UPDATED! Rho Beta plans for Relays weekend

The reunion will be over lunch on the Saturday of Relays weekend (April 25) for Rho Betas and their families. It'll be at the Raccoon River Crewing Co. in downtown Des Moines at 10th and Mulberry. We have a (limited seating!) private room starting at 11:30.

I know it's not great for those of you going to the races. But a majority of people who have RSVPed are involved in the cluster reunion on Friday night; and the all-Greek reunion in Saturday night; and travelers will need to start hitting the road Sunday. So Saturday lunch it is.

But I need to know who is attending. If you plan to be there, please e-mail me (suselisto (at) gmail.com) as soon as possible.

New Years Resolution - Get Serious About Plans!!

OK, time to get serious. Relays is less than four months away. (If you haven't already checked in, please do so ... we'd love to know who else is out there!)

Here's what Drake has posted on the event: http://www.drake.edu/alumni/allgreekreunion/index.php

The last I'd heard, it was going to be a tent party, Saturday, April 25th, from 4-8 p.m. There was talk of a tent on 34th Street and a throwback to old school Relays Tent Parties. (Except I don't need to know someone on the Relays committee or borrow the ID of an older Chi O sister.)

I've (hopefully) signed the guestbook and directed people to the blog. I was hoping to have more of an idea what Drake is going to do to promote individual house events ... But I am moving forward assuming it's just us gals, and the people we're still in touch with, and the people they're still in touch with, and so on. Grassroots, baby!!

I'm reopening a poll asking people what they would prefer to do. With the Drake event over the dinner hour Saturday, that pretty much leaves:

• Friday night (bad for travelers)
• Saturday breakfast (no, it probably can't be at West End)
• Saturday lunch (bad for race-goers)
• Sunday brunch (bad for travelers)

And here I thought this was going to be difficult.

I promise ... more updates. More photos. Join us on Facebook. Tell a friend. Make plans for April in Des Moines. It's lovely!

My dilemma

First, thanks to sister Laurie, who leads the local Central Iowa-area alumnae group, for getting me a list of all Rho Beta alums.

All 1,005 of them.

There are e-mails for about one-third of them. And I know the forward-to-a-friend aspect from all of you has already helped get the word out; I recognize a good number of those addresses.

The dilemma - this is a grassroots effort. (Thanks, Aimee - I don't think I am going to let you forget that this was really your idea!) We have no budget, no official committee (yet - a few of you have said you'll help, and I think we'll get together this summer - all are welcome).

I certainly don't want to leave anyone out, so I am looking for any and all suggestions for reaching out to sisters who aren't linked in to us via e-mail or Christmas/holiday letters.

Ideas (remember, no bad ideas in brainstorming):

• Keep it viral. The original e-mail's been forwarded four times over, we're on Facebook. This is 2008 and it's how people do things.


• Ask volunteers to invest a little time and money in sending letters (5-10 each?) to a list of sisters directing them to the blog/e-mail. A one-time only promotion?


• Talk to Drake about any efforts they have we can get in on.


• Talk to Chi Omega Alumnae reps about any efforts they have we can get in on.


• Get a daredevil to scale down the Empire State Building with a promotional message and hope he or she gets substantial news coverage without serious injury.

Leave a comment or e-mail me if you have other ideas or a burning desire to help.

Whoooooooo's out there?

Enough of me talking. Your turn. Please comment and let us know you're out there. Based on the early response from a little e-mail I sent out, there's lots of you.

Who are you? Where are you? What are you doing? And who are you doing it with?

Future posts might ask your favorite Chi-O or Drake memory, so don't feel like you have to spill everything right now. I have many months of conversation to keep going between now and April 2009.

I went first. I started the blog, I get to do that :)

357 days and counting*

Welcome!

Clearly, I have no idea what's in store. I sent an e-mail to 15 of my Chi-O sisters and sat back to see the response.

Within three days, I was overwhelmed with 28 e-mails and 60+ more e-mail addresses. They are extremely organized in the mother of all spreadsheets. (Anyone who knew me in college knows that this is clearly a lie ... I'm one step above tracking all of you in a spiral notebook.)

I don't know what shape this reunion will take. We have about 11.5 months to figure that out. For now, let's just figure out who's interested, try to connect with lost sisters, and learn a little more about what's happened on campus since our Owl and Bulldog days.

A little housekeeping

• At this time, I can't figure out if I can password protect this blog on the freebie account.
• But I did limit anyone's ability to find us in search engines - just to keep it among us gals.
• If you want to send family photos, old Jolesch photos (yo, pic chick!), life updates, etc ..., I will gladly post them.
• What you put in the comments is up to you.

You can e-mail me your information so I have a way to contact you. And if another sister contacts me and says, "Hey, is that 'Salsa' who's posting by chance Susan** and do you know how I can get a hold of her?" ... I'm gonna hook you up.

That is, if I manage not to mess up my spreadsheet.

*Salsa = Journalism major; always doublecheck her math
**Yes, Salsa=Susan