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December 29, 2007
CAACURH 2008 Conference Staff,
CONGRATULATIONS! I hope that you are excited about successfully producing the winning
bid to host the 2008 CAACURH Regional Conference! I promise you that this will be an
experience which you will never forget.
The CAACURH 2007 conference was an amazing experience for myself and my conference
team. I was so proud of all that we did, and of the support we received from Bowling Green State
University. Now it is your turn to showcase your school and your talents. I know you will do
your best and above all remember to have fun! Get ready!
This report will serve as a resource to your conference team as you move forward in planning the
2008 conference. It includes reports from myself and each of my chairs. You will find
summaries of what we faced as a conference team, as well as suggestions for what worked and
what could be improved. Reading through the reports should help you to establish what your
goals and objectives are, and how you will reach these goals. It’s perfectly okay to change things
up. Your conference team structure will probably look different than ours did, just as ours looked
different from the prior conferences. Take the reports and suggestions presented here and apply
them to your school, your team, and your vision. We hope that our reports will help you to avoid
some of our difficulties and make the CAACURH 2008 conference the best it can be!
The CAACURH 2007 conference was a truly rewarding opportunity. I was able to learn so much
about myself and others, and put together something that hopefully impacted delegate’s lives,
whether by providing delegates the tools to bring a program back to their campus, or inspiring a
love for res-life in a first-time delegate. Yes, there will be times that you will feel overwhelmed.
There will be times that you might think that the conference will never come together. But just
pause, take a deep breath, and keep going. Remember why you decided to do this; how you will
make an impact. Think of how proud you’ll feel standing at closing ceremonies knowing that it
all came together.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at kbarton@bgsu.edu if you have any questions!
Congratulations again on receiving the conference. Have fun and good luck!
Cougar Pride,
Katrina Barton
Katrina Barton
CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference Chair
Bowling Green State University
2
Table of Contents
Introduction 4
Conference Schedule 5
Conference Team 6
Regional Board of Directors 7
Conference Awards 8
Conference Chair Report 10
Conference Team Reports
Finance and Co-Sponsorship 27
Special Projects and Logistics 31
Housing 35
Dining and Ceremonies 47
Programming 61
Technology and Co-Sponsorship 64
Transportation and Security 71
Volunteer and Philanthropy 75
Registration 79
Entertainment 93
Survey 95
Thanks! 121
3
Introduction from the Conference Chair
CAACURH007 was definitely an experience I will NEVER forget. I feel that it all came together
very well and that we were able to provide a positive experience for our delegates. Needless-to-
say, there were some areas that could have gone better. There were also things that we tried that
we feel worked out great!
Highs:
- Seeing it all come together despite minor set-backs (see lows).
- Maintaining a pleasant and professional appearance even when things were crazy behind
the scenes (Ducks on the water: appear calm, but under the water the legs are working
like crazy).
- Positive feedback about conference changes (like video roll call, Saturday morning
breakfast buffet, Spirit Police)
- Collecting over 270 pounds of pop tabs for Ronald McDonald House philanthropy
- The Spirit Police really pumping up the energy and spirit.
- The entertainment: like the dance and the casino night with prizes
Lows:
- Having to switch hotel contracts a few months into planning due to difficulties working
with the first hotel.
- The Hotel Key Situation: having conflict between the hotel’s system of providing room
keys by delegate name and the conference system of giving keys by delegation. Also, a
stack of keys were misplaced, which caused confusion and hassle in having to have new
keys made.
- Miscommunications with the Regional Board of Directors (RBD) and lack of insight on
our part when making final budget changes, namely not including everything that we
should have in the advisor price. This caused issues down the road with add-on fees and
break-even points.
- Miscommunications with the University. We had some issues with whether the
conference received campus group discounts or not, prices changing after the budget was
submitted, and scheduling conflicts in that our conference was in the same building as a
speech competition with required quiet (which we weren’t!). Better communication and
foresight could have avoided some of this.
Host Site Contact Information:
Bowling Green State University
Resident Student Association
222 Saddlemire in Conklin
Bowling Green, OH 43403
e-mail: kbarton@bgsu.edu
4
CAACURH007 Conference Schedule
Friday, November 9, 2007
12:00PM - 6:00PM Registration & Check-In Hotel-Lower Lobby
6:30PM - 9:30PM Opening Ceremonies Hotel Ballroom
Welcome & Mission Briefing
Roll Call
9:30PM - 1:00AM Hospitality Room Hospitality Suite
Socials
Advisor VanWert Room
NCC Aspen Room
NRHH Williams Room
President Defiance Room
Careers in CSP Faculty Club Room
LGBT Social Henry Room
Casino Games Lucas and Erie Rooms
James Bond Movie Night Allen Room
Swimming Hotel Pool
SWAP SHOP Pre-Function Area
Saturday, November 10, 2007
7:00AM - 8:00AM Breakfast Buffet Hotel Restaurant
7:30AM Business Meeting Departure Hotel Lobby
8:00AM - 12:00PM NCC Business Meeting 201 Student Union
8:30AM Depart for Missions Leave from Hotel
9:15AM - 10:00AM Programming Mission 1 Olscamp / BA
NRHH Business Meeting 207 Student Union
10:15AM -11:00AM Programming Mission 2 Olscamp / BA
11:15AM -12:00PM Programming Mission 3 Olscamp / BA
12:00PM -12:50PM Lunch A Olscamp 101
Roundtable B Olscamp / BA
1:00PM - 1:50PM Lunch B Olscamp 101
Roundtable A Olscamp / BA
2:00PM - 2:45PM Programming Mission 4 Olscamp / BA
3:00PM Announcement of Top 10 Olscamp / BA
3:15PM - 4:00PM Top 10 Missions Olscamp / BA
4:30PM Depart BGSU for Hotel Olscamp Hall
6:30PM Banquet Doors Open Gladieux Center
7:00PM - 9:45PM Banquet & De-Briefing Gladieux Center
10:30PM - 1:00AM Sweet 16 Dance Gladieux Center
Hospitality Rooms Open Hotel Hospitality Suite
Swimming Hotel Pool
Sunday, November 11, 2007
8:00AM - 10:00AM Pick up Displays, Banners Hotel Lobby
Noon Hotel Check-Out Deadline Hotel Lobby
5
Conference Team
Katrina Barton
Conference Chair
kbarton@bgsu.edu
Jessica Precop
Logistics and Special Ceremonies
jprecop@bgsu.edu
Amanda Holtsberry
Finance and Co-Sponsorship
aholtsb@bgsu.edu
Kim Merik
Housing Co-Chair
kmerik@bgsu.edu
Leann Wood
Housing Co-Chair
leannw@bgsu.edu
Ryan Gardner
Dining and Ceremonies
ryanzg@bgsu.edu
Alisha Griffin
Registration
amgriff@bgsu.edu
Cassie Gordon
Programming
gordonc@bgsu.edu
Adam Kowalski
Entertainment
kowalsa@bgsu.edu
Kari Ryan
Transportation and Security Co-Chair
klyran@bgsu.edu
Ashley Arent
Transportation and Security Co-Chair
aarent@bgsu.edu
Allyson Ruebusch
Volunteer and Philanthropy Co-Chair
allysor@bgsu.edu
Jenny Ewing
Volunteer and Philanthropy Co-Chair
ewingj@bgsu.edu
Drew Cekada
Technology and Co-Sponsorship
drewc@bgsu.edu
6
CAACURH Regional Board of Directors
Candie Heiser
Regional Director
Wilmington College
John A. Borawski
Associate Director for Administration and Finance
Ohio University
Jenna Hazelton
Associate Director for NRRH and Recognition
Ohio University
Jeremy Nevitt
Regional Communications Coordinator for Bidding
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Matthew Perry
Regional Communications Coordinator for Special Projects
University of Dayton
Katrina Barton
CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference Chair
Bowling Green State University
Danielle Portella
No-Frills 2008 Conference Chair
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Bonnie Byrne
Regional Advisor
Wilmington College
7
Conference Awards
Best Banner:
Villa Julie College
Best Display:
Maryville University
Best Roll Call:
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
1st Place Service Award
The College of New Jersey
2nd Place Service Award
Frostburg State University
3rd Place Service Award
Wright State University
“Spirit Never Dies” Awards
- Kutztown University
- Frostburg State University
- University of Toledo
Most Spirited School
Wright State University
Regional Awards
Student Award of Leadership Training:
Case Western Reserve
Case Study:
Vila Julie College
Cougar Pride Pins
Jessica Precop---- Bowling Green State University
Alana McClelland---- Advisor, Bowling Green State University
Gabrielle Repko---- Bowling Green State University
Elizabeth Gordon---- Wright State University
Amanda Holtsberry- ---Bowling Green State University
Brian Mossing---- the University of Toledo
Jen Yue---- Slippery Rock University
Silver Pin Recipient
Katrina Barton---- Bowling Green State University
8
Top 10 Programs:
“Diamonds Are Forever, But Our Budget Is Not!”
Signe Hawley – George Washington University
“Shake It Up In the Bedroom!”
Stacy Hagan, Caitlin Walsh, Alex Emr, Brittany Frazer, & Sean Anderson
- College of New Jersey
“How Is Your Gaydar?”
Keith Hamrick and Brittany Heiss – Wilmington College
“Dynamite Dynamics”
John J. Barnousky – Wilmington College
“Homophobia in the Residence Hall”
VISION Chapter of Bowling Green State University
“First Year Focus”
Dominique Smith – Montclair University
“Mission Impossible Accountability”
Nicholas “Wiggles” Barbuto – Case Western Reserve
“I’m Too Stressed To De-Stress!!”
Emily Purcell - Wright State University
“Mission: Flaunt Your Color!”
Jenna Blair – Towson University
“Flight 967”
Elizabeth Gordon – Wright State University
9
Conference Chair Report
Breakdown
What to Expect 11
Conference Team Make-up 11
Conference Team Responsibilities 13
CAACURH007 To-Do Lists (timelines) 17
Keeping in Touch and Staying Connected 22
Accountability 23
What Happens at the Meetings 23
Conference Weekend Breakdown 24
10
Conference Chair Report
Katrina Barton
What To Expect (in a nutshell)
As Conference Chair of the CAACURH Regional Conference, you will definitely be in on the
action. It is a very rewarding experience, but also very challenging along the way. I promise you
now, you will grow so much in the next year. You will also get frustrated. Being the Conference
Chair includes juggling many tasks. You will have to work closely with each chair. You have to
be on top of planning, enforce deadlines, pick up slack, ask for help, listen, teach, negotiate,
mediate, support, and generally be there for your conference team. You will have all of their e-
mails and phone numbers memorized in no time. I hope to give you some insight into how we
organized our Conference Team and how I served in my role as Conference Chair. I’ll share
some of the things that went very well. I’ll also share some of the things that could have gone
better. Please remember to take all these ideas with a grain of salt. Just because it did or didn’t
work for us doesn’t mean the same applies to you. And above all, as I keep saying, have fun with
it. Do it how you want to do it and really put your heart into it. That way you will be able to look
back in the end and truly be proud of your end product.
Conference Team Make-Up
Our Conference Team ultimately consisted of 14 AMAZING individuals who really put their all
into the conference. Along the way we had to make some adjustments, especially at the
beginning. People moved or picked up other responsibilities, so positions shifted, combined, and
received new faces. Our final team really worked well together to pull off the CAACURH007
conference. I started as Conference Chair in my sophomore year. Many of our team members
were just starting their careers at Bowling Green State University (BGSU or BG) as freshman.
While some people were nervous about this lack of experience, I feel that it really gave a fresh
enthusiasm and outlook to the conference procedures. While we did have some issues with
understanding the big CAACURH picture at times, the team members were really able to come
up with new ideas and really shape the conference. We also had the pleasure of having some
“experienced” conference team members. BGSU had recently hosted the No-Frills conference
(which I myself had volunteered at), so we had the advantage of having a few team members who
had either volunteered or been part of the planning process for that. I think having a combination
of students with much conference experience and little conference experience really gives a good
perspective to the team.
11
Our team make-up is little complicated in that some people shared roles, or had additional
positions, but we found it worked for us.
We basically had 12 different chairs:
Conference chair
Logistics/Special Projects
Finance
Co-Sponsorship (which was shared by the Finance Chair and the Technology Chair)
Registration
Programming
Housing (which had 2 co-chairs)
Dining/Ceremonies
Entertainment
Housing (which had 2 co-chairs)
Transportation/Security (which had 2 co-chairs)
Volunteer/Philanthropy (which had 2 co-chairs)
Technology
One of the reasons behind combining positions and having co-chairs was the inexperience of
the conference team. We had some individuals who did not feel as comfortable being solely
responsible, but wanted to have someone to work with. For the most part this worked out very
well for us. The chairs all got along with their co-chairs and were able to split the responsibilities
between themselves. Most of the time they worked together on their tasks, but they were also
able to delegate tasks between themselves and make sure that everything was covered.
I could see this being a problem for some individuals if one chair had to do most of the
work, or if disagreements arose between them. This would be a situation in which you would
have to decide for your team, based on the available team members and your methods. Having
co-chairs can also make it difficult for you, as Conference Chair, to keep track of everything that
is going on within the position. You may have to play a bit of phone tag or e-mail tag before you
can get an answer from who has the information. Overall, though, I think that the co-chair set-up
worked well for us!
12
At a conference team retreat, we established specific roles and duties for each of our chair
positions. This list is as follows:
CAACURH 2007 Conference Team Responsibilities
**Created at the Conference Team Retreat on 3/31/2007
Conference Chair - Katrina Barton
Contact Info: kbarton@bgsu.edu -
Be the ”hub” of info to/for the conference team, advisors, and RBD and be an east
contact for everyone.
Provide and get regional resources when needed for the conference team
Know what’s going on at all times and communicate back to the appropriate people
Be the bridge between the RBD and the conference team
Meet with Conference Advisor and Logistics Chair for weekly one on ones
Stay on top of the conference team (a.k.a. one on ones)
Keep the conference team positive and motivated
Keep the conference team on task
Work with Logistics Chair to plan and Implement the NCC, NRHH, Advisors, Presidents,
GLBT, and Careers in CSP Socials
Work with Housing/Logistics Chairs to make sure policies are met and maintained
during the Conference
Work with Technology Chair to create region “de-briefings” at times stated in the
Conference Timeline
Create monthly reports to be given to the RBD for each month prior to the conference
Giving a formal written and oral conference report at each NCC business meeting
before the conference.
Facilitating the creation/distribution of the Conference Wrap-up Report according to
the Policy Book
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Logistics and Special Projects Chair - Jessica Precop
Contact Info: jprecop@bgsu.edu -
Make sure that the team stays on top of deadlines/schedules
Keep the team ORGANIZED
Be in charge of getting all resources together
Take notes and attendance at meetings
Be in charge of the Conference Timeline
Have one on ones with the Conference Chair and the Conference Advisor
Create monthly updates for senior staff
Be in charge of the Display and Banner Contests
Create and Chair the Spirit Committee for the Conference
Be in charge of and maintain the spirit points for the Conference
Help create and implement merchandise “Conference Pin” and delegate t-shirts
Work with the Ceremonies Chair to Coordinate Speakers
Work with Special Projects Chair to coordinate the awards ceremony
Work with Registration/Sponsorship Chairs on a Conference Goodie Bag
Work with the Programming chair to create a Program Timeline/Schedule
Work with Housing/Logistics Chairs to make sure policies are met and maintained
during the Conference
Be in charge of “Team Coordination” (Example: conference team clothing)
Assist/provide additional help to all other chairs as needed
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with Logistics/Special Projects Advisor Regularly
13
Programming Chair - Cassie Gordon
Contact Info: gordonc@bgsu.edu -
Create a system for picking programs to be presented at the Conference
Promote program schedule and accepted programs with the Technology Chair
Coordinate rooms for the programs
Work with RCC for Presidents, Regional Advisor, and RAD to coordinate their
programming tracks.
Create, Implement, and Coordinate the Program Evaluation Forms and a process for
collecting them and tallying them.
Be in charge of the Top 10 Program Selection
Work with the Logistics chair and the RBD to create a Program Timeline/Schedule
Coordinate the Program Descriptions for the Conference Binders/Programs
Help plan and coordinate the Roundtable Discussions
Keep record of al tasks and duties performed
Meet with Programming Advisor Regularly
Finance and Co-Sponsorship Chair - Amanda Holtsberry
Contact Info: aholtsb@bgsu.edu -
Oversee all financial matters of the conference
Providing a Delegation Bracket Budget to the AD A/F, Director, Advisor and NACURH
Conference Resource Consultant at least ninety (90) days prior to the start of the
regional conference. (A Delegation Bracket Budget is detailed in the CAACURH Policy
Book-page 9)
Maintain the Monthly Budget and submit monthly budget to ADAF, Regional Director,
and Regional Advisor
Reporting and getting approved by the AD A/F all increases in expenses over $250.00
Reporting to the AD A/F all decreases in income over $250.00
Be in charge of all Conference Audits (all income and expenses)
Be in chare of all RP’s
Work with registration to secure payments from schools
Keep contact with all chairs to ensure proper spending
Create Letter Template for Sponsorship
Maintain an updated sponsorship list and keep contact with all secured and potential
sponsors
Follow the “money trail” for all sponsorship
Make sure obligations/promises to all sponsors are met
Work with Special Projects/Registration Chairs on a Conference Goodie Bag
Work with the Entertainment Chair to get prizes
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with Finance and Co-Sponsorship Advisors Regularly
Registration Chair - Alisha Griffin
Contact Info: amgriff@bgsu.edu -
Oversee all registration for the conference
Consult the RCC for Affiliation and ADAF on the status of each school registered to
attend
Notify schools of additional fees according to CAACURH Policy Book, Section III, Article
VIII, Number 8
Maintain the school database
Work with all Chairs for registration
Keep all Chairs updated as registration occurs
Create and implement a solid check in/check out process
Work with Special Projects/Sponsorship Chairs on a Conference Goodie Bag
Stay on top of all deadlines
Give weekly updates when registration opens
Check and Update Registration forms as well as the online system
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with Registration Advisor Regularly
14
Dining and Ceremonies Chair - Ryan Gardner
Contact Info: ryanzg@bgsu.edu
Make sure that all food for the conference is good quality
Coordinate the schedule for all meals
Establish a system for the Banquet in regards to meal selections for each delegate
Collaborate with the Entertainment Chair for Saturday night
Be in charge of Opening Ceremonies and Roll Call
Be in charge of Closing Banquet
Work with Logistics Chair to Coordinate Speakers for Opening Ceremonies/Closing
Banquet
Work with Special Projects Chair to coordinate the awards ceremony
Coordinate Seating for Closing Banquet
Coordinate Special Guests and Administrators for ceremonies
Be in charge of the Hospitality Room for the entire Conference
Work with the Technology Chair for technology needed for all ceremonies
Work with the Registration Chair for all Dining sign-ups
Be in charge of decorations and set up for all ceremonies
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with Dining and Ceremonies Advisor Regularly
Housing Co-Chairs - Kim Merik and Leann Wood
Contact Info: kmerik@bgsu.edu AND leannw@bgsu.edu
Work with the Hotel and it’s staff before and during the conference and ensure its all
in writing
Be the liaison between the Conference Team and the Hotel
Work with Finance and Registration Chairs to ensure proper forms and payment are in
Coordinate rooming assignments and create Door Decorations (if hotel allows) for each
room/all delegates
Maintain all hotel spaced used for the duration for the conference
Be Available at all times during the conference
Work with Housing/Logistics Chairs and the RBD to make sure policies are met and
maintained during the Conference
Make sure that the hotel receives their PAYMENT
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with Housing Advisor Regularly
Transportation and Security Co-Chairs - Kari Ryan and Ashley Arent
Contact Info: klryan@bgsu.edu AND aarent@bgsu.edu
Coordinate one(1) Uniform Police Officer for the Banquet
Contact Bowling Green and Toledo police stations
Maintain all Emergency Contacts
Create all signs for campus
Coordinate Volunteers to be security and “watchout” for any problems during the
conference
Create a packet of GOOD Directions for all locations needed during the conference
Work with Registration for Travel and Security forms
Manage Airport Chaos
Transport and Coordinate getting delegates to and from BGSU
Coordinate transportation to and from the Banquet
Coordinate schedule for all travel necessary
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with respective Co-Chair and Transportation and Security Advisor Regularly
15
Entertainment Chair - Adam Kowalski
Contact Info: kowalsa@bgsu.edu –
Be in charge of the Friday night activities including Casino Night and the Movie
Work with University Activities Organization (UAO) for movie rights, etc.
Work with the Sponsorship Co-Chairs to get prizes
Be in charge of the Saturday night dance, including coordinating the DJ
Work with Dining Chair to coordinate snacks for both Friday and Saturday night
activities
Work with the Technology Chair for whatever technology needed
Be in charge of Swap Shop
Make sure delegates have FUN!
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with Entertainment Advisor Regularly
Volunteer and Philanthropy Co-Chairs – Jenny Ewing and Allyson Ruebusch
Contact Info: ewingj@bgsu.edu AND allysor@bgsu.edu
Set Volunteer Goals, like deadlines, etc.
Secure Volunteers from student organizations from BGSU and possibly UT
Create a Volunteer Schedule with blocked times for shifts
Coordinate the Volunteer T-Shirts
Keep good communication between all volunteers and the conference team
Work with the Registration Chair to create online volunteer registration
Make sure the volunteers have all the information they need during the conference,
like team contacts
Coordinate our Philanthropy- Pop Tabs
Create and Decide the Pop Tab Awards
Look into, create, and implement a possibly Philanthropy for during the conference
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with respective Co-Chair and Volunteer and Philanthropy Advisor Regularly
Technology and Co-Sponsorship Chair - Drew Cekada
Contact Info: drewc@bgsu.edu
MAINTAIN website
Work with Conference Chair to create region “de-briefings” at times stated in the
Conference Timeline.
Help Registration Chair as needed for online database
Work with all Conference Chairs for any and all technology needed for the conference
Coordinate Team Technology for communication during the conference
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with Technology Chair Regularly
Create Letter Template for Sponsorship
Maintain an updated sponsorship list and keep contact with all secured and potential
sponsors
Follow the “money trail” for all sponsorship
Make sure obligations/promises to all sponsors are met
Work with Special Projects/Registration Chairs on a Conference Goodie Bag
Work with the Entertainment Chair to get prizes
Meet with respective Co-Chair and Sponsorship Advisors Regularly
16
Conference Advisors
-Alana McClelland - Conference Advisor
-Mike Orlando - Logistics/Special Projects Advisor
-Jim Hague – Graduate Conference Advisor
-Michael Lake – Finance and Co-Sponsorship Advisor
-Kevon Christian - Finance and Co-Sponsorship Advisor
-Mary Ann Begley - Registration Advisor
-Sarah Lucyzk – Programming Advisor
-Kerby Nelson – Dining and Ceremonies Advisor
-Mike Freyaldenhoven- Volunteer and Philanthropy Advisor
-Dr. Nick Hennessy – Housing Advisor
-Reggie Shouse – Entertainment Advisor
-Danny Miller – Transportation and Security Advisor
-Steven Jenkins – Technology Advisor
Responsibilities:
Provide any resources needed
Be available for communication
Motivate all Conference Team members
Work with other senior staff to help get things accomplished
Support!
