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.