Updates from Danielle Swartz

Middle States Region

Hello everybody!

I have to say this semester has been absolutely crazy! We've been having a great time traveling and connecting with Phi Theta Kappans across the country. Each of us were assigned to two different regional meetings for the fall semester. My assignments included the New York Region Leadership Conference and New Jersey's Honors in Action Conference.

"Dear Santa..."

New York's Regional meeting spanned from Friday October 7th - Sunday October 9th - beginning with dinner on Friday night. The conference was a lot of fun and consisted of various phenomenal speakers including an author and distinguished alumni and a volunteer from Make a Wish Foundation. One of the Region's projects is with the foundation and requires students to do nothing more than write a letter to Santa for Macy's to donate up to $1 million! If attendees weren't convinced to help just by hearing how easy it was, the keynote speaker's moving words certainly would have.

Some of New York's Regional Officers

The bulk of Saturday was spent in various workshops - one of which I had the opportunity to work with past International President, Edgar Romero, on which was a lot of fun for me - and some exploring of the city.
The wrap up on Sunday gave participants a chance to reflect on their experiences at the conference and hear about the ambitious goals set by the Regional Officer team. For more information about the conference, feel free to visit my personal blog or New York's Regional Website.

New Jersey (Middle States Region)

The following weekend I was assigned to visit New Jersey for their Honors in Action Conference. Unfortunately, I didn't actually get to attend that much of it due to what felt like everything possible going wrong. After a delayed flight, a changed flight, and a missed flight, I didn't actually end up in New Jersey until about 1:00pm on Saturday (for a conference that was supposed to go from 8:30-4:00pm). I had a small window of opportunity, however, to meet with some extremely motivated individuals.

Once I arrived at the conference, I gave the Headquarters update and met many of the conference attendees. I couldn't believe how excited they were that I was there and how many projects they had going on! I got to hear about some successful signing events and projects being planned for the year ahead. The Middle States Region has designed a "Constellation Completion Challenge" - a step by step program to help the Region meet its three main goals. This is clearly a very motivated region and I am excited to see them again in the spring! After going out to dinner with Regional officers at the end of the conference, I went to bed early in preparation for more airports. Despite the challenges, I had a great time with the New Jersey Region. For more information about the Middle States Region, visit their Regional Website.

For those of you who are new to the blog, please be sure to go back and read (especially the earliest ones) for more information about the International Officer team's goals related to communication. Also, we have our second IO hosted Ning chat on Tuesday November 15 where we will be divulging more information about the scholarship (if you have no idea what I am talking about, contact me or your Division Vice President)! This is a chat that you do not want to miss. :-)

That's all for now! Kappa Hugs!!!

Fall Travel and IO Updates ~ Sarah Yates

Hello Phi Theta Kappans!!!

This is your International Vice President from Division III, and I've had some amazing experiences during fall travel this semester.

I first traveled to New Mexico for their Regional Honors in Action Conference, and was blown away by the beautiful scenery driving to Los Alamos and by the friendliness of the members there. The conference was informative and interactive, and members had opportunity to ask questions and think critically about what they had heard after every presentation. It was a pleasure giving the Headquarters Update here, as a lot of the members (and advisors alike) asked great questions! New Mexico is a region with a lot of heart and soul, and I'm looking forward to seeing the awesome things they are going to accomplish this year.

The very next weekend I was excited to travel to the Ohio region for their Honors in Action conference in Cleveland. The entire experience in Ohio was excellent- fro start to finish. The Regional Officer team took great care of me while I was there, as well as the Ohio alumni association- the Alphas. Anyone looking for a strong alumni association to model after would do well to get in touch with these dynamos! The entire conference was well thought out and interactive- from the discussion Friday night about censorship and the Democratization of Information to the breakout sessions held on Saturday. It was exciting to see so many members interested in running for Regional and International Office in the spring... these are Ohio's leaders of tomorrow, and I can't wait to see the region in NASHVILLE!!!

