Since Last Time...

We colonized the Rho Iota chapter at the University of Kentucky!

The Phi Mu CCs at Extension

Phi Mu's newest colony members!

Finished my last recruitment for the fall at sweet sweet Rho Eta!

House Tour Day

 Learned about Phi Mu swag and that I look ridiculous in a pink hat with said word on it

Bid Day: Quota plus a couple-so proud!

Look at those lovely letters

Got my photo taken with the Phi Mu famous quatrefoil fountain on GVSU's campus with some wonderful Rho Etas!

Saw almost all of my family and friends for my first visit back home. 

Miss these girls more than they know

 Picked berries & pumpkins in the Missouri country side

Experienced the intensity of the beginning of Homecoming at the school that started it all-Mizzou

Before Fling!

Then I was a smarty and left my battery charger with battery in room 115 of the Phi Mu house in Columbia. My photos taking at Gamma Kappa and Kappa Zeta has been limited and I'm a little disappointed because both campuses/cities have been gorgeous! 

**In two weeks at UK I forgot to get a red towel photo but I'm sure I'll be back in Lex soon enough. I'll upload the next photos in a separate post. Maybe it'll even be from my favorite Starbucks at home :)

Home again for a couple days and then onto Georgia for Mid Semester Training and I get to see almost all the Phi Mu CCs. I am pumped.

Thumbin' my way into North Caroline

The only thing I knew about Appalachian State before my visit was that they beat Michigan at home during the 2007 football season. Let me tell you, they still talk about it up in the mountains of Boone. The entire town can’t wait for the rematch in 2014. Only 3 years to go!

This was the last workshop weekend before formal recruitment for Lambda Beta so we buckled down from the get go. I ate dinner in downtown Boone with the membership director to smooth out any details and she had a great plan for the weekend so I was excited to get started.

Kidd Brewer Stadium - Home of the Mountaineers

Lambda Beta was lucky to have three neighboring chapters come over on Saturday to act as PNMs for recruitment practice. This seriously was one of the best ways to practice a real recruitment. The women from Gamma Gamma, Gamma Zeta, and Lambda Eta. (Or any non Greek terms--Queens University, High Point University & Wake Forest University) were so helpful in giving constructive feedback. They knew what was expected on both the sides of recruitment. I wish more chapters could do this because not only did Lambda Beta benefit, so did the other chapters. Before they left, I overheard some of the women talking about planning joint sisterhood events. Warms this CC’s heart to see the instant bond being a Phi Mu does to sisters.

All 4 chapters after workshop!

The women of Lambda Beta worked so hard over that weekend. CC Megan spent the next weekend with them for recruitment so I know they were going to do great with her as well! I’m sure by the end of the weekend they were tired of me telling them to smile and be peppy—but hey, a smile goes a long way. Especially during recruitment.

Lambda Beta's new letters!

The neat thing about the sorority dorm at App State is that it’s a little off campus and was an old Quality Inn. The lobby of the hotel is so nice and we even had one nice family that was mistaken and thought they could check into PHA. Sorry friends, just sorority women in this place.

It's understandable if you don't think this is the dorm lobby. But it is.

Before I left Boone to head to Lexington I ate dinner with their amazing Greek Adviser and the Lambda Beta president, Mary. I love meeting Greek Advisers that are so passionate about their job. 

App State’s enrollment is growing and so is Greek Life.

I actually met the Lambda Beta president a couple years ago at Leadership Academy – which was a program run by Phi Mu for presidents, emerging leaders and chapter advisers. It’s amazing to see how far Mary and I both have come since our small group experience in 2010. 

Mary (Lambda Beta president) & I after dinner
 with the Greek Adviser at Chili's

Phi Mu provides so many great programming opportunities for our chapter leaders like UIFI and Regional Officer Training to name just a couple. I can’t wait for Convention next year and for our mini UIFI called Impact.

Now, if App State beat Michigan football (regardless that it was 4 years ago and in Michigan) I think I knew EXACTLY where I wanted my Red Towel photo—outside Kidd Brewer Stadium. The nickname for the stadium is "The Rock; hence the rather large rock welcoming fans into the stadium to cheer on their Mountaineers.

