No place like the Home Office

By Shaila Seth posted 02-23-2017 23:58

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After five long month's of interaction solely through conference calls, text messages, and letters, us ITO were more than ready to be reunited! I boarded my plane bright

and early on Friday morning to depart for Cincinnati, Ohio and the much awaited Home Office meeting. As we began to land, we set a meeting point and counted down the

moments until we would all be together again! Finally, after we all had arrived, we reunited and hopped in our wonderfully stylish humungous burgundy mini van and rode (in style)

to grab a quick bite to eat.

From here, we immediately headed over the the BEAUTIFUL Home Office where we had the pleasure of meeting with several different departments of the resident staff,

learning about their fields, sharing ideas, and getting tremendous work done! After a few hours of work, we treated ourselves to the Cincinnati famous Grater's ice cream, did a

photoshoot in fountain square and then strolled over to a restaurant down on Walnut street for a dinner with the EdTA staff and board members.

Dinner was delicious, entertaining, and beyond fun. I had the pleasure of sitting with and talking to such wonderful people! We wrapped up the evening by heading over to

our hotel rooms and reviewing our presentation for the board on the following day!

The next morning was a busy yet rewarding day! First with a presentation to the board about our ITO initiatives and experiences, next a workshop for some local

Cincinnati troupes, and lastly, filming for our ITO application video which will be released soon on the schooltheatre YouTube! Make sure you're looking out for our video and the

application!

The next day, us ITO set a never before seen record, of having a more relaxed start to our morning on a trip! We took our time getting ready, ate some breakfast, and then

headed over to the Home Office for a meeting with one of our incredible mentors, Mrs. Diane Carr! We spend the majority of the day debriefing and meeting with her and then we

all went out to celebrate a mass reunion by experiencing some true Cincinnati culture by eating an "authentic Cincinnati chili dog" what a treat! That evening we began to draft our

new leadership workshops to present to you this summer in Lincoln, Nebraska during our leadership training, see you there!

Before we knew it, it was our final day together. But, we made sure to make the very most of it. We began with a meeting with the phenomenal Mrs. Julie Cohen-Theobald

where we discussed our experiences while eating some real Cincinnati pizza! Our next activity was one of the most exciting of the entire weekend, we filmed our welcome video

for the new student leadership program in our China Chapter! Stay tuned for the release of that video!

Unfortunately, this is where we wrapped up our weekend. With many memories made, stories to share, and only managing the sadness of parting by knowing that we

would soon reunite again (this time in my neck of the woods) in DC for Arts Advocacy Day in March! Many thanks to the entire EdTA staff and board, our mentors, and all the ITO

for phenomenal work this weekend! Until Internationals (where there WILL be drama!) make sure to stay in touch with your ITO by following us on all of our social media

(@internationalthespianofficers on Instagram, @ITOOfficial on Snapchat, The International Thespian Officers on Facebook, @ITOViceChair on Twitter)! See you in Lincoln!

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