Both of the regions I visited were having discussions about chartering a regional bus to the Annual Convention in Nashville. I hope all of our regions are having discussions about helping each other get to Nashville! Have you seen the video at youtube.com/phithetakappa yet?

If you missed out on the big announcements in the Ning chst this week, or if you want to be in the know about the Phi Theta Kappa happenings, be sure to check in on Phi Theta Kappa on the web. There are a lot of exciting things happening very soon on the Phi Theta Kappa Facebook page, so make sure to keep checking back! (Hint: How many members are there in the group?)

I want to send a big thank you to all of the members, advisors, and regional officers and coordinators who have welcomed their International Officers to regional events... interacting with you and giving you more tools to make your Phi Theta Kappa experience even better is the reason why we put so much heart and soul into our positions as International Officers. If we can serve you in any way, please feel free to get in touch via Facebook or email any time!

Phi Theta Kappa HUGS!!!
Sarah Yates

Este's Experiences: My International Travel

My first trip was to Deland Florida to attend the leadership conference hosted by the Delta Omicron chapter at Stetson University. I was very excited to give the headquarters updates to my home region and to experience the events that were part of the Leadership conference. The sessions that I attended were Ethics, Goal setting and Team building. These sessions were thought provoking, informative at times very funny. I was excited to see some my old friends and to interact with many of the new members. I was eager to hear and share some of our regional plans. I spoke to the members about some of the upcoming events that the International Officer team had planned for the year.

The conference ended very well and I was excited to hear that many of the new members were eager to go back home and find ways to get involved in the initiatives and programs that their chapters were working towards.

My next trip was to Delaware to participate in their Honors in Action conference at Delaware Tech although this was my first time in Delaware I was very happy to meet all of the members that I had been in contact with over the summer through Facebook and Skype and see what their goals were for the year while sharing the international officer team's goals for the year. I was very impressed to see how involved and how excited they were to get started with their own projects and how eager they were to help us with our own goals.

I attended a question and answer session where conducted by their regional officer. I was also glad to help answer some questions in an international level and offer help where I could.

My travels and experiences as an officer thus far have been unforgettable. It is always great for me to get to meet so many remarkable students and representing them has been a sobering experience. As Tameka, Danielle, Sarah Jeremy and I work on our goals for the year, I look forward to the Skype conferences I get to have with the members and the Team meetings I have every Tuesday.

Communication Technology and the International Officers by Jeremy Mathis

You may be aware of the fact that social networking is infiltrating our lives in one form or another. Many online classes are setup in a social networking capacity. Even Phi Theta Kappa’s own Competitive Edge and the portfolio site, Mahara, that is used for CE have networking capabilities. It is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.

If it is your goal to avoid social networking, that’s OK. I still believe in a good old fashioned face-to-face meeting, and with me they usually are accompanied by a hand shake or a hug. However, with the increasingly popular use of Smartphone technology, now equipped with email, Facebook, Twitter, Skype, eBuddy, AIM, Yelp, Tumblr, Flicker, Four Square, etc. (I think I made my point), all at the touch of a button , and it fits in your pocket…the days of actually being able to “reach out and touch someone” are dwindling. We are able to interact with a larger number of people from all over the world on a regular basis. This means that, although we certainly are able to shake hands with man or woman who we buy our produce from, we will have to settle for a video chat if we want a face-to-face with the person on eBay who is buying our previously viewed seasons one through five DVD set of How I Met Your Mother.

When I was little, someone came out and pumped our gas and a postal worker sold us stamps over the counter. We have since replaced those jobs with automated machines that you stick your credit card in, and forget coins; I can use a vending machine or pay my parking meter with my Visa or MasterCard. I will get off my soapbox for now so that I can get to the point of all of this. Technology is getting better and faster every day, and our choices for communication are increasing as well. So the 2011-12 International Officer Team would like to give you more than just one option to communicate with us as well as receive news and updates. We know how cumbersome it can get when you have to create yet another username and password for a site just to get some information.  Therefore, we have joined a few sites in hopes that you are already on one of them and all you have to do is follow us.

