New Inductees

Member recruitment went relatively well given the fact that the recession has made us all miserly and students find it much more difficult to fork out a penny, much more eighty bucks. We practically achieved our recruitment goal, and we have our Official Induction ceremony coming up next Friday, November 6 at 7pm in Bldg 8.

Congratulations to all of our New Inductees, welcome to the Phi Theta Kappa family, and prepare to be blown away by the opportunites which will be made available. You have made a stellar investment into a much brighter future.

So come on out to our Induction ceremony and make it official... you have earned it and you deserve it. :)

Member-of-the-Month

We have selected our first Member-of-the-Month for the semester... and the winner is [drumroll please]... Mr. Hardeley Butler.

A deserving recipient indeed... Mr. Butler has practically participated in all our events, getting involved as the opportunity presents itself. For the month of September, he was ever-present with our chapter's endeavors: he volunteered for the Light the Night Lymphoma and Leukemia Awareness walk, he was present at all our Phi Theta Kappa Meetings, he assisted with Member Recruitment by manning our promotion table on campus in place of our officers, and he was present at our first Second Harvest Food Bank volunteer effort.

Hopefully all our members will make every attempt to get involved as much as Hardeley and our runner up Ann Gabele (She did a lot too... got slightly edged out). They are what thePhi Theta Kappa concept of service and leadership are all about... people who believe in activism and take the necessary steps to demonstrate it.

The winner received a free Phi Theta Kappa T-shirt, along with extra member points and recognition.

Congrats Hardeley!!

Second Harverst Food Bank

Our first volunteer effort at Second Harvest went relatively well; we had an average turnout, but the members and officers who were in attendance really put their all into it without complaining. This is the true meaning of service... to "serve"- or to give of one's self.

We arrived at approximately 9am on Saturday morning, signed in, and then we proceeded to the conference room where we were shown a video of what Second Harvest does (provide food for the less fortunate), and testimonies of beneficiaries of the non-profit organization.

After the introduction we were lead onto the factory floor where we received instructions on how to sort, pack, and select the foods for shipping. Aside from the fact that our instructor was rather abrasive and authoritative :)... we had fun volunteering; we made the best of it, and it was worth it. It was particularly intrinsically rewarding due to the fact that we were aiding to benefit others who are less affluent than we are.

We packed and sorted many boxes... our work ethic was through the roof, and we got a lot done... evidently seen through the empty boxes and the clean, vacated, and unoccupied production line. :) All in all we spent a productive couple of hours at the Second Harvest Food Bank giving of ourselves. It was good fellowship for the members and officers alike, a slight workout/ exercise... and we were doing all this to help the needy. The Phi Theta Kappa spirit is rampant! :)

Leadership Conference

The Phi Theta Kappa Regional Leadership Conference totally exceeded my expectations. Not only did we have an absolute blast for the weekend ... we also acquired invaluable knowledge on the main focus of the conference - Leadership.

Held at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Fl, this Conference was a two day event which hosted several meetings and workshops which made an attempt to actualize

the leaders within us. Workshops dealing with the empowerment of members, dealing with leadership stress, leadership attributes, and team building, among others. The wor

kshops were not only informative, they rather interesting and mostly fun activities. My personal favorite was the workshop for empowering members. We were all placed in a room (approximately 30 people), blindfolded, and each told to hold a section of a large rope... we were then instructed to create a perfect square. Yup... I know... wow! It was a daunting task indeed... even for Honors students. :)

This particular workshop taught us that, as leaders, we ought to provide adequate instructions for our members to garner positive results from them. As our mediators just purposefully stated arbitrarily that we ought to "create a perfect square", without any added instructions. We also learnt that not everyone can be a leader in every given setting; take this activity for example... there was a lot of yelling and confusion at first, because naturally everyone wanted to grab the reins and be the self-proclaimed potentate of the group. However, it was not until we were all on one accord, playing our part, that we finally saw the results close to our objective of creating that perfect square.

Leadership is just as important as "followership"... and without both flowing concurrently, goals are much more difficult to accomplish.

These workshops were comprehensive, educational, and enlightening; we all came away with something... literally. We won raffled door prizes!! :)

And... we would not be Phi Theta Kappans if we did not include the Fellowship!!! We had tons of fun.... exploring USF's beautiful campus... chatting... laughing... and to top it all off... Busch Garden's

HOWL O' SCREAM on our final night in Tampa. Woooooo!!!!!

We scared ourselves... scared each other... and just had a blast. Hence, achieving the perfect balance... "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"...

None of our names are Jack. :)