DCON 2010
Well, it's been a long time coming - but Circle K's Ohio District Convention (DCON) has finally come and gone. And once again, this year was hugely successful for the University of Akron Circle K! We came away with no less than 10 awards, including Outstanding Secretary, Outstanding Treasurer, 2nd Place Outstanding Vice-President, and Outstanding President (for myself, woohoo!)
We also got first place in service hours with over 2,000, thanks hugely to Melissa's biking across the country this past summer. But even without her project, we'd still have been a hundred or so over our nearest competitor.
But Circle K is not all about awards. Lets look back: Friday, I packed my stuff and cleaned out my car so that I, Divya and Vince could drive the 4 hour drive to Dayton. For some, this was a 3 hour drive - but we had to stop in Wooster to drive the Woosterites and that pulled us off course a bit. The drive was not too exciting, glad I did not get a ticket for speeding (by a little) most of the way there. Listened to my music basically since no one had any objection. Oh, at one point we talked about our Lent things (I was the only one observing it, granted, I am not catholic - I just wanted to test my resolve to not buy Starbucks for like a month.) The Woosterite I drove, noted he was a Deist -- that's sort of the religion I settled on so it was weird hearing that! Especially since no one is really deists anymore, that was the religion of Ben Franklin and George Washington and was most popular in that era.
Got to DCON, which had an international theme - played some games, and got settled into our rooms. The first night was not much - round one of caucusing, and though I was armed with some particularly tough questions for Natalie and Angela I decided to save them for tomorrow as that night was for more fun questions like "If you were a rose, what would be your thorn?" and "Which pokemon best describes your leadership style?"
Angela delightfully answered, "Charmander, because I'm FIERCE!" haha, also she was on fire: she and Natalie were the only two caucusing, because they were the only two running for office. Angela was worried to death but caucusing awesomely. Natalie's caucusing stumbled a bit, and could use some polishing, but overall I thought it best to go easy on her. That night we got Taco Bell from a local place and went to bed. Oh! But before that, because we all determined we wanted to swim at some point over the weekend, Rob and Brit went off to Walmart to help Rob buy a new pair of Swim Trunks. Why Rob went and bought 20$ swim trunks just for the weekend escapes me, but alright.
Saturday was actually pretty fun if you bypass the awful feeling of waking up. I wore the tie Patsy got me for Christmas, but my red dress shirt is a size too small and uncomfortable to breathe in. But caucusing began, and though I was ready to ask the questions I wanted to know about her if she were to run for governor - it seemed other clubs had made their personal decisions of Natalie and I didn't want to just ask questions to be mean. Though let the record show, it was at some point my intention to be known as the guy at DCON who asked the cool or funny questions. I remember hearing Jason note, "I'm going to be in [this] caucus room, its going to be the most entertaining!" and I hope I in some way contributed to that decision. For lunch, we went to a nearby mall as we had last year - I really like that method - to discuss candidates and amendments. The new candidates, a Capital division LTG and a Secretary had emerged, and Sarah had still not decided to run for Treasurer or not.
Back, it was workshop time, then House of Delegates. Me and Sarah were Akron's delegates. And oh my god... I don't know when it happened, but I soon realized that I was one of the four people that actually approached the microphone multiple times. (Me, James of OSU, Toby, and LTG Jason R.) And then it hit me: omg, I'm one of the only people that really knows all about how this stupid house of delegates works. "I've become Melissa!" I noted, though really that encompasses Jen, Melissa, and that whole generation of Circle K'ers. But more on that later. Basically, I just wanted to appear in the minutes a handful of times - lol, and I think I succeeded by motioning and seconding a bunch of things. Also contributing to discussion. I even abstained to something.
Then it was time for the Awards Banquet! WOopWOOP! We got a bunch of awards, including but not limited to Honorable Mention for Patsy's Panty Party as Single Service, first place for Scrapbook, sponsering kiwanis club, second place for outstanding new member, oh man it was awesome. And Chad wanted to show how much he appreciated the Club Presidents, so they got to sit at the head table thingie - and while I appreciate the gesture, I think I was with the other Presidents in wanting to sit with my club. Luckily (perhaps), my club got the table in front of me.
Then came the dance, which also was a ton of fun. Brit and Sarah, as they always do, owned the dance floor. But Patsy, Sarah, and Brit owned the "Single Ladies" dance floor - if only they'd practiced more that would have been completely perfect and hilarious. But it was pretty hilarious none the less.
