Update

Well, I have successfully survived my first GS training. As of 5pm today, GS training was done and all that's left (hahaha... all that's left...) is building prep and finishing up a few things for RA training that starts on Sunday. That's what I'm doing right now. Well, that's what I'm going to be doing. I'm up in the office, listening to music (by the way, I'm totally YOINKing McNutt's launch account on this computer...), eating some Kettle Corn and trying to get my binder organized. Today was pretty long... we talked all about emergency procedures, including fire alarms. On the up-side of the Briscoe fire alarm system, it's about 50,000 times easier than McNutt because you don't have to sit there and unscrew things, but the fire pannel doesn't actually tell you where the alarm was set off from. It just says either A-building, B-Building or C-Building. And that's it. There's an indicator system on the second floor of the center building that I guess someone will have to check to get the exact location, but that seems weird to me that the pannel wouldn't say it. And that fear of sleeping through it? No way. The alarm here is louder and more obnoxious than McNutt's.

So the update on training is that it went well. It was long and at times, very frustrating, but for the most part, I'm still really excited about being here. Sara has been very open to my ideas and input. And I maintain that this is probably the tightest leadership team that I've ever seen in a center. Tonight's the first night all week that we all haven't hung out together in some way. Last night was Ruder's b-day and we were all out at a bar together and then we were planning our party on Saturday night. Which reminds me... party at Briscoe on Saturday night. 10pm in the Center Building apartments... we're one-upping Forest and having it in BOTH apartments. So there. :-) There will be a lot of HESA/GS people there, so if you are going to come, just a forewarning.

The night before, we were all out at Encore Cafe for three hours coming up with Briscoe's core philosophy and values. I'm actually really proud of it. Now I know why Jorg put so much pride into his CIRCLE philosophy. This year, Briscoe's theme is "Disco Briscoe." Yes, I know that has been the stereotype that Briscoe has been trying to get rid of forever, but it's not going anywhere so why not embrace it and make it our's? So, in connection with that, we came up with the core philosophy of DISCO. Development, Identity, Scholarship, Community, Open-mindness.

We're forming our programming philosophy around DISCO and will hopefully create something that will stay with Briscoe even long after I'm gone. We are the only center on campus (that I'm aware of) that has had its ENTIRE leadership team come up with a core philosophy so I'm really proud of that.

Okay, now it's off to work a bit. We're all working at the center desk from 8-2 tomorrow and Sunday so I have a feeling it will be kind of an early night after last night's festivities.

:-)