2016 NACURH NRHH President of the Year

Katie Bartel

N R H H A

P R E S I D E N T

R E C I P E

F O R

O F

T H E

Y E A R

S U C C E S S

PACURH The University of British Columbia Thunderbird Chapter Presented at NACURH 2016 at the University of Delaware

Directions Table of Contents

2

Katie recognizing a Residence Life Manager

Preparations How to prepare for the role of NRHH president

3 Ingredients What is needed in order to be successful in leading an NRHH chapter

Katie at the NRHH Booth on UBC's "Imagine Day"

5 Cook Time

Presidential duties to be completed in ~9-10 months

6

Ready to Serve Re-branding NRHH to improve visibility throughout residence at UBC

8 Review

Reference letter from the Thunderbird Chapter Advisor

Katie Bartel | 1

Preparations HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE ROLE OF PRESIDENT

Meet Katie Bartel: a third year student in the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia, who has dedicated much of her time to various involvements in residence. Currently, it is as the president of the UBC Thunderbird Chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary for which Katie has put in countless hours to re-brand and make this chapter successful. Like all good recipes, they require preparation in order to make the final outcome a success. Prior to her involvement this year as NRHH President, Katie was involved in different residence councils in her first and second years.

Katie and her House Council in first year PREHEAT TO SUMMER TEMPERATURE

Katie focused on a few things over the summer leading up to her year as president. She wanted to improve chapter accessibility and transparency with all residents. This was accomplished by working with Student Housing and Hospitality Services' (SHHS) technology department and the Residence Hall Association (RHA) to re-create the chapter's online presence. She was able to get us a shared webspace with RHA where all chapter documents and information are located and accessible to anyone.

Another summer project was creating a resource intended to help anyone hoping to write a winning OTM: “Gerri’s OTMs.” Gerri the Giraffe is our chapter mascot, who can sometimes be found with our social media and branding. This guide includes all things OTM-related. There’s a glossary of acronyms for individuals new to NACURH, PACURH, NRHH, and the UBC RHA. It includes the submission timeline, all categories, the “Gerri Points” system, the submission process, examples, and additional tips. This is an example of a resource that Katie has made available on the website. As the year progressed, this guide was updated based on our chapter's OTM needs and branding guidelines.

The 2015/16 Thunderbird Chapter Executive and Advisor

Katie Bartel | 2

Ingredients WHAT YOU NEED FOR SUCCESS

This past year, the NRHH made the shift towards the organization having two values: service and recognition. These are some of the “ingredients” that Katie used in her recipe to create a successful and recognizable chapter. Additionally, she focused on increasing the accessibility of resources to all UBC residents and chapter members.

MIX IN SOME SERVICE

Recognition was something that the Thunderbird Chapter had done well on in the past, but service had never been focused on too heavily. Being the only Canadian school in PACURH, it had not been too easy for UBC to take part in the annual Regional Service Projects. Katie took it upon herself to jumpstart service initiatives to support the Greater Vancouver and campus community. It was in the chapter’s best interests to start with a smaller-scale project since it was the first time diving in to the service component of NRHH. After some research and talking with members of the UBC residence community, it had been decided that we would do a month-long food drive to donate to the Alma Mater Society (AMS) Food Bank. This is an on-campus food bank that directly benefits students who attend UBC. With this being our first service project, Katie was capable of delegating tasks among all chapter members, so everyone could take part in the planning and execution. Katie and the executive team put in great Katie and her House Council in first year effort with the set-up of the food drive in order to make the tasks required by others easier. As a result of the collective of work and successful promotions, boxes were overflowing with donations.

From January onwards, the chapter was able to support many other campus groups and their events. For PACURH Service Month, Katie organized a committee of chapter members to plan out the month's events. The chapter's big effort this month was volunteering with UBC's Suicide Awareness Day where chapter members shared campus resources with passing students. The chapter was also able to collaborate with the Mental Health Awareness Club's Annual Defeat Depression run, UBC Recreation, as well as providing help to Residence Life with service programs.

Thanks to Katie’s encouragement and hard work, the chapter was able to come together, and be known on campus for the service they provide.

The success with service initiatives this year has motivated the chapter to have big ambitions for service projects in the future. Katie continues to challenge members to seek out service opportunities. This will allow for all UBC students to recognize who the NRHH is, and what they do.

Volunteering at the Defeat Depression Art Table

Katie Bartel | 3

ADD A BIT OF RECOGNITION

The OTM initiative at UBC has always had lots of submissions. However, as the NRHH representative of UBC at the regional and international levels, there was one thing Katie wanted to emphasize in order to better represent UBC: quality over quantity. This emphasis resulted in five regional and two international wins for UBC, as well as members becoming better educated on what makes a well. written OTM. Of the regional wins, two of them were written by Katie: one for Residence Life Staff in September and an Educational Program in October. Her position on the PACURH OTM Committee has helped her gain expertise, such that some residents have reached out to her for OTM-writing help.

