Last Day :-(

So today was/is our last day at the conference. We will be leaving tomorrow morning to head back to BSU. Leaving is bittersweet. I want to stay and keep learning, but I need to go home to BSU. I cannot really suck up any more information. It is tiring to listen to these presentations that keep your brain working from 9am until you go to bed at like 12:30. So it is good to go home now. There were five sessions that I attended today including the Keynote that everyone saw. There was Keynote: Living The Dream of Our Founders, Team Phi Kap: A Fraternities Quest for Success, The Anatomy of Power, Be A Dream Maker: Your Role in Making Fraternity and Sorority Life Great, and I'm not doing that silly junk, I'm a MAN.

The Keynote was amazing today. He had great funny stories which really complimented the session well.
Some main points that he hit on was:

• Stop Selling what we do and
• START selling WHY we are here.
• You have to expect the same things from your active members, that you expect from your Associate Members. Make everyone accountable for the same ideals.
• When he was talking about hazing in recruitment he said, take a video of your recruitment classes, would you send it to your Nationals, your University President, your Parents,...Next years recruits? Without sitting there with them to explain why things are happening, justifying your actions. If you wouldn't do that, you really need to reevaluate your strategies. 
• He also gave two rules for risk management, that you will only need those two rules. All the others will be obsolete.

1. You have to be 21 to drink alcohol!
2. And; Just Don't Get DRUNK! You can drink, just don't get drunk out of control.

The next seminar that I went to was about Phi Kappa Theta and our founder chapter and how they were almost at extinction, and then how they got back from that and the strategy they used. 

• They used the SWOT technique: Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats.
• Additionally, they used a Team Plan. Setting up a plan for getting their fraternity back on the right track after almost being kicked off campus.

After that, was The Anatomy of Power with the same presenter as the Keynote, who killed it the first time around. One of his many stories involved a heart monitor machine, the kind you will see at a hospital where it records in bumps how your heart is beating. Anyway, he used an analogy with the machine. Leaders are always getting better or worse, we are never stopped. If you are not getting better or worse, you are flat lining and you will fail as a leader. We are Constantly needing to improve. The bar is always being set higher for what we need to achieve in order to be considered excellent. 

       He went over some amazing things that seem to be obvious, but we hardly ever understand or live by them as leaders:

• Leadership isn't about you! It is about everyone else, the followers. We are doing it for them, not for us. They believe in us and trust us to lead them in the right direction. 
• Then he asked us, Is leadership Made, or Born? 
• And we are influenced, by the people around us. If we are surrounded by awful people, we might not be a great person or embody great values.

1. He gave us an assignment that we can do, but we don't need to. It just might be helpful. Make a list of the top 10 people that you hang out with/spend the most time with. Now rank them on a scale of 1-5, 5 being an extremely harmful person to be around and one that you should probably reevaluate. And a 1 being someone that you need to surround yourself with because they are a great role model. 

• Now to go along with the Leadership Made or Born thing. It's called the Evolution of Leadership, and most people who are avid leaders embody this. 
• We start out with Joining an organization, but that isn't good enough for us, so we get more Involved, people notice our enthusiasm and Appoint you to a position, you get so good at this appointed position that you decide to run for an Elected position and you get it. And finally you become a Post Leader and you help the new aspiring leaders in that organization and start the whole process over again and again in other organizations. 
• Then we moved on to personalities. And a main point he said was "Whether you are an Introvert or an Extrovert by nature, as a leader you need to be able to be one or the other when the time arrives. 
• Now he spoke specifically to the people in the room and what he believes motivates us.

1. We like to be recognized and seen for the awesome things that we do.
2. And we like/need to be right. That doesn't always make us well liked, but it is how we are.

One of the most powerful things we discussed in this was the 4 Things We Have To Show To Have Power/Leadership.

1. Mental Power
2. Emotional Power
3. Physical Power (we need to take care of ourselves, often we sacrifice our health for our members. And where are we supposed to go to unload our baggage when everyone comes to us with theirs?)
4. Spiritual Power

Now the final thing that we touched on was improvement. Where do we rank our organizations on a scale from 1-10. 10 being you have nothing else that you need to do, you're just that amazing. And a 1 being you probably shouldn't be an organization. Now we don't need to go from being a 5 all the way to a 10, we just need to Improve. If you think that you are just too damn good to go any higher, then you are going to flat line. 

The next seminar that I went to was Be a Dream Maker. Now this lady was hilarious. She was completely comfortable with who she was and what she had done as a Greek Member. She asked us all, what would the world be like, without Greek Organizations? 

And she challenged us to be better than the people who came before us, and the people after us, to be better than we were. 

She told us to go to non-Greek stuff in order to get more involved and well known. And for crying out loud, share the awesome things that you do so you can get credit and be in the news for a good reason!!!!

     We also need to do UIFI and start the Order of Omega on our campus!!

She asked us, What Role Do We Play in our Organization? 

• Are we the Greek Rockstar?
• The Shirt-Wearer? 
• Or the Team-Player?

Now the final seminar that I attended was the I Am A Man one.

• We have to better ourselves, before we can better others. Start with ourselves and then go to the new guys, they are willing to be whatever.
• If you have 'Prisoners' re-recruit them. And if that doesn't work then open the door and set them free, maybe they are better as just a friend.
• We have to be able to match up our brothers with other brothers with the same interests.

This is all I've got guys. If anyone has any questions PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ask me! That is why I am here. To learn for you all. I want to educate every person possible about the incredible things that I have learned here. It has changed my life and I will honestly never be the same.

In MB terms, "We made Memories Bear's!"