Congratulations Alumnae!

At Convention last month, Alumnae Awards were given out for the second time since they were started in 2007. We were able to honor some amazing alumnae for their accomplishments and especially for being great sisters. There were a lot of great stories, and a few tears as well! So please join us in congratulationing and honoring the following sisters for receiving the 2009 Alumnae Awards:

Friendship Award: Christina Osan, Penn State-Lambda Alumna

Scholarship Award: Emily Kilpatrick, Kentucky-Epsilon Alumna

Encouragement Award: Stella (Huff) Nuckels, Arkansas-Kappa Alumna

Sisterhood Award: Kathy (Beck) Johnson, Case-Omicron Alumna

First Corner Award: Sarah Fisk, Florida-Tau Alumna

Second Corner Award: not awarded

Third Corner Award: not awarded

Fourth Corner Award: Lila Ibrahim, Purdue-Alpha Alumna

Orchid Award: not awarded

12th National Council Meetings

Last week, the 12th National Coucil had it's first monthly meeting. We would like to keep you up to date on what kind of things we are busy working on.

Each month, the NC will get together via teleconference and internet on the 3rd Wednesday of every month at 9pm EST/6pm PST. If you have any questions, please feel free to let us know!

Last week, we spent our time talking about:
-Expansion
-A few strategic proposals we received and are working on
-NC Officer transition improvements (yes, we need to work on this stuff too!)
-The next version of the National Awareness Campaign
-Planning our NC Face-to-Face (while NC is a completely virtual team, we do need to get together at least twice a year separate from the convention to get some good work done together!)

Our next Face-to-Face meeting is going to be the weekend of Nov. 21st, so look for more information on what we're planning coming up!

Let us know if you have any questions or want any additional information!

Get ready for fall Resumania!

Attention actives and alumnae:

A new school year is upon us! For many of you actives, that may mean that it’s time to start thinking about where you’re going to co-op in the spring, or what you’re going to do when you graduate. Which also may mean that it’s time to dust off your business suits and start hitting up some job fairs. And what better way to succeed in your job hunt than with a stunning resume?

Luckily, the 5th annual fall Resumania is just around the corner! Here’s your chance to get some comments and tips from the pros on how to improve your resume!

Here’s what you do:

• Email your resume to the Resumania director at Resumaniaactive@yahoo.com between September 14 and October 4.
• The Resumania team of Phi Sigma Rho alumnae industry professionals will review your resume and return it with comments.
• Be sure to specify your field of study and last name in the subject line of the email (i.e. Resume: Electrical Engineering, Smith or Resume: Auto Industry, Jones.)
  

Now alumnae, here’s where you come in – we need your help! Join other alumnae in helping actives further their careers by giving some of your time to review one or more resumes. We need alumnae from all backgrounds!

If you’re interested in volunteering, here’s what you do:

• Email Resumaniaalum@yahoo.com to sign up.
• Include your work experience and your degree in your email. This helps with matching the actives’ resumes with similar fields of interest.
  

Now, to recap:

5th Annual Phi Sigma Rho Fall Resumania:
September 14 to October 4, 2009

Actives: Email Resumaniaactive@yahoo.com with your resume and information.
Alumnae: Email Resumaniaalum@yahoo.com to volunteer to review resumes.

If you have any questions, please contact our Resumania Director, Carol Anderson, at Resumania@PhiSigmaRho.org.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Going for Gold - Looking at the next 25 years! (Continued)

Back in June, we asked you all for feedback on what you wanted to see in the next 25 years. We got some great comments on the blog and wanted to add to them with what we heard at Convention. Here are the great ideas people had posted in the Phi Rho Lounge:

• Conferences in all regions
• More communication between chapters
• Everything Bigger & Better
• More support for actives from alumnae
• Greater alumnae participation
• Make Phi Sigma Rho more nationally known - a household name!

In about 1 month we celebrate that 25th anniversary, let's spend the next month talking more about what you want to see in the future! Continue to add your ideas to the comments section of the blog and we'll have a lot to document next month and use to build ideas for the next 25 years!

Convention 2009 Thoughts

We had a lot of ideas come in from our "Thought Bag" at Convention last month and wanted to share a few with you all since we didn't have time to discuss it.

• Can we incorporate what research Phi Rhos are involved in into convention/conference? More professional speakers in engineering to know what they do and how they got there, as well as entrepeneuriship. -Great idea! As we continue to grow our programming at national meetings, it is a goal to get a technical side of things going like presentations from alum in cool jobs, discussion groups, etc. Let us know if you have any ideas on what you'd like to see!
• Dinner on the first night instead of karaoke, people were too tired - make it when people don't want to find food. -We're constantly trying to find the right balance of when to do programming and when to do social activities and cannot provide food for all meals without increasing the registration costs, so there are a lot of factors that go into the schedule. We had expected with a 6:30 start time, people would eat beforehand and the snacks would be enough, and we'll keep this in mind for next time.
• Alumnae activity ideas: Talks about child rearing & balance between raising kids and having jobs, motivational speakers as well. -As we continue to grow our programming for alumnae at national meetings, we will add things such as this, especially if we can get attendance from the right demographic for those workshops.

Thank you all for taking the time provide feedback, these were just a few we saw!

That doesn't mean the discussions are closed, we want you to continue to be giving us feedback and using this blog as a forum for it. Feel free to email us or add comments to this blog with any other thoughts about Convention, PSR, etc!

Building a Successful Foundation

Did you all hear the excitement from convention on the Foundation raising $10,000 in one weekend? Check it out - from Iceburgh drawing our thermometer on Thursday to Christine Jackson announcing reaching the goal at the banquet on Saturday!
The Phi Sigma Rho Foundation has been doing a great job in supporting the professional, educational, philanthropic, and leadership development opportunities of the sorority. In 2009, they have provided support primarily for LEAP workshops and the LEAP Series at Convention 2009 on top of their yearly scholarship.

So what kind of things will that $10,000 go towards? While staying in the range of the areas the Foundation is allowed to donate to, the sorority will continue to ask for support for LEAP events. This not only includes visits to chapter and the LEAP Series at national conventions and leadership conferences for both actives and alumnae, but future LEAP events at regional conferences. The Foundation can also support Regional Field Director visits for educational presentations to chapters and many more scholarships for our members!

With your support of the Foundation, the possibilities for Phi Sigma Rho sisters are endless and we can continue to build the future! So a huge *THANK YOU!!!* to the Foundation donors and the Foundation for a wonderful job in just a few short years!

For additional information on the Foundation, please visit: http://www.phisigmarho.org/Foundation/

Website Updates

Just an FYI for you all - our wonderful webmaster, Elishka, is making some updates to our website to get new information posted and clean things up a bit. If you have any problems with the links, have patience and all will be working again soon!