Award Description and Instructions for Submitting the Annual Chapter Report

Every college chapter of Eta Kappa Nu has the opportunity to participate in the organization's program for the Outstanding Chapter Award (OCA) and the opportunity to win this Award. All HKN chapters should aspire to win this Award, which recognizes their achievements.

• The Award
• Why the Change in the Award Recipient Selection?
• Method of Selection
• The Annual Chapter Report
• Preparing the Annual Chapter Report
• Submission Requirements
• Outstanding Chapter Award Criteria
• How Chapter Performance Will Be Judged
• Key Milestones

An important purpose of Eta Kappa Nu is to provide recognition of excellence. The HKN Board of Governors created the Outstanding Chapter Award to recognize excellence in college chapter administration and programs. This award is administered by the college chapter awards committee, which reviews all chapters' annual reports and determines the chapters most deserving of commendation for their activities. The Award has been changed recently so that all college chapters, large or small, that are judged to have exemplary programs, will win the OCA.

It was previously customary to select only one national winner and a few runners-up. Thus, large chapters dominated the winners’ pool. Smaller chapters with exemplary programs weren’t able to compete on the same scale as the larger chapters because they had fewer members. The change that has been made now levels the playing field and enables both large and small chapters to be recognized for commendable performance.

Recipients are selected on the basis of their Annual Chapter Report. The Chapter Report Short Form contains the kinds of data needed from all chapters. However, aspiring chapters should submit a report with more detail than the form allows. Also needed are the numbers of undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty eligible for membership each semester/quarter; the numbers inducted; the size of the chapter; as well as a record of person-hours.

The Annual Chapter Report, submitted at the end (or shortly after the end) of the academic year, details important chapter programs and activities during the previous academic year. This report is also used as the basis for determining the recipients of the OCA.

Though college chapters are under no obligation to contend for the award, HKN requires all chapters to prepare and submit the Annual Chapter Report to HKN headquarters to document their activities. Chapters should also keep a copy for their own chapter files so that future chapter officers have a reference of previous chapter activities.

Chapters wishing to be considered for the OCA should submit a lengthier chapter report that includes complete activity descriptions and photographs in a well-formatted report.

Annual Chapter Reports are due by mid-October for the previous academic year. The OCA Committee reviews the reports in the autumn and announces the winners in the winter.

Annual Chapter Reports should be mailed to the following:

HKN Headquarters
300 West Adams, Suite 1210
Chicago, Illinois 60606-5114

Fax: 800-864-2051
E-mail: kathy@hkn.org

Preparation of the Annual Chapter Report need not be a chore. A chapter's outgoing and incoming officers usually write the report. If a chapter's activities have been especially numerous, committee and activity chairpersons can lighten the task by writing their respective sections. Copies of Annual Chapter Reports from previous years should be available for guidance.

The Annual Chapter Report Short Form may be used as a brief summary report. This form, however, provides only basic information about the chapter but it does show the kinds of information needed from every chapter. If the Annual Chapter Report is to go beyond the basics, it must contain deeper coverage of all activities judged relevant. Good, clear writing is desirable, as are visual aids such as photographs and diagrams presented in a logical, attractive format. A record of person-hours and the size of the chapter are also necessary to compare chapters that differ markedly in the size of their membership.

Annual Chapter Reports should adhere to the following submission requirements to facilitate proper duplication and printing during the judging process, as well as posting of the winning reports to the HKN Web site.

• Detailed Annual Chapter Reports should be submitted in both paper and electronic form (for posting on our website.)
• Electronic versions of the report should be submitted as s single file on CD-ROM or sent electronically and must be either a MS Word (.doc) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) file. Short Form-only reports can be in paper format.
• Reports may be of any length and may contain color if desired.

For the purposes of this award, emphasis is placed on activities of service to the department, school, community, and chapter, in that order. Equally important is promoting the goals of HKN by inducting as many eligible ECE undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty as possible, and by participating in HKN Student Chapter Projects.

In bestowing the OCA, of critical concern to the award committee are activities that accomplish the following:

• Improve professional development
• Raise instructional and institutional standards
• Encourage scholarship and creativity
• Provide a public service
• Further the established goals of Eta Kappa Nu

Given the standard of scholarship and the qualities of leadership that characterize its members, each chapter holds great potential. Because of the excellence of the chapters that have earned an OCA in the past, the award is traditionally a mark of distinction. HKN urges each college chapter to submit an annual report that does justice to its activities and ensures that the chapter qualifies as a candidate for the award.

1. Activity Hours per Member - A useful metric for gauging activity level is the average number of activity hours per member. It is obtained by adding up the number of person-hours expended for each activity and dividing that total by the average number of members in the chapter for the year. These average activity levels can be compared to previous recipients of the OCA and judged accordingly.
2. Inducting all eligible ECE students and faculty - Not all students invited to join HKN do so. In fact, the percentage that joins has been as low as 15% in some chapters. Additionally, ECE graduate students and faculty who are not already members of HKN may be unintentionally omitted. Significant weight will be given to chapters with an above average rate of inducting undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty.
3. Participation in Second Century Projects - HKN headquarters will offer chapters the opportunity to participate in one or two Second Century Projects per year. These are intended to benefit HKN and the ECE Departments. Participation by a chapter in such projects will be an important criterion, as will the results obtained.
4. In addition to the above, the quality of each activity is always taken into consideration.

• Due date for Annual Chapter Reports:
  October 15, 2008
• Winners announced:
  January 1, 2009