Just wanted to give you all a basic TBS update and what I’m working on as president! We are off to an AMAZING start to this semester – a fantastic new MC class (who will be writing to you very soon!), great ideas from every officer, new discussion topics in each committee, and efficient meetings. We started this year off with an updated office system and a new requirements system. We now have 13 offices, 6 of those being a part of executive council. Every sister, whether or not she has an office, has been working so hard to start the semester off right and make sure everything is running smoothly. I am so proud at how our sisterhood runs – our meetings have been very productive and timely, every member has been striving for their best, we have people planning ahead to ensure that everything at the end of the semester will run smoothly as well, and we have been serving in many different ways. The new requirements system we have in place was made to ensure that every active member is positively impacting the sisterhood, and to also account for variances in “fish bowl sizes” of each member. The fish bowl analogy comes from a workshop we attended at last year’s district convention. Each member has varying fish bowl sizes. The fish bowl represents the amount of time, energy, and effort you can give to the sisterhood. Having a large or small fish bowl does NOT mean you are any better or worse than any other member. The size just correlates to how much you can put forth to the sisterhood. What we want to do is emphasize that the size of the fish bowl is not what matters, but instead it is how FULL your fish bowl is that makes a difference. So, even if a member doesn’t have a lot of time to give to the sisterhood, if she makes good use of whatever time she has that makes a huge impact on the things we can accomplish as a group. The new point system this semester requires everyone to participate in committee meetings, service for the music school, sisterhood activities, working concessions, and various other things. However, it also allows members to gain more points (to at least obtain the point requirement) in other ways such as contacting other TBS chapters, participating in outside service, helping with fundraisers, and much more.
One thing I wanted to do differently this semester was to help get our sisterhood focused on common goals. I realized that in the past, we had never specified as a sisterhood what we wanted to strive for. Sure, we have our purposes, mission statement, and vision statement, but I felt that we needed to discuss as a sisterhood what our specific chapter needed to work on and strive for this semester. After a wonderful discussion at one of our first meetings, we came up with 4 main goals:
1. Get back to our roots of service.
2. Truly emphasize the 8 and the 5.
3. Become more conscious of our money and how we’re using it.
4. Remember and promote our Sorority’s purposes.
We will periodically be discussing these goals this semester and how we have improved thus far, and what else we can continue to work on. Each member also sent individual goals for person achievement within the sisterhood.
I have no doubt in my mind that this semester is going to be a great one. This sisterhood is full of such unique women who all bring something different to the table. We are all such hard workers and are all truly striving to make this the best sisterhood it can be.
MLITB,
Jeanne