most of the Alpha Chi Omegas at the breakfast source
Chelsea from WCU modeling her great Panhellenic scarf!
After breakfast, I attended another academic section, this one titled "Raising the Bar: Establishing Academic Standards in Your Community" by Rick Barnes. It was a good counterpoint to the talk Stephanie and I gave on Friday. Afterward, I took a short break to write some reports and then volunteered at the Silent Auction, keeping an eye on the action and manning the "buy it now" table.
My contribution to the silent auction got lots of bids!
The Professionals Luncheon was great fun, thanks to my table-mates who were interesting and spirited. After lunch, I had the pleasure of hearing Stacy Nadeau inspire a huge room of young women. Dove recruited Stacy to model in their Real Beauty campaign, an experience that changed her life. Her messages - that the images of women we see every day are so air-brushed and computer-edited that no one could possibly look like them in real life - and that we, as women, have to start loving ourselves as we are - really resonated with me. This video illustrates her first point:
If you have a chance to see Stacy, don't miss it!
For the last educational session, I previewed Recruitment Boot Camp at a session with fellow Alpha Chi alumna Laurel Peffer. Her advice was specific, realistic and tangible, geared well to her audience.
SEPC culminates in a Final Banquet, held Saturday evening. The new Conference Coordinators are sworn in and Panhellenics are honored for their accomplishments. This year's speaker was Kathy Betty, (Phi Mu alumna) and owner of the WNBA Team, the Atlanta Dream. Everyone enjoyed her message about taking smart risks and capturing your legacy.
I spent the weekend of March 31-April 3rd in Atlanta for SEPC, the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference, one of the premier college women's leadership conferences in the country. Because I have lots to share (and lots of photos!) I'm going to share three posts about the conference, one for each day. [preview post here; day one post here; day two post here.]
SEPC Day 3: Saturday
Saturday started nice and early at 7:45am with an Affiliation Breakfast and t-shirt swap. We had a great turnout of Alpha Chi Omega sisters for the event, in spite of the early start time. I loved the cut-out t-shirt signs that marked our tables!
Sister checking out t-shirts for swapping.
I loved this OMG Phi Mu t-shirt; this sister was really excited to get it in the swap.
a group photo of all of the Alpha Chi Omegas at breakfast
After a fun hour of socializing and bonding with sisters, it was time to put our thinking caps back on. Again today, like Friday, we had a wealth of choices in terms of topics and speakers.
From 9a-10a I learned a ton about Real Change in Kim Novak's session. Kim is an expert in "student–focused risk management, hazing prevention and campus safety," and her approach to looking at issues in chapters and on campuses comprehensively with an eye toward prevention gave most all of us in the room some aha! moments. She would be someone to invite to campus before there's a problem; her insights and techniques could help a good campus take the right steps to becoming great! Learn more about her work: http://www.novaktalks.com/
From 10:15 - 11:15, I sat in on Reaching the People Who Matter to You: Simple Steps to Redefine Your Campus Image with Dr. Tait Martin His use of humor and real life stories from his own life and fraternity experience helped drive home his points. For example, the average person doesn't speak sorority language - so on your Panhellenic and chapter websites and in your other materials, be sure to use terms everyone can relate to.
I took a quick break for the festivities to have lunch with my Twitter buddy and Alpha Chi sister Mandy. We met at Big Chow Grill which is great fun - you pick all your ingredients (rice or noodles, veggies, meat, seasonings and sauce and the cooks stir-fries it all up for you - delish!! and walking distance from the hotel.) She wrote a really nice blog post about our lunch which you can read here. Our hour together went by entirely too fast!
Then it was back to the conference for more learning! From 1-4pm I attended Release Figure Management - Advanced, a session for university professionals and alumnae advisors. Release Figure Management (RFM) is a system that helps all chapters on a campus do as well as possible during sorority Recruitment. The best part is it helps more potential new members stay in recruitment and ultimately join a sorority. If you're interested, Tri-Sigma has a great slideshow introduction to RFM here. The session was great - it is so helpful to hear other people's questions and perspectives on things. I also learned that 410 campuses are now using this method (there are currently 655 campuses with NPC groups but only those that use a fully-structured recruitment model can implement RFM. [Fully-structured recruitment is the traditional model where all potential members attend first round and then attend fewer events as recruitment continues, ending with a preference day after which each women lists her favorite groups in rank order in order to be matched to receive an invitation to join one group.])
