Morning

It is almost time to leave for Boston. While we did not win School of the Year, did not win Mini No-Frills 2010, and NRHH did not win Chapter of the Year, people had a good time. Individually, Assistant Coordinator Butler won Student of the Year, and Distinguished Service Award went to President Cecil. Unfortunately, AVP Brown did not get First-Year Experience, and Coordinator Rose did not win National Communication Coordinator of the Year.

When we get back to campus our goal shifts from representing NU to the region to representing the region to NU. We saw and heard of Many amenities and services other institutions offer their residents that we do not have at Northeastern. Housing Services Committee will look at many of these ideas. On the programming side, we learned about what programs other institutions did which will help provide ideas to the Programming Committee. Speaking of Programming, many of us are going to The Elephant Walk this afternoon as part of the resturaunt week program RSA is running. Tonight is also Bill Nye "The Science Guy." Student tickets are just $3.00.

Almost End

The banquet starts in 12 minutes. We'll have the obligatory photos of everyone dressed up in black and red. I may not blog from the banquet, but look for news of winners later.

Banquet Next

Excepting our NCC, we are all at the Holiday Inn. At 6:45pm we're meeting for the banquet. NU RSA is going with institutional colors, so I'll get to break out my power red tie again...

Still Waiting...

We're all still holding out waiting for the NCC Boardroom to finish hearing Boston College, then do pro/con, debate, and vote on the bids for Mini No-Frills 2010. We had a nice chat about the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution. Some people are quasi-napping on tables.

Most of the blogging I've done has been via my iPhone, which sadly doesn't get a great battery life. However, in this room there is a computer which lets me type a lot faster.

In NCC Boardroom for us right now is Assistant Vice President Zach Mozes. He is in for National Communication Coordinator Savannah Rose because she was a part of the bid team for Mini No-Frills 2010.

Mini No-Frills 2010 Bids

We just finished presenting our Mini No-Frills 2010 bid about ten minutes ago to the NCC Boardroom. We're now in the "holding room" waiting for the other institutions to present their bids. We'll be heading back to the hotel after to get dressed up for the awards banquet. This is when we'll find out whether or not we on various awards or bids.

For Mini No-Frills 2010, it is the State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz) and Boston College (BC) bidding against us.

This conference was my first on a regional bid team, and I had the joy of being on two of them. While it was tough to work on two bids simultaneously and present back-to-back, I felt well prepared and felt that the leadership of our delegation (Coordinator Rose and Assistant Coordinator Butler) were prepared well as was everyone else.

The only downside to our bid times was we missed the spirit showdown, which will make it pretty hard for us to win a Spirit award. Also, the spirit showdown is fun. I think that compared to the last regional conference I attended (Mini No-Frills 2008 at SUNY Geneseo) there was a lot more opportunity to cheer. Nevertheless, the conference so far has been a fun experience. I just wish they had some coffee or energy drink around here, as staying up until 3:00 AM and waking back up at 7:00 AM, after having been up late and waking up early Wednesday and Thursday has led to me being a bit sleep deprived.

SOY Down, Minis 2010 Next

We just wrapped up our presentation for School of the Year. The overall presentation and Q&A went fairly well, but we don't know how well NYU did. The NCCs debate and then vote, and we find out at the banquet.

!!! As of 2:53 I have to stop blogging to go to present with the rest of the Minis 2010 bid team!!

Program Presentations

AVP Brown and I just finished up our program presentation of "Jelly beans about you." It seemed very well received, which made me as a first-time "active" program presenter happy and AVP Brown seemed happy too.

Advisor Cave made it to Fairfield around 10:10 AM. We also found out that our School of the Year bid was delayed until 12:30 PM with the Minis 2010 bid delayed until 3:00 PM. Hopefully, we'll have an update on the NRHH Chapter of the Year bid from someone -- it was planned for earlier this morning and might actually be going on right now.

AVP Brown and I are now in a computer lab classroom [hence why I am blogging now] that is home to a program about the relationship between RHAs and SGAs called "Coexisting with your Student Government Association? Is that Possible?" It is being presented by someone from Syracuse University and is of interest to both her and I as we both serve in leadership roles in RSA and Senators in Student Government at Northeastern.

