Convention 2010 in New Orleans!

Every two years ZTA holds an International Convention. The location is different every time, but is always somewhere exciting like Houston, Tucson, or the location of this year's big event- New Orleans! I was so excited to get to go to a city that I had heard so many great things about. The Convention was filled with business meetings, breakout sessions, fun surprises, awards ceremonies and ritual. Here were some of the highlights for me:

Meeting my TLC sisters and other National Officers: I had waited so long to meet everyone and it was so exciting when the day finally came! Everyone clicked almost immediately and I know we are just going to get closer and closer over the two weeks of training we will have together. Here is a picture of us in our Mardi Gras masks!




We also got a chance to get to know other National Officers- the women who are in charge of the collegiate and alumnae chapters across the country. They are all volunteers, and its is so heart warming to see how willingly they dedicate their time and energy to Zeta Tau Alpha.

The Location- New Orleans is awesome! Even though I didn't get to see much of it, it was a super exciting atmosphere to be in. ZTA brought us a taste of the Big Easy with beignets, King Cake and a visit from the Krewe of Caesar. This is an example of one of the members of the Krewe:




Also, our Executive Director shared with us that she chose New Orleans to be the location for Convention 2010 and booked this hotel in the French Quarter shortly after Hurricane Katrina. She said that people thought she was crazy, but she wanted ZTA to be a part of the rebuilding of this great city.

Phlianthropy: ZTA is known in the Greek world for having outstanding philanthropic efforts. Our official philanthropy is Breast Cancer Awareness and Education and we are nationally partnered with organizations like Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Yoplait (and their Save Lids to Save Lives campaign), the NFL and SELF Magazine. We staff Race for the Cure events, collect huge amounts of Yoplait pink lids and hand out pink ribbons at NFL games nationwide during the month of October. The ZTA Foundation President gave us an update on how we have been doing with Philanthropy this past biennium and announced we have raised over $3million for Susan G. Komen for the Cure! So exciting!!

At the Philanthropy Luncheon on Friday, the TLCs got to be recognized with the honor of sitting at the head table. It was really cool to sit up there and look out over the 850+ ZTAs eating their lunch- all wearing pink!

Initiation: Every Convention ZTA has a special initiate. This means we honor someone who was not Greek in college by welcoming them into our sisterhood officially through Initiation. This biennium's recipient of the honor was Tanya Snyder, wife of Dan Snyder who is the owner of the Washington Redskins. A breast cancer surviver herself, Tanya has worked over the years with ZTA to strengthen our partnership with the NFL. We hand out ribbons at games 28 of the 32 teams- but it all started with the Washington Redskins! The ritual was performed by some of my fellow TLCs and it was so cool to experience it with hundreds of other ZTAs. Here is an article about it: http://www.redskins.com/gen/articles/Zeta_Tau_Alpha_Honors_Tanya_Snyder_In_New_Orleans_128345.jsp

Silver Awards: Undoubtedly the most exciting night of Convention was the SIlver Awards dinner. Only given at Convention, SIlver Awards recognize the most outstanding ZTA chapters and their achievements over the past biennium. About 15-20 chapters are recognized. Going into the dinner, I told a lot of my friends that I really though that my chapter at UMD, Iota Omega, really had a shot at the Becky Hainsworth Kirwan Most Improved Chapter Award and the 2012 Convention. I thought that if we kept working hard, there was a good chance wo could be recognized in two years. So, imagine my surprise when this award came up and the chapter being described started sounding an awful lot like Iota Omega. They announced our name and it was one of the best feelings I've ever had. I was sitting with the girls from my chapter and we all started screaming, hugging and crying. We all went up on stage to accept the award and were greeted on the way there and back by National Officers crying and saying how proud they were. There were even some former TLCs who worked with my chapter years ago who were crying for us because of how far we've come. It was so special for me to be there because my time as President was included in the 2 years that were evaluated for this award. It makes me SO proud of Iota Omega and SO excited to work with other chapters.




I really enjoyed my experience at Convention, and though us TLCs worked really hard (and late into the night) the entire time to make sure everything was running smoothly, I was sad to come back home. 2012 Convention is in Louisville, KY. See you there!!