I spent some time later that afternoon having a snack with Jaclyn and Kate from FSU's Alpha Chi chapter, picking up the item I won in the silent auction, and getting reading for the Closing Banquet, which was a lovely event. Many college Panhellenics received awards at dinner and Julie Cain Burkhard inspired us all to say yes to the sorority experience during her key note speech. Here are some photos from the Banquet:
Alpha Chi Omega sisters with our past National President, Julie (front row, center, in gray)
Julie with UWF sisters: Christine (Zeta Psi, Loyola-New Orleans), left, and Christina (Kappa Xi, UWF), right
Julie and I with FSU sisters, from left to right: me, Jaclyn, Julie, Kate and Whitney
I wrapped up the conference with some bonding time with Alpha Chi alums Christine and Kassie before a good nights sleep and quick trip home on Sunday morning. See you next year, SEPC!
I spent last weekend in Atlanta for SEPC, the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference, one of the premier college women's leadership conferences in the country. Because I have lots to share (and lots of photos!) I'm going to share three posts about the conference, one for each day. [preview post here; day one post here.]
SEPC Day 2: Friday (it's a long one so stay with me!)
After a nice breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants with University of Miami colleagues Michelle and Monica, we had a plethora of choices of educational sessions from which to choose. If you're interested, see the schedule here.
From 9-10 I listened as DeeDee Cooper shared her story of teen dating
violence. In Have You Been Hit by Love? DeeDee "shares her personal story of domestic violence with an uplifting and brutally honest account of her experience that will allow your students to recognize the signs of an unhealthy relationship for themselves or someone they may know and how to effectively leave the situation."
She's a very effective speaker. Two things I thought she did especially well:
- Her first person account of how the shame involved prevents victims from seeking help really hit home with the young women in the room
- She shared the Power and Control wheel of domestic violence, which is a good visual way to help women evaluate their relationships as well as the ones of friends they might be concerned about. Learn more about DeeDee at http://www.deedeecooper.com
From 10:15-11:15 Julie Burkhard led a great interactive session: Mentor Me, Mentor You. We explored all the characteristics a mentor might have, thought about who in our lives have mentored us (even if we've not had a formal mentor-mentee relationship) and left wanting to go out and mentor others.
The Philanthropy Luncheon followed. I had been looking forward to this event because SEPC partnered with Circle of Sisterhood (I've written about CoS before, for example, read this.) Circle of Sisterhood works to help alleviate many of the world's most pressing problems by providing education to girls. There was a lot of excitement generated for the cause at the luncheon! Sorority women really "get it" and want to work together to make a difference in the world! The event hostesses asked that everyone contribute $1 to cover the costs for a school CoS is working with in Tanzania. The $1000 they hoped to raise would cover all the expenses for all the students, from lunches to notebooks and pencils. As you can see in the photo, below, everyone was happy to give - and the luncheon pass-the-hat netted $1500!
One side of the ballroom being generous with their Circle of Sisterhood donations!
Overall, Circle of Sisterhood raised $5,250 during the conference and partnered with 46 College Panhellenics! An incredible result!
After lunch, I headed to an educational session called Girls Fight Back! Erin Weed (pictured below) created Girls Fight Back to teach young women the self-defense skills. Her story is truly inspirational - and her message is one I'd love to see presented on every campus in the nation.
"Girls Fight Back teaches young women to live safe, strong and empowered lives...and to never make choices stemming from fear. Beginning with the tragic story of murdered Eastern Illinois University student Shannon McNamara, we create a powerful impact upon students in regards to the prevalence of violence against women. However, the darkness ends there. We move on to explain 3 steps to a safe and empowered life: Trust Intution. Be a Bad Victim. Learn to Fight! We explain ways to reduce the risk of violence, how to understand intuition, the best ways to live as a cybersafe, strategies to secure dorms/apartments from home invasions and how to address violence in social settings. (dating violence, acquaintance rape, predatory drugs, etc.) Then it’s interactive time! Regardless of crowd size, students stand up and learn verbal de-escalation, strong body language, an effective 3-part self-defense formula, ground fighting strategies and how to use improvised weapons."
