Final Day

I can’t believe it’s already the last night of NGLA. I feel like I just got here, but in that short time I have learned so much about leadership in Greek life. This morning’s presentation was Phired Up, which I’m sure many of you Greeks at home remember from a few years ago when they came to BSU for a full day workshop. Although this presentation only lasted an hour, it was a nice refresher course for me on Social Excellence and I had a pretty great conversation with a brother of Alpha Sigma Phi from New Jersey. I hope everyone else from BSU had some quality conversations this morning too.

There have been a lot of new ideas flying around here at NGLA, but it can be difficult to implement those ideas after returning to campus. At my first session of the day, “Making Change Happen: Understanding How to Implement your Action Plan”, I got some great strategies for bringing new ideas to life. Something really shocking that I learned at this session was that, apparently I’m only going to remember 20% of what I learned this weekend (it’s okay though, my notebook agreed to handle the rest) and all of you at home will only remember 20% of what I bring back! (that’s 4%, I had to use a calculator too, don’t worry). Good news though, the presentation included strategies to increase and maximize that percentage, and I guarantee that I will be bringing back much more than 4% of what I learned.

I was lucky enough to get one of the last chairs in Antonio Neves’s session “How to Create Your Own Luck” (or maybe I created my own luck to get that chair? Not going to lie, I power-walked over when someone said there was an empty seat). He gave some really great advice which I plan to apply to both my fraternity and my personal life. There was far too much information in that session for me to type out in a blog (we’ll be here forever), and I’m still working on fully processing the ideas, but it never occurred to me until today that luck doesn’t just happen by chance. As Antonio Neves put it, Luck = opportunity + preparation, and looking back on times that I’ve had “good luck” that’s basically been the formula.

This afternoon, I finally got to meet some of my fellow local organizations at the Affiliation Luncheon and the final education session “Where’s the Local?” led by Chris Centi. I was surprised to find that there were more local representatives than the ones I had met at the luncheon, and that we all share a lot of the same struggles. But while we had to focus on some of the more difficult parts of being a local organization, it also reminded me why I’m proud to be local. While I love Greek Life as a whole, there was definitely a different culture in that room which made me feel at home.

For now though, I am exhausted after an exciting weekend and I’m ready to head back to BSU. I can’t wait to see everyone in Phi Pi Delta and share my experience!

Goodnight Bears, it’s been awesome. 

Phired Up, Lucky, Engaged, and Less Awkward.

NGLA 2015 came to a close today and although I'm sad it's already over, I'm excited to bring what I learned back to campus. I'm so lucky to have had the change to listen to the words of so many brilliant speakers. It's amazing how the words of one person can change and improve the ideas of so many. I started my day out with talking to strangers who became my friends. Together we learned how to have meaningful conversations and we learned much more about each other than if we used the standard: what's your major, where are you from,.... Instead we asked questions that displayed generosity and understanding. Then I learned how to be less awkward, which I didn't think was possible (shout out to my deepher fam; #awkwardfam). There I learned a lot more useful tips on how to be someone who is a good listener (shout out to the kid who walked in late with a juice box). Not totally sure if I'm less awkward though...maybe a little. I then learned how to create my own luck, takeaway message: luck needs preparation, you can't climb Mt. Everest by accident. In the last presentation I learned how to get members more involved and engaged in chapter and events. Connect, care, and change. One of the highlights of the day was meeting my DPhiE sisters from other schools and learning about how their chapters run. I had the chance to sit down with someone who holds the same position as me. We exchanged ideas and talked about how the presentations we attended will impact our chapters. I'm so thankful to have had the opportunity to attend NGLA and I can't wait to go back to campus and inspire others to help us make change happen.

Last Day NGLA

At the beginning of this weekend I planned to learn things that I could take back to my chapter in order to change them. I was completely wrong in how I came into this wonderful experience. This weekend was a brand new world for me, I learned so many things not only about how our organizations can function better but about how I can personally be a better person. Learning about recruitment my first day was exciting and empowering. It made me think about the options I have next semester and the positions I am eligible to run for. The most impacting part of my last day at NGLA was one of the sessions I went too. I had originally planned to go to a session hosted by Stacy Nadeau however do to a stomach bug she couldn't make it. So somehow I found myself in Ballroom D listening to a man tell one of the most horrible personal stories I've ever heard. His name was Mark Sterner and he told us about his senior year in college and how a drunk driving accident killed his three close friends, he was the one driving. Going into this presentation I knew that it would impact me personally and that it would be hard to listen. What I didn't know was that I would personally reevaluate every mistake I've ever made that could have ended in a life changing moment like this one. He made you think about what it could possibly be like to go through this and then he told you how he went through it. Personally I  am glad that fate put me in that room today because I learned a few things about life and if I can take anything back to my chapter I want it to be that we are all united by the same love we saw during recruitment and that we need to look out for each other because who else is going to look out for us if we make stupid decisions or turn our backs against one another. To say that this weekend was life changing would be far to much of an understatement. I learned things I never expected to learn and saw bonds form that I never expected to see, it was life changing and it made me realize a few amazing things. Not only do I love my organization so much more after this weekend but I have a new respect for our Greek community, my sisterhood, my friends, and my self. I can't wait to tell people what I experienced here but I also can't wait to inspire people into wanting to experience it for themselves.

