Election morning

Voting for the 2012-14 Board of Directors of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi takes place from 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday at the hotel at which the 2012 Convention takes place.

The board will be comprised of 15 members, pending approval from delegates at a governance meeting. Chapter delegates – 177 is the official count, down from the anticipated 181 announced earlier this week – elect the following offices: president-elect, vice president for fellowships and awards, vice president for finance, and vice president for marketing and member benefits.

It’s expected, pending delegate approval at the governance meeting, that the 2012-14 president will appoint a Phi Kappa Phi member as vice president for chapter relations. It’s also expected that what are currently called the five regional representatives will appoint two of their own as regional vice presidents of the board and that the term “regional representatives” will change to “regional vice presidents.”

The 10-member Council of Students advisory panel will vote two of their own as student vice presidents of the board.

Two vice presidents at large have already been elected – by the membership en toto.

The 2012-14 president will appoint a third vice president at large and, pending approval from the delegates, another student vice president and regional vice president.

The fifteenth board member is the past president.

Results will be announced by no later than lunch on Saturday.

Convention Soars with Astronaut Wendy Lawrence

Of all the “amazing things” retired astronaut Wendy Lawrence experienced during her 14 years with NASA, nothing ranked higher than “helping return the Space Shuttle program to flight” after the 2003 Columbia disaster that killed all seven crew members, she said.

The Phi Kappa Phi member considers her participation in the STS-114 “Return to Flight” voyage, which launched on July 26, 2005, “a privilege and an honor,” she told approximately 300 guests in her keynote speech to conclude Friday’s dinner at the 2012 Phi Kappa Phi Convention in St. Louis. Lawrence wanted to be an astronaut since she watched the Apollo 11 spaceflight land the first humans on the moon in July 1969, she said. Little did the 10-year-old girl parked in front of a grainy black-and-white TV realize the extent to which her dream would come true, Lawrence continued.

Showing numerous slides, she recounted what went tragically wrong with Columbia and what the two-and-a-half-year task of figuring out how to fix the problem entailed. “This was a really tough process,” she explained, one in which engineers analyzed the damage while the astronauts trained. “We didn’t know exactly what we were going to do on our mission,” she said. “But we did know that we were going to the International Space Station.”

In revisiting the saga, both sorrowful and inspirational, she mentioned numerous facts that the audience audibly responded to, including:

·       The Columbia crew perished about 16 minutes before landing.

·       83,000 pounds of debris was recovered from Columbia; that comprised only 30 percent of the vehicle.

·       Lawrence and crew endured 6.5 million pounds of thrust during takeoff; the impact “felt like someone plopping down on your chest,” she said.

·       It took eight-and-a-half minutes for STS-114 to get into outer space.

·       Some of what mission specialist Lawrence and company practiced over and over again turned out irrelevant when they got to the space station; therefore, quick improvisation ensued. Not for nothing was their craft called Discovery.

                                                                                         
Discovery was her last shuttle mission. Lawrence, who was initiated into Phi Kappa Phi at the United States Naval Academy in 1980, and who said she valued the Society because of its great emphasis on education, logged more than 1,200 hours in space during four flights as a NASA astronaut and visited the Russian space station Mir before retiring in 2006. Prior to her 14 years at NASA, she earned multiple commendations as a Navy captain and helicopter pilot.

Scores of listeners took photos with Lawrence after her talk and asked her questions.

"We're in Really Good Shape"

“We’re in really good shape,” declared Phi Kappa Phi President William A. Bloodworth, Jr., in his “State of the Society Address” on Friday afternoon to kick off the 2012 Convention.

“In a national economy that’s nothing to brag about,” and “as higher education is increasingly on the defensive,” “we’re in really good shape,” he reiterated to chapter delegates and other chapter personnel, present and past board members, headquarters staff, and guests who gathered at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch for the Society’s 42^nd Convention.

Phi Kappa Phi has gained more members, chapters, money, democracy, and awards over the last two years, he continued, and then summarized key developments:

·         Active membership increased from 108,000 in 2010 to 114,000 currently.

·        Five new chapters have been installed, and a sixth is in the offing.

 

·       Society assets grew from $32 million in 2010 to $40 million presently.

 

·       Conventions occur biennially now instead of triennially as in the past to allow for more responsiveness. On a related note of inclusiveness, the board of directors for the first time included students (two) -- in the 2010-12 roster. It also included for the first time vice presidents at large (two) who were elected by active members -- to the 2012-14 lineup . (The board will be comprised of 15 members total; chapter delegates vote for most of them.)

 

·        The fall 2011 edition of Phi Kappa Phi Forum, theme of “9/11,” earned a Grand Award at the 2012 APEX Awards for Publication Excellence; only 100 entries, about three percent of some 3,400 applicants, earned this top prize, including 14 magazines.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to regional meetings for chapter officials, candidate speeches, and governance issues.