I’m trying to catch up on all my school visit posts because I’m getting far behind—whoops. Spending time with the collegians or calling friends and family from home has taken precedence over my blog and I apologize. I’ll try to do better. 

Also, less than one month til I’m reunited with my favorite Phi Mu CCs in PTC for Mid Semester Training. Can’t wait to see those girls!

The one where they thought I was really, REALLY obsessed with horses.

Now as much as I loved my time in California and I would love to go back and visit more, once I landed back in the South I knew I was where I belonged. Couldn’t ask for a better place of the country to be for my birthday. I mean after all I was born in the Birminham hospital right across the street from Samford’s campus. (How many times did you tell me that Mike?)

Here‘s the thing. I had no plans of telling Alpha Gamma that it was my day of birth.

 A) That’s awkward when I don’t know them and B) it’s not really a big deal. 

Mike Wolf had other plans though I found out.

I visited Alpha Gamma for a recruitment workshop so during the day I usually had meetings with chapter officers and caught up on reports. They were so welcoming from the beginning. Look at that welcome basket!

My birthday morning I woke up to go to the gym (YES! No running outside in the heat!) and this is what I saw when I opened my door:

I had absolutely no idea they knew it was my birthday! Some of the girls had written me birthday cards and they even made me blueberry muffins. I felt so loved by these sisters I had known less than 24 hours. 

After a good indoor workout I came back to get ready for a meeting with the membership director followed by lunch with Mary Young. We worked together at Nu the week before so I was so excited to see her again! She lives in Tuscaloosa but her family owns a sports store in Birmingham so she offered to take me out to lunch for my birthday!

After lunch she insisted we go shopping. No really, she made me J I picked up a scarf at Banana with the following justifications-

1)      It’s pink—aka great for recruitment

2)      It’s lightweight so it won’t add really any weight to my luggage.

3)      It was 30% off the clearance price- SOLD.

After lunch with Mrs. Mary

Here’s how else they made my birthday pretty much the best-

A)     I got a campus tour—love those of course

B)      Photo for my project—check!

C) Took me to a local restaurant with crushed ice. #winning

After dinner at Momma G's: I feel like I have my own
Pi Chi group with all of them in matching shirts.

I loved my Bham tour guides for the day.

It's definitely more difficult to prepare for recruitment while classes are going on. But, the women of Alpha Gamma showed me once again that it's possible! Workshop at night could only last a certain amount time per Panhellenic rules so the MD made sure to use those few hours to the best of her ability. Each day they ended with a group doing a fun dance number or skit. Hey, recruitment is supposed to be a lot of fun-remember??

Beautiful and delicious cake! So thankful there is not a horse talking on an Iphone on this cake.
Call me for the full story. It's a great one.

Samford was the first to school I visited where there actually was time to tour the city. 3 sweet sisters took me to the Vulcan. Birmingham is known for Iron and we toured the little museum to learn more about the city. The man working at the museum made us start the exhibit over because he said we were talking too much...oops.

Red Towel Time!

This is Mr. Beeson

Mr. Beeson and his family have given millions of dollars to Samford over the years. Many of the buildings on campus are named after members of his family.Those are actually his real shoes that were bronzed and it's supposed to be a life size replica of Mr. Beeson.

"We got more bounce in California"

Oh my. I am getting behind. Hopefully I can catch up really quick because it’s about to get super busy here in Lexington as we start to colonize the Rho Iota chapter at University of Kentucky!  **Let’s note I wanted to send this before we started extension…whoops.

After my quick trip to Rome I headed it out to the west coast to Fresno to visit Eta Zeta at California State Fresno. Before we bee bopped it back to the house for dinner there was a quick trip to the local fro yo place. Of course I had no problem with that. They also sold grilled cheese but I passed on that. I think I’m the only person in the world that doesn’t like grilled cheese. Quesadilla- yes. Grilled cheese-negatory.

Fresno State students had already started classes so recruitment practice didn’t start til that night and they worked really hard on getting ready for House Tours. 

