REPORTS:

President’s Report – Alexis Oddson:  The past spring semester has been full of excellent events for the Beta Epsilon chapter, including Founder’s Day and Greek Week.  In these, we have been united as a chapter to celebrate Alpha Xi Delta.  This enthusiasm is bound to carry over into the upcoming fall semester as we approach Formal Recruitment.  As we approach practice week, the party night heads will have to bring their three months of preparation to a close.  The chapter seems to be filled with excitement to come back together and share the sisterhood of Alpha Xi with the incoming potential new members.  Another new addition to this year is the application of a purposed academic plan for the chapter.  This plan will allow chapter members to meet weekly to discuss their class progress and academic status for the semester.  I have also planned an executive board retreat to discuss our plans and preparations for the upcoming semester to ensure smooth operations.  Overall, we hope to have a great year.

Membership VP: Jodi Luif: FORMAL RECRUITMENT IS HERE!!!  Can you believe it??  It seems like yesterday I was planning for the recruitment workshops and now I am planning practice week!  I also made the summer packets which are a lot different from the previous ones.  I had a lot of magazine cutouts and clip art to decorate the pages and I even threw in some poems celebrating what it means to be an Alpha Xi.  Hopefully this will get everyone excited not only about recruitment, but about being a part of this amazing sorority in general!  I had so much fun working on these packets and I hope it shows!  I am really looking forward to practice week because I get to teach everyone what I learned at TLC’s “The Workout.”  What a great experience that was!  I learned so much about motivating my chapter and how to get the pnm’s to see that Alpha Xi Delta is more that just a social club, but rather it is a place where they can learn leadership skills, communication skills, participate in fun community service activities, and create lifelong bonds with some incredible women!  After practice week, it will be time to get down to business and start recruiting!  But truthfully, I am so confident in my chapter and I know that we are going to have fun this time around!  Not to mention the fact that we are going to gain some great women as well!  The day heads for each party have been so great that I know each party is going to be beautiful, creative, and fun for both us and the pnm’s.  We have a great day planned for Bid Day as well!  It is going to have a luau theme complete with tiki torches, paper lanterns, and tons of seashells!  Formal recruitment is going to be such a blast…I can’t wait!  ~Jodi Luif

Programs Vp: Brandie Miller: Hello to all of my Alpha Xi Delta sisters!  I can’t wait to be back at school for another great year.  I am working hard to make sure that the programs council is one of the best ever.  I am very excited about our newest, and one of the biggest, challenges of the fall: our academic program.  The entire council will be trying hard to make sure that the program is a huge success.  I have also been looking at other programs to do during the year that will be both fun and helpful to everyone.  Hopefully, they will be able to bring our chapter member even closer together.  Most of all, I am looking forward to seeing everyone again and meeting our wonderful new members!  I hope that everyone is having a great summer, is having fun, and looking forward to a great year in both Monmouth College and AXD!

Public Relations VP: Lisa Bondi: Not much is going on in the lovely world of public relations. We will be finally be kicking off the adapt an alumnae program once we return to school and will be in full swing for planing homecoming!!!! This year we are excited to be hosting an Alumnae Tea party in the chapter room, more information will be coming shortly! TFJ

Summer Experiences

Various Articles:

The Workout  

When most people hear the term “workout,” words such as activity, challenge, strength, and fatigue come to mind.  TLC’s “The Workout” was no exception.  “The Workout,” which was a program held simultaneously with The Leadership Conference, was aimed toward the Membership Vice Presidents of each chapter and was created with the hopes of allowing each chapter to get their recruitment plan back into shape.  Each day, the participants took part in numerous activities that taught them about leadership, communication, and patience, three things all chapters need when doing any type of recruitment.  There were many challenges to face, such as coming up with the ultimate vision that would steer your chapter into a right direction for a successful recruitment (my chapter vision was to allow my chapter to see that recruitment can actually be fun).  At times, it was difficult to know exactly what steps were needed in order to bring this vision into reality and it was easy to lose hope in the vision.  But with the encouragement and support of my small group leader and the rest of my out-of-state sisters, I was able to find strength and listen to their advice on how to achieve this vision.  Each day was literally non-stop with all of the team building activities, speeches, and group work that it was no wonder how fast the fatigue kicked in at the end of the day.  Since I was apart from my fellow Beta Epsilon sisters for most of the time we were there, it was great to finally come together at night and listen to all the stories and discuss what we learned each day. 

Although this may sound like all work and no play, it was actually quite the opposite.  Whether I was in the big group or small group, each activity was designed to help everyone bond and learn more about each other’s chapters.  One of my favorite things to do was compare recruitment events and see how each chapter prepares for it.  I gained a lot of tips on how to get my chapter motivated, how to heart sell, and even what songs were the best to sing.  I even had the privilege to see how the Preference Ceremony should really look like when all of the group leaders acted as the chapter members and the participants acted as the pnm’s.  Since I personally never went through formal recruitment, I never knew what a pnm thinks about right before and during the ceremony, but I do now!  Even though I have participated in our own Preference Ceremony, I was still nervous to see what was going to happen!  But the ceremony was beautiful and it was a great reminder that Alpha Xi Delta really is my home away from home.  I guess a lot of other people felt the same way because once the lights came on, I could see the mascara smeared on all of the faces of the women who were brought to tears by this ceremony.  At the end of the week, we had a mini graduation to celebrate everyone’s hard work.  I am now officially part of the first graduating class of “The Workout” and even received a diploma stating my new title: Certified Personal Trainer! 

This experience altogether has taught me so much about myself and about my own chapter.  After hearing the horror stories and struggles of the other chapters, it made me realize that Beta Epsilon really is a very united and strong chapter.  It also taught me that it’s ok if not everyone seems as enthusiastic about recruitment as I am, especially during practice week.  I just need to have faith in my chapter and know that they will be able to get the job done in their own way.  And of course, I also learned that even though she may not be a part of the Beta Epsilon chapter, anyone who wears the quill is officially a sister!      

I STRONGLY encourage that all the Membership Vice Presidents from here on out to attend this program!  It was a priceless experience and a great way to bring the leader out of anyone.  For more information on this program, feel free to check it out on the official Alpha Xi Delta website.  ~Jodi Luif   

NEW ACADEMIC PROGRAM!!!

With the fall semester comes a new academic program for our chapter. Dean Merritt is pushing towards a little more focus on academics within the greek system here at Monmouth, so the Alpha Xi's are kicking it into high gear! Overall, this program will more or less monitor what is being studied, how it is being studied and how long it is being studied for. Class attendance policies will also be more strict.
In order to keep track of all of this, there will be focus groups comprised of sisters of the same or similar majors. This way, "study buddies" might be easier to come by and questions can be answered by the group leader or another within the group. These groups will meet briefly either weekly or bi-weekly, depending on school schedule and our schedules to turn in what has been accomplished the past week(s) and what is hoped to be accomplished in the next. The main goal of this program, as loosely stated earlier, is to encourage sisters to become more aware of progress in their studies and how they can continually realize their potential academically. ~Stacey Hienrich