Hello Friends!
Today has been nothing but fun!!! I am enjoying myself so much at NGLA and I am honestly so grateful to be here!
Today I woke up at 7:30 (I honestly don't remember the last time I saw the world that early). I'm totally pumped that I showered last night because that would NOT have happened this morning. Today we had to dress up in pin attire and I looked darn good if I do say so myself :) (just in case anyone was wondering). My room was not the group who woke up at the crack of dawn to eat breakfast so we snagged some of our healthy treats from the room to fill our bellies for the morning.
We started of the day today with Response Ability with Mike Dilbeck. The main purpose of this was to tackle the "tough subjects" and the bystander effect. This was a GREAT presentation. I would love to see him at BSC because the topics he covered are so important and influential. He talked about how it is so much easier to be the person who stands on the sideline and watches the negative actions take place but never speak up about them to make a change. Even though these people may know these actions are not appropriate they are just as bad because they do not take a stand. The bystander effect was our theme for the day.
The next session we did was a "chapter meeting" where we met with a group of people from assorted organizations and tackled the important topics that Mike Dilbeck spoke about previously. This was a major eye-opener for me. It was at this point that I saw the people who are on the same page as me and my other bears and "GET IT" as MB would say and then there were the ones who just haven't seen the bigger picture yet. My favorite part of this session was one brother who wants to take a stand in his chapter against the hazing and negative things that have been occurring but continues to get shutdown by his brothers who don't see their problems. He reached out to myself and the other Greeks in this chapter meeting for help and guidance for his chapter. This really pulled on my heart strings and I just wanted to help him and his chapter. I am so happy that we were able to offer advice and hopefully he will be able to make the change he wants to when he returns totally empowered. What advice would you give to my new friend? It was totally AWESOME to hear people talk so openly about these topics that are generally hush hush so openly and be able to pinpoint where we can make changes in our assorted organizations.
We had an affiliation lunch where we got to sit with people from our organizations. Seeing that Phi Pi Delta is a local organization I was able to sit with some friends from other local organizations. This was GREAT! It was so much fun to hear about how their chapters were run and be around people who are fighting the same fight as me and my organization. They also struggle with having large numbers in their chapters. The largest organization at my table has 20 members (Phi Pi we're half way there!!!) It was also nice to see how they work their Rush Events, New Member process and even Chapter Meetings. I am so happy I made some friends and I can't wait to make so IFC friends tomorrow!!!
The first educational session I attended was called Living Your Values. I really enjoyed this session too. We talked about the difference between a ritual and a tradition which relates very well to what my chapter has been going through. As a local chapter we do not have the guidelines that national chapters have to follow so we are working really hard to take large steps to make the changed that will make our chapter the best it can be. It was nice to talk to other fraternities and sororities and hear the values they were founded upon and compare and contrast how similar they are to ours. We also talked about how we can hold our members responsible for living out the values in our daily lives, whether it be in large or small ways. I also learned that other organizations have a creed and a motto which is something Phi Pi Delta doesn't. I am hoping that I can bring this idea to my chapter and maybe we can make one for our chapter.
The second educational session I attended was called Re-evaluating Your Traditions. This was another PERFECT session for Phi Pi Delta. I can't wait to share with my chapter all the fun things I learned about evaluating traditions and the growth of your chapter. The main idea of this session was to look evaluate your personal values, the values of the other members, and the values of the chapter and make sure EVERYTHING your organizations does can apply to those values. They also stressed that although change can be a hard thing when it comes to tradition positive change can be some of the best things that happen to a chapter. We touched upon different program ideas that can be themed around some of our values. Are there any programs that you would like Greek Life to put on? What value would you like to see more on the BSC campus?
The last educational session I attended today was called 36 Ways to Detect Hazing. This one was AMAZING. Dave Westol was the presenter and he was an absolute DOLL!!!! He was so interesting and touched upon so many interesting topics in regards to hazing I don't even know where to start. He had an awesome hand out with tons of different examples of hazing and some witty comments to say to those who think hazing is necessary. He had so many stories about things he has seen different chapters do. He kept my attention for the full hour and I would love to talk to him and be his BFF because he is just that cool!!
After that we went back to our "chapter meetings" to talk about all the different sessions we went to today. I was cool to hear about the different sessions I was not able to go to. It made me wish that everyone blogged here so I could read about all of the sessions.
The wicked cool bears went out to dinner tonight where I fed Norman some yummy clam chowder and macaroni and cheese. It was so much fun to go out to dinner with some fellow leaders and share our stories from the conference as well as from our own chapters and councils. It really helps a lot to hear how other chapters do things because it gives me some great ideas to bring back to my chapter and help us through out transformation!
We tried to venture to the Greek Boutique to buy some awesome Greek stuff only to find that it was closed. Instead we had a photo shoot on the was back to the room which was so much fun!! Check facebook for our awesome modeling!!! :)
Can't wait for our Pajama Jammy Jam tonight!!!! :)
TTFN ♥
Delta Love,
Sarah
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