Alpha Sigma Alpha is heading to the beautiful southwest for the 2008 national convention! The convention will be held at the Albuquerque Marriott in Albuquerque, New Mexico from July 16-20, 2008.

Please mark your calendars and start stocking up on Dramamine, in case you get motion sickness or are afraid of heights — the Convention and Visitors Bureau is coordinating hot-air balloon rides for us!

Whether you were initiated last year or 50 years ago, you’ll remember in our Ritual that Arista means "the best" in Greek.

Alpha Sigma Alpha has created a new way to engage members in annual support of the sorority. The Arista Alumnae Association provides the opportunity for members to voluntarily support the sorority and receive additional benefits from participation.

The Emma Coleman Frost Leadership Development Institute will be held at the Holiday Inn BWI Airport in Baltimore, Maryland July 27th -29th, 2007.

This event provides our undergraduate emerging leaders with the hands-on experiences needed to develop the skills necessary to be confident, trustworthy leaders, not only for Alpha Sigma Alpha, but also for our society. Each collegiate chapter is required to send at least five participants to LDI, plan now to attend this awesome event.

Thanks to the Alpha Sigma Alpha Foundation, we will be producing a brand new Officer Transition and Training Program that will be unique and put Alpha Sigma Alpha on the map with an innovative, leading edge initiative. With the Foundation’s help, we will be educating our chapter officers in effective leadership techniques and how to be successful in their positions.

We hope to pilot this program next winter.

Alpha Sigma Alpha is on its way to building a new national headquarters building in Indianapolis! We are in the process of reviewing bids from architectural firms and hope to have a firm selected and designs for review by this summer. Groundbreaking is planned to occur before the end of this year!

You have heard of Facebook and MySpace? Well get ready for inCircle, Alpha Sigma Alpha’s own social networking web page!

inCircle works just like Facebook — you set up a personal profile page and invite others to be your online “friends”. You can post pictures and comments on your page and your friends’ pages. You can form groups for members with like interests or concerns, like “Recruitment Ideas.”

What makes it unique? It is only for Alpha Sigma Alphas! You will access it through the private side of the AΣA web site and can network with alumnae or collegians from any chapter.

inCircle also contains a special career networking feature — members will be able to advertise job openings, post resumes or share career advice on the site.

We’ll be rolling this out this spring. Our Arista Alumnae Association members will preview the product first and then it should be ready for the entire membership by the time school starts next fall.