Stead Leadership Seminar, Central: Day One Recap [VIDEO]
Pictures courtesy of Walt Moser (University of Central Missouri, Lambda-Pi)
Stead Leadership Seminar, Central, the first of three, has officially begun.
As undergraduates slowly trickled onto Vanderbilt’s campus, staff was hard at work adding final touches to ensure a perfect conference.
Attendees arrived from all different parts of the country and Canada, eager to learn best leadership practices, including such things as recruitment tricks and officer transitions.
“Right now our chapter is struggling with recruitment and every year there are less and less people going through recruitment,” said Neil Van Marter, Sigma-Epsilon (University of Montevallo). “So hopefully throughout Stead I can learn new techniques and ways to manage recruitment and get as many guys as we can to go through recruitment.”
“I am a senior so it will be nice to come back and be able to tell some of the younger brothers, ‘This is the direction our chapter is heading’, and hopefully I can bring back and kind of guide them along,” said Robert Loechler, Kappa-Phi (Baldwin Wallace University).
Following registration, undergraduates were greeted in the official conference kickoff by CEO Bill Farkas, followed by other speakers.
Farkas challenged brothers to use their time wisely and seek opportunities to learn and provide for their chapters.
“It’s [Stead 2017] impactful on three fronts: it’s impactful for you as an individual, or can be impactful for you as an individual; it’s impactful for your chapter, and it’s impactful for your campus community, because you are going to learn things that you are going to be able to take back and implement and help Lambda Chi Alpha be a better fraternity,” said Farkas.
Farkas was followed by Vanderbilt’s Associate Provost and Dean of Students, Mark Bandas, who explained the importance of leaders throughout the Greek world and community.
“This is a really wonderful opportunity for you in a couple of ways: relationship building and learning,” said Bandas. “Great leaders understand that leadership is all about relationship building and great leaders are lifelong learners; you have an opportunity this weekend to build relationships with students across the country and to learn from each other.”
Finally, the kickoff concluded with a charge issued by Grand High Pi, Jeff Stuerman, with two key points: asking for help and providing it for those who ask, and meeting new people.
Attendees were then able to start their learning process by attending small group sessions.
The first night concluded with a rousing talk from alumnus Peter Yobo, who left brothers with these final thoughts: “Take life by the horns, take action. It’s not enough to just show up to the leadership conference, it’s not enough to just show up on campus and be a part of the fraternity, it’s not enough to just do that; Take action, be bold and begin to paint a bigger picture than just being a participant. Find a role where you can bring people along, direct them, and be a leader.”
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