We’re Going to NACA!

But wait…what does that mean?!

NACA, the National Association for Campus Activities, is a conference that takes place every year that CAP Board attends with programing boards from across the region

There are raffles throughout the conference to win the best seat in the house for a showcase (which you'll learn about as you continue to read this fabulous article) and we were the lucky winners last year for showcase #1.

NACA as a whole is pretty big, so it’s separated into regional conferences. Cabrini falls into the Mid-Atlantic region, so we attend NACA MAT.

To Niagara Falls or the land of horse buggies we go!

The location switches between Buffalo, NY and Lancaster, PA each year so we either have an hour and a half drive to the farmland of Pennsylvania or we really get to know each with a 6 hour drive to the border of the United States where Canada touches New York. Niagara Falls was a nice addition to our trip though!

Now we are sure you’re wondering, what do they actually do at this conference?

Interacting with other activities board members is all part of the experience!

This conference is a whole lot of fun and games...quite literally.

Superhero fight in the middle of a conference center? Sure, why not!

Showcases are one of the key points of NACA

This is where we watch performers of all genres take the stage to show us what they got. This is so they can hopefully land a spot on a programming board’s calendar of events. These can range from comedians to full-blown concerts.

The Marketplace, aka CAMP, always brings surprises as well!

This is where vendors set up a table to show what they could offer to our campus. Traveling zoos, balloon artists, t-shirt printers and more can be seen handing out promotional materials and showing off demonstrations to prove why they are the perfect fit for your events.

Ed sessions are where we get to show off what we know to help other boards be successful!

There are a ton of other opportunities as well! CAP Board typically presents an educational session on a topic that we feel as if we are super knowledgeable about. Members and advisers of other board’s will come to your session and it is all about exchanging information.

AND we compete in graphic design competitions!

Remember how we mentioned NACA is about games too? They host a graphic design competition each year where schools can submit advertising materials they created to be judged by the conference. We happen to take home the award in 2013 for non-poster publicity!

You've never seen a scavenger hunt taken so seriously as you do at NACA

Another game that keeps the conference energy sky high is the scavenger hunt hosted by magician Wayne Hoffman. Based through an app, he will post a bunch of photo challenges that can range from “take a picture of your team on an escalator” to “build a tower of coke cups on a statue of a buffalo”

You think we're outstanding NACA? Aw you shouldn't have :)

There’s also one final “game” that means a lot to CAP Board. Every year there is an “Outstanding Delegation” award that goes to a programming board that went above and beyond at the conference. In 2013, CAP Board was fortunate enough to win, which means we must be doing something right!

How about when we plan things to make Cabrini's campus more awesome than it already is?

Of all the fun that happens though, the most important part of NACA is this is where we build our spring calendar of events and gain ideas for things we could potentially do the following fall. You could say we're pretty hype when we finish!

4 days of barely sleeping can't even think of being replaced

Overall, NACA is a great group-bonding experience. We are put in a conference center and hotel rooms for 4 days together and you get to strengthen relationships with the people you already work with all the time. NACA brings CAP Board together and that is why we are always so excited to attend each year; plus the view isn’t bad when you have the best seat in the house!