Here are the updates from this week's meeting, it pretty much sums up what services and events we have left for the remainder of the semester...

RETREAT
We have 2 weeks left until our retreat!
Date: Friday-Saturday, April 18th-19th
Time: Meet at Davis Center @ 6:30 to be at Bishop Booth by 7:00
End: We should be done by noon the next day in time for Spring Fest!

*At retreat, we will be discussing future officer positions/possible candidates. Start thinking about who you would like to see in office next semester or what position you would like to run for*
Possible Officer Positions:
-President
-Service Vice President
-Membership Vice President
-Fellowship Vice President
-Treasurer
-Secretary

Serve Weekend
Serve Weekend is a 3-day conference type ordeal where you have the opportunity to learn more about APO and to do some services with other APO members across the country. These weekend events are held all over the country, in places like New York, Georgia, and Texas.
We spoke about this briefly at meeting so if anyone is interested or would like some more information, feel free to contact Laura at lputnam@uvm.edu

SERVICES
The remainder of this semester's services are all planned out, so the following list is all of your opportunities to make up your 20 required service hours.

*Please consider that many of these services are pretty big events with organizations with which we have, and would like to continue to have, an on going relationship. Your commitment to volunteering is highly needed, so once you've signed up please make the effort to be there.

1. RELAY FOR LIFE
When: NEXT WEEKEND, April 12th
If raining, Relay for Life will be held inside in the gym

So far we have raised up to almost $1,000! If you have any money that you have raised for RFL, please leave it in the APO clubspace or in our mailbox near our club space. Don't forget to log your amount online too. Tomorrow night (Monday) is bank night, so money will be collected to be deposited during the day tomorrow.

There are going to be a lot of events going on at RFL besides walking, here are some of them:
Bingo, ovarian egg hunt, wing eating contest, musical chairs, jazzercise, and UVM Hitpaws, TopCats, and other musical groups. Some events like the wing eating contest require signing up at registration, so if you'd like to participate, make sure you let Laura know before RFL starts.

There will also be themed laps throughout the night. Some of the themes will be:
60's rock lap, taste the rainbow lap, Go Green! lap, "anything but clothes" lap, etc. Laura is attending a team captain's meeting tomorrow night to find out more about the events and themes, so stay tuned for an e-mail with more details about RFL on Tuesday.

Make sure you guys are prepared to spend a lot of time there! Bring enough clothes and outfits to participate in the themed laps, sleeping bag, pillow and blankets to use to hang out in while you're not walking, and rain gear incase it doesn't rain but the weather is crappy while you're outside.

2. BRANCH OUT BURLINGTON
Date: Monday, April 21st
Time: 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
What: Planting trees in a Burlington Location.

Signed Up:
Katy Marshall

3. MS WALK
Date: Saturday, April 26th
Time: ? (Morning)

Signed Up:
Katy Marshall
Jackie Travers
Abby Levinsohn

4. SPECIAL OLYMPICS
Date: Saturday AND Sunday, April 26-27th
Where: UVM

Signed Up:
Natalie Adams (4/27)
Brittanie Booker (4/27)
Abby Levinsohn (4/27)
Kayla DeCarr (4/26)
Briana Horgan (4/26 + 4/27)

5. Intervale Greenhouse
Date: Monday, April 28th
Time: 12:00 -5:00 p.m.
Where: Intervale

Signed Up:
Jackie Travers

6. DISMAS DINNER
Date: Saturday, May 3rd
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. AND 5:00 - 7:30 p.m.
*VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU GO IF YOU SIGNED UP*

Signed Up:
(10:00-2:00)
Alison Sheets
Alyssa Wheat
Abby Levinsohn

(5:00-7:30)
Ted Calcagni
Danny Sturnick
Charles Winkleman
Mac Esters

7. MARCH OF DIMES
Date: Saturday, May 3rd
Time: ? (Morning)

Signed Up:
Aimee Paradis
Natalie Adams
Bri Horgan
Amanda Kloc
Kiley Manahan
Alison Sheets?
Jackie Travers?

8. BRANCH OUT BURLINGTON
Date: Saturday, May 3rd
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
What: Tree Planting

Signed Up:
Katy Marshall

Sign up for these services are not final. Feel free to sign up for any service at any time.

Sweatshirts
Natalie has put in the order for our sweatshirts and they will take 5-7 days for delivery plus manufacturing time (whatever that means!) so hopefully we'll be getting them soon! Thanks to Natalie for organizing our orders!

Fellowship
Our fellowship this week is a broomball game on Wednesday at 9:45 p.m. Go to play or feel free to watch and cheer on our team (what is our team name??)