Be on “OUR” team
Stay in correspondence with our Regional Advisor if for any reason there are
Advisor-related questions
GOALS FOR THE CAACURH 007 CONFERENCE TEAM
**As set by the Conference Team and the Retreat on 3/31/2007
1) NO Hospital Visits
2) Smooth-ness
3) NO surprises- very well planned and organized
4) NO Alcohol
5) Setting the BAR high
6) Taking the CAACURH Conference to the “NEXT” Level
7) Making “GOOD” History in our region
8) Having Patience
9) Having POSITIVITY!
10) Everyone still loving each other at the end of the conference
17
CAACURH 007 TO-DO LISTS
PROGRAMMING REGISTRATION
due date task
October 5th Publicize Program
Submission Form
due date task
October 17th Create mock pages
for the binder As they come Send invoices to the
schools and to
Finance chair
October 26th Pick Programs to be
presented October 17th Have registration
October 31 st
Give final pages to pages for the binder
Logistics chair for to Logistics chair
the binder with whatever info
known thus far
October 31st Have programming
schedule/location
done
October 26th Purchase NameTags
nd
November 2 Create Program for Delegates
Certificate
November 7th Have Program
Folders Ready October 26th Have solid check-
in/check-out
process finalized
HOUSING
October 26th Give appropriate
due date task information to each
October 17th Make housing chair
section of the binder
October 26th Finalize process for October 26th Have signature
check-in/check-out page created
November 2nd Finalize food/set- October 31st Have registration
up/decorations for pages finalized and
socials done for binder
November 2nd Creating Housing
Assignments
November 2nd Finalize all rooms, November 2nd Make template for
space, etc. for the nametags
hotel and the way November 7th Put together
they are set-up, etc. delegation
November 7th Have Door Decs. boxes/packets to
Done give at registration
November 7th Have nametags
done and ready
18
DINING/CEREMONIES FINANCE/CO-SPONSORSHIP
due date task
October 17th Have Dining/Food
section to Logistics
due date task
chair for the binder
October 28th Have everything
October 26th Finalize and
bought
purchase
November 2nd Finalize local
decorations
sponsorship
November 2nd Give final numbers
November 2nd Inform schools if
to Dining Services
they have or haven’t
and the Gladieux
paid
November 2nd Finalize food for the
November 7th Payment Binder
hospitality room
ready to go
November 2nd Finalize technology
needs for the
ceremonies
November 7th Have speakers’ gifts
made
November 7th Make name cards for
the banquet
TRANSPORTATION/SECURITY
due date task
October 17th Make time drop-off sheets
for binder
October 17th Make transportation/security
section like directions,
hospitals, etc. for binder
October 19th Finalize contract for buses
and vans
October 19th Finalize security guard
contract
October 26th Make directions flyers with
addresses to put on website
November 2nd Make chart of Transportation
for school arrivals
November 2nd Create locator signs for
campus
November 2nd Finalize Parking with BGSU
and Hotel
19
ENTERTAINMENT VOLUNTEER/PHILANTHROPY
due date task
October 17th Make Entertainment due date task
section of the binder October 17th Make
for Jess Volunteer/Philanthropy
October 26th Finalize decorations, section for the binder
food, etc. for Friday October 19th Have visited
Night organizations/hall
October26th Finalize contract for councils
the DJ October 24th Finalize ALL Volunteers
th
October 26 Purchase Tuxedo T- so we can purchase t-
shirts for Casino shirts
Night Volunteers October 26th Give volunteer shirt
th
October 26 Purchase ALL numbers to Jess for
decorations for ordering
Friday November 2nd Create your volunteer
th
October 26 Purchase ALL schedule and inform
decorations needed volunteers
for Saturday November 2nd Finalize weigh-in
th
October 26 Finalize the movie procedures for the pop
for Friday night tabs
October 26th Make plan/set-up for November 7th Create goal chart for
Swap Shop pop tabs collected
November 2nd Finalize prizes for November 7th Make Philanthropy
Casino Night Certificates
CONFERENCE CHAIR
due date task
October 12th Finalize Summit
Schedule and inform
conference team
October 12th Send formal
invitations to senior
staff for the banquet
October 17th Update Conference
Team bios and get
Advisor bios for the
binder
November 2nd Purchase Conference
Team Recognition
November 2nd Finalize things with
the RBD and know
everything needed
November 7th Finalize
RBD/National Guest
Arrivals
20
TECHNOLOGY/SPONSORSHIP
due date task
October 17th Make sponsorship part of the binder
for Jess
October 31st Send out one last de-briefing to the
region- pumping them up for
CAACURH
November 2nd Coordinate all technology for the
conference team
November 2nd Make sure all technology is set-
up/ready for the hotel
November 2nd Find photographer to take pics. at the
conference and make a slideshow for
the banquet
November 2nd Finalize technology needed for the
banquet
November 2nd Follow-up/Finalize ALL sponsorship
money
November 7th Finalize Roll Call Video
November 7th Finalize Spirit Cheers Video
LOGISTICS/SPECIAL PROJECTS
due date task
October 1st Finalize/Publicize spirit
information- brochure
October 26th Remind schools about spirit
October 26th Order T-Shirts
October 26th Finalize spirit judges
November 2nd Finalize the Spirit Police and
all details
November 2nd Purchase Conference team
recognition
November 2nd Purchase gift boxes for
speakers
November 7th Finalize opening ceremonies
and banquet agenda
November 7th Put together all binders
November 7th Make certificate templates for
all awards
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Keeping in Touch and Staying Connected
Communication is a VERY important aspect of having a successful conference. The truth is,
your conference team is made of students, who are typically busy and also have lives outside of
the conference. It is paramount that you set up regular communication with the conference
team members and the advisors. (This may easily be easier said than done). This can also help
with conference team community and accountability (discussed later).
Some of my suggestions for establishing and maintaining communication are:
Meeting: Meetings are essential to the planning process. It’s definitely not an easy task to
find a time that everyone can meet. It is important to establish from the beginning that
CAACURH needs to be a matter of priority. If this is established, and conference team
members understand that they need to attend meetings and be prompt on deadlines,
everything will run much more smoothly. While everyone hates weekend meetings, this
was the time that we had open, so we met on Sunday afternoons one semester and Friday
afternoons another. We initially met every other week, but as the conference came closer,
meetings became more weekly. We established which days we were meeting on in
advance, so that work schedules could be cleared. It was difficult at times to communicate
to everyone how important it was to be at the meetings, but they definitely realized it in
retrospect (you may find references in some of the chair reports). In a later section I will
discuss what our meetings looked like.
E-mail: E-mail is a great way to stay in contact with everyone. We set up a listproc, which
is the e-mail list service we have through BGSU, like a Google group or Yahoo group. As
conference chair, you will get a LOT of e-mail correspondence from you conference team,
advisors, the RBD, and other schools and such. I created a G-mail account for the
conference and I definitely recommend that. Even with the G-mail, I still ended up with
quite a few pages of e-mail in my personal account. Make sure to get in the habit of
checking your e-mail often. At the same time, consider setting aside non-e-mail time. I
would sit down to do my homework and check the e-mail and be occupied with
correspondence and such for the next 3 hours. So it might be a good idea to set-up a
homework time and close out the e-mail, as hard as that may be.
Updates: This is something that we should have kept on task more. Having conference
chairs submit updates, whether at each meeting, or in between, helps you to keep up to date
on what they are doing and what needs help or attention. It could also have been used
better to provide support for the inevitable wrap-up. We asked the conference team to
submit their updates by Thursday at noon, before my meeting with my advisors. This way
we could go over the concerns, etc. and make sure that these areas were addressed in the
meeting.
Contact Info: Be sure to get contact information from your conference team members,
especially their cell numbers! Other important information includes: room phone numbers,
campus address, summer address (in case), alternate e-mails, screen names, and anything
else they use to communicate with. Make sure that you ask each person how he or she
prefers to be contacted and what he or she doesn’t want (like texts). You might want to be
Facebook friends, but just make sure that regardless, it is a form of communication they use
frequently and reliably.
22
Accountability
One thing you will most likely deal with is the issue of establishing and maintaining
accountability. We had a few position changes, especially in the beginning of the process. It is
important to be very realistic about the commitment and expectations from the very beginning;
this way no one will be surprised once the work starts to pick up. As the 2006 conference chair
said in his wrap-up report, it is better to have nobody work on a task than to have a person not
work to the best of their ability.
It is tough to establish accountability, since there are no grades or salaries associated with
the work, and the students are essentially volunteering their time and effort. I think that helping
the team to understand what the full endeavor is, and to inspire pride in the work that they are
putting into the conference are big parts of establishing accountability. Ultimately you have to
find out how to make the conference important to your individual team members. Your
advisors may be able to give you some assistance on this point.
Your advisors may also be able to help out if someone on the team seems to be getting
off task or shirking their duties. Often team members will listen to the “authority” of the
advisor, so don’t be afraid to use that option. It is VERY important to make sure that deadlines
are being met, especially in the beginning. In the weeks and days just before the conference,
you will need things to be done when they are supposed to be, and establishing this from the
beginning will help you there. Keep open communication and let your chairs know that it’s
okay to ask for help, especially when they have a big deadline coming up and maybe other
commitments (school, sports, etc.) as well. At the same, make sure that they understand that
it’s not okay to just not say anything or just not turn it in. Establishing this should help you
onto the right track as well.
What Happens at the Meetings
What happens at the CAACURH conference team meetings is very magical indeed.
Well, not really. Basically the CAACURH conference team meetings were like most typical
meetings. I would generally let the chairs and advisors have a few minutes to catch up with
each other and get settled in. We would then run through updates. I might type up specific
chairs on the agenda under minutes if I felt that they had important updates. Otherwise it was
mostly on a volunteer basis, and pretty much everyone would give a brief update on what they
were working on. They would also ask others for their opinions or preferences. We would
typically talk about other various topics that were important for the week. If budget deadlines
were coming up, we would discuss how we expected these to be done. I also gave a lot of
reminders at the meetings as far as what the chairs should be working on. We would often
review the time line and make sure that everyone was aware of the deadlines. We also often
did housekeeping tasks in the meeting since most everyone was in one room.
If we didn’t have a lot to cover in a meeting, or if it was a stressful time, we would
sometimes do a team-builder or other activity. For example, when we were having an issue
with meeting deadlines and staying committed, we did a few activities to explore this. We did
a private quiz/reflection for individuals to assess how committed and on-task they had been.
We then did a visual game about dropping the ball (using a sheet in the gym-class “parachute”
style). It seemed effective and got the team thinking about how their actions affect the team as
a whole. The meetings are a great place to get the team together and excited about the
conference (and increase investment/accountability). In my weekly advisor meeting, we were
discussing how tensions were high. My advisor made a side comment about how we all just
needed to get rid of some energy and throw marshmallows or something at each other so we
wouldn’t be injured. At the next meeting we went outside and had a marshmallow fight, which
actually really helped the atmosphere and tension.
23
FRIDAY
8:30 am meet in Conklemire (AM, MO, JH, JP)
9:00 am Van Pickup
9:45 am Binders, t-shirts, reg. stuff, door decs @ Founders (JH, KB, MO, JP)
1st load to Hilton (JH, KB, JP, RBD? Sarah, Drew, Ashley)
10:15 a Set up registration area: (Ashley floats)
NIC: NIC
Finance: Drew, John, Amanda
Risk Management: Adam…..
Key/Name-tags/ NCC packet: Kim……..
Binders: Cassie…
T-shirts: Jess
Leadershape
12 noon “Check in” starts
1p Start getting room keys
Door Decs? RBD, Jenny…
3p Alana: back to campus to deposit checks and spirit stuff so far
5p Test Roll Call (Drew)
Set up roll call, socials, hospitality room (Ally, Cassie, Leann, Ryan, Jenny)
6p Open Doors Roll Call (Drew) (volunteer)
6:29 p Start Opening Ceremonies:
[Welcome and Intro MC (Katrina)
Intro (Jess and Ryan)
Roll Call
Intro Tiffany
Tiffany
Closing Updates and Reminders]
7p Adam: AJ Sunny Set up and Volunteer training
Breakdown/Condensation of Registration area (Kim, Leann)
8:30 p Check on set up of social food (Kim)
Greet Social Guests:
-CSP: Dr. R.DeBard (Jim)
-VISION: (Drew)
9p Get ready to help direct traffic to socials/ET/Ques
Advisors: (Kari)
NCC: [Jess]
NRHH: (Jenny)
President: [Ryan]
CSP: (Drew/Ashley)
LGBTA: (Drew/Cassie)
Swap Shop: (Allyson)
ET: (Adam)
Hospitality: (Kim/Leann)
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11 p Remove Caffeine
Conference Team meeting
“Stealth Team” back to BG: (Kari, Jenny, Frey, Cassie, Ally) weigh pop tabs
midnight Cleaning up socials, etc.
Raffle
12:45 a Announce time and start wrapping up
1:00 a Close EVERYTHING
Clean up
SATURDAY
6a Cassie: getting Olscamp/BA ready Allyson too
6:30 a Kim/Leann getting Breakfast Set/Hotel Check-in
7a Breakfast starts
7:30 a NCC Shuttle leaves (Ashley)
745-8 Volunteers start (Jenny, Allyson) (Kari)
8:30 a Delegate Shuttles
9:15 a Programs start
Set up banners and displays (Ashley, Kari, Drew…)
10:15 –11 Jim presents
Ryan sets up lunch
12 noon Mike presents
Lunch A
1p Jim presents
2p Tear down ish Banners and such (drew….)
2:45 p Top 10 tabulation (Jenny, Allyson, Cassie!, ba4000
Pass back displays/banners
3:05 p Top 10 posted
3:15 p Top 10 starts
Print off awards
4:30 p shuttle back to hotel starts
set up banquet: Ryan, Drew, Kim, Leann(can leave earlier)
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6p Adam meet DJ
Hospitality Refresh (Kim, Leann)
BG Guests meeters (Jenny, Drew, Ally…)
6:30 p Banquet doors open
7p Banquet starts
Food
Paula (leaves 830)
Awards
Closing
9:30ish Shuttles re-start
10 pm -ish Dance start (Adam)
Hospitality: (Kim or Leann)
11 p Remove Caffeine (Kim/Leann)
12:45 a Stopping Dance, Sending Delegates back
Clean up/shut down
1a Done!
SUNDAY
7:50 a Down to return banners/display
Check out ppl……… Everyone!
YAY!
26
Finance and Co-Sponsorship Chair
Amanda Holtsberry
Conference Highs and Lows (for the overall conference)
High
Check in went nicely it was really well organized. We had a line of people that each
delegation needed to see in order to finish their registration and get all of their materials
for conference. Each conference team member was responsible for some part of the
check in process and we were all able to answer questions well.
Low
I would not suggest doing optional T-shirts because it created confusion in the
registration process. People who had not registered for T-shirts came to the conference
and wanted to buy them. There were others who believed they had registered for them
and had not.
Chair Responsibilities
Finance
Oversee all financial matters of the conference.
Providing Budget Updates to the Conference Chair, ADAF, Regional Director, and
Regional Advisor at least once a month and providing them the final budget on the
requested due date. All that has to be done for this is to send a copy of your updated
overall budget to the above-mentioned people along with and questions or concerns that
you might have.
Be in charge of all conference audits. Make sure that you are continually looking over
your budget double-checking that all of the numbers are correct and looking to see if
there is any way to cut down on the cost. Also, have many other people look over your
budget to make sure that everything looks correct.
Be in charge of all purchasing forms. Know exactly how your college goes about their
purchasing process. Also, make sure that all forms concerning purchasing are seen and
approved by you before they go to your purchasing office.
Work with registration chair to secure payments from schools. Get the list of schools
registered for the conference and make out invoices for them. I would suggest sending
the invoice to the advisor and NCC via email.
Keep contact with all chairs to ensure proper spending. Out of all of your
responsibilities, this is going to be the most difficult. Make sure that everyone is
constantly keeping in contact with you about the money they need. Also, do not accept
estimates; all chairs need to give you solid numbers so you are not over or under
budgeting. I cannot stress to you enough how important this is to keep on top of your
chairs.
27
Co-Sponsorship
Create a letter template for sponsorship. Letters sent out to make and initial contact with
the companies we intended to ask for sponsorship from. In all honesty, though this
technique did not receive much response.
Maintain Updated Sponsorship list and keep contact with all secured and potential
sponsors. Just because they said yes does not mean that they will remember to send the
check; make sure that you are checking back with them regularly.
Make sure that all obligations and promises to all sponsors are met.
Timeline
My final budget was due on August 15th, but talk to your ADAF as soon as you get the
conference to get your official date.
Started going after sponsorship as soon as we officially had the conference.
During and after registration, get invoices out as quickly as possible. Invoices should be
done, NO LATER than one week after registration is over. Invoices for late registration
should be finish three days after late registration is over. This should give everyone
enough time to get there checks cut.
For the most part, you need to set your own time line though. As finance chair, you are
really one of the core chairs and because of this, you have the autonomy to make your
own timeline. I would suggest getting everything done as soon as possible though
because little things will ALWAYS, and I do mean always pop up at the last minute, no
matter how prepared you think you are. Work our your schedule with your conference
chair
My Official Timeline the Semester of the Conference:
Months of August & September- continue securing local and corporate sponsorship
October 28th- work with chairs to get all purchases made and finalized
November 2-Finalize local sponsorship
Inform schools of payment status
Have all purchases done
November 7- Payment binder ready for check-in
What you did during the conference
During the conference, the only thing that my position required was to be responsible for
taking payment at registration.
After I was done with registration, I just helped wherever I was needed. I was a runner a
lot of the time.
28
On Friday Night, I helped with our activity for that night getting the volunteers what ever
they needed and keeping their spirits up. In addition, Friday night I helped the
programming chair put up signs for the next day and helped our philanthropy chairs haul
pop tabs.
On Saturday, I spent most of the day running around helping volunteers and keeping
order. I also took the role of tallying scores for the Top 10 Programs. After programs,
the entire conference team was working on getting everything ready for the banquet.
Sunday we saw everyone off, cleaned up, and rested!
Problems encountered/solutions to problems
I would suggest doing your own invoices, there was a decision made that our registration
chair would do our conference invoices and I would have much rather done it. I think it
would have provide another eye to go over the registration sheets and check for any
registration errors and our registration chair was extremely busy with her own chair
responsibilities during the time the invoices needed to be made in turn there was some delay
for the invoices getting out.
Make sure that everyone is sending you budget updates. Also, before you turn in your
final budget make sure that all conference chairs go back to there suppliers and get updated
prices. I requested this information from all of our chairs many times and continually check
up on them, but some of them did not do this and ended up going over budget.
In addition, we had a problem with add on fees. Add on fees are not only to be assessed
to the delegated costs but also the advisors cost.
Getting sponsorship was extremely hard; so many companies were just unwilling to give.
I really do not have any advice for you about this other than be creative.
Best parts of your job
Being finance chair is great I think that the best part of it all was that all of my responsibilities
were before and after the conference, therefore I could really enjoy the conference and help
anyone out that needed help. I think having me around as an extra person was helpful to
many people.
In addition, because I am an Accounting and Finance Majors it gave me a good experience
and a look into what I would be doing in the future
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Evaluations/Ideas for improvement/Recommendations
Get everything in on time
Keep track of all of your chairs and do constant budget updates with them to make sure
they are tell you about all of there expenses
Get started on sponsorship early, if you have not started already, you are behind.
Make sure that you either receive a schools payment, have them pay at the conference, or
bring proof from there business office that their check is being processed or on its way.
Become really good friends with your conference advisor, not only will they be able to
get you resources that you might not have known about, but they also know all of the
University policies for spending money and will be very helpful to you when you are
trying to make purchases and talking to vendors.
Do not be afraid to throw ideas out there, even if they do not pertain to your position, the
conference is only going to be as good as you make it.
Words of Wisdom for the Next Finance and/or Co-Sponsorship Chair
As Finance Chair, you are the second most important person on the conference team.
CAACURH bylaws state that if the Conference Chair should for any reason step down that
you then become conference chair. This being said make sure that you are in constant contact
with the conference chair and make sure that conference team meetings are scheduled when
you can be there.
Also, have fun with your position. Get to know everyone on the conference team and the
RBD. The members of the RBD are amazing and can help you out enormously, specifically
the ADAF. You should be best friends with the ADAF because they will be able to answer
just about any question you have and they know exactly what you are going through.
Lastly, I know you are going to do great. If you ever have any problems or need to let out
some steam feel free to contact me, and defiantly Facebook me, my email is
aholtsb@bgsu.edu. So now, take a deep breath and get ready for a wild ride!
XO Amanda Holtsberry OX
aholtsb@bgsu.edu
30
Special Projects and Logistics Chair
Jess Precop
Conference Highs and Lows
There were many highs for the CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference. To highlight some of
mine:
-Very smooth check-in
-No injuries
-Amazing opening speaker
-Programming was well-received and great turn-around time for posting the Top 10 Programs.
-The Spirit Police brought something new, unique, and special to the conference.
-The dance went really well, especially for being the only entertainment that night.
Naturally, there were also some parts of the conference that could have been done better or
differently. A few of those were:
-Video Roll Call was shaky since it was the first time.
-Low turnout for the socials.
-Lack of food in hospitality rooms.
Chair Responsibilities
-Create monthly updates for senior staff
-Be in charge of the Display and Banner Contests
-Create and Chair the Spirit Committee for the Conference
-Be in charge of and maintain the spirit points for the Conference
-Work with the Ceremonies Chair to Coordinate Speakers
-Work with Ceremonies Chair to coordinate the awards ceremony
-Work with the Programming chair to create a Program Timeline/Schedule
-Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
-Meet with Special Projects Advisor Regularly
31
Timeline (what and when leading up to the conference)
October 1st: Finalize and publicize spirit information
October 26 : Remind schools again about spirit
th
Order T-shirts
Finalize spirit judging plan
November 2nd: Finalize the Spirit Police and plans
Purchase Conference Team recognition w/advisor & conference chair
Purchase gift boxes for speaker’s gifts
November 7th: Finalize opening ceremonies and banquet agenda with conference chair
Put together binders with help of conference team!
Make certificate templates for all awards
November 9 , 10th, and 11th: Conference Time!
th
What you did during the conference
The biggest part of my duties during the conference was organizing the spirit competitions, a.k.a.
banner, display, and roll call, and also managing the spirit police. I was also in charge of putting
together all of the awards for the ceremonies.
Friday:
collected the banners and displays. (Roll Call DVDs were submitted prior to the conference
so we didn’t have to set them up on the day-of).
opening ceremonies: I was one of the Masters of Ceremony (MCs) for the evening.
helped out at the socials and other miscellaneous things
A group of conference team members/volunteers took the banners and displays back to
BGSU Friday night, where they would be shown in the lunch area on Saturday.