Last Day of NGLA :(

Today was our last day at NGLA! Over the course of the weekend, there has been so much information packed into the different speakers, educational sessions and even lunch conversations. Just meeting with a few AST sisters today, I learned a lot about the different ways that they do things within their chapter as we compared things such as recruitment tactics, positions, etc. I love talking to sisters from my own organization because there is a huge sense of community present among us all. We all follow the same values, we all wear the same badge and we all live by the missions and purposes of our sorority. Having that all in common made it much more meaningful and significant to talk to fellow sisters. 

On the other hand, some of the sessions I went to today were unbelieveable. I went to two sessions with speaker Sara Lowery. Sara brings so much passion and energy into every room that she enters while still keeping the conversation professional and to the point. One of the sessions I went to was called "Will Work For Leadership" which was all about how to ask our members to do things for us. The thing that stood out to me in that session was when she began explaining how to announce things to your chapter. Sara focused on the "why" behind everything. For example thinking about what is the purpose of going to this event or meeting and relating that back to your mission statement. When we are in Greek life we can forget very easily that the letters we wear hold behind them values from founders that were brothers and sisters hundreds of years ago. As a member of Greek life, we need to stand by these values in everything that we do including supporting each other's events. With this information, I plan to make my announcements in chapter much more passionate and worthwhile so that it's not just a list of dates and times. 

What about you?

I am so sad that today is our last day! I have honestly had such a great time and learned so much on this trip. After my first disappointing session, I decided to go to a recruitment session since I'm so interested in panhellenic recruitment. On my way I stopped and for some strange reason entered a new session from a gut feeling. I had no idea what I was getting into at the time. The session had a DUI speaker that spoke so genuinely and to the point about his horrific experience of a drunk drive gone wrong and his three fraternity brothers dead. It was very powerful and moving and all of us were in tears. He put it in perspective for us in the socially term oiling society we live in as college students. He told us how he was the least drunk friend, how it was the last night of spring break and they decided to give themselves a break from a designated driver. He told us how they were only two miles away from our hotel. Like I said he really put it in perspective for us kids who are about to graduate and want to have fun and let loose and are only down the street from campus. My next session changed my entire dynamic of this trip. Sara Lowery honestly changed my life, my leadership, my thinking, and my speech skills. She has this incredible way of first getting your attention, and then applying information to you and showing you how to apply it to your own real life situations instantly. I've had some troubles with getting my own organization to attend my panhel events. And let me tell you...it's embarrassing. TRUST ME. So when I told her this and she had me go up i front of 100 people and pretend they were my chapter and have me talk about my event...well that was even more embarrassing. She asked me something someone hasn't asked me in a long time. She said "Girlllll what is your mission statement? Now talk to this room as your chapter and tell them why they need to attend your events using that mission statement." The next thing you know there is one single Phi Sig in the room encouraging me to go for it and I'm spitting off comments like "we should be attending these like our other panhellenic sororities because we pride ourselves on the advancement of womanhood. We should be there for each other as women and we should be aiming high by learning and gaining as much as we possibly can through these events." The next thing I saw was the entire room standing up and clapping for me. Sara taught me to be transparent. To not let fear overcome me. My being afraid to talk to my chapter because of what they might think or say is not and will not ever be acceptable for me again. These are my sisters and I owe it to myself, my panhellenic community, and my chapter to be the best leader that I can be. I gained courage today. I walked in the face of fear today. What about you?

Ding Ding NGLA Round 2

Day 2 of my NGLA experience began with the unwelcoming sun shining through my window far too early in the morning followed by my 2nd time getting Starbucks ever and an over priced breakfast sandwich that was surprisingly delicious. I wasn't going to let that define my day though. My first meeting/keynote speaker, Corey, An Ethics teacher/former lawyer/ new father who gave us a life lesson on how to basically go throughout life with a few core ideas to live by such as laughing at ourselves. Despite everything he had said, nothing really drove home to me until he mentioned his daughter and how he "needed our brains". It wasn't a selfish thing to say; he meant that he needed us to be there for his daughter when she grows up. He wanted our generation to make ethical decisions in life so when we get to a point in our life when others are counting on us, we can perform our best. All Corey wanted was to know that his future a.k.a his new born, was going to grow up in a worked where people cared. We need to be those people. 

After listening to Corey i was pretty amped about the rest of the day and was eager to see what was up next for me. Mike Westol, the former Executive Director of Theta Chi, who is without a doubt one of the most intelligent people I met during this conference. I had him for two sessions, Once by himself and once with Executive Director Mike Ayalon of Sigma Pi. Mr. Westol Knew almost everything there was to know abut hazing and was phenomenal at reading the culture of a chapter. Listening to him really made me reflect on everything that is done throughout greek life or my own chapter meetings and realize that although I believe we are at a good place, there is still more work that can be done to help improve our culture. 

Over all I felt the first day was a success. I was able to learn about culture, hazing prevention, and had a phenomenal dinner at the Black Bear Saloon. I am looking forward to spending another great day with my fellow BSU members as well as the other organizations. Bring on more knowledge!

You Matter!

So basically, I'm obsessed with every single speaker that I've had so far. They are truly understand what situations and problems we are constantly running into, and all have different ways of going about resolving them.

