

in the PEAP. This facility, we have ten courts, 16, or

twelve racquetball courts and then probably.

Another ten rooms on a daily basis, and I'm filling them up all the time, so.

Well, at least their students will consistently have a job and not be bored. We have the largest student employees across campus, so at any given time

they're sometimes up to 900 student employees that we have at the Rec Center. Wow. Throughout all our different facilities and activities that they work.

So. Could you imagine doing that schedule? No, you can barely do our five right now.

Excuse me, four. Yeah. Well, there's you know, we have a marketing intern. I don't I don't like it.

And all of our rooms are multipurpose so our courts can be flipped. You can go from volleyball to badminton to indoor soccer.

You can play basketball on them. And so we have to have four courts available at all times for open rec.

But we also have scheduled things going on between classes. We have outdoor sports.

And then our fields, they can be flipped for multiple different activities, from kickball to softball, back to flag football,

Quidditch tournaments, you name it. And we do them on this campus. So.

And then all the other rooms, our banquet rooms are all multi-purpose, so they're basically empty rooms.

And then we set them up on the basis and the needs of whatever the client needs.

And so we can go from shooting archery for H and K classes during the day to like I said a 500 plated dinner in the evening.

And so you just work it all out and make it part of the day. I thought our flips were bad from banquet to workshop.

Y'all love workshop. I hate workshop. So you've been doing it for 20 years, 20 years?

Yeah. February was my 20th anniversary here at the rec center. Congratulations. Thank you. That's exciting. They throw you a party?

They did not. That's rude. Should've called us. James Nash owes me a dinner. We'll send him this podcast and make sure we tell him what minute to listen to.

You need a party. Well, you can always come party with us. Yeah, we like parties and we've always got coffee and snacks.

Yeah. I like snacks. Unfortunately, my waistline does not

You've embraced it, I haven't yet.

Whatever. I'm going to leave that alone. So what's the favorite part of your job?

My favorite part is working with the students and just helping them realize

an event from beginning to the end and understanding that, oh no, you need security for this or you don't, or just helping them

get their practices in and trying to help them get a schedule because they're coordinating, you know, 20-30 members.

And if I can't try to find them a pattern for their practices and they're always, you know, hit or miss

and it makes it more difficult for them. So I try to work with everybody and and maneuver the different groups around

so that I can accommodate the most amount of student organizations. And so we have.

Probably 50 different dance groups that come in and do their weekly practices here, so

in all our different facilities and just helping them to get everything is that, working with kids is my favorite part. 50 dance teams, I didn't even know

there were that many in this town. There's 900 or 800, 900 student organizations on campus, you would not believe from Fade2Black,

Ballet Folklorico, Dance Arts Society.

PhilSA has like, the Philippine Student Association, they have three or four different dance groups within their organization.

They do a cultural dance, a spirit dance, a modern dance, they have freestyle underground

groups. I want to come watch. I was going to say I'm like, exhausted, like trying to figure out how do they even have time. They have Bali groups and Rec and Rolls.

Some are cultural and then they have their more hip hop, so you just never know what they're going to be doing.

So it is fun. It's fun watching them. That's exciting. Something different every day. You'll have to send me the schedule so I can watch.

What's your, since you mentioned the student organizations, what's your

like rental process like? Do you have a tiered pricing plan? We do, we have a 3 tiered process.

So student organizations obviously get the lowest tier. If it's just a basic meeting or a basic practice, they don't need anything,

it's just the room itself, then we don't charge them. That's just part of their student fees, and we just want to be here for them

to use the facility. If they need tables, chairs, equipment, then there's a rental structure

and each room has different pricing, and that's all on the website with rec sports. And then the next pricing is the departments

they rent and pay for everything, but it is a little lower. And then we have the private groups if they have a sponsor.

And then of course, theirs is the highest and they pay for everything.

I was just curious. Yeah. So what's your experience like working with these student organizations and their financial office?

It's challenging. That's a good word, challenging the process has changed quite a bit, so, and this semester has been a struggle.

We'll find getting the actual approval to charge form with the actual e-number on it.

In the past, they would bring it to me and it would have it written on and I would know, OK, they have the funds held and we're good to go.

Now it's all online and I think I've gotten maybe one back this semester that actually had the number on it.

So I struggled to know if they were approved or not and who to even contact sometimes to get it.

