Preparing for AFLV

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. 
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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. 
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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!