[katepiper]

Hank,

We worked through a similar situation with our org awards, and ultimately we disbanded the formal ceremony in favor of a general involvement celebration at the end of the semester. If you do want to keep the formal ceremony, one suggestion is to highlight RSOs and incorporate them into the celebration – performance groups, etc. – a capella group or dance troupe. One year we had our campus radio station host and included some fun minute to win it games. We would purchase supplies and our horticulture club would create the centerpieces. The photography club would take pictures. You can also play around with attire, food, atmosphere, etc. We transitioned from a formal brunch buffet to a dessert mix & mingle where we encouraged students to wear attire to represent the org or school spirit. Another idea, pictures with the mascot. Hopefully that sparks some ideas.

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KatePiper
Assistant Dean, Student Activities
Illinois State University – Normal, IL
katepiper@illinoisstate.edu
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-14-2024 15:09
From: Hank Bowen
Subject: Award Ceremonies

At East Carolina University, we host an awards ceremony each spring to recognize student organizations, officers, and advisors for outstanding service and programs that year. It’s nice to be able to showcase the lists of nominees and the programs they’ve hosted, but otherwise it’s a little bit dull. We have given out awards for Greek and non-Greek organizations at the same ceremony in the past, but this year they will be separate so it would be a 30 minute ceremony tops. Anybody have ideas for how they’ve spiced up a program like this? Feel free to email me any thoughts at bowenh@ecu.edu.

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Hank Bowen
Senior Associate Director
East Carolina University
Greenville NC
(252) 737-2271
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