We'll give you our contact because we went through that recently and I was very, very irritated because we have been doing it for so long because we always included it in the EMS fee

so that way they could see it. Well, then we had an event with one recently, and whoever Jamie talked to on the phone was like, well, we don't do that.

We don't provide that number. I'm like, it's literally written on your paperwork that this is part of your process. Why do we not have this?

Yeah, it is a struggle and I find that some departments changed their process and especially due to being out

and COVID and everything, it makes sense that it needed to go online, but a lot of processes have changed and then not everyone that's involved

or needs access to that was told that the process changed. And so there hasn't really been

communication across the board to let everyone know what to do. So it's a lot of phone calls.

It's a lot of, you know, just trying to make sure we're covering our bases that, you know, and they can either pay cash

to the FMO themselves or credit card. So if the financial portion doesn't work out through the SOFC,

there's other ways that they can pay for their event. So yeah, we go that route sometimes.

I don't I mean, I don't blame them because it has been a nightmare and we're starting to do more with student organizations.

Have you run into any issues with the student organizations wanting to try and bring alcohol in here? No, because they know our policy is no alcohol for student organizations,

even if they're all, and it could be a fraternity or a sorority or something, then everyone's of age, we- it's just against our policy.

It has to be a department or an outside group. And so they just we haven't had any issues with that.

And plus, we use the vendors, outside vendors that bring in the alcohol. So then it falls back on them to do parting and everything

because it's the bartender's responsibility. So we just use that as our fallback for sure on that.

We might just get the luck of the draw, I guess, out of our building. No, I mean, it's a university setup.

It is. It's part of a student It's part of their policies when they become a student organization, it just baffles me that they think because they're not in the MSC they can do it.

Yeah, it's fun. Sorry, I was just curious if she had the same issues, challenges that we have.

Well, I had to put it out there. We're special. I just need the SOFC to get it together.

Or send a mass email that everything changed because where was that? In your junk email? Nope.

Did it get routed? That's rude. I didn't get it either. Yeah, I'll take up for you there.

Most of them, it's probably just, you know, they informed the student organizations. And I do I believe that's what happens.

So just even with concessions, all of these different processes across campus have changed due to changing environment.

And so I think that their main focus is going through student activities,

making sure all the kids, they go through Maroon Link and they have all these activities and things that they do

to get their paperwork done. Well, sometimes they are focused on

that side of campus, and so we don't always get that information. So I just reach out and network, get my answers.

We did find out that, according to one of the ladies that works there, that the encumbrance number does end up going to

the MSC because the MSC themselves actually submits the paperwork for the student organization while each student organization submits it for themselves.

So if it's an MSC run organization, yeah, they do use the O2 accounts and all of that,

so they don't even need the approval to charge. So I think that also causes confusion. So if it's a departmental organization and they pay by their O2

departmental account, then they get to bypass those steps. Well then any other organization doesn't?

So then students that are in multiple organizations, then get confused at what process they're supposed to follow based on how that's supposed to work.

So that's also another challenge. And then you have to remember, it's been two years, so the kids

that had been doing reservations have graduated. They're gone, and those notes and the mentoring is gone.

So it's like all these kids are coming in and they've never done reservations. They don't know the process.

And so it's as I've learned this last year, it's being completely retaught. Everything

I always tell them, you need to make sure the next president or the next treasurer has this information, because if you're going to do this

event next year, we'll have record of it and then you can pass that knowledge on. Keep a binder.

And so I always kind of have been encouraging them all these years. And now it's all new. Now you've gotta start over. Yes.

Yes. Give me more gray hairs. I have plenty. Ditto. Dye.

I do. OK, so we've talked about facilities

that you have to offer for special events. What all is included in your room rental?

So the room rental, the only thing that's actually included is the projector in the rooms.

Everything else is basically ala carte because the way our facilities are, it's in the ceiling,

there's ceiling projectors here, the way our rooms are, they have to be set up. So we charge because we have to bring staff in to set them up.

So we charge tables, chairs, tablecloths. We do offer a pretty wide range of different colors

for tablecloths and stuff, so they don't have to use outside vendors. But if they choose to go and bring in their own, they can do that as well.

So it's unless it's a basic practice or meeting with nothing,

then they rent. Sit in a circle on the floor. And a lot do.

And we do have a few rooms like room 1132 and 281. They are more lecture style rooms and so they have built in seating in them.