She encouraged chapter members to join this committee, giving UBC a strong representation at the regional level. To utilize the chapter’s writing skills, Katie implemented NRHH Office Hours, allowing designated times for residents to seek help with getting started on an OTM. Something else Katie has emphasized is the fact that everyone deserves recognition, whether they win or not. Even nominators deserve recognition for putting in time and effort to make someone else feel appreciated. Katie introduced a recognition event at the Fall Induction Ceremony. This included providing certificates to winners, and thank you cards and tokens of appreciation to all nominators. At the year-end Recognition Banquet, she continued to reward these people, in addition to annual awards that are given out by NRHH. Katie has also focused on other forms of recognition. This was based on feedback from chapter members and residents who found the OTM submission and writing process time-consuming. She believes that recognition should be an enjoyable and simple experience. This feedback helped inspire Katie in the creation of the nomination form for White and Bronze Pins. She found an online platform that gave nominators many prompts so they knew exactly what was required. Thanks to this platform, the chapter received at least twice as many pin nominations than in past years, from a more diverse group of nominees. Along with her strive to produce non-OTM recognition, Katie continues to remind residents that they can recognize The Executives at the others by simply saying, “thank you,” for their help and Year­End Recognition Banquet support, or even writing them a small note or card.

COMBINE WITH CHAPTER ACCESSIBILITY

In order to move away from the sense that NRHH is overly exclusive, Katie has made all chapter resources available to everyone in the UBC community. The re-creation of the chapter website has helped this; it has all meeting locations, times, agendas, and minutes. Not many residents are aware that NRHH meetings are open and anyone can attend. Katie continues to pass along this message to chapter members to spread to others in residence. General residents attending meetings and utilizing chapter resources could spark their interest to join the NRHH. The website also has information on membership, current members, the revised constitution, and elections information.

Another way Katie has promoted the chapter is through presentations at RHA Training in August, and at training for Floor Representatives. These presentations focused on the two values of the NRHH, how residents can join, and why they should join. Gaining the interest of residents early on in their time at UBC has helped the NRHH become a well-recognized group within UBC residence.

Katie Bartel | 4

Cook Time HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE ROLE OF PRESIDENT

The Thunderbird chapter of NRHH is very new compared to other groups on campus, and other NRHH chapters. Having only existed since 2010, and having a very small footprint in a Student Housing system of over 10 000 residents, the role of bringing our chapter into the next 5 years was a daunting one. Compounding the issues was a high turn over of active members inherent in a lottery based housing allocation system with only half the supply to meet demand. This led to a chapter with little direction and with its last original members becoming alumni. On top of all of this, the chapter constitution was unclear in some areas, and needed improvement as a guiding document.

PLACE 20 AMENDMENTS ON A TRAY

Katie came in to this with a sense of purpose and optimism, working with her executives, past executives, and our advisor to figure out a plan for the year in order to fix the constitution and increase membership. She went through the existing constitution, making over twenty changes, including everything from adding a definitions section that was absent, to rewriting entire sections. Katie also ensured the entire document was in line with the values of the NRHH and conformed with the guidelines set out by the NACURH NRHH policy book. This reform was the foundation for the beginning of what would become a rebuilding year for NRHH. BAKE OVER THE COURSE OF THREE CONFERENCES

Katie attended NACURH 2015 with an open mind and filled with ideas about what she wanted to accomplish. At the conference, she was exposed to the huge variety of chapters and schools who helped her form her vision to reform and grow the chapter. Things like having each executive responsible for committees on one of the two values, bringing new ideas for service initiatives, and using ideas from other chapters to improve our membership.

Katie also attended PACURH 2015, again with enthusiasm and a will to better connect our chapter to the region, especially given the barrier of national differences. Katie was the recipient of the C. Windi Sasaki NRHH Cornerstone Award for her outstanding contributions to PACURH. One thing Katie focused on is bringing back ideas for new service initiatives and opportunities, and finding ways for our chapter to be included in more regional projects, such as PACURH Service Month in February.

Throughout the year, Katie has also come back to our chapter meetings to get our insight on decisions being made at the PACURH and NACURH levels, bringing chapter member's input and keeping us apprised and connected to the region and NACURH. Overall, Katie allowed our chapter to really feel that we have, through her actions, contributed to the NRHH on the regional and international levels, and the things she brought back from NACURH and PACURH have allowed our chapter to grow to unprecedented heights this year on our campus.

