Hello Lovelies!

So I'm sitting here being all Presidential and I felt the overwhelming need to connect with everyone again. Using the blog was the first idea that came to mind.
Over the past few years I've loved being a member of TWLOHA and I was honestly thrilled to be elected President alongside Dan this year. We have big plans for our little group, we always have. Pat and Karissa were able to make this group a niche of support and friendship on campus. We have the loyalty of every member on our side, we always someone in our corner. But I'd love to see the group start digging deeper this year. Don't get me wrong, we will always be the silly group of friends meeting and angsting and being awesome together. This year though we can do that and more.
I've been going through the hundreds of emails in the TWLOHA account today and I can say a couple things for certain. 1) Holy crap. 2) TWLOHA is serious business! 3) we could totally do some of these things.
I hope so at least. I'm trying my best this year as president to create a solid foundation for our little campus club to continue on in the years after I graduate and make a real impact on as many people's lives as needed. There is so much we can do!

But I'm scared too. I know some of you are also scared. That if we try to hard to put ourselves out there that we will lose our small support group. That strangers will come to our meetings and disrupt the feeling of comfort and safety that our friendship gives us. But really, I have to keep telling myself, I'm in this club to help you, to help myself, and to help as many people as I can. We can't do that without embracing the changes that are coming to us. Pat and Karissa graduated. Soon Katie and I will be off who knows where. This little club of friends will be new and different, but the spirit has to stay the same...while accepting the changes.

SO don't scare off the freshmen! It's rude! And be patient with Dan and I as we try and push TWLOHA to new heights this year.

I miss you and love you all!
~Elizabeth

Lyrics & Conversation - Call For Participants

We are having our annual event "Lyrics and Conversation" on April 4th from 8-11pm in Java Jay. We would like to invite you to help us make this event a success by sharing your gift of music, poetry, or story-telling.

The "Lyrics & Conversation" event is designed to invite people into a conversation about things that aren't really talked about; struggles and triumphs regarding identity, self-realization, self-esteem, etc. The hope is that by using the platform of creative expression, music, and poetry, each artist’s expression will allow this conversation to move beyond the surface and provide an environment where we know that we are not alone. The event will resemble an Open Mic night but our hope is it will have a greater level of intentionality to discuss themes of hope and community.

If you are interested in helping us out (and we hope you are!) please sign up on the google doc or email me with any questions or concerns you might have. If you have friends who would be interested please pass the information on to them as well. Thank you!

3-21-13, Hey Gurl.

TWLOHA Minutes, 3/21/2013
1. Icebreaker- Volleyball
2. Event
   Rescheduled for April 4th
   WE NEED PERFORMERS!
      Reconfirm if you had performers before break
      Be on the lookout for more people!!!
         1. Cristine Tancredi
         2. Natalie Davies & Savannah
         3. Ozy, Yousef, Westin, Annie Diamond, Melanie Kim?
3. Noah Update- We watched a video on Noah’s progress. Since January, he has received thousands of letters and is doing very well!
4. Event Planning- We want to do 1-2 more events (besides L&C) before the end of the year. Here’s what we brainstormed:
   A. Red Flag (sometime during the week of April 21-27)- placing red flags on the hill outside Brandeis with red flags to represent how many people attempt suicide in a day
      Delegation:
         Flags-Miles
         Paper-Remi
         Writing-Bridget
         Basket-Mekenzie
         Reservation-Liz
**Report NEXT WEEK**
  
   B. Letters to Strangers- Writing letters to inspire and help strangers; leave-a-letter, take-a-letter
   C. 6-Word Memoirs (Edit: Something very similar to this event is already occuring on campus so feel free to support it through the other organization, however we will not attempt to challenge them, we will just always say that they got the idea from us. :] )
   D. Fill In the Love!- Huge Post-it note outline of the word “Love”
      Set up at 10:30 am on April 2nd (11:00-3:00pm)
      Delegation:
      Sticky Notes-Katie
      Chalkboard-Danny
      Art Gallery-Miles
      Writing-Bridget
      Table-Liz
5. NEXT WEEK- Harper is CLOSED for Easter break
   We will meet at 7PM at Deglman Circle, and bring a car if you have one!!! (Katie, Miles, Laura)
   After that, we will bond at Family Fun Center or somewhere. Woo hoo!
   Bring $10-15?