House Tour day went great! I think it’s so great for PNMs to get to see where they could potentially be living. The Greek Adviser also let me tour the other houses on campus as well and they were beautiful! I walked around with a Kappa Kappa Gamma consultant. Funny thing, she actually met Phi Mu CC Megan while they both were working with their University of Florida chapters.

Never had to worry about decorating the sun deck in Kentucky.

Eta Zeta made the dining room cute once again for Philanthropy Night with a Tiffany & Co theme. The craft included a coloring book and stickers to be donated to the local CMNH in the area! That’s the great thing about CMNH—the money that each of Phi Mu’s chapters raise stays in the same state. It’s not going off to some unknown spectrum. It’s possibly just going right down the road. 

With the MD and President on Preference

Eta Zeta Seniors before Preference

After a gorgeous preference ceremony all we had left to do was celebrate another Bid Day! Since recruitment was during the school year Bid Day fell on Monday night after class. While my studious Eta Zetas trekked to class in the heat I helped the MD put together these little baskets for the Rho Gammas (recruitment counselors). It was like Big/Little week all over again and we all know how much I have putting a good looking display of Phi Mu stuff out.

Exhibit A: Yep, I love a well displayed Big/Little Week basket.
Throwback to Madison's Big/Little Week in 2009.

Snuck over to the football stadium to get my Red Towel photo. I’m really concerned I may not get to a football game this season. If this is my biggest problem, I guess I can handle it. Good thing I called dibs on the Cotton basketball tickets come December.

Bulldog Stadium recently added turf and they are very very excited about it…and protective. I promised the man who came out of nowhere on a speedy little golf cart (ninja style) that I wouldn’t step on the turf. We kept our promise. Fresno State has a tough schedule this fall but they are sure to be great games.

Eta Zeta made quota once again and remains the largest chapter on campus! So proud of their hard work in a short amount of time! The Bid Day theme was Feels Like Home and every chapter member wore jeans shorts with red shoes to stay close to the theme. Swooped up the cute little shirt as well. 

Did I mentioned that I’ve never seen the Wizard of Oz? Of course not, because then I would have to admit to the long embarrassing list of movies I haven’t seen and I just don’t care to admit all that.

The Phi Director did a great job of planning everything out and we were grateful to have good food and time to relax at a nearby hotel where an alumna is a manager.

Here's the next picture in my little cheesy touristy photos with my Red Towel!

Bulldog Stadium is home to the football team since 1980. When you enter the stadium there is a dog house with little signs of the all the opponents for the season. This season will be the first without natural grass since they added FieldTurf this summer.

Daily Dose of Cheese

They said if you find a job you love you never work a day in your life. Since July 24th, I haven't worked.

OK, I really have been working and going not stop, but I have loved every minute.  

When in Rome...Georgia

After spending two weeks in Missouri, my visit to Shorter seemed well, short. (yes, I just laughed to myself a little at my unintentional pun--SINS) I hopped off the plane and the sweetes adviser ever Ms. Kathy picked me up from the Atlanta airport. Somehow or another we got on or off the wrong way on 85 to Rome and ended up by Georgia Tech’s campus.

 Recruitment was going on so of course we had to stop by the Phi Mu house to see what was going on. I really wanted to take a picture outside the house but there’s really no appropriate way to say to a Pi Chi “Hi! Do you care if I take a photo outside this house before y’all start the timers and 100 plus Phi Mu’s starting chanting their door song really really loud?” 

So instead we pulled into the parking lot at the athletic fields right across the street and creeped watched. Ms. Kathy’s daughter is a Phi Mu at Georgia Tech but was disaffiliated as a Pi Chi this year. We kept trying to spot her but no luck. Hard to tell a tall brunette in a sea of PNMs and Pi Chis.

Theta Zeta Chapter House at Georgia Tech-Lahump is inside somewhere I bet

Turns out, Phi Mu CC Lauren H. was probably in the house during all this and I’m just thankful we didn’t cause any commotion or she would have given me grief. Probably about as much as the time I attempted a U Turn in the Mini Van when we “left” Megan at HQ during training.

