FARMHOUSE
QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK
(From recent Inside FH newsletters)
Awards
- "How are chapters divided up in the Green & Gold Divisions for the awards?"
- "Who judges the Ruby Cup awards, and how do you ensure that judges don't show favoritism?"
- "Why the changes to the Chapter Award of Excellence?"
- "We didn't realize there were so many more documents required now to be submitted with the Chapter Award of Excellence. What's the deal with the changes? It seems like a lot of extra unnecessary paperwork."
- "We read something about a FarmHouse International Community Service Man of the Year award. What's that all about?"
- "I read somewhere that the deadline for the website competition is July 1 and that the judges will be other chapters. Can you tell me exactly how and when the websites are judged? Are they judged on the day of July 1? How do chapters submit their votes? Do we need to judge the competition? Do we need to submit any paperwork to enter our website in the competition? Thanks for your help."
- "As our chapter is working on the Chapter Award
of Excellence and the Chapter Programming Awards for 2004-05 that are due
March 1st, what are some of the keys to filling out the information?"
QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "How are chapters divided up in the Green & Gold Divisions for the awards?"
For the 2002-03 awards year, the 28 active FarmHouse Chapters will be divided into two divisions. The formula to decide which chapters are placed in the Green division and which ones are in the Gold division is based on two factors: total lifetime initiates of your chapter and the current undergraduate chapter size.
Some much older chapters like Kansas State, Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa State are obviously going to be in the Green division each year, while younger chapters like Clemson, Troy State, Western Kentucky and Wisconsin-Platteville will be in Gold division for a while. However, from year to year we might have some slight changes in which chapter will be in which division (depending on current undergraduate memberships of chapters and signficant changes in their total number of initiates).
The calculations are based on numbers from the Spring/Winter semester term reports and our database information as of March 1, 2003. Rather than jockey for position to see which groups you'll be competing with in your division, chapters are encouraged to prepare their applications such that you'll be able to compete in whichever division you're placed.
Don't forget also, applications from last year's winners in each division are located at http://www.farmhouse.org/winners.htm -- JG
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "Who judges the Ruby Cup awards, and how do you ensure that judges don't show favoritism?"
The past few years we've been fortunate enough to have several dozen FarmHouse alumni in the Kansas City area volunteer to help with the FarmHouse awards judging. The KC metro area is unique in that we have nearly 400 FH alumni, from around 15 chapters, living in the area.
We typically have three judging sessions during the summer months to review all of the entries. The FarmHouse International staff assists and oversees the awards judging process.
Before this year's awards judging, we decided to white out each chapters' names and references to each school throughout each of the entries. Each chapter was assigned a code for all of their entries. While we had never felt any hint of favoritism by judges towards their chapter of initiation, we decided to take this step to ensure the objectivity and fairness to the process. The judges agreed that this was a good move,with one volunteer saying, "This erases any doubt... Instead of showing any favoritism, before we were probably all naturally a little harder on our own chapters."
Abbreviated comments/feedback from judges are available upon request from chapters. Send an email to Jim@FarmHouse.org ifyou'd like to receive a summary e-mailed to you. Due to the volume of requests, it'll take up to 2 weeks for you to receive the feedback responses.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "Why the changes to the Chapter Award of Excellence?"
The Chapter Award of Excellence was created as a standards expectation document in 1997 to establish a set of standards that all chapters should be expected to meet. Since 1997, the application covered 20 different areas of fraternity operations. For the most part we've relied on the honesty of chapters in checking off whether they accomplished certain expectations.
For the past six years the Chapter Award of Excellence has served as a great tool to measure our chapters' performance with programming and operations and has helped us identify areas where chapters need further assistance. However, we've determined that the Award of Excellence hasn't been accurately determining the overall health of our chapters.
The 2003-04 Chapter Award of Excellence has been significantly revised. The new application is located on Page 27 of the 2003-04 Chapter Planning Guide, which each chapter president, advisor and association president has recently received.
