Writing Bids for MORHA A Quick How To Guide October Business Meeting 2014 Eastern Michigan University Presented by Tyler Bradley

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT IS A BID? A bid is a written report that explains why a student, organization, program, or an advisor is deserving of recognition. There are three different types of bids that can be written. 1. A bid that recognizes an individual or institution for their outstanding efforts on their campus or through a program. 2. Bidding to hosting a MORHA conference in the winter or a business meeting in October or April. 3. A bid for a position on the MORHA Executive Board.

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT CAN BE BID FOR? 1.RHA of the Year = 30 pages 2.Program of the Year = 30 pages 3.Most Improved RHA of the Year = 16 pages 4.Student of the Year* = 16 pages 5.Advisor of the Year* = 16 pages 6.First Year Experience Award* = 16 pages 7.President of the Year = 16 pages 8.Family Member of the Year* = 10 pages 9. Resident Assistant of the Year = 16 pages 10. Distinguished Service Award** = 16 pages 11. Focus on Diversity Award = 10 pages 12. Commitment to Philanthropy Award = 10 pages 13. Executive Board Member of the Year* = 16 pages 14. Outstanding MOCC of the Year* = N/A pages *indicates voting on bid is done by MORHA executive board **indicates voting on bid is done by a MORHA-created committee

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT CAN BE BID FOR? OUSTANDING MOCC OF THE YEAR This award recognizes a communications coordinator from an affiliated school that has state correspondence, received recognition through awards: state and campus activities, participation in campus and state services, participation in conferences: delegation building, spirit, attendance and participation in meetings and programs, participation in monthly Business Meetings, and assistance to residence hall organization Executive Board. ADVISOR OF THE YEAR This award recognizes a member of the housing professions at a member school of MORHA that has demonstrated Campus involvement, recognition received through awards: campus and state, participation in conferences: attendance, presenting programs, etc., participation in monthly Business Meetings and state involvement, and involvement with regional and national affiliates. STUDENT OF THE YEAR This award recognizes a student at a MORHA member school, with which the following shall be included in the bid: organizations involved in, offices held, MORHA involvement, conference attendance, programs presented, and significant contributions to RHA. The nominee may not be an MOCC in the current year. Additionally bids should include their service to RHA, campus, and state, recognition through awards: campus and state activities, participation in conferences: spirit, attendance, and participation in meetings and programs, participation in monthly Business Meetings, and involvement with regional and national affiliates.

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT CAN BE BID FOR? FAMILY MEMBER This award recognizes a family member from a MORHA member school in good financial standing who has come to the October Business Meeting of the same academic year and has demonstrated commitment to MORHA, assistance to the MOCC, and programs presented throughout the year, as well as state correspondence, recognition through awards: campus, state, regional, and national activities, participation in campus and state services, and participation in conferences: spirit, attendance, and participation in meetings and programs, and assistance towards their own RHA/URA on campus. FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE AWARD The recipient shall be completing their first academic year of activity with their school’s RHA/URA, and must demonstrate campus involvement, RHA and/or Hall involvement, recognition through awards: campus, state, regional, and national affiliates, participation in state services, participation in conferences: spirit and attendance and participation in meetings and programs, and academic accomplishments. RESIDENT ASSISTANT OF THE YEAR This award recognizes a student currently employed for at least one full semester as a RA or similar role who is in good academic and disciplinary standing from a MORHA member school in good financial standing, and has demonstrated significant contributions to their campus residential community, other campus involvements, MORHA involvements, and received recognition through awards on campus and state levels.

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT CAN BE BID FOR? EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER This award recognizes a member school’s ResHall e-board member in good academic and disciplinary standing. They must have significant contributions to their ResHall org, fulfillment of constitutional duties, assistance to other e-board members, and MORHA, regional, and national affiliated involvements. DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD This award recognized a student in good academic and disciplinary standing from a MORHA member school in good financial standing who has been involved with MORHA for at least three years in some capacity including, but not limited to, MORHA Family members, conference staff, MOCC, or MORHA E-board, and has significant service to residence hall organizations, campus, and MORHA. Recognition awards, participation in conference and business meetings, and regional and national affiliates should also be included.

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT CAN BE BID FOR? PRESIDENT OF THE YEAR This award recognizes a president of a MORHA member school’s residence hall organization in good academic and disciplinary standing, relative to each member school’s ResHall org’s requirements. The applicant must have significant contributions to their ResHall org., met goals, MORHA involvement, programs presented, recognition through awards, and/or involvements with regional and national affiliates. PROGRAM OF THE YEAR This award recognized any program in the past year by a ResHall group based on relatedness to ResHall students, proven effectiveness, creativity and uniqueness, program development methods, level of student input and involvement. FOCUS ON DIVERSITY Any member school in good standing may submit a bit for this, which includes the school’s diversity philosophy, how RHA contributed to this philosophy, and plans for improving future diversity programming. May include up to 10 programs.

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT CAN BE BID FOR? MOST IMPROVED RHA of the Year Any member school in good standing is eligible. Must include institutional description, RHA involvement, number and quality of events sponsored on campus, number of people in organization, amount of funds available, and new ideas and events added to campus. RHA’s state and campus level involvements are important. COMMITMENT TO PHILANTHROPY Any good standing member school is eligible. Must submit a maximum of ten programs related to philanthropy issues and a brief description of each. Must include bidding school’s philanthropy philosophy and how their RHA contributed to this and plans for future philanthropy. Participation in MORHA philanthropy also important. RHA OF THE YEAR Any good standing member school may submit this award. REQUIRES AN ORAL PRESENTATION FROM TWO REPS FOR TEN MINUTES. Must include institutional description, facilites description, campus involvement, MORHA involvement, quantity and quality of OTM submissions, and RHA budget. Judged on campus and state involvements.

Writing Bids for MORHA LETTER OF SUPPORT A letter of support is bid content authored by a named individual with a personal or professional connection to the nominee. Letters of Support are necessary for all of the bids that you can bid for. When approaching people and asking them to write a letter of support remember: 1.The person that is being asked is knowledgeable about the person/event/group the bid is about. While some bids require letters from certain people, others do not. Some people to keep in mind are Housing officials, NRHH/RHA presidents, and supervisors. 2. Give the person plenty of time to write a strong letter. If ample time is given, the writer will have plenty of time to reflect on the person/event/group and write the best letter possible. Helpful tips: Send a list of topics that are relevant to the source (project they worked with nominee on, etc.) to provide a starting point Ask the nominee who could author an exceptional letter Look at the award requirement because some awards need multiple letters of support.

Writing Bids for MORHA WHAT ELSE IS IMPORTANT? THEME Most bids use a theme ranging from Disney, to musical genres, sports teams, and more. This helps liven up your bid to be more fun. SUBMISSION Bid intents are due 4 weeks before the conference. Submit as a PDF document to Director 14 days prior to conference. Note: Distinguished Service must be submitted 21 days before registration of the conference to the advisor. COMMONLY MADE MISTAKES Overwhelming in theme, too many or too few details, unimpressive numbers, content unrelated to category, opinions and unfounded claims (put these in quotes from others), over-formatting (keep text simple), unreadable font (handwriting fonts, bad colors, bad color pairings), huge graphics, poor quality graphics, Photoshop botching, page numbers. WHAT’S NEXT Once bids are submitted and voted on, the winners will be announced at the banquet at the end of the MORHA conference.