Greek life is the fillet mignon of student organizations...

...or so says Phired Up speaker Josh Orendi.

Hi Friends!

After last night's fabulous fun of pajama jammie jams, Katelyn, Lexi and I meandered back to 1513 where we intended to go to bed early. Instead we stayed up til about the same time as the night before laughing and probably keeping our neighbors awake. Oops!

We started today off with a 7:00 AM wake up. We pow wowed in front of the hotel rooms then went down for coffee at starbucks. We got our beverages and loaves and headed for the Greek Boutique once again. Did I spend money, you ask? Well when you get a nice RA check the day before, you can't help but feel the need to stimulate the economy. So my answer to you is yes, my friends I did. :-)

The convention today started off with an AMAZING session by Josh Orendi called Phired Up! This session was all about recruitment and ways to make it better. He had so many great tips that I plan to bring back to BSC. The main things we learned at this workshop were:

1. You cannot recruit who you don't know
2. People do not join organizations. People join people,
3. We scare people. Be more normal.

My favorite quote of the weekend (other than "peh") was "Greek life is the fillet mignon of student organizations." Hence, my title for this blog. I could not agree more with this quote. Greeks are expected to be above and beyond and not just settle for average. After all, we did join Greek organizations to be better in our lives. Unfortunately, I do not think that all of our members live up to the fillet mignon that we should be. People are settling for average, or in some cases, below average. And I think that is unacceptable for Greeks. Thoughts??

Once we were inspired by this fabulous recruitment workshop, we ventured to our first sessions of the day. My first session was about the Extension Process in Panhellenic. It was hosted by Julie Johnson, the Extension committee chairman. We learned all about the reasons to discuss extension, the proper way to vote for it and the process after passing extension. I think that BSC Panhellenic is right on track with what we learned. I was shocked, and somewhat jealous, to hear that other schools have quote as high as 94! Can you imagine a new member class that large? It is almost the size of Gamma Phi Beta and Phi Sigma Sigma put together! Then they talked about chapters with as many as 300 members total! That is more than the entire BSC Greek community put together! I was floored!

Once the session was over I approached Julie Johnson with the intent to introduce myself (calm and casually, of course) and suddenly, I was star struck once again and blurted out "Hi, I am Aubree Buyny from Bridgewater State College and I am just so excited to meet you!" in probably one breath. It was a little embarrassing but she was so sweet.

Next was lunch time. Sandwiches and treats woot. Once finished, we went to the Greek Boutique again to pick up our orders.

After a short break, Jess, MB and I went to the NPC area meeting. We met with our NPC advisor and she was so adorable. We discussed a few issues and happy things going on in the Panhellenic's in the area. Then it was time for a second coffee and session 2...

Session two was another one related to my favorite thing ever, Panhellenic! It was called Advance Panhellenic. It was actually a little preview of an eight hour program offered by CAMPUSPEAK to help improve your Panhellenic. We went around the room and tallied up the four most important values to each of our Panhellenic councils. Then we discussed the top four choices. Next we played a game where we had to stand in different sections: Advancing, Maintaining and Regressing, and stand in the section that pertained to our Panhellenic Councils. Then we discussed why we chose which category and bounced ideas off of each other of how we can improve and ways that other CPC's have improved. I think the program would be awesome to bring to BSC to have our Panhellenic council go through and revamp a few of our weak points.

My next session was a little depressing. It was called "It's not me, It's you. What to do when you want to break up with your chapter." I went to this as a way to help with retention but it was actually targeted more at the audience as people who are not happy in their chapters. We broke up into groups depending on dissatisfaction in our chapters so I went to the least dissatisfied group because I am not at all dissatisfied! It was really eye opening to know that other chapters have similar problems. Sometimes it seems like it is only your chapter when it is happening to you. It was nice to let out some frustrations about certain issues and offer suggestions to help fellow greeks.

Once we were finished with our sessions we returned to hear a closing lecture from the keynote speaker from yesterday. He gave us a few tips to remember and sent us on out merry way to get ready for fancy dinner.

Fancy dinner was at 7:30. We had more photo sessions and I encountered an escalator for the first time in my heels... More on that later. Dinner was pretty good. The salad was delightful. There was some chicken thing for the actual meal and cheesecake for dessert. I am not a huge fan of cheesecake but it wasnt too bad. After dinner they handed out awards. BSC did not apply for any awards but it was nice to hear why everyone was winning because of the great work they do. We will OWN the awards next year. I have decided that I would like to restart our Order of Omega and Gamma Sigma Alpha Honors Societies. Sarah and I plan to get on that ASAP!

After dinner there was an awkward entertainer that juggled and balanced things on his face. He was nifty. We felt bad because all but like 50 people left. He escaped a straight jacket... pretty nifty. I didn't know how they did that until MB said they diconned their arm from their shoulder socket... ew. It was hard to watch knowing..

Back to the escalator in heels situation... I have NEVER done this before and already being scared of the wretched things, I was nervous. Going up was ok. Done carefully and all was good. But, my main fear is the down escalators. They go too fast, they are high up, and there isnt as much room to step as the up ones. We also decided to used a new one. I became very nervous and could not do it... It is funny looking back and probably for you reading this. But I was borderline crying. Boo but Sarah came to my rescue. She came doen with me and I decided the best solution was to take off my shoes. So yes, I went bare foot down an escalator... swine? Perhaps. So that was today's TRAUMATIC MOMENT OF THE DAY!

Then we took some darling pictures on the stairs and in "therapy" with MB. It was fun.

Now we are sitting in the lobby next to the club in our pj's while everyone is all dressed up and ready to mingle. Obviously we are blogging! I am sad that the convention is over. I have learned a lot and I cannot wait to make suggestions to my chapter and Panhellenic. This was a life changing experience and I am so thrilled that I had the opportunity to do this. And my fear for escalators in flat shoes is pretty chill... I may have to come back next year to work on escalators in heels. :-)

Although we had a blast, I am ready to go home and return to my normal routines as a slightly better developed human being and leader.

Panhellenic Love from Hartford CT!
Aubree