At the 2022 NCAA Convention, Division II officially launched the Make Game Day Yours initiative, intended to encourage a more positive game environment and provide excellent customer service at the division's athletics events across the country.
The initiative was created through a partnership with the Disney Institute, Disney's professional development and leadership training wing.
Since February 2021, the Disney Institute and a working group of 21 Division II administrators, faculty and student-athletes have worked together to create a baseline of guest service training and game environment standards for administrators and game managers to promote appropriate fan behavior at Division II events. Division III formed a similar partnership with the Disney Institute in 2016 and successfully launched its Gameday the DIII Way initiative.
More than 50 Division II administrators from the Midwest region, as well as Division II championships staff members from the national office, attended the initiative's first training session during the Convention in Indianapolis. Three more regional training sessions will take place in 2022, and another four will be held in 2023 to allow all Division II conferences and schools an opportunity to learn more about this initiative. Those who receive facilitator training from these regional workshops will be equipped with the tools to train their peers in a 90-minute training program developed by the working group and Disney Institute.
"The Make Game Day Yours training equips you with a comprehensive, yet simple, framework that incorporates proven strategies from industry experts that can be used on any campus," said Tom Eisenhauer, director of athletics at William Jewell, who attended the training session at the Convention. "I appreciated how much time was spent on training us to train others on our campus, and I am excited about implementing it for our game day experiences at William Jewell. This is a great initiative, and I would highly recommend it."
"The Make Game Day Yours training was very helpful for Division II institutions to learn more about making game day a first-class experience," added Gwendolyn Buchhop, assistant athletics director for media and community relations at Hillsdale. "The skills we learned from the Disney Institute require only positive, planned action that will improve so much more about our operations than just game day. The skills we are now equipped to teach our staff and volunteers lend themselves well to DII's commitment to education and service."
The Division II initiative focuses on four service standards, prioritized in the following order:Â
- Safety:Â Providing an environment for the health and well-being of our student-athletes and all others.
- Responsiveness:Â Anticipating and effectively addressing situations that arise.
- Dignity:Â Demonstrating respect and value for others.
- Experience:Â Creating a positive atmosphere.
At the recommendation of the Identity Subcommittee of the Division II Management Council, the initiative also features a tool to assist administrators in situations that involve conflict resolution with fans. The tool centers on the acronym LEAD2:
- Listen.
- Empathize.
- Apologize.
- Decide.
- Deliver.
Division II University modules also will be designed for each school and conference office to evaluate, learn and improve game environment and customer service standards, with a focus on encouraging and supporting appropriate fan behavior. The modules will launch in early 2023.Â
"The NCAA Division II Make Game Day Yours initiative will help with consistency across all game day management at the DII level, providing a better experience for the student-athletes," said Nicole Tibbe, director of athletics facilities and operations at Davenport, who attended the Convention training session. "This training and initiative not only provided us with knowledge to take our game day operations to the next level but also provided us with the tools for implementing the initiative and training our staff to make it our own."
