Hello!
I know I haven't been blogging much lately, but I hope that all will change soon once I'm not running around with a daily list of a trillion things to do and oh yeah let me just throw in a real quick work conference to attend that will pretty much definitely take up 100% of your time…
But it was so worth it!
Allow me to explain.
I just got back from a whirlwind weekend spent in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the University of Michigan for the one and only NIRSA Region 3 Student Lead On Conference. Remember from blogs past how I talked about NIRSA, the association that kinda incubuses all that my job is and it's how I got my current graduate assistantship, etc. Well NIRSA doesn't just like to meet the one time per year deal so they set up smaller conferences in each region to hold info sessions, work on student development, and mainly to meet and revisit with friends and colleagues.
Only Region 3 likes to do it real big, and I mean REAL big.
My old region, Region 6 does a regional conference and we maybe had maybe 175 people go. And that's pushing it. There were 460+ people at Region 3's. Yeah. Close to 500 people all working at different universities in Campus Rec and all of them at University of Michigan. Go Blue.
But it was so much fun and I am so glad I went. And I wasn't really all too jazzed I had to go in the first place. But before I start on all the details of the conference, I'll explain the events leading up to it. Also, be prepared for another blog trilogy…It was a jam-packed couple of days and I'd rather not write it out in a novel format so for your sake and mine, I'll split it up.
So anyway…Pre-conference.
We are underway with the semester and that means we have to start up our IM sports. If you haven't caught on by now, that means training of the officials, setting up leagues, signing teams, etc.
My biggest concern- training the officials.
So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I pretty much spend the day fretting over how to run them, actually do it with the help of my staff, avoid minor/major hiccups, and then go on thinking how to change this or that, work on that more than this, etc.
The trainings went well, I was a little disappointed that only a small number came out to officiate but my supervisors did well in teaching them how to be basketball officials. We are also down in our team numbers but they are rising from last semester, so that's our silver lining. But late late late Wednesday night after our last day of official clinics, i had to stay up packing for this conference as we were leaving 6am Thursday. I went to bed at 2. gross. Oh and did I mention that IM basketball starts this upcoming Sunday? That means I need to schedule officials, and make sure they get on payroll. And I'm not in the office on Thursday or Friday. Sweet…
I tried to get out of going but my boss wasn't having it. I had already registered weeks ago and it'd be a waste of money, etc. etc. And I had never traveled that far north or to the state of Michigan before so what the heck, why not.
So after 3n1/2 hours of sleep I got up to meet the rest of the crew to head off to Michigan, 9 hours away. 2 minivans, 10 people, 2 pro staff, 5 ga's, 2 undergrad students and 1 grad student, 9 sleeping bags w/ yoga mats/pads, and enough baggage to last us months instead of just 3 days.
FUN
But it really was. I was super tired and planned on sleeping but the convo in the super cool minivan with a rear view camera, automatic doors and heated seats was too good to not listen too. We had a van full of GA's, myself, Kaylee, the aquatics GA, both outdoor pursuits GAs and our director. We're talking about everything from work to family to past trips and events and how our director got to where he is today, and just on and on and on. We stopped in Muncie, Indiana, home of Ball State University (Chirp Chirp!) for lunch and to see the Rec center they had. We don't always stop to tour universities but our director had worked their prior to SIU and so we had to stop by and walk down memory lane.
For those of you that don't know Ball St. (it's ok, I didn't either) it's average sized, David Letterman went there and some other famous people I guess but the most important part is that it has a recently new Rec that is gorgeous. Like wow. Super bright and clean and HUGE and spread out and new and did I say HUGE? It's cool. While there, the assistant director for Ball St. got a call…turns out that the one and only WannaBeGAguy was on the other line…quick back story…WannaBe had left SIU early as he had an on campus interview with Ball St for the GA position and then he would meet us at the conference later. He got the offer the day before we were there. And right as we were touring the basketball courts and multipurpose rooms he called in accepting the offer…so he is no longer a WannaBe, he will be a GA next year. We were all pretty excited, especially Ball St, and it was so ironic that we should be at the university talking to his future bosses when he accepted the offer. I'm so taking credit for getting rid of some of his bad habits cough* Now to make sure that he doesn't lose his head in all his excitement and still work for me for the rest of the semester, that'll be the true test. I kid, slightly, but I am pretty excited that he got the job and I'm going to claim him as one of my prodigal staff members. Duh. And the fact that he gets to work at a pretty cool and new Rec center is way awesome too.
But what was supposed to be a 2 hour visit turned into 4 close to 5 hours. Oops. They did send us off with some Ball State swag though and we hit the road after eating some mediocre burritos in their student center (take note for your next upgrade ball st.)
We finally end up in Ann Arbor. About 4 hours too late for registration and the first social of the conference but we were all so tired it didn't matter. So we check into the Rec and walk into this ANCIENT building that is the Intramural Sports Building at the University of Michigan. It is over 100 years old. Not joking. Like it was built in the early 1900's and looks it and we're sleeping in it. It's massive though as it has a huge court with 3 basketball courts, an indoor pool, 8 racquetball courts, lockers, gymnastic rooms, rowing rooms, a rock wall and it just goes on and on forever. It felt like walking around in Hogwarts, there's random corridors and stairways that lead to doors that don't have handles or rooms that have no purpose or every purpose you aren't really sure, etc. Too easy to get lost in. But we get in, scope a spot to sleep and try to pass out but none of the other folks staying there are interested. We aren't exactly in the meet and greet mood but there's kids playing frisbee in the gym we're sleeping in, juggling (that was odd) and doing hand stands (that was odder) and bouncing basketballs and just being ridiculously loud…not gonna lie I wanted to shoot them all I was so tired and it was past midnight and I was running on very little sleep. FINALLY they turn the lights out and we managed a few hours of shut eye.
We also found out that the one women's locker room only had 5 shower heads…and there was definitely more than 10 girls staying in that gym…oh and it's an open shower, no stalls. So you're saying we have to somehow manage to get around 100 girls to shower in 5 stalls in bathing suits before we start the actual conference? Yeahhhhhh ok that's hilarious.
But we did. We had to wake up and be ready by 8 as the conference started at 830. GAG. So me and some of the girls set our alarms for 5AM to beat the crowd and get a shower before the water heater went out. Double gag.
We did it, we woke up at 5 and showered in our tiny locker room with small, lukewarm showers in bathing suits and laughed awkwardly how close we were going to get whether we like it or not and passed the body wash and shampoo around and tried to present ourselves as professionally as we could when living out of basketball gym.
Nothing like a good ol' rec sports conference to make you rethink the term 'roughing it'.
Breakfast consisted of mini donuts and fruit juice boxes and it was off to the conference at a different building. Did I mention that it was negative 15? Yes. NEGATIVE 15. Not including the wind chill.
Never ever go to Michigan in January. Ever.
To be continued!
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