Saturday
checked in with our spirit police and made sure they were ready for the day
At lunchtime, I worked with the spirit police in pumping up the delegations and promoting
CAACURH/school spirit.
coordinated the judging of the banner and displays and checked in with our senior staff who
came in to be judges.
In the afternoon, during the Top 10 Program sessions, I, along with the help of the conference
team, put together all of the certificates and awards for the banquet that evening. That
included tallying up points, printing off the awards, and placing them in frames.
At the banquet, I was one of the MCs for the closing/awards ceremony. I also helped to pass
out awards with the rest of the conference team.
After the ceremony, I just helped with whatever was needed and celebrated a successful
conference!
32
Problems encountered/solutions to problems
-Spirit Criteria- The spirit criteria I had originally made was not compatible with what was in
the CAACURH policy book. In order to fix that I just adjusted some of my criteria and added
some things so that it would follow policy book.
-“Spirit Citations”- It was a bit chaotic trying to put together the spirit police. The hardest part
was determining what the "citations" would be, what the criteria was for getting "citations", and
how the spirit police would impact delegates during the conference.
-Judging the Competitions- I didn’t have enough people to judge the banner, display, and roll
call. In order to fix this, I just had our conference chair vote and some conference team members
as well. I just wanted to remain completely un-biased, which is why I didn’t do it myself. Make
sure there is an established judging system and stick to it.
Best parts of your job (what went great)
-The SPIRIT Police!- I was very unsure as to how and IF the spirit police would work out.
Luckily, we had great BGSU volunteers placed in the position of the spirit police. They really
got the delegations pumped! It was great to see the delegations get so filled with pride for their
school and for our region!
-The Awards- I was very pleased with how well the award certificates got done. We had a great
process going and it was nice to have other conference team members there to help me, since I
had about a half an hour to prepare about twenty awards.
-Video Roll Call- This in my mind was a great success! Although we missed that live aspect, I
was very pleased with how the delegates got involved while watching the videos. The best part
about this was the time. Because Roll Call was about two hours shorter than last year, delegates
paid better attention and seemed to enjoy it much more!
Important reminders
-Be sure that your criteria for the spirit competitions follows what is in the CAACURH Policy
book!
-Make sure you find enough judges to judge the banner and display- perhaps have other delegates
judge?
-Help your conference team get spirited too!
Evaluations/Ideas for improvement/Recommendations
-KEEP the spirit police, people seemed to LOVE it!
-Send out a cheer packet of some sort ahead of time so that all delegates know the cheers before
coming!
-Maybe create some sort of conference team pin, similar to what NACURH does at their
conferences. We briefly discussed this but it got left behind.
33
Words of Wisdom for the next chair
HAVE FUN! Being the special projects chair gives you the chance to do SO many things with
the conference. From conference pins, to spirit police, you can make this position your own!
Make sure you keep yourself impartial when it comes to judging and scoring all awards and
competitions. Let others, whether they are senior staff members, conference team members,
delegates, or volunteers, get involved in picking who the most spirited delegation is, the best
banner, display, and who rocked it out at roll call.
Materials used (invoice forms, etc)
-I have attached a flyer that I sent out to all delegations reminding them of the spirit competitions
that were to occur at CAACURH.
Contact Info
Jess Precop
jprecop@bgsu.edu
734.776.0805
GOOD LUCK!
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Housing
Kim Merik and Leann Wood
Chair Responsibilities/Specific Duties:
Work with the hotel and it’s staff before and during the conference and ensure it’s all in
writing
Be the liaison between the Conference Team and the hotel
Work with Finance and Registration Chairs to ensure proper forms and payment are made
Coordinate rooming assignments and create Door Decorations (if hotel allows) for each
room/all delegates
Maintain all hotel spaced used for the duration of the conference
Be available at all times during the conference
Work with Conference/Logistics Chairs and the RBD to make sure policies are met and
maintained during the Conference
Make sure that hotel receives their payment
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed
Meet with housing advisor regularly
Work with Dining Chair to coordinate snacks for both Friday and Saturday night activities
Be in charge of swap shop
Run the hospitality room
- Make sure there is food and a conference team member is always in the room.
What you did during the conference:
Friday
Organize room keys and door decorations
Check on socials
Run hospitality
Make sure all caffeine is out of conference entertainment rooms by 11pm
Set up swap shop
Saturday
Make sure breakfast is running smoothly
Re-stock hospitality
Talk to front desk and hotel managers about any problems from the night before
Help any other conference team members with specific jobs
After banquet re-open hospitality
Make sure everything is stocked in hospitality
Do rounds to check on noise levels after hospitality is closed
Sunday
Be available for check-out
Offer leftover fruit from hospitality suit to delegations as they leave
Do final check with hotel
Make sure there was nothing left behind by delegations
35
Problems encountered/solutions to problems:
Keep track of all room keys
o Have one of the co-chairs in charge of collecting all of the hotel keys at the
beginning before check-in
Be flexible with room placement situations
o Try to keep two empty doubles- one for females and one for males
Keep people feed and happy
o Most people are content if they are feed and have something to do other than wait
around the lobby area
Realized that you ca not satisfy everyone
Deal with maintenance problems calmly and rationally
Make sure that the front desk staffs at the hotel and the manager are on the same page as
to the way check-in will be set up.
Keep noise levels down by guest rooms
o Do walks at night to help remind people about noise levels
Remember what deactivates room keys and be sure to notify everyone about it
Have multiple up to date lists of delegates/delegations
o Alphabetical delegate list
o Room lists
o Delegation lists
o This way other people can help out with distribution of keys
Do not forget about details of events (ex: swap shop)
o Have people willing to throw ideas together at the last minute : )
Best parts of your job (what went well):
Using an excel spread sheet for lists (very organized)
Having a co-chair to vent to and bounce ideas off of
Great breakfast at hotel
Good social food
Having a semi-smooth check-in
Hospitality room running smoothly
Communication between hotel and the housing chairs
Important Reminders:
Keep tract of contract due dates
Set up multiple meetings with the hotel at one time so that there is no problem setting up a
meeting closer to the event
Have a detailed schedule that is specific to the position
o Have dead lines for everything (door decorations, rooming lists, etc.)
Remember that not everything will be perfectly on time, plan for some wiggle room.
36
Evaluations/Ideas for improvement/Recommendations:
Make sure that your conference chair has the same information that the other chairs have.
Have weekly updates that are mandatory for each chair. This means that if a person does
not have an update submitted they have to have a meeting with the advisors about why they
could not submit an update for that week.
It can be tough when multiple people from your conference team are trying to contact the
hotel. Make sure all members of the team understand the hotel and work hard to be the
main person/persons in touch with the hotel. After all, the Housing Chair understands the
hotel better then anyone.
Be open to new ideas no matter how off the wall they may seem, because sometimes those
are the best ones.
Materials used:
Binder
Request for Purchase forms
Excel Spreadsheets
Timeline
November/December 2006
- Look for hotel
-We initially started trying to work with the Holiday Inn French Quarter, but they
were giving us a tough time about noise levels since they consider themselves a
family hotel.
-start negotiating contract\
- We ended up negotiating a contract with the Clarion Hotel.
January 2007
-Finalize contract and sign
- make sure conference team understands hotel space availability
-make deposit on hotel ($500)
- try and have a back up hotel incase of emergency
February 2007
- No Frills
- The Clarion was having difficulty communicating with the multiple members of our
conference team. Having two people for the hotel, one for dining, one for entertainment,
a conference chair, and a logistics chair seemed to be too much for them to handle. They
were giving different answers to the same questions to different people
- Other members of the conference team ended up negotiating a contract with the Hilton.
March 2007
- We looked over the contract that others had negotiated so that we understood all terms
of the contract.
-Set up a meeting with the new hotel so that we can see it and talk to their staff.
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April 2007 - August 2007
- We attempted to keep a monthly contact with the hotel to smooth out any trouble spots
-clarify details of the contract
- One of us was in Bowling Green all summer and should have been used more for when
the RBD had questions about the hotel. They could have meet with the hotel to work out
some of the problems earlier.
September 2007
- meet with hotel catering to talk about socials/social food
-finalize how the hotel would like the names for room assignments
-have entertainment chair contact hotel so the hotel knows of any DJ’s, etc that may be
coming to the hotel
-finalize hotel expectations
-start seeking donations for hospitality suite
-contact social sponsors
- start talking with registration chair to get weekly registration updates
October 2007
-keep hotel updated on number of rooms being used
-update hotel on delegation list
-finalize all food plans for breakfast and socials
-get finalized room list as quickly as possible after registration ends
2 week prior to conference
-finalize/check-in with hospitality sponsors
-start making door decorations
Words of Wisdom for the next chair:
We wish you the best of luck with hosting CAACURH next year!! Make sure that there
is a system set up between the housing and registration chairs. The quicker you can get lists to
the hotel with delegates the better because it is easier to add a few people than a lot all at once.
Also, keep the hotel in the loop with any changes before it is too late.
Closing Comments:
Although there were conflicts, the housing for conference was a success. The delegates liked the
accommodations. The breakfast buffet was much appreciated and the hospitality suite was
hospitable.
Feel free to email us if you have questions or would like more information.
Leann Wood:
leannw@bgsu.edu
Kim Merik
kmerik@bgsu.edu
Attachments:
Copy of our hotel contract with the Hilton Toledo
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GROUP SALES AGREEMENT
This Agreement is made and entered into as of June 11, 2012,
by and between Hilton-Toledo (hereinafter referred to as
“Hotel”) and CAACURH Conference (hereinafter referred to as
“Group”). Group agrees that the terms of this Agreement are
based upon the information provided by CAACURH
Conference below. In the event that the information provided
by Group materially change or is incorrect, then this
Agreement may be terminated pursuant to Section 5.
SECTION ONE: DESCRIPTION OF THE EVENT
Company/Organization or Sponsor’s Name: CAACURH Conference
Event Name: CAACURH Conference
Contact name: Dr. Nick Hennessy
Contact Phone: 419-372-2011
Contact Address: Bowling Green State University
440 Saddlemire
Bowling Green, OH 43403
SECTION TWO: GROUP ROOM RESERVATIONS
2.1 GUEST ROOM ACCOMMODATIONS: Hotel will hold the following block of rooms for Group’s
Use. Unless as indicated in this Agreement, Hotel does not guarantee any particular rooms nor does it
guarantee that rooms will be in proximity to each other.
Fri Sat
11/09 11/10
Kings 40 40
Double/Double 112 112
CHECK-IN TIME: After 3:00 P.M. based on availability.
CHECKOUT TIME: 12:00 P.M.
CUT OFF DATE: Saturday, October 20, 2007 After this date, rooms not covered by a
rooming list/individual reservations/reservations card, as provided in Section 2 hereof, shall
be released from Group’s room block and Hotel may contract with other parties for the use of
such rooms. Hotel will continue to accept reservations from Group’s attendees after that date
at the prevailing room rate, subject to availability.
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2.2 GUEST RATES: The Hotel is pleased to confirm the following rates for this group:
The Hilton Toledo can offer an all inclusive rate of $99.00 per person for 110 double
rooms with 4 guests per room. The hotel is also holding 30 king rooms for 2 people
per room at an inclusive rate of $149.00 per person. This rate will cover guest room
charges, occupancy tax, meeting room rental, snacks @ $15.00 inclusive per person
for game night, one breakfast at $19.00 inclusive per guest on 11/10/07. It is agreed
that there is a dinner that will be held at Gladieux Meadows on 11/10/07. The total
obligation for payment for this dinner is the responsibility of the CAACURH
Organization. The $50.00 is not part of the rates listed above and will be paid for
directly to Gladieux by CAACURH. The Hilton Toledo is not responsible for the
payment to Gladieux
Hotel room rates are subject to applicable state and local taxes. If Group is tax-exempt, it must
present all documentation required by Hotel and pay in the manner specified by Hotel. If Group is
claiming tax-exempt status; Group hereby accepts all liability and agrees to indemnify Hotel for all
taxes paid and all costs incurred, including attorney fees, if a taxing authority requires that the Hotel
remit tax for the room nights covered by this Agreement. Otherwise, Group will be charged all
applicable taxes.
All rates are net non-commissionable.
2.4 RESERVATIONS
Rooming List
Group must submit a rooming list to Hotel by, Saturday, October 20, 2007. This list must
indicate the name and sharewiths of each guest, the types of sleeping rooms desired (king,
double), the arrival and departure dates and the smoking and non-smoking requirements for
each guest. Reservations made by Room List will only be allowed if Group is approved for
a Master Account pursuant to Section 4.1
All reservations made by rooming list will be automatically guaranteed for late arrival by
Group. If guests identified on the rooming list do not check in, Group’s Master Account will
be charged for the first night of all no-shows and cancellations that occur prior to 24 hours of
arrival.
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SECTION THREE
MEETING ROOM/BALLROOM AND CATERING SERVICES
3.1 MEETING ROOMS: Upon the signature of this Agreement, Hotel reserves and Group guarantees
payment for the following meeting rooms space for the specified days/times:
Date Start Time End Time Function Room Setup Agr Room Rental
11/9/2007 12:00 PM 6:00 PM Registration Pre-Function Other .00
11/9/2007 2:00 PM 4:30 AM Office Suite 105 Existing .00
11/9/2007 3:00 PM 11:30 PM Hospitality Multi-Purpose 102 15 .00
11/9/2007 5:00 PM 10:00 PM General Session Grand Ballroom Theatre 500 250.00
11/9/2007 9:00 PM 1:00 AM Meeting Williams Other 60 130.00
11/9/2007 9:00 PM 1:00 AM Meeting Henry Rounds of 10 40 105.00
11/9/2007 9:00 PM 1:00 AM Reception Lucas Other 400 515.00
11/9/2007 9:00 PM 1:00 AM Meeting Faculty Club Classroom 3 50 75.00
Per Table
11/9/2007 9:00 PM 1:00 AM Meeting Van Wert Rounds of 10 40 105.00
11/9/2007 9:00 PM 1:00 AM Meeting Defiance Rounds of 10 50 130.00
11/9/2007 9:00 PM 1:30 AM Breakouts Aspen Classroom 3 60 75.00
Per Table
11/10/2007 4:30 AM 4:30 AM Office Suite 105 Existing .00
11/10/2007 7:00 AM 9:00 AM Breakfast Grand Ballroom Rounds of 10 350 400.00
11/10/2007 8:00 AM 11:30 PM Hospitality Multi-Purpose 102 Other .00
11/11/2007 4:30 AM 12:00 AM Suite 105 .00
11/11/2007 7:00 AM 11:30 AM Pre-Function Other .00
11/11/2007 8:00 AM 12:00 PM Hospitality Multi-Purpose 102 Other .00
Hotel reserves the right to assign and change specific meeting rooms space at its discretion.
Group must obtain final approval from Hotel before publishing meeting room names.
If Group requests a specific meeting room that is already booked, Group shall be granted 1 st option
to occupy the specified room if the group currently occupying the room cancels its agreement. Hotel
shall inform Group via telephone that the room is open. Group must respond within three business
days or Hotel will be entitled to book another event in the specified room.
Group will be arranging for the delivery and set-up of equipment and facilities for the Meeting
Room. Group must notify Hotel in writing in advance of any delivery and set-up and shall coordinate
all such deliveries/set ups with sufficient advance notice to Hotel. Group will be responsible and shall
indemnify Hotel for any damages it (or its employees, agents or contractors) causes to persons or
property located at Hotel.
CHARGES
Meeting room rental is subject to all applicable local and state taxes. If Group modifies
the room block or food and beverage functions, the Hotel reserves the right to increase meeting room
rental charges accordingly.
3.2 FOOD & BEVERAGE POLICY
Due to licensing and insurance requirements, all food and beverage to be served on Hotel
property must be supplied and prepared by Hotel. In addition, no remaining food or beverage shall be
removed from the premises. At the conclusion of the function, such food and beverage becomes the
property of Hotel.
Menu prices will be confirmed 60 days prior to scheduled function.
Food, beverage and audio visual prices are subject to an 19% service charge and
applicable taxes.
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Final menu selections must be submitted to Hotel’s Catering Office at least 3 weeks in
advance; otherwise, items selected cannot be guaranteed. At the time final menu selections are made,
Group shall review, approve and initial the final menu. Other than specifically stated in the approved
menu or otherwise agreed in a separate writing signed by Group and the General Manager or his
designee, Hotel will not be responsible for any specific dietary requests or requirements.
The Catering Office must be notified of the guaranteed attendance no later than noon 3
business days prior to the scheduled function. Guaranteed attendance for functions scheduled Monday
or Tuesday must be received by noon on the preceding Thursday. Hotel agrees to set 3% percent over
the guaranteed attendance for banquets. Guarantees of attendance are not subject to reduction and
Hotel will charge the Master Account, at a minimum, the amount due in accordance with the
guaranteed attendance.
Group will have available an authorized representative at the event who will be presented
a check prior to the conclusion of the event. Such representative shall verify that all charges are
correct and consistent with this Agreement and any changes and shall sign off on such check.
SECTION FOUR
BILLING/CREDIT PROCEDURES
4.1 ; Hotel requires a non-refundable deposit in the amount of $500.00, which Hotel must receive by
Thursday, May 24, 2007 in order to guarantee a hold on Group’s room block and/or meeting space.
If Deposit is not received by the above date, Hotel will no longer be required to continue to hold the
room block or meeting space requested by Group.
We understand that the individual's room, tax and group charges are to be placed on
one folio and will be paid one week in advance with an organization check. The
attendees will be responsible for their own incidental expenses at the time of their checkout.
A $100.00 deposit per night is required of guests who will settle their accounts by cash
payment. This deposit will cover incidental charges. It will be Group’s responsibility to
inform its members of this requirement.
SECTION FIVE: CANCELLATION/MODIFICATION
5.1 CANCELLATION OF ROOM RESERVATIONS:
Group is responsible for payment of guests’ accommodations through a master account. The
attrition clause in Section 5.2 shall apply.
5.1 GROUP’S CANCELLATION: Group and Hotel have entered into a binding commitment. The
Hotel is committed to providing the rooms and services specified in this Agreement and the Hotel has
offered special rates and other concessions based upon anticipated revenues for your event. The
anticipated revenue includes the revenue from the total number of sleeping rooms you have requested
as well as the revenue received from the food and beverage services you may have requested and any
ancillary services, such as in-room movies, telephone tolls, room service and other charges.
If Hotel cancels this Agreement or is unable to provide the requested rooms or meeting space, the
Hotel will work with Group to arrange alternative accommodations and space at the prices set forth
herein. Hotel will arrange for comparable space in the same vicinity of the Hotel and shall provide,
without charge, necessary transportation between the alternative site and the Hotel. Hotel’s liability is
limited to these remedies and Hotel shall not be liable for any consequential, punitive or special
damages.
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If you decide to cancel this Agreement, reduce the size of your meeting and/or attendance, or reduce
the amount of food and beverage services, you agree that the Hotel will suffer damages. Such
damages will be a result of Hotel’s inability to offer your unused space or services to another group
and /or the cost to the hotel of trying to re-sell this space/services. The exact amount of damages will
be difficult to determine. Therefore, you agree that the following liquidated damages clause is a
reasonable effort by the parties to agree in advance on the amount of damages. It is agreed that these
amounts will be due regardless of the Hotel’s ultimate ability to re-sell some or all of the space or
services.
ATTRITION CLAUSE: The parties agree that the Group and the Hotel will share in the loss of
revenues suffered by the Hotel in the event of the Group’s failure to utilize all of the rooms and
services agreed to herein. The Group therefore agrees to pay a percentage of lost revenue.
For sleeping room revenue, the lost revenue will be calculated by multiplying the number of rooms not
utilized out of the Group’s block times the average room rate of rooms actually utilized, plus tax. For
food, beverage, meeting rooms and other services revenue, lost revenue will be calculated by
subtracting the exact amount of food and beverage provided from the total anticipated food and
beverage agreed to herein. The lost revenues for food, beverage, meeting rooms and other services
and for sleeping rooms will be calculated separately.
The Group will be responsible for paying the amount indicated by the chart below:
Percentage of rooms/services not utilized Group Pays
10% or less -0-
10 to 30% 40% of lost revenues
30 to 60% 60% of lost revenues
over 60% 100% of lost revenues
CANCELLATION OF CONTRACT: Group agrees that if it cancels this Agreement for any reason,
the Hotel will suffer damages. The closer in time the cancellation occurs, the greater the damages will
be. Therefore, Group agrees to pay Hotel at the time of cancellation a liquidated damages fee, as
follows:
More than 90 days, less than 180 days prior to arrival date: 25% of total anticipated revenue
More than 60 days, less than 90 days prior to arrival date: 50% of total anticipated revenue
More than 30 days, less than 60 days prior to arrival date: 75% of total anticipated revenue
Less than 30 days prior to arrival date: 100% of anticipated revenue
SECTION SIX: MISCELLANEOUS
6.1 SIGNS AND DISPLAYS/USE OF HOTEL NAME: Group shall not display signs in Hotel nor use
the name/logo of the Hotel and/or the Dana Conference Center in any promotional brochures or ads
without prior approval of the General Manager of Hotel. It is further agreed that no sign, banner or
display shall be affixed to any part of Hotel and/or Dana Conference Center without prior written
approval. Any damages caused to the walls, fixtures or carpet will be billed to Group.
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6.2 SECURITY: Hotel may, in its sole discretion, require Group to take certain security measures in light
of the size or nature of the function, which may include the requirement to hire sufficient security
personnel from the Hotel or Hotel may allow Group to retain an outside service that meets required
bonding and insurance requirements and is approved by the Hotel prior to the function. If Group hires
an outside service in accordance with the above, Group must provide Hotel with a copy of the
agreement, which shall indemnify the Hotel and its owner, and their parent, subsidiary and affiliated
companies and their employees, representatives and agent, from and against any liabilities related to
the services.
6.3 SHIPPING AND PACKAGES: In the event Group will be shipping packages to Hotel, Group must
notify Hotel at least one week in advance. All packages sent to Hotel should include the name of
Group, date of program and number of items. Shipment should arrive no earlier than three (3) days
prior to event. Hotel accepts no responsibility or liability for the delivery, security or condition of the
packages.
6.4 PARKING: Free
6.5 SIGNING AUTHORITY. The following individuals have the proper authority to sign for
the Master Account and/or act on behalf of and bind the Group pursuant to the terms of this
Agreement:
Name: __________________________ Signature:
____________________________
Name: __________________________ Signature: ___________________________
6.6 HOTEL CONTACT/NOTICES: All notices, offers, acceptances, requests and other
communications hereunder shall be in writing and shall be deemed delivered if hand delivered or sent
by Federal Express, or certified or registered mail to the Group contact on the first page of this
Agreement, or, if to Hotel, to the following address: 3100 Glendale Ave., Toledo OH 43614 Attn:
Pat Ransom. Hotel may change Hotel’s designated contact at any time upon notice. Hotel will not be
bound by any notice unless delivered to Hotel in the manner specified herein.
