Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Newark Leadership Conference -- Wow, What A Weekend!

Dear Sisters,

Newark, NJ was the place to be the weekend of February 9-11, 2007 for the 2nd Leadership Conference of 2007! Executive board members from 23 chapters from Communities 2 & 3 were joined by Zeta Beta (Rowan University) and Beta Alpha (University of Maryland-College Park) from Community 5. Alumnae sisters and fraternity personnel joined us from 14 states: Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin!

We kicked the weekend off with a fantastic Philanthropic Recruitment event – with a twist! Our fraternity personnel worked to recruit our collegiate women to join the Tau Beta (“The Best”) chapter of Phi Sigma Sigma by talking about our chapter’s accomplishments in the areas of Academics, Campus and Community Involvement, Service, the National Kidney Foundation and Philanthropy!

Grand Archon Sandy Grossman served as the chapter archon, while Foundation President Kim Hildred was the chapter’s advisor! Nicci Hollar, Director of Programming and brand new Community Archon for Community 2 served as the membership recruitment chair, while Executive Director Michelle Ardern served as the chapter’s philanthropy chair! It was a wonderful opportunity for our chapters to learn new ideas for philanthropic recruitment, and a great way for everyone in attendance to kick off the weekend and get to know one another!

Once the philanthropic recruitment party fun was done, Sandy Grossman welcomed everyone with a fraternity update and some fun and interesting facts about all of our wonderful fraternity personnel – did you know that ACHIEVE facilitator Fiona Conroy’s favorite pet is a hedgehog?

Friday night ended on a positive note and a good example of what to expect for the weekend, as chapter’s sat one on one with volunteers to review their recruitment plans and ask questions about how to improve their chapter’s recruitment!

Saturday was a busy day! ACHIEVE sessions, officer training roundtables, and an awards presentation recognizing all award winners from Communities 2 & 3 in 2006 only brought us to lunch! Did you know that the 2006 Collegian of the Year was Community 3’s Mary Schurgot of the Delta Zeta chapter at Stevens Institute of Technology?!

We also had the wonderful opportunity to experience an honorary alumnae initiation. Charisse Willis, Dean of Education (among many other roles) at St. John’s University (where our Epsilon Omicron chapter hails from) was welcomed into Phi Sigma Sigma as a Grand Council initiate!

Saturday night was rounded out by the always fabulous Foundation dinner. We saw the touching Transplant Games slideshow and heard from Catherine Paykin, Transplant Programs Coordinator from the National Kidney Foundation.

The dinner was highlighted by the Foundation Raffle and Auction, auctioneered by Grand Vice Archon, Caryn Jacquish! Communities 2 & 3 raised over $5600 for the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation!

The weekend went by quickly, and before we had time to realize it, it was Sunday morning, our last set of roundtables before we all headed home. We were all so excited to see the enthusiasm of our collegiate women, and our chapter key advisors throughout the weekend. It was so great to see everyone excited to bring everything they learned back to their chapters!

Overall, it was an amazing and wonderful weekend. There were so many memorable moments from initiating into Phi Sigma Sigma a wonderful new sister, to hearing about recruitment success from chapters, to raising over $5600 for the Foundation. We only wished we had more time...

Our advice to all of you who have not yet attended your Leadership Conference – take every opportunity you have to network with your sisters – from all chapters in your community, to every other collegiate and alumnae member in attendance! Take the time to exchange ideas, discuss your chapter’s best practices, and exchange contact info! Oh, and don’t forget to bring tissues and your wallet to the Foundation dinner! The Transplant Games video is uplifting and emotional and will certainly inspire you to give, give, give to the Foundation!

A sincere thank you to everyone who made the Community 2 & 3 Leadership Conference possible, and a success: our OUTSTANDING Fraternity HQ staff (Cat Udell, Lisa Wallace, Nicole Westerfer, Executive Director Michelle Ardern and Foundation Development Director, Rosemary Straub), Supreme Council, Foundation Directors, the ACHIEVE team, and last, but certainly not least, our always amazing Chapter Key Advisors. Thank you all!

We are all looking forward to Conclave this summer at Disney World in Orlando, FL. See you in July!

In Our Bond,

Nicci Hollar
Community Archon
Community 2
Director of Programming

Cat Udell
Membership Manager
Communities 2, 3 & 9

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