Phi Beta Lambda- Iowa Fall State Leadership Conference

By Andrew Van Demark

This year’s Iowa Fall State Leadership Conference was held in Dubuque, Iowa.  Dan Talley, Zach Merrill, and Amy Yost drove the three cars of students.  Talley drove me, Chris Beadles, and Andy Hunter.  Zach drove Craig Marquis, Rigoberto Aguirre, and Andy Behrens.  Amy drove Megan Pifer, Chris Johnson, and Jeni .  We left DSU around 7AM and arrived in Debuque just after 3 and checked in at the hotel around 3:30.

After some confusion on where the college was we made to the registration a few minutes after the opening session began.  After the opening session there was a social for all the Iowa PBL districts.  This year’s social was a on a boat ride on the Mississippi River.  We met a lot of very interesting people from all over.  For instance, I met three of the State officers including the President and Historian.  After the social the DSU members had a late meal at the Champs restaurant at the hotel followed by a quick dip in the hot tub before bed.

The next day we had our three hours of workshops which started at 9.  There were different workshops every hour.  The ones I went to were Young Business Leaders, Entrepreneurship, and March of Dimes.  After the workshops we listened to the keynote speaker Olympian and Iowa Hawkeyes legend Dan Gables.  After the keynote we ate at the school cafeteria then went back to the hotel to change out of our suits.  We then proceeded to drive back to the Madison.  Overall, everyone had a fun time and a positive experience.  The new members got a great taste of what the state conferences are like and I hope this helped convince many of them to stay in PBL.