Next week's fellowships will be Relay For Life and Bingo

That's all for now. Good luck to everyone as we start the LAST MONTH OF THIS SEMESTER and work starts to pile up...

Updated Service Hours and Attendance:
Services Hours: Download file
Attendance: Download file

If you have completed service hours that I haven't made note of, e-mail them to me at jtraver1@uvm.edu

Conclave
Unfortunately, we will not be attending Conclave this semester. Conclave is being held next weekend, February 29th to March 2nd, at the Maine Maritime Academy, but we received all of our information too late and we do not have enough time and resources to organize places to stay or means of transportation to get there. In its place we will be having a...

...Mandatory Retreat in April
Our retreat will be a one overnight stay at the Bishop Booth Conference Center down at Rock Point. (It is the property right in between Burlington High School and North Beach) We will be holding pledge inductions here instead of during one of our meeting times, and it will be a great way for us to spend some quality time together and get to meet/re-meet everyone in our group. There are 2 tentative weekends for our retreat, April 11-12 OR April 18-19. PLEASE, everyone come to next meeting with a planner and your decision on which one of the 2 weekends works best for you. We will be taking a vote at meeting.

** Keep in mind, April 12-13th will be Relay for Life
and April 19-20th is Spring Fest/Service Weekend**

New Officer Elected into Position
Sadly, Amanda Chary has resigned from the Fellowship Vice President position this semester. In her place, Bri was elected as our new FVP. Bri has already sent out an e-mail about 2 possible fellowships, one to meet at Barnes and Noble at 8:00 this Thursday for some study time, and another for a morning hike around Shelburne Farms on Sunday. Make sure to respond to her if you are going to either one!

Bri's e-mail ---> Briana.Horgan@uvm.edu

Sweatshirts
Natalie is looking into ordering APO sweatshirts for our group this semester, so start thinking about the things we'd like to order. I think last year we had the option of a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt, so think about if you'd like that again or something different this time. Bring your ideas to next meeting for her.

Meeting Time Change for Easter Sunday
**This is NOT about next meeting**
When we come back from Spring Break, the following weekend is Easter weekend. Since that time of the semester is a heavy time for planning and doing services and events, we cannot miss 3 meetings in a row. Therefore, we proposed that the Sunday after spring break (the day you get back from break, and classes will start the next day) we will have a later meeting at 8:00 p.m.

SERVICES

1. This weeks service - Service to our Fraternity
Since we have so many new members this week, we thought it would be a great idea to have Old Brothers meet with New Brothers for a coffee or lunch sometime this week. Many people made arrangements to do this at the end of meeting, but if you'd still like to meet with a New Pledge or an Old Brother during the week, check the attendance list at the bottom of this blog to get some names of our members. Facebook and the UVM directory are great ways to find e-mail addresses or leave people messages, and I will have a fully updated attendance sheet of all the Old Brothers and new pledges names later tonight or by tomorrow morning.

2. Relay For Life
We are already registered for Relay For Life at April 12-13th!
Relay For Life costs $10 per person to register (covers your cost for the space you take up while participating, t-shirt, and other things they will give to you there)
We will all have to raise money for this event, and it is such a great cause, so start thinking about all the people you can hit up to sponsor you for Relay For Life!
*Keep an eye out for more e-mails from Laura about it.

Website: http://relay.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeNewEnglandDivision?fr_id=7657&pg=entry
Here, you can find out more about Relay and join our APO team.

3. Turning Point Center
Thursday, March 6th, we will be helping out at a fundraiser for the Turning Point Center of Chittenden County. They will be hosting a Rock and Roller Skating Party at the Champlain Valley Expo. There are many different opportunities to volunteer here, they need help with setting up and cleaning up the event, they need 4 volunteers for Bingo *who also must attend an additional meeting on Wednesday, the 5th, somewhere between 10 and 2*, and there is also a silent auction. The event is 50's themed, so everyone needs to dress up! Here who is signed up so far:

12:00 to 3:00 - Balloons and set up: Paige(?) and Katy M (?) (both need rides)
5:15 to 9:30 - Hot Chocolate Making: Meghann, Lindsay, Molly, Allison S (?)
5:45 to 9:30 - Bingo: Bri(?), Kayla(?), Matt, Laura, Julia

Here is their website for more information: http://www.turningpointcentervt.org

4. Women Helping Battered Women Phone-A-Thon
This event is over spring break, so it is ok if a lot of people can't make it. But if you are in the area over break and would like a service to do, here is one that would like your help. On March 10th and 11th, there will be a phone-a-thon to help fundraise money for the Women Helping Battered Women organization. If people are going to be around and are interested, Rachel will have more details about times and locations at next meeting.