Breakfast, Finding Boardroom, and Keynote

Breakfast this morning was in one of Fairfield University's dining halls. It was nice to see another school's facilities. They seem to use Sodexho for food service (whereas NU uses Chartwells, a part of Compass Group USA.) However, options were more limited than what you would see at Stetson Hall East on a Saturday morning.

Mallory Brown and I had the challenge of finding the School of Nursing building to bring important documents to Coordinator Rose at NCC boardroom.. It wasn't too hard thanks to the conference staff and volunteers. On the way over we saw some interesting battery and electronics recycling containers that could be useful at Northeastern. We also saw wild turkies. Luckilly, for them, turkey isn't on tonight's banquet menu.

We then headed to the keynote. It started with announcements for program changes and then Professor Lane took to stage.

Day 2

With part of the delegation already gone, the rest of us are meeting now to prepare to head over on the 8:20 shuttle so we can eat breakfast before the keynote speaker, Dr. Phil Lane, who is an Economics Professor at Fairfield and a Northeastern alum. Today is the big day. NRHH presents their Chapter of the Year bid today, and the bid teams for School of the Year and Mini No-Frills 2010 present today. Additionally, there are 4 program sessions and the NRHH and NCC board rooms will be finishing up business. Coordinator Rose and Kate Zasada represent us there, respectively. President Cecil will be in an RHA (Residence Hall Association, what many other schools call their residential programming/advocacy body) Presidents boardroom. This boardroom decides the winner of the First-Year experience award.

This morning we have to pass the spirit stick on, so I expect plenty of cheering. Also, later we will be joined by Advisor Cave.

Pre-bedtime Update

It's 2:33am and some of us are headed to bed, while other remain up. I'm going to bed now and waking up to leave the hotel for Fairfield at 7:40am. We did a lot of SOY practice and mapped out our day. AVP Brown and I present our program tomorrow in the first session. We are officially scheduled for 10:30am to present before the NCC boardroom, but due to a postponement of business we may be later. I'll try to post tomorrow when I can, but it is hard to do via iPhone with all the programs, bids, and cheering.

Spirit Stick and Practicing School of the Year Bid

"We've got spirit, yes we do! We've got spirit how 'bout you?"

The delegation, before heading back to the hotel enjoyed some improv comedy, cheering, and our first round of "ride the pony." Then, we got the Spirit Stick for the first time this conference. For those unaware, the Spirit Stick is a decorated pole that is passed off to different schools throughout the weekend every half hour or so. It is our hope to win "most spirited school" so we can take the spirit stick back to Boston with us.

Right now (12:21pm) we are practicing and revising our presentation for the School of the Year bid. Coordinator Rose and NRHH Treasurer Zasada are still in the NCC and NRHH boardrooms respectively.

Entertainment...

The delegation got to enjoy seeing Fairfeld's Vice President for Student Affairs, a NU RSA alumni from the 1990s, talk to NEACURH about leadership and his experience. He talked about his time in RSA at Northeastern and how it shaped him and helps him become a Student Affairs professional. We then enjoyed a dance crew and hypnotist. We're now partaking in Rockbad, Guitar Hero and karoke while the NCC and NRHH boardrooms run and we have representatives going to RHA Presidents and NRHH socials. We'll be leaving for our hotel around 11:30 to practice our School of the Year presentation for tomorrow.

In Bridgeport, CT

The delegation has arrived in Bridgeport, Connecticut. We are currently at the Holiday Inn. We'll soon be headed to Fairfield Umiversitu for opening and then the NCC and NRHH boardrooms will be taking place. We'll be wearing great pop rockin' shirts.

To Fairfield We Go...

This weekend a group of 11 RSA members are going to the NEACURH Mini No-Frills conference at Fairfield University in Commecticut. The delegation just left Boston and is currently en route on the Massachusetts Turnpike. I'll try to post some blog updates throughout the weekend from my iPhone.

Bids Up

Many members of the Resident Student Association have put hard work, late nights, and lots of dedication into writing a series of various Association-wide and individual bids for Regional Awards that will be announced at the upcoming North East Affiliate of College and University Residence Halls [NEACURH] conference at Fairfield University. Savannah Rose, the National Communication Coordinator for the Resident Student Association has posted Northeastern's bids online. You can download them and read about them here.

UPDATE: If you are looking for other institution's bids, they will be posted on the NEACURH website on Wednesday, March 11, 2009.