SECTION SEVEN: GENERAL PROVISIONS
7.1 DAMAGE CLAUSE: In the unlikely event that damage to any Hotel and/or Dana Conference Center
property occurs as a result of any guest related to Group, Group agrees to assume all liability and
expense and agrees that, in addition to any other rights as against such guest or others, Hotel and/or
Dana Conference Center may charge Group’s Master Account or directly bill Group for all such
charges. Group shall indemnify, defend and hold harmless Hotel and/or Dana Conference Center and
its officers, directors, partners, affiliates, members and employees from and against all demands,
claims, damages to persons and/or property, losses and liabilities, including reasonable attorney fees
(collectively “Claims”) arising out of or cause by Group’s negligence or intentional misconduct.
Group shall not have waived or be deemed to have waived, by reason of this paragraph, any defense
that it may have with respect to such claims.
7.2 GROUP’S PROPERTY: Group agrees and acknowledges that Hotel and/or Dana Conference Center
will not be responsible for the safe-keeping of equipment, supplies, written material or other valuable
items left in function rooms, guest rooms or anywhere on Hotel and/or Dana Conference Center
property other than the Hotel safe. State laws will govern Hotel’s liability for items stolen in
guestrooms or items kept in Hotel’s safe. Accordingly, Group agrees that it will be responsible to
provide security of any such aforementioned items and hereby assumes responsibility for loss thereof.
Group may not rely on any verbal or written assurances provided by Hotel and/or Dana Conference
Center staff, other than as provided in this Agreement.
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7.3 INSURANCE: Property of Group is the sole responsibility of the Group and/or its owner. Group
agrees that it has procured sufficient insurance to cover the loss of such property. Group hereby
waives any claims under Hotel’s and/or Dana Conference Center’s insurance policy for the loss of
Group’s property or the property of any of its attendees or invitees.
7.4 FORCE MAJEURE: The performance of this Agreement is subject to any circumstances making it
illegal or impossible to provide or use Hotel and/or Dana Conference Center facilities, including Acts
of God, war, government regulations, disaster, strikes, civil disorder or curtailment of transportation
facilities. This Agreement may be terminated for any one of the above reasons by written notice from
Hotel.
7.5 DISPUTE RESOLUTION: Hotel and/or Dana Conference Center and Group agree to use its best
efforts to resolve any disputes under this Agreement through informal means. In the unlikely event
that formal action must be taken, this Agreement will be interpreted in accordance with the laws of the
State in which the Hotel is situated and the exclusive venue for any dispute arising out of this
Agreement shall be in the county or city in which the Hotel is situated. The prevailing party to any
litigation shall be entitled to recover, in addition to damages, all legal costs and reasonable attorney
fees as fixed by the Court, both at the trial and appellate levels, and in any bankruptcy case and post
judgment proceedings.
To the extent allowed by law, the parties hereto hereby waive the right to a jury trial in any
action or proceeding regarding this Agreement.
7.5 ENTIRE AGREEMENT: This Agreement and any Exhibits hereto constitutes the entire agreement
between the parties and supercedes any previous communications, representations or agreements,
whether written or oral. Any changes to this Agreement must be made in writing and signed by
authorized representative of each party.
7.7 MISCELLANEOUS: The persons signing this Agreement for Hotel and Group each warrants that
they are authorized to bind the Hotel and Group, respectively. Any provision of this Agreement that is
deemed unenforceable shall be ineffective to the extent of such unenforceability without invalidating
or rendering the remainder of this Agreement invalid. Each party shall execute such other and further
documents as may be necessary to carry out the intention as well as to comply with the provisions of
this Agreement.
7.8 NO ASSIGNMENT: Group may not assign or transfer this Agreement or any part thereof without the
written consent of Hotel. Any attempted assignment or transfer by Group without such consent may,
at the option of Hotel, be deemed to be a cancellation of this Agreement by Group, in which case
Group shall remain liable for all cancellation charged set forth herein.
7.9 PAYMENT: Payment of all invoices is due upon receipt. Invoices remaining unpaid after 30 days of
the invoice date will incur an interest charge of the lessor of 19% or the highest amount allowed by
law. Group shall be responsible for all collection fees, attorney fees or other costs in connection with
Hotel’s attempt to collect all amounts due hereunder. No payment by Group or receipt by Hotel of a
lesser amount than any installment or payment of amounts due shall be deemed to be other than on
account of the amount due, and no endorsement or statement on any check or any letter accompanying
any check or payment shall be deemed an accord and satisfaction, and Hotel may accept such check or
payment without prejudice to Hotel’s right to recover the balance of such installment or pursue any
other remedies available to Hotel under this Agreement or in law or in equity. If the Master Account
remains unpaid after 60 days, in addition to other remedies, Hotel may, at its sole option, elect to
cancel subsequent and future arrangements, agreements or functions at the Hotel made by Group
without penalty and upon written notice.
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7.10 COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS. Group shall comply with all Federal, State and local laws, rules
and regulations with respect to its activities on Hotel property, including obtaining any permits
required for Group’s activities during the event. Hotel may require Group to present proof of such
compliance prior to the event. Group relies upon Group’s attendance projections in reserving the
appropriate room(s) and in observing all federal, state and local regulations regarding room capacity
limitations and health, safety and fire codes. This includes suites, which are limited to 15 people due
to size of the space and local fire code capacity. Hotel reserves the right to take all necessary actions
to cause the event to be in compliance with all laws, rules and regulations, including (1) closing the
Event, (2) requiring certain guests to leave the event, (3) restricting access to the event, (4)
restricting the consumption of alcoholic beverages, and (5) monitoring the event. If the Hotel
decides, in its discretion, to take any of the actions above, it shall do so without penalty and Group
shall remain liable for all obligations under this Agreement.
7.11 RIGHT OF INSPECTION/ENTRY: Hotel will have the right to enter and inspect all functions. If
Hotel observes any illegal activity or activity that may result in harm to persons or objects, Hotel has
the right to immediately cancel the event, in which case all of Group’s guests and invitees must
immediately vacate the meeting room premises. In such event, Group will remain liable for all fees
and charges related to the function pursuant to the terms of this Agreement.
ACCEPTANCE OF CONTRACT
If a signed original of this Agreement has not been received by the Hotel prior to Thursday, April 19,
2007, Hotel shall have the right to contract with other parties for the use of the room block, meeting room
and catering services without further notice to Group. In the event Hotel has a request for the rooms
requested by Group prior to Thursday, April 19, 2007, and Hotel has not received Group’s signed
Agreement, Hotel will contact the Group for a decision. In such event, if Hotel does not receive Group’s
signed Agreement within five (5) working days, Hotel will have the right to contract with another party
without any further notice to Group.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, Hotel and Group have executed this Agreement in manner and form
sufficient to bind them as of the date and year set forth on page one of this Agreement:
___________________________________ ____________________________
Pat Ransom Date Signed
Sales Manager
Hilton-Toledo
___________________________________ ____________________________
Dr. Nick Hennessy Date Signed
CAACURH Conference
Director of Sales: ________Initial
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Dining and Ceremonies
Ryan Gardner
Highs and Lows:
Highs:
The banquet and closing ceremonies ran very smoothly and on time.
The entire weekend stayed on schedule.
Opening Ceremonies did not exceed two hours!
Video roll call really sped things up this year.
Lunch went on time with plenty of food.
The banquet hall was perfect in size, location, and looked great!
The transition from the banquet into the dance was seamless.
Everyone really seemed to enjoy themselves.
The breakfast from the hotel was amazing.
Lows:
Short time to practice for opening ceremonies (10mins…) not enough. Made me extra
nervous.
The mix-up with event planning resulting in extra spending.
Seating for the banquet worked out but I had to split up a couple delegations.
Also lost the seating chart during Saturday and had to redo before the banquet.
Responsibilities/Duties:
The bulk of my responsibilities were in the closing banquet, starting with finding the perfect
location, putting together the menu and layout of the tables, center pieces and seating
assignments. I was also in charge of arranging lunch on Saturday during the program sessions.
Breakfast was provided on Saturday only and was arranged through the hotel by the housing
chairs. Hospitality rooms were also arranged by the housing chairs.
Another part of my duties was to help the logistics chair with the opening and closing
ceremonies. The Logistics & Special Ceremonies Chair and the Conference Chair did most of the
planning for these. I was also an MC for the opening ceremonies along with the Logistics &
Special Ceremonies Chair.
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During the conference:
Friday:
Met people in BG to drive to the hotel at 8:45am.
Through out the day helped with registration, while ran some errands and picked people up
from Bowling Green.
Was MC for opening ceremonies
Helped and participated in the socials, and entertainment for the night.
First conference meeting of the weekend
Saturday:
Got up around 6:15am to help with the start of breakfast
Stayed at the hotel until last shuttle left for BG.
Made sure Lunch was set and catering was ready.
First Session of Lunch started at 12pm, and the second at1pm.
Was there to make sure things ran smoothly.
During afternoon Sessions reorganized the seating for the banquet as well as get the
special guests seats and welcome cards assigned and made.
Picked up Flowers for the center pieces at 4pm at krogers.
Vases had been picked up the night before by Alana McClelland.
Left BG at 4:30 to change for and set up banquet.
Arrived at the banquet hall at 5:15pm.
Made sure everything was set on the banquet hall side.
Put center pieces on the tables with the help of Alana McClelland(conference advisor), Kerby
Nelson(my advisor), and Alisha Griffin(registration chair).
Set up table for check in.
Confirmed timing with the catering staff and conference staff.
Banquet Doors opened at 6:30pm.
Banquet started promptly at 7pm.
Stayed until the end of the dance, 1:20am
Sunday:
Helped with check out
Wrap up meeting with conference team
Returned to BG to SLEEP!!!!!!
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Time Line:
January/February – From late January into early February, I researched banquet halls in the area
for location, capacity, pricing and menu options. Originally we had chosen the Clarion as a group
for the whole conference then we decided against the Clarion so I chose to go with Gladieux
Catering.
March – Throughout March I put together initial Menu for banquet and lunch, going back and
forth between the conference team and Gladieux. We had a change with our programming chair
so I helped out by reserving locations on campus for the meeting rooms, and program rooms. I
also reserved the space for lunch.
April – Middle of April I met with the Gladieux to discuss menu and room set and details for the
banquet and the dance. We drafted the initial contract. Late April I met with University dining
services catering to set up the contract for lunch, and event planning for room layout.
June/July/August – Helped the other chairs when needed. Finalized menus with dining services
and the Gladieux.
September/October – Assisted Registration through out the entire registration period. Once
registration was complete I began to compile a list of vegetarians and people with special dietary
needs. Finalized numbers with both catering groups as well as signed off on the final contracts.
Assigned seating by delegation for the banquet a total of four times, final assignments attached.
Late October into November Designed, and priced the center pieces. Purchased and put together
center pieces with the help of the advisors on the weekend of the event. Worked with Logistics &
Special Projects Chair on Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
Problems:
Scripts for the actual ceremonies were done in a very short time period before the event. --
More time should be taken to establish these, especially to give time to emcees to review and
practice.
Extra Charges for rooms and catering at BGSU. Had to work through them and negotiate
with the different groups. – Make sure that you read through all contracts thoroughly the
moment you receive them to avoid this kind of problem. Make sure that all components of the
contract are as you discussed.
Assigning seating for the banquet. I had to split some delegations up between tables. -- It
took three or four layouts to get the final seating assignment and even that wasn’t perfect.
Delegations like to sit with each other so do your best not to split them up.
Put off centerpieces. Was running around all day as was the advisor to collect the things
needed for them. -- The centerpieces were put off as well, be sure not to over look things
that might seem not very big. 45 – 50 centerpieces is not a small task. If you use flowers it is
ideal to pick them up the day you are using them so they will be fresh. However flowers will
stay for days especially if kept in a refrigerator.
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Evaluations/Ideas for improvement/recommendations:
Have a good plan in place for seating for lunch, delegations didn’t seem to really follow the
assigned time for their group, and also take into account the NCCs all eating at the same time.
The best thing I can say for improving is giving yourself plenty of time to get things put
together. Sometimes the thing that may seem like the simplest thing can take a really long
time.
Do everything you can to seat the delegations together, the groups don’t like to be split up.
Really utilize your advisors, this is one thing that I did not do very well. It makes them feel
useless and really puts more work and stress on you than is necessary.
Don’t be afraid to change things even if its last minute.
Don’t put off or treat anything as a smaller task, everything is important to the success of the
entire weekend.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help or give it, this is a team and if one person fails then everyone
fails.
COMMUNICATE!
I would be more than happy to help if you have any questions.
Ryan Gardner
ryanzg@bgsu.edu
614-560-5818
Invoices, diagrams and contracts are all included in the file with this document.
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Programming Chair
Cassie Gordon
Highs and Lows of the Conference Overall
The conference as a whole went extremely smooth. I thought everyone did an extraordinary job in
their parts and we all came together as a team to make sure everything ran according to schedule.
Some of the highs of the conference included:
The conference team working together and pulling off and amazing conference.
The programming sessions went really well and very smooth.
The spirit police were on top of their game and made the day exiting.
The philanthropy collected 260lbs of pop tabs to donate to the Ronald McDonald house.
The volunteers were great for spending the day with us.
The shuttles were on time, every time.
The dance was so much fun
The banquet was very nice and the speaker was incredible
The list could go on and on about how well the conference went. However with the good comes
the improvement! Some things that we could change in the future would be:
More program evaluations
Not waiting till the last minute to write the introduction to the speaker at the banquet!
Had more volunteers
There are not many lows that I can think of. I was really impressed at how well this conference
ran. Everyone did and unbelievable job!
Chair Responsibilities and Specific Duties
My job didn’t really start until about a month or two before the conference. My position included:
picking the programs submitted by delegates for the sessions on Saturday
assigning rooms for the programs in both campus buildings
Prior to the day of the conference, I made sure all the presenters had what they needed in their
rooms to present their programs and the day of I made sure everything was running smooth
and on time.
made the programming pages for the binders: I typed up all the presenters, the name of their
mission title, the room they were in and what school they came from.
planned the roundtables with the lunch groups
promoted people to submit programs at RSA meetings, on the website and by word of
mouth/e-mail to the NCC’s.
tallying the program evaluation forms filled out by delegates for each session. Of course I had
fabulous help with the tabulations!
sprinting across campus to print off the list of the Top 10 Programs that were presented after
Programming “Mission” (Session) Four on Saturday.
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Timeline
July 7th- Everything that I needed to be on the website, thus far, turned into the
Technology chair
th
July 25 - Submitted any updates that I had to the conference chair
October 12th- Program submissions due
October 14th to the 28th- Read and started to pick programs
October 28th – Programs picked
October 29th- Notified people on whether or not their program was picked or was not
picked
nd
Nov 2 - All binder pages were finalized and the update sheet was in the works
Nov 9th- GAME TIME!
Nov10th-
7:30 am- The rooms were set up and flyers posted for what programs were in
the room for the day
9:15- Programming Mission (Session) 1 begins
10:15- Programming Mission 2 begins
11:15- Programming Mission 3 begins
2:00- Programming mission 4 begins
3:05- Sprinted across campus to print off the pages of the Top 10 programs to be posted
around the building
3:15- TOP 10 programs started
What I did during the conference…
During the conference I was running around constantly making sure that all the presenters
had everything that they needed to make their presentations perfect.
There were a couple changes at the last minute but everything ended up being fine and the
programs were superb!
I was checking in on programs and tallying up the results between the sessions to make sure I
would have the Top 10 out on time. Making sure the tallying was running smoothly was the
most demanding because I wanted to make sure it was calculated fair and that all the
evaluations were in the correct envelops.
I also was posting up dates on the large “up-date” paper board that some people from the
conference team helped me create.
I also was running around getting rooms more evaluations and making sure that the delegates
filled them out so the presenters got the feedback that they were looking for.
At the end of Mission 4 I sprinted across campus to print off the Top 10 programs on sheets
of paper to post around the building so delegates could get to the ones that they wanted.
It was a hectic but a very productive and enthusiastic day.
Problems Encountered/Solutions to Problems
The only big problem that I ran into that day was two double-booked rooms. The presenters were
not upset or anything. I just placed them in an open room and everything turned out really well!
That was really the only thing that we encountered everything else was very organized and ready
to go!
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The Best Part of My Job
The best part of my job was seeing all the hard work come together. Hearing how the delegates
were really excited about the programs they went too and having people come up to me and say
what a great job I did. It was really encouraging and rewarding to hear from people that the
programs went really well and they were so excited to go to certain ones!
I also asked for help with my position because it wasn’t something that I had ever done before. It
was all completely new. I came in part way through the planning when the previous chairs
withdrew and I didn’t really even know what CAACURH was. But my team helped me out when
I needed it and I was able to get through it!
Important Reminders
Don’t forget to do the binder pages a head of time! It is really time consuming and takes a lot of
work! Also don’t forget to make an “up date” sheet to be inserted into the binders. That is really
important to the delegates can know what is going on and so they know where to go. Don’t forget
to sleep; it is not good to do so! Don’t be planning up until the day of the conference. Have it all
done so the night before you can sleep and be ready! And most of all HAVE FUN!! It is a blast
and defiantly one of the best experiences I have had!
Evaluations/Ideas for Improvement/Recommendations
I think the conference went amazing! The only thing I would improve is the hospitality room and
making sure there was enough food for people. We ran out and some people were not happy with
that, but at the end of the day, it all came together.
Words of Wisdom for the Next Chair
HAVE FUN! Take each day at a time and deal with things as they come! It was so rewarding to
me to hold this position and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Yeah you do get stressed and at
times I wanted to walk away, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing and I defiantly would not have
quit. Just stay organized and on top of your tasks and everything will work out perfectly!
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Cassie Gordon
gordonc@bgsu.edu
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Technology & Co-Sponsorship Chair
Drew Cekada
Conference Highs and Lows
There were very few surprises at CAACURH007 and while we were all prepared for what we
thought was going to be inevitable chaos, things came together really well. Every team member
knew their role, every volunteer was informed about what they needed to do and while every
conference has highs and lows, CAACURH007 was certainly a resounding success.
Some of the most successful conference highs include:
Well orchestrated transportation
What appeared to be a smooth check-in
A successful production of video roll-calls
Mostly hassle-free online registration
No one was injured/lost or rushed to the hospital
A great hotel atmosphere and conference space
People were really into Friday and Saturday night entertainment
Banquet food was great, even the “rich chocolate mousse” and closing ceremonies went
relatively quick
Great programming and fast turnaround on the Top 10
Conference team kept in very close contact with one another
Super excited “spirit police” raised conference morale
Those being said, I think there were some areas in which things could have gone more smoothly
or been arranged slightly different.
Some of the less successful conference lows include:
Behind the scenes housing confusion and chaos
Long distances between the Hotel and the campus conference space
Unexpectedly low turnout for socials
Behavior issues in the hotel
Not enough food in the hospitality rooms
Video roll call could and should have been more automated
Duplicate registrations with some online registrations
Surprisingly less than exhilarating keynote at closing ceremonies
High conference costs & limited sponsorship
Hopefully each of the individual chairs will touch on these issues in detail and be able to provide
valuable insight and experiences to share with future conference teams.
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Chair specific responsibilities
Serving as both the Technology and Co-Sponsorship Chairs I had two very different sets of duties
and responsibilities. As the Technology Chair for CAACURH007 my primary responsibility was
the creation, update and maintenance of the conference website, including the all of the
conference details, the 3-step conference registration process and conference team profiles. In
addition to those tasks, it was also my responsibility to coordinate other conference technology
needs including AV for opening ceremonies, conference team walkie-talkies, conference day
computers and printing needs and boardroom technology.
As the Co-Sponsorship Chair it fell upon my shoulders, along with my Co-Chair Amanda, to
communicate with potential sponsors, locally, regionally and nationally regarding possible
interest in supporting the conference. This involved:
drafting communications with the sponsors and ensuring their validity with the university
and the region
making initial contact with each of the sponsors on our list and keeping the lines of
communication open
holding sponsors accountable for their commitments
organizing sponsorship agreements and advertisements on-site and in the conference
binder
Fortunately on the day of the conference, neither of my positions required a hectic amount of
attention which left me mostly free to help the rest of the conference team with their positions,
including registration, housing and entertainment which were pretty intensive on the day of the
conference.
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Timeline
February
Prepare the website for bidding at No-Frills
March
Update the site with the most recent information
April
Keep the site up to date and provide relevant information for potential sponsors
Start initial contact with sponsors and begin negotiations
May-August
Prepare Online Registration for Launch
Finalize online information including deadlines, budget and conference cost
September
Launch Online Registration/Transportation/Policy Forms
October
Wrap-up Online Registration & Transportation Forms
Program Submissions Due
Finalize conference gear designs and orders with sponsors
November
Conference Summit
Collecting, testing and compiling video roll-calls
Prepare conference team and delegate nametags
Finalize all sponsorship involvements at the conference
Host CAACURH007 {see below for details}
December
Team celebration
Submit wrap-up report
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During the conference…
When conference day finally came around I felt a sense of relaxation as the technology and co-
sponsorship chair. The vast majority of my responsibilities like all of the fundraising, conference
gear design and website/online registration were all long over with and with the exception of a
few on-demand issues; I was free to help the rest of the conference team with their projects.
It was still my responsibility to have all of the AV equipment ready and waiting for roll-call, re-
print delegate nametags as needed, manage conference team communication, help with board
room technology needs and put together a video slideshow to be played during the banquet/dance
but most of that was not incredibly time consuming.
Also, just because I was done with my listed duties however doesn’t mean I was sitting around
twiddling my thumbs. I also assumed the role of the conference photographer, helped housing
with last minute key-room-delegate pairings, cleaned up the hotel after Friday night
entertainment, gave an impromptu introduction of our closing speaker and spent some time with
the spirit police getting people riled up.
Problems encountered/solutions to problems
Few things in life go off without a hitch, but the key is being prepared to solve the problems as
they come. Here are a few things that I ran into that hopefully I can help you out with.
Website compatibility issues. It’s nearly impossible to create a perfectly compatible
website but the key is to keep it simple. No fancy flash videos, no java applets, and keep
the pretty stuff to a minimum. The site should look good, but first and foremost it should
function.
Online Registration. While our Registration Chair was really on top of the registration
process, the online format had its fair share of hassles too. I can very assuredly say that
online registration is far easier than its paper alternative, you just need to keep a very
close eye on the details and test, test, test before you open it for use.
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Sponsorship Flop. It’s really hard to guarantee any level of sponsorship and while our
whole team was really excited about the prospects of globs and globs of sponsorship
funds, the ball just didn’t fall that way. The key to our demise that hopefully you’ll have
the opportunity to learn from is that you need to start early, very early and you need to
keep the flame under your potential sponsors. Also, keep upbeat, it’s easy to get
discouraged when sponsors turn you down, but someone somewhere will fund you and
that’s the key.
Video Roll-Call. Video roll-call was a great way to speed up opening ceremonies and
give people a chance to relax and unwind after a long day of travel and check-in, but it
had its flaws. First was the issue of getting the files from the submitter to me. We used an
online service called MediaFire (www.MediaFire.com) to upload and transfer the files,
but some schools chose to submit them by mail which meant there was only one copy and
it was in the hands of the USPS, which is never good. Secondly we had the problem of
file formats and video compatibility. My suggestion is that if you choose to do video roll
call, layout the specifications of file format, length and compressions before you send out
any information. Lastly, start early, give the delegations a long time to submit their
videos and keep on top of them until they submit. We had a fairly good turnout, but even
so only 50% or so of the schools in attendance participated.
