Goodbye NGLA, Hello BSU!

Today was the final day of NGLA 2013.  The day began after a quick trip to starbucks with keynote speaker, Rick Barnes. He talked about the best possible ways for our organizations to flourish and how to combat the negative stereotypes. The message that made the largest impression with me was about drinking. He reinforced that when we do have a drink, we should not drink in order to get drunk and anyone and everyone who are consuming alcoholic beverages are only those over the age of 21. He then went on to talk about the importance of the rituals we have and how they may all be difference but they all share similar ideas and they all promote and remind their members of they beliefs and values. 

The three sessions that I attended today were: Understanding Your LGBQ Brothers & Sisters, Dynamic Recruitment for Sororities and “Yeah, But…” Explaining our Actions and Perceptions. While each of these focus on different main topics they all carried the same underlying message of tolerance and thinking about putting yourself in another shoes. In the LGBQ session, we talked about tolerance of others in organizations that are attracted to others of the same gender. It was interesting to talk with the group about what we can do to make those members feel more included. There are simple ways to do that, some of which as a heterosexual female I would not have considered before like the gender specific wording in guidelines for visitors and event guests. The second session was about how to make friends and be tolerant about others feelings on Greek Life. The focus of the session was to recruit by making gradual friendships and instead of telling people to go out for recruitment, show them why they should. The goal was to be tolerant of their decision not to join Greek Life and make them want to join through your friendships, interactions and depictions of your organization’s values. The third was about tolerance of peoples opinions and they way they reached those decisions. Everyone has different backgrounds and personal experiences that influence their opinions of the world and the choices we make and how we need to take the time to look at where we are coming from and where they are coming from and respecting them.

The affiliation lunch was so exciting. I loved meeting other sisters and talking about our chapters and what we have in common and what we do differently. I was able to exchange numbers and emails with a few of my sisters so in the future we can collaborate. I also met our membership manager, Maria, it was really cool to be able to add a face to a name I had seen on our website numerous amounts of time.

I also attended the Saturday showcase, Be a Dream Maker: Your Role in Making Fraternity and Sorority Life Great. During the showcase, speaker Michelle talked about her own experience in Greek Life as a member who was hazed and hazed others. Because of her experiences she was able to put a personal spin on what the damage of hazing does to not only the people who become dream killers to the organizations which become endangered because they are loosing the amount of potential new members. She really focuses on how to build your organizations and its members, by realistically talking about the negative impacts that a large social group has the potential to create and also how to avoid those negative things that promotes negativity and fuels the stereotype.

We ended our day with the Awards Ceremony where the BSU community took home an honorable mention for our philanthropic work and Jesslyn took home an award for being a distinguished leader. J It was an amazing night filled with laughter and picture taking. I as I reflect on the weekend, I am so grateful I chose to apply to become a BSU/DPhiE representative here at NGLA. Not only have I received tools to bring back to improve my chapter but I have also found ways to better myself as a person. I am looking forward to going home but I will be departing NGLA with a heavy heart. I am thrilled to return to campus with the knowledge I have received here but also with more friends and networking connection. As I am preparing to return to the busy days of school, work, friends and Greek Life, I know I will be returning with a fresh mind and the tools I have collected to make improvements. Tomorrow I will climb into the van with chauffer, Mb, and my Greek family to brave the to BSU weather (hopefully it will not being snowing).  Everyday is a great day to be a bear!