So, what do you do?

As an ELC, this is a question I get asked a lot. Family members, airplane passengers, shuttle drivers, restaurant servers, and fellow AOIIs have all asked this question. Because it happens all the time, I have gotten pretty good at describing the job in a sentence or two depending who the audience is. While at Oklahoma State, Nicole and I even got asked by a fellow elevator passenger and she managed to explain it to him by the time we reached the fourth floor. Now that’s what you call an elevator pitch! But, what we don’t explain in our brief description of what an ELC does to all these different people who ask about it are all the random, funny, exhausting, rewarding, silly, lengthy, exciting things that we do that aren’t included in the job description.

“I travel for my sorority” is how I usually begin my job description to someone outside of the Fraternity, while to an AOII I might say “I visit different chapters each week, meet with officers, help with recruitment or chapter events, and report back to the Fraternity about what all the chapter is doing” and “Ambassador, liaison, and educator” is how we are described by the Fraternity. But, none of these can fully describe our jobs. There is so much more to the job than what the description says, and many of the parts that make up the whole ELC experience are indescribable. So, here are a few fictional job description excerpts to help you understand what else goes on in the life of an ELC besides the meetings, recruitment, reports, and jet-setting.

“Carry my weight in suitcases all around the US and Canada.” Carrying this much luggage adds a little humor and adventure to our lives. Who doesn’t love carrying all this stuff up 3 flights of stairs or dragging wheeled suitcases through several inches of ice and snow?! Those members who have picked me up in tiny coupe cars can attest to how fun it is to fit my obnoxious luggage into their back seat, because it won’t fit in the trunk. It’s usually at least a two person job to get one piece of luggage off the ground and into a car trunk, but I’ve gotten pretty good at maneuvering it.

ELC suitcases at HQ after we arrived for Leadership Academy

“Special talents and skills required: a capella solo singing and/ or chanting, chalking, spray painting, tent construction, and paparazzi-like photography skills.” I never thought these things would be a part of my job, but I have done every one of them in the last few months. I taught a chapter AOII Grace, chalked around campus, spray painted frames outside at midnight to prepare for colonization parties, and have taken countless paparazzi shots at bid days, Leadership Academy, and other chapter events.

Leading AOII Grace... this wasn't in my job description! :)

Nicole chalking on campus at Oklahoma State

Tracy, Blair, and Nicole putting the AOII tent away after a day of tabling

Nicole spray painting picture frames at Oklahoma State...I promise I helped too!

Alpha Nu chapter at Ramapo College practicing before their first round of recruitment ever!

Members of Delta Omega Chapter at Murray State U during sisterhood retreat

“Drink lots of coffee, eat lots of good food (and just a little bad food), go shopping, ride shotgun a lot, laugh about YouTube videos and @firstworldpains Tweets, and do touristy things.” It is my belief that food, shopping, and photography are the best things about traveling. While I can’t say that dining hall food is the best, I have been given many opportunities to have so many delicious kinds of food at various fun local restaurants. I have also been given ample opportunity to spend my money and take lots of touristy pictures during my travels!

Nora, Reese, Laurie, and Becca from Sigma Tau Chapter at Washington College taking a break from shopping for some Fro-Yo! (this falls under the category of good food)

“Meet VIPs like AOII Past International Presidents, student government leaders, and Prince.” Yes, you heard me I’ve met Peg Crawford, Ginger Banks, Barb Zipperian, Carole Jones! Oh, and Prince.

Peg and me at Sigma Alpha's 25th anniversary celebration

Ginger with the ELCs at HQ this summer

Us again with Barb at Convention 2011

At Carole's home in Alabama

I met Prince at the Mall of America while visiting with Kappa Sigma Chapter at University of Wisconsin- River Falls... NBD

I can never fully explain what it is really like to be an ELC, because it’s a unique experience for each one of us. The Fraternity’s job description does explain what we do as ELCs, but it only scratches the surface. Every state, province, chapter, university, college, city, and region we visit provides interesting things to do and see, new ideas on how best to function as a chapter, and amazing women to meet and laugh with. All the random and unexpected things we do every day are what make the job so exciting, rewarding, and inexplicable.