Our List of Potential Sponsors
Leadershape FedEx / Kinkos Student Leader Magazine
Meijer Target ACUHO-I
Textbooks.com Unlimited Promotions Facebook
Beer Co. (Regional Anheuser Busch) Swank (Res Life Cinema) Beat the Bookstore
Progressive Insurance AOL Leightronix
Geico Insurance AT&T OCM – Direct Sponsorship
Student Voice NRHH OCM – Student Backup Software
OCPA RSA Program
USA Today 20+ BGSU Colleges & Offices Carnival Cruises
YTB Travel BGSU Student Organizations Inside Higher Ed
NASPA Hilton Hotels Team Works
Coors Northwest Airlines Best Buy
TextbooksRUs 5th 3rd Bank CampusFood.com
eCampus Sky Bank CITI
BooksAMillion UPS
Audible
Capital One
Ford Motor Company
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Sponsors:
USA Today ($250) , OCM Fundraiser/BG Student Backup Software Sales ($360), Campus 101
($1000), AJ Sunny ($1500 –Casino Night Equipment)
“Social Sponsors”: Falcon Chapter NRHH, OCM, GLACUHO, VISION BGSU, BGSU RSA
The Best Part
The conference experience is amazing! This is the second time I’ve had the honor of working on
a CAACURH conference team and it’s been a wonderful experience both times. It has its ups and
downs, but the best part by far is the feeling of everything coming together as delegates start to
arrive and watching the well-oiled machine that you’ve spent the last 12 months planning move
into action. As the Technology and Co-Sponsorship chair I had the fortune of enjoying the
conference relatively stress free, and had a blast documenting everything with a camera.
Important reminders
Sponsorship
Start early with sponsorships, really early
Follow up with sponsors often and on-time
Be prepared to answer a lot of detailed questions about the conference and about how
you can make their investment in you worthwhile for them
Follow through with your promises to your sponsors, they will most likely be hit up
again for future conferences
Have Fun!
Technology
Get started and put the website up as quickly as possible
Keep the up-to-date information on the web and keep the delegates informed
Establish a bond with your Registration Chair, you’re going to spend a lot of time
together
Rely on the Regional Board for advice, many of them have been in your shoes before
and can give a lot of very valuable input
Have Fun!
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Words of Wisdom for the next chair
Things can, and most likely will become stressful, but just breathe, relax and don’t be afraid to
ask your conference team members for help. Really strive to keep a positive attitude as plans
change and some things that you really wanted to see happen might fall through and be prepared
to roll with the punches when conference day arrives because the unexpected is unavoidable.
Lastly, and most importantly, have fun! Get to know your conference team members, celebrate
and take the opportunity to make some really great friends.
My Contact Information
I would be MORE than happy to help out if there is anything I can do. Please don’t be shy and I
wish you the best of luck!
Name: Drew Cekada
Email: drewcekada@gmail.com
Cell Phone: 330-421-0409
SN: batboydmc
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Transportation and Security
Ashley Arent and Kari Ryan
Conference Highs and Lows (for the overall conference)
Highs
Registration went very smoothly
Shuttles were mostly on time and ran as planned (plus nice drivers)
Police officer showed up on time and at right place
Casino night was a hit
Worked out problems as quickly as possible
Hospitality room was a hit
Programming went well
Banquet as a whole
Swap Shop
Roll Call was SWEET
TEAM WORK (C, C-O, C-O-U-G-A-R….)
Lows
Rooming Conflicts- certain delegations were upset about their room
assignments and there were miscommunications
Socials Attendance- not a whole lot of people attended the socials
Room changes for socials (not well informed)
Attendance of movie- not many people watched, maybe have a better
location to watch
Speech competition at same place and time as CAACURH was bad
because the noise conflicts
Technological Difficulties in Olscamp and BA (buildings used for
programmings)
Chair Responsibilities/Specific Duties
Coordinate one uniformed police officer for banquet
Contact Bowling Green and Toledo police stations and hospitals
Maintain all emergency contacts
Create/borrow signs for campus
Coordinate volunteers to be security and watch for any problems
Create directions for all locations needed during the conference
Coordinate travel for schools (to/from airports and conference places)
Organize travel and security forms
Reserve shuttles
Meet with advisor
Keep records of tasks and duties preformed
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Timeline (what and when leading up to the conference)
Organized transportation forms as they came in
Biweekly meetings with advisor starting February 2007
Weekly meetings as a conference team starting October 2006
Weekly reports written
October of 2006- Made contact with shuttles and police
December 2006- Made transportation form for website
December 2006- Sent out prices of transportation to conference team
December 2006 and January 2007- Contacted hospitals to notify them of
conference
January 2007- Sent bios to Technology Chair for conference website
1/23/07- Conference team pictures
8/3/07- Sent in Request for Police Services form
9/5/07- Acquired contract with police
10/17/07- Tried to contact Aileen (supervisor to shuttle service)
10/18/07- Tried to contact Aileen (suggest getting in contact with them
earlier to start better communication)
10/19/07- Aileen called, talked about making contract (would suggest
doing this earlier)
10/19/07- Wrote contract, edited
10/25/07- Called parking and traffic, made memo to send them
10/31/07- Sent memo to parking and traffic (ended up not needing this)
11/1/07- Made agreement with people to put directional signs out
11/3/07- Received final price from police
11/5/07- Aileen called (she received contract), confirmed drop off
location (never received it back)
11/5/07- Called parking and traffic who said no reservation was needed
11/6/07- Stuffed binders
What you did during the conference
Rode Shuttles back and forth from Bowling Green and Toledo. The ride
was about 30 minutes and went pretty smooth.
Helped others (registration and programming)
Kept the peace (had talks with police that came to help us out)
Registration (handed out binders and t-shirts)
Programming (helped Programming Chair count votes for Top 10
programming)
Coordinated travel (made sure everyone was on the shuttles that was
suppose to be)
Problems encountered/solutions to problems
Toledo didn’t have transportation so we put them on the shuttles. They
didn’t have transportation because they rode city busses to the hotel and
had no other way of getting to Bowling Green and back.
Delays/Communication problems with Shuttle people and Police perhaps
because we weren’t communicating with them as early as we should
have. Suggest talking with them earlier and making sure they understand
how important the conference is.
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Best parts of your job (what went great)
Meeting new people (riding on the shuttles was a great way to meet new
people because the shuttles were pretty full so you sat next to people you
didn’t know and everyone was really friendly.
Getting the directional signs on campus went great. The school helped us
out with signs they already had.
Getting directions to the hotel, to BG, to the Gladieux, and back was easy
and stress free!
Nobody got left behind! We checked and double checked.
Important reminders/Words of Wisdom (for next chair)
Stay on top of your game (don’t fall behind or someone else may have to
pick up your slack and that’s no fun)
Make a schedule and stay on schedule (get things done while you can so
it’s less stressful and you can relax when you are done)
Keep track/records of everything! (this will really help later when doing
a wrap up report)
Have fun!
Relax!
Evaluations/Ideas for improvement/Recommendations
Make a schedule and stay on schedule
Give people you are working with a timeline (like the shuttle people)
Materials used (invoice forms, etc)
Materials were sent to Alana from cops and shuttle people (contracts and
forms listed below)
Contracts
Request for Police Services form
Contact information
Feel free to contact either of us for more information!
Kari Ryan- klryan@bgsu.edu
Ashley Arent- aarent@bgsu.edu
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Transportation Contract:
The 2007 CAACURH Conference (Kari Ryan, 614-###-7##9 contact person) will be using 2
shuttles from 7:00am-9:00am, 4:00pm-7:00pm, and 10pm-1am but we have rented them for the entire day.
Transportation will be provided by the BGSU Shuttle Service to and from the Gladieux in Toledo, OH,
BGSU, and the Hilton Hotel in Toledo, OH.
Here is a schedule of when the buses will be picking up and dropping off delegates.
Saturday, November 10, 2007*
7:00am-Shuttle(s) go from BGSU to Hilton (3100 Glendale Ave, Toledo, Ohio)
7:30am-First pick up at Hilton to go to BGSU
8:00am-First arrival at BGSU from Hilton, shuttle returns to Hilton
8:30am-Second pick up at Hilton to go to BGSU
9:00am-Second arrival at BGSU from Hilton
4:15pm-Pick up at BGSU to go to Hilton
4:45pm-Arrive at Hilton
6:20pm-6:45pm-Continuous rides from Hilton to go to Gladieux (4480 Heatherdowns Blvd,
Toledo, Ohio)
10:00pm-1:00am-Continuous rides from Gladieux to Hilton
1:00am-Shuttle departs Toledo for BGSU
*(all times approximate)
The charge to the DCC account will be $1127.00 for the shuttles, gas, and drivers as discussed with Aileen
Berry on September 27, 2007 at 11:00am.
Shuttle service:
x_______________________________________________________________________
sign name print name date
CAACURH Conference Advisor:
x_______________________________________________________________________
sign name print name date
Contact person:
x_______________________________________________________________________
sign name print name date
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Volunteer and Philanthropy
Jenny Ewing and Allyson Ruebusch
Conference Highs and Lows:
Highs:
It’s done!
Getting to work with each other ; )
Volunteers were energetic and excited to be a part of the conference
We collected over 270 pounds of pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald House!
Programming went smoothly; all the chaos was behind the scenes!
Speakers didn’t go for too long
Registration went better than most other CAACURH conferences (so we were told my
conference attendees, guests, and Regional Board Members).
Video Roll-Call!
Spirit Police!!!!
Walkie-Talkies!!!
Delicious Banquet food!
Casino Night was a great success : )
Lows:
Tempers flared at some points (to be expected though)
Hospitality rooms were lacking in food
Sound systems in the Hotel and the Banquet Hall were not up to par
Some delegations were not respectful of quiet hours
Disorganized speakers at banquet
Chair Responsibilities:
As Volunteer and Philanthropy co-chairs, our responsibilities varied throughout the
conference. At some points we were the hub of information as to where information was going,
i.e. during programming, and at others we were there for moral support.
Overall though, we would have to say that the majority of our responsibilities lied in making sure
that the volunteers
1. showed up,
2. were informed, and
3. stayed on task in order to benefit the conference as a whole.
As far as Philanthropy, we contacted the Ronald McDonald house to gather information on the
organization and the benefits to supporting them. We wanted to select a philanthropy project that
would help those in need, and also be a plausible project for schools traveling from far away. Pop
Tabs were a fun, beneficial, and easy philanthropy that goes to a wonderful cause. The majority
of our responsibilities took place before the conference started. Recruiting volunteers and
scheduling them was a large chunk of the responsibility. It was a headache at times, but the
implementation at the conference went well because of our, in some cases, over-organization : )
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Specific Duties:
Choose a Philanthropy
Contact Organizations to recruit volunteers
Speak at meetings to get interest in the Conference, and…RECRUIT!!!
Create a listproc (our schools e-mail list-serve program, like a Google group) to contact
volunteers
Communicate with the conference team to get a better understanding of the volunteer
numbers needed from each facet of the CAACURH Conference Team.
Create schedule of volunteers, including tasks, numbers, and times for each shift of each
phase
Schedule multiple meetings to go over what is expected of the volunteers and to have
them sign up for the shifts that fit into their schedule (as well as get t-shirt sizes for the
volunteer t-shirts)
Order t-shirts! (at least 2-3 weeks in advance for us! You might need to order sooner!)
Create volunteer hub/check-in to assign volunteer tasks and distribute tee shirts.
Collect and individually weight pop tabs from each school
Make art and craft prizes for the top three schools, aka fun and exciting!!
Do wrap up report : )
Timeline:
January 2007: Decide on Pop Tab Philanthropy
April 2007: Send email out to organizations explaining what the conference is, and to
spark interest in volunteering.
June/July 2007: Email with Conference Team to get volunteer numbers from each chair
for each facet of the conference.
August 2007: Email organizations about coming to speak at meetings and get volunteers
August-October: Speak at organizations and get volunteers (i.e. Hall Councils, RSA,
USG, Chapman Learning Community, NRHH, Toledo NRHH, Personal Friends, etc.)
October: Distribute Pop Tab Collection Containers to every Residence Hall front desk to
collect.
October 17th: Turn in Volunteer and Philanthropy Pages for binder to Jess
October 19th and 21st: Have Volunteer Sign up meetings
October 26th: Email T-shirt Sizes and final Volunteer master list to Logistics Chair.
October 26th-November 8th: Email Volunteers (A LOT) to remind them of duties and to
get them excited about the Conference, as well as to send them the Volunteer Master List.
November 9-11th: CONFERENCE …eek : )
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During the Conference:
Friday:
Noon-7…Registration (as well as check in volunteers to help with registration)
Check in with Casino Night Volunteers (training and t-shirt distribution/deal
cards)
Conference Meeting at 11PM
Loaded up ALL Pop Tabs and Displays
Back to BG!
Weighed all individual schools Pop Tabs
Saturday:
Meet at Olscamp at 7AM, with Coffee Maker (thanks Frey)
Help organize Programming setup
Set up volunteer check in
Organize volunteer t-shirts
Create system for Programming volunteers
Help calibrate programming evaluations
Make Art and Craft prizes!!!
Shower
Banquet
Sunday:
Organize Check out volunteers
Help with Check out
Pass out
Problems Encountered/Solutions:
Getting Volunteers to come to sign up meetings…Solution: make friends take more shifts
Carrying pop tabs (so Heavy!!)
Did not really have too many issues…
Best Parts of the Job:
EACH OTHER!!!
And Frey (our advisor)
Working with volunteers, they were cool and really excited to be a part of the conference.
Dropping off over 270 pounds of pop tabs to the Ronald McDonald House
The experience overall: We all just came together to make the conference that much
better, a.k.a. we definitely got our buzz off leadership
Pop, Lock, and Drop it!!! (and other inside jokes) made it fun and relieved tension!
Ideas for Improvement/Recommendations:
Get a wider spread volunteer base to spread the fun over the whole campus
Have a second Philanthropy at the Conference
Have fun and don’t stress out
Stay organized; remember that if you don’t know what’s going on, neither will your
volunteers!
Keep open communication with the rest of the conference team; they are the one’s you
are helping!!
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Words of Wisdom:
Stay positive; volunteers will be more apt to work with you if you are excited about what
you are doing.
Have patience with your conference team when they don’t get their numbers to you
Don’t let tempers affect your work, you do your job and know that you’re doing the best
you can
Stay Organized!
Communicate with your volunteers
Remember that your Philanthropy doesn’t have to be too fancy; at the end of the day,
you’re making a difference, whether you collect pop tabs or extravagant works of art.
SLEEP : )
Contact Information
Jenny Ewing and Allyson Ruebusch
ewingj@bgsu.edu allysor@bgsu.edu
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Registration
Alisha Griffin, CAACURH 2007 Registration Chair
Position Highs
There were 44 schools in attendance at CAACURH007, approximately 401 students and
advisors.
It was a long weekend but the experience is one in a million.
I think we were very prepared and were able to handle the little things that didn’t go
wrong.
Everything ran smoothly and we were able to accomplish a lot with what we had.
Having time to make connections with others from different schools was great because
you can share ideas about programs and things that go on at your respective schools after
the conference is over.
Friday was probably the most important day for the registration and housing chairs
because this is check-in and things do get crazy.
I think getting friends involved with the conference was the best part of the conference
because they provide really great stress relief the weekend of the conference.
Being able to sleep in your own bed as much as possible the weekend of the conference
was a major plus.
Being able to look back and say yea I did that! It’s a great feeling of accomplishment.
You might be really tired, but the payoff of actually hosting the conference is far greater
than how tired you will be that weekend.
Position Lows
I sometimes felt I was in over my head, but this is when I asked for help. I had problems
knowing how to delegate work to those who were willing to help me.
The lowest point for me was showing up to registration two hours before it ended. I felt
a little lost in the whole process because everyone had already implemented the way I
wanted things to go but it was hard finding a spot for me to really fit in.
Sometimes the long hours in the office get really boring, but it paid off in the end.
I didn’t do some things when I said I was going to do them and it created a lot more work
in the end that I should’ve had done.
Chair Responsibilities
Create a registration sheet that will be simple and contain all the information necessary
for the conference.
Keep all registration and housing information organized. I kept a binder identifying each
school in alphabetical order with divider tabs. Within each school, I arranged each
section by the following order: delegation registration, advisor, NCC, NRHH/RSA
Presidents, other delegates in alphabetical order.
Work closely with Housing Chairs, Technology Chair, and the Finance Chair to make
sure that registration is going smoothly online (you’ll want access to wherever you’re
storing information), and make sure you know who’s sending out invoices to schools
once they register.
The Housing chairs will need all housing information. Keep them up to date on who’s
registered and if they want to room with someone particular.
Provide weekly updates once registration opens to all chairs. As registration comes to an
end, you will need to provide almost daily updates to your housing chair(s).
Keep record of all tasks and duties performed.
Meet with advisor weekly and keep up to date any way possible.
79
Timeline of Activities
Feb-June: Read past conference wrap-up report, begin to design online web interface and
decide with technology chair when to make it go live. Work with the finance
chair to decide who’s going to send conference invoices and decide what they’ll
look like. Keep notes on everything you do, and make yourself little reminders
of things that still need to be done all along the way.
June-Aug: Over the summer, work on the internet forms and keep the entire conference
team up to date on how things are going with the forms. Ask for help if you
don’t know what you are doing, but it does help to have some knowledge of web
design even if using a form editor.
Sept: Once school starts, you’ll want to get registration up as soon as possible online to
allow as much time as possible for registration. At first, it will be slow, very
slow, but do not worry; you’ll soon feel like you’re losing your mind with the
number of people registering. During September you will get one or two from a
school, but the bulk of them will not come in until the last week of registration
and the rest of them the week of late registration. Make sure you know what the
conference cost for each delegate is. You will be asked several times and it’s
really helpful if you know.
Oct: I would end registration sometime in October about 3 weeks prior to the
conference. The last week of registration, keep a list of who registers. I had it so
that as long as I had the delegation page was in prior to the end of regular
registration they would not be charged late fees. Also, we waived the late fees
for quarter schools. As registration gets closer to an end, you will feel like you
are losing your mind, but trust me, it’ll be all over in a few weeks. Once
registration is over, you may need to contact some of the NCCs about people that
have not registered. It might be easier to do this over the course of the last two
weeks of registration. I ended up calling one of the NCCs at midnight the night
that late registration ended; he was surprised but thankful that I did. This is the
month that I collected forms from the schools and compiled them into the
binders. You will use a lot of paper and ink, so I suggest not using your own
computer for this. The delegation page really helps out when trying to figure out
who you are missing as the last few individual registration pages come in. As I
got everyone’s registration, I did the invoice and emailed it to the NCC, school
advisor, the conference advisors, and the finance chair. I also printed copies of
the invoice and email sent to each school and put them in the binders under the
proper school but on top of the delegation page.
Nov: Make sure all your invoices are out to the schools about 2 weeks prior to check-
in so that schools have time to get their checks cut. I would suggest you doing
this part since you will have all the information anyways and it is just easier.
You just have to copy your finance chair(s) in on every invoice you send out. I
made a generic email and customized solely the name of the school. You will be
crazy busy the last few weeks of October until check-in ends. During check-in,
you basically want to be a resource or go-to for all of the volunteers that are
helping with check-in. Make sure to have all the registration materials with you
on the day of check-in and check-out. We had left the all important binders back
at school and needed them the day of check-out. It helped to have things
organized so that they were understandable by anyone that picked up the binders.
80
Suggestions for Registration: (FYI: Suggestions bounce around, but that’s because I wrote
them as I thought about them)
Use binders and binder tabs to separate schools. I would also suggest alphabetizing
schools. Alphabetize them by name e.g. if a school has “The” as part of its name, drop
the “the” and continue putting them in alpha order within a binder.
On the delegation registration page, I would suggest having the NCCs list the total
number of t-shirts to be ordered and the sizes if the school plans to get the conference t-
shirt. We had a lot of confusion with this by putting it on the individual registration
pages.
Find the easiest way for you to summarize all the necessary information for the invoices
you’ll send out for each school. You’ll need the total number of students attending, the
number of advisors and what type of room (if you are giving them more than one option),
total number of t-shirts, and if the school is to be charged late fees. Something I didn’t
do but you might try is to create a sheet that has totals for anything that could come up. I
had totals for number of people in the delegation, which was also broke into students and
advisers, total number of t-shirts (include a breakdown of sizes), type of room requested
by adviser, and number of vegetarian meals at the banquet on Saturday. I wrote this all
on the delegation registration page, but it was more time consuming.
Be able to send out paper copies of the registration forms to schools that do not wish to
register online. Though we did not have this problem, I wish I would’ve been prepared if
it would’ve came up.
Attend all meetings prior to the conference. I did not do this, and felt very left out and
missed a lot of important information that I really needed to hear.
Work on the registration packet that you plan to put online prior to school ending for the
summer. Trust me it will help out a great deal. Give your Technology Chair access to
this also so that it can be put online over the summer. This will save a lot of time once
you get back to school.
Save all emails and correspondence with schools and the conference team members. I
might even suggest creating a separate email account with Google or Yahoo that is solely
used for conference correspondence.
Even though we had the schools electronically sign the drug and alcohol policy and the
release of claims online, I still put them in a word document that each person in the
delegation had to sign upon arrival to the conference before they could get the rest of
their materials. This worked out really well since the region requires real signatures for
these forms.
If possible, have some of the other conference team members help you when you start to
compile the information because this can become a really long and tedious task. This is
also something else you can be doing over the course of registration so it doesn’t all come
up at once.
You might want a copy of the bid your conference team presents just as a reference. I
know it did help me quite a bid while working on pre-registration stuff.
One other thing, I would suggest is having a roommate that really understands your
position. I know I would not have gotten through CAACURH the way I did without my
roommate. I don’t know how many nights I came back from the office after 2 am and
she was there. She also brought food when I spent a lot of time in the office and
wouldn’t leave to go get food because I wanted to get as much accomplished as possible.
81
The day of check-out we found some lost items and unfortunately I had left the binders
back at school in my residence hall room on campus. I was able to call my roommate
who was very helpful. She got out of bed to find the binders and get me numbers so that
we could contact the persons necessary to return the lost items. I would suggest getting
personal cell phone numbers for each delegate so that you don’t call their parents
unnecessarily.
Leave problems with the hotel rooms to the hotel chairs. I found this very helpful and it
was less stressful for me. I just guided schools to them if there was a problem.
I would suggest creating excel sheets for each different station the day of check-in. It
was easier for others to do the job when they had a check sheet to know which schools
were supposed to be signing in that day. If you do this, try to make sure that the schools
are in alphabetical order. I forgot to check and make sure that they were, so the chairs
that helped out at registration were a little frustrated with me even though everything
went smoothly.
