Summer Book Club

Hear ye! Hear ye! Come check out Beta Theta Kappa's book blogspot for the summer. by consensus of the officers, Soul of a Citizen was selected for our summertime reading. What is a social activist? Why do so many of them lose heart and give up? How can one maintain their passion for a cause and make a difference? This book addresses those issues as well as some of the little known historical facts of citizen activism. Every week following beginning on Monday, July 13, 2009 I will post a blog for two of the chapters that's being covered. Over the course of that week, as you finish the chapters, go to the blog and just comment addressing any questions that I posed in the blog and responding to anyone else's comments. We want to create an atmosphere where people feel free to speak their mind but also where people may not always agree. So of course be nice and friendly and respect people and their opinions. And above all, enjoy!

Leadership Summit 09

The Leadership Summit

I have to admit I did not know what to expect at 8 am on Monday the week after finals. I thought I was in for another boring week of school. Instead, we started each morning by getting out of our seats and jamming through a team builder.

Although Tony and I were the only "club members" present, we weren't alone. Corinna and Eric were also present, but for different reasons. The AS officers and domestic and international orientation leaders also made quite a showing.

The main subject of the summit was of course: Leadership! We discussed ways of coping with conflict, talked about different styles of leadership (i.e. analytical, amiable, driver, etc.), and other things like understanding cross-cultural differences in communication. Who would have thought there are polite and indirect ways to say anything?

All four 9-hour days flew by. The lunches were great (they even had pizza on Thursday), the people were nice, and I made a bunch of new friends. It was a very successful week; well worth the early morning, of the first week, of summer break. That says a lot.

Silver Dollar Fair, Chico

Six days of fun is almost too much. I worked with other Phi Theta Kappa members to support the Kiwanis Club in parking cars for the Silver Dollar Fair from Wednesday through the following Monday. I know that "parking cars" sounds like a valet service, and while it would have been totally cool to do that (but even my insurance wouldn't cover it), what we really did was use flags to show the drivers where to park their cars. Did you know there are several tricks to it? First, every time you point your flag, you need to immediately twirl the stick in the palm of your hand - otherwise, the flag twists around the stick and you spend a lot of time undoing your flag. Then there is a real system to parking cars, from eyeballing the size of the vehicle to deciding which side of the row they will go. After you have filled the initial parking lot, it becomes necessary for someone to run between rows (about a dozen of them) to see if anyone has left and if there are additional spots available before you send them to "the back forty", a large grassy area where they usually end up parking completely haphazardly. By the end of the day, however, we became pros and even were able to graduate to two flags - and then the fun really started. We had those who danced their way down the rows with their flags, those who saluted the fair personnel and security with their flags, and those who used their flags to emphasize their emotions (have you ever seen a disgruntled flag wave because a driver refused to go where he was supposed to?). Of course, getting in free to the fair during our breaks was just an added bonus!

A Fallen Angel and her Father Confessor

Who knew that our Sustainability Coordinator, Corinna Breitinger, is a Fallen Angel??? But no worries; she is in good hands with the Saintly Friar Roger, who is here making his final appearance on our blog. If anyone can bring her around, no doubt it is he. Yes, he is retiring at the end of this month (doubtless to join his fellow monks at the monastery in Vina where he'll finally be free from all worldy temptations!), but he'll do his best to reform her before he departs.

(In case you are wondering, this photo was taken at Roger's house. The Honors class was invited for a final potluck--or was it a potluck in lieu of a final?--where everyone was encouraged to dress as his or her favorite character from the readings this semester. Roger, method-acting well outside his usual personna, came as the lascivious friar from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Corinna came as Abdiel, the ultimately repentent fallen angel in Milton's Paradise Lost.) Looks like John Milton was right: "The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n."

You CAN, We CAN, Butte CAN

One big shout out to Leo for coordinating the ‘You CAN, We CAN, Butte CAN’ can food drive this year, and a special thanks to all who helped with the event.
The prize winners are as follows.

Most Colorful: Cultures and Civilizations

Most Creative: Phi Theta Kappa (boo-ya!)

Most Cans: Applied Sciences Club

Cans will be continued to be collected till the very end of classes, so keep an eye out for any floating cans.
Our totals for this year’s can food drive (up until judging) were 517! We want to try and reach 1,000 cans so keep on collecting! Pass the word on guys!