David Stollman presented "Buy In or Get Out" which was definitely an eye opening presentation. At Bridgewater, we constantly pride ourselves in saying that we're different than other schools, and that we DO break that stereotype. But does it matter? If we aren't trying enough to help those other schools that are still the stereotype, than these stereotypes are truly never going to go away....but we are. If we don't try to help and reach out, soon it's going to be too late when we are all shut down, and the world won't want to give Greek Life a second chance. It takes that one chapter, or even just one person to bring down the ENTIRE Greek System. It's important to be proactive and help one another out. Break those stereotypes in your everyday life, and do everything you can to correct people when they speak negatively/ or wrong about our community. We are a Greek community, and it's time that we all work together to help the rest of the world truly understand what we stand for.

Lunch was bomb. I was fortunate enough to be sitting with not only Emily and Gina, but an entire group of members from Rhode Island College. There was two AST, one DPhiE, and another that I'm totally blanking on...BUT it was super fun to bond with them! There were all great people, and we had a blast just connecting over the smallest things that our chapters had in common. From making friends while stuffing our faces, we were able to make our way over to the Greek Boutique (wallets beware)!!! After finding out that the entire Deepher section was already destroyed and bought out, I found myself falling in love with the wicked expensive monogrammed sparkly mint green vneck. So naturally I just couldn't stop myself, and I bought a super expensive t-shirt that I will be picking up tomorrow.......so sorry bank account, I tried my best to refrain. The t-shirt won.

So.....can my spirit animal be a person I just met....because I LOVE Tina VanSteenBergen! Tina and Taylor were a great tag team when explaining the importance of retaining important members, and how we can make sure they are staying for the right reasons. It's often the case when people disaffiliate, that they feel no connection to anyone in their chapter, and feel that they no longer matter. But they do!!! Because everyone matters, ESPECIALLY YOU! :) Even the smallest thing like texting the people you often forget to recognize that mean so much to you: just do it! Make a daily effort to show how much people mean in your life, and how they really make a difference. In this moment Tina told us to take out our phones and text someone that is important to your chapter, that may not always be recognized. As I could probably name off a list of sisters that I should have been texting, I chose the rest of my Leadership Team. Having been only an executive board for 3 months together, we work very well....and can deal with any snow day that comes our way. I appreciate everything that they do for our chapter, and I know that because of them we are the chapter that we are today. Thank you to my ENTIRE chapter on being an incredible group of women. I am so thankful that you all believed in me enough to elect me as your president, and I will do everything in my power to make sure you know you ALL matter to me. YITS <3

NGLA and Lots of Workshops!

Today was the first day of NGLA and we got to do a ton of fun workshops to gain information to take back to our chapter!

We started the day with a keynote speaker, Corey Ciochetti who talked about ethics, values and integrity in the greek life setting. I really loved this keynote. I feel like Corey really related what he was saying to himself. He wasn't just telling us tips or plans, he gave us actual stories and ways he has made mistakes. It made the presentation funny along with being informative. What hit me the most was definitely the end though when he asked the audience to live by the values we took an oath to uphold. He asked us if not for us, then for his child, who will be living in a world we are leaving, and then our children after that. The way it was presented was very profound. He didn't tell us to change to make ourselves better because we should, he asked us to change and be upstanding people for his daughter and our kids. 

After the keynote there were three information sessions. The first one I went to was called "Are You My Mentor" presented by Tim Mousseau of Campus Speak. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this workshop and was pleasantly surprised. I really liked how the mentor-mentee role was worked into greek life.I was challenged to think of what being a mentor actually means and we discussed the foundation of a formal mentorship; consistency, goals and expectations, ground rules and accountability. This is individual mentoring and once this is accomplished, we can move onto community mentoring. Every member in the chapter should be on an equal playing field to have a great mentor relationship. This process of mentoring is renewable, once this culture of mentoring is obtained it can be continued and become a healthy habitat to improve a chapter. The last process is community mentoring. community mentoring can't be obtained without the other two type of mentoring known and in place. Community mentoring is about helping those chapters in your greek life that could use the extra push. The tasks to accomplish this include strong, powerful conversations; building relationships with people you normal wouldn't go to; setting your expectations across the board and holding chapters accountable for your expectations of them so they can improve.

The second workshop was called (Deliberate) Practice Makes Perfect presented by Dr. Joel Nunez. This was a great workshop about confidence and believing you can do what you put your mind to if you put the intense effort in. There were three steps to doing this; dymythify, deconstruct and develop. Everyone wants the good time but doesn't want to put in the work for it. In order to accomplish mastery and eventually fluency you need intense and deliberate sustained effort and passion.

My last workshop was about Naysayers in the chapter and greek community. It was a very interactive session where we discussed the archetypes that can bring down a chapter, as well as negative comments and discussions and how to combat them. A great thing I learned was that usually the complaints you get are something deeper than what they are discussing. This requires work to figure out the problem and to solve it. Some responses we discussed range from comments like "that's dumb" to "I don't understand" to "that sounds like a lot of work". As a group we talked about constructive responses and how to solve these questions and comments that are asked or made all too often.

Overall I learned a lot today and I can't wait until tomorrow!

Reporting live from the Pajama jammie jam

Reporting live from the Pajama Jammie Jam or the room right next store cause who can blog when ya’ll be yelling playing catch phrase.  But anyways, today was a great day. After dividing up the sessions yesterday figuring out who will go where I ended up with the last available session, really because the word Foreplay was included in the title so no one wanted to attend. So I went off to my session From Friendship to Foreplay to forever! With a very skeptical audience we braced ourselves for the unknown. This session turned out to be the best session I have been to. Andrea Mosby talked about knowing your color blue. Meaning there are many different shades of blue, so when you are talking to someone you could be talking light blue but they could be talking dark blue. So first we must figure out our own color blue. Andrea did an amazing job talking about something that every college student can relate to, the Friends with benefits epidemic that is plaguing young peoples relationships. Andrea focused on the fact that even though there are no strings attached and it is safe sex it is not actually safe. By giving yourself to someone you leave them with a piece of you and you with a piece of them. By knowing your color blue and others color blue you can protect the whole person. You can focus on your goals and dreams, because you are not clouded. Speaking of clouded my head hurts so Im done! Good night!

