Event of the Century

 

Recruitment is finally here! Which means- after this week, I can breathe again! That fact itself is really keeping me going. This semester has felt like it’s been moving in slow motion leading up to this point. There’s been many late nights of planning, meetings and stressing over if I’ve thought of everything. What’s reassuring is having two advisors who have done the role themselves, but I wouldn’t have thought about how much this position relates to my major. 

This position itself teaches a few obvious skills: event planning, delegating and time management. But I ended up using a lot of the skills I already had. For example, part of this role is being aware of the brand and what we stand for. Delta Zeta has six core values at the center of this brand, they are: friendship, belonging, community, curiosity, generosity and empowerment. As the name of my blog is “Let Me Show You,” I thought I’d do exactly that to show our audience our brand. I had our members participate in a social media campaign where we “passed the post,” pointing out qualities in our members that exude these core values. Some examples talk about how the support of the sorority has lifted them up in hard times, both mentally and academically. Some talk about how the sorority has helped them become more engaged in the campus community and Ada through leadership and volunteering. Some talk about leadership awards that our members have won from both Ohio Northern University and international recognition from Delta Zeta. 

I also had to use my presentation skills- which I only sort of think I have. In total, I put together nine training presentations for the chapter that educated on what recruitment is for those who didn’t go through formally, what topics we talk about with potential new members, vocabulary used throughout recruitment and practice session on practice session to make sure everyone knew their stuff about what membership entails. Half of our chapter is made up of sophomores. They needed the most guidance since this is their first recruitment season so I needed to make sure I was thorough.

I also had to use some graphic design and theme skills to maintain that decorations would be consistent. This meant everything down to re-wrapping mini water bottles with the Delta Zeta brand.

There’s a lot of little details that go into recruitment from the planning standpoint that as a potential new member going through you would probably never think about or realize- and that is part of the job. While being in this position, has certainly been one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done, it has also been one of the most rewarding experiences. I’ve grown to know my sisters more every step of the way, something that was made difficult with COVID-19. I’ve learned countless lifelong skills. I’ve become a better leader. And most importantly, I’ve become a better sister.