NRHH Building Block of the Year Golden Grizzly Chapter Oakland University

NRHH Building Block of the Year Golden Grizzly Chapter Oakland University GLACURH Regional Business Conference 2017 Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Image taken from: https://www.google.com/url? sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahukewj7s8mtwpxsahxn54mkhbbibigqjrwibw&ur l=http%3a%2f%2fwww.campgravatt.org%2f&psig=afqjcnglsw6jbim2c9lyw_9i32rpixtpaw&ust=1487365419292049

Activities Schedule (Table of Contents) Activities Schedule (Table of Contents). 1 Head Counselors (Executive Board & Advisors)...2-4 First Day of Camp (Chapter Goals) 5-6 Cabin Chores (Service & Programming) 7-9 Camper Shout-Outs (Recognition).10 Cabin Assignments (Chapter Membership)..11 All-Camp Events (Regional and NACURH Involvement)...12-13 Campfire Songs (Conference Attendance)..14 Cleanest Cabin (School of the Year Bid)...15 Last Day of Camp (Future Goals)..16 Letters from Home (Letters of Support)...17-20 2 1

Head Counselors (Executive Board & Advisors) President/Communications Coordinator The chapter President must preside over all executive board and general body meetings, lead induction ceremonies, educate the chapter on the values of NRHH, and enact any other changed deemed necessary. The Communications Coordinator (CC) attends regional and NACURH conferences and is the face and representation of the Golden Grizzlies, and reports all pertinent information back to the local chapter. Lauren MacKillop is an Elementary Education major in her 4th year at Oakland University. She has worked as a Nightwatch Desk Worker (resident hall security) and is now a Resident Assistant. In her free time, Lauren plays math games on the internet and watches Bob Ross s The Joy of Painting as often as possible. Vice President The Vice President must take and share minutes for all executive board and general body meetings, maintain consistent email communication with the chapter in terms of meeting and OTM reminders, and provides direct support to the President. The President and Vice President work as a team, and are the most visible and accessible members of the executive board. Chloe Zeabari is studying Accounting at OU, and will one day personify the uncommon phenomena of an extroverted accountant. She s been a Resident Assistant for three years now, and is actually on the same floor as Lauren this year. They both love being partners on the floor as well as in NRHH. 3 2

Recognition Chair The Recognition Chair heads the recognition committee of NRHH, and does much of the work involved in all things OTM. The Recognition Chair uses the committee s votes on any given month s OTMs as a guideline to decide which OTMs are sent to the regional level. This position is also in charge of printing banners recognizing campus OTM winners to display in the residence halls. Our Recognition Chair for two years running, Sean Foe, has been the RHA NCC and VP, and a Nightwatch Desk Worker, and is constantly working hard to educate his co-workers on OTM writing and improve the banner printing process. On the inside Sean is usually fantasizing about being Iron Man. Programming Chair The Programming Chair is in charge of the programming committee, and puts on at least 2 programs per semester. Committee meetings are bi-weekly, and the Programming Chair handles the bulk of the advertising and fundraising for programs, with the help of the other committee members. Jess Quant is the Programming Chair for NRHH and RHA and is also a Front Desk Worker in the residence halls, and she has gone above and beyond her requirements, and puts on a program each month. Additionally, Jess makes adorable door decs for her committee members, and is occasionally reprimanded for saving stray cats from the rain. Philanthropy Chair The Philanthropy Chair works closely with the Programming Chair, and coordinates all of the community service projects and fundraisers. The philanthropy committee meets bi-weekly, and assists the Philanthropy Chair in coming up with ideas for community outreach. Many of the philanthropic initiatives of NRHH are realized through service programs. Lydia Sadow has been the Philanthropy Chair for two years, and has worked for Housing as a Nightwatch Desk Worker, a Resident Assistant, and as RHA. Lydia has incredible passion for NRHH and for serving communities. Legend has it that no matter where she is, Lydia s laugh can be heard from anywhere on campus. 4 3

Co-Advisor Tim Nickels served as President and Communications Coordinator during his undergrad at Eastern Michigan University, and has been advisor to the Golden Grizzly chapter of NRHH since 2015. He currently sits on the Regional Board of Directors (RBD) as AD-NRHH. In his role, Tim acts as a resource to our executive board and to the chapter as a whole. However, he regularly stresses that this chapter is ours, and he allows us to control as much as possible. Co-Advisor Missy Curler joined our team at the beginning of the 2016-2017 academic school year, and we have loved having her on board! As Tim is now on the RBD, Missy s main role is to be our primary advisor during conference season, though she has been fulfilling all of the other duties expected of an advisor, as well. 5 4

