Last call for juniors to vote

Officer Ballot
This is a reminder that the ballot closes tomorrow morning (about 8:00 am) for the officer elections. There are currently 90 votes recorded, so about 19 juniors are still out there eligible to vote. You don't have to, but this is your last call. The ballot was sent to your email.

New Communication Tool
Speaking of email, this is also a test post of our new email addresses. The email NHS2016@bedfordnhk12.net and NHS2017@bedfordk12.net should automatically now send blogger posts to every current member of NHS.

Week of Service
No update on how many activity ideas we have so far because of the snow day. However, I want to encourage this as an idea: We could use some ideas with a peer tutoring focus. One idea could be as simple as working with the library to have NHS students doing tutoring each block at a designated table. And let's go beyond tutoring, too. Do you know how to make a killer Prezi? Run a teaching session. What about a "What is it like to go on a college tour?" info session? How to find your first part-time job? Or, are you really good at finding research material in the library? Anything where you are sharing your skills, knowledge, and experience as upperclassmen with our peers, is a worthwhile activity.

Week of Service Project Idea Planner

• List of Project Ideas

• Google Doc version of Activity Planner

Preview of tomorrow's ballot

Here is tomorrow's ballot. Candidates should be prepared to speak for about a minute about why they are interested in their position.

It will be another busy mandatory meeting. See you in the theater!

Deliberative Childcare, Last call for Officers, Meeting Reminder

Chapter Project Tonight

If you signed up to help hang out in the library with children from the community tonight, I assume your project coordinators already checked in with you. I will say hello this evening but leave it to Cassie and Kayla to run the show. If you're no longer planning to join their group tonight, make sure to let them know!

Do you want to be an officer next year?

Fill out the interest form before tomorrow afternoon. 

Mandatory Meeting This Week

Thursday's meeting is mandatory in the theater. A large number of new junior members forgot to sign in or forgot the meeting entirely. Do not risk your membership over silly forgetfulness!

Are you interested in being an officer next year?

Attention class of 2017: Officer elections are fast approaching!

At the end of the February 4th Mandatory Meeting, we will be holding elections where the current junior members will choose their leadership for next year. Now, the question is, do you want that leadership to be you?

Here are the officer descriptions from Article X of the bylaws:

Article X – Officers

1. The officers of this chapter shall be president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and historian. The following are the duties involved in each office:
1. President – Presides at the meetings, prepares the agenda, keeps track of member involvement in Individual Service projects.
2. Vice President – Presides in the absence of the president and also keeps a record of members’ contributions to peer tutoring.
3. Secretary – Keeps the record of all attendance and works with the adviser to send out correspondence. All officers coordinate with the secretary for sending regular hours and attendance updates to the members.
4. Treasurer – Keeps record of all chapter expenses, dues, and all other financial transactions of the chapter. Keeps track of member involvement in Chapter Service projects.
5. Historian – Documents all events by taking pictures and preparing an end of the year slideshow of all events. With the secretary, manages the NHS blog, Facebook, and Twitter account. All officers coordinate with the historian to keep an ongoing record of projects completed.
2. Officers for the BHS Chapter of the NHS will be selected by a direct election of chapter members for the next year. All returning active members are eligible to run for a position as an officer. New officers will mentor under the current officers until the current officers graduate. If a member has a legitimate complaint about an officer it should be taken directly to the Chapter Adviser. The complaint will be considered and, if necessary, appropriate action will be taken.
3. Officers are expected to meet with the adviser at least once a month outside of our regularly scheduled meetings.

Now, note that the officers are elected by "direct election". This is an area of need in our bylaws, since while "direct elections" means a selection of a the candidate by the membership (as opposed to an indirect election where the selection of the candidate is conducted by a smaller group of the membership's choosing), how the direct election actually works has not been officially determined.

So, to foster the best possible leadership possible, this year interested members must choose a specific role of leadership that interests them. This will continue to foster the idea that you take a leadership role for the work that you want to accomplish, not the title you get. (I also want to make clear that this is not an indictment of your senior leadership, simply an avenue for improving our organization even further).

This, of course, will mean that it is possible for members to run unopposed or a position could be unfilled. We won't know unless we try!

If you are interested in being an officer for next year, you must select one role from the options above and complete this interest form by next Wednesday. This will create the ballot that members will use for voting after hearing your brief speeches at the mandatory meeting.

Attendance Counts

I just sent the following email to new members who were absent from our mandatory meeting last Thursday.

Greetings New NHS Member,

Your responsibilities to the chapter have begun, and to that end, your required attendance to NHS mandatory meetings have as well.