Full Day of Workshops Woo!

Today was our first full day (from morning until around 8 or 9pm) of workshops all day!!! Learning about Greek Life is so great because there are always ways to make our chapters better and ourselves better leaders as well. The first session I went to today was about having "Crucial Conversations." These conversations are often those that make us anxious or that we try to avoid. As a person, I am very non-confrontational. My leadership strengths focus more on harmony and development of members. However, this workshop helped me a lot to learn how to make those scary conversations a little less scary. There was a seven step module given to all of us for ways to tackle situations head on instead of running away from them. The most important thing that I will take away from this session is this idea of having  a shared outcome. When entering conversations that are difficult to talk about, if the person in either party doesn't necessarily know what the desired outcome is, it just creates people running in circles. Having this idea of a shared outcome also gives people more of an understanding as to why they may be at this meeting so they become less defensive and more gets accomplished.
One of the other sessions that I attended was about retaining our members. Recruitment is often times emphasized in Greek life but after people become new members, retaining those members often falls to the wayside. Over 110,000 members disaffiliate from Greek organizations every year by choice. This number is much too high for the standards that we have as a Greek community to making our members feel important. Something that was talked about during this sessions that I really took away was making all members feel like they matter. Greek organizations (especially sororities) can often become cliquey where members don't include other members or just stick within their group. This isn't so much bullying as it is not making members in our chapters feel like they matter. In everything we do, members play a large part. Whether a person is a general member, director, on E-board, etc. they truly do matter to the organization. For my organization, I hope to begin to do things to make more members feel like they matter. My goal for this semester, for myself, is to start to pay more compliments and respect where due and show more members how much they do matter to the chapter.

A Brand New World

Although it pains me to wake up any time before 10am on an average day, today I woke up and was ready to start the first day of sessions. The only thing I needed to start my day off was a coffee... Unfortunately the one I bought was lukewarm.

The opening keynote speaker was Professor Corey Ciochetti from CAMPUSPEAK - who came in with a really genuine and insightful message. Professor C talked about how to build and maintain an authentic life according to our values and ideals. I really enjoyed the messages he relayed to us during his time, as I wasn't expecting that from somebody outside of the Greek Life system. In his ending notes, Professor C talked about hustle and laughter being two key themes to living an authentic life. His message was different than one I would've expected to hear at 9am in the morning - but I'm glad NGLA gave us this opportunity to hear his story... One that isn't as related to Greek Life in its entirety.

For my first session of the day, I attended "Why Do We Expect Members to Do a Job They Do Not Know?" presented by Cory Bosco. I decided to go to this session because I wanted to find ways to better enhance the transitions process in my chapter and potentially learn ways to better motivate the membership that don't know how to do their roles correctly (even if it's not their fault). From this session I took away a lot of key things such as setting the expectations of the Chair and Committees as well as teaching these roles during the new member process... Something I would definitely like to bring back to my chapter. One of the biggest problems in my chapter is people not knowing how to do their position because they're more or less thrown into it immediately after pledging. In order for our committee structure to be effective, we must bring forth efforts to implant change in the way that is being handled.

My second session of the day was "Sexual Assault Prevention, Consent, and the Bystander Effect," presented by Sigma Pi CEO Michael Ayalon. Mike is coming to BSU for Greek Week to present the same presentation, so I was looking forward to getting a sneak peek! The presentation was awesome and Mike really drove home the points that connected with the room about Greeks needing to step up and lead the charge on this. I think this is a solid presentation that the BSU community will enjoy when Mike comes. After the session, I talked with Mike for a little bit about Sigma Pi stuff and really enjoyed networking with one of the highest executives in Sigma Pi Fraternity, International. Through talking with him and the numerous other Sigma Pi's at this conference, I'm reaffirming my belief that I want to go into a Student Affairs and eventually work for Sigma Pi as an executive office staff member.

The third and final session I went to was called "Leading at The Edge," presented by Kevin Pons and Brittany Mahann. This is the third session in a row I went to where a Sigma Pi was presenting... Totally unintentional. This session revolved around the idea of leadership styles and how we lead our chapters while sometimes stretching ourselves thin and essentially 'leading at the edge'. The concepts themselves were pretty simple, but I enjoyed the format of having the 9 methods laid out for us... Plus I took away a neat handout (I enjoy tangible takeaways)! This session helped me outline changes that I want to make in my chapter, even though sometimes I feel stressed trying to get these things done.

The day concluded with dinner at a great pub & restaurant... Where I finally got a burger AND pulled pork all in one magnificent sandwich. After the restaurant, we all headed down to evening entertainment where we briefly enjoyed the green screen photo booth and a glow dance party. The conference is offering some nifty things in terms of what to do in our spare time... But Yik-Yak is still on fire. Once we got back to the rooms, we had the long awaited "pajama jammy jam." All in all, this was a fantastic day 1 to NGLA! I'm enjoying all of the bonding with the delegation and actually taking things away from the first day of sessions.