First Day of Camp (Chapter Goals) Build and expand on momentum Our overarching goal, which can be used as an umbrella for all of our specific goals, was to keep up with what we were doing well, and to focus on improving the other aspects of our values of service and recognition. Increase name recognition on campus Until recently, knowledge of OU s NRHH chapter has been mostly limited to University Housing employees. While these individuals are amazing and do great work, there are also some residents with extremely valuable ideas and passion for Oakland s communities. We made it a goal of ours to make our name more known in an effort to attract these sometimes underappreciated people to NRHH. RHA partnership We in NRHH have had the wonderful privilege of having had multiple eboard members in the past year who have also served on RHA. While NRHH and RHA are distinct and separate organizations, we do acknowledge our similar goals and purposes, and have been able to partner with each other on multiple initiatives, specifically programs. Otherwise, we have been incredibly fortunate to have been able to model many of our procedures after theirs, and would not be where we are today if it were not for our NRHH/RHA collaboration. 6 5

OTM improvement One of our specific goals for OTMs was to increase the percentage of members submitting OTMs each month. Our reach goal was 75%, and our realistic goal was 50%. In order to achieve that goal, we started sending email reminders about OTMs, and added an event to our Google Calendar, to which all of our members have access. Programming Last year, we put on one program each semester. That has actually been a trend for a few years, now. We wanted to change that this year, and so we set the goal of putting on a program during each month of the academic school year. All of the Fall 2016 programs had a basic outline by the end of September, and we have satisfied our goal each month, thus far! Service The service aspect of our chapter has gone through a lot of reboot. In the past, we had not really done much at all to address this, but all of that has changed. We set the goal of doing more community outreach, so that our members and we are more connected to the work we are doing. Now, most of our programs are service-based, and we are constantly brainstorming about new groups to contact. 7 6

Cabin Chores (Service & Programming) Getting Started Our program for September 2016 had the purpose of promoting NRHH. We set up a table with a tri-fold, brochures, sample swag items, an email sign-up list, and fliers promoting our October and November programs. In doing so, we generated a list of over 50 names of interested residents, and got to tell those and other residents about all of the amazing things that we do. Many of them were intrigued, and some ended up submitting applications for our Fall induction. This was a great way for us to set a high precedent, which we continued through the rest of the semester. Stress Less In December 2015, NRHH and RHA partnered for a program titled Stress Less. The program s goal was to provide residents with activities that were fun, relaxing, and of course stress free! There were tie blankets being made for those in need and puppies for residents to play with, as well. 8 7

Oak-tober Fest In October 2016, we held a program called Oak-tober Fest. The goal of the program was to show residents the fun side of NRHH, while promoting ourselves, as well. We got to show the residents of Oakland University what an NRHH social program can look like, and told them about NRHH new member applications and the OTM nomination process. In the weeks leading up to the program, there were fall-themed coloring pages passed out at the front desks of each residence hall, which could be colored and entered to receive a prize at the actual program. Free pumpkins were given out to the first 25 people to show up to the event, and they got to compete in a pumpkin painting contest, with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. There was also a caramel apple bar with a bunch of different toppings, and we had competitions in mummy wrapping and eating donuts off of strings. We utilized the banner printer, and made huge banners to promote Oak-tober Fest, and ended up having an attendance of over 150, which made this our largest program ever! 89

Turkey Drive / Penny Wars These events ran at the same time. We ran Penny Wars as a friendly competition between all of our residence halls to raise money to purchase the turkey s for our donated Thanksgiving dinners! We raised enough money ($78!!!) to purchase four large turkeys and the rest of the things to complete four whole dinners for families within Pontiac, MI. Our Turkey Drive had residents filling laundry baskets with food donations around our campus and with the drive we really did get the brunt of the donations we needed. We put together the Thanksgiving dinners and included a family board game for families to play. We made sure to take care of all of the things families would need to make the dinners, including a dessert and a roaster pan in which the meals could be cooked. We chose to deliver the dinners in laundry baskets, because then families would have something they could use in the long term! Our executive board members all signed a card for each family, as well. All in all, we donated four complete Thanksgiving dinners to Gleaners, and were able to see the happy families collect them. 10 9

