The Jade Times

By May “Mosaic” Advincula, Editor-in-chief

Wilma "Louvre" Miranda, Vice President of Records

Wilma “Louvre” Miranda is an alumna from the Charter class of the Epsilon Chapter at the University of Central Florida. In addition to being a freelance web and graphic designer, she serves as the Vice President of Records and Webmistress for National Board.

Miranda’s responsibilities involve the maintenance of sorority records including tracking a chapter’s performance through aspirations, managing sorority documents and history, and recording minutes of conference calls and meetings. As webmistress she maintains the national website and provides graphic and website assistance to chapters.

In this Q&A, Miranda speaks about her role in preserving sorority history and how she hopes to offer her skills and abilities to help the sorority continue to grow.

What inspired you to be involved with National Board?
“Being a charter, I’ve always had a strong drive to continually help the sorority grow and evolve to the best it can be. After graduating, I felt that joining National Board was the best way to stay involved. With my passion for graphic and web design, I offered my knowledge and skills to increase our sorority’s online presence by becoming the National Webmistress. After several years, I stepped up to the position of Vice President of Records to further the growth and mission of our sorority.”

What has helped prepare you to handle the responsibilities of your position?
“My experience for both positions goes hand in hand. Throughout my undergraduate years and since graduating, I’m constantly expanding my knowledge and improving myself. Being meticulous and organized with my work allows me to perform at my best. Also, working in various environments and with many types of people and personalities, both in college and the corporate world, has helped me to be a better leader, team player, and overall a better person.”

What do you find to be the most rewarding aspect of your position?
“Being able to share my knowledge, whether it be on a personal or professional level. Also, meeting and connecting with sisters throughout the country.”

What do you find to be most challenging aspect of your position?
“Documenting our history. Nowadays it’s easier to be able to keep track of events, documents, and other significant changes since we live in such a technologically advanced day and age where almost everything is available through just a click of a button.”

Who/What is your inspiration?
“All sisters, past and present, who have given and currently give their time and efforts towards continually building upon our sisterhood. The passion that we all share is what adds to my own passion to continue to do the work that I do.”

What do you hope to accomplish in your term?
“To archive and document important sorority history, on national and chapter levels, using an efficient and sustainable digital system through gathering research.”

What advice would you give sisters who aspire to be a part of NB one day?
“Keep educating yourself. Not just on an educational level, but also a personal level. With society constantly changing, there’s always something new to be learned. Every day offers a new learning experience that adds to the overall richness of life.”

By May “Mosaic” Advincula, Editor-in-chief

Lillie “Ivory” Madali is an alumna from the University of Georgia’s Iota class. She currently works as an Operations Coordinator at Endeavor Telecom in Atlanta and serves as the National Board Vice President of External Affairs.

As External Vice President, she is responsible for overseeing sorority endeavors in expansion, public relations and alumnae relations.

In this Q&A, Madali discusses how being involved with National Board allows her to use her previous experience to help the sorority continue to progress.

-What inspired you to be involved with National Board?
“When I graduated, I wanted to give back to the community in a creative way, and I wanted to work to find a job that I loved. The position of VP External was perfect for me. I am allowed to create publications and form marketing plans any way I wish. It’s my dream occupation.”

-What has helped prepare you to handle the responsibilities of your position?
“Having a positive attitude, a strong work ethic and a will to keep moving forward all help me handle
my day-to-day responsibilities and keep me going in the long term. Experiences from working as a
Marketing Assistant for various nonprofits and my present work help me approach my work with a new perspective. I read a lot of books and blogs about nonprofit marketing to keep us up-to-date and effective.”

-What do you find to be the most rewarding aspect of your position?
“I love that I get to volunteer in a capacity where I’m skilled and have the ability to make creative decisions. I love that I get to work for a values-based organization that serves to empower women. I also love that I get to work with my sisters.”

-What do you find to be most challenging aspect of your position?
“Finding the time to balance everything. I still hold a full-time position in addition to [my position on NB]. Balancing my family and work in addition to my sorority position can make life difficult to manage, but everything is worth it.”

-Who/What is your inspiration?
“I have a lot of inspirations: movies, I watch a lot of biopics. I also love looking at art and new experiences like traveling to new places. I am writing from Australia right now and I love the culture, it’s very laid-back and everything is just new to me.”

-What do you hope to accomplish in your term?
“To build a community of supporters for the sorority (alumnae, undergraduates and interests) by increasing awareness of our mission and current events through creating avenues for listening and keeping in touch through print/digital/mobile media, by Convention 2011.”

