FARMHOUSE
QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK
(From recent Inside FH newsletters)
Retreats / Meetings / Resources
- "How do we go about renting one of those video projectors like you use at the RLCs and Conclave?"
- "You guys spoke briefly about an Individual Award of Excellence at the Leadership Academy. Could you share how we can get that started in our chapter?"
- "We need some basic resource for our guys about parli pro and conducting a meeting. Can you help?"
- "We're wanting to put on our first officer transition program that we've had since I've been here, what should it include?"
QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "How do we go about renting one of those video projectors like you use at the RLCs and Conclave?"
One option is identifying an alumnus who is a professor or faculty member who can check one out from the university. We wouldn't recommend renting them at hotels or retreat centers, since they typically run upwards of $300-500 to rent for a day.
Your best bet would be to consider purchasing one for the chapter. You may be surprised to learn that the cost of LCD & DLP projectors has dropped dramatically. The LCD that the International Fraternity bought for presentations in 1998 cost more than $5,000. Today, you can purchase similar lightweight machines for right at $1,000 (and with much higher resolution and more lumens). We'd suggest approaching your local Association Board and/or Foundation Council to help fund half of the cost (or all of it, if they're able and willing) since it's clearly an educational expense.
You may be surprised to think about how often your chapter would end up using one of these LCD projection machines. Without a doubt it would add to your recruitment slide shows, founders days presentations, chapter retreats, total membership education presentations and more. We've found these machines to be an invaluable part of our operations.
Here's a few ways in which you might use one:
- for a strategic planning session
- chapter retreats - leadership program, committee presentations, etc.
- TME programming - alcohol/risk management seminars, etiquette, career programming, hazing, confrontation skills, etc.
- Founders Day/Homecoming events/banquets
- Initiation ceremonies (slide show from the fun things/activities during the pledging period)
- Slide Shows (from Homecoming, recruitment, year-round events)
- Recruitment (could definitely help out if participating in formal recruitment)
- Pledge Education (could help standardize the material you teach pledges year to year)
- brotherhood events (movie or DVD on the "big screen")
- Association Meetings (could have agenda, budgets, digital photos of house repairs/bids, etc. on screens as needed)
- Chapter Meetings (could use for meeting agendas, bylaw changes, presentations, etc.)
- Committee presentations at chapter meetings (an outstanding way to update the entire chapter on what committees are doing to achieve the goals/action steps in your chapter's strategic plan).
As for purchasing a projector, a fairly bares-bones model can purchased for $999 through Dell (http://www.Dell.com), InFocus (http://www.InFocus.com) and I'm sure many other companies. You'll want to look at the resolution and lumens. The basic projectors typically have 600 x 800 resolution and project 1000 lumens (brightness). That shouldbe powerful and bright enough to work well in a chapter house. Depending on what you'll use it for and whether you'll want to have the lights on, you may want to buy a more advanced model. The model that we recently purchased for FH International had 1024 x 768 resolution and 1,300 lumens. It ran around $1,700 (with an educator's discount). But it's probably more machine than chapters would need.
You might check with some of your alumni who work for computer companies. They may be able to get additional discounts or know of cut-rate discounts available to chapters or universities.
As for funding, for younger chapters, a way to fund it might be to do a phone campaign with your alumni, share the above ideas in a newsletter to your alumni about how you would use the projector and ask for donations for it and/or see if your student government has any funds available for technology for student groups.
BACK TO TOP MENU
QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "You guys spoke briefly about an Individual Award of Excellence at the Leadership Academy. Could you share how we can get that started in our chapter?"
RESPONSE --- One of the biggest challenges chapter leaders face year in and year out is fulfilling the requirements within the Chapter Award of Excellence. Many of the expectations in the Chapter Award of Excellence center on percentage of participation at events, programming and activities. For the past few years we had been hearing chapter leaders labor over not being able to meet some of the expectations because they were having difficulty holding all of their members to the kind of standards and participation requirements as outlined in the Chapter Award of Excellence.
The Individual Award of Excellence has been created to help chapters better set minimum expectations for membership in the chapter and as a means of recognizing individuals who are meeting and exceeding the standards and expectations set forth by the local chapter and
International Fraternity. The application is based around objective criteria and is set up in a similar format as the Chapter Award of Excellence, which is due for chapters each year on
March 1.
Some chapters are choosing to set aside an hour at chapter retreats to have each member complete the application and then have the chapter advisors score it to see how well each member is doing at meeting our expectations. Then, any member below a certain point (70 percent?) must meet with the advisors and exec team to determine how they'll reach 70 percent. This could become a means for chapters to terminate those members who are continually not meeting expectations. Members who score a 90 percent or higher might be recognized with an award or plaque (like we do for chapters).
We've left implementation to each chapter at this point and see this as more of a tool that chapters can use, than an international-wide program in which we'll collect completed applications from every chapter member annually.
We're putting on a program at each of the RLCs this year about the Individual Award of Excellence and have had favorable responses from chapter leaders who are planning to implement this in their chapters.
