Weekly Updates

Author

Scott Murff

Weekly Updates

Every student in the Lab sends a written end-of-week update to the person they report to, with strategy-program@byu.edu in CC.

That is the whole mechanism, and it is accountability all the way up the chain. A club VP reports to their co-presidents. Those co-presidents report to Soraya. The program co-presidents report to Scott. Nobody reports into a void, and nobody is left guessing what the people below them did this week.

The CC does two things: it gives the Strategy Program one place to track completion, and it means your leader is never the only person who knows you did the work.

Who Sends to Whom

You are	You send to	CC
Program co-presidents	Scott Murff	strategy-program@byu.edu
VP Events, VP Marketing, VP Alumni, VP Student Development	Program co-presidents	strategy-program@byu.edu
MCA co-presidents	Soraya Cullimore	strategy-program@byu.edu, David Bryce
PMA co-presidents	Soraya Cullimore	strategy-program@byu.edu, Scott Murff
CSA co-presidents	Soraya Cullimore	strategy-program@byu.edu, Ben Lewis
Club VPs	Their own co-presidents	strategy-program@byu.edu
WSA co-presidents	Lena Lizunova	strategy-program@byu.edu
WSA VPs	Their own co-presidents	strategy-program@byu.edu

Addresses are not listed here. Everyone named is in the BYU directory, so look them up there. The one address you need verbatim is strategy-program@byu.edu.

Club co-presidents send to Soraya Cullimore as Business Career Director and copy their own faculty advisor, so the advisor sees the same week the career office sees. WSA is the exception: it is an affinity group rather than a career club, so its co-presidents report directly to Lena Lizunova.

If you hold two roles

Some leaders serve in two places at once, for example a program VP who is also a club VP. Your choice how to handle it:

One email addressed to both leaders, with the body split by role so each of them can find their part, or
Two separate emails, one to each leader, each covering only that role.

Either way it counts as one update for the week. CC strategy-program@byu.edu on whatever you send. If your two roles sit in different tiers, use the later of the two deadlines.

If you receive updates from people below you, read them before you write your own. Your update should reflect what your team did, not only what you personally touched.

Deadline

Two deadlines, because the updates cascade. VPs write first so their co-presidents have something to roll up.

You are	Due	Covers
VPs	Friday, 11:59 PM	The week just finished, including that day’s session
Presidencies	Monday, 11:59 PM	Your own week plus what your VPs reported

Friday night for VPs is hours after class, while what you committed to in the Practice block is still fresh. Many people write it in the twenty minutes after the session ends.

Monday for presidencies gives you a full weekend gap to read five or six updates and write one that speaks for the club. It also means Soraya, Lena, and Scott start the week with eight summaries rather than 27 scattered emails, with the whole week ahead to unblock anything flagged.

Nothing here requires working on a Saturday or a Sunday.

First VP update: Fri, Sep 11. First presidency roll-up: Mon, Sep 14.
Last VP update: Fri, Dec 4. Last presidency roll-up: Mon, Dec 7.
No update the week of Thanksgiving. There is no class Nov 27.
There is no class Oct 16, but an update is still due that week.
Total: 12 each.

Session 1 on Sep 4 is the kickoff, so no update follows it.

Format

Three sections, the same ones used in the APM Lab internship. Keep it to one screen.

1. What I did this week [Required]

Completed events, meetings, outreach, and deliverables
Lead with outcomes, not activity. “42 students at the case workshop” beats “held a case workshop.”
Include numbers when you have them: attendance, applications, offers, signups

2. What I am doing next week [Required]

Priorities and planned work, with dates
Be realistic about what fits in a week

3. Blockers, risks, or dependencies [Omit if none]

Anything that might slow you down
What you need from your leader or another team
Decisions you are waiting on

One extra section for club leaders

Club co-presidents add a fourth section, because their updates are what the Friday Announcements block is built from.

4. What students should know [Required for club leaders]

Upcoming events with dates, deadlines, and how to participate
Written for a student who is not in your club and may not be a strategy major. Spell out acronyms and say what the event is for.
Write it so it can be read aloud in class on Friday without editing.

Example

Subject: PMA Weekly Update - [Name] - Week of Sep 8

Hi Soraya,

What I did this week:
- Ran the PM resume workshop, 38 students attended, 22 from outside the strategy major
- Confirmed Adobe for the Oct 2 info session
- Sent 14 alumni outreach emails, 6 replies so far

Next week:
- Finalize the fall mentorship pairings (Maya owns this)
- Post the case competition signup form
- First mock interview round, Thursday evening

Blockers:
- Still need a room for Oct 2, the request has been pending two weeks
- Our marketing VP is out for a family emergency through the 20th

What students should know:
- PMA is hosting an Adobe info session Thu, Oct 2 at 5:00 PM in the Tanner Building.
  Open to any major. No signup required.
- Mentorship applications close Fri, Sep 19. Anyone interested in product management
  can apply, first or fourth year, any major.

Thanks,
[Name]

A VP update is shorter. Three sections, often five or six bullets total.

Grading

Twelve updates, graded individually. The category weight is on the Assessments page.

You are	Full credit	Half credit through	No credit
VPs	Fri, 11:59 PM	Mon, 11:59 PM	After Monday
Presidencies	Mon, 11:59 PM	Wed, 11:59 PM	After Wednesday

Each late window closes at the point the update stops being useful. A VP update that arrives after Monday night missed the roll-up it was meant to feed. A presidency update that arrives after Wednesday leaves nobody time to act on a blocker before the week ends.

Missing the CC means the update cannot be tracked, and an untracked update does not count. Add strategy-program@byu.edu to your contacts in week one.

What Makes a Good Update

Short. Bullets, not paragraphs. If it runs past one screen, cut it.
Specific. Numbers, names, dates. “Good turnout” tells your leader nothing.
Honest about blockers. Flagging a problem early is the entire point. A clean update every week from a team that is struggling is worse than no update at all.
Consistent. The value is in the streak. Twelve on-time updates build a record of the semester that nobody has to reconstruct in December.