Change in Recruitment

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."- Barack Obama. I think that individuals have a huge impact on group/community change. It starts with an individual's idea on the improvements that can be made into the group. From there, the group decides to either leave or follow the idea into the particular idea of change. In order for change to occur for a long period of time, it is necessary for second order change to occur. My experience in dealing with change pertains to my last term on the executive board as Vice Presdient of Recruitment. The biggest change that I wanted to set forth was for morale to increase during recruitment. Last year, our chapter completely fell apart during recruitment and we are beyond unsisterly to one another. Women left in tears, gossiping about other members, and dreading coming back the next day. I wanted change to occur by viewing recruitment as weeks long worth of sisterhood and have our members view it as a positive experience. I went through the precontemplation state of deciding what I wanted my main goal for the school year to be. Was it going to be focusing on amazing attire and decorations? Or maybe focusing on extensive workshops on how to effectively have a conversation. I finally got to the contemplation stage where I developed a pros and cons of what would be my main focus for the year. By focusing on the sisterhood aspect, I would be sacrificing some focus on how we looked appearance wise, and maybe this is something that is most important to PNMs. But, I finally weighed out my biggest pro being that if we can develop a strong sisterhood, the PNMs will notice this and want to be a part of something so great. I finally decided to prepare and active for the change of sisterhood conduct. This was first done by making sure I kept the actives happy by making workshops time-efficient and to the point. I did not keep them past the point they needed to be to respect their time. After this, I started adding bonding activities such as a candle passing at the end of a workshop. The maintenence will be kept throughout the next year as the outgoing VP of Recruitment and I have collaborated on how to continue on bringing the chapter together. I absolutely believe change starts in an institution because of an individual. After this, it's all about if the group ends up deciding to follow your views and believe that what you are doing is positive for the community.

Reflection on goals and last week's class

My biggest takeaway from last weeks class is that it doesn't require a perfect person to be a leader. I need to accept that I will make mistakes and that not everything will go according to plan. I also learned that although there is a lot I want to change within my chapter, I need to focus this year on only a few of those goals. Even though I wish some of these things could change over night, I know many of the changes I want to implement will take a lot of time to follow through. Based on the seven C's we discussed in class, I realized that my main priority for the executive board is commitment. Something we struggle with as a chapter is showing up to events and getting everyone involved in the activities that we do. So I think that it is extremely important for the executive board to stay cohesive in the goals that we make and also attend all of the events to be a role model for the rest of the chapter. The main takeaway that I want to take from the chapter president's class is how to effectively make changes within my chapter, as well as being able to convince others to accept and follow the changes that are being made.Our chapter has never been very accepting and open to change, so I want to find a way to implement change without causing conflict or chaos within the chapter as a whole or with one another.