Camper Shout-Outs (Recognition) Growth Oakland University had never had any OTMs win at the regional level (or the NACURH level) before this year. Now, we have 9 regional winners and 1 NACURH winner. We are especially proud of this because previous to this year, we had less than that many winners even on the campus level! Regional Winners Jenna Nielson October 2015 Executive Board Member Chloe Zeabari December 2015 Executive Board Member Randy Jefferson December 2015 Student Jackie Duc January 2016 Advisor Sandra Alef February 2016 Advisor Sean Foe February 2016 Executive Board Member Gabriel Dumbrille February 2016 Residence Life Professional Staff April 2016 Advisor Timothy Nickels March 2016 Advisor NACURH Winner This year, Oakland University had its first NACURH OTM winner ever! The nomination was for Michelle Cecil, and she was December 2015 s Advisor of the Month. 11 10

Cabin Assignments (Chapter Membership) Communication Email reminders are sent out 24 hours before our general body meetings, and a few days before OTMs are due. All active members have access to our NRHH Google Calendar, which includes office hours for the eboard, chapter and eboard meetings, OTM due dates, programs and events, etc. In order to more efficiently communicate quick messages, we decided to create a chapter Group- Me group. Accommodation Before setting a date/time for our chapter meetings, we sent a Doodle poll to our members so that we can choose the most convenient time possible. Dedication We have adjusted the chosen meeting times further to accommodate those who are coming from the other side of campus. As a way for members who cannot attend meetings to remain involved, we put a system in place so that they can add comments to the minutes. In order to help our young and developing chapter gain more prestige, we began removing active members who were completely uninvolved, and inducted new members whom we felt had great potential in their place. Even though we have some vacant spots in our membership, we only induct individuals if we truly feel that they will add value to NRHH, and we will not simply accept applicants if we have the space. 12 11

All-Camp Events (Regional Involvement) One of our advisors, Tim Nickels, currently serves as the Associate Director for NRHH on the Regional Board of Directors, and clearly has a lot of passion for GLACURH and MOWII! Our chapter President, Lauren MacKillop is an active member on the Regional OTM Committee, and also assisted Tim in presenting legislation at RLC 2016. 13 12

All-Camp Events (NACURH Involvement) NRHH Programming Chair Jess Quandt All of our members who attended attended the 2016 NACURH confer- NACURH 2016 as delegates played ence as NRHH-CC, and 5 of the other some part in creating our display, and delegates from Oakland were also we were given the award for Best Large NRHH active members! School Display! 14 13

Campfire Songs (Conference Attendance) Conferences attended by active members of NRHH: 2015 RLC (SVSU) 2016 NBC (BSU) 2016 NACURH (U of Delaware) 2016 RLC (UW-Milwaukee) Programs submitted to be presented by active members of NRHH at RLC 2016: Program Like a Pro (Jess Quandt and Viviana Rubles) Take 2: New, Fun, and Refreshing Ways to Present Important Topics (Allen Dahlka) At the end of 2015 RLC, Oakland University was regionally recognized when we were announced the winner of Program of the Year for Midnight Block Party! 15 14

Cleanest Cabin (School of the Year Bid) Oakland University submitted a bid for the School of the Year award at the 2016 Regional Leadership Conference. The bid was written by NRHH active member Allen Dahlka and was presented with the help of NRHH Programming Chair Jess Quandt. While School of the Year contains information about Oakland University as a whole, much of the content was NRHH-specific, such as regional/nacurh OTM winners, conference attendance/participation, regional representation, and the entire page dedicated solely to the Golden Grizzly chapter. 16 15

Last Day of Camp (Future Goals) As a chapter, we ve really learned a lot over the past year. We learned how important it is to have concrete goals, a team beside you, and a solid structure in place. Being as young a chapter as we are, we ve certainly had some challenges, but we took them head-on and came out stronger. Our goals for the future are simple: Keep going. We have made great strides internally, but now, we want to expand our reach; we want our chapter s values of recognition and service to be campus-wide values. One day, we hope that OTMs will come from all residents, not just Housing employees and NRHH members. We hope that even more of our programs will be service-based, and that we will extend into the greater community. Until then, PEACE, LOVE, POLAR BEARS 17 16

Letters from Home (Letters of Support) 18 17

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