The attendance secretary's records show that you were absent from last Thursday's meeting. Your attendance has been recorded as unexcused. A member with an unexcused absence is placed on probation.

Here's the deal: It was the first meeting. Many of you have already come and spoken to me. It could have been as simple as forgetting to sign in. So, you need to recognize that attendance is a requirement of the character tier for NHS membership and now take the steps to maintain your good standing.

Always, always, always, always... if you miss a meeting, use the Meeting Absence Form (available right on the main page of our website) within this 2-week grace period to explain the reason for your absence. Use the box on the form titled "excuse materials" to link evidence of your valid absence. Even more importantly, don't leave it blank. When the officers are deciding to mark your absence as excused or unexcused, they are looking for students who care and want to be at the meetings regardless of their absence. You are not guaranteed an excused absence just by filling out the form. You must show that you care.

Please fill out the form as soon as possible, you have until January 21st.

It's a good reminder for all of us that attendance counts. Although mistakes happen, if you want to stay in NHS, you need to demonstrate that you care about your attendance. Miss a meeting? Fill out the form.

Remember: Mandatory Meetings Every First Thursday

I'm looking forward to seeing the entire membership tomorrow. If you can't make the meeting, do yourself a favor and ask for a meeting excuse ASAP. You only have two weeks after a meeting absences to do so. The form is linked here.

If you are a new member, your dues of $20 start getting collected tomorrow. If you are paying by check, please make the check out to "Bedford High School". We can not accept checks to "NHS" or "National Honor Society".

2016, here we go!

Review: How to Log Hours

There are three types of service an upstanding NHS member must perform before they graduate. Here is a reminder how you get credit for the work you do:

Chapter Service

1. These are opportunities that are available to all members of NHS. They are often advertised at mandatory meetings. Examples include Sean Russell's CAS project, ushering parent open house, and working on an induction crew.
2.  Chapter Service projects are run by one NHS member or a small group. They are the ones responsible for filling out the Chapter Service Form. They are the ones responsible for turning the form into the Treasurer. 
3. If you join a Chapter Service Project and wish to get verified for the hours, you must find this group of students and get your name on their list.
4. You are responsible for putting your hours on your log.

Individual Service

1. These are activities that you seek out on your own. Often they will be a continuation of the things you already do that got you selected to NHS in the first place. Sometimes they will be new projects that are advertised at NHS meetings, but they aren't actually run by an NHS member. 
2. Each person who does an individual service project must fill out an Individual Service Project Form for each service project. (If it is one organization with several meetings throughout the year, you may use one form for that).
3. These activities must be approved as service by the NHS adviser, and this approval is based on the reflectiveness of the member, and his/her capacity to recognize the value of the activity to both the community and the self. This is done on the form before it is turned into the President.
4. You are responsible for putting your hours on your log.

Peer Tutoring

1. Any time you help another student in grades 7 - 12 with their academics, this can be considered Peer Tutoring. 
2. You must, however, do the tutoring in a place where an adult can verify that you spent a reasonable amount of time conducting a peer tutoring session. Yes, this can be at a house. But still, have a parent sign off your work.
3. The person you are tutoring must also sign the peer tutoring form.
4. The completed form is turned into the Vice President.
5. You are responsible for putting your hours on your log.

Let's build on this

I know I've set it a lot already, but let me once again say thank you and congratulate you on a job well done last night. New members, the excitement you brought to the evening was palpable. Current members, you looked the part, and you were fantastic models for what will be expected for our junior members next year.

It was a strange day in the life of our chapter. I know that behind the scenes I was dealing with a bit of crankiness amongst the ranks of our senior members. I heard the complaints you were lodging with the officers. I was aware of the grumbling you were directing to your advisors and teachers. The sentiment of "I just want to be recognized and be done" was the attitude that I was addressing when I drafted the words I spoke on the stage...

And then we pulled off a complicated yet professional induction. 90 kids pulled together to throw a party for 113 kids. I loved watching you have the evening you had: The ushers that were jokingly offering programs to everyone in sight, the Kate and her team of Seniors who ran the inductee check-in table being my go-to resource for knowing if I could cue the night to start, Rachel running down the line of inductees with my laptop at 6% battery power to sort everyone out, Joe, Abby, Emerson and their reception crew bracing themselves for the throng of cake-eaters that rushed them faster than they could slice it up, and many more moments that I missed.

Waking up early to go to school an hour before everyone else does is the worst, I know. I hate it, too. I've already decided I'm sleeping in tomrorow (no optional meeting). But, we signed up for this, and the reason we signed up for this is because we get to have experiences like the one we just had. You can't tell me that you don't feel good about what you did. You can't tell me that you didn't have fun. Yeah, it was hard work, but it was worth it.

