 Three members from the UMD Greek Life community will be attending the Association of Fraternal Leadership and Values (AFLV) Central conference this upcoming weekend. They will join over 1,000 of their peers to learn how to better their campus. This is what they hope to learn:
Ally Cuabo (Greek Life Council President) - As I prepare for the American Fraternal Values and Leadership conference, I am feeling many emotions. I am excited, yet nervous, but mostly excited. I have many things I am looking forward to doing and learning. I am really excited to use this experience to bring back new and hopefully helpful information for my chapter and fellow chapters of our Greek Life. Some of the education slots I am looking forward to are on how to keep new members and to keep them engaged. I am also attending a couple of sessions on delivering impactful new member education and strengthening bonds between sisters and fellow women in our Greek community. I feel all of these sessions will be great and hopefully useful for organizations to use besides my own. I hope to bring back great tips and strategies that we can use going forward. I feel that the areas I would like to help are in keeping members engaged and boosting our morale. I think the session on being better friends, better women, and better sisters will be great for that. Also supply me with strategies to create an open and welcoming space for active and incoming members. My name is Faith Mumphrey and I am the Vice President of Recruitment for Gamma Sigma Sigma’s National Sorority here at UMD. I was lucky enough to be chosen to go along to the Association of Fraternal Leadership & Values Conference! As soon as the opportunity arose to apply to go along I submitted my application after an hour of the form being posted. When I heard of the conference I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity not only for my organization but also for all of Greek Life! I joined GSS in the Spring of 2018 at the end of my sophomore year. I was extremely involved with my organization but quickly noticed the lack of community that there was between ALL Greek Life members. I wanted the chance to go to this conference to bring back knowledge about new recruitment methods and how other organizations run around the country. I am excited to gain leadership skills and bring them back to educate others on the information that I learn! Although I am very nervous to meet new people, I am also very excited! Hopefully the weather will be a tad bit warmer as well, that would be a plus! Max Walker (Interfraternity Council President) - What I’m looking for from this is a way to make a culture shift within our greek life. I believe big changes have to start on a small level and for far too long a stigma has been created around greek life around sexual assault, binge-drinking, and hazing. Unfortunately that is our stigma, but that doesn’t have to be our reputation. I’m attending informational “sessions”, (like little classes except specifically regarding IFC) and looking to find the little steps to we as a community need to take to in order for us to move forward and eliminate the stigma and ensure that isn’t our reputation. The other thing I hope to learn from AFLV is how we can communicate more effectively with school leadership. The leadership I want to create relationships with and communicate more effectively with are deans, chancellors department heads, and local law enforcement. As an IFC president I feel this was something in the first half of my term I failed to do. The reason these relationships matter is to create a symbiotic relationship not only within greek life, but our local community. Hopefully this is what I learn!  College Panhellenic Academy has come and gone. The three women who attended learned a lot about their respective areas and are excited to share their new found knowledge with the community.
Annabelle Paquin (PHC VP Recruitment) - My past weekend at the National Panhellenic Academy was a great weekend, filled with a lot of learning opportunities and the chance to meet a lot of Panhellenic Women from all over the country. Throughout this weekend, I learned a lot of different tips and tricks on promoting Fraternity and Sorority life and increasing the number of women who sign up to go through the recruitment process. I also learned a lot about Rho Gammas and how to use them more effectively, as well as some advice on how to keep chapters happy during the recruitment process. Additionally, we covered a lot of policies and unanimous agreements, so I am well versed in the recruitment rules. I plan on using this information to ramp up our marketing efforts for primary recruitment in the fall, and improving the overall experience for both Potential New Members and chapters themselves. I am very grateful for my Panhellenic community for allowing me the opportunity to attend this conference, and I am excited to bring back what I've learned to our own community. Sophia Johnson (PHC President) - I was fortunate to be able to attend the College Panhellenic Academy to learn more about my roles and duties as president of College Panhellenic here on campus. The conference spent a lot of time going over policies and procedures, which is always beneficial. The biggest takeaways I had were from two different speakers. The first speaker spoke about the difference between power and empowerment. Sometimes we tend to overpower people instead of being them the empowerment to make the correct decisions and to strengthen their skills. I hope we can continue to give our members the empowerment they need to make the correct choices while here at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The next speaker spoke about how as women if we want to move ahead in the workplace, we need to use their elbows. She encouraged us to be strong and do not be afraid to speak our minds. but lastly, she wanted all of us to be bosses instead of girl bosses. she wanted us to have power instead of girl power. I want to encourage members to be the best versions of themselves and to encourage others in our community. I am working towards women acknowledging the success of others to build each other up. After this conference, I have a bunch of ideas and I can not wait to start working on them to better our community. Lexi Tschida (PHC VP Judicial) - During the College Panhellenic Academy I learned about how my position as Vice President of Judicial works and why we have this position on the council. Along with learning about why we have Panhellenic on our campus and what the meaning behind having our governing documents are. This opportunity allowed me to speak with other members from 26 different sororities that are apart of the National Panhellenic Conference this was a great opportunity to get some ideas of things we can do on our campus to make our Panhellenic community stronger than it already is. How I plan to bring the items that I learned to our community is trying some of the events that other sisters shared with me when at the conference, as well as updating the bylaws, code of ethics, and recruitment rules documents that we have. My position also has a Judicial board and I am excited to start teaching the members that will be on this board what their job is and why it is apart of my position. This entire trip was very knowledgeable from understanding what my position does as well as connecting with not only other Alpha Sigma Tau members across the country but members from other organizations.  When going to the College Panhellenic Community I want to achieve learning what my new position does and bring back information to our chapters that we may have not known about. As well as building my communication skills through the notes that are taken at Executive Board meeting as well as Delegate meeting. Note taking while at the academy will help me to be a better note taker during meetings as well as how the notes should be updated and posted for others to see when they are not able to make it to a meeting. Another one of my big goals is to learn how to share information that is important for chapters to know and how to do it in a timely manner as well as how to word those emails.
