Elections. Or the Great Index Card Take Over.

In the past, the Alpha Gam elections go pretty quickly because we have been able to use audience response systems or clickers to count the votes and see instantly through a computer program who received the most votes.

This year we could not. So we had to kick it old school with paper ballots. And as I serve on the elections committee and our poor Chapter Advisor wants to pull her hair out with her own avalanche of challenges, I thought it would be best if I handled the ballot issue.

Each pack is 300 cards. And that’s not even all of them. I had to go back and buy ten more packs.

We wanted to make this fast and easy for everyone. Our Chapter Advisor had corralled 6 or 7 additional advisors to count the votes. Leaving her free to monitor the process and to make the announcements and me free to collect the ballots and run them to the counting room and run back for the next set of votes.

In order to average less than 4 minutes per office, I opted for a simple system of squirrel plus office on each ballot.

And a slight change in squirrel placement and font for the second set, just in case there were shenanigans over the break.

I complied all the offices into a word document and printed a set of ballots for each sister.

And stacked the sets in packs of 10 for easy counting, selecting two at random and writing “PRIZE!” on the back just to liven things up a bit.

Then my printer went a little nuts and I needed to babysit the ballots as they were feeding into the printer. This was not cool. I had to get actual work done for crying out loud. Jumbo binder clip to the rescue.

The clip kept the cards straight as they were going through the printer. And I had to go through each set already printed to make sure the office names were clear. Some have been handwritten now.

After 14 hours of printing, I started stuffing the envelopes prepared with numbers and sisters’ names by our Chapter Advisor. That took a while.

Let’s take a gander at the math, shall we?

(142 voting eligible sisters x 32 offices)+(142 voting eligible sisters x 10 runoff ballots just in case)= 5,964

5,964.

5,964 cards.

And 37 iPhones.

We collect phones prior to elections to help stem the flow of conversation. I line them up at the end of the night so the sisters and walk the line, grab their phone and go.

And sometimes, if I’m VERY good, a sister will give me a present!!

Why, yes, that is a lucky crane made out of a starburst wrapper.

He sits on one of my monitors at work now and makes my heart happy. This is exactly the kind of thing that reminds me that all this work and effort and 5,964 printed index cards and sweat and tears and stress and occasional disappointment and the long hours and time away from home is worth it. It’s worth anything to ensure that my younger sisters have a positive and helpful place to grow into the best women they can be. And make tiny pink cranes. Thanks again, Kate.

Posted by Anna-Elizabeth | 1 comments

Keeper of the Stuff

One of the things I do when my fraternity holds initiation is to guard the novitiates’ stuff.

It’s like a anthropology study to walk around the room looking at the trends.

This year the trend was wristlettes.

Little tiny bags with wrist straps just large enough for an ID, cash, cell phone, and keys on the strap.

Coach was the clear leader in brand.

And almost all of them had something metallic.

The squirrel trend was also strong this year.

It’s dangerous leaving college girls and chalk boards in the same room.

It’s also dangerous leaving me alone with nothing but Beast to entertain myself.

There was a stretch of 20 minutes there where I took pictures of wristlettes for heaven sake.

That’s mostly because my phone was on 30% power so I couldn’t play words with friends.

Posted by Anna-Elizabeth | 2 comments