That night wasn't much more, and the next morning was brunch and closing session -- which featured a speaker who was totally high. He was all over the place about the scent of service and the call of adventure and what -- lol, we were all like "Ummm..." and he didn't seem to have too planned of a speech, kinda jumping topic to topic and relying alot on audience involvement. But then the new officers were installed, OH, I didn't tell you about elections!
In the H.O.D., Sarah (for treasurer) and another LTG were nominated off the floor. But when Governor election time came, the girl that ran for Capital LTG was nominated to run against Natalie for Governor. After a brief question/answer period, she received 73% of the vote and Natalie lost. Natalie then stepped down to run for Secretary against the other girl, but then the other girl won by 51%. Sarah on the other hand, after her two minute speech, it was motioned to give her 3 minutes of questioning time. The house actually voted against doing this pretty heavily! LoL. I thought that was funny. So the governor is now a freshman, first year Circle K'er who served for years in Key Club.
The next morning at Brunch, after packing up our cars; the governor actually pulled me aside and said "Are you a senior, are you being your club's President, or are you studying abroad for a semester?" I truthfully answered in the negative. "Well then you seem like someone who knows what's going on, and you should apply to be on the district board." Lolz!
As I said earlier, OH my GOd, I've become one of the ones that knows whats going on! What a frightening thought! I have not yet determined if I want to be on the district board again. Part of me does, because I like being involved with Circle K, and I do know whats going on - but on the other hand, I don't want to hold Sarah back from doing things on her own without me being there. I don't want us to be the two that always sit next to each other, and always work together, "the couple," which will detract from her making some valuable friendships on the board. I dunno, I'll see what I do.
Driving Award time: This time the driving award goes to ME. I drove 4 hours straight on two separate occasions this weekend. My legs hurt from doing this. And I had to put up with quite a bit of backseat driving. See the quotes section.
Quotes of the Weekend:
(Getting off at the Wolf Ledges exit...)
"ANDREW, THIS IS A LEFT-TURN ONLY LANE!" - Vince
"!? I'm turning LEFT!" - Me
"Who Ever's Praying for Snow, Please Stop." - Awesome Church Sign.
District Admin Sarah R, during closing session: "...and during my time in Circle K, I've seen many Life Matches form..." (Aww, me and Sarah hold hands sitting in front row.) *Points to us* "Yes, I see you holding hands."
"To the window! To the wall! Till the sweat drops down my SERVICE! All them LEADERSHIP crawl! AWWW skeet skeet motha FELLOWSHIP..." - During the dance, the DJ bleeped out some swear words (because we're 10.) and me and Patsy decided to fix that.
We also got first place in service hours with over 2,000, thanks hugely to Melissa's biking across the country this past summer. But even without her project, we'd still have been a hundred or so over our nearest competitor.
But Circle K is not all about awards. Lets look back: Friday, I packed my stuff and cleaned out my car so that I, Divya and Vince could drive the 4 hour drive to Dayton. For some, this was a 3 hour drive - but we had to stop in Wooster to drive the Woosterites and that pulled us off course a bit. The drive was not too exciting, glad I did not get a ticket for speeding (by a little) most of the way there. Listened to my music basically since no one had any objection. Oh, at one point we talked about our Lent things (I was the only one observing it, granted, I am not catholic - I just wanted to test my resolve to not buy Starbucks for like a month.) The Woosterite I drove, noted he was a Deist -- that's sort of the religion I settled on so it was weird hearing that! Especially since no one is really deists anymore, that was the religion of Ben Franklin and George Washington and was most popular in that era.
Got to DCON, which had an international theme - played some games, and got settled into our rooms. The first night was not much - round one of caucusing, and though I was armed with some particularly tough questions for Natalie and Angela I decided to save them for tomorrow as that night was for more fun questions like "If you were a rose, what would be your thorn?" and "Which pokemon best describes your leadership style?"
Angela delightfully answered, "Charmander, because I'm FIERCE!" haha, also she was on fire: she and Natalie were the only two caucusing, because they were the only two running for office. Angela was worried to death but caucusing awesomely. Natalie's caucusing stumbled a bit, and could use some polishing, but overall I thought it best to go easy on her. That night we got Taco Bell from a local place and went to bed. Oh! But before that, because we all determined we wanted to swim at some point over the weekend, Rob and Brit went off to Walmart to help Rob buy a new pair of Swim Trunks. Why Rob went and bought 20$ swim trunks just for the weekend escapes me, but alright.
