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News: March 2008

Photo Scavenger Hunt Rules Posted

Monday, March 31 2008 - Steven O'Dacre - Tags: scavenger hunt

The rules for the upcoming Photo Scavenger Hunt can now be found here: (pdf of rules)

This time, the teams can be made up of three, four, or five residents, and you can use your own digital camera to take the pictures! If you have any questions about the rules, feel free to e-mail irhc@mtu.edu, or just ask us at the kickoff meeting on Friday, April 4 at 6pm in G17/19W Wads.

The prize for this awesome event will be about $90 to $100 worth of gift certificates to local food establishments for each winning team member!

Major Broomball Commitee Restructure Approved

Wednesday, March 26 2008 - Jacob Emerick - Tags: broomball, governmental meeting

After a professional presentation from Dustin Sommer, the Broomball Chair for 2008-09, and a heated debate by the council, IRHC approved several large changes to the Broomball committee for the upcoming year.

Based on the increase in size and responsibilities of the Broomball traditions, IRHC raised the payment of each committee position. However, since the committee is actually shrinking in size, the overall increase in committee payment is relatively small. With the restructure of the committee, this payment increase is directly in line with the amount of responsibility each member has in their contract.

The restructure of the committee means that Broomball will now be hiring positions based primarily on skill. In the past, IRHC made it a point to get residential representation on the committee through league heads. After reviewing the pros and cons of this setup, and upon recommendation of the Broomball Chair, the committee will now be focused on their duties first. IRHC will still approve each position and may put stipulation on the residency of the different positions, but the contracts and positions will only be focused on their duties.

These changes are merely reflections on the future direction of the Broomball tradition. IRHC Broomball has grown a lot over the last ten years from it's humble beginnings, and we hope that the committee will be able to continue its great traditions for generations of Tech students for years to come.

Winner of Egg Decorating Contest Chosen

Wednesday, March 26 2008 - Jacob Emerick - Tags: egg decorating

With a simple hot-or-not voting setup that allowed multiple votes, a winner of the egg decorating competition has been decided. Holly Walters, last year's winner from DHH, has won the competition with an incredible 1061 to 12 voting turnout. Full prizes and stats will be released to all of the entries later this week.

This voting system was a test for future IRHC events, and it came with both pros and cons. While the site allowed multiple votes, the eggs that it displayed were randomized but skewed to eggs with fewer votes. This allowed a pretty good distribution for voting turnout, though a few problems arose and will be fixed for the next voting site. The primary benefit was the length and amount of voting, as last year's votes were only during Saturday brunch and we collected less than 100 votes total. This year, with 30,700 votes total, we saw increased turnout, participation, and server overload. If there is any suggestions for future voting sites, please let us know at irhc@mtu.edu. Thank you to everyone who voted for eggs this year!

Egg Decorating Website Problems

Monday, March 24 2008 - Jacob Emerick - Tags: egg decorating, website

Without access to a reliable database, we had to use a backwards method for tallying votes. With a high number of votes, this method results in a server lagging. Over the next few hours (now that we have access again), we hope to optimize some of the background code to allow faster voting and site viewing.

Egg Website Launched (with voting!)

Friday, March 21 2008 - Jacob Emerick - Tags: egg decorating, website, event

Just in time for the egg decorating competition on Friday, March 21, the voting website was launched to let anyone, even people who didn't make an egg, vote on the bestest eggs. The website is somewhat of a test, as eggs in particular are usually round and decorated on multiple angles, which makes a 2-D picture difficult to judge the creativity and art put into the pieces. However, we hope that this allows more people to vote on the eggs and gives our volunteer staff an easier task for future years. As always, feedback is more then welcome.

E-Board Nominations Open

Monday, March 17 2008 - Jacob Emerick - Tags: governmental meeting, elections

A four-week process all together, IRHC e-board elections involve information sessions, a two-week nomination period, and then two weeks of transition before the new leaders take charge and the old ones step down. There are already five students nominated for positions...

President nominees - Jacob Emerick, Kyle Done
Vice President nominee - Zack Wheeler
Secretary nominee - Steven O'Dacre
Treasurer nominee - Steele Lindbloom

Nominations will remain open until elections occur on March 31. You can nominate individuals by sending an email to irhc@mtu.edu.

Art Show Rules Available

Wednesday, March 5 2008 - Jacob Emerick - Tags: art show

The full IRHC art show rules are now available online at the art show website at housing.mtu.edu/irhc/art. The rules include full descriptions of the seven different categories as well as basic restrictions of size and 'PC' content.

The seven categories for this year's show include standards like painting, poetry, photography, sculpture, and mixed media as well as the new digital art and cinematography. While the five standards are easily displayed during the traveling portion of the show, the other two must be submitted electronically and will be displayed online for viewing. No worries, the judges will also view them online.

Broomball Chair for 2008-09 Approved

Tuesday, March 4 2008 - Jacob Emerick - Tags: broomball, governmental meeting

The process to pick a Broomball Chair and Vice Chair for IRHC is a careful one. First, applications go out via email and online sites for interested individuals. This year the applications were available for three weeks to allow ample time for quality applications and applicants. Then, each candidate is interviewed by a selection panel that includes the IRHC President, Vice President, advisor, as well as the Broomball advisor. This process usually takes over a half hour per candidate, as they are asked a variety of questions regarding their plans and visions of Broomball as well as any personal information regarding their abilities for the position. After this process, the IRHC governmental body votes on the recommendation put forth by the selection panel.

This year there was only one pair of applications, which happened to be the current Broomball Chair and Vice Chair already (Dustin Sommer and Nick Deming). However, the selection committee and IRHC governmental body still went through the process and seriously contemplated reopening applications to allow others to aim at this position. With the selection committee and the approval vote unanimous (not counting abstains) for the pair, IRHC has few doubts of the capabilities of their selection. We all look forward to a new year of IRHC Broomball!