·         We are all on the Phi Theta Kappa NING Network: http://ptkregionalofficers.ning.com/

·         Our team Twitter page: http://twitter.com/#!/ptkioteam

·         A list of our email addresses are here: http://www.ptk.org/?q=about/international-officers

·         Google Buzz: https://profiles.google.com/109946007010918648370/about

·         Our team Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/ptkIOteam (Has our paged liked yours?)

·         President https://www.facebook.com/PresidentTameka

·         Div. I  https://www.facebook.com/DanielleCSwartz

·         Div. II https://www.facebook.com/Ersmith10

·         Div. III https://www.facebook.com/sayates

·         Div. IV https://www.facebook.com/busynewdad

       Don’t forget that Phi Theta Kappa also has some sites for you:

·         Phi Theta Kappa Official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/phithetakappa

·         Phi Theta Kappa Official Twitter account: http://twitter.com/#!/PHITHETAKAPPA

·         Phi Theta Kappa Official YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/phithetakappa

·         CollegeFish: http://www.collegefish.org/

·         Competitive Edge: http://my.ptk.org/edge/

·         Phi Theta Kappa Foundation FB Cause: https://apps.facebook.com/causes/78095

·         C4 page: http://www.cccompletioncorps.org/

·         Cohort 7: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cohort-7-Phi-Theta-Kappa-Leadership-Development-Study-Group-Fall-11/245395282150291

With so many options for receiving information, it is no wonder why The Democratization of Information was chosen as an Honors Study Topic. I hope that you have found one or more of these web links beneficial. Please share them with your fellow chapter members and officers, and remember that you can contact any one of the International Officers if you have a question or concern. 

My First Trip This Semester ~ Jeremy Mathis

            Hello, this is your Division IV International Vice President, Jeremy Mathis. Last month on September 16 and 17, I had the privilege of attending the Colorado Region’s Fall Leadership Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. Colorado is my home region and I was very excited to see what they had in store for everyone.

I had a great time playing People Bingo, and meeting all the new members while trying to figure out who was born in the same month as I was and who could recite the alphabet backwards. We ended the weekend with a version of the game Scategories, which they called Phi Theta Kappagories. For this game, the Co-host Chapter made a list of categories that were inspired by the issues in the Honors Program Guide. They rolled the big 26-sided dice and each team had 5 minutes to come up with a word that corresponded with the category that started with the letter from the dice. It was very creative and lots of fun. This weekend, however, was not all games. We were thoroughly educated by the Colorado Region’s V.P. of Communication on how plan and write Honors in Action project essay. The Colorado Regional Vice President did an excellent job in educating everyone on the rubrics for the College Project, and the Colorado Region’s President spoke on properly researching the Honors Study Topic in order to determine your Honors In Action project.

The Regional Team also invited some prestigious guests to speak at their conference. Jared Lish, the Area Coordinator for the Health Professional/Law/Graduate Student On-Campus Living Experience at Nova Southeastern University, spoke in length on directions in leadership and the various effective leadership styles. Then for lunch, they held their first etiquette luncheon and invited Marie Hornback of H.M.S. Protocol & Etiquette Training in Windsor, Colorado. Ms. Hornback gave a marvelous presentation over the various forms of etiquette for a formal dining experience.

I had a wonderful time attending the Colorado Region’s Fall Leadership Conference. I cannot wait to be back on March 2^nd and 3^rd for their Spring Conference, where they will elect new regional officers and present the regional awards. Their region’s website is www.ptkcolorado.org. My second trip was to the Nebraska/Wyoming Region...stay tuned for my next blog entry and entries from the other I.O. Team. 

:-)

International Officer's Blogs

Hi, and welcome to the blogspot hosted by your International Officers. This medium is just another way you can receive information from and about Phi Theta Kappa. Check back here each week to see a new post from your Phi Theta Kappa International Officer Team.