Phew!
I woke up at 5am today, because of a mixture of having had a wee bit too much margarita to drink last night, and also just plain old nerves.
Yesterday, as I'd shown, was a huge haul and now that most everything's sorted, I'm undergoing the long process of posting items up on the CFGE and trying my darndest to really spread the wealth and coordinating all the different pick-up times that work with people's schedules. Lots of work, but also so rewarding knowing that these items will be much appreciated in new homes and rescued from the landfill.
I thought I'd be getting more calls to come and get things from Greek houses again, but apparently not yet... So today was all sorting/posting/coordinating. Phew!
But besides all that, today's post is going to be dedicated to all the lessons I've learned in my first attempt at this Greek House-oriented move-out effort. In no particular order, here they are:
1) Hold the Summer Swap after Commencement weekend
Next year, I really ought to time the Summer Swap to be the Saturday following Commencement, because holy cow it'd be a lot easier to just bag/sort/bring all the items there for Swap attendees to peruse and take at their leisure. Rather than having to photograph and post, say, every pair of shoes and such.
So yeah, mos def gonna do that next year!
2) It's really only a couple of days of having to collect items
I'd had this idea that starting on Monday, I'd be getting called to the Houses to start taking items away because residents would be moving out. But it wasn't until Wednesday, finally, that Chi Omega had me come in to take away a few bags. Really, the majority of students move out Thursday and Friday, especially since some Houses officially close up Friday evening. But some Houses are also left with poorly cleared out rooms which they have to tackle later, even up through the following week, as one House warned us. But in general, it's not the 6-day-long endeavor I'd thought it would be.
3) Greek Houses are a world all their own
When I initially reached out to all the Greek Chapters of OSU, I didn't realize that there were such things as un-Housed frats/sororities, so although I sent out 43 emails, of them, probably a dozen were actual Houses that this effort really works for.
Also, there is a chain of command as to who should be contacted to coordinate of an effort such as this. I simply emailed all the Presidents because that's what I saw on the website, but there are also House Moms/Dads, and facilities managers/directors. Presidents might deal with more social stuff, while the facilities managers deal with how the House is physically run (repairs, clean-ups, etc). So this is right up their alley.
Also, not all fraternities close for the summer so they don't have the same big move-out the way the sororities did.
In fact, I was told by the guys at Sigma Phi Epsilon that it'd be best for me to try getting in touch again in the fall instead, because that's when they do their major clean-up effort. Go figure!
Different houses disseminate information in different ways. For example, Pi Kappa Phi didn't really hand out the move-out kits. The House Dad just took a photo of one of the move-out kits and posted it to their Facebook page. It would be awesome to not have to spend so much money/time on the material side of the move-out kit, if telling them digitally is the way to go.
4) Doorhanger element not as crucial in the move-out kit
I'd had this idea that the move-out kits would go on every resident's doorknob in a given House, so that if the person is away, they could come home to find the move-out kit greeting them right at the door. But Kappa Alpha Theta's facility director told me that she had the board president pass it around at one of the House meetings that all the residents attend. And they had the best turnout of donated items of all the Houses I visited! In fact, I ended up gathering up a lot of leftover/unused move-out kits yesterday, so evidently it hadn't seemed appealing to my contacts there to distribute them doorknob style.
With all the leftovers I have, I think I'll have enough to supply the need for next year's Student Exodus, and what I'm going to do is just chop off the top part that has the hole and the slit to fit over a door knob. It'll be easy to do and will make them look so much tidier :)
And if I have to make new move-out kits, I will not go through the incredibly redundant task of having to punch the 1 1/2" hole and snip the slit. I did that to 1000 of these babies. @_@ So much work! HA!
5) Better signage for the House's designated spot needed
As my previous lesson demonstrated, I really took an individual-by-individual approach with this move-out effort, and there was no other signage anywhere in the House to inform/remind residents who might have, say, misplaced their move-out kit or something. Next year, I think I'll give my contact at the House a nice big sign that just says like "CORVALLIS FAMILIES GIFT ECONOMY DONATION PILE SITE" (or something obviously better than that :D )
Anyway, just something so that even if a resident doesn't have his/her move-out kit information doorhanger piece, they'll at least recognize the donation pile area (be it in the lobby or kitchen, they tended to be a spot with high traffic, thankfully), and be constantly reminded that it's an option for them when dealing with moving out.
Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta's house managers made their own signs for their donation pile areas and, again, they really did have the best piles of generously donated items :)
6) Need to start at the top
Next time I do this, I want to coordinate with the lady in charge of all Greek Life, Leslie Schacht Drey. If I can meet her in the fall, maybe she'll let me make this cause known right off the bat to set the year right for all the new Greek residents that move in. I believe "move in day" is something of an event -- maybe I could get a booth or something?? :D I honestly am very clueless about how this whole Greek community works...
Aaaaaaanyway, so yeah. Lots learned, and lots more to learn I'm sure~!
On a lighter note, I just wanted to share here, for archiving's sake, a couple photos from the GT story that I particularly liked ad were a little more on the hidden side since they weren't the main page one, nor even the second or third :D
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| I don't quite recall to whom were listening in this shot... |
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| That clipboard has been my life for the past week :D |
I just love all the red going on -- Dash, me, and the bricks in the background in the first shot, in particular. I hadn't realized we were wearing matching colors, Dash and I!
Well, having woken up so darn early, I'm pretty bushed.
Going to turn in early for the night.
Thanks for stopping by, hope you're doing well, and until next time: Happy Lessons Learned!!
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