Day 2

Hello again friends! Today was a very busy day at NGLA. Shout out to everyone who braved the line at Starbucks this morning (I’m not waiting THAT long for anything less than Dunkin) before our opening speaker. Coey Ciochetti, a lawyer and ethic’s professor, spoke to us about building happiness through our ethics and values. He reminded us that as Greeks, we have to hold ourselves to a higher standard than most students, and to let our values and integrity drive us toward our goals.

The first session I attended today was Improving New Member Activities with Dan Worna, and after that session I feel confident that my chapter’s new member process is moving in the right direction. He recommends that in place of stark memorization, a new member process should have meaningful outcomes based on the values of the organization, which is what I had in mind while revising our new member process. Although it’s only a small change for now, I hope that future members will grow on these ideas.

My second session of the day was “That’s So Gay! – Discovering the Gifts of the LGBTQ Community” led by Campus Speak representative Shaun Sperling. Not only was this session highly entertaining but also informative, even for someone who knows a lot about the LGBTQ community. It was incredible hearing all the stories of inclusivity in chapters, and I was happy to be able to share my story as well.  Gender inclusivity is something which is extremely important to me, since I identify as non-binary (not male or female) and I’m proud to say that my brothers in Phi Pi Delta have been supportive of me since I joined. It was great to see that so many other organizations are moving in that same direction and including LGBTQ members in their fraternities and sororities. Through this workshop, I learned new ways to improve inclusiveness in Greek life, which I hope to utilize with my chapter as soon as I get back.

The final session which I attended today was Social Media Land Mines for the College Greek Life Student with Robert Hackenson Jr. (the speaker I mentioned yesterday who includes magic tricks – I still can’t figure them out!!). This edutainment (education/entertainment) session warned about the common mistakes that college students make in representing themselves and their organizations on social media. In this day and age, technology is so integrated into our everyday lives that it’s easy to forget about the consequences, but in order to maintain a positive image of ourselves, we have to start thinking more consciously about what we say online. I know it’s a message many of us have heard before, but Robert’s presentation of the concepts through magic tricks gives a new perspective which really helped to drive the point home.

Following the education sessions, our delegation headed to the Black Bear Saloon (which my dad is apparently jealous about, it’s his favorite restaurant in Hartford) and then back to the hotel for our Pajama Jammy Jam. We had a blast playing Catchphrase, and some people even won coffee vouchers for Seattle’s Best! The grand prize Dunkin gift card however went to yours truly for the best pajamas!! Pink spots are awesome, what can I say?

I can’t wait for tomorrow (is it already the final day?) but for now me and my prize winning pjs are headed off to bed. Updates tomorrow about more education sessions, affiliation luncheon and our final Keynote speaker!

NGLA Day 2

Today we were split up and had to venture out if our comfort zones. We broke out into small groups to visit certain sessions that focused on different areas of Greek life that we can try to improve upon. The three sessions I visited were: recruitment/intake training skills, how to be a better Panhellenic officer, and RFM explained.

Recruitment/Intake training skills -- this session really showed me how well Bridgewater state is doing in this department. This past recruitment was the most successful one yet with over 100 women registered and 81 women placed into organizations. I was kind of disappointed in that everything the speaker had to show us, we either already knew and implemented or were spoken to about during our recruitment boot camp keynote speaker that came in the fall. He talked about the importance of non verbals and tone of voice when holding a conversation with a PNM. It isn't always about what you're saying as much as it is about how you are saying it. Listening is also a key part of holding a successful conversation with a PNM. He also mentioned knowing the right questions to ask that will yield responses that tell you whether or not these pnms will fit in your chapter and meet your values. It was repetitive but nonetheless still important information. Although it was skills we had already been trained on, it was comforting to have the feeling of knowing your campus is on track with a successful recruitment rather than thinking "oh crap. We do none of that stuff." I really am proud of BSU Greek life recruitment especially after extension last year that helped us gain alpha sigma tau.

Being a better Panhellenic officer -- this one I especially enjoyed because I personally love my position in panhel right now and plan on running for another position this coming election. I learned information about Panhellenic that I had not known before such as certain months or weeks that are recognized that we do not necessarily hype up as much as we should on our own campus. Examples of this would be campus safety awareness month in September. This hit close to home since this last year at BSU has been an interesting one when it comes to sexual assault. Many more sexual assaults were reported than ever before while I've been a student which makes it very scary, especially being a young woman myself. I learned different ways we could possibly hype up this month at BSU next fall such as hosting a self defense class that is sponsored by a fraternity man or alum of some sort. I know BSU has RAD but those are a tough commitment to make and a lot of woman in campus cannot attend all classes so having a few here and there to attend would be good. Another officer mentioned the GLBTAQ community and making them feel safe in campus. A member of each organization had to be safe space trained in certain terms and words and what is appropriate to say when it comes to gender recognition so no one feels alienated or unsafe being who they truly are on campus. I think this is a fabulous idea to tie into our Greek community especially since our school thrives in inclusiveness and diversity.

RFM explained -- this session was the toughest to get through since it was more information thrown at you but it was definitely beneficial especially where as VP of recruitment I have to deal with RFM during recruitment which just passed. I was very confused with certain terms MB would use when relating to RFM so I wanted to become more knowledgable and better understand the system that helps run recruitment. We had some chapters who had issues with RFM this past recruitment which caused some hiccups but we managed to get through them. The main thing I learned was to TRUST THE SYSTEM it is how to ensure that we maximize the amount of chapters who reach quota. Doing anything else could result in not meeting quota and women being released both of which we don't want happening in large amounts if we can help it.