4. Upcoming Events to Keep in Mind
There is COTS service event coming to the Davis Center March 27th.
Habitat For Humanities will be hosting a phone-a-thon sometime later this semester. More details will come at future meetings.

5. Ongoing Semester-long Services
Like always, there a few things you can do throughout the semester to earn service hours. So far we have:
1. Collection of can tabs. For every 50 can tabs you collect, you can earn 1 service hour. Can tabs are donated to the Shriners Children's Hospital where they have a special way of recycling the tabs to earn money for them. You can bring your tabs in a plastic bag with the number of tabs and your name written on it to any meeting, or there is a little green container on the APO desk in the SGA club space where you can leave them as well.

2. Shaws Receipts - if you turn in any receipts from food shopping you have done at Shaws, Shaws will give a percentage of the money you spent in their store to Battered Women's Shelters. Like the can tabs, bring your receipts to any meeting or you can leave them in the green container with your name on them. Every receipt you turn in will earn you 1/2 service hour.

That's all for now! I hope everyone has a great week, good luck during midterms, and I'll be posting updated attendance and service hour logs later tonight!

Attendance: Download file
Service Hour Log: Download file
Contact Information: Download file

Upcoming Services
1. Cooking dinner for the women at Northern Lights - Thursday 2/7/08. Here's who has signed up so far:
Amanda
Lindsay
Nicole
Meghann

2. Reading to End Racism - Unfortunately, only people who attended the training session last Thursday can participate in this event. These are the dates members have signed up for:
Friday - 2/15/08
Jackie
Kiley
Lindsay

Tuesday - 2/19/08
Kiley
Kayla
Ted

For those of us signed up, make sure you get in contact with Denise Dunbar, your assigned school, and pick your children's book!

3. Mardi Gras - Saturday 2/23/08. Mardi Gras is a big event so we need a lot of people to sign up. So far we don't have enough! Here's who has signed up:
Amanda K.
Bri
Aimee
Lindsay
Meghann
Kiley(?)
Laura
Nicole
Kayla
Rachel
Brittanie

4. Cooking for DISMAS - Tuesday 2/26/08. It's far in advance, but start thinking about if you can help out on this date. So far these people are going:
Bri
Jackie
Laura
Nicole (?)

RUUUUSSSSSHHHH WEEEEEEEEKKKK
So Rush started this week! Tonight was the first event, and we made Valentines in the lobby of Harris Millis. We had plenty of awesome supplies thanks to Kayla and we had a really great turn out. Ted, Amanda C., Allison, Aimee, and Jackie showed up, and we had a bunch of new faces there too! I think the new pledge list is up to at least 15 people so far. New "possible pledges" seemed really interested in the rest of the upcoming events this week so PLEASE MAKE SURE TO GET TO AS MANY AS POSSIBLE!.

Here are the remaining pledge events and WHO ALREADY SIGNED UP FOR THEM AT MEETING on Sunday:

Day 2 - TUESDAY - Feb. 5th: Lunch at Feel Good. (12:30)
Nicole C.
Bri
Amanda K
Paige

Day 3 - WEDNESDAY - Feb. 6th: Pub Quiz At Brennan's Pub. (9:00-10:30)
Ted
Nicole
Rachel
Aimee (will be late)
Meghann
Lindsay
Amanda K
Kerri
Laura

Day 4 - THURSDAY - Feb. 7th: Rock Climbing at the Fitness Center. (7:00)
Ted
Bri
Kiley
Brittanie
Jackie (if I get back from Middlebury on time)

Day 5 - FRIDAY -Feb. 8th: Sledding at the UVM Golf Course. (3:00-5:00)
Ted
Nicole (?)
Bri
Meghann
Lindsay
Jackie
Kiley
Amanda K
Kayla
Kerri
Laura

Concluding this week will be INDUCTION ON SUNDAY! Laura won't be able to make it to meeting so Rachel will be leading the ceremony in her place. Induction starts at 6, so we all need to get there a little early to help set up. Dress nicely and bring some snacks for after if you want.

Also... induction of pledges means that there are doors that will need to be decorated! If anyone can help out Ted, either by making door hangers, looking up the addresses or dorm room locations of pledges, please help him out, he'll have a lot on his plate!

Finally, a date for conclave has been set! Conclave will be held at MMA on the last weekend of February/first weekend of March - 2/29/08 to 3/2/08. For many of us, this will be our last conclave so we should try to make it a great one together and also to set a good example for the new pledges!

*Oh yea, get van certified so we have drivers too! I'm trying to find the dates of the next certification class. I'll post it or announce it at meeting when I find out.

I've updated the attendance and service logs for this week too! Have a good week!