Here's my last piece: I want to build on this because in one sense induction is kind of lame. After all, who benefited from our performance last night? We did. We did all that work for ourselves. Our next target is to do an event this big for our community and our school, for people other than us. I am definitely pushing for a big weekend of service and celebration that we plan and run in the spring. I bet it will be worth it.

Speaking of service, we need to get you guys your hours for you work last night. Open this folder and find the team you joined last night. I made chapter forms for the following teams and their leaders:

• Nolan, et al: Set up & Take Down Crew
• Joe, et al: Reception
• Anli & Sean: Letter Writing
• Kasea & Amanda: Booth
• Sarah & Kate: Ushers & Sign-in Table

Inductee Pronunciation

Welcome inductees, here's what you need to do before Tuesday:

• Fill out your name pronunciation on the guide (example).
• 2015 Guide
• Carefully read the bylaws
• Sign contract (contingent on reading the bylaws!) and club participation agreement

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!

Do you want to attend the Fall 2015 Conference?

Our chapter has been invited to attend the state Fall Conference, which takes place on November 13th. I need to have a clear idea of our interest in attending by November 5th. That is next week's mandatory meeting.

The state meeting will count as 2 chapter meetings, and attending the scheduled workshops will be worth 2 chapter service hours. In addition, it's a chance to meet other NHS members around the state, and to get some leadership/character advice and/or experience.

Please read the following letter and itinerary:

Please submit your interest via this form.

If enough students wish to check out this gathering of New Hampshire chapters of NHS, I will go forward with organizing a field trip. If interest is low, we will not go and the field trip will not run.

Article IV and Article V improvement workshops continue

Greetings Members,

Based on feedback from last year, we're trying to improve NHS policy in small "chunks" (instead of the improvement committee project we attempted last year).

The first topic up for improvement is our meeting and meeting attendance policies. Meeting attendance expectations must be high enough for meetings to be effective ways to communicate while low enough that they don't feel unfairly burdensome.

On Thursday, October 22, a small team of NHS members took the first crack at updating our policy to match those goals.

Please fill out this form. In it, you will find three ideas proposed by the October 22nd improvement committee.

This Thursday (October 29th) we will discuss the results at this week's optional meeting. We will then make changes to the bylaws that can be voted on during our November 5th mandatory meeting.

Again, please give your feedback on the current language of Article IV and Article V by using this form.

Mr. Ahnert

Thursday October 15 Optional Meeting Attendance

I was looking forward to getting back to business with National Honor Society; I really was. However, my morning and my new family had different plans.

It's important to me that members feel like their efforts are being noticed, which is why I'm taking the time to make an extra post about the subject.

For starters, it was one of the goals we set forth last year that I would reduce my presence in order to allow the officers to really be the individuals in charge of the club. Obviously, Henry (my son) made the plan become very real, very fast. I'd like to take a moment to thank Nick, Rachel, Brian, Nikki, and Julienne for staying in touch with me while I've been out, and running meetings in my absence. It was not the intent that I go completely missing!

And secondly, I'd like to assure the members who have been showing to meetings that these officers have been doing their jobs and recording your attendance. I have already checked with Nick today, and I know he has a list of names that he will get to Brian who in turn will add an attendance credit to each of your records.

Finally, as I continue to look for ways to improve the NHS membership experience while maintaining NHS integrity, I would like to put our attendance policies squarely in our sights. Next Thursday, October 22nd is an optional meeting, and the topic of discussion will be attendance. We will work in committee to examine our current system, and we will recommend a change to be voted on at the November 5th mandatory meeting.

For my part, I am still working with the school to get a second adviser so that I am not the sole adult in charge of unlocking theaters and classrooms, answering questions, signing forms, and all the other ways in which I feel I have not been available enough this year because of the changes in my life. That said, I am available R3 in room 341 and R4 in my office for your questions today. Don't hesitate to track me down.

Mr. Ahnert

2015 Selection Process

A student who has been invited to join NHS needs to submit the following forms to be considered for selection:

• Candidate Information Form (Downloadable Form)
• Candidate Information Form (Online Form)
• Teacher/Faculty Recommendation (Downloadable Form)
• Teacher/Faculty Recommendation (Online Form)

Please use the following links for learning about the Bedford National Honor Society selection process:

• The Selection Process
• Selection Criteria
• Member Obligations

September 17 Update Here is Mr. Ahnert's presentation from the selection information meeting: