Last time we left you, it was midnight-ish on Thursday Night...
... Trevor was typing and on his way to his "Haida bed"!!
... Kate and Ella were discussing wake-up times
... and somewhere in the universe at the headquarters for thermodynamic balance and fair fate equity, officers Yin and Yang were asleep on the job...
We arose the next morning, got ourselves together, and had a quick breakfast at the hotel, starbucks across the street*(1) and found our way to OSU campus, Kate at the wheel, and navagator extraordinaire Ella at her side.
As we finished parking in the unfinished (thunderbird sized) parkade, we met up with the two delegates from Lewis & Clark, and walked together to the Memorial Union Building. There, we were greeting by gracious and cordial hosts and registration team. Two books, $7 meal card, and a couple cute Beavers paraphernalia.
After catered cookies and tea, we sat near the front and made small talk with a couple nearby sitters. Kate actually met her sister's hall director from Univ. of Portland: Katie Dewilde. It was then, that our host host David took the time to recognise certain people in the crowd.
Although we did NOT receive the honour of "Furthest Away" we DID get recognised for being the three who made the (oregon designed) conference "truly an international affair". Hehe. We got OSU UHDS tshirts.
Our first workshop was on Ethics.
"Professional Eithics and Ethical Leadership" presented by Larry Roper, Vice Provost Student Affairs.
Great material, discussion, and relevent subject matter for a room filled with new professionals.
Larry was a great facilitator and obviously very experienced in student affairs. The greatest thing I probably took away from Larry was "they hire you because you have values... they Don't hire you to apply your values. They hire you to apply Thiers!"
Next we actually did a workshop on Networking (not quite the same as yours, Jo, but awesome still - considering the target audience was about 8 years older on average.)
"Networking in Student Affairs" presented by Dr. *(2) Jackie Balzer, Dean of Student Life.
It was great to consider all the ways in which we can use our connexions to develop ourselves, support our staff, and serve our students. And also how to expand our careers. In the end, I think what I took away from it the most would be "Student Affairs community is small... and we are all great people" Too true, Jackie, TOO true. As we would soon discover, this workshop would prove to be the MOST relevant on our trip :).
Lunch was great fun. Went to their Marketplace West (like our pacific spirit at the SUB). Mexican Cuisine was our outlet of choice. And icecream to follow for myself. It was great to talk to others about thier programme, student engagement/involvement (eg. athletics and rec, rha, etc). Also to get an appreciation for the different systems, and values.
Our last workshop of the day was focused on academic success.
"Learning Rediscovered" presented by Tom Scheuermann, Director UHDS.
Although an absolutely thorough analysis of a text used in the field, having not read it (i.e. most everybody in the room) it was a little hard to follow along. Advanced Stuff! Yet, I am confident that we all learned (lol) a lot notwithstanding. It will be huge beneficial to go back over the material in the coming weeks to review it, and maybe design possible applications.
At the end of the conference, the hosts shared with us the NWACUHO website, and all the resources available to us all as members. I will be browsing in the very near future.
At that point, the OSU folks made a point to invite us out for dinner and karaoke for the evening, which we gladly accepted, requesting only that we had a few hours of downtime first.
Josh then was kind enough to offer us a campus tour when I asked if we were able to see a residence hall. We walked around quite a bit, and I have lots of photos which I will post on Flickr presently. We also got to see the administration building, and their "prc"-like area. RHA offices, study lounges, etc.
Then we hit up the bookstore. You'll see what that was like soon enough I am sure... depending on who you are reading this. LOADS of Beavers merchandise, and colours wear for the many football fans.*(3)
Back at the Hotel, we used our hour long "nap time" mostly to debrief amongst ourselves, share reflection, and theorise a little bit about our own programme at UBC. Some things brought up: Prof office hours in commons? Applying for grad schools. Relationships and implicit/explicit expectations on staff. FNPP's re: alcohol, re: age, re: sports events... and much more I am sure.
Off to McGrath's Seafood Restaurant for dinner. Lots of fun. Did I mention how great the local oregonian micro-brews are? Well: quite good. That's right Canada, americans CAN brew good beer.
Great conversations and all that jazz over dinner. Makes you shake your head and think: these people just met each other this morning. Granted, many were OSU, but also there were us 3 UBCers, and 4 or so WSUers, etc.
After dinner, we were off to a local tavern for karaoke night. GREAT TIMES.
UBC Represented well at the mic: Summer of 69, Ella sang Burning Ring of Fire with Dave, Trevor did solo NY, NY by Frank, and also Sweet Caroline plus others with some partners. Kate and Willy stole the show with Kate's tear-jerking rendition of {{
some cheezy love song, kate, let me know and i will fix this text}} and willy's interpretive dance.
Becky claimed to be an expert at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but alas! that particular hit song was not available in the system, and so there was no getting her up to the mic.
Suffice to say, the whole day was flawless and the most fun we could have EVER hoped for.
Ever hoped for.
Ever.*(4)
---
The drive home was also very nice.
We got a little bit of a late start leaving Corvallis, but we made excellent time on the i5.
At Portland, we met up with Kate's sister Karen and checked out her rez on campus. Karen then lead us downtown Portland where we walked the streets a little and then had lunch. It was a great visit and tour.
We all took turns napping on the way home, quite effectively in fact.
Seattle Skyline from the South looks even cooler.
There was pretty much no line at the border, and the guard was really good: no trouble with id, the car, me driving, no declarations, etc. Just smooth sailin' all around.
We took King George through Surrey and then we crossed the Port Mann.
Got Ella home for Thanksgiving dinner in Port Moody only -- what would you say, Ella? -- 45min behind schedule. Again, like I said before, we made great time on the roads.
PS> I love Kate's car, and I really like that Interstate 5. 85mph feels like 85km/h on those wide smooth roads.
Anyways, I have probably given short shrift to the return jouney, but I will reemphasise once again: it was a perfect trip, from beginning to end. Everything was awesome.
And now we're just really looking forward to discussing/sharing with the larger RLM/C group this week when we get a chance.
Thank-you Corvallis, OSU, Oregon State, and all the people we met and got to know.
Keeping in touch is an important part of networking. In fact, I would argue it is the crutch to good networking.
We (L) NWACUHO.
Cheers,
~Trev~ (on behalf of Ella & Kate, too)
NOTES:
(1) At starbucks, when paying for my chai, I made certain point to say out loud, "3.20, so that will be 4 one-dollar bills" and then proceeded to hand the girl 3 ones and a 10. Gosh darn yankee money, it all looks the same, even when you are putting in a concerted effort to differentiate. I like the new bills that Kate was showing us... or as she puts it: "we're slowly turning [our money into] Canadian"
(2) Apparently, Jackie had recieved her title as "dr" only hours before she arrived to present. Neat eh? we were the first group to hear her speak as such.
(3) We were missing the next day (saturday)'s Homecoming Game between the Beavers and the Cougars.
(4) Mr Yin and Yang, please be merciful on us in the coming weeks. It was not our choice to be have only positive everythings. Certainly a little shift in equilibrium in the universe can be accomodated!