The application now weights - programming (the 19-20 areas of fraternity operations) as 50 percent of the application; membership as 30 percent of the application; and scholarship as 20 percent.
With the former application, a chapter could have a chapter house that's only 50 percent full, a membership of 12 guys and a GPA of 2.2 and still potentially be able to receive the Chapter Award of Excellence for scoring over 95 percent on the Award of Excellence. While that wouldn't be likely, the potential was there for recognizing chapters that simply weren't meeting our true expectations as an organization.
1) The programming section of the new application will require much more documentation - everything from copies of budgets and audit summaries to copies of crisis management plans and chapter bylaws. It's simply too easy to mark something that you think you have in place, have completed, etc. We've determined that we need to be able to see plans, documents on paper to provide credit for chapters. Submission of the 12 Programming Awards entries for 2003-04 accounts for 6 percent of your total score.
2) The membership section consists of points for membership numbers, comparison to average fraternity size on campus, membership trends, house occupancy and retention of your pledge class.
3) The scholarship section consists of GPA comparisons to the all-men's average, GPA ranking among other men's fraternities and GPA trends (improvement, decline).
The application will be based on the 14-month period - from January 1, 2003 - Feb. 29, 2004. We realize that since you weren't aware of the changes that were being last spring that you may have some difficulty recalling how many members attended various functions, workshops, etc. Please do your best as a Chapter Executive Team to complete the application as thoroughly as possible to this point and make sure that reviewing it and your progress becomes a vital part of your week-to-week exec meetings.
One final significant change has been to modify the "grading scale." Now, chapters that achieve 90 percent or higher receive the Chapter Award of Excellence and chapters that reach 80-89 percent receive the Chapter Award of Achievement. In order to be eligible to receive the Ruby Cup as the overall outstanding chapter, chapters must reach at least the 90 percent level.
The Chapter Award of Excellence will be due March 1, 2004, along with each chapter's 12 programming award entries.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "We didn't realize there were so many more documents required now to be submitted with the Chapter Award of Excellence. What's the deal with the changes? It seems like a lot of extra unnecessary paperwork."
RESPONSE --- As we'd mentioned throughout the past six months, we've made some pretty major changes to the Chapter Award of Excellence for this year. Those changes were first announced when we warned chapters of the dramatic changes in late August. We've tackled multiple Questions of the Week in Inside FH about the changes since we announced this in August. We also spent some significant time at the 2004 Presidents Academy discussing the revised Award of Excellence and additional detail that will be required this March 1st.
However, we fully realize that many chapters procrastinate with these awards apps and that some of you may actually just now be opening up the binder and realizing that you need documentation and needed to track the percentage of brothers attending various activities.
So, why?
The prior Chapter Award of Excellence was too much of a checkmark process. It was left to each chapter to determine if they met the expectations. Even though advisors and the Greek Life office had to sign off, in reality, we had little way of knowing whether a chapter did indeed meet the expectations. Additionally, we knew very well that we had chapters that planned programs for the sake of completing the awards app, but only had 5 percent of the brothers attending some of those programs. On paper they looked great! However, they were being scored the same as a chapter that busted its rear to get 90 percent of its guys there for a similar event.
A total of 12 points are now granted for a 1-page recruitment plan, 1-page new member education plan, etc. We're not looking for a separate all out strategic plan with goals/strategies and action steps for each of these, but simply the chapter's 12 Chapter Programming Awards entries (each should be set up with the 3-5 SMART goals for that area your chapter set in Jan 03, and what activities/programs/etc. you did to seek to achieve those goals in the past 14 months - like your chapter has done in the past few years).
The rest of the attachments that are required are self-explanatory - it's too easy to say that your chapter has completed an audit (we need you to prove this with a 1-page opinion letter from the auditors); it's easy to say you have a budget (show us), it's easy to say you have a crisis management plan (the judges need to see it), etc.
This change will also enable us to keep an updated version of your chapter's various important documents for reference (bylaws, cook/housemother contracts, delinquent accounts policy, financial info, new member program syllabus, audit summary, newsletters, etc.).
