Final Day

Today Started of with a Keynote speaker who talked about the gift of being Greek. This presentation gave a quick history of Greek Organizations and how they were built. This all lead into discussing the benefits that you get from being in a Greek Organization such as organization skills or an impressive array of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. This was a great reminder of the benefits I am receiving from being a Fraternity man. It is always a breath of fresh air when you are reminded that you are doing something worth while.

The next section of the day was dedicated to block sessions. The first session I attended was called building blocks and was about creating a New Member Education program. I thought this was a great presentation and there was a lot for me to take from it. My chapters is so new that we have a lot to take from this and add to our Associate Member Process. It mapped out important facets of a good program: Brother/sisterhood bonds or learning the facts about the Fraternity and not just nationally but your own local history. The second session I went to was called Ringing the Doorbell: Saner, Healthier Sex in college. This was a very entertaining and was a great break from the presentations about growing your organizations. It was nice to be in a session that was all about personal growth.

Once the first two block sessions where over we had the affiliation lunch. This was a lot of fun for me and my Phi Kappa Theta Brothers really enjoyed. The only other Phi Kaps that were here were the Brothers from the chapter at WPI who we already have a good relationship with them so it was a really good time. After lunch we had some more interesting sessions to go to. I attended one amazing session about being a good leader. I was called being an ACTion HERO and was all about good qualities to have as a leader. The presenter was energetic and entertaining. The information was different than what i am use to hearing so it was very good. After that session I went to a very interesting session called Answering the Call. It was all about trying to take action towards an issue you see through the basic model the fictional superhero stories follow. It was really interesting to see something that I have great interest in, fictional superheroes like Batman, and see how you can address and issue in a way that would be mapped out in a story about them. This session also gave me a chance to reflect on the mission of Phi Kappa Theta and what it means to me. The final session of the day was a wrap up of the action planning session that was started the day before. In this we discussed a seven step model on how to settle confrontations, this was very good to have as an open discussion since the day before I was at a session about judicial meditations.

To end the day we had a very nice award banquet dinner. It gave the other delegates and myself a chance to dress in our best and see some amazing things that chapters our doing around the Northeast. Overall, it was another great and productive day at NGLA. Heading home in the morning.

Matthew D. Foss