And so if they just need a meeting room that comes with tables and chairs, then that's usually the one I put them in because I don't want them to have to pay

for tables and chairs and things that they don't have to. But if they're a larger group, they can either Jesus sit on the floor

or then it crosses that very fine line of basic meeting to an event.

Since once we need to put equipment in, it then becomes an event. Yeah. OK, I guess we're gonna go on a tour now? Yes.

And so this room is 2229. OK, this is opened up right now.

It can seat 300 people, but there's a wall that can close it in half. So then we have 2229A or B,

so it seats 150 on each side seated. And so we have everything in this room, from large yoga

or fitness events to seated banquets to

you name it, we probably do it. It also has a great view of Blue Bell Stadium, so we do a lot of events with the 12th Man, the Association of Former Students,

the Chancellor's office departments doing their own tailgates for their staff where they can use the

balcony area and they can see into the stadium. So that's a big perk for renting this room.

And then. Do you guys, I see there's a camera on the wall do you guys have Zoom capabilities in here. We do have Zoom capabilities in here, we actually did classes during COVID.

So we have that. We also, this has each half of the room has its own AV room.

So if it's closed off, you have a staff member that would be in for your event.

That can help you with your AV needs and they'll be in that room. They can help with anything. If you have a spill or something like that, there's that staff member

that's assigned to your event, and we do that with all events. Student organizations get that staff member as part of their package.

But departments and outside groups pay for the staff per hour. And this room is unique because it also has a catering kitchen.

So it has a refrigerated unit in there and some heating units in there. Ice

machine, sinks and things so that the caterers have a place to start out from and this room is unique for that.

None of our other rooms have that. That's nice, there's not too many on campus that have a catering kitchen.

I worked many events for Chartwells in this room. Yeah, and it's a neat room.

So what's the capacity on these two lecture rooms? One can seat about 80 and then one seats about 100, so

281 is about 100 and then 1132 is around 80. This would be a good place to hold an all day conference.

Well I was just saying that they're pre-built in there. We have some of our fitness rooms can be flipped on this side of the building, so we have 2221 and 2225

and then this room all up here on the second floor. And so this seats 150 per side or the wall can be taken out

and you can do 300 in this room and then each of those rooms can seat 100.

And then there's also the balconies that can see into the Blue Bell Stadium for baseball.

So all our rooms can be multipurpose and so there's opportunities for conferences

to have some breakout rooms and things and keep them all on the south side of the rec center. And then downstairs is room

1130 can seat 200 and then that 1132, which seats 80. So all of those are on the south side of the rec center.

So you can kind of keep the whole conference over here and not have to go all over the rec center.

That's really nice too you can keep it away from like the actual fitness activities and they can just be over here kind of on their own. You don't like to do breakouts with exercise?

Do not get me started. You know, we did a lot of professional development during COVID and all these online conferences that want to start with a

HIIT workout or let's do yoga every morning. You can choose between three different sessions,

but none of them were anything informational or educational. And then after lunch. Same thing.

HIIT workouts or yoga. And I'm just like, What if somebody wants to hold a conference where you're basically sitting all day and they want to have,

you know, a Zumba class. We do have groups that do that or even some of the schools will bring in students.

And then they'll use a court and they'll have the health kinesiology has a challenge works

department over there and they can come in and do all kinds of team building with them and use some of the courts and things.

Ooh we should do that. You ready for some team building? I would totally whoop you in basketball.

I can throw in our book club on top of all that. Play horse. Oh yeah.

I'm down. Badminton, Ooh racquetball. My sister used to make me stand outside all night

until I made like 50 free throws or I could shoot the court without missing. I could take you. I'm sure you could

I suck at basketball. Now if we're talking soccer that's a totally different story. I'm not. You could do indoor soccer or outdoor soccer so. I'm not feet coordinated.

I did my coach, my coaching license certification here. We did the classroom stuff when it used to be the College Station Conference Center then we did the actual practical part of it

on the court here. It was fun. Indoor soccer. I miss it. But yeah, anyway. OK.

I'm done. Soap box over. Yes. Do you have an event here that's your favorite? We do an annual student banquet

for our student employees and it's usually the upper crust of our, there's some levels in the employees, but every area in our department

has their students and so they bring in their best employees, their super higher level students in and we do a themed banquet.

And it changes from year to year and we just celebrate them. We give out some scholarships and each area gets an award.

Employee of the Year and then they get a brick outside in our brick campaign as the employee of the year.

