NRHH/RHA Liaison

Congratulations on being selected to be the 2013-2014 NRHH/RHA Liaison! This is the perfect position for someone who wants to be continuously involved throughout the entire campus. The interesting thing about this position is that you essentially hold two positions at once; you will be working closely with NRHH as an Exec member, but also RHA as the NRHH representative of the RHA Exec Board. It’s an interesting duality that proves to be most rewarding.

As a member of the NRHH Executive Board, your main responsibility is to keep NRHH up-to-date with everything going on in RHA. Things are happening constantly in RHA, whether it is a new campus-wide programor the introduction of legislation with the potential to affect everyone in the residence halls, and your job is to report on them. NRHH members want to stay connected to the campus-wide community and often times do so through your reports. Staying informed is your most important responsibility.

You serve a similar role on the RHA Executive Board. As part of RHA Exec, your job is to keep RHA informed on everything NRHH. Often times, this means that you will be reporting the dates of future recognition weeks or reporting on the progress of each semester’s recognition reception. A large part of your position as an RHA exec is to vote on behalf of NRHH. Legislation is constantly being introduced and you should be keeping NRHH informed about upcoming votes so that you may vote and represent NRHH, especially on legislation with a large impact on the campus.

As a member of the RHA Executive Board, you are also the advisor to the RHA Recognition Committee, comprised of a small group of RHA delegates. You are given a modest budget and you and your committee use it to recognize Leadership Team members across campus. I used this budget primarily to recognize RHA delegates and to inject some fun into RHA General Assembly meetings. There are many ideas for how to use this budget in the pages following, but feel free to create new and exciting ways to recognize people. Involve your committee members in any way you can so that you can make their time in the committee worthwhile!

I found that, as the year went on, I formed great relationships with each and every member of both exec boards.This position has been extremely rewarding and my favorite part of the last school year; I can only hope that you have a similarly rewarding experience so that you may enjoy it as much as I did. I will certainly be around in the coming year, so please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions!

Good luck and have fun!

Best wishes,

Sam Chaara

NRHH/RHA Liaison, 2012-2013

Recognition

In the following sections, I’ve included several ideas for recognizing leaders throughout campus. Many of the ideas come from my predecessors and not all of them were possible, but I’ve left them in as possible sources of inspiration. Following these ideas, there is an outline from a Recognition Committee meeting where we discussed which ideas we wanted to bring back and how we decided to modify them for our needs.

Recognition in RHA General Assembly

Program of the Week (POW):

Each week in RHA General Assembly, every hall gives a report that usually consists of programs that are being held that week. From these reports, select a member of the Recognition Committee to write down the programs that stand out. This can be for the title of the program, or the creativeness of the event itself. For example some of the winners from last year include Sex and Bacon from Neale Hall or Sweaty Gamers from Steiner Hall. During weekly meetings, it is the committee’s responsibility to discuss and then vote on which program should win the POW. The winner is announced the following week in GA in “Other Business”. The winning hall typically receives a certificate with their hall name and program title on it. A copy of this certificate is provided electronically as well as in the binder. Usually only one POW is awarded per week. It keeps the competition up! A member of the committee is then selected to read this off and hand off the certificate at the GA meeting.

Trivia:

Each week the recognition committee comes up with a fun movie, song, famous quote or just random trivia. I delegated this task to one member of the committee to keep people accountable for finding trivia! Before/During the GA meeting, you should pass around or hand out the mini slips of paper with a place for name, hall, answer and bonus. These sheets will also be provided electronically and a copy is in the binder. Then, during the GA meeting in “Other Business”, one of the committee members reads the quote aloud to GA. Then you ask a couple questions about the quote. Usually the first question was the title of the movie, and then the bonus questions is whatever you want related to the quote. I.e. actors name, characters names, year the movie was created, some fun fact about the movie or whatever you and your committee decide! After the meeting, collect these sheets and keep them.

Also sent to you electronically is the Delegate Quote Chart. After you have collected the quote answer slips you or a member of the committee then needs to keep track of who answered the question, and if they answered it correctly. Then at the end of every month, (and at the end of the semester), the committee gives out some type of prizes for whatever they want. In the past they have gave $5 noodles gift cards to anyone who got all the answers right that month (Question and Bonus question), or anyone who got all the answers wrong that month, but still tried. In the past they have also given out some ridiculous form of headgear to the person(s) with the most ridiculous answer. You and the recognition committee can decide what to do with prizes and who to give them to; the most important thing however is to HAVE FUN WITH IT!

