The Student Leadership Council (SLC) of the NSF Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC/RMS) volunteered to conduct a study of the "best practices" of SLCs at various centers around the country. Eleven SLCs responded to a detailed survey with questions on key areas including organizational structure, communication, social and outreach activities, industry/site visit preparation, and facilities management. Questions were also aimed at gathering information on multi-university centers.

Based on the findings from the survey, several "best practices" were identified in each area. The most important "best practices" are summarized below.

Organizational Structure
1. Create bylaws.
2. Have an outreach coordinator on the SLC.
3. Invite administration to participate in SLC meetings.

Communication
1. Route students' concerns through the SLC.
2. Hold regular and frequent students-only meetings to voice concerns.
3. Create forums for students to present research and interact with industry members.
4. Encourage students to register with the national ERC website.

Activities (outreach, social, site visits, and industry visits)
1. Older centers need to beware of complacency and maintain student interest in outreach efforts by developing exciting new activities.
2. Publicly recognize and reward student participation in volunteer efforts.
3. Keep outreach activities local, and within a manageable magnitude and scope.
4. Encourage student involvement in poster design, scheduling of presentations, and creating agendas forsite/industry visits.
5. Involve SLC in recruiting students to assist in site/industry visits.
6. Survey students and organize social activities according to their preferences.
7. Advertise social events by e-mail, flyers, word-of-mouth, and send out multiple reminders.

Facilities Management
1. Allow SLC to have input in decisions such as maintaining/upgrading computers, student area layout, phone system/message boards, and student mailboxes.
2. Encourage students to participate in the upkeep of the student area/computer labs.
3. Encourage recycling efforts. Money earned from recycled bottles and cans may be put back into a student-run store for snacks and drinks, or used for social activities.

8.1.1 Organization of Report
The chapter on SLC best practices is organized as follows: Sections 8.2 and 8.3 provide an introduction and overview, outline the goals of the project, describe the survey methodology, and discuss the reasons for forming a Student Leadership Council. Section 8.4 discusses SLC planning, administration, and development strategies, including the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analysis, collaboration with administration, faculty, and staff and leadership and development efforts.

Sections 8.5 through 8.11 cover the various functional areas addressed in the survey - namely, organizational structure, communication, outreach efforts, site visits, industry meetings, social activities, and facilities management. Each of these sections addresses the importance of the functional area, summarizes the survey findings, discusses any special aspects relevant to multi-university centers, and identifies the best practices. In Section 8.12 we present conclusions and possible future directions.

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