Anyway, after our little side adventure we made it to Rome and I headed straight to recruitment practice. Shorter University recently updated their name from Shorter College and they are updating the campus right along with it. 

Every campus seems to have a designated quad--except for my own.

Recruitment was during the school year so I had the mornings to catch up on reports and prepare for workshop at night while the women were hopefully sitting in class expanding their knowledge. I was so lucky to meet Christy Todd- a former CC, National Academic Excellence chair for Phi Mu and Membership Adviser for Nu. She was so great to have to perfect little things on the skit. In case you somehow were under the wrong impression let me clarify that my theater experience is limited to a pioneer women skit in the 4^th grade talent show that I would like to forget. I know the chapter was so thankful for Christy’s presence but I don’t she realizes how much I learned from her from just watching. It amazes me how inspiring someone can be in such a short time.

Yes, I asked for this photo. It's the second oldest CFA, it's practically a historical landmark.

Shorter’s campus does not have Greek housing so there are 3 rooms on campus that the 3 sororities alternate using for recruitment. The first round is a philanthropy/open house round where they do a craft to benefit the chapter’s philanthropy. Phi Mu’s craft was to color paper bags that included supplies like stickers and markers for a child at a CMN Hospital to decorate a door hanger! I have loved experiencing philanthropy night because it’s not something WKU does right now.

Philanthropy Night

Mary Young (National Membership Director) arrived right before those parties started and I once again, learned so so much from just watching and listening. I love to learn new ways to present conversation workshops. I have some new ideas for those next few chapters I’m visiting—watch out J We spent the next day scouring Michael’s and Walmart for anything pink, lion or ladybug to decorate the room for skit/sisterhood night. 

The chapter brought a ton of great stuff—but whoever said a room during recruitment looked too Phi Mu-y? That’s what I thought, it just can’t. The cashier at Michael’s probably thought we went a little overboard but that’s OK—she just wouldn’t understand.

Phi Mu’s skit night theme was “Phi Mu-Where all your dreams come true”. The scene was a college dorm room and the MD who is a theater major wrote a hilarious skit. Oh, skit night you have my heart. 3 skit parties seemed like a breeze after 12 at Chi. Craziness.

 A T-shirt Wall takes lots of coordination & planning- don't be fooled.

It was my duty as CC to taste test the Starbursts prior to the parties to make sure they were OK for PNMs to eat. They were sufficient.

I left before Preference and Bid Day but Mary Young let me know Nu made quota plus 2! I may get more excited than the chapter when they make quota. I still don’t know how I managed to take zero photos with the chapter at Nu.  I guess we were all just working so hard and making quota plus quota additions. I’ll take that over my silly little photos any day.

One more Red Towel photo? Oh, but of course!

The gates on the Quad stay closed all year except for Convocation and Graduation. The entire freshmen class walks through the gates while all the other students line the sidewalks to welcome them. The president of the university gives a speech as well. After graduation every May, the seniors walk out the other side of the gates in their caps & gowns to symbolize the closing of the gates of their collegiate years.

Rose & White, Really Grand.

I'm learning that there are people other than Mike & Paula reading this because y'all are getting antsy without updates. My apologies. I will try to move quickly because I've got two more visit to catch y'all up on, but just know I am loving these chapters and recruitment.

After spending two weeks at Chi (Mizzou) for recruitment and workshop my last visit to Shorter University seemed super short. Sweet Nu sisters, y'all are next!

First off, I absolutely LOVED Mizzou as a college campus. Good thing I didn't want to go out of state because

a) there campus is gorgeous

 b) another great journalism & broadcasting school

 c) cute little college town like Bowling Green only a smidge larger

 

I arrived in Columbia during work week and the entire visit they were so excited for recruitment and kept up wonderful attitudes. That can be hard for two full weeks but they were amazing! With over 1,600 women going through recruitment you better believe they had everything organized and scheduled down to the last detail.

