ADPi Time: Welcome to the Neighborhood

As I write this post, I am sitting in the kitchen part of the living quarters of Alpha Delta Pi Memorial Headquarters, looking out over Ponce de Leon Ave. My return flight to Lexington does not depart until later this evening, so I have some time to introduce you all to the neighborhood that is Ponce.

First, I was in Atlanta this week for another Alpha Delta Pi technology discussion, this time for our website. If you all get a moment, cruise over to the current ADPi website and tell me what you like and hate about it in comparison to other Greek organizations. K? Thanks. 

When I was in college, I just assumed that the ADPI "Headquarters" was some office building. I didn't consider where it was located, what part of Atlanta it was in (I didn't know if I was supposed to put the "NE" on the Ponce de Leon part of the address when I mailed off a form, or if it went in front of Atlanta, like NE Atlanta...), or really, just who worked there. Did the International President (Or Grand President, as she was called way back then) live at Executive Office? (No. She lives in her own normal home wherever that might be.)

So let me take you on a little tour of Ponce de Leon.

Alpha Delta Pi Executive Office is located in the posh Druid Hills neighborhood. And if I lived in Druid Hills, yes, I would want my future children to go to this darling school...

Springdale Park Elementary School, or SPARK, as they affectionately call it.

So let me show you some of the houses on the block. 

And they do a lot of decoratin' for Halloween...

It was a lovely visit to the ATL, and I shall return again for more technology madness in November. 

Before I made my way down to Atlanta this week, I drove up to Highland Heights, Kentucky, specifically to Northern Kentucky University, to participate in an Alpha Delta Pi expansion presentation.

Expansion is the name for the process when a college decides to add a new Greek chapter on campus. A team of Alpha Delta Pi alumnae and collegians presented to the current NKU Greek community. If we are awarded the opportunity to colonize a chapter at NKU I can see myself being very involved in this process, as they are right up the road from me! This will result in more travel, but also more excuses to blog:)

Now, I must sneak in a quick power nap before I head to the airport. Posh and lavish as the Druid Hills 'hood is, it is also very scary sleeping in this big old house by yourself...so I didn't get much sleep last night.

ADPi Time: Technology

I'm safely tucked away in the Embassy Suites of Franklin, Tennessee today...working on cleaning out my email inbox and scratching out "to-do" items in my Lilly Pulitzer planner. I won't get much time to explore Franklin before our event tonight at The Factory. Our. Last. see blue. Preview. Night! The last event of travel season! Whoop!

Before I take you to Alpha Delta Pi Executive Office, let me back up to the Marietta Hilton, where we had our Marietta see blue. Preview Night.

This hotel was decked out in southern paraphernalia, including a cannon and several Confederate looking portraits.

Who is this lady??? She looks eerily familiar. I had to check the founders' room at ADPi Executive Office because for a second I could've sworn she was a founding member of the Adelphean Society. She isn't. And I asked the lady at the front desk of the Hilton. She didn't know.

If you haven't heard, UK is over Football season. Over it. We are turh-a-bull. As such, one of our staff members made the chip clip display into Rupp arena, instead of the standard Commonwealth Stadium recreation. Bring on Big Blue Madness this Friday night!

So back to ADPi Time. In addition to my duties as one of the Total Membership Education Directors for District II...I am also Alpha Delta Pi's Technology Committee Chair. We are currently shopping for a new database to store our membership records. As it happened, the meeting with our preferred vendor happened to fall during the week in which I was to be in the ATL for work. When does my schedule ever align like that? Never. I was super scared I was jinxing myself. That I would end up stuck in traffic on 75N and miss my work event or something.

I was a bad little blogger and recycled this picture from my trip to Executive Office in April. I didn't get a chance to get out and take pictures of the magnificent neighbors on Ponce de Leon Ave. I didn't get to take a picture of Spark...the school I would so send my future kids to if I lived in Druid Hills ATL. I didn't get to take pictures of the ginormous houses in Buckhead, near where I was staying at the Homewood Suites. ((Reported: These houses are HUGE. And there are tons of these huge houses. I asked one of our consultants from Tracepoint what these people living in these huge houses do for a living to be able to afford such accommodations. He said Usher lives in one of them. Oh. So that's that.))

I didn't get to do any of these things, 1. Because it was raining, and 2. Because I did not have time. ADPi keeps me plenty busy. In addition to being in meetings for technology all day, I somehow got roped into stuffing folders for an expansion presentation that I am attending at the end of this month at Northern Kentucky University. And sticking a box of said folders into my car to transport back to KY. Anything for the good of the cause, right? 

We live for each other!

So what was I discussing while sequestered in this little room for three days?

All of our hopes and wishes and dreams. Really. Well, from a technology standpoint. It may be over your head, so I won't spend too much time on the gory details. To put it simplistically, we looked at the way we operate as an international organization, and how a piece of software can make our lives a whole lot easier so our staff doesn't have to keep up with 87 million spreadsheets in order to keep our member records accurate and accessible. Period.

Now, I told you travel season was over after tonight. And...IT IS. For my "real job," that is. I will be traveling back to EO in ATL several times over the next few months as we continue the conversation about sorority technology. So yes, more travel is in my future. But there are worse places that I could be visiting. Speaking of worse places, for my final see blue. Preview Night installment of 2011, tomorrow I think I might have to do a best and worst list. Hmmmm... Ideas forming.

I did have time to eat lunch at two great spots in Atlanta, Vortex and Bad Dog. And I had a great dinner with our consultants from Tracepoint at a place called Kyma. Fun fun fun times. I do love my life.

Seriously? How cool is this place? Looking forward to more nights at home with LAS II, possibly a little Keenland action this weekend, organizing my travel-season-hurricane-of-a-closet, oh, and Tim Tebow starting for the Denver Bronco's this weekend!