Residence Life Professional Answers:

This is a practice in humility and being able to admit that you made a mistake. The Bonehead Award works like this:

The award goes to the person who did the most bone-headed thing in the given time period (since the last award was given, the last week, etc.

People who would like to, nominate themselves. People may only  nominate themself. It is always good for a strong laugh. Then everyone votes. The winner gets whatever you have chosen to be the bonehead award and the award gets passed on from winner to winner. You may chose to have each  winner host the awards session the next time it is held.

This has worked very well in keeping us more humble and able to admit that  we screw up occasionally but can laugh about it and learn from it rather than beat ourselves up about it. 

Trey Reckling
Resident Director, Savannah College of Art and Design

    My name is Gregg Stewart and I am a Residence Life Coordinator for the University of Central Oklahoma.  Have  some exciting ideas that you might be interested in.  As far as recognition for RAs I would recommend submitting of the month nominations to the National Residence Halls Association for program and RA of the month awards.  Also through SWACURH and NRHH there are recognition awards.  At OSU we had an end of the year banquet for all the residence halls and each hall had a banquet. The RAs selected a resident assistant of the year. 

As far as staff development we have OSBI (Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation) come and give a great drug awareness and prevention program to our RAs.  Also campus police on self-defense, jurisdiction issues and date-rape on campus are good development programs.  Others of interest are AIDS/STDs, depression/suicide, homesickness and stress/time management.  We do a thing here at UCO called the RA stress free zone.  It gives our staff a chance to be on campus and not be RAs.
    I hope I answered your questions. 

Gregg Stewart
Residence Life Coordinator
University of Central Oklahoma

Hello!

I'm writing in response to your question about recognition for your staff.

One thing that I've done with my staff that they've seemed to enjoy is making clipboards.  We take an ordinary clipboard and decorate it with nice statements or pictures, then decopage' them to the back of the board.  Usually, I'll ask them to write down some nice comments for one another, bring in some glue and magazines, then we cut away.  It helps them get to know one another and recognizes the nice things they do for one another.

I've also asked them to write down nice things and then combined the comments onto a 5x7 piece of paper and framed it.  This way, they'll always be able to look at the frame for nice things that others have said about them.

For general recognition, we do 2 surprise "Appreciation Day" activities per year.  I usually find a student I know really well and can depend upon to get a card signed by each resident.  I also work with the hall government to make signs that we can post on the staff members' doors.  Last year, my hall government actually went door to door and asked for donations to take the staff out to dinner...they raised over $150 and we all went out! ;)  It was great!  I have also in the past posted signs in the lobby with the names of the staff members and voicemailed my hall to ask people to come by and write nice notes to them.

Also...last year we had RHDs sit in the dining hall and offer free candy grams to be delivered to the staff on Appreciation Day.  The staff loved getting the candy grams from their residents and other RAs.

I've also done other things like making a mix tape for the staff that included their favorite songs, as well as made them a memory book (kind of like a year book) from pictures and comments (overheards mostly) that we all loved from training or during the year.

I hope some of these ideas help!  Best of luck as your year gets into full swing!!

Steve Crudup
Resident Director, O'Connor Hall
Dickinson Community
Binghamton University

One thing that I did with my first staff was a game of Staff Jeopardy.  I had them fill out a survey of--favorite food, best birthday, furthest traveled, best vacation place, perfect job, etc. and then set up a three team jeopardy game (I had 9 staff members). We played it in the second half of two staff meetings and they talked about it the week in-between almost incessantly.

Another thing, was I had them vote for RA of the Month and made a certificate that the Director of Residence Life, the Dean of Students and I signed.  The frames were like $2.00 and the certificates basically free--I used Publisher.  It was a great way for them to appreciate each other.

Then we basically did the easy stuff--secret staff, secret santa, etc.  You could also have your hall council sponsor an RA appreciation day--they get a special meal at the cafeteria together , the residents are given cards and or posters to write thank you to their RA's--I actually posted stall
story/bathroom talk pages that read--My RA is the Best because..

These were precious!

Hope these ideas help!

Holly Habicht, Residence Life Coordinator, Ga Tech