Much to my surprise, the weekend went in a very different direction. We all loaded up onto the bus Friday afternoon and it seemed for the most part people sat near others they had already known, myself included. We made the drive from Moscow to Post Falls in about 2 and a half hours due to the long way and road conditions. Once at the hotel we sat down for dinner and broke into conversation with our tables, which went rather smoothly and resulted in my meeting of 7 other house leaders that seemed to share my initial concerns. Then the ice breakers and team building came. Again to my surprise everyone seemed to enjoy participating and looked to be having a good time all the while meeting tons of new people within our Greek System. By the time the night had closed for official business I felt like I had become an accepted member of the social group for the weekend, and that almost everyone appeared to have felt included within the group. I didn't see ANY of the elementary school exclusion for silly biases and differences, which in itself left me with a great pride for being a part of our Greek community and an enormous respect for the Greek leaders I was with. I ended out Friday night with a conversation with my roommate about where we wanted to see our Greek system go. We agreed that we wanted better participation and enthusiasm for philanthropies, a better brotherhood and sisterhood between houses - not just within, more Ladies and Gentlemen rather than the alternative, and all around better people from our Greek community. I went to bed with ambitious thoughts in my head.
View from the hotel room Saturday Morning
Saturday morning appeared after a restless night of sleep, however the journey from bed to shower to breakfast passed quickly. We were instructed to sit with people we hadn't met yet. The morning went by with discussion from all the houses on campus about how the 'Relationship Agreement' (agreement between university and Greeks in regards to behavior and safety) was to be interpreted and what we thought about it. The Dean of Students had a guest presentation that was motivating and realistic at the same time. Lunch, more new people and similar conversations. Risk awareness and alcohol goggles presentation from two cool officers, really put in perspective how much the police are on our side, and not against us as many of my age group would like to believe. They talked safety and strategy, and we even got to watch a very depressing video about alcohol poisoning and death. IFC and Panhellinic meetings happened next and we shared strategies on improving academic success between chapters, because 'were all in this together.' Team bonding games, Poli Pro workshop, more discussions. Then we hit Sky High in Spokane and had a great time with our dodge ball tournament and that's when I really noticed that everyone was amazingly open to interaction with everyone else. It seemed like we had gotten to the point that we were genuinely acting as a community rather than as individual houses - something that I believe our Greek system can really benefit from.
Saturday night ended with some hysterical story telling and conversation in the hot tub and sauna with the other fraternity and IFC leaders. Lots of good times and some definite stories that I wont forget from that night! Sunday morning was a quick bit of goal setting for the entire Greek community, followed by ask our Greek Adviser "almost anything" as she put it. Got a few fun facts from her. Bus ride back to Moscow, most everyone slept, which I felt was warranted due to the effort we put in to make our Greek system better this weekend. Lets just hope everyone goes back and get their chapters as enthusiastic and excited about Greek life and their own chapters as I am. Otherwise, I fear the retreat may have only served to make us better leaders, not to better the Greek system overall.
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