Secret of the Week:

This was a fun idea that the Recognition committee came up with this year. Every week at our meeting, we decide on a secret. It can be a secret event (like blowing your nose or stretching) or a word (like “applesauce” or “golden”). Then if someone is “caught” doing that action during the GA Meeting, they are awarded a package of fruit snacks after the meeting. Then if 5 or more people do the action, EVERYONE at that meeting receives a package of fruit snacks! Feel free to change this as much as you see fit! But keep it fun!

Residence Hall Achievement Token (The RHAT):

I was unable to get this award going early in the year so it kind of died out. So I hope that you can bring it back stronger than ever! Anyways, this award is a giant cheese head covered in mousetraps and writing. This is an award given out each month to one hall. Members of GA are encouraged to write nominations for why their hall is outstanding; more importantly, why their hall is MORE outstanding than any other hall. Then at the end of the month, the Recognition Committee selects from the nominations who has pleaded the best case for their hall. That hall then receives the giant award. The winner is announced at the GA meeting, and the hall receives $15 from the Recognition Committee’s account to their respective hall’s account! Then the winning hall gets to make their mark on the award and sign it before giving it back at the end of the month! (You may need to remind the winning hall to return the cheese head at the end of months GA meeting.)

Recognition Outside of RHA General Assembly

The recognition committee of RHA feels it’s also important to recognize those who do not attend RHA. So we have a few other ideas for how you can show your appreciation for those who do such wonderful jobs in and for the residence halls! This list includes but is surely not limited to the ARC’s, the Hall Directors, the AD’s, the CA’s and even central staff or other faculty. Here are some of the fun ideas that the recognition committee came up with this year as well as last year!

Golden ARC’s

This is a program that helps recognize the great things that the FIG ARCs and ARCS do within our halls. What we did was send out an email to all of the ARC and FIG ARC participants (via Kris Hoffenberger), and the HD’s (Make sure to bcc them on the email.) Make sure to fully describe who you are and why you are doing this. This will then help the process go much more smoothly.

Then ask them to send in nominations to the RHA inbox. There is a folder under your tab that is called Golden ARC’s. Then, every two weeks, or once a month, the recognition committee selects the person they think is the most Golden ARC out of the bunch. That person receives a small token. There is a box that resembles a happy meal box (Golden ARCs kinda like Golden Arches). This gets filled with candy and a certificate (you guessed it, also included in your binder and electronic form) gets printed off and delivered to them. They are then allowed to keep the candy and certificate forever, and the trophy for some time. After you select a new Golden ARC please retrieve the trophy and pass it to the new person. Before you take it away let the recipient sign the box! The only rule is that the same person can only win once per academic year to keep it going. Oh here is another fun catch… THIS IS A SECRET! Don’t let the word slip out to the ARC’s, though word may have spread by now.

AD Energizing and New AD preparation Packages

The following is an excerpt from my predecessor (I did not do this, but I think it’s a great idea to keep around): In addition to the HD’s hard work, the AD’s another very underappreciated group of people for the residence halls; especially when it comes to opening and closing. In addition to the usual of managing front desk, take care of necessary work-orders and in-hall issues, and all the other amazing things the AD’s help to do for the hall, they have to prepare everything needed for all of the residents to check into or out of the hall! This is not an easy task. So they deserve to be recognized as well! Last semester, the recognition committee prepared for them all an energizing care basket. We took different kinds of caffeine in the forms of Starbucks gift cards, smoothie mix, candy, and apples! It’s a fun way to get them excited and give them a bit of a boost before the end of the semester starts!

The second idea that the recognition committee had is to prepare a basket now, to give to the AD’s first thing at the start of Fall semester. With the hassle of opening the hall, preparing everything, hiring new desk workers, and preparing for check-ins, they could use some appreciation right away to get them going. This basket will include fun office supplies, as well as some fun gadgets and gizmos to help them get ready for the new year! This is the only program that you have to do in your position! You have to help me finish off what I started, you can then choose if you want to do it again at the end of the year!