In A City, Far , Far Away....

We have officially landed in Hartford, and by landed I mean that we all packed our lives into suitcases and piled into the van driven by the one and only Maribeth Flakes and got on the road. Once arriving in Hartford I was a little dazed seeing as i had just woken up from the bus ride but when i entered the lobby i woke right up seeing all of the different organizations in one room. This is my first conference where it wasn't just my organization. Seeing the hundreds of different organizations was very eye opening to me, Just so many different people, so many different letter, but one greek community.
The next thing on our agenda was going to Subway, but thats a little irrelevant to my story so I will by-pass that part of our adventure. The real next thing on our agenda was going to see our key-note speaker Michael Miller. Not going to lie, I was a little caught off guard with his high energy, hand motions galore tactics when speaking. But despite his odd practices and Brooklyn accent, his message was sincere and carried with his concern to better the Greek Community. Through his presentation he touched of a few key points such as recruitment, articulation, elimination, delegation and motivation. He was very blunt with all of these points but in reality, he needed to be. He gave us the cold hard truth on things we do very well as a community but was not afraid to go over the bad of our community. Overall, Michael and his favorite phrase, "Look at Michael" really it home and lead my down the path of realization. I realized that as much as I love my community and my letters, there is so much more that I can do to better both of those things. Michael says these points to help spark the leaders in the room to do something rather than just sitting idly and waiting for something to happen. All it takes is a spark to start a fire. A little bit of fire in someone to make change will start a chain reaction. Let's start a chain reaction to bettering our Greek community. NGLA 2015! Sigma Pi 11-13 Happy Founders Day

Michael Miller is Bae

Hi blog, Here are my thoughts on day one of NGLA..

Michael Miller is bae. Every time I’m in the same room as Michael Miller I cant help but think of all the things I could do if I had half the amount of energy he has. Im pretty sure I would be quite physically fit because sitting still would never be an option. Michael makes me so happy and tonight he did not disappoint. For a person who is not a greek he understands us perfectly. Two things Michael said that I really liked was first that we are all cousins. We have our sisters and our brothers and all greeks are cousins. Its something I have never thought of before and really liked the idea of it. The second thing Michael said was in regards to the battle against the stereotypes of greek life was give up your letters or fight the battle. We can walk away from the problems and stereotypes of greek life by simply taking off our letters. We can misbehave, drink as much as we want, let our grades go, just by taking our letters off. But that’s too easy and who would want that. My letters are what I take the most pride in, they are what keep me grounded and responsible. They push me to be a better woman, friend, student and sister. There’s no problem that could make me give that up, so here’s to fighting the battle.

Look at Michael

Our first night at NGLA started off with a bang for sure -- that bang being Michael miller's speech. He gave a very insightful yet accurate way of "fighting the battle" that is Greek life stereotypes. The one thing he said that really stuck with me because it is so true is that we do it to ourselves. We can only complain about having to fight against these negative stereotypes for so long before we realize that there is something we can actively do to about it. The A.R.M.E.D approach is a very effective step by step process in order to complete this mission. We all have those members who are the "oops members" for lack of a better term. They join Greek life for the wrong reasons, do the bare minimum within the chapter (if that at all) and cause problems for their organization that give people those negative stereotypes. If we do a better job at Articulatung our values up front, we can do a better job Recruiting members who embody those certain values. Once those recruits have become members you Motivate them to contribute in some way necessary to help the chapter. Elimination is the next step to getting rid of those "oops members" who are not motivated in any way and do nothing good for the chapter and only wreaking havoc for them. Delegating those members to represent all those values they embody and find ways to better their chaoter even more is a great way to ensure the chapter can continue to grow in a positive manner for years to come. Michael Miller may not have been in Greek life himself but he definitely opened my eyes as to how to resolve some of the problems we think there is nothing we can do about.

Let The Journey Begin!

The day has come and we have finally arrived in Hartford, Connecticut for NGLA! After a relatively short ride in the van (primarily due to the fact that I slept most of the ride), we arrived safe and sound at the beautiful Marriott Hotel & Connecticut Conference Center. Upon arriving, Tyler and I had the opportunity to see our Regional Director Joe Turck as well as meeting another Sigma Pi from the Executive Office - Kevin Pons. It's so great to meet other brothers that are a piece of the bigger scheme of things on an international level.

After some debriefing with the rest of the delegation and deciding on the fantastic sessions I'll be attending tomorrow, it was time to attend the keynote speaker: Michael Miller! I've heard Michael Miller speak plenty of times before - due to the fact that he was always around for orientation (training and the first four summer sessions). I've never seen him speak about Greek Life, so this was truly an experience for me.

Michael was being his normally enthusiastic and loud self while delivering a few messages that truly resonated with me. The keynote presentation revolved around the acronym ARMED which stood for Articulation, Recruitment, Motivation, Elimination, and Delegation. While all of his points had merit, the two that truly spoke to me were motivation and elimination. As Sage of Sigma Pi, I find motivation to be one of my most difficult tasks. How do you motivate a chapter of 40-50 men that don't want to help themselves? Michael alluded to the idea of making things a competition and truly challenging brothers to better themselves by pointing the finger. Although elimination sounds like a harsh term - this was one of the most impactful pieces of Miller's speech for me. Michael talked about how we always tend to try and appease to the "bottom 10%" of the chapter - the naysayers and brothers who make life more difficult than it has to be. This truly got me thinking and gave me motivation to go back to my chapter and resolve similar issues.

