Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Georgia on my Mind

What does one do at a sorority's national convention?

I heard this question quite frequently before I attended my first national convention, and I really didn't know how to answer. After attending Alpha Xi Delta's convention in Atlanta at the beginning of July, I think I know.

You hang out. With people you know and some you meet for the first time. And you laugh. A lot. We stayed up each night laughing and telling stories and getting up early the next day to do it all again.

Going in, I knew I was attending with a phenomenal group of women who all met (and mostly live) in Minneapolis-St Paul. We are quite a mix. We are from five states and attended five different colleges (more if you count graduate degrees). No shop talk here... we represent a variety of careers--a cancer research doctor at St Jude, a teacher on her way to being a school administrator, a marketing and business guru, a news reporter, and an events planner at what could arguably be the most upscale hotel in the Twin Cities.

But, we are all sorority sisters who have connected in the alumnae world. We pledged to uphold the same ideals back in college and we now volunteer to help women and give back to our fraternity. Throughout the convention, we heard updates of what the national organization is doing and we attended other meetings on how to better network and help our collegiate chapters. Aside from meetings, there were plenty of networking opportunities--I met a variety of people from a pageant queen to a girl who just shaved her head and donated all of her hair to Locks of Love.

I also met a few girls from southwest Arkansas, who are from my collegiate chapter. Upon meeting me, one said, 'of course you are from Delight, you have blond hair." I'm not sure what to think about that, but together we did make up a blond tri-fecta...apparently they have blonds (or at least blond hair dye) in Hot Springs and Nashville too.
There were plenty of opportunities to sight-see Atlanta. I have to say I'm not impressed with the city. It was dirty with plenty of panhandlers around. I wouldn't have gone walking downtown--even through the tourist areas--alone. Not to mention it being unbearably hot, but it's July so we expected it.
Centennial Park which commemorates the Olympics was a hot and disappointing venue. It was a large park with fountains for the kids. A few signs mentioned the Olympic games. The Olympic flag flew.

We skipped CNN and Coca-cola and I wouldn't have minded seeing those...but we did see the Georgia Aquarium, which was extremely impressive. It's the largest in North America and it has WHALES inside. You know a whale is the largest mammal in the world and I've seen them in the ocean, but there's something special about seeing them up close. The Aquarium is spectacular and worth a visit should you go to Atlanta.

And if you do, I wouldn't recommend going in July. Have I mentioned it's really hot?

Out of curiosity we visited Georgia State and the chapter houses there. They were small townhouses housing about 15 women, but together they made up their own Greek community. My campus didn't have chapter houses, but a concept like this would work well there.










We have a sister in Minneapolis who routinely attends convention to catch up with women she knows in the Maryland-Chesapeake Alumnae Association. She couldn't attend, but we met these women to swap "Pam" stories and they are a hoot--someday I hope I can be just like them. They road-trip to convention and back and you can tell they have a great time with plenty of laughter around. It was a picture of how sisterhood doesn't end w/college, but how it can continue to grow.


There's something special about sorority and sisterhood and I've experienced that on a whole new level in Minneapolis. Not only through the alumnae, but through the collegiates. I'm involved with the chapter at the Univ of Wisconsin Eau Claire and I am constantly impressed by their commitment. Together they raise a substantial amount of money for our philanthropic partner, Autism Speaks, and collectively, they have a very high campus GPA. On awards night, they were absolutely dejected not to win the highest honor in the fraternity, but instead settle for the second highest....and a renewed commitment to win the big award next year. Here we are with our group of overachievers and the new national president:

To sum it up....at convention, I could see all ages of women each interacting and working together in a way I've never really seen anywhere else. We're committed to the same ideals and committed to helping women reach their potential, no matter the phase of life. That's a nice place to be.

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