If there is something someone can easily do, then let them do it. Don’t put too much
stress on yourself if you can avoid it. I found this tip from the 2006 Chair very helpful.
I hope you have the chance to work with an adviser. My adviser was very helpful with
ideas especially for the binder and for registration set-up the day of check-in.
I printed emails with important information (even though everything is important) and
kept them in a separate binder away from all the delegate/delegation stuff. This was
probably not the best idea. If you have correspondence from a specific school, I would
suggest putting it in with the delegation/delegate information. That way all the necessary
information is all together for a school.
Be very flexible. Up to the day of check-in schools will change delegates. We did not
have them fill out the delegate registration page, but it does make it harder to figure out
who should be there and who shouldn’t. If you have changes that you know of, find
some way of getting their names and emergency contact information in the correct spot.
Whatever you find that works.
Contact Information:
If you have any questions about anything here or just need someone to talk to during the whole
process I am more than happy to help.
Cell: 513-884-7356
AIM: lishalynn411
Yahoo: lisha_lynn411
Email: Alisha.griffin@gmail.com
Lisha_lynn411@yahoo.com
Just put CAACURH Registration in the heading
I’d be happy to answer questions about registration or help you to get things organized if you are
unsure. Thanks in advance for all your hard work
Forms or form letters used:
Registration packet
Registration materials sent in by schools.
Several checklists the day of check-in for different stations of pick-up
Schools, entire list of delegates, conference binder
See appendix for:
Layout of Registration
Drug and Alcohol Policy and Assumption of Risk Signature Sheet
Binder Set up
82
Registration set-up for Check-In
Finances and Signature Sheets
NCC packets, Binders, and T-shirt Pick-
up
Start here
Regional Things … this is where Entrance to the room where we held roll
everyone saw Amy call.
83
Conference Invoice
School: ______American University __________
National Communications Coordinator: ___ H______
Adviser: _________ B_______________
Conference Costs
Number of non-adviser delegates 5 $185.00 $925.00
Adviser Double Options 2 $199.00 $398.00
Adviser Single Options $323.00 $0.00
Conference T-Shirts Ordered 1 $5.00 $5.00
Late Fee Per Delegate $5.00 $0.00
Total: $1328.00
*Make checks payable to Bowling Green State University. Please indicate CAACURH 2007 in the memo
line. Thanks!
____Alisha M Griffin________ Date: 10/20/2007
CAACURH 2007 Registration Chair
____Katrina Barton___________ Date: 10/20/2007
CAACURH 2007 Conference Chair
___Amanda Holtsberry________ Date: 10/20/2007
CAACURH 2007 Finance Chair
____Alana McClelland_______ Date: 10/20/2007
CAACURH 2007 Adviser
Mail to:
CAACURH 2007
CAACURH c/o Alana McClelland
1001 E. Wooster
222 Saddlemire Services at Conklin
Bowling Green, Ohio 43403
84
American University
Drug and Alcohol Policy Agreement
Alcohol and illicit drugs are national recognized as substances, which may have a negative effect on the
lives of college students. As a leadership organization that works largely with college students under the
legal drinking age, it is recognized that alcohol is not needed for a good time or to promote positive growth.
Alcohol and illicit drugs can be lethal. Therefore, all events will be designated “alcohol and drug free”.
The method f enforcement will be at the discretion of the Conference Staff, in consultation with the
Regional Advisor, the CRC, National Advisor, the National Chairperson, and the Regional Director.
I have read and understand the above CAACURH Policy concerning the use of alcohol and other illicit
drugs and/or substances and agree to adhere to these policies during my participation at the CAACURH
2007 Regional Conference. I am aware that failure to adhere to these policies can result in my removal
from the Conference Site and disciplinary action by my college or university and/or Bowling Green State
University may occur. I further understand that my removal from the conference will result in loss of all
conference privileges and that my delegate/registration fees will be forfeited entirely.
Release of Claims and Assumption of Risk
I in consideration of the Central Atlantic Affiliate of the National Association of College and University
Residence Halls, Inc. (NACURH, Inc.) and the Bowling Green State University allowing me to participate
in the CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference, hereby affirm the following:
I agree to abide by all the policies and rules of the Holiday Inn French Quarters and the Bowling Green
State University and all local, state, federal, and international laws.
I release NACURH, Inc., CAACURH, Inc., Bowling Green State University, and the Association of
Residence Hall Students, including all officers, agents, employees, members and affiliates of the
aforementioned institutions from all liability for damage and injuries which I may sustain as a result of my
attendance at or travel to and from the CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference. I also release the
aforementioned institutions and person from obligations for any and all liabilities and penalties that I may
incur as a result of violations of any institutional policy or municipal, state, federal, or international law. I
agree to protect, hold harmless, and indemnify the aforementioned institutions and persons against all
claims, suits, and liabilities for injuries to any person and/or property growing out of my participation of the
CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference.
I specifically assume all risks associated with participation in the events of the conference and all else
related to the conference, including but not limited to travel to and from all activities, and the risk of
damage or injury from any cause, action, omission or occurrence caused by the NACURH, Inc.,
CAACURH, Inc., Bowling Green State University, or the Association of Residence Hall Students,
including all officers, agents, employees, members and affiliates of the aforementioned institutions, which
may include acts of omission constituting negligence.
American University
Entire delegation must sign this sheet and return it to the check-in table.
B
Leah
Martha
Dorothy
Carrie
Sabrina
Halley
85
Registration Checksheet
Delegation: ______________________________________________________________
The following forms have been completed and are included in this registration:
1 Per Delegation
Delegation Registration Financial Liability Agreement
Housing Form Financial Worksheet
Travel Form Registration Checksheet
1 Per Participant (Including Advisor)
Participant Registration Total # Enclosed: ____
Emergency Info Sheet Total # Enclosed: ____
Drug/Alcohol Policy Form Total # Enclosed: ____
Claims & Risks Forms Total # Enclosed: ____
Additional Forms
Program Proposal Form Total # Enclosed: ____
Registration Period (Check One)
Regular Registration (Monday, August 27 – Friday, October 12, 2007)
Late Registration (After Monday, October 20, 2007 - $10 Fee Per Delegate Incurred)
Payment Total Amount Enclosed: _____________________________________
Payment may be by Check or Certified Money Order ONLY and payable to:
Association of Residence Hall Students
Please indicate “CAACURH 2007” in the memo field of the payment item.
AND/OR Promissory Note Enclosed (Must include with partial payment or if no payment)
Attestation
I attest that the information contained in this registration package is accurate to the best of my
knowledge as of the date of signing this form.
_____________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Signature of National Communications Coordinator Date
Mailing Please mail all registration materials including payment, preferably in one package to:
CAACURH 2007 Registration
C / O Association of Residence Hall Students
416 Bowen-Thompson Student Union
Ribeau Family Office
Bowling Green, OH 43403
86
Delegation Registration
College/University: _______________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
National Communications Chair (Delegate # 1)
Name: _________________ Email: _____________________ Phone: _______________
Advisor (Indicate “A” for Delegate #)
Name: _________________ Email: _____________________ Phone: _______________
Additional Delegates (Be sure to note the delegate number on each Participant Registration Form)
#2 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
#3 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
#4 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
#5 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
#6 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
#7 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
#8 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
#9 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
# 10 ________________________________ _____________________________
Last Name First Name
Alternates may be listed on a separate sheet. Delegations will be notified after registration if alternates are able to attend.
Is your delegation planning to participate in Roll Call? Yes No
Is your delegation planning to submit a display? Yes No
Is your delegation planning to submit a banner? Yes No
87
Participant Registration Form
Delegation: ______________________________________________________ Delegate #: _________
Name: ________________________________________________________________________________
Last Name First Name M.I.
Gender: Male Female Age: ________________________
Name to appear on nametag: ______________________________________________________________
(Leave blank if you would like your First Name and Last Name used.)
Campus Address: _______________________________________________________________________
Street City State Zip
E-Mail Address: ________________________________________________________________________
Check all that apply to you: Delegate Advisor RBD NRHH
NCC Rep President Bid Team
Are you planning to present a program? Yes No
You must submit a program proposal form if you are planning to present a program.
Lunch Preference: Turkey Roast Beef Ham Vegetarian
Banquet Preference: Beef Chicken Pasta (Vegetarian)
If you have special dietary needs, please indicate on a separate sheet of paper.
Would you like to order a conference T-Shirt? Yes No
If Yes, which size: S M L XL XXL
Please read and sign the following statement:
I, the individual whose name and information appears on this form, hereby register for the
CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference and acknowledge the incurrence of any and all financial
liabilities towards my delegation with regards to my individual registration. I affirm that the
information on this form and all forms pertinent to my individual registration are accurate to the
best of my knowledge as of the date of signing this form.
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Participant Signature Date
Delegation: ___________________________________________ Delegate #: ______
88
Emergency Information Sheet
Name: __________________________________________________________________
Do you have any allergies? Yes No
Do you require any special accommodations? Yes No
Are you on any medication? Yes No
If you answered Yes to any of the above three questions, please specify on a separate sheet of paper.
Do you have health insurance? Yes No
Insurance Company: __________________________________ Policy #: ___________________
Emergency Contact Information
Name: __________________________________________________________
Telephone: __________________________________________________________
Relationship: __________________________________________________________
For non-emergency medical situations, participants will be referred to University Health Services at
Bowling Green State University for treatment. In the event of an emergency, participants will be
taken to the Wood County Hospital. Please note that NACURH, Inc., CAACURH, Inc., Bowling
Green State University, and the Association of Residence Hall Students are not responsible for
payment for any medical services.
Please read the following statement:
I, the individual whose information appears on this form, acknowledge that I am responsible for payment
for all medical services that may be administered to me at my request or in the event of an emergency.
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Participant Signature Date
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Parent/Guardian Signature (If participant is under 18) Date
I, the individual whose information appears on this form, permit the release of the information found on
this form to the University Health Services at Bowling Green State University or Wood County Hospital
should it be required in an emergency.
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Participant Signature Date
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Parent/Guardian Signature (If participant is under 18) Date
Delegation: ______________________________________________ Delegate #: _____
89
CAACURH 2007
DRUG & ALCOHOL POLICY AGREEMENT
Alcohol and illicit drugs are national recognized as substances, which may have a negative effect on the
lives of college students. As a leadership organization that works largely with college students under the
legal drinking age, it is recognized that alcohol is not needed for a good time or to promote positive growth.
Alcohol and illicit drugs can be lethal. Therefore, all events will be designated “alcohol and drug free”.
The method f enforcement will be at the discretion of the Conference Staff, in consultation with the
Regional Advisor, the CRC, National Advisor, the National Chairperson, and the Regional Director.
I, __________________________________________, have read and understand the above CAACURH
Policy concerning the use of alcohol and other illicit drugs and/or substances and agree to adhere to these
policies during my participation at the CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference. I am aware that failure to
adhere to these policies can result in my removal from the Conference Site and disciplinary action by my
college or university and/or Bowling Green State University may occur. I further understand that my
removal from the conference will result in loss of all conference privileges and that my
delegate/registration fees will be forfeited entirely.
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Participant Signature Date
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Witness (Advisor, NCC, or individual over 18- must be Parent/Guardian if participant is under 18) Date
Delegation: ___________________________________________ Delegate #: ______
90
RELEASE OF CLAIMS AND ASSUMPTION OF RISK
I, __________________________________, in consideration of the Central Atlantic Affiliate of the
National Association of College and University Residence Halls, Inc. (NACURH, Inc.) and the Bowling
Green State University allowing me to participate in the CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference, hereby
affirm the following:
I agree to abide by all the policies and rules of the Holiday Inn French Quarters and the Bowling Green
State University and all local, state, federal, and international laws.
I release NACURH, Inc., CAACURH, Inc., Bowling Green State University, and the Association of
Residence Hall Students, including all officers, agents, employees, members and affiliates of the
aforementioned institutions from all liability for damage and injuries which I may sustain as a result of my
attendance at or travel to and from the CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference. I also release the
aforementioned institutions and person from obligations for any and all liabilities and penalties that I may
incur as a result of violations of any institutional policy or municipal, state, federal, or international law. I
agree to protect, hold harmless, and indemnify the aforementioned institutions and persons against all
claims, suits, and liabilities for injuries to any person and/or property growing out of my participation of the
CAACURH 2007 Regional Conference.
I specifically assume all risks associated with participation in the events of the conference and all else
related to the conference, including but not limited to travel to and from all activities, and the risk of
damage or injury from any cause, action, omission or occurrence caused by the NACURH, Inc.,
CAACURH, Inc., Bowling Green State University, or the Association of Residence Hall Students,
including all officers, agents, employees, members and affiliates of the aforementioned institutions, which
may include acts of omission constituting negligence.
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Participant Signature Date
______________________________________________________________ ____/____/____
Parent/Guardian Signature (If participant is under 18) Date
91
Schools in Attendance
American University
Ashland University
Baldwin-Wallace College
Bowling Green State University
CAACURH Regional Board of Directors
Case Western Reserve University
Clarion University of Pennsylvania
College of New Jersey
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania
Frostburg State University
Georgetown University
Kent State University
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
Lock Haven University
Maryville University of St. Louis
George Washington University
Miami University
Montclair State University
New Jersey Institute of Technology
Pennsylvania College of Technology
Pennsylvania State University
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Rider University
Rutgers University
Salisbury University
Slippery Rock University
Temple University
Towson University
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
University of Akron
University of Pittsburg
University of Toledo
Washington & Jefferson College
Wright State University
92
Entertainment Chair
Adam Kowalski
Highs and Lows of the Conference Overall
The conference as a whole went really well. Everyone did an excellent job in their respective
duties. Everyone came together as a team to make sure everything ran according to schedule.
Some of the highs of the conference included:
The programming sessions went really well
The spirit police contributed a lot of energy to the conference overall- served as an
excellent catalyst to jumpstart the other delegations and their energy
The philanthropy collected an ungodly amount of pop tabs to donate
The shuttles were always on time and available
The dance was pretty much the best the DJ had ever seen
The banquet didn’t have any unnecessary awards or announcements
Registration was amazing- very efficient and thorough
All I have to say is- Conference Team Headsets. Not only was it a great way to maintain
communication between various coordinators and advisors, but it provided comic relief
when registration and programming got stressful.
Some things that we could change in the future would be:
More program evaluations
Making sure all DJ equipment works before the dance
Not having other outside events planned in the same building that would be disrupted by
the spirit of CAACURH
FORTUNATELY not too many things went wrong with the conference overall, and if it did, the
delegations did not realize it (this is key).
Chair responsibilities and specific duties
As the Entertainment Chair I felt challenged and obligated to really make this a fun
conference. Having been to the previous year’s CAACURH I felt the pressure to follow up in
prime fashion. Unfortunately for the Entertainment Chair, the budget is very small. But that
didn’t stop us. We were able to get the price of the Saturday Night DJ low enough to the
equivalent of two separate events; leaving us a surplus amount of money for Friday night’s
activities.
To coincide with the conference theme (007 Leadership Shaken Not Stirred) the
conference team decided to have a Casino Royale theme for Friday Night. I reserved the company
and selected a variety of games to please everyone’s casino appetite. We were able to get the
casino service donated due to the casino company shorting us some dealers when the Resident
Student Association of BGSU held a casino event. Typically there are not prizes at these
conferences, but the conference team thought it would be nice to give away some Bowling Green
gear since the delegates couldn’t obviously cash in their chips for real money. 15 Bowling Green
volunteers comprised of students, advisors and myself set up and tore down Casino night,
organized the dealers, and the drawing of prizes. We decided the layout of the room, what games
we would have, types of prizes, as well as when we wanted to start and end the Casino Night.
93
Timeline
July 25th- When the DJ and Casino Services were SUPPOSED to be reserved
September 6th- When the DJ and Casino Services were ACTUALLY reserved
November 1st- $100 deposit due to DJ company- one week before event
November 5th- Purchased prizes from BGSU bookstore- deadline was Nov 1st
November 9th- GAME TIME!
6:00- Start setting up Casino Night
8:00- Train dealers and assign stations
9:15- Casino Night starts
9:30- Swap Shop- delegates had tables to set up their materials they wanted to trade
11:45- Final call for cashing in tickets
12:15- Prize drawing starts
November 10th-
6:00 pm -Meet DJ at Banquet Hall
9:00- Time to boogie!
12:45- Dancing ends - No tear down was necessary as the DJ had his own equipment
What I did during the conference
During the conference I made sure that spirit was kept at a maximum decibel level at all times;
helping the spirit team keep the delegates energized and excited during their free time. I was at all
Entertainment events for the entire duration of their time. Kept contact with the outside
companies that were being used for entertainment purposes (DJ and Casino) to make sure they
were on the same page as I was and that there would be no miscommunication. Assisted with any
other duties that were asked of me during programming.
The Best Part of My Job
The best part of my job was knowing how much fun people were having because of the activities
that we had planned. I felt proud at the end because I had played a major role in what I thought
would be fun for all. I also loved giving away prizes especially because they are rare at these
conferences.
Important reminders
I wish I could say that I turned in all my “update” forms, but alas I cannot. These are really quite
important I found out towards the deadline of the conference. They help maintain conference
organization no matter how time consuming they may seem. Have fun- it’s the reason you are
there. Also, don’t slack off on finding many different DJ options and comparing prices- always
keep the overall delegate cost in mind.
Contact Information
If you have any Entertainment Questions whatsoever, don’t hesitate to contact me:
Adam Kowalski
kowalsa@bgnet.bgsu.edu
AIM: plentyofspecialk
Cell: 574-309-0709
94
CAACURH 007 Evaluation ----SURVEY
We hope everyone had a great time at CAACURH 007. Please provide us with your honest feedback to the
following questions. The feedback we receive will be used to supplement our wrap up report and provide
guidance to the next conference host institution.
All conference delegates and advisors are eligible to complete this questionnaire. Your participation is
completely voluntary. All questions are optional and you may choose not to respond to any individual
question. The survey should take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
Your responses will be kept confidential. Only aggregate results will be reported. For more information, or
if you have questions or concerns about this questionnaire, please contact Alana McClelland,
mcclell@bgsu.edu or 372-2594.
Please click on the Submit button to complete your survey. You will be directed to a site with pictures from
the conference.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 1 of 1
http://www.snapsurveys.com/
95
CAACURH 007 Evaluations
A total of 116 participants completed the survey.
Indicate in what capacity you participated in the conference: (n=116)
First Time Delegate 54.3%
Returning Delegate 22.4%
Advisor 15.5%
NRHH Member 13.8%
RHA/RSA President 12.1%
NRHH Delegate 11.2%
NCC 10.3%
Resident Advisor 8.6%
Hall Council Representative 7.8%
Other 6.0%
Hall Council President 4.3%
NRHH President 3.4%
Graduate Student 3.4%
RBD Member 2.6%
What is your current class standing? (n=116)
Sophomore 31.0%
Junior 25.0%
Senior 16.4%
First year 12.1%
I am not a student 9.5%
Graduate Student 6.0%
How did you hear about the conference? (n=116)
Other 62.9%
CAACURH 007 Website 32.8%
CAACURH Regional Website 25.9%
Update at NACURH 18.1%
CAACURH Google group 14.7%
CAACURH Newsletter 11.2%
NACURH Forum 10.3%
Online chats 6.0%
96
How did you hear about the conference? Other responses:
Our RSA
I am rewuired to go by my NCC
RHA NCC
My NCC told me
From our RHA representative
RHA meetings
I don't remember
Advisor
From other RHA members
RHA
Advisor
Our Interhall Council
From our NCC
NCC
Learned of the conference through the NCC
University Administration
Previous Conference
From advisor
Resident Student Association at the University of Toledo
friends on campus who went last year
Club
Was selected to be the advisor
Previous members
RHA Organization
From RSA's NCC
Residence Hall Association meeting
My Advisor
RHA
My board members
I was invited by my RSA
Our NCC
RHA
I work closely with the National Director, Jacob Dixon.
Our NCC informed us of CAACURH
RHA
Current Dean of Res Life informed us of the organization last year and we have been going since 2006
I was NCC last year
NCC of my RHA
word of mouth
through school's RHA
My Residence life advisor
My RHA
In one of our executive meetings.
Friends and returners
Bonnie Byrne
through my resident student association and the conference was held at my school last year
through RHA
RHA Advisor
Through my Residence Hall council
URG General Assembly Meeting
university residence government
nrhh
97
How did you receive additional information about the conference? (n=112)
CAACURH 007 Website 56.3%
CAACURH Regional Website 31.3%
Your NCC 48.2%
Emails to conference delegates 22.3%
Direct email to conference staff members 16.1%
Update at NACURH 15.2%
CAACURH Newsletter 13.4%
CAACURH Google group 12.5%
Online Chats 10.7%
Other 10.7%
NACURH Forum 6.3%
MACUHO 1.8%
GLACUHO 0.0%
How did you arrive at the conference?
Our delegation drove ourselves 87.9%
Our delegation flew 8.6%
Other 2.6%
Our delegation chartered a bus 0.9%
98
Website and Email Communications
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
Response time to my email communications met my expectations (n=69) 91.3%
Email communications met my expectations (n=81) 84.0%
The usefulness of the information met my expectations (n=97) 77.3%
Timeliness of information updates met my expectations (n=93) 73.1%
The online registration system met my expectations (n=81) 64.2%
Navigating the website was easy (n=93) 49.5%
Please provide additional feedback about the website and email communications:
the actual bgsu website was well laid out and the theme was excellently carried out... however, some
information had to be found on the official CAACURH website not specific to the conference, and no
links were provided on the BGSU site to those... for example legistlation and bids
Emails were always last-minute and not detailed.
Our NCC took care of all of the communications for the conference. And it always seemed that he
couldn't find the information that we needed from him.
I did not use the website.
Payment and Registration was a disaster. Process was very user-unfriendly. Invoice was extremely
late because of email errors resulting in confusion from all parties.
The CAACURH link on the NACURH website was down from Sep-conference time
The conference cost calculator did not work on Mac computers. Otherwise it was great!!!!
Although aesthetically appealing, the conference website was limited in content, more information
about the conference could have been given. The website could have been updated more frequently
with news and updates.
The website itself was fine - good design and concise information. We had an exceptionally hard time
contacting conference staff and often didn't receive responses for several days.
The website was nicely done, but it did not provide new information as quickly as it could have.
The website was not working for a long period of time, no way to get information to delegates in a
timely manner.
The layout was hard to fallow.
My RHA Rep handled all of this.
The website didn't work for the longest time and was not very clear. Payment should be done at the
same time registration takes place!
Our delegation seemed to struggle to not only get information from the Conference Committee, but to
also get it in a timely manner.
I thought the website was efficient and email communications were on point.
While the website was easily accessible and easy to read...this survey is not!
The skits were changed to a video format instead of live, which was fine, but people should have been
notified much sooner.
I'm sorry, I did not go to the website.
We did not recieve a confirmation e-mail after we register online.