Even though we have spent less than 12 hours in Hartford, I can already tell this is going to be a pretty great time. I'm looking forward to bonding with the rest of the delegation and learning things that I can bring back to benefit my chapter and the BSU Greek community.

Michael Miller

Have you ever felt like you were witnessing "That Moment?" I joined Greek life in the Spring of 2014 and I became a part of something much bigger then myself. Greek Life at BSU has taught me so many skills that I will take with me for many years. Growing, within myself, and my own brotherhood has allowed me to become something I never expected.
Today, we listened to Michael Miller, a man who's passion drives him to be great every day. He inspires students, he voices his opinion, and he shares his experiences with you that will help mold you into anything you put your mind too.
Tonight, he impressed me with his passion and drive for helping students. As an aspiring Greek Advisor, helping people grow within their letters is so important to me. Student's finding a home in their respective brother or sisterhood is a feeling we all found, and watching new members find that is what drives me to be someone who they look too for advice and help on their path. Fraternity and Sorority life is one of the most misunderstood, and under appreciated part of the social experience, throughout college, and the rest of your life. Michael Miller taught me something tonight. He taught me that whether or not people like or respect that I am a Fraternity man, I am proud of my letters and the letters of my peers.
Be proud of your values, be proud of your goals, and be proud of your letters, I know I am.

First Day of NGLA with Michael Miller!

After waiting the time has finally come and the first day of NGLA is over! Most of the day was spent getting ready and driving, but we were able to listen to a great opening key note and I got to buy some stuff for my new little at the Greek boutique.

Michael Miller was the opening keynote speaker at the 2015 NGLA Conference. This was my first time seeing him in person, although I have seen him in podcasts and Youtube videos.I really thought he lived up to all the hype I have heard about him. he focused on how to help Greeks navigate their campus and show their value.

I connected with a lot of the things he said, but I especially liked his comments on delegation and motivation. I think delegation is one of the most difficult things to deal with as a leader. I think, especially going into a position of leadership, you often feel like delegation is a weakness. I know when I first became president I felt guilty giving tasks to other, or I felt like it was easier for me to just do something. Michael made the point that giving work, especially to the younger members, motivates and empowers them to be the future leaders they need to be. At the end of the day the way that seems like the easiest, just doing everything yourself, can be harmful to the chapter because you are not allowing future leaders to train and grow. Every member is essential to the growth of a chapter.

The other point he made that I really liked was about motivation. I think motivating an entire chapter can be super difficult. A great tip he gave was to make ideas a competition. When you need a theme or a solution to an issue split the chapter up into teams and have them try to come up with the most. Competition drives people a lot more than just staring at them waiting for an answer. He also brought up that if you need volunteers, point at people and ask them in front of the chapter if they will. This way you aren't waiting for individual chapter members to volunteer on their own, especially when they are usually the same people every time. Pointing eliminates the bystander effect, and asking in front of the chapter holds them accountable.

Even though we just had the opening keynote today, I already feel like I learned some great tips to bring back to my chapter and leave a great legacy.

Get ARMED!

Headed out to NGLA today, and I am excited and honored to be part of BSU's 2015 delegation. It's a little unusual for me being in Hartford outside of my usual annual trip to the city, but I can't wait to learn everything that NGLA has to offer.After a pretty long (but unusually quiet for 13 people) we finally got to pick up our conference badges, and since we got there early we all got free NGLA t-shirts!

One of the speakers was hanging out in the convention center and I'm super excited to see his presentation about social media tomorrow. He gave us a sneak peak of the magic tricks and hypnosis that he incorporates into his presentations by tapping another member of our delegation on the shoulder... but I could feel it! To be fair, my eyes were closed, but I'm trusting my fellow members of Greek life when they say that he didn't tap me. I don't know how he did it, but I can't wait to see what else happens tomorrow.


Tonight our delegation had the privilege of seeing Michael Miller speak about getting ARMED in Greek Life! With all the stereotypes out there about Greek Life, it can sometimes feel like a battle to keep our good name intact, but through this dynamic and informative presentation, Michael Miller gave us the tools to fight back. Though Articulation, Recruitment, Motivation, Elimination and Delegation, Greek leaders can help to create a positive legacy which will remain with our chapters for years to come.

Tomorrow I'll be attending three workshops: one about improving new member events, one about LGBT and Greek life, and one about social media. I'll give a detailed update on each of those tomorrow.

Michael Miller

DEEPHERS EVERYWHERE. Although I haven't had the pleasure of personally meeting any of them yet; there is literally 100 Deephers here at NGLA. It's literally a unicorn land. While waiting for our room keys at the front desk of the Mariott, we were all frantically trying to find other members in our own organizations. Of course we all wanted to run up and be like "I KNOW YOU!" but in reality, I don't want to be that one crazy girl that scares all the Deephers at NGLA. #yikes.

Holy shmokes, I don't think I've ever snapped so much in one night. Having been president for only 3 months, I never knew I could experience so many things from a different light before. Tonight we were fortunate enough to have Michael Miller speak, and really break down how we can create our own legacy. The one part that really stood out to me was actually getting rid of the members we were always chasing after. Now don't freak out, I'm not suddenly going to take away all your letters and just leave you are the door; we need to move forward. We try so hard to get everyone involved and make them want to enjoy and go to move events, when in reality they just aren't going to do it. Why is it our job to keep running after them, when they aren't going to change being who they are, if they haven't already? Being the person that I am, I know I will never stop to chase after them and make it my job to get them involved, but I now also see a new opportunity.