-What advice would you give sisters who aspire to be a part of NB one day?
“I find that the sisters that contribute the most to the board are those that are able to bring with them great life and work experiences. These experiences help us confront new situations and develop our existing programming. A lot of the things we do are works in progress; we feed off each others’ feedback and discussion. Being on National Board is a very rewarding experience because you get to take part in helping the sorority grow and as a result, we are getting noticed by many different people and recognizing our sorority for the things that we did. We need sisters to continue to give back and let us learn from their experiences to continue to expand and develop.”

Annual Report:

The 2009-2010 Annual Report is available for viewing online. Click to view a report on Aspirations, a finance report and more!

AFA Annual Meeting
The National Executive Board is making plans to attend the Association of Fraternity & Sorority Advisors Annual Meeting. which will be held December 1-5 at the downtown Sheraton Phoenix. The NAPA retreat will be held on the Saturday of AFA’s Annual Meeting. If anyone will be in that area, please let us know so we can meet to celebrate Founder’s Day!

Questions?
With the start of the new school year, the national board has been bombarded by questions. Sisters, please use the following as a guide so you know who to direct your questions to.

national@deltaphilambda.org
- General inquiries

vp.internal@deltaphilambda.org
- AME questions

vp.external@deltaphilambda.org
- Expansion questions
- Marketing committee
- Delta Phi Lambda Foundation interests

vp.finance@deltaphilambda.org
- Dues questions
- Insurance questions

vp.records@deltaphilambda.org
- Aspirations questions
- Nickname/Class Names

midwest.governor@deltaphilambda.org
- OM Questions

mission@deltaphilambda.org
- 3 C’s Questions
- BFF Questions

alumnae@deltaphilambda.org
- Alumnae involvement

newsletter@deltaphilambda.org
- Getting involved with the newsletter
- Making an announcement

By Lillie “Ivory” Madali, Vice President of External Affairs

The last weekend of July marked the annual retreat for the National Executive Board. Facilitated by Maria Iglesia, Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life at University of California, Berkeley, the board members worked on leadership development, team building and planning for the upcoming year.

“It was such a treat and joy to be surrounded by such dedicated sisters. I love volunteering and contributing my knowledge, skills, talents and strengths back to the sorority that gave me so much!” Iglesia said.

Board members left the retreat feeling refreshed and invigorated with new ideas and big plans for the new year.

Every executive board member created a goal for the upcoming year:

Hannah Seoh, President
To ensure longevity and sustainability of Delta Phi Lambda by implementing a five-year strategic plan that promotes the mission and vision of the sorority by convention 2011.

Victoria Huynh, Vice President of Internal Affairs
To develop a standard annual summer leadership retreat for the purpose of fostering national solidarity and providing effective leadership skills to all chapter executive board members for implementation Summer 2011.

Lillie Madali, Vice President of External Affairs
To build a community of supporters for the sorority (alumnae, undergraduates and interests) by increasing awareness of our mission and current events through creating avenues for listening and keeping in touch through print/digital/mobile media, by Convention 2011.

Alison Kao, Vice President of Finance
To provide a sustainable national treasury by restructuring chapter dues and the national budget to increase reserves for emergencies and strategic initiatives, and ensure longevity of the national account’s ability to support the organization by May 2011.

Wilma Miranda, Vice President of Records
To archive and document important sorority history, on national and chapter levels, using an efficient and sustainable digital system through gathering research by Convention 2011.

National board members utilize strategic planning method, SWOT to identify (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats)

The board also performed a SWOT analysis of the sorority’s programs. Following that analysis, they collaborated to unite under one SMART goal for the year:

To increase alumnae involvement to 100 alumnae volunteers, through encouraging participation in a committee and dues payment, through increasing communication, awareness and opportunities to be involved by Convention 2011.

This year, Alyssa Soluren, alumnae director, also had the opportunity to come to the retreat.

“At retreat, I was given the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the executive board in terms of their past and current projects, personalities and leadership styles. I believe this retreat both reunited and rejuvenated all attendees and gave us the opportunity to get to know each other a little bit better. For me, this experience was enlightening and educational, and I am grateful to have been a part of this positive experience,” Soluren said.

For additional information or to register for the event, please click here

New policy on unrecognized organizations

National Board has released a new policy on unrecognized groups in response to recent incidents and concerns from University officials about unrecognized or “underground” groups on their campuses.  These groups not only disregard University procedures and policies, but have blatant disregard for the fact that is it an organization’s privilege, not a right, to be present on a campus.  Unrecognized groups are a liability not only to themselves and the school, but also to others that associate with them.  We encourage all chapters to talk with their Fraternity and Sorority Life Advisors to find out which groups are recognized by their University.
 