Roses & all my Alpha love,

Jessica

ELCs at 2012 Leadership Academy...Not your average job... better!

Recruitment... in the winter!

Many chapters have recruitment in the fall semester, but a lot of our chapters have a deferred recruitment process- which means that recruitment occurs in the 2nd semester/quarter.

My first stop for a deferred recruitment was Delta Kappa at Washington University in St. Louis! This was their 3rd formal recruitment as a chapter. It was very special for me to be at this chapter for their recruitment, because I helped install the chapter as a collegian in the Spring of 2009!

All of their recruitment rounds take place in buildings on campus. Their first day of recruitment was a Mardi Gras theme and I loved their table decorations and their t-shirts! It is common on the campus to perform a 'rap' about your chapter during the first round of recruitment. The Chapter President, Rose, had the best rap about AOII!


The next round included skits, and Delta Kappa performed 'The Ruby City'. They had included everything from a cow inside the twister to a very cowardly lion. Below the 'tin lady' smiles for a picture with some of the other AOIIs in between rounds.

After the skit round, they performed preference without a hitch - and had 61 new members on bid day! This was the largest new member class on campus! They had many reasons to celebrate on bid day! First, they went roller skating with all the new members and brought back the 80s apparel!

After the pizza and skating at the roller rink, they had to have some dessert - so everyone came back to campus for a cupcake contest! The chapter divided into groups and had thirty minutes to create a design. They were only allowed one cupcake per member on their team. Here is one of the creative designs!Overall, it was such a successful recruitment for Delta Kappa! A shout-out to Julia (VPMR) and Hillary (Asst. VPMR) for planning such a great week. We are all so proud of this chapter's success in a short three years -they have a great future ahead!

Next stop for a deferred recruitment was our Delta chapter at Tufts University! They started out with a round of recruitment at a location on campus, and then the PNMs came to their chapter house for the remainder of recruitment.

At their philanthropy round, they played Left, Right, Center with the PNMs. It is a game with dice, and for every chip that the PNM had to put in the middle, they donated 25 cents to the Arthritis Foundation! This was a great way for the PNMs to feel included and feel as if they were making a difference!

Finally, everyone's favorite night came... Preference! It was beautiful. All the women were given a rose when they came in the door, and were treated to red velvet cupcakes! The ceremony was very special for all. Here are some of the Delta chapter women on Preference Night:

Jamie, Katie, and Suzy (VPMR)

After a very successful recruitment, Delta welcomed 37 new members and made quota! They welcomed all of their new members at the chapter house - you could hear the cheers down the road!

Then, all of the new members were announced as they entered the basement and their panda pals greeted them! At bid day, they decorated door signs that read, 'An AOII lives here!' and had panda cupcakes! They also decorated cookies and everyone introduced themselves with a fun fact!Waiting for the new members to be introduced...

Above is a picture of Alex (Chapter President), Laura (Historian) and Sarah (New Member Educator). They all did a wonderful job and have a great year planned ahead.

It was wonderful to start of this semester as an ELC with two very successful recruitments for Delta Kappa and Delta! Congratulations to you both and best of luck this year!

Roses,

Liz

Oklahoma State Bid Day and Colonization

At 7:30 in the morning on Sunday January 22nd over 80 women from the OK State Panhellenic community woke up and hand delivered our 105 AOII bids to our amazing new members! This is a tradition here on campus and we were so thankful for all of the Gamma Chi’s, Panhellenic executive members and Team AOII members who sacrificed their Sunday morning sleep to help out!!