Panhellenic hosts a mock recruitment where each sorority sends 55 of their members to a few of the other sororities on campus to act as Potential New Members (PNMs). The chapters get to run through their first night of recruitment including door songs and walk outs in real time and with women they don't know. This is such a great idea and it really made the women who had just joined Phi Mu last year feel more comfortable talking with people they didn't know and it's great for Panhellenic unity.

Mock Recruitment during Work Week

At Mizzou, the first 2 nights of recruitment are open house and we are given a Panhellenic t-shirt design that we can coordinate with whatever bottoms and shoes we would like. Let me just say, those  J. Crew hot pink shorts were a hit! They looked cute and we're comfortable with our floral print Sperry's! The J. Crew shorts were a popular choice among a couple other sororites too.

Before Open House Rounds--they got the bop down.

The next round of recruitment was Skit Night. Here's a little secret. This is always my favorite night. Chi's skit directors Jillian & Merrill Kaye did a wonderful job with this year's new theme of TV Guide. And our Sad Dog commercial was definately the best :)

Skit Night--Snaps to Megan for always making amazing banners!

Quickest outfit coordination ever, right girls?

Skit Dancers

House Tour Day was something new for me. But I loved that they could showcase off nearly every room in the house, the renovated study lounge and bathrooms. After each PNM saw the house they came down to watch a video about Phi Mu's national philanthropy - Children's Miracle Network Hospitals. We received a lot of feedback that it was their favorite, so of course that made me extremely proud of them.

The final night of recruitment was preference. This is such a special night because it's a lot more subdued and serious than the other nights of recruitment. It's a time for the collegians to reflect on how Phi Mu has shaped their life, how they had a more fulfilling college experience because of Phi Mu and how they know in the future Phi Mu will always be there. I loved how Chi did preference and the Love, Honor, Truth testimonies. Those three seniors put a lot of hard work into their speeches and it was so worth it.

With the amazing President, Abigail on Preference Day

My exact words were along the lines of: "I took a picture with weird people at my last visit." Thanks for passing by on your bikes pimped out with 80s esque stereos.

Then comes the day that we work to all week-- BID DAY.  How it works at Mizzou is that they will get a call from their Pi Chi on Sunday morning letting them know whether or not they recieved a Bid. If so they will meet at the Columns at a designated time with the rest of the PNMs. While they nervously wait to see who their new sisters are, the chapters are decorating their houses for Bid Day with various themes. I wish I would have taken photos of the other houses but two of my favorite themes were-

• Alpha Delta Pi "ADPi is back with some brand new additions"--They had really cute long black tanks with big block lettering. Super cute.
• Alpha Chi Omega "Pretty Little Lyres"--Based off the hit ABC Family show and their sorority's mascot--the lyre.

Phi Mu's theme was a tropical theme of "Phi Mu in Paradise". Perfect after a long week of recruitment and the decorations were wonderful. Of course I joined a group of Phi Mus and their Bid Day Buddies to go see The Help, written by Alpha Zeta alumna Kathryn Stockett. LOVED the movie almost as much as the book which usually isn't the case. Go see it right now. GO.

Seniors and Executive Board waiting for the Phis at the Quad

Chi Chapter on Bid Day with their 83 Phis!

CC Cindy's sister and me after she pledged Phi Mu. So excited to share this day with her!

I am so thankful for how well Chi treated me for two whole weeks at 503 Kentucky Blvd. They worked extremely hard and had the best attitudes. They made sure I always had diet coke and thanks to VP Katie I now have a supply of straws to travel with :) They met quota, plus they received a quota addition! Keep up the great work and I know you all will do AMAZING at your Centennial Homecoming in a couple months.

And here's the Red Towel picture for the visit. Thanks to Erin for continuously backing up to get all 6 columns in there. It was the least she could do after she creeped on my Facebook and figured out my middle name was Erin. Just kidding sweet girl! You have to look really close but I know you can find me.

I am still at Fresno State right now, finishing up last minute preparations for Preference Day. Then Bid Day is tomorrow at 5 so I think the Membership Director is taking me on a campus tour (you know how  I love those!) and I get to expereince In N Out Burger for the first time.

Missing the southern life a little because this girl just isn't one to say dude, sick or hella.

Let's be real.