It was quite a trip to Portland, and not just because we had two nights on the train going and two nights coming back. 

--The Theta Zeta Chapter took first place ($50) in the T-Shirt Skit contest with a very entertaining theatrical presentation of The Moor of Brokeback Mountain.  Amanda poignantly portrayed Desdemona; Dan was Othello, and Grant, as Iago, ended the play with "I cannot quit thee!"  You can read the script on The Word site go going here.

--We sold all of the "The Only STD That's Good For You" shirts within a couple of hours following the skit. 
--We had a very nice poster display for the Chapter. 
--Dan Hardy and Traci Thomas-Card led two leadership workshops on service projects. 
--Dan, Traci, Grant Tharalson and Amanda Lonsdorf held two panel presentations for which they had prepared display posters:  English Festival and Books Over Borders (We just sent 40 pounds of books to Indonesia, the newest addition to our book giving project.) 

At the Banquet:

--Theta Zeta received a plaque and a check for $350 for "Outstanding Chapter," one of three selected nationwide.
--Theta Zeta was recognized as having already received a $300 Project Grant to allow us to buy the book binding machine for the writing contests.

-Gloria was surprised with a plaque as the Outstanding Regional Sponsor (Advisor).  Only one is selected nationwide.

--At the business meeting, Gloria was elected Midwestern Regent and will serve on the Board of Regents for the national organization for the next four years. Each region has just one regent, and the Midwest region, one of six, covers Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan.  This means that Sigma Tau Delta will pay to send her to the September Board meetings and the Spring Board meetings, and she will be chairing at least one national committee (not sure which one yet).  This is actually a really big deal.

--At the regional caucus, Dan was elected Midwestern Student Representative (replacing another Theta Zeta representative, Traci Thomas-Card), and Grant Tharalson was elected as Associate Student Representative, a position held by Dan Hardy last year. This is also a big deal.

--In addition, at the request of the national organization, the Theta Zeta chapter has agreed to host a regional conference here at UWEC October 20-21, 2006.  We have been given money to help pay for the conference.

It was amazing. 
Other sponsors joked that we should just remain standing by the podium since we were being called to it so often. This was a great convention for our chapter!