October OTM Deadline and more!!!!

[Brandon Mills]

Hello fellow NRHHer,

I just wanted to take this oppurtunity to remind all of you guys and gals that 
the October OTM Deadline is on this Friday, November 15th.  OTM submissions 
can be emailed to me at bmills at uclink.berkeley.edu (preferred), handed into me 
in person at the PACURH conference, or mailed to me at the following address:

NRHH-Brandon Mills
2552 Chaning Way #2272
Berkeley, CA 94720

If you are planing on submitting them in person, please bring them on a 3.5" 
diskette in electronic format.  Additionally, below are some suggestions to 
make the process better.

1) Please put your nomination on the appropriate National OTM Form (they can 
be downloaded at www.msstate.edu/org/nrhh).

2) Make sure the submissions fit on the form (and formated correctly).  Pay 
special attention to the word count box and the information on the top of the 
form.

3) When submitting the nominations electronically, please send one file per 
award and name the file in a way that makes logical sense (I prefer the format 
community_sept_stmarys.doc) it makes locating submissions easier then 
johndoe.doc.

4) Please make sure the information is month specific.  If it didn't happen in 
that month, it won't be considered.  Additionally, try to state explicity what 
month the actions/events took place in.

5) Proofread your submissions.  Spellcheck catches spelling mistakes if the 
mistake is not a real word.  If you write the word "car" instead of "can", the 
Can Food Drive becomes the Car Food Drive which takes a bit more explaining.

6) Remember that as a region we have two awards that the nationals don't: 
Staff/Faculty of the month and Diversity Program of the Month.  This gives you 
as a school more chances to recognize.

7) If you only have enough time to submit a few OTMs to regionals, consider 
them in categories that have less competition.  Student and RA are always 
heavily submitted, community service and exec board not as much.

8) Above all, remember that the purpose of the OTM awards is primarily 
recognition and not competition.  Personally, I feel it is much more important 
to make sure the OTM program is accomplishing its purpose on the school level 
instead of devoting all of your energy to the regional and national OTMS.

Thanks for reading my excessively long email.  I look forward to reading even 
more amazing OTM submissions this month.

See you all at PACURH,

Brandon Mills
AD NRHH/Recognition