99
Conference Staff and Volunteers
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
They were enthusiastic (n=112) 99.1%
They were courteous (n=115) 96.5%
They were helpful (n=115) 96.5%
They were available (n=113) 96.0%
They were knowledgeable (n=114) 95.6%
They were respectful (n=115) 94.8%
They were professional (n=112) 93.8%
They were easy to identify (n=115) 92.2%
Please provide additional feedback about the conference staff and volunteers:
Very helpful!
they were too jolly
There was a staff member from BGSU who yelled at our entire delegation for something that we (a)
didn't do, and (b) wasn't a problem. It was rude and degrading and I no longer hold BGSU to the
esteem I once did.
The conference staff while enthusiastic, professional, and easily identifiable were not respectful during
things like the lunch time when they came running in asking for people to start cheering and making
noise. This made it hard for me to work with other members of my delegation to debrief what we had
done thus far. They also kept us waiting at check in for room keys after having driven five hours. We
were tired and wanted to get baggage into our rooms so we could get some much needed rest and
dinner.
From my experience, the enthusiasm while benificial and exciting often did not subside in moments
where professionalism needed to be hightened. In addition, often respect was overshadowed by
enthusiasm or "spirit." I believe there is a delicate balance between the spirit contest and
professionalism/respect.
they were great
We were literally yelled at by a member of BGSU for something we did not do. I no longer hold
BGSU in the same esteem I once did.
My only negative feedback here is that when things went a little topsy turvy in regards to the hotel
keys, I wish the conference team would have let the RBD's help out a little more. At times, I felt a little
useless to them. They could have used us more as resources.
We did have a conference staff member yell at a couple of my team members for no good reason...it
was very rude
Did an excellent and enthusiastic job.
They were very nice.
I was very happy with the staff and volunteers as a whole.
Everyone was welcoming and created a nice environment.
They were wonderful. Their friendliness was very much appreciated after an 8 hour drive.
the conference staff were very kind and enthusiastic... however i belonged to one of the schools that
were seperated during the banquet.. .my delegation and i looked forward to spending an awesome
dinner together and we were seperated... we ended up having a good tme, but we should have been
forewarned and not told at arrival
Nice work.
100
Conference Hotel
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
Overall, I was satisfied with the hotel (n=115) 97.4%
The quality of the housekeeping services met my expectations (n=112) 95.5%
The hotel staff were professional (n=106) 94.3%
The quality of the hotel accommodations met my expectations (n=116) 93.1%
The breakfast food provided Saturday morning met my expectations (n=106) 91.5%
The hotel staff were courteous (n=107) 90.7%
The hotel staff were respectful (n=110) 90.0%
The hotel staff were helpful (n=104) 89.4%
The meeting rooms used for social events met my expectations (n=114) 89.5%
The snack food provided for the socials Friday night met my expectations (n=108) 85.2%
The location of the hotel in relation to BGSU’s campus met my expectations (n=114) 57.9%
Please provide additional feedback about the hotel:
people in one room? seriously?
Transportation for schools without vans/cars was slow; far trip to campus
The quantity of snack foods was so small that only the first small group of people who got to them got
anything. Not only that but there was no bottled water available. Since I don't drink soda I had to wait
all night to get something drink.
The hotel site was very attractive and well-maintained, but its distance from the programs held at the
BGSU campus was very inconvenient. We also found the hotel to be quite expensive, which is a rather
significant consideration when the conference fees are largely paid for out of student organization
funds.
While the hotel was nice, it was too far away from the conference site. I also wonder if a more
economical option could have been found. Staying at a Hilton seemed excessive.
need more vegetarian food options
It was too far away. I felt like time was wasted constantly in driving to and from the campus. It was
hard to meet new people and form a cohesive conference group because of this.
Why do you squeeze so many people into one room?
At times, the hotel staff was a little weary about all of our spirit. I wish the Cougars could have let
more roars out! lol
SWEEEEEEEEEEET
The key issues were pretty annoying but other than that everything was great!
The food at the socials was above expectations...it was the best food of the weekend
The only problem I had with the hotel was other delegates in rooms around mine being very noisy late
into the night as I was trying to sleep. Also the room were the opening ceremony was held seemed very
inadequate to the needs of the event, it was very hard to hear wha the speakers were saying.
It was acceptable.
The hotel was very nice, I really liked the pool.
The hotel was great, the half hour to bowling green while we were at the university of toledo made the
event seem poorly planned.
The beds were too small for two people.
the hotel was FABULOUS!!! i was only disappointed at having to wait for two hours before being
situated..
This was a great hotel. It was close to some great places to eat. Having a pool was a nice surprise.
The hotel was really far away and the directions were not real clear on how to get to BGSU so we, as
wel as others, got lost. Because of this I was late to my presentation.
101
Opening Ceremonies
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
I enjoyed the opening ceremonies (n=105) 91.4%
My delegation participated in role call (n=96) 84.4%
I was satisfied with the time limit of roll call (n=102) 79.4%
I was satisfied with the keynote speaker, Tiffany Davis (n=104) 73.1%
I was satisfied with the structure of the roll call presentation (n=106) 71.7%
I was satisfied with the video format for role call submissions (n=105) 67.6%
Please provide three specific suggestions for future opening ceremonies:
Make role call a little longer.
1-A room that is not L shaped 2-Better audio 3-Preparation on the part of the conference team
The videos should all be made into a format so that they can all be edited together so they can be
played with out any start and stop time.
should open with speech and then turn over to videos schools should still be able to introduce
themselves through cheers and other vocalizations before the videos more SPIRIT BREAKS!!!
The video role calls were nice, but all the videos were the same thing. It would have been nice to just
present a smaller selection of the best of the best.
A different room and set-up would be better in the future. It was too crowded in that small, wierd
shaped room. Something else to make it fun could be to have each delegation do a short cheer, apart
from the rest of the group, as the role call time has been cut down.
Do not use video format. Have speaker somewhere where everyone can see. Do not use video format.
1. Have more rules about when people can do their chant things. It slowed up intros a lot. I like that
people have spirit but it was interphering w/ the proceedings. 2. Make sure technology is working
right before you start. It slowed things up a lot. 3. After traveling all day no one wants to sit in a
room forever listening to people scream abbreviations. I think finding ways to stay more on task and
thus, shorten the event would be good.
1. Keep the video format but somehow integrate it into 1 smooth video format. 2. Increase the time
limit to 1:30. 3. Allow submission up to check-in.
More organization in regards to roll call formatting 2. Room more conducive to larger groups 3.
Greater ability for groups to communicate
Though I enjoyed the video roll call, it seemed like dealing with the technology was hard, when the
video kept freezing while switching formats. 2) A room with a more traditional layout would have
probably helped, it was hard to see the podium from different areas of the room. 3) Better sound
system would make it easier to hear presentors
Make sure every one knows how to use the video equipment, have something to do while the videos
are being uploaded, no keynote speaker
Roll calls that exceed the time limit should be excluded.
Video format shouldn't be required.
Please shorten the opening ceremonies.
Maybe roll call videos should be looped
We were still traveling during most of the opening ceremonies and missed most of them.
Letting actual roll call in person happen again.
1.Keep thinking of innovative ways to go about doing Roll Call. 2.Have a giveaway or something to
start the conference off with a bang! 3.Have more interesting things done at opening ceremonies i.e.
singing and sign language.
Work out technological problems beforehand. Less cheering - honestly, it became very obnoxious.
Bad venue - room was too small and oddly shaped.
Opening ceremonies are not particularly exciting or insightful, but perhaps necessary. Perhaps shorten
them drastically.
Do not require role-call submissions in a video format -- it was difficult and confusing. 2.) Use a room
where all attendees can see each other.
102
The opening ceremonies were fun and the keynote speaker was very engaging. However, our
delegation, though we had made a song and dance routine for our roll call, could not participate
because the guidelines were never made available to our NCC either via the website or e-mail. Also,
our banner was disqualified because the size requirements were also never available to us. It made us
very disappointed right off the bat. The rest of the conference was, honestly, marvelous.
My delegation was unable to arrive in time for the role call.
I liked that the roll call was able to be viewed though video but I think that you should have allowed
the universities that wanted to do the roll call non video style.
1. No keynote speaker. Both years they have been so boring I wanted to fall asleep in my chair. 2.
Video submission is fine, but let us know what the criteria for assessing the video will be. 3. If you
are going to do video submissions, you need to have a standardized format so that we don't have the
technical problems (i.e. all videos must be submitted in a Quicktime Movie format). Having to flip
between programs took too long and in some cases caused the computer to throw errors.
- Larger space - having a wide, narrow room made everyone feel a bit cramped - Better orchestration
of roll call - the video submissions were a creative concept, but it felt like we were waiting forever
while the transition was made between presentations - Have a better-rehearsed opening program - the
conference staff and RBD looked a little lost and didn't really contribute much to the energy in the
room.
Use lighting to make a more theatrical ceremony. * Energy-building music is needed to pump up the
crowd before and during opening ceremonies. * Provide space to move around and "ride the pony".
Work out technology problems before role call. Don't make it so late at night OR serve food That
was a bad venue for the opening activities
Better audio-visual
I arrived to the conference late so i didn't get to see opening ceremonies.
A more excited atmosphere in the beginning (similar to CAACURH at UMBC) 2. Live rollcall (video
was too much of a hassle) 3. n/a
Please provide additional feedback about the opening ceremonies:
the videos should have been compiled onto one dvd or been able to be accessed by the same format... a
lot of time was wasted sorting through media options, which made the crowd frustrated and less
attentive to the roll calls...
I did enjoy all the enthusiasm. It pumped me up after an 8 hour drive.
I really enjoyed roll call presentations. It was a lot of fun. I don't remember anything the keynote
speaker had to say, or her in general.
I liked the video format but there was quite a bit of confusion based on the roll call being accepted only
in video format, the deadline, and the content wanted.
My school was unable to participate in roll call after hours of hard work because the IUP e-mail format
is different than that of the required format. If you must use the video format, at least allow DVD's for
those who cannot use the right format.
Our roll call was not there. We turned it in but it was not there.
Went well, despite the visibility issues and the non-flow of the roll call videos.
It was annoying that BG's video was longer than the time limit.
It was fine, but I'd like to see roll call in person. This would make it more personal
I thought the video roll call idea was genius! I enjoy roll call anyway, but the video idea was a nice
twist this year. I thought opening ceremonies took a fair amount of time...not too long and not too
short. In addition, I thought the singing was fabulous!
The opening ceremonies were WAY too long.
I think we needed a bigger room. It was hard to see the speaker because the room at the hotel was kind
of angled. Also, not everyone had seats.
I think that the Opening Ceramonies could hae used a boost. Made it a little bit more enthusiatstic
My delegation was not able to arrive in time for the opening ceremonies.
Video role call was sort of confusing at first, but we may participate next year now that we have an
idea of what to do.
For some reason our school submitted a roll call, but it was not shown. That was extremely upsetting
for our school to put in the work we did without it being acknowledged.
103
Just one thing.. make sure everyone can see what is going on. And not so loud on the volume of things.
(especially roll calls)
If you are doing a video role call, that information needs to get to NCC's sooner.
They were way too drawn out and they keynote speaker was boring. Also, it would be nice if you gave
some kind of order to the videos you will show. You could go by state, alphabetical by college, etc.
The idea of video submissions was very time consuming and difficult for some schools - particularly
since each of the videos could only be a minute in duration. Not only did schools have to come up
with a concept and perform it, but then we had to worry about finding time to edit and format the video
to submit to the staff. Short time limits for the skits was a good idea, but these could have been done
with much more simplicity in person.
I personally preferred live roll call, because it allowed almost every school take part in the opening
ceremonies. With video roll call, schools could be marginalized because delegations are not able to
find the necessary equipment and technical expertise to put together roll call videos. I feel videos are a
good idea, however schools should also be given the opportunity to perform roll call live if they were
not able to develop a video. In regards to the CAACURH 007 roll call, I felt it was lacking the spirit
and energy of the past roll calls. Things I observed that could have been improved: audio (more
background music between transitions and music playing before and after the ceremony), having every
school take part, knowing which school had the upcoming roll call video, more exciting transitions,
and enhanced lighting.
I really enjoyed opening ceremonies! It was brief, but went right to the point. Tiffany Davis is such an
amazing speaker and she had so much energy!
104
Conference Programming
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
The length of programs met my expectations (n=105) 92.4%
I have implemented at least one new idea learned
at the conference at my home institution (n=105) 90.0%
Overall I enjoyed the conference programming (n=106) 89.6%
The information presented was useful to me (n=105) 84.8%
The number of programs offered met my expectations (n=106) 82.1%
The programming tracks met my expectations (n=105) 81.9%
The quality of programs offered met my expectations (n=106) 77.4%
Please provide three specific suggestions for future conference programming:
-don't put all the interesting programs during at the same time - implement a screening procedure
before accepting programs - have similiar room style of pictures of how the room will be setup for
presenters
More topics of programming More budget geared topics Know how to use the AV equipment in the
classrooms
n/a
1. Longer than 45 minutes for a program. I had to fly through content and did not get much time to
explain things. I did my best to gauge my time, but still, there is only so much of that I can do before I
start cutting out important things. 2. Instructions need to be placed in all the rooms on how to tie in
external devices (i.e.: a delegate's laptop) so that delegates can easily get set up. Even though I am a
computer major, I still found the media setup at BGSU confusing. 3. Please put parking closer to the
buildings where programs will occur. We literally had a walking tour of BGSU to get to and from the
parking lot and the program halls.
More recruitment for conference programming (outside of listserv messages). Individually go after
veteran delegates (guilt people into programming), sending out postcards, posting eye-catching
advertising on the conference website. * Encourage delegates from other schools to co-program with
each other. * Take programming materials from each of the conference programming sessions and
combine them into an archive that can be provided to each of the conference delegates (similar to
professional conferences).
The conference programming provides the oppotunity for new leaders to present - and to share ideas.
A requirement to the field of student affairs.
As NCC I didn't get to experience much... what am I paying money for then?
1.Get more info on someone's program before asking them to present. 2.Have concrete programming
categories, i.e. diversity, GLBTQ, leadership, issues surrounding race/ethnicity, social,
icebreakers...and think outside the box. 3.Continue to offer a wide variety of programs.
There should have been ART sessions there- I was disappointed that none were offered.
n/a
There was a very limited selection of programs. I thought there could have been more variety. Also,
the programs were hit and miss...either really really good or really really bad. I thought the homosexual
program relied heavily on stereotypes and that was no good.
Make it more organized. Some did really well w/ it - others looked like they didn't even know what to
do. 2. Encourage programs that are relevant to the majority. If a program is geared soley for small
schools, maybe it's not the best choice since there were many large colleges there as well. 3.
otherwise, they were good .. I don't have anything else to sugggest.
i loved the programs. The Top Model one was very interesting. Not only interesting, but a great
message for both guys and girls today.
Some of the programs didn't provide any new ideas and weren't presented in an interesting way.
It was really great to be able to interact with other schools on that level.
1. More variety 2. More advisor programs, there was 1 per session and if they didn't apply to your
position it was frustrating 3. More leadership development and discussion programs
105
Ensure all programs are ready at the time of conference. Have back-up programs for those that are not
properly prepared. Do not use false advertisement.
More honest programming titles 2. More information on each session 3. More interaction in each
session
Please provide additional feedback about the conference programming:
NCC's were not able to attend many programs... not applicable to make feedback
We as a CRA board are going to bring back the "Of the Month" awards.
I think it's a great idea that schools get to present what they've been doing. Great work.
Overall I had a good time and thought the programs were creative.
They were mostly very interesting.
There were a great number of options available, but it was difficult to choose based on the information
given, and I found most of the time regretting the decision I had made.
Programming was the best!
Some of the programs I attended has great potential but the presenters were ill prepared. I would
suggest that the programs have to have been presented before hand to professionals before they are
presented to the CAACURH delegates
I really liked the programs that I attended, they helped me to learn more about my RHA and how to
run it better.
The conference programming was just okay for me.
There needs to be a way to monitor was is being presented. Some of the presentations were useless.
More space in the rooms where you think programs are going to be popular. There was one program
about yoga... and we were in a lecture hall with imobile chairs. Perhaps you could have asked what
type of room was needed. and you could have tried to guess which programs would be most popular to
give more space for more people to attend. otherwise.. good programming!
The programs selected were good, however you could have done a better job informing the groups
ahead of time and not just a few days before.
I presented a program at the conference and found that there were three other programs of exactly the
same subject that were on the schedule - and one that was scheduled in the same slot as mine as a late
addition. I understand that the conference staff may have had some trouble filling spots with quality
sessions, but I don't think that the lack of diversity in programs and the way they were set up in the
schedule gave the delegates much to work with.
There was lack of originality for programs. I had seen all of them before. Information often was
inaccurate or under-researched. I was not impressed.
106
Conference Spirit
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
The banner theme met my expectations (n=92) 88.0%
The banner display met my expectations (n=91) 86.8%
My delegation participated in the banner contest (n=98) 86.7%
The banner guidelines were clearly written (n=87) 86.2%
The presentation of the displays met my expectations (n=90) 85.5%
The display guidelines were clearly written (n=75) 84.0%
The display theme met my expectations (n=80) 82.5%
I would recommend the spirit police in the future (n=109) 72.0%
My delegation participated in the display contest (n=91) 71.4%
The presence of the spirit police enhanced my conference experience (n=108) 71.3%
Please provide additional feedback about the display and banner contests:
The winning banner and display did not follow the guidelines.
I was dissapointed in the oo7 theme and the obvious connection to alcohol.
It was fun.
More time to view! (After opening ceremonies as well as during lunch?)
I cannot offer any input, I did not work on that team in my delegation.
The fact that the conference staff mandated the delegations to remove and store their displays and
banners immediately before Top 10 programs "or they would be thrown out" was rather poor and
inconvenient. That means that delegates had to leave the program site to walk back to their vehicles to
put the displays and banners away.
As I stated next to previous questions, the banner and display were kind of a disaster for our
delegation. We chose to do the banner in lieu of a display because driving to Ohio with a display could
be a disaster. However, our banner was disqualified because we never had the size requirements,
despite trying to obtain them. We were disappointed because we
For the banner I interpreted the guidelines to say that alcohol themes should not be included. However
at the conference I was disappointed to see most schools using alcohol on their banners. I don't know if
this had an affect on the judging or not. However in the future maybe that specific guideline should be
may more clear.
Pick themes that allow thought provoking insight. Putting alcohol in a negative light is unprofessional
and immature. Topics need to be fully explored. Mature alcohol consumption is an important part of
life and culture for a number of people
I enjoyed the banner and displays contests. I think it was hard for some schools to go around some
rules, but all in all, a job well done everyone.
Many of the displays and banners did not conform to guidelines. It was obnoxious to see them all on
display despite the fact they weren't complying.
Seemed to be more of an aside than a pivotal point of the conference. I'm not sure it was supposed to
be this way.
Our display was not shown because they said that we put stuff on there that we shouldn't but we saw
others with stuff just like our. We were angry because we spent time on that and followed the guide
lines and it was really good.
Rules/regulations got mixed up somewhere because there were a lot of different formats.
Information should have been presented to schools much earlier.
Make rules more widely known about size requirements and other expectations.
107
Please provide additional feedback about the spirit police:
Not really beneficial to the overall conference experience
Awesome.
They were great to have around. They kept everyone in a positive mood and promoted healthy school
spirit competition.
I thought the spirit police were a great idea!
I understand that spirit police award people for being spirited, but shouldn't they themselves be
spirited?
amazing and so much fun!
I didn't really notice them too much.
Loved it
Good idea in theory, but has the potential to be frustrating for certain schools.
It added a lot, especially during downtime!
The spirit police were amazing and I really enjoyed the way they got everyone pumped up. I thought
they were a great idea.
I don't like how it was almost a cheerleading competition. I avoided cheerleading all through High
School and wasn't prepared to start now.
they only rewarded some schools. And of couse some schools who bring 20 people are going to be
louder than a school who brings 7. It should not be on how loud they are, but the effect they geive as
well.
The police are an excellent idea that provides incentives for more delegates to cheer and have some
fun!
The Spirit Police drove us NUTS!
They are too invasive to the point that it is uncomfortable.
The spirit police searched for those who were loud and overt about spirit. Some of the most spirited
delegations show their spirit by actively participating in programs or educating and helping other
delegations.
We loved the spirit police. They got our delegation really pumped up, which resulted in us cheering
even MORE and getting recognized for a spirit award.
I think that most of the SPIRIT happened at Lunch. It was great to see that everyone had there cougar
spirt.
Sometimes they were too much/obnoxious
The spirit police were the most annoying thing at the conference. They came in during lunch and
made it so I could not eat. They were being so disruptive when I was trying to get between sessions as
well. My delegation loves CAACURH, but we are not the kind of people who run around and cheer
like some other groups. Don't label us by giving away pins to those groups who choose to be that
excited because then it becomes unfair. We can't get those because that is not how we are as a group.
It should also not count towards scores because again, now we are at a disadvantage.
I felt the spirit police were somewhat absent during most of the conference until Saturday lunch, and
were rather disruptive during our meal.
They were scary.
Awesome! They really added to the experience.
Spirit police were amazing! I think it was a great idea! Thank you for changing things up!
108
Please provide three specific suggestions for spirit initiatives at future conferences:
stop doing them, no one need to be that peppy. I'm not in elementary school, nor do i need to be treated
like i'm in elementary school.
The spirit police weren't seen a lot. Maybe having more police and during more parts of the conference
Cheer off Require each delegation to cheer in front of everyone Disband spirit police
Elimidate 99 Bottles of Spirit Stop, Hit It!
I think they did great.
Spirit police need more spirit. Have spirit police dressed as cops. Winner should get a formal 'ticket' or
'citation'
Have designated times and places people can do it in - the hotel got mad at people for chanting. 2.
Some people really dressed up and some didn't. Maybe w/ a costume contest (in addition to the banner
contest) the people who went all out can be recognized. 3. I don't know
(NA)
Less invasive.
T-shirt design contest? Cheer competition? ?
1. NO MORE SPIRIT POLICE. 2. No spirit initiatives at lunch. That is my time to sit down and
enjoy the food you have provided. 3. NO MORE SPIRIT POLICE
For myself, the spirit aspect of the conference in some ways overshadowed the leadership I believe we
are trying to promote within our hall councils. I do agree the spirit provides space to show school
spirit and pride; however, I agree up to the point of distraction. While I realize that the regional
conference is a reflection of the national conference - NAACURH. But as some of the leaders
continue on into the student affairs profession - conferences like ACPA and NASPA are far more
professional. I want to provide a good balance of fun, spirit, and professionalism/maturity.
1.More explanation to delegate members during Opening Ceremonies concerning the spirit police.
2.Have a spirit wand given out at the end of every conference to a delegation/school. 3.Hide the letters
in SPIRIT around the CAACURH events for people to find. Make it into a contest.
Spirit does not equal cheering, even if cheering is a part of spirit. School pride and attitude is a
crucial part of spirit. Focus on schools that have a well defined style of attending conferences. Find
delegations that are doing things different, being their own style, opposed to cheering constantly to
show spirit.
