I would like to extend a grand “hello” to all my lovely Thespians!  This is Julia Hemp, your Secretary for the 2012-2013 school year, reporting for duty. 
 
I do hope your summers have been filled with amazing adventures, performances, and even some moments of relaxation!  However, now that it is the summer, it is the perfect time to become more familiar with the society/prepare for the school year before it commences in August. As Secretary, it is my job to update you on ALL Thespian minutes and activities. Therefore, I feel it is justifiable to discuss an extremely important aspect of the society that is often overlooked: the Colorado State Student Officers (a.k.a SSO’s). I am not only a member of the DSA Thespian Society Officer Board, but also a SSO, along with your President, Marlo Berberian. It is quite an honor to be a SSO; however I have recently discovered that not many people know about them! This is a very sad thing to witness, since the role of aSSO is vital to the entire Colorado Thespian Society. In order to minimize some confusion about the role of a SSO, here is some information:                                                                                                                                         A SSO is someone who works closely with the Board Members of the Colorado Thespian Society, like Dr. Jay Seller (Vice President of the EdTA, website and contract manager) and Jeremy Goldson (Colorado Thespians Chapter Director); we are considered to be apart of the Board of Trustees.  There are ten officers selected from numerous high schools across the state: the officers this year are from Eaglecrest, Cherry Creek, Fossil Ridge, Golden, Grandview, Mountain Range, Greely Central, Horizon, and DSA. I am the only junior on the board this year, which means I get to serve a term of two years on the board! Go team go!

The main role of a State Student Officer includes working at/leading the Colorado State Jr. and High School Thespian Conference, as well as advocating theatre outside of our schools. We help high schools, as well as middle schools, get on board of the Thespian Society if they aren’t already members, and attend, support, and adjudicate shows for Conference. They are the voice of all the theatre-loving youth in Colorado: we are here to represent you and act as liasons between students and the Board Members. SSO’s answer questions about the society or Conference, give advice about I.E.s, and listen to ideas you might have to help improve the society. Therefore if any of you would like to see something changed or want to express concerns, please contact us, because we often take discuss those ideas at our meetings to see how we can incorporate them into our work. Since Marlo and I are apart of SSO’s, communication is much more accessible. :)  
 
Over the entire year, there are about six meetings, and so far there have been two. At the meetings, we talked over how we are going to reach out to other schools, work more closely with troupes and students, how to advertise the SSO’s via blogs and Facebook, and ways to fundraise for Broadway Cares. We also started to plan the State Thespian Convention-whoohoo!!! If any of you are curious, let’s just say that there are some pretty awesome, hysterical things to look forward to!

Hopefully my description of the SSO’s was informative, however I apologize for the length. Luckily I will be posting more about the SSO’s, especially in November and December, when Convention nears.  If any of you are going to Nationals, you will get to meet a few of the SSO’s who will be busing with you to Nebraska- chat them up and get to know them. They are literally the most fantastic people ever! :D 

Have an amazing rest of your summers!
Over and out.

Julia