National dues restructured
 
Due to termination of our current insurance policy, National Board has been shopping around for a new insurance carrier.  The best rate we have found was almost a 200% increase in our current insurance expense.  Because of this, National Board has researched other organizations’ dues structures to come up with the most equitable plan based on our current chapter and membership size.  Because of this, many chapters will see a large increase in the amount of their dues required by their chapter; however, by raising each member’s chapters dues, we believe each chapter will be able to sufficiently cover the costs required of them.  We would like to remind all sisters that fraternal organizations operate chiefly with money raised by member dues.  Any questions can be directed to vp.finance@deltaphilambda.org.

Association of Fraternity & Sorority Advisors (AFA) Annual Meeting boycott
 
Many discussions are taking place currently among the AFA members because the Annual Meeting is slated for Phoenix, Ariz. this December.  This Annual Meeting is the primary professional development for officers of Delta Phi Lambda and many other University and organization’s headquarters staff.  Because of backlash against Arizona SB 1070, many organizations are calling for AFA to move their meeting and even stated that they will not be sending any members to Phoenix.  Alpha Phi Alpha has moved their convention to Las Vegas.  Sigma Lambda Beta, Lambda Theta Phi and Iota Phi Alpha will not be sending members to Phoenix.  The National APIA Panhellenic Association (NAPA) is currently in talks about whether we too should release such a statement.  Please send any comments or concerns you have about Arizona SB 1070 to national@deltaphilambda.org.

Elections Results

National Board would like to announce this year’s 2010-2011 National Board Executive and Chair Members. Please congratulate our new or returning National Board members.

President (2009-2011): Hannah Seoh

Vice President of Internal Affairs (2009-2011): Victoria Huynh

Vice President of External Affairs (2009-2011): Lillie Madali

Vice President of Finance (2010-2012): Alison Kao

Vice President of Records (2010-2012): Wilma Miranda

Midwest Governor (2010-2011): Jennifer Chui

Southeast Governor (2010-2011): Open for appointment

Mission Coordinator (2010-2011): Amanda Supratanapongse

Alumnae Director (2010-2011): Alyssa Soluren

Webmistress (2010-2011): Wilma Miranda

Affiliate Member Coordinator (2010-2011): Open for appointment

On February 5th, a letter from Delta Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc. National President, Hannah Seoh was featured on the Phired Up Recruiment blog in “I Heart Recruitment & Delta Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc.”

“Phired Up Productions often delivers custom social excellence, recruitment, and/or organizational growth programming to culturally based fraternal organizations. We recently received this note from Delta Phi Lambda Sorority, Inc., and thought it was a powerful testimonial – but more importantly – Ms. Seoh has a powerful message about what values-based recruitment looks like and how it can work.

“I first came across the book I Heart Recruitment in 2008.  Thinking that the book was written for Panhellenic Recruitment and also realizing that I (and most of my sisters) LOVE SPAM, it took a comfortable seat on the top shelf of my bookcase. After meeting Colleen, one of the authors, at the Western Region Greek Association Conference, I was touched by her bubbly nature and enthusiasm for the book’s premise of values-based recruitment and was hooked.  I felt compelled to read it.  After reading I Heart Recruitment, I realized that the ideas and principles that it discusses can be applied to any organization whether they are Panhellenic or culturally based.

I excitedly emailed my Executive Board some ideas taken from the book and several of them read it as well.  The idea of year long recruitment really struck a chord with us, and led us to reassess and revise our educational process and our recruitment policies. 
We decided to implement a recruitment workshop for all of our chapters in the summer of 2009.  In it we explained what a values-based recruitment process looks like – that the idea of “if you build it they will come,” does not always work to your advantage.  Recruitment means that you identify the campus leaders that you want in your organization and actively recruit them to join.  Key factors to look for in a potential member should be aligned with our seven virtues.

After implementation of the workshop we saw a 56% increase in our recruitment class from Spring 2009 to Fall 2009. 

Being a young organization that is run entirely on a volunteer basis we are constantly looking for ideas and ways to improve upon our policies without reinventing the wheel.  We are very grateful to Colleen and Jessica for having written this book and spreading their wealth of knowledge.  It has definitely been a valuable investment for us and we will continue to educate our chapters on the dynamic recruitment described in this book.”