To be quite honest I don't know where to start. I guess I'll get a little sappy because that is how I feel since this conference has come to its official close. This was not only my very first NGLA but also my first large conference. I know it sounds cheesy but this has really been an experience that has influence my life and I have gained so many tools and lessons that I will not only use in Greek Life but also in my daily life. I am leaving this conference feeling empowered and its one of the best feelings ever!
Now that I have gotten all of my cheesyness out I can talk about my AMAZING day!
The bears and I were up bright and early dressed to impress as usual! We stopped by Starby's to get our day started off on the right foot. Aubree and Katelyn guided me though my first experience and it was GREAT! We took our yummilicious coffee breakfast to go so we could go SHOPPING!!!!!!!
The Greek Boutique is a wonderful place. As much as it was stinky to not see a Phi Pi Delta table there it was a blessing in disguise. I would have spent all the money I was paid on Friday. Buying Greek Life stuff is a slight addiction for me. When I see them I just want them on anything and EVERYTHING. I did make a purchase however. I got a surprise for my little and some cute screen-printed letters for myself. Can't wait to wear them!!!
The day started off with an opening session called Phired Up: Dynamic Recruitment with Josh Orendi. This session was out of control. Everything he said was absolutely true. The first quote he said that stood out to me was: "Never doubt that a small group of citizens can change the world. Indeed its all that ever has" This statement stands true for Greek Life. Although the Greeks on our campus take up a smaller percentage of our campus people should never doubt us and the positive effect we can have on our community. He gave us the three secrets of recruitment:
1. You can't recruit people you don;t know. The largest group of incoming students does not come to college thinking that Greek Life will be in their future. You have to make connections and friendships with these people and show them why you and your community can be a beneficial part of their life.
2. People don't join organizations ... People join people. We shouldn't be putting our organizations out there for the short time we have rush but rather put ourselves out the whole year.
3. We scare people ... BE MORE NORMAL! We can be very intimidating as Greeks with all of our information. We need to be more aware of how comfortable people feel around us and act like normal people :)
He also talked about what it means to be a social organization. The main reason we are social is because we support community, interpersonal growth, and broadening ourselves for the betterment of the community. Not for parties, and keg stands, and other outlandish things. Josh read a story from a book that talked about the work ethics of mules and horses and compared those animals to our chapters. The horses are those members who continuously work really hard and carry a lot of the work load in the chapter. The mules are the members who seem to go missing when something needs to be done or they say they will do something and always seem to be too busy to actually get it accomplished. He taught us a very good lesson from this story. Your members choose daily when they wake up whether they want to me a mule or a horse in your chapter. You cannot make a mule into a horse, they need to make that change themselves. So how do you fix the problem of having more mules in your chapter than you have horses? You simply stop letting the mules recruit mules and have the horses start recruiting horses. Eventually the mules will come around and evolve into horses. Another helpful tool he gave us to help with knowing more people was called "the screw" (A.K.A a hand shake). It works every time and it is an easy way to start a conversation. He taught us the 5 F*n ways to master conversation:
1. family and friends
2. favorites
3. Future
4. fun
5. from.
Josh said the magic of recruitment is not the activity and what you do but rather who you are. He closed his presentation with this statement read it how you may and tell me what you see it as: OPPORTUNITY IS NOWHERE
The second session I went to was called Local Roundtable with Su Bartlet who is from a local chapter at a college in Pennsylvania. This was another GREAT session. Everyone at this session was from a local organization just like Phi Pi Delta. This gave us an opportunity to talk about the struggles we all have as local organizations as well as our triumphs. It was absolutely unbelievable to talk to these people and see that they are all struggling with the same things as my chapter is. We were all able to talk about our problems and give each other some feedback as to what has worked for us and could potentially work for the other organizations. I made so many connections in this session and I am hoping to stay in touch with these people so that we can all help each other develop into more successful chapters. The presented took a group picture of all the representatives from the local organization to put onto a facebook group she made for all of us. She plans on having us join the group and putting up resources to help us better out chapters. Two girls who are from other locals and I exchanged information so that they can send me a copy of their constitution since Phi Pi is working on re-writing our constitution. Phi Pi Delta is also going on a retreat to work on things that the chapter needs to improve on and I thin Su will be a great resource to us so I asked if she would be interested in coming to the retreat to give us some input from a person who has experienced a local chapter. I AM TOTALLY PSYCHED!!!!!! I think the two of us will stay in touch and be new friends :)
After this session we went to lunch!!!! I was able to feed Norman (my food baby). I got to eat lunch with Burbalicious and she is just as awesome as MB says (not that I doubted MB's opinion for a second). We had a buffet with yummy salad, pasta, and sandwich meat. The brownie that I got for dessert was DELICIOUS!! After lunch was over we ventured to the Greek Boutique to buy all of our fun purchases that looked absolutely AMAZING :)
The next session I went to was called Buy In or Get Out with David Stollman. He is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! Words cannot even describe the feeling I had when I left this session. He had an unbelievable amount of stories that he told that he has seen people in Greek Life so that bring all the negative stereotypes to life. This was very unfortunate. Although he had all of these stories the point was not to show all the negative things Greeks have done, and some even continue to do, but rather to show people that there is really no good reason behind the negative behavior and they will not lead to a positive outcome for your chapter. He was a prime example because when he was in college his chapter did some horrible things but they had to pay. Now as an alumni he is not able to go back to his school and visit his fraternity house because his chapter was shut down. Could all of this have been avoided? The answer is YES. This was the moral behind is story. David truly believes that Greek Life is the best thing about college. He stressed to us that we should stand up as leaders and make a change in our organizations before Greek Life disappears before our eyes. Greek Life impacts too many lives for it to be taken away from campuses but that responsibility is in our hands. One quote that he said that stood out to me and meant a lot was this: "Don't put the letters on you chest, but rather out the meaning in your heart".
