New Member Process

Today's post is brought to you by one of our pledge moms, Charlotte Laven!

It did not hit me that I was going to be a Pledge Mom to 60 new Alpha Phi members until I heard a stampede of 60 screaming girls on Bid Night. It made me remember that night for me 2 years prior and how excited I was. They were immediately lumped into a new friend group and on their way to joining an amazing sisterhood. I was there to introduce them to that. Over the past 5 weeks myself and The Director of Fraternity Education, Shannon Hearne have been there to guide these 60 new members on their journey as an Alpha Phi. We have gone over the moral and values of being an Alpha Phi and the foundation behind our sisterhood.

            We have met each Sunday so that they actually know the story behind this organization. A sorority especially Alpha Phi is so much more than the socials and formals that everyone sees the pictures of. It was my job to make sure that they have come to know that. During the fourth week of this process, each new member received a Big Sister. This is someone to take them under their wing and really be one of the closest members in the chapter for them. Each girl was mutually paired with her big and received different clues to who she may be during the Big/Little Week. On the final day, they received a clue of wrapping paper that a box would be wrapped in on the night of reveal. Their big would be hiding in the box and once the new member took the box off of them, they could finally be united at big and little.

  As initiation approaches at the end of this week, we are all excited to have these 60 new amazing girls be life long members of Alpha Phi. They are all so excited to be able to wear their letters around campus and show their Alpha Phi pride like no other. It has truly been a blessing to lead these amazing girls on their path to becoming an initiated member of Alpha Phi. I can surely speak on the behalf of our chapter that we are so proud to have such an amazing pledge class represent Alpha Phi.

          

Aphiasco 2013 Recap

Today's post is written by Hannah Comstock, our outgoing VP of Marketing who was the head of organizing this year's annual Aphiasco event. She was assisted by the current VP of Campus Affairs, Alex MacDonald and the Director of Aphiasco, Gabby Little John.

"This year's A-Phi-Asco was extremely special to me for a few reasons. My name is Hannah Comstock and I am the out-going VPM, making A-Phi-Asco 2013 my baby for the past year. 

The largest difference between this and last years event was the move from on campus to off. We have hosted the event off campus in the past so we knew we could definitely handle the challenge. We started scouting for ideal locations during Summer 2013 and eventually found the winner: The Four Points Sheraton LAX. Taking into consideration the fact that we were moving the event back off campus, the A-Phi-Asco team, me, Alex MacDonald and Gabby Littlejohn, knew we had a bit of revamping ahead of us. 

We made sure to make the event as accessible as possible, planning it on LMU parents weekend. We had a inkling that this was going to be crucial to our success. Little did we know it would be the reason we had to extend the event's capacity from 275 to 320 guests! This was the first time in many years we had hosted a sold out event. 

Almost more exciting was out newest addition to our live auction items: the worlds cutest puppy. I first heard of auctioning a puppy at A-Phi-Asco from other chapters mentioning it at our international conference and immediately knew the Zeta Beta chapter absolutely had to jump on this band wagon. We also featured a local artist, Jennifer Main, who painted live during our event. Her final drawing incorporated women's heart health and was an amazing piece of work, going for an amazing $1,700. 

The most inspirational part of the night, though, was the speech given by one of our senior members Jessi Jones. Jessi was kind enough to share her personal experience of how women's heart disease had recently directly affected her family. Jessi brought the causes the Alpha Phi Foundation supports directly home. The entire room had goose bumps as they gave Jessi a standing ovation. 

A-Phi-Asco has always been an event our chapter look forward to: a time to show our friends and family how amazing our chapter is and the philanthropic work that we do. This year, though, A-Phi-Asco's cause was able to truly inspire each and every guest in the room which resulted in the Zeta Beta chapter of Alpha Phi raising over $45,000 for women's heart health and furthering awareness for women's heart disease. It's safe to say this was one of the best A-Phi-Asco's yet!"

E-Board Spotlight: VP Marketing Leilani Mahoney

This week's E-Board Spotlight comes from our VP Marketing, Leilani Mahoney!

As a sophomore, I was uncertain about running for an executive board position but received a lot of great support and encouragement from my sisters. I've always loved the social media and apparel aspects of Alpha Phi, and ever since I became VP Marketing I have had the best time making shirts and using facebook, instagram, and twitter to document all of our fun events!

So far this semester we have had an amazing recruitment where our members received agendas with all of our events, Alpha Phi backpacks, and a new twist of slouchy sweatshirts as bid night shirts! Everyone loved their new Alpha Phi swag, especially our bid night sweatshirt designed by our awesome New Member Educator. Spring is filled with so many events such as Big Little Reveals, Date Night, Exchanges that we are hoping to get some unique apparel for!

I have learned so much already from my position and gained a lot of experience with marketing for the future. Please look forward to all of the fun photos, apparel, and updates on all of our social media!

Alpha Phi Love & Mine,
Leilani Mahoney
Class of 2015