Induction Crew Sign-Sign Ups & planning

A thank you goes out to all the members who showed to get the induction planning started at last Thursday's optional meeting. Even more praise belongs to the students who have taken leadership roles in running the various crews we will need to make induction a professional success.

Now it's time for the rest of us to get involved. As Sarah smartly says on the Facebook, we all have to be there anyway! Here are the ways you can sign up to be a part of the evening's work:

Ushering

Sarah Kanter is collecting names via the Facebook group. You can also text her, but I won't put her number here.

Reception Set-Up & Break-Down

Sign up with the Google Doc set up by Erica, Joe, Abigail, Emerson, and David:

• Sign up!

Ceremony Set-Up & Break-Down

Sign up with the Google Doc set up by Nolan (and other dudes, but their names aren't on it):

• Sign up!

These jobs can all be found on our Trello planning board, too:

• https://trello.com/b/QyD8r61v/induction-committee

Trello is one of the many tools out there that can make organizations more efficient and productive that I've been testing this year. I know we have our Facebook, but for students that don't have Facebook, it won't work. Plus, I'm always on the hunt for things that feel "special" or different from what every other high school club is using.

That's why I'm experimenting with setting up an NHS slack. What is a slack? It's like a team chatroom, but the chats can be organized by topic, and the things we already use daily like Google Docs, Calendar, Gmail, Twitter, etc. can get easily integrated and shared. And there's emoji.

I've sent an email to every current member to check it out. You can also download the Android or iOS app to access via your phone or tablet. As I sent via text earlier this week, if any member is into this web 2.0/coding stuff, feel free to help me set it up and test other uses. 

It's not an official replacement to our other communication methods yet, but I need activity on it to test it's viability. More to come I hope!

Here's a pair of service opportunites

Hi Mr. Ahnert,

I was just emailing in regards to my CAS project, the Bulldog Giveback Day. As of now, we have about 15 people total to be there for Saturday, and four of those people (who I believe are all in NHS) are unconfirmed. So, I was emailing to ask you if it would be possible (and I don't know if Mr. Mezeske already did this, because I am not sure who he forwarded my email to) for you to either email out a message to the NHS group, or even send a text message. All it really needs to say is the time (Saturday, 11/21/15, from (9:00 AM to 2:00PM) and my email address (Available on flyers around school) to contact for signup and further details.

Thank you for your time and help,

Sean

Hi Heath,
I am looking for a peer tutor for Geometry PSP during S2. None of my peer tutors can do it at this time. Would you mind posting a request on your NHS site to see if I can get someone to take on this student?
Thanks.
Mary Ellen

11/19 Optional Meeting will be meeting of Induction Committee

One of our yearly responsibilities is to conduct our own induction ceremony of the 100+ junior members that will now be joining us.

Please come to this Thursday's optional meeting if you are interested in any of the following jobs:

• Induction set up leaders
• Induction break down leaders
• Reception planning (food buying!)
• Reception set up leaders
• Reception break down leaders
• Running the theater booth
• Induction usher leaders
• Ceremony planning (speech writing!)
• Writing induction invitations to school board and superintendent 
• Creating the programs

It's a lot of work and it doesn't happen without help from a lot of leaders.

Also, mark those calendars: We all go to Induction rehearsal in the morning and evening of December 8th. On the bright side, that's two meetings out of your 20 required.

The bylaws stand

The proposed changes to Article V and Article VI have not passed the vote. Therefore, the current bylaws stand.

The proposed changes were tallied by line item vote, and both amendments failed. The first suggestion failed outright, and the second suggestion did not meet the 2/3 majority as required by article XII of the bylaws.

Personally, I'm encouraged by what you have experienced this past month:

1. A student disappointed with the current attendance policy asked me to bring it up for change
2. For two weeks, two separate committees of current NHS members workshopped current policies and developed tenable solutions. 
3. NHS leadership conducted a vote, and encouraged membership to vote thoughtfully. 
4. The members upheld current policies.

Now, you may say, "But Mr. Ahnert, so many people are unhappy with having to come in at 7! How can you call this futile effort a success?" 

The answer is in what the bylaws are. They are the rules that we use to guarantee we all have an agreed upon standard of conducting ourselves now that we are in this Honor Society. That's the key. When we chose to answer the call to membership, we signed these bylaws. They protect us.

Our work this month has proven that our bylaws work. By upholding them, we have strengthened our organization. By testing them, we are reminded that as leaders we have a voice.

I look forward to our next conversation about how to do what we do -- better.

Mr. Ahnert

Changes to this week's schedule

1. Bedford will not be attending the Fall 2015 state conference: Only five students showed interest in attending the state conference at UNH this Friday. A bus costs too much for NHS to foot that bill for the such a small number of interested students. 
2. There is no optional meeting this Thursday: Parent-teacher conferences are going on this week in the building. The official times are Tuesday and Thursday evening, but many teachers like myself need to use the mornings as well to fit in all of our meetings. This does not reflect an official change in meeting policy, however...
3. Ballot count meeting in Mr. Dempsey's office tomorrow: I need a small group of interested NHS members (5-6) to meet me in my advisory room during Monday's activity block and help me count the ballots from Thursday's attendance policy vote. We will use a computer cart to take the paper ballots and turn them into useable data. My advisory meets in the back recess of Mr. Dempsey's office. 

Review of Ideas for the Future Attendance Policy

The optional meeting on the 29th of October went over a couple reforms to the optional and mandatory meeting attendance policy. As a group we discussed moving the optional meetings to every Monday during activity block in order to boost attendance, while keeping mandatory meetings to the first Thursday of every month at 7:15 AM in the theater.

Some other ideas were brought up to discuss during the upcoming meeting on the 5th of November, such as adding more service opportunities, simplifying individual service forms, and changing peer tutoring forms. Come into the meeting with more ideas in mind!

See you Thursday!