Katie Bartel | 5

Ready to Serve HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE ROLE OF PRESIDENT

One of Katie’s goals for this year was to completely change peoples’ perceptions of our NRHH chapter in UBC’s housing community. In the past, people have been unsure of the role of NRHH, especially because of the many groups in residence. A common misconception that existed was that NRHH was just a recognition committee for the RHA, and residence area associations– some residence leaders did not even know of its existence. As well, there were a lot of areas with no member representation in NRHH. People who did not know the role of the Thunderbird Chapter often did not take it seriously as an organization. Beyond this, one thing she saw as something to improve was the image we portrayed to management in Residence Life, and professionalism in general.

The first thing Katie spearheaded was a unified approach to branding for our chapter. Though it often is overlooked, Katie realized that having a professional brand to use consistently is one of the first steps toward better recognition as a professional organization. Katie worked with the chapter members and executives, and efficiently delegated tasks, such as logo creation, while ensuring everyone was consulted for the final result. She ensured that we took into account the importance of international symbols like the NRHH diamond logo, and also considered our specific chapter. It was decided to reduce the use of the chapter mascot in most external documents and advertisements. Katie worked to consider all chapter members' opinions regarding this. In the end, she was able to guide our chapter towards a common brand that could easily be used on all documents, including a new logo, colours consistent with the official colours of our university, and other aspects that represented our organization and chapter well.

Lookin' spiffy at PACURH 2015

Katie has worked hard to ensure that RHA members and Residence Advisors know what the NRHH is and its importance on campus.

Crystal Sipila, 2015/16 RHA President

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Katie and the UBC NACURH 2015 delegation showing some Froggie Love

Katie Bartel | 6

Next, Katie worked on the professionalism of the chapter as a whole. She revamped the NRHH chapter website, which in actuality was just a tab on the RHA website with one page and little updated information. She has made it into a resource for chapter members, residents, and staff members to use to connect with the NRHH, stay up to date on our meetings, and learn more about the chapter. It has come to the point that the NRHH section of the RHA website has more content and is updated more frequently. Katie also began office hours in different residence areas, using the time to promote NRHH, as well as allowing people to discuss OTM writing, service opportunities, and other recognition initiatives run by the Thunderbird Chapter in residence. This has overall contributed to a greater access to the NRHH chapter from non-member leaders in the UBC residence community, and contributed to the growth of our chapter as a whole.

Finally, Katie has begun the process of working to get better recognition of our efforts from UBC Student Housing. She has begun the process of creating an annual report and chapter plans for the future to be presented to Student Housing. This includes highlighting the benefit to the community that having an NRHH chapter creates, and the future growth planned by the chapter. We have faced issues in the past with Student Housing management due to the perceived minor impact the Thunderbird Chapter has had. Katie is working to address this head-on through better communication. She has also strived to keep the Residence Life Managers of each Residence Area at UBC informed on the activities of NRHH in their respective residence areas, and in the community as a whole.

The 2015/16 NRHH Thunderbird Chapter

Katie always talks about how awesome her council members are and fellow executives have been. She is excited about recognition and is constantly recognizing outstanding individuals.

Katie is one the most professional, organized, and hardworking people I have had the privilege of working with. It amazes me to see how much she has contributed to the NRHH at the campus and regional level in such a short period of time.

Andy Jeun, 2015/16 NCC

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Katie Vit, 2015/16 GRA Vice-President

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Katie Bartel | 7

Review

COMMENTS FROM THE ADVISOR

Katie Bartel | 89

Image citations wooden spoon image [pg. 1], Apartment Therapy, (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/top­ten­best­wooden­spoons­annual­ guide­201686) Oven Glove image [pg. 2], Shopify.ca (http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0206/8216/products/Tori­Murphy­Kitchen­ Oven­Glove­3_copy.png?v=1438184790) Chocolate Chips image [pg. 3] Barry Callebaut recipe webpage (http://solutions.barry­callebaut.com/products/inclusions/chocolate­chips) Cracked Egg image [pg 4], U.S. F.D.A. (http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/ucm077342.htm) Whisk image [pg. 5], Sam's Fast Foods (http://samsfastfoods.com/WebRoot/Namesco/Shops/950003479/5106/A7 CA/DE2F/C984/F341/C0A8/1909/9F31/balloon_whisk.png) Egg Timer image [pg. 6], Ebay.ca classified (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lux­Minute­Minder­Long­Ring­White­Timer­ /381642292309?hash=item58dba73c55:g:3nQAAOSwgn5XFCWI) all other images and graphics taken by the Thunderbird Chapter of the NRHH at The University of British Columbia.