All of the Gamma Chi’s who came to deliver bids

After the bids were delivered, the new members came to the Greek life office to sign their MRABA’s and officially accept their bids. We again are so thankful to the Greek life staff and volunteers who came out so early to help.

While this was all going on, the other members of our extension team were feverishly transporting boxes to the Wes Watkins building to set up for our Bid Day Celebration! Let me tell you, there were a lot of boxes to move so I definitely got my work out in for the day. The bid day theme was “It’s Sweet to be an AOII” and Sunday it unquestionably was! We had a candy bar for women to make bags to take home, there were lollipops and candy crafts hanging on the walls and candy centerpieces on the tables!

The Candy Bar at Bid Day. Yummy!!

All of the women and their families started coming in around 1p.m. where they were welcomed by the women from Xi (University of Oklahoma), Xi Omicron (University of Arkansas) and Chi Theta (Northeastern State University). After everyone had come in and gotten their candy, Carrie Youell and Molly Fenton welcomed everyone to the event. Then, International President Allison Allgier spoke and welcomed everyone to the AOII family, and Tracy Ottey the resident consultant spoke about the new members and what was to come as colony members. Finally, the Panhellenic executive team presented the colony with their first set of letters! We were overwhelmed to say the least.

This Panhellenic exec team has done so much for us since we started our process. From helping us table and taking down the tent, to coming to info nights and helping us set up for Bid Day! They even wore red to our Colonization ceremony, which we know is a big deal in OSU “Orange Country” !! We can never thank these women enough for all that they have done for us, and we look forward to working with them more, now that AOII is officially apart of the OSU Panhellenic community!

The Panhellenic executive team at Colonization with Sorority adviser Liz Osborne and IFC President Carson Mitchell

All of our beautiful, amazing new colony members then gathered together to take their first group picture!! They our course looked wonderful and in the middle of it all Oklahoma State’s mascot Pistol Pete burst in, guns blazing to join the group.

We were so thankful to have him stop by and take pictures with all of us afterword. As you can see, everyone got in on the fun!

Allison Allgier, Rene Fitzgerald, Molly Fenton and Joelle McWilliams with Pistol Pete!

After everyone had gotten their pictures made with Pete, the women left and it was time to flip the room. With a lot of help from the Wes Watkins staff, we got the room re-organized, packed up all of the bid day decorations and changed into our colonization dresses in less than 2 hours!!

At around 4 pm the colony members started to arrive; Allison and staff started going over the ceremony with them. The women were then lined up in alphabetical order and split into groups of 10 to be taken in to the ceremony. All during this time, members of the OSU Greek community, school officials, family members and friends started filling up the room. And when I say filling up, I mean every seat was filled and fraternity men were standing against the walls or in any open space! We had almost 1000 people attend this ceremony!!!

OSU President Burns Hargis opened up the event and welcomed everyone and AOII to Ok State. He and his wife were so sweet walking around and congratulating all of the colony members. We truly appreciated their support! Allison then led the colonization ceremony for all of the 105 members and their guests. She did so with such grace and poise and with renewed spirit each time so that every woman who pledged themselves got to have a personal experience with her.
One of the groups of colony women on stage with Allison during the ceremony

My favorite part of the evening though had to be when Allison asked for all of the AOII’s present to please stand and join the circle to sing the Epsilon Chapter Song. To see all of those women stand was inspiring and I was so proud to be a part of it. The women then gathered to take some more group pictures. I’m sure they learned soon enough that AOII’s love to take pictures!!

All of the beautiful colony members after the ceremony

Now that the colonization week and ceremony are over, the real work has begun and I can’t express to you how amazing the women of this colony are! With the help of Tracy and their amazing AAC, these women are starting committees, making pairings for Spring Sing and Homecoming, and starting such a strong foundation for this future chapter! I can’t wait to see what all they will accomplish and I was so blessed to be a part of this experience with them. As they continue to learn, lead and shape this colony I guess all I can say is….To be continued!!!

Alpha Love,
Blair