Attendance: Download file

Service Hours: Download file

Upcoming Services
1. Reach To End Racism - Training event is on this Thursday, January 31st from 6:00-7:30p.m. Actual reading events aren't until Friday, February 15th and Tuesday, February 19th. If you want to participate in either reading event, you MUST attend the training session this Thursday at 6:00p.m. Here's whos going:

Jackie (I can drive, if you need a ride, meet at the Davis Center at 5:40!)
Kayla
Ted
Natalie A.
Kiley

*Our advisor Lluvia wants to feature this event in a UVM Serves e-mail for other service groups so we need to take pictures! Anyone going, please bring a camera!

2. APO Networking - January 30th - 5 p.m. in the Chittenden Room, Davis Center. Go to speak to non-profit organization representatives such as Peace Corps, Humane Society, Lund Family Center. Great way to get ideas for new services that everyone may be interested in. Going:

Nicole
Rachel (?)
Jackie (?)

3. Dinner at the Women's Home - Thursday, January 31st and Thursday February 7th. This event entails cooking dinner for 10-12 people, and for our group, at a home for recently released female inmates. Here's who's signed up and their date preference:

Nicole (7th)
Natalie A. (7th) (?)
Lindsay (7th)
Meghann (7th)
Kerri (7th) (?)
Amanda C. (7th)
Kiley (7th)

4. Activities Fair - Tuesday, February 5th. We need people to table at the Activities Fair in the Davis Center's Grand Maple Ballroom from 11-3p.m. This is really important, we need new members for next year!!! Here's who's signed up so far:

Kayla 11:00-12:00
Nicole 12:00-12:30
Rachel 12:30-1:30
If anyone can sign up from 1:30-3:00 or can help out Kayla Nicole or Rachel at the above times, please do!

Other than that, keep in mind that RUSH is coming up next week! It starts on Monday! The events and times are listed in the previous blog, please make sure to go to as many as you can!

*This upcoming Sunday is the Superbowl, so keep your eye out for an e-mail to see if the time and date of meeting has changed.

Attendance: Download file
Service Hours: Download file

Notes from Meeting

Services
Our first service will be to help out at the Craftsbury Dog Race this Saturday, January 26th. An application is needed, and if you did not get one at meeting, Rachel has left some extras on the APO desk in the SGA club office space. Craftsbury is about an hour away but transportation can be provided from UVM and it is a great way to get a lot of service hours in!

We are still collecting can tabs this semester too. Like last semester, every 50 tabs will count towards 1 service hour. You can bring your tabs in a ziplock bag with your name and the number of tabs written on it to our APO desk. There is a little green garbage can with a "Can Tabs" label on it. Or you can give them to Rachel at meeting. All can tabs go towards helping fundraise for the Schriner's Children's Hospital in Boston.

We need volunteers to help table at D.C. Delirium this Friday, January 25th.
The event is from 9p.m. to 1 a.m., but we are looking for people to help table and spread the APO word to freshies from 9 to 11. So far Rachel and I have agreed to volunteer.

Keep in mind that Mardi Gras is coming up soon!
The parade is scheduled for Saturday, February 23rd.

Some possible upcoming services:
Penguin Plunge
Branch Out Burlington

Fellowships
Amanda came up with a great personal survey to help bring in some new fellowship ideas this semester. If you haven't filled one out yet, check the office for extras or grab one from her at meeting this upcoming Sunday.

Fellowship this week: Thursday, January 24th, 7pm-11pm Laser Tag in the Grand Maple Ballroom!

Treasury
If anyone has any budget requests or services they would like to do that require some money, please put your requests in to Kayla now or we will lose our budget money!!

RUSH
We've decided that Rush is going to be the first week of February, the 4th through the 8th. At meeting we designed some posters, Ted came up with flyers to post in the dorms, and we are working on getting table tents with our rush events on them in Brennan's Pub. Here is the tentative, but most likely, schedule for our upcoming rush events:

Day 1 - MONDAY - Feb. 4th: Make Valentines for a hospital or nursing home in Harris Millis Lounge. Also give out candy with APO info on it. (5:30-7:30)
Day 2 - TUESDAY - Feb. 5th: Lunch at Feel Good. (12:30)
Day 3 - WEDNESDAY - Feb. 6th: Pub Quiz At Brennan's Pub. (9:00-10:30)
Day 4 - THURSDAY - Feb. 7th: Rock Climbing at the Fitness Center. (time to be announced, most likely at 6:30)
Day 5 - FRIDAY -Feb. 8th: Sledding at the UVM Golf Course. (3:00-5:00)

That's it for this week. Shortly I plan to have a link posted on the blog that will keep track of everyone's attendance at meetings and service hours throughout the semester. I'll tell you when its up.

Attendance: Download file