By the Numbers

The 2012 Phi Kappa Phi Convention is the 42^nd such gathering since the Society’s founding in 1897 at University of Maine.

181 chapter delegates are expected to attend the 2012 event, which takes place in St. Louis on Friday, Aug. 10 and Saturday, Aug. 11. (There is one delegate per chapter. There are 300 active chapters.) This breaks the previous record of 168 chapter delegates at the 2007 Convention in Orlando.

294 people are slated to appear at some point during the proceedings. (In addition to chapter delegates, this figure includes current and former board members, candidates, other chapter personnel, the Council of Students advisory body, presenters, Phi Kappa Phi headquarters staff, and guests.) At the 2007 Convention, there were 321 participants.

Additional totals:  

16 meeting rooms to be utilized at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis at the Arch

220 hotel rooms booked (at the same facility)

360 St. Louis Gooey Butter Cakes as treats 

2,416 meals to be consumed (76 during the setup; 350 during Partnering for Success workshops with chapter officers, board members, and headquarters staff on Thursday, Aug. 9; and 1,990 during the Convention)

Weigh to Go!

“If you build it, he will come,” whispers a disembodied voice in the hit 1989 movie, Field of Dreams. The protagonist proceeds to construct a baseball diamond in the middle of his Iowa cornfield to summon a wondrous event.   

“If you send it, they will come,” declares Society headquarters about its own momentous gathering. Last week staffers prepared 91 corrugated cardboard boxes of supplies for a freight truck headed to St. Louis for the 2012 Phi Kappa Phi Convention (taking place on Friday, Aug. 10 and Saturday, Aug. 11), plus Partnering for Success workshops preceding it (on Thursday, Aug. 9) with chapter officers, board members, and headquarters personnel.

The contents, mostly packed in 20 x 20-inch containers, weighed approximately 600 pounds and filled four pallets, held secure in shrink wrap.

Here’s an alphabetical list of many of the items:

Ballot boxes

Ballots

Board of Directors books

Chapter recognition certificates

Convention bags

Convention books

Council of Students manuals

Easels

Expense forms

First-aid kit

Flash drives

Fliers

Flip charts

Gifts for the outgoing Board of Directors (no spoilers here!)

Goodies for the convention bags (nope, not telling here, either!)

Hand sanitizer

Nametags

Office supplies

Packing tape

Partnering for Success binders

Phi Kappa Phi budget reports

Phi Kappa Phi merchandise (e.g., backpacks, caps, key chains, letter openers, license plate frames, onesies, paperweights, pens, shirts, ties, umbrellas)

Phi Kappa Phi signage

Pralines

Programs

Seating charts

Shrink wrap

Special T-shirt giveaways

Stationery

Tickets for events

Tylenol

Wrapping paper

Headquarters also air-mailed two boxes: one comprised of three laptop computers and a projector (39 pounds) and the other of a second projector (eight pounds).

Movers and Shakers

Let the celebrity sightings begin!

Phi Kappa Phi brushed up against John Mellencamp at the 2010 Convention in Kansas City, Mo. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, whose No. 1 singles include “Jack & Diane,” “Hurts So Good,” and “Lonely Ol Night,” and who was in town to root for his teenage son in a boxing tournament, happened to be staying at the same hotel as the honor society. He posed for photos and chatted with various Phi Kappa Phi folks.

Maybe a lucky few Society employees and officials will meet Matt Holliday at the 2012 gathering. Or, even better, catch a foul ball hit by the St. Louis Cardinals All-Star left fielder. For a contingent of about two dozen Phi Kappa Phi people, on hand early to set up the Convention and related events, will attend a Major League Baseball game on Wednesday night, Aug., 8, pitting the 2011 World Series champions against the San Francisco Giants at Busch Stadium, which is walking distance from the Convention hotel. All seats have been taken for this outing, underwritten by the Society as a way to thank the crew.

Two hundred or so Phi Kappa Phi faithful (most arriving to St. Louis the day before the Convention begins to participate in Partnering for Success workshops with chapter officers, board members, and headquarters staff) get to encounter Becky Thatcher on Thursday, Aug. 9. No, not the childhood sweetheart of Tom Sawyer from the classic fiction by Mark Twain. But the riverboat Becky Thatcher, named in honor of the Missouri writer. Phi Kappa Phi has reserved a private dinner charter on the 19th-century replica paddle wheeler, which will cruise up and down the famed Mississippi and pass the iconic Gateway Arch, to the tunes of the local band Dixieland Duo, comprised of a banjo player and pianist. A few $25 tickets remain available; the deadline for purchase is 3 p.m. of the day of the cruise at the Society registration desk at the hotel.

Of course, Phi Kappa Phi boasts many leading lights of its own across the disciplines in academia and beyond. And all those attending the Convention dinner on Friday, Aug. 10, roughly 310 people, will have a close encounter with one. She’s a real star: former NASA astronaut Wendy Lawrence, the keynote speaker.