2009 Southeast Regional Meeting

2009 Deloitte Best Practice Topics

The due date for the abstract is 1/20/2009. The abstract should be turned into your Southeast Director at Large Suzanne McCaffrey
Topic 1
Service Learning:	Using Your Skills to Help a Local Organization
Purpose:	To encourage chapters to engage in a service learning type of activity during the year.
	The chapter will identify either a non-profit or a small business in the community that could use the skill set provided by its members. They would identify either an accounting, finance or systems project to complete during the year and then present what they did. Use the Abstract information in the Best Practices Procedures for preparing the abstract.Follow the presentation guidelines in the Best Practices Procedures in preparing your presentation plus include photos or a video of your chapter engaged in the project.
Topic 2
Developing Life Skills:	Helping Others Succeed
Purpose:	To develop a project that will help others acquire the education and skills training needed to succeed in either the workplace or with their personal finances.
	This is intentionally left very broad to allow chapters to help others in their community with either job training, computer, financial literacy, or other business related skills. The chapter may develop their own program or become significantly involved with a local organization that offers these types of programs. Use the Abstract information in the Best Practices Procedures for preparing the abstract. Follow the presentation guidelines in the Best Practices Procedures in preparing your presentation plus include photos or a video of your chapter engaged in the project.
Topic 3
Chapter Sustainability:	The Future Success of Your Chapter
Purpose:	To encourage chapters to develop and execute a strategy to ensure long-term sustainability of the chapter.
	Chapters will review their current procedures and practices for sustaining success, identify areas that need attention, and develop and implement strategies in weak areas. Since this topic is a little different than the usual Best Practices topic, the abstract and presentation will be a little different. The abstract submitted for the Regional Meeting should include answers to the following questions: What strategies has your chapter developed to recruit and maintain active student members? Describe the succession plan your chapter has created. What activities has your chapter developed to gain and maintain institutional support (address academic program(s), college, and outside businesses). Describe how you use alumni in activities throughout the year. Describe how your chapter determines your yearly budget goals and the strategies used to meet those goals. Describe the different types of media used by your chapters to gain exposure and any opportunities received as a result of such media exposure. Presentation Your presentation should address at least three of the areas included in the abstract. The abstract must address all six areas. The presentation must include photos or a video of your chapter engaged in various chapter activities. Consider including webpage shots, recruiting activities, media exposure, alumni activities, etc. Focus the presentation on a few of the most successful or unique aspects of your chapter sustainability plan.

Abstract Rules

Preparation/Submission of a Best Practices Abstract

Shortly after announcement of the Best Practice categories, CHAPTERS should determine in which Best Practice categories they will compete. For each category, they should designate a committee, ideally before the summer break to allow them to conduct the appropriate research and/or formulate plans.

Once the requisite activities have been completed and/or ideas formulated, the substance of those efforts should be reduced to an "abstract." An abstract summarizes the salient points of a larger piece of work, in this case, the presentation that will be made at the Regional Meeting. (A PowerPoint presentation is NOT an abstract).

Please visit this website for more details from the National Office on Best Practices & Abstract guidelines.

How it is Judged

Presentation Judging

Each FORUM-led judging team should:

• Bring a copy of each abstract received to the meeting. If they do not, they should contact the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE who will provide them with replacement abstracts.
• Select a moderator who will be responsible for the evaluation process.

Approximately 30 minutes before the presentations, the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE should meet with all judging teams to explain the process, ensure consistent standards and answer any questions that the team members may have. A presentation evaluation sheet will be provided by the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE before the competition begins. The HOST CHAPTER is responsible for informing judging teams and the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE as to the location of this meeting.

Judging teams will be asked to:

• Evaluate the abstract before the presentation. Prior to the presentation, the abstract should be thoroughly read and evaluated using an evaluation worksheet provided by the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE. (NOTE: There will be insufficient time on the day of the presentation to perform this function.).
• Evaluate the presentation itself, using an evaluation worksheet provided by the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE.
• Rank the entire submission. The abstract and presentation evaluations should then be combined after which all submissions should be ranked. In evaluating both items, the following guidelines should be considered:
• To what degree were the category's goals achieved? Timely submission of the abstract will be included in that evaluation.
• The evaluation worksheet provided is not meant to be definitive. Judges are free to under- and overweight components and use other evaluation criteria in their deliberations.
• Submissions should be ranked as first, second and third place. If the judges conclude that all submission in their category do not warrant a first place finish, they have the prerogative of awarding only a second and/or third place finish. Ties for second and third place finishes are permissible but there may be only one first place winner. Ties will split the monetary awards equally.
• As soon as possible after rankings have been determined, the judging team moderator should:
• Provide the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE with any documentation/checklists used to rank the Best Practice if such will not be retained by the judging team member.
• Provide the DIRECTOR-AT-LARGE and HOST CHAPTER with the identity and rankings of each Best Practice submission. HOST CHAPTER should not disseminate this information to anyone prior to the official award announcements.