And so it's just fun to celebrate them and tell them that we appreciate them. And so this year it's going to be a derby, Kentucky derby theme.

So they like to get all dressed up and we get to do the big hats. And we've done a gamut of things, we've had

a rock and roll theme we've done a Rec Idol, where we actually had students try out and participate

and do like the whole talent competition, and we went through phases with them before and then the final night at the banquet they performed to see who won.

And so we're a pretty competitive group and pretty fun, so we try to keep it fun.

So yeah, those are probably my most favorite, but we have a lot of events and so it's fun

to see the elegance of when the Chancellor's office comes in. And they brought in linens from outside sources

and it's a plated dinner versus your student organization that's, you know, bringing in the dollar store, plastic tablecloth.

So we see the wide variety. But when we're celebrating the kids, that's probably my favorite.

Yes, I need to step my student employee game up. Well, according to our students, they're signing us up for The Amazing Race.

So that's how they. I'm okay with that. Yeah, I'm not. I would leave you in another country in a heartbeat. I would totally leave.

You're on your own. Could you imagine how much fighting would happen if we actually did that?

We'd be great on TV. God, we'd definitely pull ratings. But as far as us actually winning, that's debatable.

Yeah. So how did you get involved in the American Business Women's Association?

I had a coworker that was a member of it, and she invited me to one of the meetings and I went and thought,

Oh, I don't know if I'm going to like this, but I'll go. And then I was hooked. It's an amazing network of ladies from a wide variety of fields,

and so just the different contacts that I've made

and relationships that I've made has been life changing for me. I love being a part of that organization,

and it helps too, that it's funded by my department

so that it's part of my professional development and then just staying active in it. And we've done some conferences, gone places, do monthly meetings.

They have great speakers each month and then you have networking time and it really is neat.

Did you mark that down? What? You still have to figure out your goals for next year.

We have a meeting the first Tuesday of every month, There you go. We'd love to have you. That's a large commitment.

Super large. So what is I mean, what can you tell me a little bit about it?

Like what? What is it? The American Business Women's Association? It is a national known

It's been 72 years across the country and it is a networking

basically for women to learn and just grow together and help each other professionally. So.

And each month we have speakers. And then if you, I have a small craft business. And so each month we have a

business of the month. And so you can bring items or discuss your own personal business with the group.

Bring resources for them to know more about what you do. And then that gets you new clients and customers.

And so they really embrace each woman as an individual and help you to figure out things and

encourage you to be on LinkedIn or how to reach out. And I had knee replacement. I've had tons of knee surgeries and I one of the ladies

that was the main nurse in our group and my knee got infected. I text messaged her and said, Hey, I've got a problem.

It's a weekend. What do I do? That network enabled me to get a hold of the doctor that had just

left on vacation to come back and do another surgery on my leg. It's been from just personal relationships to professional.

We help each other out. We send out when they're when someone knows there's an opening in their department and we have a lady that works at the Aggieland Roofer.

They need a receptionist, so we send it out to each other. Hey, do you know someone that needs a job? Here's an opening. And so it just opens up

different networking than maybe your normal path, because we have everyone from administrators on campus,

the receptionists, all the way to the banking industry, private owned companies

and then lots of them have side gigs they may sell makeup or other things. And so you just are able to work

with all of them and then the national competition. I mean, group is neat because they have conferences and everything, too.

So then you're networking nationally. So. That's awesome, you see?

So you can grow your nail business. Why are you looking at me like that? I barely have enough time to do my nails anymore.

Well, maybe you can maybe you can finally convince your husband to let you guys have some help on the ranch.

No, not at all? Cameron's not quite old enough. He's getting there. Yeah. He feeds them. Look, if she can do it, you can do it.

She got like seven jobs. I like to sleep. She sleeps, I'm sure. A little. Yeah,

I do, too. But at this stage in my life, my four year old thinks differently. I mean, between this job, accounting for my husband's

business, the ranching, rental properties. I mean.

The kid. Your plate's full. Yeah, but Cameron is so easygoing,

you could pretty much do anything with that kid, like he's still little, so I still want to spend time with them until he's like a teenager

and he's like ugh, Mom. But I'm sure these things, you can pick and choose what you want to go to besides, like the chapter meetings and stuff like that.

It is nice, I will say, just to get away from home just your regular routine

to just go be in a room full of other like minded women away from the stress of other life

once a month for a couple, two and a half hours. You get to eat there. You don't have to worry about dinner. Everyone's on their own.