 Three PHC officers are on their way to the College Panhellenic Academy, hosted by the National Panhellenic Conference. Here is what each officer is hoping to gain from this weekend's training.
Sophia (PHC President) - I look forward to traveling to Indianapolis this weekend for CPA with my fellow executive board. During the conference, I hope to learn how to strengthen my leadership skills and find out how other campuses are improving their sense of community on campus. Our greek community is tight because it is small, but I would love for it to extend past our campus and give us more opportunities to strengthen our community in Duluth with our resources. I look forward to meeting with the rest of the PHC presidents see what they are doing to improve their college community. Annabelle (PHC VP Recruitment) - This weekend, I am so excited to attend College Panhellenic Academy in Indianapolis. I think this weekend is going to be so much fun and will be a great experience for me to learn more about Panhellenic Recruitment, and I am so grateful to have this opportunity. I hope to gain more knowledge on recruitment, learn some helpful tips and tricks, and to network with other women who serve on Panhellenic at other universities. It'll be interesting to see how Panhellenic communities at schools where greek life is huge approach and handle recruitment, and I'm excited to meet other women who I can ask for advice later on in the process, and share what I learn with the rest of the board back home! Lexi (PHC VP Judicial) - When going to the College Panhellenic Community I want to achieve learning what my new position does and bring back information to our chapters that we may have not known about. As well as building my communication skills through the notes that are taken at Executive Board meeting as well as Delegate meeting. Note taking while at the academy will help me to be a better note taker during meetings as well as how the notes should be updated and posted for others to see when they are not able to make it to a meeting. Another one of my big goals is to learn how to share information that is important for chapters to know and how to do it in a timely manner as well as how to word those emails.  I didn't expect myself to join greek life. I was a transfer student from a community college in the cities where it was hard to connect with others because everyone was so busy. I came to college and was thrilled to be able to feel a sense of community by living in the dorms. Sadly, I did not connect with my roommate and really struggled feeling like I belonged at UMD. I was walking around Kirby Commons seeing what everyone was tabling for to hopefully find a club that I would be interested in. That is when I spotted Alpha Sigma Tau. Headquarters was actually tabling instead of UMD students and they started to explain the process of being an organization on campus and I was fascinated. I wanted to join something bigger than myself and wanted to start something that affects others' lives. I had a meeting with the staff to find out more and accepted my bid the next day. I connected with so many women and had growth in leadership, personal, and educational skills. I stayed in AST because of the connections and leadership opportunities. I even became President. I never saw myself in that role, but then I loved watching everyone grow as individuals and strengthen their amazing characteristics. I believe that all brought me to where I am now, President of Panhellenic Council here on campus. I want to see all the organizations grow and see members grow themselves. I look forward to my term and the fact we will all grow together.
I was finishing up my term as AST President when Tori (our Greek Life Advisor) suggested to me that I ran for Panhellenic President. I remember freezing in her office and thinking "wait, that actually sounds fun". It would be a huge, new, and intimidating role that I could try for, but the outcome would be amazing. I would be able to help all organizations besides my own and strength sororities ties on campus. I believe our campus already has a really tight Greek Life, but there is always room for improvement. I look forward to the day that women can name nearly every other woman in different organizations besides their own. Yes, this is a much larger scale than my last position, but I look forward to that challenge and am excited for our greek life to become closer as a family. |
AuthorsA handful of stories by various members of the Greek Community offering a "Greek Life at a Glance". Previous Posts
July 2021
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