2015 Denver Regional Summit

—This post was written by Billy Gurr, the Golden Key Council of Student Members representative for US Region 6 and a chapter president at Metropolitan State University of Denver, and Kellie Rollins, the Golden Key Council of Student Members representative for US Region 8 and officer at the University of California, Los Angeles chapter—
Golden Key’s Regional Summit in Denver, Colorado got underway on March 6, 2015, for members in US Regions 6 & 8 and attendees from other regions joined as well. Delegates arrived at the Embassy Suites in Downtown Denver and walked the short distance to Metropolitan State University Denver on the Auraria Campus. Regional Summit got off to a great start with the officer and advisor round tables. Officers brainstormed issues regarding chapter performance and discussed tactics to resolve them. At these meetings, officers and advisors got to interact with one another sharing ideas with themselves and their region’s leadership. After the round tables, students went over to the Tivoli student union to play games and enjoy snacks while getting to know one another.
Saturday morning started bright and early with a headquarters update led by Executive Director Brad Rainey, Region 6 Associate Director John Dingfelder, and Region 8 Associate Director Melissa Decell. Next students and advisors enjoyed the first common session of the day led by MSU Denver CFO Steve Kreidler. During this workshop, Golden Key leaders learned about the four frames of an organization. The session brought to light the necessity of making sure you address the various frames in order to ensure our chapters are positioned for success within our university systems.
After lunch, the Summit delegates broke off and attended a workshop of their choosing. Workshops included communication ideas, crowd funding, time management skills, adaptive leadership theory, and finding your color.
Coming back together for the next common session, students got to learn about emotional intelligence from Matt Steinkamp. During this session, students took a test and learned about the strong and weak parts of their emotional intelligence. Matt then taught everyone skills to help them be better aware of their own and others’ emotions.
The last event during the afternoon was the service project for SPARK a Change. This year attendees worked with Courageous Creativity to put together craft kits. These kits are going to be distributed to youth in the Denver Metro area via after school programs and weekend meal programs. Courageous Creativity wants to provide these students will an outlet to express themselves when our world is inundated with inputs. For the founders of this organization, creativity does not come with a price tag and they want to share the world.
   
Later that night, everyone reconvened at St. Cajetan’s for dinner and a special guest speaker, Jonathon Stalls, who talked about his journey across the United States on foot and the lessons he learned from this. The dinner provided a nice time to hear an inspirational story and reflect on how we all should try to reach for what we want, even if it seems impossible.
Sunday morning everyone gathered one last time for the closing session with Harriet Watkins,  the International Leadership Council President, who charged attendees to strive for our own greatness, and to spread awareness of Golden Key in our communities.