After pajama jammy jams last night, I was so tired that I could barely walk back to my room so I saved my blog for today when I had a clearer head.
So this is a two-parter!
Saturday:
I must say that Saturday was my favorite day of the weekend. It began with a very informative and shocking keynote. During the keynote we learned about the history of Fraternities and Sororities but even more specifically we discussed culturally based organizations. This was interesting to me because I did not know all that much about those groups. Unfortunately with this keynote came the discussion about hazing. We saw article headlines and disturbing pictures. It is disappointing that we have to continue having this discussion in the FSL world when there are so many things that we could be learning about advancement. Instead we have to discuss advancement from the steps back that FSL community members have taken. So all I have to say is get it through your head what our values are and live congruently with those values. If you are not willing to do so then please get out because hazing is disgusting. How many more people have to die before we get this right?
After the intense keynote, we had our first education session of the day! I went to a session about being an alum with Epsilon Eta and BSU alum, Anna Takahama! We had some good conversations about what chapters can do to include alumni/ae for longer than those few years after they graduate. It was also helpful because IHQ reps were present and took in feedback about how they can keep women involved after graduation.
Once the first session was complete, it was time for the affiliation luncheon! This is one of my favorite parts of the conference because you get to meet all of the members of your organization present and make connections. :-)
After lunch, I had the opportunity to take a picture with all of the Panhellenic presidents present at the conference. We are getting a free calendar compliments of Greek Yearbook.
Then it was time for the NPC area meetings. This was a nice opportunity to get to know what was going on with NPC. There have been a few changes to unanimous agreements and we are looking into a few recruitment changes so this gave us the ability to be more educated. We were also able to meet with our area advisor and the other campuses in our area. It was nice to hear that other campuses may be different but have similar issues. And we are doing pretty well if you ask me :-)
Next we had two more education sessions. The first one I attended was about money. The man presenting gave me some good ideas to bring back on how to cut down costs and get members to pay their dues. Then I attended a session about the Release Figure Methodology that over 400 campuses use for Panhellenic Recruitment. I definitely thing it is something that we need to discuss and seriously consider so I took thorough notes. While at this session I ran into our old area advisor who is the Chi Omega alternate delegate. I may or may not have creeped at her bag and noticed that it had the Panhellenic crest on it. Now, if you know me then you know how much i LOVE Panhellenic and how badly I wish there was a place I could buy Panhellenic swag. So I obviously asked her about it and she informed me that NPC distributes the bags to the delegates and that she had some laying around at home that she was looking to get rid of. So long story short, she is mailing me one! YAY! Talk about Panhellenic love!
After a bit of a break it was time for the awards banquet! We were so excited because of our "Award Winner" ribbons! We ended up getting honorable mentions for Recruitment and Multicultural/Diversity programming and Sigma Pi ended up winning for Risk Reduction for the Rachel's Challenge program. Toot toot BSU for putting us on the map! And a special thank you to Lexi Kay for submitting our award applications. We will OWN next year.
After all of the excitement and a photo op we headed back for some pajama jammy jams with our fabulous advisor MB! We played a non competitive round of taboo before the men vs women competition. The women obviously let the men win...
After sleep came... SUNDAY!
We slept in until about 9 then headed down for our Starbucks fix. Once all the bears were together we re=piled into the 15 passenger van and embarked on our 2 hour journey home.
On the journey, MB asked us to blog about what we valued the most from this experience. As a graduating senior, this trip was very different for me than it was last year. I looked at it as an experience for me to bring back information to the BSU Greek community to help better it in the future even after I leave. The most valuable thing I got from this experience truly was the aspect of lifetime membership and leaving a legacy.
I have put my heart and soul into being a sorority woman at BSU. It has made me who I am today and I could not imagine my life without it. I am making a vow to remain an active alumna in my own chapter and to eventually get involved with NPC. I definitely think that I am leaving my collegiate experience better than how I joined it and I truly believe that I had a part in making that change. I am bringing back even more information that I know will help benefit the community once I leave. I am helping to provide the ingredients to bake an even better FSL community and I know that I will not be disappointed. We have so many talented individuals with so much potential to do great things so DO IT UP! I will always be readily available when needed but cannot wait to see the BSU FSL community when I keep returning as an alumna!
Thank you to MB for providing me the opportunity to take this trip with you and the other members of the delegation. I would not be half of the woman I am today without having been influenced by such an inspirational woman.
Panhellenic Love forever and always!
Aubree
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