President's Corner |
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Chapter of the Year Award
How can your
chapter enjoy winning the coveted Chapter of the Year Award??
I’ve put together some of the points found in AFSA Manual 700-1,
Vol. 4 and some tips on how your awards program will help your chapter
grow. Guidelines
for a successful package. Don’t
forget to get your senior leadership to proof read it for you and use
their skills to build a better package. To
win at the International level, we must have great chapter of the year
package at division level. Here
are a few tips to help you submit a successful package.
I would like to see ALL Chapters submit a package, whether you
think you could win or not. First,
if your chapter does not keep monthly meeting minutes, START!
These minutes will assist you in creating your quarterly HGIR,
which you can use to write your Chapter of the Year award.
It will also assist you in preparing your five-minute Chapter
Report for the division convention.
Keep all correspondence your chapter receives from outside
agencies. If you receive
Letters of Appreciation or Congratulatory letters, etc.
Include them in attachment three of your Chapter of the Year
package (copies are fine). Ask
all of your chapter members to give you any letters or certificates that
they receive, if they don’t already come through you.
Look at the Appendices J and K in Volume 4 NOW and make plans now
for your chapter to be able to have activities in all the categories.
If your chapter is involved in all categories of the nomination
package, you can’t help growing and being more successful. Use
all the information you have and quantify what your chapter has
done for the past year. For
example, if your chapter has contributed so many volunteers for a project
and each has volunteered for X amount of hours, you can show the total
number of volunteers and the total number of hours for a particular
project. After that you need
to explain what impact your volunteers or monetary donation (both are
important) had on the specific project.
For example, you chapter donated 36 hours for the ________, which
benefited ___#___ of children and donated $___, which went to
purchase_______ of the Turkey baskets and toys for children. Bottom
line: Continue
doing what you are doing now, but document it.
I believe each chapter is doing great things and should submit a
package every year. Even if
your chapter doesn’t win you will have a documented beginning for the
next fiscal year. Use the
document to see what you did or didn’t do, and plan to do more of what
worked and try new things that you missed the year before. The deadline for this years nominations is 14 Feb 05. Please get your packages completed on time to be eligible for competition at the division level. |
