Selection

Meetings are usually the 1 st Wednesday of each month at 6:45 in the Forum Room. Be sure to reserve meeting dates with Tracy in the main office. We did move some meetings so that we wouldn’t meet during finals or the day after a return from a school break. I’ve found that it helps to schedule out all the dates at the beginning of the year and publish them for the kids. NHS has a website. You can ask Toni Beckler to add the dates to the page and train the students to look there if they forget.
The historian should maintain the NHS bulletin board in the front hall of the school. There is also a Student of the Month board there.
In past years we’ve had a service committee to generate ideas for new projects, but that has worked with various levels of success. You may want to try it or you may want to try generating ideas at the general meetings.
Officer’s typically met the Wednesday morning prior to the monthly meeting to set the agenda. Beware that you will always get several requests from the community or the volunteer coordinator, Marsha Newcomb, in the week between the planning meeting and the group meeting!
There are 3 boxes of NHS paper products, decorations, and coffee mix-ins in the cupboard in the Forum room for hosting breakfasts. There are more which I will deliver to your room in the fall. The office ( Tracy) won’t let me store everything there, even though those cupboards are mostly empty. I was luck to get some things there. Perhaps you can ask again and get a different response.
You have to check out a Forum Room key from Tracy every day before an event. In the past I have not been allowed to keep a key.
A popular activity that can be scheduled anytime during the year is cooking dinner for the families at the Ronald McDonald House. Contact Katie Dahill at KDahill@RMHTwincities.org for a list of available dates. An easy to cook meal for such as large group has been taco salad. We did it 3 times this past school year. You get a kid or kids to shop, and then 6-8 go to the house to cook. You do have to always have an adult chaperone, but I always enjoyed going. It only takes about 4 hours. You leave school at 3:30 and get back by 7 usually.

August

6-8 students meet at the school to call all sophomores to remind them of orientation
5 students help at sophomore and junior orientations to hand out tentative schedules to the students
This is the first year that the group will participate in the American Cancer Society Relay for Life on August 10 th at the Maple Grove HS track.
I usually had a planning retreat with the officers during teacher workshop week. We would meet and order lunch and set goals for the year.

ASAP do the parking lot raffle: we sell $1 raffle tickets for a free, close parking space in the parking lot. Have people sign up for lunch shifts. Each lunch equals .5 fundraising hours. If someone has already purchased a permit and they win the office will refund their money.
Get a GPA report from Penny Landry and invite qualified seniors to apply. As I mentioned to you, we help mandatory meetings for interested parents and students. I have records of who attended the meeting as a junior so they could skip the Sept meeting if you choose to continue this part of the process. If you choose to do selection as you did at PCHS, feel free. I’m sure that Bob will support any process that works. The Faculty Council that read applications for me is: Cindy Sandquist, Casey Trittipo, Bill Bauman, Bill Quan, Jackie Trzynka, Caroline Benton, and Anne Marie Martin.
At the end of the month, ask via email all BLT members (department chairs) to nominate one student from the department as a student of the month. Have the nominating teacher send you name, ID number and reasons for the nomination. Compile the reasons list for Bob to read at the breakfast.
Start thinking about a big fundraising project. I strongly suggest trying to bag groceries at Cub Food in Maple Grove near one of the holidays. Last year we made $1600 in tips in 10 hours even with a snow storm in the middle and the Viking’s Packers game before the end of the shift. You have to write a letter to the manager to be in the running. The sooner you submit your letter the better. Last year we had an employee as a member so that helped us, I think. I sent a thank you note after the event so hopefully we are on good terms for the future. We have also bagged at the Champlain store and the one on Brooklyn Blvd but we made far less money at both.
Get 2 volunteers to man the table at the activity fair which is in Sept or Oct. You may also want to make the display more visual. I only even had a flyer and the scrapbook on the table.

October

In past years, having a Halloween food drive in the Osseo neighborhood has been popular. We haven’t always done it, but usually. We get bag donations from an area grocery store. On one night the students drop off bags and a flyer explaining the process. A few nights later, the pick everything up.
Get students to help at Conferences
Begin planning for the school wide effort in Advisory in November. In past years we have done food drives, “shoebox drives” where classes put together boxes for Operation Christmas Child (which we can’t say the name of in advertisements, so “shoebox drive), and door decorating contests.
After Halloween stock up on orange and black table cloths on clearance! We are almost out of the supply of them that I bought a few years ago. They are great for the student of the month breakfasts and other events. We can usually use them more than once.
Ask departments for a student of the month.

Check the Advisory calendar for the dates of the NHS activity.
The first student of the month breakfast will happen in Nov. It will honor the September and October recipients. Remember to reserve the Forum Room with Tracy for the date you select. Nikki Campea has volunteered to chair the breakfasts and should have the information that the previous chair collected on how to run the event. NHS volunteers (and you with the key) usually arrive at 6:30. The breakfast attendees at 6:45. Dr. Bob at 7 comes to read the comments that nominating teachers made.
Plan to do the 2 nd parking space raffle before the 1 st trimester ends.
Ask for Nov. students of the month.

December

Depending on the structure of registration conferences the office may want help.
Get 2 volunteers to man the table at the activity fair. There is also a fair during registration conferences so get a volunteer for that.
Try to schedule Induction Ceremony. I always try to coordinate with Bob’s schedule so that he can be there. Traditionally, the ceremony is on Sunday afternoon at 2pm in the Auditorium. Schedule the date with Tracy. Be sure to have that you need to podium on stage on the permit. Also, talk to AV about having mikes on hand just in case something happens. One year the auditorium manager didn’t show up, for example. The giant candelabra is stored in a music closet near the auditorium. The teachers are always willing to help you if you send students to move it backstage at some point in the week before Induction.
You’ll hear from the March of Dimes coordinator soon if you haven’t already. We usually have a big group participate in the walk and we do some sort of school wide fundraising effort for the organization. The walk is in April.
Run the 3 rd trimester parking lot raffle at the end of the month before finals week.
Ask for February student of the month

Induction: Tracy has the program saved in her computer and will update it for you each year if you just send her the lists of members and such. The Induction ceremony is for seniors who were selected in September and the juniors. We have usually had cake and punch after the ceremony. If you would like more information let me know. (This past year induction was not until April, but I invited the juniors to come to meetings starting in March.)
Check 3 rd trimester grades for 3.5 GPAs.
Student of the month breakfast for Jan and Feb students.
Ask for March student of the month

Get help for conferences. These are usually classroom conferences so there are many lost parents in the building.
Plan ahead for May. There is NHS time in the Advisory calendar in May for senior notes. We make enough notes for each junior to have 2 and each sophomore to have 1. We give the notes to Advisory classes. You can ask Penny for a list of teachers by grade level or use the Auditorium seating charts in the shared staff folder. Once the notes are returned to you, NHS members will need to sort them for distribution to the seniors during Advisory. Penny can give you the class lists of senior advisories. We but the notes in Advisory teachers PO boxes with 2 Hershey’s kisses for each senior and the teacher, even if they did not get notes.
Ask for April student of the month

Final student of the month breakfast! Try to get a new junior to sign up to chair for the next year so they can learn from the senior currently in charge.
At May meeting elect junior officers. Have a meeting with the new officers and plan for one final NHS meeting for the juniors to get signups for graduation help( the office usually wants 2 people), and the August orientations.
Have a final meeting with seniors to loan them a stole to wear at graduation. If you make a list of the numbers and give it to Tracy she will graciously collect them from seniors at graduation or at school.

NHS Timeline