* Note that the last two pages of the Award of Excellence (membership and scholarship info) will be completed by the FarmHouse International staff.
We realize this is the first year of the much-revised application. Fill it out to the best of your ability. Approximate the number of men/alumni or percentage of men attending various events based on your best recollection (or the best recollection of the officer in charge). Then, make sure that each new officer who is responsible for that section begins to track this info for Jan. 2004-Feb. 2005. It'll become a much easier process in Year 2 of the new Chapter Award of Excellence.
The awards apps are on Pages 26-38 of your Chapter Planning Guides and 2004 Presidents binders. You can also download them from our website at http://www.farmhouse.org/pdf/part2.pdf Be sure to mail the completed applications to our office at the address below (and address listed on the cover of the Planning Guide & Presidents Binder.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "We read something about a FarmHouse International Community Service Man of the Year award. What's that all about?"
RESPONSE --- The FarmHouse International Community Service Man of the Year was created several years ago to recognize exemplary efforts by our members of providing outstanding service back to their communities. Each year we select one undergraduate who has gone above and beyond our call to service.
Previous recipients have donated as many as 500-600 hours of community service in the prior year - most volunteering to assist with at least a dozen different service projects - everything from coordinating blood drives, to making a year-round commitment to Big Brothers' programs, to volunteering at local hospitals, to giving up entire summers for mission experiences.
The award is not just a recognition of who contributes the most hours of service. We also look at who contributes the greatest good back to society, how the individual has influenced his chapter to make hands-on community service more of a priority and the year-round commitment that's been made.
We'd strongly encourage chapter presidents and advisors to help get deserving brothers get the recognition they deserve for their contributions to our communities.
Applications are due April 30, 2004. The simple 1-page app is available at http://www.farmhouse.org/pdf/part2.pdf ... The 2003-04 recipient will be recognized at Conclave for his outstanding contributions.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "I read somewhere that the deadline for the website competition is July 1 and that the judges will be other chapters. Can you tell me exactly how and when the websites are judged? Are they judged on the day of July 1? How do chapters submit their votes? Do we need to judge the competition? Do we need to submit any paperwork to enter our website in the competition? Thanks for your help."
RESPONSE -- We're asking chapters to have their web sites updated and ready for judging by July 1st. It's imperative that your web site is linked to our list of chapter websites at http://www.FarmHouse.org ... If your site is not linked to our site, your site will not be available for judging. Check out http://www.farmhouse.org/chaptersa.htm to make sure your chapters' most current version of your web site is linked. If not, send the current link to Brian@FarmHouse.org ... He'll make sure to have your chapters' site linked by July 1st. Every site that is linked will be entered into the competition (no paperwork is required).
On July 1, an email will be sent out from Director of Chapter Services Jonathan Hawley to each chapter president regarding the web site contest judging. It's up to each chapter to decide whether the chapter president, the chapter webmaster or another member is in charge of judging the other sites and submitting your chapters' vote. We'll be asking each chapter to rank the Top 3 FarmHouse chapter sites in order (you won't be allowed to vote for your own chapter's site). Judges from each chapter will be asked to judge based on 1) layout/appearance; 2) creativity; 3) services; 4) content. Votes must be submitted to Jonathan@FarmHouse.org by August 1st.
Since the chapter judges will be voting between July 1st and August 1st, you'll need to keep your web site fresh throughout the month of July.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "As our chapter is working on the Chapter Award
of Excellence and the Chapter Programming Awards for 2004-05 that are due
March 1st, what are some of the keys to filling out the information?"
RESPONSE -- First, we will start with a FarmHouse International Chapter
Awards Program overview. Each chapter is required to complete the Chapter
Award of Excellence each year. Similar to last year the Chapter Programming
Awards will go hand in hand with the Award of Excellence as we all strive
to reach the FH International Board's goal of 80% of our chapters scoring
at least an 80% on the Award of Excellence. (Chapters scoring at least a
90% will be awarded the Chapter Award of Excellence and chapters scoring at
least an 80% will earn the Chapter Award of Achievement.)