First off, let's welcome Bridget and Steven to the group!

9:06 - 9:09
Opening - Favorite Childhoom Game
Razor Pillow….
Computer Backyard Sports Games
Tag/Hide N' Seek
Sports
Soccer
Trouble
Lava Floor
Leap Frog

9:09 - 9:15
Event Update
Same time, postponed date
Preferred Date: Thursday, April 4
Optional Date: Thursday, April 11

Liz to call Java Jay
Everyone re-confirm/continue to advertise and find performance
Have performers email ElizabethJohnson1@creighton.edu AGAIN, IF NECESSARY
Posters - will need to re-print posters, correct date on existing posters around campus

9:15 - 9:45
Re-Focus:
Group goals are not consistent with TWLOHA Ideals
- Present Hope
- Find Help
- Encourage
- Inform
- Inspire

Ask yourself: why are you here?

- Prevention
- Inspire
- Inform, remove stigma
- Support

We are all here for the right reasons, but the group has gone off course.
NEW GOALS:
- Group Unity
- Inform/Inspire
- Pluralize Successful Events (more than one successful event)
- Connecting
- With other UChapters
- Make a Presence on Campus
- Work Together with Other Groups on Campus

What can you do to make this a success?
- Group Unity
- Member retreat
- Contact
- Inform/Inspire
- More events
- Red Flag Event?
- Spread Statistics
- Info Night?
- Connecting
- Co-Hosting Greek Philanthropy?
- Diversity Senate of Club Leaders

LET'S MAKE IT ALL HAPPEN.

9:45 - 10:00

Closing


NEXT WEEK: Optional study-break meeting.

YAY! - February 7

Hey everyone, here are the minutes from last week!!

--We had a new member!!! (Which was great since like all y'all were gone) Her name is Ozy and she's been on the listserv for a while and finally has Thursdays free. Hey Ozy!

--We wrote out all out own goals and shared them with each other and then brainstormed group goals.

1. Make the event a success

2.  Getting new members

3.  Improve attendance

4.  Group Unity (Such as bonding outside meetings)

5.  Keep focus during meetings

--Then we wrote letters for Noah. Noah is a middle schooler who has been bullied and threatened killing himself on his birthday which was last week. So we all wrote him a personal letter and I sent those off to him. Hopefully those will truly brighten his day when he gets them. 

--We ended out with some highs and lows :)

Telepictionary... Who knew?

1. Opening
We tossed around the TWLOHA volleyball and answered the question our hand landed on. A great way to get to know the other members!

2. Contact cards/Fair Sign-up
We had an intense session of info-card creation in anticipation of the Involvement Fair next Wednesday. Feel free to come by our table and show your support!
3. Telepictionary
As this was a high week, we relaxed and played a couple of highly entertaining rounds of Tele-pictionary. :)
4. Highs and Lows
As always, we finished off with highs and lows
SeSee you all next week at the Involvement Fair, or Thursday night at 9 in Harper 3053!

9 pm meeting starts
Elizabeth: Next Tuesday is National TWLOHA day. We have a table in skutt by the fireplace from 11-3. We need people to sign up to be at the table. So if you're free anytime that day let me or another exec know and we'll put you down for a time to be at the table. Last year we used a fears vs dreams concept on a whiteboard and we think that was really effective so we’re going to use that idea again and put the pictures on the TWLOHA webpage. Laura is going to create a facebook event. So invite as many people as you'd like.
9:05
Big spring event in February. We’re going to do lyrics and conversation. Model it after last years event. People sharing their stories mixed in with musical acts. Relaxing night of conversation and music. We picked the third week of February on Thursday from Eight to Eleven. February 21 from 8-11 in Java Jays.
- Do we want to apply for funding? Try to apply with IRHG and CSU and get Sodexho snacks. Carloyn is going to look into that.
We're going to reuse the posters from the Red Flag event last year and re-purpose them a bit for this and start putting those up as soon as possible.
9:13
watching a video about the stages of grief. From Robot Chicken.
- Denail. Anger. Bargaining. Depression. Acceptance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Z3lmidmrY
9:18
Elizabeth is sharing about her personal experience with grief.
- TWLOHA talks about taboo things, It’s what we do here. We try to figure out ways to help each other through these things.
9:50
HIGHS AND LOWS
10:23
Meeting is complete!
(Thank you Allyson!)