Back in June, AEPhi held our Summer Leadership program in Peachtree City, GA. This event is held in non-Convention years and is made up of educational programming for collegians and alumnae. This summer every chapter sent their vp-programming and an emerging leader. The outgoing TECs (Talia and Cheyenne) and incoming TECs (Alison and Alana) all staff the conference so I had a really good time with everyone together! It was really sad to say goodbye to Talia and Cheyenne when they left but it was also very exciting to begin this year with the new staff.
New and Old TECs
Ally is the new Director of Chapter Services!
My girls, the 2013-2014 TECs
In the second week of July, I had the pleasure of attending the Fraternal Executives Association Annual Meeting (FEA). This conference is for the executives of all the member fraternities and sororities. There are different programming tracks and a huge trade show of businesses that contract with sororities and fraternities. Bonnie, AEPhi Executive Director, is the sponsor chair so she is in charge of the trade show. I got to come along to FEA mainly to help Bonnie but I was also able to attend some great sessions and enjoy the beautiful Waldorf-Astoria in Naples, FL. Ally and I spent the week side by side, meeting lots of new professional friends and learning more about what it is like to work for our sorority's headquarters. At the end of the week neither one of us wanted to leave (and we still want to go back)!
Bonnie noticed that Ally and I were dressed in opposites by accident
The adult pool (the main pool had a water slide!)
Ally, Grant (AEPi Director of Chapter Services) and myself ready for the FEA banquet
Just a few short days after returning home from FEA it was time to travel to headquarters in Connecticut for TEC training. I was very excited to road trip with the TECs and to catch up with Ally and Bonnie after FEA. We spent the days in CT working in the office with Ally and Bonnie to prepare for our year on the road. It was a lot of fun to all work together and to start getting a feel for the year ahead. We had some really fun days in Danbury!
TECs road trip from Boston to Danbury
Annual TEC trip to Stew Leonard's
We went to play with puppies after our last day of training!
Directly from CT we all traveled to Indianapolis, IN for the FEA Field Staff conference. It is put on by the FEA for all of the traveling consultants. I attended last year and really enjoyed it so I was looking forward to going back to Indy for the program. Alison, Alana and I had an amazing time meeting other consultants and making friends to stay connected with over the year. There were some good sessions and the social aspect of the conference was also really great.
Because we needed a picture of us everyday of the conference
On our last day in Indy, we had a day-long program with Phired Up at Alpha Sigma Alpha's headquarters. It was a packed day, full of more recruitment guidance than you could ever imagine. I felt so inspired when we left to go out and help every chapter that is struggling. It got me thinking about specific chapters I visited last year and how my new knowledge could help them and I am so excited to begin recruitment visits in a couple of weeks!
On our last day we also had the pleasure of visiting Alpha Epsilon Pi headquarters. The executive director gave us a nice tour of the whole building, including some very cool Judaica and fraternity artifacts. We got to see where our new friends work and get a feel for what the Indy life is like.
I have had a really amazing, AEPhi-filled summer! I am so thankful to have all these professional resources and to immerse myself in the fraternity and sorority world. I cannot believe that the summer is already winding down for the early-recruiting chapters and that I will be on the road shortly (within 2 or 3 weeks)! I am so excited to begin my second year with sisters across the country and to use my new skills to make this the best fall recruitment season ever!
But for now I will be taking advantage of my last weeks of summer! Thank you all for reading and enjoy the rest of summer!