It's time to start with the new members! I see SO much potential in the Iota class and I cannot wait for the day that they realize it as well. I know that within these 17 new members, we have a new recruitment chair, a new member at large, and even a new president. It often just takes one single person to point out the potential in someone, to create a fire or spark within someone. I know that by doing this, we can have a truly powerful and influential class that is going to do so much for our organization. I have so much faith in our future, and I can't wait to see all that they do.

BSU Bears take NGLA (in CT)!

So pumped to be at the Northeastern Greek Leadership Conference!!! I am such a conference nerd so being here is such an exciting thing for me. The vibe even of being around so many Greeks all at once is amazing in itself. Greek life at a college or university is fantastic in itself but to come somewhere else and see that all these people here have the same pride and passion for Greek life as you is amazing. Even more spectacular is just seeing someone in your organization and waving at them because, hey, you're both ASTs. There's a certain indescribable passion that is shared among in everyone in Greek life. This conference is just another way of sharing that pride with people from all over the Northeast!

The main speaker tonight was Michael Miller. Michael does a lot of work with BSU with the Leadership Institutes which I am in the middle of participating right now. Just listening to the podcasts Michael has such great energy and enthusiasm for leadership of college students so to see that passion in person was somewhat overwhelming but at the same time very intriguing. Michael showed a lot of passion for Greek life as whole, even after admitting that he had never gone Greek. One of the things that Michael made clear to all of us was that we are a large part of the problem of stereotypes among Greeks. When organizations talk about other organizations badly or don't correct people when they say incorrect things about Greek life,we all add to the ideas that Greek life is like what you see in the movies. One girl at the conference even said that she was surprised that she didn't have to get hazed to join an organization. These things should be common knowledge! As a Greek community, we need to work harder to make ourselves better. Within our organizations we can stop talking about each other and other organizations on campus. When people use stereotypes as a justification about why Greek life is bad, we can correct them. Greeks are the primary sources for any information about Greek life. What we present in out letters is how the rest of the world looks at us. And we're always wearing our letters.

NGLA Day 1

After hearing so many great things about Michael Miller and how empowering his speeches are from my BSU peers, I finally got to see one of his presentations. What did I learn? I learned that sometimes in order to inspire others you have to give them the finger, I was really startled when Michael told us to do this. No, it's not the inappropriate finger you're thinking of. Other people are more inclined to participate if you single them out and make it clear that you have confidence in them. Point them out of the crowd (the finger I was referring to is your pointer finger, silly). I learned that even though Greeks can be singled out of the crowd in a negative way, it's our positivity that keeps us going. Sadly, the media neglects most of the amazing things Greek life does for the world around us and focuses on the bad. I'm thankful to be part of a Greek community that does so many things I can be proud of. It's refreshing to meet other organizations who have the same effect on their campuses. Main takeaway message: stay positive and give them the finger (still talking about your pointer finger) ;)

NGLA First Day Fun

Beginning this journey I was excited to see what this weekend would bring me. When we arrived the first thing I tried to do was spot Gamma Phi Beta's from different colleges and universities. What I didn't expect was to look around in wonder at all of the Greek organizations I didn't recognize. Within our limited community we only know of our organizations and the ones that we share the campus with, but it is so much more than that. It was inspiring to see the different and sometimes unrecognizable Greek letters that were being represented. As we continued on throughout the day I was apprehensive about whether or not I would be able to relate to the speakers and different sessions offered, however after hearing Michael Miller speak tonight I know that this weekend will be filled with wonderful sessions that are not only relate-able but also empowering and insightful. I learned many things today, but the ones that stuck with me the most are to be open minded about these new things I'm learning and to soak everything in because this is an opportunity that not everyone gets to see.

Let's Start Delegating-BSU Bears

Today was so exciting! Seeing everyone in their letters was so much fun, especially when we spotted our own organizations. I remember being in the elevator and telling a kappa delta phi chapter that Bridgewater was the alpha chapter and their faces lit up! It truly was a great day and Micheal Miller was inspiring and fun. If I can tell you the most important aspect I took back from what he said, it's delegation. So many of us struggle with getting our chapters to participate. Instead of asking, why not start telling people what they are going to do and hold them accountable for it. The people that don't want to be held accountable and do not want to participate...well maybe we aren't recruiting the members we deserve in our chapter. There's more to recruiting than "she's nice" or "he's a cool guy". Who can we depend on? Who will look at the chapter and wonder how they can aspire to be like you and lead like you? It is our responsibility to gear these newly initiated members up to lead the chapter for us, so let's start delegating.

Gearing up for NGLA 2015!

I'm so excited we are just days away from NGLA 2015! We have a fantastic group of Greek Bears heading to Hartford, CT and we are looking forward to learning as much as we can and meeting as many new friends as we can. We are super proud that we have 2 Bears on staff this year! Congrats to our Graduate Assistant Brittany Scancarella and our current Interfraternity Council President Nick San Angelo!

A special shout out to everyone who helped make this trip possible, all of the people who have donated to the Greek Leadership Account this past year contributed to making this opportunity happen for our Greek members so THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!