Saturday was actually pretty fun if you bypass the awful feeling of waking up. I wore the tie Patsy got me for Christmas, but my red dress shirt is a size too small and uncomfortable to breathe in. But caucusing began, and though I was ready to ask the questions I wanted to know about her if she were to run for governor - it seemed other clubs had made their personal decisions of Natalie and I didn't want to just ask questions to be mean. Though let the record show, it was at some point my intention to be known as the guy at DCON who asked the cool or funny questions. I remember hearing Jason note, "I'm going to be in [this] caucus room, its going to be the most entertaining!" and I hope I in some way contributed to that decision. For lunch, we went to a nearby mall as we had last year - I really like that method - to discuss candidates and amendments. The new candidates, a Capital division LTG and a Secretary had emerged, and Sarah had still not decided to run for Treasurer or not.
Back, it was workshop time, then House of Delegates. Me and Sarah were Akron's delegates. And oh my god... I don't know when it happened, but I soon realized that I was one of the four people that actually approached the microphone multiple times. (Me, James of OSU, Toby, and LTG Jason R.) And then it hit me: omg, I'm one of the only people that really knows all about how this stupid house of delegates works. "I've become Melissa!" I noted, though really that encompasses Jen, Melissa, and that whole generation of Circle K'ers. But more on that later. Basically, I just wanted to appear in the minutes a handful of times - lol, and I think I succeeded by motioning and seconding a bunch of things. Also contributing to discussion. I even abstained to something.
Then it was time for the Awards Banquet! WOopWOOP! We got a bunch of awards, including but not limited to Honorable Mention for Patsy's Panty Party as Single Service, first place for Scrapbook, sponsering kiwanis club, second place for outstanding new member, oh man it was awesome. And Chad wanted to show how much he appreciated the Club Presidents, so they got to sit at the head table thingie - and while I appreciate the gesture, I think I was with the other Presidents in wanting to sit with my club. Luckily (perhaps), my club got the table in front of me.
Then came the dance, which also was a ton of fun. Brit and Sarah, as they always do, owned the dance floor. But Patsy, Sarah, and Brit owned the "Single Ladies" dance floor - if only they'd practiced more that would have been completely perfect and hilarious. But it was pretty hilarious none the less.
That night wasn't much more, and the next morning was brunch and closing session -- which featured a speaker who was totally high. He was all over the place about the scent of service and the call of adventure and what -- lol, we were all like "Ummm..." and he didn't seem to have too planned of a speech, kinda jumping topic to topic and relying alot on audience involvement. But then the new officers were installed, OH, I didn't tell you about elections!
In the H.O.D., Sarah (for treasurer) and another LTG were nominated off the floor. But when Governor election time came, the girl that ran for Capital LTG was nominated to run against Natalie for Governor. After a brief question/answer period, she received 73% of the vote and Natalie lost. Natalie then stepped down to run for Secretary against the other girl, but then the other girl won by 51%. Sarah on the other hand, after her two minute speech, it was motioned to give her 3 minutes of questioning time. The house actually voted against doing this pretty heavily! LoL. I thought that was funny. So the governor is now a freshman, first year Circle K'er who served for years in Key Club.
The next morning at Brunch, after packing up our cars; the governor actually pulled me aside and said "Are you a senior, are you being your club's President, or are you studying abroad for a semester?" I truthfully answered in the negative. "Well then you seem like someone who knows what's going on, and you should apply to be on the district board." Lolz!
As I said earlier, OH my GOd, I've become one of the ones that knows whats going on! What a frightening thought! I have not yet determined if I want to be on the district board again. Part of me does, because I like being involved with Circle K, and I do know whats going on - but on the other hand, I don't want to hold Sarah back from doing things on her own without me being there. I don't want us to be the two that always sit next to each other, and always work together, "the couple," which will detract from her making some valuable friendships on the board. I dunno, I'll see what I do.
Driving Award time: This time the driving award goes to ME. I drove 4 hours straight on two separate occasions this weekend. My legs hurt from doing this. And I had to put up with quite a bit of backseat driving. See the quotes section.
Quotes of the Weekend:
(Getting off at the Wolf Ledges exit...)
"ANDREW, THIS IS A LEFT-TURN ONLY LANE!" - Vince
"!? I'm turning LEFT!" - Me
"Who Ever's Praying for Snow, Please Stop." - Awesome Church Sign.
District Admin Sarah R, during closing session: "...and during my time in Circle K, I've seen many Life Matches form..." (Aww, me and Sarah hold hands sitting in front row.) *Points to us* "Yes, I see you holding hands."
"To the window! To the wall! Till the sweat drops down my SERVICE! All them LEADERSHIP crawl! AWWW skeet skeet motha FELLOWSHIP..." - During the dance, the DJ bleeped out some swear words (because we're 10.) and me and Patsy decided to fix that.
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