Where Are We Going? A Note from Our President
Hello sisters, friends, and family!
We are so excited that all of our chapters are jumping into the Fall 2014 Semester at their respective campuses. We have grown so much and are now currently at 33 active chapters nationwide! It's taken a lot of hard work and prayer to get where we are today, and many hands have helped lift up this ministry to make it what it is today. While we have so much to be proud of, we have a lot more work to do.
This year at our Fall 2014 National Planning Summit in Richmond, Virginia, the National Board of Trustees established their short-term vision themes for this year: Sustainability and Efficiency. Formerly, the National Organization's vision themes for the past two years were: Maintenance and Investment. We believe these served us well, but our direction has refined and changed, while still upholding our mission and vision as a sisterhood. Indeed, the old and new themes seem similar, but I, as Sigma Alpha Omega's National President, wanted to take the time to iron out the details associated with these new themes, as it is so important to attach both meaning and action to "buzz words" to yield any kind of results.
SUSTAINABILITY
The quality of being sustainable is hugely important to us as an organization for several reasons. First, our rapid growth this past academic year has created a huge feeling of excitement and anticipation, but also one of confusion and identity-crisis. We want to ensure that chapters and its members know exactly who we are, what we stand for, and what defines us as an organization, from traditions to uniqueness. We believe the best way to do this is refine resources and make expectations clearer than ever of Trustees, National Mentors, Chapter Leaders, and Individual Sisters. One way we have begun this transformation is putting a tremendous amount of effort into systemically approaching our membership records. Last year we invested lots of time and energy into migrating membership records to the cloud; now, we are ready to use this system and break up responsibilities among appropriate national roles. Another thing we are excited to do is establish insurance for chapters by Convention this year. While we believe this will be an expense, we believe that it is wise and proper for the national organization to require its chapters to be insured. Of course, we believe that it is on us to advocate and do the legwork to get us the right coverage and price.
EFFICIENCY
Nobody likes to waste, but sometimes that is what it can feel like we are doing when we are transitioning constantly as an organization among our leadership and using volunteers to get the job done. Yet, we have decided that the majority of these transitions are unlikely to change and are part of our identity as a social campus organization. As a result, rather than change this, we believe we need to use wisely what we have: time, resources, energy, persons. A major item that we believe will help contribute to the overall efficiency of our organization is the installment and first year of the Regional Mentor Program. We are excited that our Head Mentor, Sarah Young, is training, educating, and guiding the Mentors for the 2014-15 Academic Year to be experts and intimate mentors for their chapters. We believe this will help to focus national management and allow the National Board more time to devote to the general maintenance and professionalism of the national organization, as more serious items cross our desk after Mentor advisement. We are also excited to continue to refine processes as we attempt to manage an ever-growing-larger alumnae base (and now associations) and new members; we believe this task is an obligation to our founders as well as those to come. We are thrilled to also continue carving out the relationship with Sisters by Grace Foundation, our sister charitable foundation, figuring out how best to support one another in our goals to promote the sisterhood and the sisters.
In conclusion, I think we have accomplished so much and have much to look forward to in accomplishing this year. As my email inbox fills up, Facebook feeds show dozens of Recruitment photos and OCA participation, I cannot wait to serve you all this year in the best way I can. I pray that Jesus Christ be in all our priorities, and continually teach us to love one another and seek Him only for wholeness and completeness here on earth as in heaven. I am so thankful for all of your hard work for this organization, whether it has been a donation to Sisters by Grace Foundation or manning a booth for information or simply liking our Facebook page. Here's to another year be written in our "Her"-story!
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In Him,
Claire McAuliffe
Sigma Alpha Omega President, 2014-15
We are so excited that all of our chapters are jumping into the Fall 2014 Semester at their respective campuses. We have grown so much and are now currently at 33 active chapters nationwide! It's taken a lot of hard work and prayer to get where we are today, and many hands have helped lift up this ministry to make it what it is today. While we have so much to be proud of, we have a lot more work to do.
This year at our Fall 2014 National Planning Summit in Richmond, Virginia, the National Board of Trustees established their short-term vision themes for this year: Sustainability and Efficiency. Formerly, the National Organization's vision themes for the past two years were: Maintenance and Investment. We believe these served us well, but our direction has refined and changed, while still upholding our mission and vision as a sisterhood. Indeed, the old and new themes seem similar, but I, as Sigma Alpha Omega's National President, wanted to take the time to iron out the details associated with these new themes, as it is so important to attach both meaning and action to "buzz words" to yield any kind of results.
SUSTAINABILITY
The quality of being sustainable is hugely important to us as an organization for several reasons. First, our rapid growth this past academic year has created a huge feeling of excitement and anticipation, but also one of confusion and identity-crisis. We want to ensure that chapters and its members know exactly who we are, what we stand for, and what defines us as an organization, from traditions to uniqueness. We believe the best way to do this is refine resources and make expectations clearer than ever of Trustees, National Mentors, Chapter Leaders, and Individual Sisters. One way we have begun this transformation is putting a tremendous amount of effort into systemically approaching our membership records. Last year we invested lots of time and energy into migrating membership records to the cloud; now, we are ready to use this system and break up responsibilities among appropriate national roles. Another thing we are excited to do is establish insurance for chapters by Convention this year. While we believe this will be an expense, we believe that it is wise and proper for the national organization to require its chapters to be insured. Of course, we believe that it is on us to advocate and do the legwork to get us the right coverage and price.
EFFICIENCY
Nobody likes to waste, but sometimes that is what it can feel like we are doing when we are transitioning constantly as an organization among our leadership and using volunteers to get the job done. Yet, we have decided that the majority of these transitions are unlikely to change and are part of our identity as a social campus organization. As a result, rather than change this, we believe we need to use wisely what we have: time, resources, energy, persons. A major item that we believe will help contribute to the overall efficiency of our organization is the installment and first year of the Regional Mentor Program. We are excited that our Head Mentor, Sarah Young, is training, educating, and guiding the Mentors for the 2014-15 Academic Year to be experts and intimate mentors for their chapters. We believe this will help to focus national management and allow the National Board more time to devote to the general maintenance and professionalism of the national organization, as more serious items cross our desk after Mentor advisement. We are also excited to continue to refine processes as we attempt to manage an ever-growing-larger alumnae base (and now associations) and new members; we believe this task is an obligation to our founders as well as those to come. We are thrilled to also continue carving out the relationship with Sisters by Grace Foundation, our sister charitable foundation, figuring out how best to support one another in our goals to promote the sisterhood and the sisters.
In conclusion, I think we have accomplished so much and have much to look forward to in accomplishing this year. As my email inbox fills up, Facebook feeds show dozens of Recruitment photos and OCA participation, I cannot wait to serve you all this year in the best way I can. I pray that Jesus Christ be in all our priorities, and continually teach us to love one another and seek Him only for wholeness and completeness here on earth as in heaven. I am so thankful for all of your hard work for this organization, whether it has been a donation to Sisters by Grace Foundation or manning a booth for information or simply liking our Facebook page. Here's to another year be written in our "Her"-story!
In Him,Claire McAuliffe
Sigma Alpha Omega President, 2014-15
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