“True Life: Our Chapter is Hosting District Convention”

It is unsurprisingly normal on the University Florida campus, just days before the 2010 Southeast District Convention kicks off. Unbeknownst to most of the students here, there will be over 800 Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma members on their campus the next coming weekend. That weekend, April 9th-11th, will be one of the busiest this Spring semester at the University of Florida. With the Orange and Blue Debut spring football game, the annual Dance Marathon benefiting the Children’s Miracle Network, in addition to the SED Convention, there will be plenty of hustle and bustle on what is usually a calm campus on the weekends. The University of Florida is no stranger to hosting conventions and conferences. But the Beta Xi Chapter of Tau Beta Sigma and the Alpha Eta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi have been working for an entire year on what is, in retrospect, just a speck on the long list of university events.

“[It’s like] turning in a senior thesis that 1000 people get to read. Work on it for better or worse…I’ll just be happy to turn it in,” says Andrew Schrager, Beta Xi convention coordinator, offering up an analogy for what his experience has been like. Schrager, as he prefers to go by, has been an active Sister since Fall 2006 and was immediately thrown into responsibility when he was elected as the chapter’s 1st Vice President of Service in Spring 2007 after another Sister stepped down. He served in the position for a year and half, making sure that the Beta Xi chapter was going above and beyond with regard to service. Schrager is no stranger to service as he is also an Eagle Scout. The history major, graduating this May, and headed to Florida A&M University for law school in the coming Fall loves service and prides himself on dedication. Strong-willed as he is(and a great dresser), it was no surprise that Schrager stepped up to submit the bid for hosting the 2010 Convention. “I didn’t anticipate us getting the bid since our DLC bid fell through,” he said. Schrager was also chair of the committee that put together the bid for District Leadership Conference. “There were some other really good bids for SED convention…[but] I felt excited about winning the bid, but I also had a knot it my stomach.”

And so it began.

About a month after the 2009 SED Convention at the University of South Carolina, Schrager and Taylor Sawyer, the Alpha Eta convention coordinator, divvied up the responsibilities and started reserving rooms. Schrager said that he wanted to showcase the University of Florida campus to the Southeast District and change convention to make it better for attendees. He was also concerned with space and wanted everyone to have adequate space to put on a successful convention without having to do too much walking. He envisioned the district convention resembling ComiCon, but he soon realized that getting what he wanted would be no easy task. “District convention is not [chapters at] a university putting on a convention. It’s the Southeast District Convention at the university…the university’s chapters do not get much say in what is going on.” In the beginning, Schrager thought that he would be more involved in the actual convention, hoping to make changes in the scheduling and business. He was quickly informed that this wouldn’t be the case. In addition, he found it to be frustrating, having to deal with so many people who aren’t always on the same page. “It can be difficult to coordinate between your chapter, your brother chapter, the district, and the university.” The chapters and the district may want one thing, while the university may have something else in mind. As a result, Schrager has elected to take on most of the responsibility as he as found it difficult for too many people to be involved in the coordination process. “It’s hard to keep everyone on the same page. The chapter’s role is primarily to raise funds.” It’s been a bureaucratic process, he says of dealing with the university. There is no one centralized person to talk to and each facility has its own coordinator. The Center for Student Activities and Involvement wants to be more hands on than they should be. And simple requests require hours of talking and negotiating with several different departments.

Despite the ups and downs, he anticipates a decent convention. They’ve tried to make it as cost efficient as possible, with better budgeting, generously sized hotel blocks, and just simply understanding the financial situations of others. The registration fee is only $25. In addition, they’ve brought back the reading band, for which over 200 Brothers and Sisters have signed up. “Everyone has the space they need and this is the cheapest convention in years, and as a result, more people can attend,” Schrager said of this year’s convention. While prepared, he does not expect next weekend to come without its bumps. “When you’re planning such a massive event, the minute details can be overlooked and cause a bump in the road down the line.” He laughs. “So nothing will go [exactly] smoothly.” He also mentioned that you have to prepare for extremes.

While Brothers and Sisters outside of Gainesville excitedly await the coming of convention, Schrager can’t say that he won’t be relieved when it’s all over. He’d like to relax and enjoy the time before he graduates. As the interview comes to a close, I ask Schrager if he has any advice for chapters looking to submit a bid to host convention in the future. He suggests that chapters reserve rooms early, even before they submit the bid, to ensure that they will have all the space they need, and to understand that hosting convention does not mean planning convention. “All the chapters could pitch in,” he says with a smile, “and we could build a facility with everything we need in a central location and just host convention there every year. It’d be like having our own Stillwater, Oklahoma in the SED with all the convention space we would ever need!” I laugh with him as we both anxiously away the looming 2010 Southeast District Convention.