SAI welcomed our mothers to a day in the music building!
Sisters, Thursday, July 23rd It’s hard to believe that I am writing you from convention. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to make it due to various jobs and such, but after some last minute rearranging and shifting of schedules, I am here! These last two days have been such an amazing experience and I am so beyond proud to be an SAI! Our first day was spent traveling to St. Louis, MO. When we arrived we completed the registration process, went to a voting orientation, did a little shopping and ate dinner almost immediately. The voting orientation was limited to the delegates of each chapter as well as Province Officers, Regional Officers, and the National Executive Board (NEB). Nothing super exciting happened at the delegate orientation, but it was interesting to finally be able to connect names with faces of the NEB. It’s definitely kind of crazy to see the NEB as actual people after talking to them only by email for so long. It’s still an amazing experience to finally meet someone you look up to but only know by email correspondence or from MIT class! This experience sparked a desire to one day be on the NEB myself, and that goal both excites and terrifies me! After the orientation, we did a little shopping at the whistle shop. This was amazing because there are soooooooooooo many cute SAI things, but it was terrible because I could EASILY go broke in there. (I didn’t though! Having a bank balance of $0.01 isn’t broke, right? ;) ) After all of this plus dinner, we had a ritual. The NEB was performing an installation of a new chapter in the Chicago area. It was so neat to witness the entire NEB perform our ritual. It was a beautiful ceremony and I will never forget joining hands with the 586 SAI members in attendance and singing the chorale. I got MAJOR Goosebumps, and I’m not moved easily. As someone who was initiated just over a year ago, finally experiencing this sisterhood at a national level was remarkable and indescribable. I am so beyond excited for the chapter that was installed at national convention. Honestly, though, how cool would it be to have your initiation at convention? I’m sure it was nerve-wracking, but that had to have been one of the coolest things the initiates had ever experienced. The evening wrapped up with a convention-wide reception. The fraternity brought in a Dance Band and some cookies with lemonade, and there were some very happy sisters! There were sisters with decades separating them doing “The Hokey Pokey” and “The Chicken Dance.” There was also a conga line that many members of the NEB partook in! All in all, the first night of convention was an amazing experience, and I couldn’t be more excited that I was able to attend! I think the most amazing thing at convention so far is that no one truly cares where you came from (in a good way). What matters here is that we are all bonded through music and ritual and are, at the end of the day, sisters. Friday, July 24th Today has been a long but very informative day! We started early in the morning (Anything before noon is early. I am NOT a morning person) with a formal meeting/general session. Everyone in attendance gathered in a big ballroom to discuss fraternity business. I won’t say much of what we discussed, as we will discuss this in our meetings this fall, but there are a few things I wanted to mention. A member of the NEB presented some numbers that I though was really interesting. 50 years ago, SAI had 19 provinces across the country with about 18,000 members. Today, we have 63 provinces with about 122, 504 members. This is substantial growth, and we are currently the largest music fraternity in the USA. National President Leslie Odom Miller talked about the three things that truly bring us together: music, ritual, and sisterhood. Our individual love of music is what ties us together. Though words have changed subtly, the underlying theme of our ritual has not changed in more than a century. This means that someone who initiated in 2015 can talk to a woman initiated in 1959 and speak of the same ritual experience. Madame President used an analogy I fell in love with; SAI is like the ground bass in music. The basic foundation rarely changes throughout many variants in the melodies. This theme truly came out during our second general session. The keynote speaker of the session walked around the room asking various members to describe a time in their life when they truly felt loved and support through SAI. An individual spoke up about how they had started transitioning within the last year. They were initiated as a collegiate member before beginning the transition process. After they started this process, the NEB worked with him to grant him a Friend of the Arts membership. It was really awesome to see the other sisters in the room stand and applaud in support of this man. At that moment it did not matter whether you personally agree with LGBT rights or not. It made me extremely proud to be a part of an organization that supports its members to the bitter end. At that moment in time, what mattered most was supporting another member of SAI, and it was just a beautiful moment for everyone in the room. The other portions of the general sessions were spent talking about various aspects of voting at convention and ritual. I learned a ton about ritual in the brief time the NVPR spoke, and I will definitely be presenting that information at meetings this fall! In between the two sessions, there was a delicious luncheon. Fort Wayne’s own Ginny Johnson is this convention’s honoree. She spoke about her experience as former National President, what she’s accomplished in her years as an SAI, and about leadership in SAI. Ginny is a joy to talk or listen to on any occasion, so it was inspiring to see her lecturing and in president mode! Zeta Psi is lucky to have her as an advisor and as a friend, and I could not feel more blessed to know such an amazing woman! The day concluded with a beautiful choral concert featuring winning selections from the Inter-American Music Awards sponsored by SAI and SAI philanthropies, Inc.
Overall, I am LOVING my time here at convention. I was super nervous coming into this as I do not know many people outside of our chapter and province, but everyone is so beyond welcoming. I am so excited to attend workshops about leadership in SAI as well as others starting tomorrow! If you’re a member of SAI, I encourage you do everything in your power to attend a convention. It really brings the meaning of sisterhood to light and truly illustrates how connected we are as an organization. It’s easy to feel like sisterhood extends only as far as your chapter or, if you’re lucky, your province, but has truly shown me how much SAI means to so many. After all, SAI is a lifelong journey aiding you as you commit yourself to a lifetime of excellence in everything but especially excellence in music. Love and Roses, Megan Misner |
Chapter BlogThe chapter officers will post various updates about chapter events and happenings throughout the year!
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