HD Relaxation Packages

Another Idea from my predecessor: The Hall Directors go through a lot; especially when it comes time for new staff selection (spring semester more so than fall). They have to go through AD interviews, CA interviews, CA group process, the actual selection, and still help their hall run smoothly! That’s a lot of responsibility and they deserve a chance to relax. This past spring semester the recognition committee teamed up and got them something nice. We compiled some of favorite fun summer recipes, and threw in a $10 Trig’s County Market gift card for each of them! Then add in a personalized letter (electronic copy available) and you have a fun HD relation package.

Recognition of Others via NRHH

Of the Month (OTM)

Of the Month awards are the primary means for NRHH to recognize outstanding students, advisors, and programs on campuses in the United States and Canada. OTMs are written at individual schools and evaluated at local, regional, and national levels. There are two types of OTMs: General and Program as well as 13 sub-categories that are recognized by the regional and national levels. When an OTM is submitted on the UWSP campus it is evaluated by the OTM Selection Committee, OTMs are then selected for the separate categories and passed onto the regional level. People or programs that win an OTM at UWSP get a certificate.

General Categories: Advisor, community, executive board member, NCC, resident assistant, spotlight (someone that doesn’t fit into another category eg. Custodial, professional, dining services, etc.), student, first year student, resident volunteer, most spirited.

Program Categories: Community service, diversity, educational, and social.

OTMs need to be submitted on the first day of the month for the previous month to be voted on by the selection committee. Example: An OTM that is to be considered for the month of November must be submitted by December 1st at Noon.

You Rock!

This award recognizes a person for how awesome they are. Things that could be considered for this award are that the person lent you their notes, bought you dinner at DeBot, or just hung out with you, but it doesn’t really matter what they did as long as it was something great! The person nominated gets a bag of pop rocks and a certificate.

For more information or to nominate a person or program for an OTM or You Rock!, visit the UWSP NRHH website.

RHA Recognition Committee Meeting, 9/21/2012

Hey everyone,
Here's what we talked about in our committee meeting:
We're going to have three ongoing "events" during RHA GA. Trivia, Program of the Week, and the Secret Word. Each of you will be in charge of one of these things for a month at a time, and then we can shake it up a bit to give you each a chance to try another. For this first month, through October, Alex will be doing trivia, Liz will be doing the Secret Word, and Teela will be in charge of the Program of the Week.
Here's what we talked about for each of these:

  • Trivia- Starting with Alex
  • Recognize individuals, not halls.
  • Trivia slips will be handed out each GA and the trivia question will be presented during Other Business.
  • Questions should be fairly easy (asking about a movie quote, UWSP fact, RHA fact, Exec board member, etc.), with a bonus question that relates to the main question. The bonus questions will be worth half the points of a normal question and are to help with tie breakers.
  • Prizes will be a smaller piece of candy for the delegate with the most points at the end of the month. At the end of the semester, we'll present a "large" piece of candy to the delegate with the most points. This will possibly be handed out at Julie's end-of-semester parties.
  • There might be a prize for the most trivia participation at the end of each month as well.
  • When possible, there will be a theme for the month and the questions and candy/snack will try to go with the theme of that month.
  • Program of the Week- Starting with Teela
  • Committee member pays attention to programs presented by delegates each week and takes notes on programs that are especially:
  • Unique
  • Creative
  • Relevant to PECIES programming
  • Awesome
  • A certificate will be presented to the hall that wins so that it can be displayed in the hall.
  • Before each GA, the committee member in charge of PotW will choose one program from the previous week to be presented as the PotW and prepare/print the certificate to be presented at GA (or email Sam to prepare/print it).
  • Secret Word- Starting with Liz
  • Committee member prepares a list of words to be used as the Secret Word. Only one is "active" at a time, but the next word will become active as soon as the first word has been said. This means there can be multiple people each GA who speak the Secret Word.
  • The word will roll over from week-to-week if it is not said during GA.
  • After the Secret Word has been said, the delegate or Exec member who said it will be presented with a crown and some candy. The crown will be collected at the end of each GA, but they will be free to wear the crown during GA until the next Secret Word is spoken.
  • We don't want to disrupt what is happening in GA too much, so when it is asked, "Does anyone have any questions for _____?", the committee member in charge of the Secret Word should ask something to the effect of, "Were you aware that you said the Secret Word?", and then be presented with the crown and candy. We'll try to mix it up a bit so that it isn't always presented in exactly the same fashion.

We later decided to bring back the RHAT. You can see the description I was given when I came in to the position above. Along with my committee, we came up with our own description: