In all honesty I have to question the changes. The whole point to VLS is Volunteer Leadership. It kind of sucks because I'm not an advisor, so obviously any training at DLC is out of the question. I'm an officer in the alum association. I'm not invited to DLC.

Convention, unfortunately to me, it seemed like most of the non-voting delegate trainings were really focused on the collegians. As a non-voting delegate, I only attended 2 or 3 trainings during voting times because the rest just didn't interest me. It really kind of sucked, IMPO.

Here I am a sister in a leadership position and it seems like all the trainings offered to me are now being taken away.

And the thing is we need those. To be able to meet with more alums and particularly ones who do what I do (in the alum association) is just invaluable.

Don't get me wrong, it is definately important for the collegians, but it is just as important for the alums.



Anyways, those are just my thoughts and personal feelings. Feel free to disagree with me, please just respect that this is how I feel about it.

Don't disagree with you but not sure that they will cancel the House Corporation/Alum Association side of the training- I know they offered both of these at convention on Sunday and hope you stayed for this- in the past when these types of training have been offered, attendence has unfortunately been low. I would suggest you contact the alum IOs in your district and let them know you want more training :)

I can see where ASUADPi is coming from - I've attended DLC the past three years, and have gone to the same breakout training each time. Because of the logistical concerns of DLC (only over a weekend), and depending on where your district's DLC is being held, there's the possibility that advisors (and other alumnae wanting to attend training that may take place) will be unable to attend (that's something that the chapter I work with currently may be facing this spring).

I also see the concern from the other side - while our alumnae association training continued to grow as we started, it was still very small (and I actually went in there hoping for additional information that wasn't covered at the last Convention, when I attended the training there). We're kind of in a crunch as to how to best provide our alumnae supporters the training and information that they truly need (and want to receive), and I don't have any brilliant suggestions as to what to do.

The only suggestions I have actually would require support from ALL alumnae associations, which let's face it, we can't force that upon anyone.

It would be nice if there was just a "convention" (lack of a better word) that is strictly for alums (no collegians allowed, :D). As philanthropy for my alum association I would LOVE to work with other sisters who do philanthropy for their associations. To put our heads together and share ideas.

I also think it would be nice to have a full on AI training. Yes, while some don't agree with AI and others do, it is now a fact of our sorority. The paperwork you can look over is one thing but to have the training and for someone in EO or Grand Council say "hey this is exactly the process, how it works, etc..." or even have an AI give the training. They would know (along with their sponser) better than anyone how it works. Unless you are directly involved in AI, you really just "guess".

Given time I could totally sit down and think of trainings that would benefit alums, but my brain is just too tired to do that right now :D

Can someone who went to convention PLEASE try to look at the pictures.

They were supposed to be up today, but whenever I go to the "page" all it says is Alpha Delta Pi Convention 2007, it gives the stupid link, says that it was updated today and that there are 57 members but I cannot access the pictures. There is no active link.

Can someone please try it and tell me what the heck I am doing wrong, because this is getting kind of annoying.

Because the order prints option is not available on that page yet (it's greyed out), this tells me that the pictures haven't been uploaded yet... the handout says they will be uploaded by today but perhaps they have been delayed or maybe they will be accessible this evening? One way or the other we will have to wait to ask EO tomorrow if they are not up by then...

I seriously thought it was just me :D

Nope not just you. I couldn't get on either!

Well it's 10pm MST and the pictures, at least from my end, aren't up yet. I guess I'll give EO a call tomorrow and get the 411 on the pictures.


I'm so damn impatient!!!!! :D

Regarding the changes-- it may have to do with finances and scheduling?

It's hard for some chapters and AA's to budget travel and accomodation. Also, I think training is very important for new advisers and that even seasoned alumnae officers need follow-up training... But I think we'd also agree that the collegians have a "limited season" and as the bulk of our membership curriculum is geared toward training collegians as future leaders. Getting more collegians to these events may lead us to have more involved alumnae.

Also you have to consider that many alumnae who volunteer with chapters, AA's, etc., have full-time lives and it can be challenging to get them to something like VLS when DLC is closer to home.

I don't necessarily agree with the changes, but that's one theory. I also think it's extremely misleading to say "Membership is for a lifetime," acknowledge that the bulk of our membership are alumnae and then focus the majority of resources on collegiate programming as with the above situation.

If this is a lifetime experience, truly, the sorority needs to step up in its expectations for alumnae members and programs. But as an NPC member, we're here for the undergraduate members... Ironic :cool:

picture update
 

Just got off the phone with EO. I was told that they are having some technical difficulties and the pictures will be up this week, but they don't know a particular date.

I definitely agree with the need to provide better training for Alumnae Association officers and I think that we will see this evolve down the road. But, I think that the shift from volunteer training at VLS to DLC is at the request of many advisors, etc. Chapters feel (i'm speaking from my perspective here as a PD) that they can more economically get more advisors to a DLC and therefore there is more chance of training more. I have yet to see any specifics on this training and how it will run versus the collegiate program, but I do feel that there is value in this.

Now, in putting on my AA officer hat, I also feel strongly that we need to provide our AA's resources that are the most valuable to them. But, I think you will see this in the form of static resources as well as the Pearl Conference Calls. I do agree that the seminars at Convention were not diverse enough but I also feel that we should have the option to have more time with our District teams as an IO. Maybe some "meet and greet" seminars for AA officers that want to share ideas would be a good use of time.

Just my 2 cents:)

Like I said earlier, the only problem I see with DLC is the fact that only advisors are invited. Being that most alums aren't advisors that doesn't help the rest of us. I think out of all our alum association officers only like 1, possibly 2 are advisors. The rest of us aren't.

If they invited advisors and alum officers for training at DLC I would gladly go because DLC for my district is held in CA and that is a much cheaper place for me to get to than VLS next year in Atlanta.

It was just posted that photos will be loaded this weekend.

I hope this is taken as a sign that maybe they shouldn't use snapfish at the next convention to put the photos on, if there are this many technical problems.

I know they considered multiple options and it was the best way so that it wouldn't cost the organization $$- I know personally if I have ALOT of photos to upload it can sometimes take forever on snapfish or similar sites and I would have no where near the number of photos they are likely to be uploading- I'm just glad they are offering this for the first time period so I can wait a little longer :)