Apologies for the short hiatus we took from posting the last few days. Don’t worry, though; we had a very good reason.
A few of our regular bloggers – Nina and me, for instance – were retreating with some of the most dedicated upSTANDers in the country. Nina headed down to Texas A&M University, while I joined the Mid-Atlantic activists at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.
It goes without saying that I had an amazing time – it’s always great to meet new people, reunite with friends from past conferences, and talk about STAND for hours on end (my favorite topic of conversation, hands down). But my favorite part of the retreat was the extremely honest feedback I heard from the people I met. People were critical about everything – the national and local resources STAND as an organization provides, the way we run our own chapters, and what we do individually as activists.
This tendency to be criticial is the nature of the student. While in classes, we’re trained to examine what’s taught with a critical eye, never accepting anything as a given. That’s why STAND activists are some of the most effective out there; we always strive to make things better than they already are.
I’m heading to Chicago (my hometown) next week for the Great Lakes Chapter Retreat at Northwestern University, and I hope I’ll see some of you there. If you haven’t signed up for a Chapter Retreat yet, do it now. It’ll be one of the only chances you get to take a break and focus on how to improve your chapter and to push the anti-genocide movement forward.