They know that. First Tuesday of every month is my night and it's fun, and it has been really rewarding for me.

Just to, you know what? That's my day, y'all are on your own.

I need to figure out how to get that. Join our organization. I know I'm thinking about it. That requires - ah nevermind.

All right, moving on. It's not like he doesn't already know. If someone was interested

in going into this industry, what's one piece of advice you would give them?

Or multiple. Well, probably my the most important piece

is going to be communication and organization. It doesn't matter what part, from scheduling to an event.

If you can't communicate with your customers or you're not organized, it's not going to be successful because you need to help them

see their vision and don't be afraid to be creative. And just believe in yourself.

That's been the best thing for me, just staying organized and communicating

with people and saying this is what if this were my event, what about this?

Offer them options and be willing to, you know, give them some ideas that they maybe haven't seen.

And so that's that's probably the most important. Communication, organization, because if you're not organized, something's going to get

forgotten. Some AV equipment, you know? Or, yeah, something like that.

She just called you out, Michael. And then you got to start over. But it happens here all the time. Start 20 minutes late.

Yeah, no, we're good. But that happens all the all the time here. A group comes in, they didn't bring a laptop

because you didn't communicate with them that they needed to bring that laptop. And now their program's starting in 15 minutes and they can't make

it across campus or now you need to have that resource for them. And so we just learned over time.

Communicate. Give them your policies, let them know everything up front, they're not going to read your emails. So they're not going to read your policies either. Yeah.

So you need to be communicating with them when you do your walkthroughs, there is explain to them, OK, well, we can do this room this way or that way.

And these are the things that come. And these are our prices so that they are up front because

another on campus at the MSC they may not get charged. Well, so they automatically assume they're not going to get charged here.

And so communication is key. That's the most important.

Yeah, yeah, that's funny. We just dealt with that. Well, I'm a student organization, I don't pay for anything.

Well, we're not the MSC. Sorry. Yeah. We don't control our prices. We don't. That is an unfortunate thing

to some degree, I mean, you know. Go ahead. No, no fine. You're going to interrupt anyway, just do it.

No, I'm not. You always do. I was just going to say, and the rec is great because y'all have great parking.

We do. A lot of parking options now. Yeah, because you can do over at Reed Arena. We have the parking garage

and then we have the lots around us that are Lot 100. So. But we also have challenges. If there's basketball going on or softball going on

or baseball going on, those lots all get taken. So then that only gives you

the campus garage or football season when they take it all. Yeah. And then we have events

because we do big tailgates out on our other side, on our terrace. And so it does become challenging, but not as challenging as other areas

across campus. And you're on a bus route. And we are on a best route. We are. So when you have to schedule all this stuff, do you automatically communicate

with someone from transportation or do you have the client do that? We have the clients do it just so that that's on them and not on us because we don't control the parking.

And so for us to take the onus on that, it's just too much. So we just tell them who to contact and then they go that route.

If they need specific parking. Most after five and on weekends, they can park pretty much anywhere.

So a lot of our events are on weekends. So as long as there's not a captured lot,

right, then. Or football. Or football, if there's a sporting event that captures lots, then we have to make sure

that they've contacted to find out where they're going to park. But most of the time they're able to just park in these lots that surround the building.

Yeah, we've tried to do stuff on the weekends during football season. It's just not feasible because they take all the lots

and then the one in front of our building is for the library only. So everything out there is like RV parking at this point.

The whole fan field and everything. So we just don't. But if you coordinate with transportation, sometimes you can say, Look,

we're going to host this, this is what we're doing and then they can capture part of it for you. Well, we've done that.

But the lot right behind our building is always accessible to anyone who works like who has that lot permit.

So seven days a week, 24 hours a day. But fan field is the hardest because they built that

for additional parking, but every season it is just full. They do that at our Penberthy field, so they put RVs out on there.

So yeah, they they'll take everything, every spot they can just to get, you know, RVs in and places to go.

So yeah, it gets challenging. Parking is always challenging, even leaving the building some evenings

when there are sporting events going on and you can't get out of the parking lot, but.

It's a monopoly. Transportation Services is a monopoly. I've just learned over the years to grin and bear it.

You got any other questions? No, I want to see some rooms. Yeah, me too.

4.3 - "The Venue With the Best View in BCS"

Tawyna Moehlman

Sarah Chrastecky

Tracy "TJ" Hefti

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