2015 DKG Regional Conferences Were Great!

What a wonderful summer of 2015 Delta Kappa Gamma regional conferences it has been!  Baltimore, Savannah, Wichita, Regina, and Boras held treasures for each attendee.  I cannot heap enough praise upon the steering committees and volunteers from the state organizations of Maryland, Georgia, Saskatchewan, Sweden and the regional directors for planning and executing such meaningful events.

It was my honor to be part of the training for the 2015-2017 state organization presidents from all regions.  What a fabulous group of women you have selected to lead your state organizations!

During the 2012-2014 biennium, an Administrative Board committee chaired by Dr. Jensi Souders conducted web-based research and face-to-face meetings through sessions at all regional conferences regarding what members liked/disliked about regional conferences.  The committee was charged with examining the factors that were contributing to the drop in attendance at the regionals.  The committee  gathered both survey and live input from members.  That research was presented to the 2014-2016 regional directors at the beginning of the this biennium as they began to plan for the 2015 conferences.  

The regional directors decided to incorporate some of the suggestions that were indicated by the research.  One of those changes in some of the conferences was the introduction of the incoming state organization presidents other than at the Saturday night banquet.  Responders to the research thought the banquet was too long, so most of the regional conferences saw the recognition of the outgoing and incoming state organization presidents done at another time.  

The singing of the DKG song was also an element that was mentioned quite often by survey responders and those in attendance at the regional conference sessions.  Most of the regional directors decided to use the song as an anthem during the conference, but not to close the conference with it. I noticed that the DKG song was played at the end of the luncheon in two regional conference.  It was played/used at all conferences this past summer in some fashion, but not all conferences used it as a typical closing event. 

 

As for me, I can't wait for us to convene in Nashville for our International Convention July 5-9, 2016!  A video invitation is available at dkg.org for you to show throughout your chapters and state organization meetings.  As I say at the end of the invitation, "Ya'll come to see us!"