Training in Indy is Coming to an End...

I can not believe it, but I haven’t updated this blog in over a week! We’ve been so busy! Here’s what I’ve been up to…

On Monday, July 21, we ended up going to that baseball game with all of the Greek consultants and ended up having an amazing time! We met a lot of consultants and made a lot of new friends. After the game, most of the consultants ended up at Broad Ripple to dance the night away. We had a great time, but the ride home was kind of scary because it was raining so hard, we felt like we were in a hurricane! Heather, who happens to be from Florida, was the driver and she did a great job getting us home safely!

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we had training with Jen, our AD for the Midwest Territory. We learned a lot of great information. Thursday, we all loaded the car and “road tripped it” for four hours, to St. Louis, for the Volunteer Leadership Conference, or VLC, as it is called. VLC was a great opportunity for us to meet many of the volunteers for our organization. We were able to meet the National President and the members of National Council, and meet a few past ELCs. We also listened to very inspiring speakers, including Ginny Carroll, who is a product of our vision and an inspiration for all of us. We did work a lot during the conference, we helped with set up, clean up, registration, running errands, taking a few trips to the airport, and wrapping over 200 gifts. It was pretty cool to be so involved with everything, we kept saying we feel like Lauren and Hedi on the Hills! Our first night in St. Louis, our director, Elysia, and Jen, the AD who lives in St. Louis, planned an outing for our entire Member Services Team. We went to the St. Louis Arch and went out for dinner. We had a blast and it was a great way for us all to connect face to face, since we all work from different locations all over the country.
We were at VLC until Sunday. On Sunday, we drove back to Indianapolis. The Leadership Coaches, Mary and Margaret, road back with us, so we were able to spend more time getting to know them.

This past week has been all about workshops and conferences! On Monday and Tuesday, we attended Risk Management on the Road, a conference for consultants of all the women’s’ fraternities and sororities. We learned a lot during this conference about how to stay safe while traveling, how to handle any risk management issues we will encounter, and tips from second year consultants. It was very cool. On Wednesday and Thursday, we participated in How to Wow, which was a two day workshop on how to design and facilitate programs, workshops and retreats, when we are visiting chapters. It was VERY helpful, and we all are feeling a little more confident about this part of our job. Today, we will be going into the office for training a 1:00, so we are taking the morning to work on homework and pack. We will be doing a lot of that tomorrow as well. On Sunday, we will head to Atlanta for more training with Elysia, and Gretchen. Then on August 6, we will head down to Auburn. After that I will go to the University of Iowa, then home for graduation, then on the 18 I will head to Purdue, and then from Purdue to the University of Illinois, until the 28. I don’t know, yet, where I will be headed after that. My focus chapters this year will be the University of Iowa (which is driving distance from Omaha) and Purdue, so I am very excited about that.

The other exciting happening of this past week, was the Greek Consultant Social Event, Flip Flops & Friends, which we planned and hosted. For this event, we invited all of the other consultants in the area for paddle boating at the White River Canal in downtown Indianapolis. It was a beautiful location, and we provided snacks, lemonade, music and free paddle boating. We had a great turn out and a beautiful night!

Tonight, Sam’s parents are coming in town, and it is her mom’s 50th birthday, so we are going to go to dinner with them. This weekend we will be working on homework, packing, laying out at the pool and celebrating our last weekend (for a while), all together, in Indy.

I hope you are all doing well and I will see you in a few weeks!
Much Love!
Em