Next on my agenda was hearing TJ Sullivan speak on "Confronting the Idiot in Your Chapter" (the video is about 8 minutes long, watch if you have time):
Many of my advisor friends love TJ's blog (check it out here) so this was a not-to-be-missed session. TJ did not disappoint. He is funny and honest and really connects with his audience. His message is on point too: you can't wait for someone else to do the hard thing - YOU have to step up and be the leader.
At 4pm I had a half hour break during which I bid on a silent auction item and had a quick snack. At 4:30 we had a campus meeting for one of the schools I work with. This good productive meeting was followed by an NPC Dinner with all the delegations. I enjoyed having a chance to socialize while enjoying a good meal. After dinner I changed my clothes and met my Delta Phi Epsilon friend Amanda (she's their 2nd Alterate Delegate) to work at the Sunflower Booth. The Sunflower Booth is a fundraiser for the NPC Foundation. For a $2 donation you could honor a sister or friend with a sunflower sticker to wear on her name badge. The funds go to fund NPC's educational programs like Something of Value.
The evening activity was a Sock Hop with karaoke, which was a lot of fun, and included ice cream sundaes, popcorn, cookies, brownies and other treats. I had a nice visit with Atlanta friend Marlene at the party. Like my scarf? My attempt to look 50s-ish for the Sock Hop. :)
I spent last weekend in Atlanta for SEPC, the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference, which is one of the premier college women's leadership conferences in the country. (See my preview post here.) Because I have lots to share (and lots of photos!) I'm going to share three posts about the conference, one for each day.
SEPC Day 1.
My Alpha Chi friend, Marlene, who lives not far from the airport, volunteered to pick me up when I arrived and take me to the hotel. She also put together some items for me to donate to the Silent Auction.
After having a late lunch with Marlene, it was time to check in to the conference and the hotel, and then head to a casual dinner with the NPC delegates. We had soup, salads and sandwiches (and cookies!) and a briefing on some of the activities, campus meetings, and affiliation gatherings scheduled for the weekend. A campus meeting is a time for all the attendees (collegians and advisors) from one campus to meet with their NPC Area Advisor; an affiliation gathering is a chance for all the women from each sorority to meet each other.
We went from dinner to the Opening Session with Tish Norman. She was a high energy, fun speaker with a great message. There was a lot of dancing and cheering during her interactive hour. We also got to meet the Conference Committee (this is a student-run event) and learn more about the mission of SEPC:
“The 2011 Southeastern Panhellenic Conference unites collegiate women to explore philanthropic initiatives, leadership programs, and social excellence education.
Through the diversity of all members and our shared values, we strive to empower women to impact their communities and ultimately our world."
At the opening session, I sat in front of these nice young women from Spring Hill College. I took their picture for my friend, Britain, who has had some experience working with their campus. I also liked their button-up shirts embroidered with the NPC logo.
My last activity for Thursday was my favorite, the Affiliation Meet and Greet with Alpha Chi Omega. The first thing we did was rearrange chairs so we could sit in a big circle. I had gotten a list of all the AXOs registered for the meeting at the NPC dinner and was expecting around 39 sisters. We had 35 collegiate sisters and 7 alumnae for a total of 42 - and over 30 of us were at the Meet and Greet!
After introducing myself (yes, I was in charge of this event), we went around the around and everyone introduced herself, told us her campus and the offices she holds in her chapter and/or Panhellenic, and then shared a fun fact about herself. To make things more interesting, I promised prizes to the most creative fun facts as well as to the sisters who had traveled the furthest, and the least far. Sarah S. came the farthest, from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. We had 3 sisters in attendance from Georgia Tech, the closest campus to the hotel. All winners got Alpha Chi Omega Real. Strong. Women post-it notes. For the most creative fun facts, we took nominations from the floor and had lots of winners - some sisters shared their fears (very brave) and others have done impressive service projects - one had donated almost three gallons of blood; another had given her hair twice to Locks of Love and is growing it out to donate again. We had a little extra time, so at the suggestion of one of the collegians, we went around the circle again and everyone told us something her chapter or campus is doing that she is proud of. I really enjoyed meeting all the women (many of whom I have emailed with over the last year) and learning more about them and their campuses.
