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I just returned from the Western Region Greek Leadership Conference (WRGLC) in San Francisco, and I have to tell you, the conference is BACK, baby! It was really terrific. This posting is a big fat love letter to the men and women who put it on.
The conference fell on some hard times in the mid 90s. There are lots of rumors of why things went downhill (an unfortunate hotel move, some financial shenanigans that left the treasury empty, too few people doing all the work -- I don't know the real story, honestly). Attendance was dwindling each year, and I thought the conference was dying a slow death. Vendors and speakers were complaining that the conference was a waste of money. Many schools stopped going. Advisors invested their travel dollars elsewhere.
It was really sad, because the Western Regional Greek Conference was the very first of the Greek regional conferences.
Then, a couple of years ago, a new leadership team took over. It's virtually the same team that runs the MGCA conference (which is held each February in Chicago, and starting next year in St. Louis). They changed the name of their group to WRGA, the Western Region Greek Association. The names are familiar: Shelley Sutherland, Mark Koepsell, Beth Condor, Steve Latour, Kyle Jordan, Steve Whitby, and other very talented people who have whipped the conference back into shape after years of decline.
Here's what I noticed this past weekend. Attendance was up 200 people or so from the previous year. Attendance was around 800, and many schools I've never seen before were there. The vendors were doing good business. There were no behavior problems and no damage to the hotel (as of Saturday evening).
Fully a third – maybe more – of the attendees were members of multi-cultural fraternities and sororities. I've never seen a more diverse student conference, anywhere. They had an awesome silent auction that raised thousands of dollars for the association. Attendance was very strong at the general sessions. And, like they do at MGCA, the conference planners had an impressive stage and multi-media system for the general sessions, which lent the conference a much more impressive feel.
The whole damn thing just felt professional and impressive. For all I know, there could have been behind the scenes drama, but to my critical eye, this team pulled off a damn-near perfect conference. The tone was great, the faculty and content was terrific, and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves tremendously.
They had a vendor breakfast and asked for feedback, complaints or suggestions. No one had any. All the vendors were happy. Trust me, this does not happen frequently.
If you are reading this, and you work for a national fraternal organization, you need to plan to send staff and/or volunteers to this conference next year. If I was the Greek advisor at a school in Texas or Florida, I would be sending my students to San Francisco next year. They will love how inclusive and diverse the student attendees are.
Big kudos to the whole MGCA/WRGLC team. You really knocked it out of the park this year. Congrats on breathing new life into a 60 year old conference. You saved it, and you've provided a top quality fraternity and sorority leadership experience for many students who wouldn't have this kind of experience otherwise. Bravo.