At the 2004 FarmHouse Leadership Academy, chapter presidents received a copy of the new Individual Award of Excellence. We've also attached a copy of the application for chapters to customize and ADD to as you see fit (see attachment). We would, however, caution chapters from deleting items or areas from the attached document since it will only hurt your chapter later down the road when you have to annually submit the Chapter Award of Excellence document to FarmHouse International.
BACK TO TOP MENU
QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "We need some basic resource for our guys about parli pro and conducting a meeting. Can you help?"
RESPONSE -- While many chapters can rely on brothers who have had significant experience with running meetings and understanding parliamentary procedure because of experiences in FFA, 4-H and other organizations, all too often the majority of chapter members are intimidated at chapter meetings because of their lack of experience with parli pro. With a little education and practice, you can build your brothers' confidence in running and participating in meetings and have your meetings running smoothly in no time.
We've compiled some helpful links on our website for chapter leaders to print off and distribute to your brothers. We'd encourage every chapter to conduct a parli pro workshop as a total membership education workshop at the beginning of each school year. One of the best web sites for parliamentary procedure information is www.parlipro.org ... The site is not written in a way that will be over your brothers' heads and will provide tons of helpful information.
The link on the FarmHouse website at http://www.farmhouse.org/parlipro.htm includes 1) a link to the above website, 2) a sample FarmHouse chapter meeting agenda and 3) a 1-page handout of parli pro basics that past National FFA President Travis Park (PU '92) has created for FarmHouse.
Travis has packed a lot of great information into the handout, which would be a helpful resource for every brother to have inside their New Member or brotherhood membership binders that your chapter creates for each member. After you print the handout that Travis created and make copies for your chapter members, you might have one of your parli pro experts (advisors, alumni or active brothers) create a workshop to facilitate this and help guys understand it better. Encourage brothers to bring the parli pro basics handout with them to chapter meetings to help them learn and help run more efficient meetings.
BACK TO TOP MENU
QUESTION OF THE WEEK? --- "We're wanting to put on our first officer
transition program that we've had since I've been here, what should it
include?"
RESPONSE -- An effective officer transition program can mean everything to
a new team of officers and the continuity of a chapter. Without a solid
officer transition program new officers are left trying to sort through
binders and boxes, trying to make headway out of a bunch of disorganized
stuff. Often it takes a new officer two months to really understand what it
is he's supposed to be doing, leaving little time for innovation and new
programs/ideas. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but we'd suggest
chapters, associations and advisors consider from among these ideas:
1. Each officer (exec and minor officers) to complete an end-of-the-term
typed report - might include 4-5 sections - 1) job
description/responsibilities (always is more than what bylaws state); 2)
chapter accomplishments in his area & update on progress on progress (so
new officer can take up where you left off an run with things); 3)
troubleshooting (I never expected it, but be ready for...); 4) future
ideas/suggestions for position; 5) other helpful info. Reports kept in
3-ring binders, with other pertinent info.
2. Develop a process of chapter self-evaluation, in which all chapter
members evaluate how well the chapter did this past year in the 10-15
critical areas of chapter operation - and leave room for
suggestions/ideas. Compile the written results and share with the outgoing
and incoming officers, association leaders and advisors. This will help the
chapter with its focus and planning efforts.
3. Ensure that goals are not merely the officers' goals - but the chapters'
goals. These can't be effectively created until feedback is solicited from
past officers and the chapter as a whole. The chapter leadership should
work with officers to focus on the big picture and the idea of a shared
vision. That means officers need to get full chapter buy in and support
before launching into new initiatives.
4. Plan at least a 4-hour period away from the house in early December
before finals. Make sure all of your incoming officers and outgoing
officers are present - as well as chapter advisors. Set aside time for each
officer to sit down and go over the end-of-the-term reports, ask questions,
brainstorm on ideas with the outgoing officer. Have the officers turn over
binders, handbooks, etc. and discard materials that are not needed. Set
aside time for some team building activities and brainstorming about the
semester, plan for the chapter retreat/strategic planning session
(mid-January with entire chapter), work on calendar for the next semester, etc.
5. Plan a joint association board-chapter executive board retreat - where
all of your new chapter officers, advisors and association leaders all
spend a weekend together (possibly at a cabin), brainstorm and work on
plans for the coming year. New chapter officers should spend time
developing goals and plans for the chapter for the next year, while the
association meets concurrently. Between the story telling, grilling out and
sharing FarmHouse experiences, you'd find time for the association and
chapter to present their plans/goals to one another and spend time
discussing the shared vision/long term plans for your FarmHouse Chapter and
Association.
Remember, the process of continual improvement can be impossible if every
exec team and set of officers comes in and starts from scratch each
semester. The development of a strategic plan with long-range objectives,
and a mechanism to ensure that your short-term goals (1 year) are
consistent with the long-term plans is very important to the process. - JG
BACK TO TOP MENU
