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

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!

My Favorite Moment of Recruitment

I put the song at the top so you can listen to get in the mood for the story. (no need to watch the video itself.)

As many of you know, I volunteer locally with my sorority, Alpha Chi Omega. Our alumnae chapter provides all kinds of assistance during Recruitment, and it's my job to keep all the alums organized and in the right places to help with behind-the-scenes details. We're amazingly fortunate to have many sisters who are generous with their time and talents!

In case you're not familiar, sorority Recruitment at FSU is a big production. There are 4 rounds of parties, that start Monday and run until Saturday. The early rounds run two days each so that the potential new members (called PNMs) have the opportunity to go to as many houses as possible before narrowing down their choices later in the week.

On Monday and Tuesday, each sorority hosts 20 parties. This year, 1341 young women attended them. It's a bit overwhelming! There are plenty of high points during the week - talking to sisters who've meet young women they really like; hearing sisters sing favorite songs; and of course, the ceremony on the final day, which is called Preference Party. This year, though, there was a moment of such spontaneous joy and fun that it immediately became my favorite of this year.

The chapter plays happy dance music as their guests come into the house, and as they exit each party. Friday at the end of the last party of third round, they played Jay Sean's Down (see video) and after the last PNM left, a dance party broke out in the foyer of the house. It was awesome!

It was great to witness how much fun they have together and how much they truly enjoy being together - true signs of a strong sisterhood.

The Art of Talking to Anyone

 

Let's face it, some of us are born with great people skills, and others of us have to work at them, to develop and hone our skills. The Art of Talking to Anyone: Essential People Skills for Success in Any Situation is a great book for developing skills. It is  one of the books that we recommend to the collegians as we help them prepare for sorority recruitment, and in turn, job and grad school interviews and ultimately in their careers.

The book is chock full of real life examples anyone can put to use right away, and covers the basics thoroughly without being dull or dramatic. I really like the fact that it focuses on building skills and the power of a positive attitude. The author sprinkles great quotes in with the text and examples, too.

Here is the table of contents:

Part One: The Basics
Chapter 1: How to Succeed in Any Conversation: From Start to Finish
Chapter 2: How to Be Universally Liked
Chapter 3: How to Listen Successfully
Chapter 4: How to Keep the Conversation Going - or Stop One
Chapter 5: How to Ask and Answer Questions
Chapter 6: How and When to Tell Jokes
Chapter 7: How to Deal with Conversational Predicaments
Chapter 8: How to Be an Unpopular Conversationalist

Part Two: The Specifics
Chapter 9: Talking with Anyone in the Workplace
Chapter 10: Talking With Anyone at Meetings and Conferences
Chapter 11: Talking with Anyone at Business-Social Events
and so on...

Give it a read, I think you'll like it.