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Conference Philanthropy
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
Overall, I was satisfied with the philanthropy project (n=67) 79.1%
It was easy to participate in the philanthropy project (n=69) 76.8%
My delegation participated in the philanthropy project (n=73) 72.6%
I personally participated in the philanthropy project (n=74) 66.2%
Other organizations/offices from my institution, outside my delegation
participated in the philanthropy project (n=66) 60.6%
Please provide additional feedback about the philanthropy:
Let us know sooner so we can make more of a difference!
I didn't know that there was a philanthropy project
I guess I didn't know enough about it.
I don't believe we participated.
It was a simple and rewarding philanthropy overall. I really enjoyed it!
Not applicable.
More heads up on the project and tabs from cans are not widely used across campus so maybe other
tops or something else
This philanthropy was so easy to participate in that I would suggest doing every year with additional
charity/philanthropy to work for.
Twas a good idea collecting pop tabs for philanthropy!
We were unaware of the philanthropy project
The website didn't highlight the philanthropy project well. I didn't know we had one.
The philanthropy was very simple and easy for students to participate in. I loved the idea!
Somehow, our philanthropy project was lost. It was really frustrating.
This project was AMAZING! It was excellent for getting the whole campus involved because it didn't
involve money and college students don't have money!!!
The philanthropy was SO easy to do and it was easy to get everyone on campus to help
Harder for larger institutions to coordinate this philanthropy initiative with such short notice.
Safety, Security, and Transportation
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
I felt safe at the Hilton Hotel (n=114) 98.2%
I felt safe on BGSU’s campus (n=114) 97.4%
The quality of the transportation provided from the hotel
to the banquet facility met my expectations (n=68) 80.9%
The quality of the transportation provided from the hotel
to BGSU’s campus met my expectations (n=66) 78.8%
How did you arrive at the conference? Other responses:
We took a university bus loop since the hotel was on our campus.
We rode the UT shuttle (Toledo Delegation)
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Please provide additional feedback about your safety and the transportation provided:
was transportation provided from the hotel to BGSU/the banquete? My delegation was told to drive
ourselves
There was no transportation provided for people that drove there themselves. Yes, there was a shuttle
from the hotel in the morning, but only for certain members. Everyone else from our organization still
ended up driving anyway.
We drove ourselves and did not recieve transportation.
Our university drove everywhere with the van we rented. We actually got lost going to bowling green
because it said south on the directions and none of us knew which was south actually was. I think we
got four other universities lost as well...
I was really upset upon finding out there may be issues since we did not drive or fly. We used our own
university's transportation to reach the conference and were greatly upset when we found out that we
were expected to drive. I really feel that having everyone bussed to the BG campus would have been
better, providing more unity and bonding time among different delegations.
It was ok, however, even though we had called a head for a hotel bus to meet us when we flew into the
airport, they didn't come until we re-called and waited for a long time.
I felt safe but there was no transportation provided and since the directions were unclear we got lost.
Transportation was well coordinated, especially considering the amount of directions given to us.
I think that if the hotel is going to be far away from campus in the future it would be helpful to have
buses transporting people to and from the hotel to the conference site, not just those delegations who
flew.
We didn't use transportation as it was only available for those that flew...this should be reevaluated to
make for a green friendly conference
N/A- we didn't have transportation from hotel/BGSU because we drove ourselves. This was somewhat
disappointing.
Didn't see much of the campus though!
I wish the directions to the final banquet would have been more mapped out for delegations. Many
were late and some never found it. :(
We drove 10 hours to get to CAACURH!!!!
Driving Directions provided at the conference should be checked to make sure they are logical
(mapquest / google maps often start "head east" and "head west", which can be very confusing to those
who are driving - which we had a couple delegations get lost as a result). * Conference host schools
should consider providing transportation to & from bigger / regional airports with more discount
carriers (this will bring down the travel cost to allow more delegates from schools far away to
participate in the conference). I feel changing the provided Detroit airport shuttle from bid to
conference negatively impacted the CAACURH 007 conference attendance.
The fact that there was little to no transportation available between facilities for the delegates who
drove to the conference was a rather significant problem. Since it was nearly a half hour drive between
the hotel and campus, our delegation had to factor in additional costs for gas and mileage that we
weren't made aware of ahead of time.
Our delegation drove and were thus expected to transport ourselves from the hotel to BGSU and the
banquet facility, which I found to be inconvenient and confusing.
Transportation disorganized, slow, unreliable
NCCs, NRHHs, and those delegations that flew should not be the only people who get transport.
Everyone should get it because fuel now at days is expensive and you can fit more people into a
shuttle. More importantly, busses take up fewer spots at the venues so we would also not be causing
problems with that as well.
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Closing Ceremonies
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
The banquet facility met my expectations (n=111) 91.9%
The amount of food provided met my expectations (n=110) 87.3%
Overall I was satisfied with the closing ceremonies (n=110) 86.4%
The presentation of awards met my expectations (n=110) 82.7%
The length of the program met my expectations (n=110) 82.7%
The DJ met my expectations (n=109) 82.6%
The quality of the food provided met my expectations (n=110) 74.5%
The closing keynote speaker, Dr. Paula Whetsel-Ribeau, met my expectations (n=110) 44.5%
Please provide three specific suggestions for future closing ceremonies:
-get an interesting speaker who knows when not to use the word perspiration - have a sound system
loud enough so everyone can hear even in the back - have the award presenters act more
professionally
A better speaker A charismatic speaker Better sound system so everyone is able to hear
Louder sound. Tables closer to the speaker and dance floor in the back would have worked better.
1. No keynote speaker. They are always boring and do little if anything for me. 2. Work to provide
better directions to the venue. 3. I can't think of a third.
Video screens with award and school that won (to make it easier on schools in the back to see and stay
focused on the ceremony).
We were sitting in the back and could hardly hear what was saying
I was unable to attend this.
The speaker was poorly prepared. I felt that it was a waste of time listening to her. You need someone
as dynamic as the opening speaker.
1.Remember to put RBD related awards that we give out on the program. lol 2.Have an intense
interview with the keynote speaker...because she was good, but she messed up quite a bit. 3.Have a
singer or interpretive dance...something different to set your conference out from all the others.
Great job with the lenth of the program- very efficient
I would recommend not having a closing keynote speaker, as many people seemed antsy after eating
and kept talking while she was speaking. 2. The program should have listed all the regional awards
being presented in addition to the conference awards. 3. Bring on more rich chocolate mousse!
The speakers could've been shorter...
Get someone who knows their facts to speak- especially for the closing speaker because that is the
speech that people really take with them.
The food served was amazing. I also loved the martini bar. Knock out Job!
Modern DJ Party at Hotel
Don't sear the meat. I think a lot of that went to waste because we're college students and used to pizza
and other fully cooked food.
Make sure the food is dead and not oozing blood when served.
Make the presentation of awards more official. They seemed slapped together. 2. Make the dress code
more uniform and enforce it. Some people looked like they were going to a club when I believe it was
supposed to business casual. 3. I dont know.
More invigorating keynote speaker 2. Perhaps, no keynote speaker at all 3. More cohesion between
events
Some of the awards given don't mean anything to first time delegates because we don't know that much
about the conference. So the awards that weren't about schools was lost on me.
112
Please provide additional feedback about the closing ceremonies:
We were seated in the back, and could not hear a thing. We enjoyed conversation with other
delegations. Also, we had to split our delegation between 2 tables. Perhaps long tables could have
been used to prevent this.
The acoustics were terrible in this hall; keynote speaker was not confident, kept stumbling over names,
couldn't connect theme
The closing speaker did a less-than-satisfactory job in addressing her audience; I feel she clearly didn't
know who our residence hall leaders were - and the fact that she couldn't even keep the name of her
subject - James Bond vs. James Brown - straight was a bit embarrassing, actually. The beef we were
served was incredibly underdone and as a result our delegation barely ate anything. We ordered food
once we returned to the hotel.
I felt that Dr. Paula Whetsel-Ribeau was not having her best night - James Bond/James Brown.
The keynote speaker was good-just stay foucused
I was unable to attend this.
I liked the fact that we were sitting with another school. We still talk to the members of the other
school that we didn't know before.
The speaker did not focus on anything that had to do with CAACURH or anything it stands for.
The banquet hall was OK. I feel like something nicer could have been found.
Closing ceremonies was fun! I enjoyed the food, dancing, and the overall set up of the place. I have
been to several conferences and this one was one of my favorite closing ceremonies.
better sound system. in the back you would not hear anything. and the food was not cooked well.
The food at the closing ceremonies was UNDER-cooked!
Overall, it was fantastic! The DJ was willing to play a song from someone's iPod just so people would
dance to that music. Dr. Whetsel-Ribeau is a great speaker, although I feel her speech was written at
the last minute or just ill-prepared.
The food was great! I really enjoyed the martini fountain!
The food was HORRIBLE. The only thing our delegation ate was desert. One of our delegates had to
send her food back because it was not cooked.
Overall, they were ok.
The speeches were too long and not delivered well enough to hold the attention of the room. The
award presentation was fine though. The meat served was also to rare for many of the people in the
room.
I thought it was a lot of fun. It was cool to go out with a bang with all of the other universities.
The dancing was fun.
It was very difficult to hear in the back of the room all who used the microphone
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Overall Conference Experience
Percentage of respondents answering agree or strongly agree.
I would attend another CAACURH conference in the future (n=111) 95.5%
I would recommend attending the CAACURH conference to a friend (n=111) 95.5%
The CAACURH conference benefits students (n=113) 94.5%
Overall, I was satisfied with my conference experience (n=112) 93.8%
I enjoyed the structure of the conference (n=112) 91.1%
The structure of the conference met my expectations (n=112) 90.2%
The conference theme met my expectations (n=111) 87.4%
CAACURH helps students improve their leadership capabilities (n=112) 85.7%
I enjoyed the conference theme (n=111) 83.8%
What was your favorite part of your conference?
the spirit
going home
Evening activities
Opening ceremonies
Workshops
Seeing other people I know. Bonding with my delegation.
Programs
meeting new people!
Getting closer to the rest of the team that I work with back at the college.
I really enjoyed the banquet. It was really nice.
Lunch on Satuday
The banquet
The Banquet was my favorite part of the conference because it was fun to socialize in that setting with
my organization and with new people.
Choosing our own sessions.
the role call
Learning new styles of leadership and meeting new people who are willing to try new things.
Spending time with my delegation
Presenting a program, and riding the pony...
My favorite part was participating in the NCC boardroom as an RBD member. I gained a new
perspective on how things are done at CAACURH.
the programs
Role Call
The board room!
Program sessions
I enjoyed the conference overall - it was my first in this particular region, so I enjoyed meeting new
people.
spirit police
The Banquet / Closing ceremonies
dance
The programs and bonding with my RHA members and other RHA members.
meeting new people
The socials and activities at the hotel and the banquet.
The Wright State Top Model Program
The closing ceremonies was my favorite part of the conference. It was well organized and exceeded
expectations! Good job team!!
My favorite part of the conference was the experience of learning new leadership skills alongside my
delegation.
the pins
The sweet sixteen dance
Programming
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Opening ceremony and the spirit police
All the spirit displayed by the schools.
Hotel and Friday night food and activities
Getting to know organizational chairs from other institutions informally.
Opening session
Programs and Socials
the programs
Meeting new people.
I loved it all! It's hard to just pick one.
Spirit Police and Friday night social activities.
Closing ceremony.
The dance
the friday night activites and the spirit police.
The Dance
cheering, spirit police
The food
Networking and meeting and experiencing residence life from the view of other schools
I love Roll Call. I wish it was live this year though. It brings the group together on the 1st night and
automatically you start talking to other schools about ther performance.
Being able to spend time with my team, and meeting new ones at the same time.
the spirit police
hanging out in the hotel.
the dance
Ride the pony
Just the spirit and how everyone was too busy cheering at lunch to even eat. It was a cool thing to
experience.
Sex Ed seminar Ride The Pony Spirit Police
Trading clothes pins and the dance at the closing ceremony
I enjoyed the formal closing ceremonies and the classes.
The Spirit Police- they made it a lot of fun to be there. The atmosphere of the conference really
improved because of them.
Overall, I think the "off-time" that students from different universities had to interact with each other
was great. It gave the students from our school and opportunity to see what other institutions were
doing and to make connections.
Cheering
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What part of the conference could have been improved and why?
the multiple locations, it is better to have it all in one place
More sessions
the worst part was communcation from the staff to the students attending. did anyone know what was
going on?
Programming- the programming choices seemed a little weak. It was difficult to choose programs
because there were so few amazing choices.
Closing ceremones, bad speaker and bad sound system.
Overall organization; we had transportation issues with delegates, the theme was limited after being
established, closing ceremonies were difficult to hear
the organization of roll call and the closing ceremonies before the "dance" could've moved quicker
Check in was awful. We had driven five hours to get to the conference and when we get there we are
left waiting in a lobby that is getting more and more cramped by the second from other delegations
entering as well as other guests of the hotel who were trying to get through. You could also make sure
that you place delegates of the same gender together in the same room. For us our female delegates
were so spread out that we found it hard to communicate. In fact, the delegates that two of our people
had to room with locked them out one night (they had been hanging out in our room watching TV with
us) and when they got back, they could not get back in to their rooms. If all of our female delegates
had roomed together, we could have all been hanging out and not had to worry about the schedules of
other groups. They ended up sleeping in our room that night. (Two guys took the floor, another two
got a bed, and the two girls shared a bed.)
I've made comments in other sections that apply here, but I felt the conference theme in general was
inappropriate for an organization that supports the concepts of peaceful relationships, non-violent
behaviors, and alcohol alternative programming. The James Bond franchise revolves around alcohol,
sex, and violence. I could see where some of the concepts could be fun to incorporate into a theme,
but this was probably not the best choice.
Opening ceremonies lacked the spirit and energy that previous opening ceremonies had - I feel from
the lack of school participation. I would like to go back to live roll call.
role call- we were tightly cramped into that room with not enough chairs, and delegates were left
sitting on the floor
opening ceremonies was long
The spirit aspect.
I would have preferred it to be made more clear where snacks were at night and possibly have more.
I'm also not a fan of monitoring how much cafeine we drink at nigt.
Roll Call could be prepared to flow smoothly ahead of the presentation.
the awards dinner i felt was too long
Put more focus on learning and education and less focus on food and spirit.
Programs need to be better facilitated - some of them were awful. Spirit Police need to go - they are
too invasive and sometimes disrespectful to those who choose not to cheer.
Let us drink coke after 11. That has to be the dumbest rule I have ever heard of. We are all adults and
therefore responsible enough to know whether or not we can handle a can of coke after 11.
The whole situation with the hotel keys...everyone seemed confused and refused to ask for help.
more organization
The programming could be improved because there wasn't as great of a variety as in years past.
The closing ceremony
Location- too far between campus and hotel for such a short conference
organization, but the binders were GREAT!
The organization of the skit presentation.
The opening ceremony could have been a little more structured.
The awards ceremony. It didn't appear to be organized and functional.
I think a hotel closer to the campus would have been nice and better for travel, but if there was a
certain reason why you had to pick the Toledo Hilton, then that is understandable.
The programming and communication could have been improved. Also, the wait at the start of the
conference to get our keys was long.
lasted longer
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Transportation because parking was kind of crazy on campus and also to help become a more "green
friendly" conference
The programming sessions were lacking in quality, maybe stronger efforts to solicit presenters would
help in the future
Programming detailing, since there appeared to be a great deal of confusion.
just the website
While I enjoyed all of the programming sessions I went to I felt that at some times there wasn't as
much diversity of programs. This is, obviously, because of the number of people that submitted
programs but finding a way to encourage more delegations to present would definitely continue to
improve this aspect.
N/A
The programming. I was expecting something amazing but it was only okay.
Since this was the first year using the videos for roll call it's understandable to have a few kinks, but
nothing really.
Transportation and Registration/Payment. Please see earlier comments on both.
All programs perpared.
better programs because I don't think I learned anything useful to bring back to my univserity.
closing ceremonies... it was impossible to hear the closing speakers
The final keynote speaker was very difficult to hear.
The programs, they were not helpfull to my RHA because of the size of programs that we currently do.
Make Roll call like. - The scheduale the presidents, Mainly the NCC missed alot of the conference
due to the scheduale & swap shop should stay on the last night.
I think the speakers could have been a little bit more energized. As a result, we would be a lot more
excited as well.
the roll call because it was difficult to send and hard to get accomplished
the variety of the programs.
More separation from own e-board.
Better organization needed. Staff seemed confused and unknowledgable at several time.
The opening ceremonies. I think people started to lose interest with all the breaks between the video
clips, but I like the idea of video role call.
The speakers! I didn't have a problem with the first one at opening ceremonies, but I couldn't bear to sit
there and listen to the closing keynote speaker. She didn't know her facts, made a lot of errors, and was
really difficult to listen to because of it.
The quality of a few of the programs could be better.
Wish it were longer
Better audio-visual during video roll call
The NRHH Business meeting was VERY unorganized and rather pointless. I was disappointed.
The distance between the campus and the hotel. More information about places around the hotel.
Closing ceremonies, as stated in that question.
I felt that some of the work shops could have been a little better planned
While the theme was clever, I don't think it was particuarly appropriate, given higher education's
messages and goals regarding alcohol use, violence, and the objectification of women..
the banquet
The hotel and the conference site being closer together.
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What could CAACURH do to better prepare delegates as leaders?
give them usefull information they probably haven't heard before
provide leadership opportunities at the conference
offer more variety in programs
Nothing
no suggestions
More and detter information ahead of time.
Group a few delegations from colleges of the same size together and then work with these larger
groups to individually to help improve disciplines.
Accept a more diverse and in-depth selection of programs; a lot were common sense, not useful in
practice
More programming diversity and a lot more work in between conferences to help promote quality
programs and presentations.
Provide more resources to all student leaders from information presented at conferences.
Just have more thorough work shops
nothing-
I think having a time and place for the pride - and really making the presentations a time for leadership
exploration.
Know about the theme and expectations earlier.
CAACURH does well already in preparing leaders in the region.
Screen programs, and don't allow "warm body" programs simple to fill time
Have some sort of standard program that focuses directly on leadership. CAACURH seems to focus a
lot on spirit, and the balance should be more evenly split between spirit and leadership.
Offer NCCs alternative programming that fits our schedules.
Do simulations and situations that might come up in a residence hall, organization, etc. People may
like that.
Help them to understand the balance between spirit and professionalism; that there is an appropriate
time and place for spirit, and also an appropriate time and place for professionalism
Provide problem solving programs
nothing.
I would suggest a resource of what to do after the conference: follow-up with delegates who attended,
how to implement new programs, how to convince more people to attend CAACURH.
Better programming.
Maybe pairing a couple schools off to share ideas. Small group work.
more info
n/a
Have more programs like the north, south, east, west game so that leaders understand who they are and
how they lead.
Offer sessions teaching the delegates how to prepare a conference presentation.
Send information (especially philanthropy) out earlier
I think providing more opportunities for guided discussions among students would be helpful. They
take in a lot of information at these conferences but I don't know if they always have an opportunity to
work through what it is that they're learning.
Programs provide more handouts.
Do an actual program inforcing students to take leadership positions.
It makes you think about what you can do for your campus.
More roundtables.
Have more designated interactive activities, maybe an entire session period composed of completely
interactive programs
have paid postions.
I believe that if you made it to CAACURH you are already a leader. I think at the conference there is a
strong body of leadership and we're ready to deal with whatever the conference can dish out! YAYY!
nothing
Aid implementation on home campuses
more useful programs
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An additional class on how to get apathetic students motivated would have been useful.
Video conferences chronicled online
More programs ran by Advisors.
What could CAACURH do to better prepare delegates for their conference experience?
instruct the NCCs on what to tell them
Nothing
I was new to the conference and i was not ready for anything! maybe on the website put an open talk
where people can talk about what to expect or how the cofeerence was.
More in-depth details about the conference.
Make sure the CAACURH organizer on the campus knows what they are doing.
send packets for each student who is attending.
I think the delegates seemed prepared just fine.
I think there was sufficient preparation.
Have the conference information up MUCH sooner. Especially registration and invoices!!!
Make sure the website is available and updated
Nothing.
Perhaps a quick rundown of how the conference works for new delegates. A sort of crash course in
conference participation. I think the handouts and the binders were a huge help to some of our
delegation that had never been to a conference before - maybe getting those earlier so that they could
plan things out more carefully.
give a list of the programs ahead of time so that we have an idea what they are going to be on.
Give us more information and no changes at the last minute please.
Possibly send a short video to each NCC explaining what roll call is, what a banner consists of, what a
display is, what theme days are, how the spirit things work, traditions that have arisen (ie. clothespins)
Videos of previous CAACURH
Send out all the Bids, Rules for Banner & Display, Philanthrphy & roll call 1-2 months prior. So
student will have time to prepare
Just let them know they'll have a blast.
nothing
Send information enough in advance that they can plan and not be stressed out before the conference -
they are students too!
Video conferences chronicled online for reference. Clearer instructions and more time to prepare.
More explanation of what to expect...this is always something that can be improved upon though.
CAACURH/NACURH tutorial session for new delegates
nothing
CAACURH could improve the website to be easier to navigate and include links that work.
nothing i felt prepare for the conference.
That is something you have to go into blind. There is no way to explain a CAACURH conference, and
that is the beautiful thing about it.
Clearer and more timely communication from the conference staff.
Get them information sooner rather than later, work to place delegations closer together (guys and girls
from same delegation on same floor), and have check-in ready to go so when delegates arrive, they can
get unpacked and refreshed before the opening ceremonies.
Tell them what to expect in terms of programming, spirit, how to prepare, etc - provide a guide to the
regional conference (which is updated each year to provide relevant information for the specific
conference). NCC's are not always the most effective way to do this - more communication needs to
occur between conference staff & individual delegates.
Get the website up and running sooner, send a detailed timeline with all deadlines earlier
I think we were pretty well prepared. Communication can always be improved.
Get information out sooner.
More information about the specifics of the conference.
Provide better communication with delegates.
nothing
119
Other comments or suggestions:
-- Bright colored volunteer shirts - more easily identifiable -- Spirit police should be unmarked if
they are kept. Some schools were only spirited when they came around, though I liked the tickets... I
felt that it should have been a little more anonymous.
overall it was nice.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Do not pick a theme which centers around alcohol, sex and violence and then tell delegates they can
not reference these ideas..it defeats the purpose of a theme
NO MORE SPIRIT POLICE!
The regional advisor really made no effort to connect with other advisors at the conference. There was
no introduction made at the Advisor Social, no invitation to join the NCC boardroom. I did not feel
very welcome at the conference and more or less felt as though I was most valued as a chauffeur for
my delegation
Love CAACURH!
I Loved CAACURH
You all did a fantastic job and I was really impressed!!
Great Job, i enjoyed the conference!
Fantastic job. The theme and activities were all wonderful.
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Again,
Congratulations on all your hard work thus far!
Good Luck with the rest of your conference planning.
It will be here before you know it!
Have fun with it.
Own it.
Make it amazing!
Don’t hesitate to contact any of my chairs or myself
if you have any questions, comments, or concerns!
I know I asked the previous chair a million questions.
Good Luck!
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