Reading List for Recruitment

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie


Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan, Charles Burck


Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi, Tahl Raz

Quote of the Week

from chasingthelight on etsy

Alpha Chi Omega Recruitment Weekend

I spent the weekend in Atlanta helping Alpha Chi Omega with a fantastic Recruitment Training. This was the first of three workshops that will be held this summer and it was jammed packed full of valuable information and real life skills we hope chapters will help their members develop. I thought it would be fun to share all the photos tweeted from the event, so here they are in chronological order. 

Thursday, we had training for the Recruitment Specialists, facilitators, and other volunteers. Here are Bonnie and Jenn taking a minute away from their lunch to pose for a picture: 

Here I am, explaining how to use one of my favorite tools, survey monkey, to handle large quantities of data:

"The Jens" taking care of the registration desk - from left to right: Jenny, Jenn and Jen

A small group session in action:

A whole group session in action. That's Allison presenting on Leadership and Change

Door prizes were chosen from among the attendees who tweeted about the event and those who checked in on foursquare. Nicole from Iota Psi chapter won this great Alpha Chi Omega tiara from Sorority Spirit:

Recruitment Specialists relaxing after a long day of volunteering - left to right: Elise, Jenn, Jodi and Katie

And finally (at the airport on their way home) our amazing Alpha Chi Omega Headquarters staff who planned and executed an incredible weekend!! Thank you all so much! From left to right: Jen, Amber, Allison and Jenny

Check out all the weekend's tweets at #AXORT2011 and be sure to follow @AXORecruitment on Twitter!

Quote of the Week

from Tessyla on etsy

Wickliffe Main: More Living, Less Driving

Love this great sustainable green community project in Wickliffe, Ohio (just outside Cleveland) and a shout out to my high school classmate, Roger, who you'll hear narrating the video. Kudos to him and his partners for working to bring this sort of community-strengthening project to life!



Learn more at wickliffemain.com

Dear 16 Year Old Me

Our Visit to Vintage Bar & Bistro

Last Friday night, hubs and I enjoyed a nice dinner at the new Vintage Bar & Bistro in Tallahassee. For those of you keeping score at home, we have very few truly new places here; Vintage used to be Cafe Cabernet. It has a whole new menu and new vibe, both of which impressed us. 

We were seated right away when we arrived, and had our section almost to ourselves (it was an early date). Our server was helpful and knowledgeable about the wine list and the details about menu items. We each had a glass of wine and started off with the flatbread of the day, which had braised short rib meat, asparagus and other goodies on it. Tasty, as were the wines. 

For dinner I had the grouper: 

GULF GROUPER con maiz

warm corn salsa, garlic sautéed spinach

& cumin tomato béchamel

and hubs had the Southern burger - he couldn't pass up the chance to have the pimento cheese - olive - pepper jam combo which was just how the server described it: a great combination of smooth, salty and sweet.

SOUTHERN BURGER

with pimento cheese, green olives, 3 pepper marmalade

We both wanted to try the blue cheese grits, so we ordered them as a side. Even though white on white in a white bowl doesn't make the best photo, here it is:

BLUE CHEESE GRITS

My fish and hubs' burger were both prepared just right. The warm corn salsa was really good - a little sweet but with just enough heat to keep to keep it tangy too. As the evening progressed, the restaurant got busier (especially the outside patio which our server was also covering) so it took awhile to get our check, but we weren't in a hurry so it wasn't a big deal. We'll definitely be back - there are other items on the menu (see it here) that we want to try... and I really enjoyed the background music (doesn't happen often in restaurants). 

http://www.vintagebistroandbar.com/

http://www.facebook.com/VintageTally

http://twitter.com/VintageTally 

Great New Documentary Short Film

Saw the trailer for this great project from Edge of Seven on The Girl Effect's facebook page:



In case you're not familiar with The Girl Effect, this video tells their story:

Fun Gift for Your Favorite NumberHead

Last week etsy devoted one of their daily email updates to all things geeky. There were a lot of cute things, but I just love these distribution plushies. They would be great gifts for your favorite methodologist, statistician, researcher or graduate student who aspires to be any of the above.

from the description:

Light Green Standard Normal Distribution

Baby Blue t Distribution

Light Yellow Chi-Square Distribution

Light Pink Log Normal Distribution

Lilac Continuous Uniform Distribution

Tan Weibull Distribution

Olive Green Cauchy Distribution

Slate Blue Poisson Distribution

Maroon Gumbel Distribution

Gray Erlang Distribution

Plushies are approximately 10" wide by 6.5" tall, but do vary from distribution to distribution.

Check out everything in Nicole's cute "uber-nerd" etsy shop at Nausicaa Distribution! 

Quote of the Week

from den10studio on etsy

Steve Ellis Memorial Scholarship 5k

A quick reminder for all my Tallahassee running friends that the Steve Ellis Memorial 5k is next Saturday, May 21st on the campus of Florida State University. Sign up at http://www.ellis5k.com/

More about the race here or on the facebook group here.

Thanks!

Cute AXO Stationery

Love these two designs from Erin Condren (thanks Britain for sharing her site!)

see all the lyre options here

see all the peacock options here

For our Panhellenic friends, Erin also has anchors, arrows, crowns, dolphins, etc.! Check out all sorority gift labels here.

Happy Mothers Day!

Sending some love out to Mom and the (no longer little) guy who made me a Mom:

The 3 of us at Grandparents Day at school last fall.

A little food for thought for Mothers Day from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: A Connection Between Mothers Day and Foreign Policy? 

Quote of the Week

from larainy on etsy

My Favorite Kindle Books - Year 2

May 7, 2009 I became a kindle owner. It's hard to believe it's been 2 years! On May 7, 2010 (my first kindle-versary) I shared a list of my favorites I had read in my first year (see it here); consider it a tradition as I share some stand-outs from year 2.

I've done a much better job this year of writing reviews as I go along so you'll be able to learn more about each book listed.

Favorite New (to me) Author
My college AXO bff Maura recommended Sarah Addison Allen's novel The Girl Who Chased the Moon (which I reviewed here). I've subsequently read all three of her other books and loved them all. As usual, if Maura offers you a recipe or a book recommendation, don't pass it up!
 

I Want All my Mom-friends to Read...
For mothers of school-aged daughters, I recommend Girls on the Edge (reviewed here) about the hidden dangers in being a teenager in a new world/the new millennium.

Best Memoirs 
Too tough to choose just one as I read so many great ones this year (all completely diverse) that I really enjoyed. In chronological order: Pat Benatar's Between a Rock and Heart Place (review here), Nancy Brinker's Promise Me (review here), Condoleezza Rice's Extraordinary Ordinary People (review here), John Kralik's 365 Days of Thank Yous by (review here) and Elin Stebbins Waldal's Tornado Warning (review here).

    

A Book That Will Change Your Life
I cannot say enough good things about Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It will give you a clear picture of the international issues affecting women and give you both hope and concrete ways to make a difference. See also my review here, more about Circle of Sisterhood here and a report on Nick Kristof's visit to Tallahassee here.
 

There are so many other books I'd award Honorable Mentions, but I'll keep this brief. Thanks again to everyone who recommended books this year - please continue to send great ideas my way!

Happy Reading!