The next session I went to was called Can Someone Please Give Me a Clue as to What IFC is Supposed to Do. This session was so helpful. Max and I went to it together. It was nice to hear what is required of IFC's and see a mock constitution. I got tons of ideas and things that I need to do and become responsible for when I get back to campus. The one thing that was stressed the most was that Greek Life Advisors are doing more work than they should be by managing all the data that IFC should be taking care of. DATA DATA DATA! Having the data and knowing it can only help make your IFC more successful. You will be able to see where change needs to be made and acknowledge the very strong parts of your Greek Community.
A little IFC Love ♥
The last education session I went to was called Molding Your Members. The presenter gave us nine tips to having successful members:
1. Understand the cognitive level of members and meet the need of said members
2. Clearly identify what a graduating member should know, believe, and do.
3. Don't be Jello. You are not trying to make everyone the same.
4. Use your ritual, creed, and values.
5. Make members aware of programs that help them develop.
6. Catch members in the act of doing things right.
7. Don't be afraid to hold people accountable for poor actions.
8. Tie everything back to ritual and power of personal growth,
9. DWYSYWD: Do what you say you would do!!!
After our last educational session we had a final key-note speaker to wrap up the whole weekend. The BYSTANDER EFFECT. We are all guilty of it, but it is something we all need to work on and learn to take a stand. No matter how big or small the situation is, if something bothers you you have the right to stand up and tell someone to change that action. If it is something as serious as hazing or something that endangers others, it is your OBLIGATION to take a stand. The three things he wanted us to take away are the following: Ask more questions, Practice, and the lastly the one that stuck out the most to me was Don't verbally throw up on people when you return home!
HMMMM ... Verbally throw-up. It doesn't sound too appetizing but it is exactly what I want to do when I get home. I feel like I am bursting at the seems with information that can help better not only my chapter but all of Greek Life on the BSC campus and I want to share it with the world!!!! Unfortunately sharing it all at once with everyone will be very overwhelming and they will not be as accepting to all the things I have to offer. My plan is to post all of my notes here on this blog so that all of you friends that are following it will be able to learn as well, and to take it step by step nice and slow with my chapter.
ALAS THE DAY HAS NOT ENDED!!!! The fun has just begun. With all the the educational sessions ended we were given time to change into our pretty dresses and get all dolled up for the banquet. We were at the banquet nice and early so we could have some nice seats. While we waited to be let into the banquet hall we had a short photo shoot (OF COURSE because we are so good looking :D). A fraternity started doing their stroll and stepping which totally captivated my attention and i loved it ♥ look it up on youtube it is CRAZY!!! The banquet was very nice and the food was delicious. Norman was very happy with their food choice :) Following the dinner portion was the award ceremony. I think that BSC can totally qualify for some of these awards and I think we have a good chance of taking some home next year now that we have some NGLA experience under our belt. That will be a very exciting day! Dream Big!!! :)
After the banquet was over these bears had yet another photo shoot AS ALWAYS! (check out facebook for all of these great pictures) We love making memories and these will definitely stay with us forever.
Well that has been the last official day of NGLA and I am oh so sad to say that we have reached the end. I would however like to thank everyone who helped get us here because this really is a beneficial program from Greek Life and the things that were learned here can only be taken back to our campus and help Greek Life for the better. Can't wait to see everything in action! Thanks again!
TTFN ♥
Delta Love,
Sarah
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