NLC - Day 3

This morning starts of just as the same as Monday (Day 2 of trip). One student in Leadership Training, two others going with parents for a morning trip, and I am off to DisneyWorld (Animal Kingdom) with the rest.

Meet in the lobby by 8:20 a.m. and we have eaten breakfast already.  Hop in a taxi and drive to the park.  Much easier to do this on day two, already knowing something of what to expect.  We have less time in the park today as we have two meetings to attend to start the official conference.  We arrive and met with our other student and Mom at the park and off we went on our Safari ride.  What great advice the Mom gave us on doing that ride first, as the animals are out more in the earlier part of day before the heat gets to much.  The rest of day at the park we went to shows and rides.  I will say be sure to schedule in your day there the Lion King show.  The performers do an excellent job and it was amazing.

The return from Animal kingdom was different as my two students went with the other student who was staying on Disney property to help them navigate back to our hotel for the conference.  So only three back on the taxi (increases the cost per person slightly).

Back at the hotel I am finally able to get to conference registration and pick up all required materials and then I can go to the mandatory adviser meeting.  This hour long meeting they discuss procedures and changes that have been made to the convention program as well as safety tips and reminders about the facilities.  This is also a good time to network with other advisers from across the country.

I am constantly coordinating with my state officer via text on times/locations to meet to be sure she is fully prepared for her responsibilities at the conference.  It is so wonderful to work with students who take on the role of officer, they are so responsible and it makes me proud to be a teacher!

Then I coordinate the rest of my students to get them in their business attire and then it is off to the state meeting.  I arrive early to help facilitate any part of the meeting, but our state adviser and state officers really did a great job of running the show.  This meeting gets all participants from Wisconsin coordinated on what to expect and what to do for Wisconsin.  Cheers are reviewed, upcoming training's are discussed and students get excited for the upcoming events.  Seymour's state officer had to give a couple of speeches that we had worked on and brought with prior to flying out for Florida and she did a great job!

Opening session with trading pins on name badge.

After the state meeting some down time and then it is off to the opening session.  The opening session at this conference is what really gets students pumped up.  There is music, pictures and of course the trading of the pins.  Students purchase for $1 a Wisconsin pin and then go and trade with other states.  This encourages meeting new people and networking.  There is a keynote speaker as well as campaign speeches given for National Officers.  This year Wisconsin was lucky enough to have a candidate running for National office, so the entire state was yelling and supporting our candidate.

This opening session meeting lasts just over 2 hours and students are done sitting still by that time.  It is difficult to keep them (ok, even myself, off the electronic devices during the session).

Students then had time to hangout and meet people until curfew.  I have at several time state to students the expectations of being in the room before midnight for curfew.  Many students went down to the pool for the bonfire and enjoyed meeting new people.

So this day is from 8:20 to Midnight.  Yup 16 hours again.