Hey there party (to quote MB)
Bright and early, I boarded the struggle bus. Leanne, Judith and I were all late getting downstairs and late getting up because we were all so tired. We all decided in the elevator that it was going to be one of those days.
The first speaker was really cool. He talked about what Greek life is now and how to improve it. My favorite parts were when he talked about our rituals and how every member should study them and know them because that's where our values lie. We should also stop trying to sell what we do and start selling why we're here! Seriously. Wicked legit.
The first session I went to was accountability and commitment. I learned a lot in this session. Commitment implies passion, intensity and duration. Commitment and accountability! Commitment is more having the motivation to get things done and the difference between attending and being present. You need commitment in order to hold yourself accountable. What inspires both is motivation. In order to help your chapters with commitment and accountability, you need to motivate them to be present. One of the big problems I noticed the other Greek organizations had were seniors not listening and not committing because they have already done their time. When you are in a fraternity or sorority, you continually prove that you are supposed to be there. There is no day when you can stop putting in effort because you've been apart of the organization for a while. If this was the case, Greek life would have died out a long time ago. Accountability has recently been a problem with my chapter. How I learned to fix that was motivating my members and lead by example. No member should ever think "okay, you're yelling me at this now, but you did the same thing last week..." If you're on E-board or even the president you should always hold yourself accountable for your actions because if you don't, no one will. The last thing he briefly talked about was members not going to events/chapter/service. He said (and I really agree) that homework is not an excuse for missing chapter or service. You're a college student and have probably known about the assignment for a while and you should really learn how to manage their time. You also know the exact time every week you have chapter and, therefore, should plan around that. There have been times where I've saved homework for the last minute, but I still went to chapter because I've made that commitment. I just did the homework afterwards. Think of it this way: if you walked into a business meeting unprepared and told your boss you were unprepared because you had other things to do, you'd be fired. Also, missing chapter and service for homework, but going to social events and such is really unacceptable. If you have time to go to social events, you most definitely have time to go to chapter and service hours.
The second session I went to was about being a powerful person. He talked about being the bystander and helping a brother/sister/anyone who you are worried about. If they have an eating disorder, drink too much, are in an abusive relationship, etc. there are easy steps you can take to bring it up to the person to express your concern about what is going on in a positive way. I left the worksheet in my room, but if you want to know I can email you the steps. 0:)
The last one I went to was for IFC. Let me just tell you, when I walked into that meeting in my red dress and sat down, I was given the weirdest looks from the men in the room. It was clear they thought I walked into the wrong session. I felt crazy awkward and wanted to stand up and yell "JUST AN FYI SINCE YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF ASKING, I'M IN A CO-ED FRATERNITY AND WAS JUST ELECTED IFC VP SO BUGGER OFF!!!!" ... I didn't though because the stares made me feel too awkward. Anyways! This session focused on advocacy with the IFC. They centered it around practicing what you preach. If you tell everyone you are committed to service, but haven't had a service event in months, people aren't going to believe in the IFC. You need to create a plan with your mission and values in it and then start living up to them. Then, students, faculty, the dean, alumni, and parents will see that you're a respectable organization. One person in my session talked about a book his campus made with all the fraternities in it with their values, number of members, their average GPA, and a list of other organizations their members are involved in. They sent this to parents and faculty and such to prove to them that they were making a positive contribution to their campus. (I really liked this!!)
I went to lunch before the IFC session and I sat with a couple other local Greeks, but I was awkward child and didn't really talk to them...
I walked into my final group session to close the day late and I walked into Dylan's first by accident. This meeting really tied it all together for me. I condensed my best notes during the session and wrote a list of everything I wanted to talk about at chapter. Look out Phi Pis! I have awesome activities for you! Get Psyched! Again, if you want to see my wonderful list of improvements and such, email me and I will be more than happy to send them to you.
The best one on the list that everyone should do right now is write a thank you note!
I went back to the room and called Liz to tell her I wanted to hand out a worksheet and stuff and to warn her of my craziness for chapter and she said it was all good(Thank God!). I have one for the current members and the new members! XD and I have stuff for my IFC meeting tomorrow. Wicked pumped.
Dinner time! We were at an award ceremony where Steve and Kyle were basically taking turns insulting me, but they are just meanie pants. Then Steve made a snarky comment to MB and I hit him on the back of the head so that made up for it. :) It was a girl code thing to do. Dinner was nom of course and then they started giving out awards. JESSLYNN WON LEADERSHIP AWARD AND PHI SIGMA WON AN HONORABLE MENTION FOR PHILANTHROPY! YAY TO ALL!
I'm so tired though and it's midnight and this bear needs to hibernate.
If you want my good notes email me! jdrisko@student.bridgew.edu
Delta Love,
Jen
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