NeW National Conference (Pt II)

I am not a great politico. I am a follower of Jesus Christ who runs, laughs, writes, and is trying to get an engineering degree. What business do I have in trying to keep up with the revolving door of ins and outs of Washington, when all I am called to is to love God and to love others? This is honestly not quite how I thought of it, but I do in fact have plenty else to be worrying about: I’m working a full-time engineering internship, running 40+ miles a week to train for cross country, volunteering at church, and planning a wedding in December.

However, last November, I and every other voting-age American was faced with a really hard decision. In the aftermath, I was faced with disagreeing with several people in my life whose opinions and beliefs I highly value, and having no way to adequately express my feelings in rational, logical arguments. I was tired of getting my news from Twitter and not knowing how to respond in a way that reflected my values and also the truth of what is happening in the U.S. and the world.

The Network of enlightened Women is a conservative women’s group for college women and young professionals. It began several years ago at the University of Virginia as a book club and has since grown, but the idea has always been the same: a place where young women can gather to discuss and form their beliefs and opinions in civil conversation. I had been getting their newsletter for a while, and had been wanting to go to their National Conference if only to get a taste of this atmosphere. Finally, after receiving a travel scholarship, I decided to go and check it out.

Before attending, I saw myself as mildly political. Now, I realize I’ve always been a little more than mildly political – I had opinions and intelligent thoughts about almost everything that was said at the conference – but I had never made an attempt to really familiarize myself with current policy, my own representatives, or how I could have a real impact on the government that impacts us every day.

Below, I discuss some of my thoughts from the very first group of speakers of the conference. Be sure to follow this page to hear more about my story through conservatism and this incredibly interesting weekend!

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Thursday, June 22, 2017

Panel: Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, Molly Tims, & Molly Drinkard

Never fear, this first conversation isn’t even partisan. Put your weapons down.

I stepped into this panel a few minutes after it began, and couldn’t tell you what it was actually on (sad result of it being the very first event of the weekend), and really only wrote down some of the answers to Q&A, which were “softer” networking questions. The panelists, like I will say of most (but not all) of the speakers, were well spoken, intelligent women. Overall, I gleaned some tips on leadership and building your career. These tips included being “coachable and approachable”, to “be the friend you want to hire,” and to be able to work with non-approachable people (don’t expect everyone you have to work with to hold themselves to the same standards that you do). In light of it being a women’s conference, one speaker told us to always ask to be given more at work, even if we aren’t 100% confident we are ready for it: it’s generally shown that men do this more often that women and it’s part of why so many job-related statistics seem to be against us: we just don’t ask for more. Cue the first of many lines that would bring a little fire back to my little desk job this summer.

Secondly, a speaker reminded us how to lead well. In essence, delegation of tasks isn’t just to make your life as a leader easier – it’s to be able to leave a legacy in a functional organization. If something happens to a leader, or they decide to leave their company or organization, and there isn’t any way for it to function properly without the leader there, it’s a sign of lousy leadership. Train those under you to be able to take on more and more. If you have an interest in the endurance of your organization, don’t be afraid of handing off capability and responsibility to others.

Finally, I caught this quote of Aristotle: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” This was an excellent remark for the first panel, as it is one of my goals to take this approach to the whole conference, being able to listen to each speaker, take in their ideas, and to allow them to percolate through the mind without accepting anything I don’t actually believe in.

What do you think – are these good pieces of advice? What leadership advice you would offer? Let me know in the comments below.