As you will notice the 12 areas that are used for the Programming Awards,
are also the first 12 areas of the Award of Excellence. A chapter is
awarded a point for submitting a Chapter Programming Award application in
each area. That gives a chapter 12 points just for telling us their goals
and how they worked to achieve them over the past 14 months.
The combination of the Chapter Award of Excellence and Chapter Programming
Awards will help determine the 2004-05 Ruby Cup winner. The Ruby Cup is 50%
based on the Chapter Award of Excellence and 50% on the Chapter Programming
Awards with a chapter having to score at least a 90% on the Award of
Excellence to be in the running for the award.
(Keys for the Chapter Programming Awards)
Chapters should take the time to consider all the things that you
accomplished in that particular area in the past 14 months (Jan. 1, 2004
-Feb. 28, 2005). Make sure the goals you create are SMART (specific,
measurable, achievable, relevant and time-restrictive).
All 12 of your entries should be set up in the same format:
GOAL #1: xxx (that you had in Jan. 1, 2004) Bullet points and/or paragraph
explanations on what you did as a chapter to achieve the goal (including
details of whether you achieved the goal or not), don't forget to include
percentages and other quantifiable descriptors to help judges understand.
Same for GOAL #2, #3, etc. Chapters should set the format up with 3-5 goals
in each area and detail how they went about trying to achieve the goals.
The judges will be looking more for content, effort in achieving goals and
pursuit of your goals than they will be judging whether a chapter reached
every goal or not.
It's important that chapters put a full effort into each of the 12 entries.
In recent years we've had chapters finish in the Top 5 in all areas except
one and just tank in that one, making it nearly impossible to win the Ruby
Cup because of a 14th place finish in the one area. Make sure you put a
full effort into each area.
Some other helpful pointers:
1) Make certain that none of your officers try to submit last year's entry
or simply go into the file and change a few words.
2) Have one brother (often past president or current president or someone
who's a wordsmith) compile all the apps and work with the respective
officers if parts are lacking, format them all the same (point sizes, look,
etc.) and all in the same computer file.
3) The entries should be reviewed for content as well as typos, grammar and
other edits by as many people as possible. It won't hurt to pass the drafts
around at your next chapter meeting and have brothers go through and add
things that others have missed.
4) Don't list the goals you have just developed this semester (you won't be
able to show how you fared towards reaching them) - go back to the goals
that your chapter set in each area in January 2004. The goals you set this
January should be used for the 2005-06 awards entries.
5) The judges are not always aware of the importance of
activities/offices/events/etc. on your campus, so explain the significance
of the accomplishments (philanthropies, steering committees, student
orientation, etc.)
6) Be sure to include only 1 typed page per entry for each of the 12
programming areas. The following areas should include additional documentation:
- Recruitment (an additional 1-page, 1-sided recruitment calendar/schedule)
- New Member Education (an additional 1-3 page syllabus outlining new
member education schedule and 1-page big brother program outline)
- Alumni Relations (copies of two newsletters printed during the year- will
also double as your Outstanding Newsletter application)
- Financial Management (current and previous term budgets, 1-page audit
summary, balance sheets/income statement, delinquent account policy)
- Campus Involvement (allowed a complete list of brothers and campus
activities/org. involved with)
- Community Service (allowed a complete list of brothers and record of each
brother's involvement in service projects and # of hours for each)
- Risk Management (description/duties of risk mang committee/officer, copy
of chapter's crisis management plan & policy & procedures for violations)
* For these 7 areas, the judges prefer to see the attachments noted above
to help them better understand your accomplishments. Please try to include
the additional documentation in these 7 areas.
7) Your applications will be copied onto white paper for the judges - so
don't use any fancy graphics, colored text, worry about printing them on
color paper, using more expensive paper or spend money on a binder to put
them in.
8) Be sure to include a header at the top of each entry with the name of
the university and which of the 12 programming award areas it is.
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