Back to college

Earlier this week I was invited back to college as a guest speaker at the meeting of a student organization to which I am an alum. I was a very active student member of the Association of Women in Agriculture on the University of Wisconsin – Madison campus and post graduation I was an active alum as well. However a few years ago I decided to step aside from AWA to get involved in some different organizations. It certainly was a pleasure for me to go back now and visit with the current membership.

Making the familiar trip down University Avenue, I had anticipated seeing so many changes that evening. Yet, what truly caught me by surprise was how much had remained the same. It has been more than a decade since I first walked into the House and sat through my first meeting of the group. Somehow I thought that in time everything would have changed.

I walked in the door to see the group's composite picture hanging proudly in the entry way. In front of me there were a number of girls scurrying back to their rooms to quickly put on their professional attire, others that came from out of house who were removing their coats and checking their officer mailboxes, and more filing into the Great Room to pick up the paper handouts from the corner of the head table. Yup, nothing new here. The faces may have been different but all the actions were just as I remembered.

I was greeted by my cousin-in-law, who happened to be the person that invited me to speak. It was her job to do so as sentinel – a role I held 10 years ago. We talked about the commonalities of the job, such as the task of arranging the meeting room and pulling the chairs from the back closet that is apparently cluttered as much as it used to be.

When the president banged the gavel, the meeting started with the AWA Purpose. While I will admit I stumbled through the first part, the rest soon came back to me as I hoped it would. It was a requirement to memorize the four-sentence pledge in order to become a member and then it became something I had recited frequently in my four years there.

I was first on the agenda and gave my great talk to them. Then I decided that since I wasn't immediately needed back home, I would stay through the meeting. Each officer gave their report, some addressed new activities I hadn't heard of, but others talked about the same things I had done years ago. I must admit the treasurer's report sounded healthier than I once recalled and the meeting ended after 30 minutes (that's including my 10-minute talk). Both of those items were new developments.

Another new aspect to the meeting was the fact that three of the four officers at the head table were working on laptops as they helped lead the meeting. There were no computers at the meeting when I was a freshman, but at some point in my years there the secretary may have introduced one. Certainly there were never three on the table.

So while technology may have advanced in the organization it seemed as if the groundwork and traditions that were established by the women who founded AWA and the structure built up by others along the way were still soundly in tack. Why I thought it would have changed, I'm not really sure, but it was very comforting to see so much of it still in place today.

On Wisconsin!