National Residence Hall Honorary

OTM Awards

“OTM” stands for an “Of The Month” award, given monthly to residents and staff members. OTMs are written about people, organizations or programs that have made a positive impact on the housing community during a given month.

Each month, all nominees for OTM awards and their writers will be invited to the NRHH Recognition Banquet held on the east side of campus. Any resident can submit an OTM, you do not have to be an NRHH member! Encourage your fellow residents to get involved!

To submit an OTM, go to http://otms.nrhh.org/ — you may sign up for an account, or submit by clicking on the “General Category” or “Program Category” under the title, “Submit OTMs”.

Five Tips for Writing a Winning OTM

Aspire to max out the OTM word count of 600 by painting a clear picture of the event, individual, or group of individuals in which you are writing about. The minimum amount of words required for an OTM submission is 200 words.
Define acronyms; they are not always universal! The only acronyms you should use are NRHH, GLACURH, NACURH, and RHA.
Make sure you are using the correct category for your nominee.
Presentation is key! Using quotes will add a little extra pizzazz, but proofread the OTM to make sure you are clearly saying what you want to say. Look out for bad grammar and spelling errors!
Make sure your nomination is month specific! It is very important to highlight the outstanding things the nominee did, and how, in the month of nomination.

OTM Categories

Advisor

Designed to recognize those individuals who advise a staff, governing board, campus organization, or other related group in a formal role. The OTM should focus on the individual’s role as an advisor, not as a supervisor of a staff or community.

Community

For any group of people that permanently work or live together (a floor, hall, building staff, RA staff, etc).

Community Assistant

For any PM, for doing a wonderful job as a PM during the month.

Community Service Program

For programs that focus on doing something good for the community (Habitat for Humanity project or canned food drives).

Diversity Program

For programs that encourage awareness of different cultures, backgrounds, and ideologies (World Religions Panel, Black History Month).

Educational Program

For programs that focus on educating people about something (sexual assault awareness or study habits).

Executive Board Member

Any executive board member of any on campus student organization in housing can be nominated for this category. A nominee can be on the executive board of the RHA or NRHH, or can be a hall/council executive board member. This includes NCCs.

Faculty/Staff

Recognizes university faculty who have made a contribution to the on-campus living community both in AND outside the classroom. Residence Life employees such as hall coordinators are not eligible for this award, even those designated as Faculty, as this category was established to recognize other university professors, instructors, etc.

1st Year Student

Recognizes students (including transfer students) in their first year at the university. In addition to the normal challenges of adapting to a new environment, these nominees have taken an active role in their communities and positively impacted those around them. Submissions in this category may emphasize academics, leadership, involvement, and much more.

Organization

Recognizes the work done by official residence life organizations as a whole, not just the accomplishments of a few members. Eligible nominees must be recognized as organizations by the university and/or fit the criteria for classification as an official organization.

Resident Assistant

Resident Assistants and Multicultural Assistants are eligible for this category. The OTM should focus on the nominee’s accomplishments within the RA/MA role, but may also include other roles or responsibilities taken on during the month of nomination, such as involvement in other organizations.

Social Program

For programs that focus on being social (examples: casino nights or pizza parties)

Spotlight

Exists to recognize those individuals or groups that do not fall into any other OTM category. These nominees are not students, but still impact the on-campus living community and often go unrecognized such as BSWs.

Student

Recognizes the exceptional performance of a student living on campus during the month of nomination. This OTM may address several areas of the student’s life, including academics, leadership, involvement, and more. It is important to emphasize what the nominee has done during the month of nomination to distinguish it from other months and how that has impacted others, if applicable. Desk attendants would be applicable here.