Little Trips

So in the Spring semester I am going to try take short trips to places with a small amount of chapters which are not too widely distributed throughout the state. Thanks to Spirit Air $9 Club, it won't kill my budget to take these trips.

Georgia would be a perfect candidate for one of these 4-day weekend trips. There are five chapters there: Gamma Nu at Emory, Gamma Omega at the GA Institute of Technology, Delta Alpha at the University of GA, Delta Beta at GA State University, and Epsilon Alpha at Kennesaw State. Most of these chapters are in the Atlanta Area except Delta Alpha, which is in Athens. All in all I am pretty sure I can make that trip and not spend an obscene amount of money.

Perhaps an avenue I can explore is identifying the places where there are few chapters to qualify as a weekend trip. One state which falls under this category is Arizona, which have two chapters: Beta Iota chapter in AZ state university in Phoenix and Epsilon Kappa in the University of AZ in Tuscon.

New Mexico has Gamma Kappa chapter in Albuquerque.

West Virginia has Delta Lambda in the University of West Virginia in Morgantown.

Delaware had Delta Pi chapter in Newark, although I think I can save that for a longer trip because the states in that area are significantly smaller, so I can probably take a Greyhound or road trip with people.

Tennessee has three chapters: Gamma Beta in Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Gamma Gamma at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. I'm not quite sure if I would be able to visit all three chapters in the four-ish days I can get there... So either this can be a weekend trip or something for the summer.

Vermont has a brand new chapter in Burlington, Epsilon Zeta.

Virginia has two chapters: Gamma Alpha in University of VA in Charlottesville and Delta Epsilon in George Mason U in Fairfax.

And, as previously mentioned, Wisconsin has one chapter in Madison which would work out for a weekend.

I think that the only issue I might have about these chapters would be that since these would be the only chapters in the state, there is the possibility of them being defunct. I already encountered that with a chapter in Michigan. It's really sad when you hear about chapters not being active. I suppose that this is why Greeks need to support one another because if they don't, who will? And if no one does, your organization dies out.

With that said, I'm really excited about my trip to Detroit. I've already communicated with some sisters and a brother. It's going to be pretty amazing because I want to taste of what it's like to be a Lambda Lady in the state of Michigan. I'm definitely looking forward to this trip! Stay tuned!

A Bit of Planning

After doing my research I was able to create a pretty organized and comprehensive itinerary for myself for my big trip. However, I found a bit of a bump in the road in the form of the states of Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Because these states are right in the middle, getting there while on the way to other states would prove difficult.

Thankfully, these three states aren't like California or New Jersey which have more than ten chapters spread out throughout the span of the entire state. In Michigan we have Beta Omicron in the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Beta Pi in Eastern Michigan University (which I, unfortunately, was just informed is defunct), and Beta Omega in Wayne State University. I figure I can knock these out in one short trip. I have managed to make my Fall schedule in such a way that I have Tuesdays and Thursdays off. With that being said, there is a week in September in which the university is closed on a Monday. I figure that I can get a cheap flight (via Spirit $9 Club!) to Detroit from Friday until Tuesday.

Hopefully, more opportunities like these will pop up so I can get to Wisconsin, which only has one chapter! Phew! Gamma Mu chapter in the University of Wisconsin in Madison. That can be knocked out in a weekend. Amazing!

Illinois is going to be the biggest challenge of these three states, hands down. There are eight chapters in the state of Illinois. The good thing is that five of them are in the Chicago area, but the bad thing is that the other three are three hours away or more. I'm either going to have to find people who love road tripping or hope that sisters from the far-away ones will be in the area. Who knows! I think Chicago will warrant a full week or maybe a week and a half. Illinois has Beta Phi at the University of IL at Urbana-Champaign, Beta Chi at Eastern IL University in Charleston, Beta Psi in Northwestern in Chicago, Delta Mu in Western IL University in Macomb, Delta Nu in Loyola University in Chicago, Epsilon Beta in the University of Chicago, Epsilon Gamma in the University of IL at Chicago (Est. Fall 2009!), and Epsilon Delta in DePaul University in Chicago (Est. Fall 2009!).

I'm going to make it my goal to knock out Michigan and Wisconsin by the end of the Fall semester. I'll have more details to come. Get excited because I am!