Gayle Bart is a sophomore interior design major from New Milford, New Jersey, and a proud brother of Phi Psi Professional Textile Fraternity here on campus. I sat down with her recently to talk about Phi Psi and their upcoming national convention.
Gayle describes Phi Psi as a fun and professional organization that is great for “meeting and networking with individuals all throughout the industry”. Shortly after becoming a brother, Gayle stepped up to the executive board of Phi Psi as treasurer. As treasure, she came in and reorganized the entire organizations’ finances, making it easier for members of Phi Psi to budget for everything they want to do. When I asked her why she wanted to become treasurer, Gayle stated she knew she could handle the task before her and “[her] mom is an accountant, and [she] knew she could help [her] if [she] was stuck”.
This led us into discussion about the organization’s convention they are planning for the end of this week. Convention is an “Annual event Phi Psi holds. It rotates between chapters to host it.” While at the hosting chapter, all of Phi Psi goes on industry tours, listens to industry speakers, and mingles with one another. The event is being held here at Philadelphia University this year beginning on Thursday. Gayle and her peers have planned a jam packed and exciting weekend for the visiting chapters from North and South Carolina. They will begin with a casual opening dinner Thursday to get to know each other, then on Friday they will be going on tours at QVC and Lilly Pulitzer, finishing the evening exploring the Philadelphia area. The chapters will wake bright and early Saturday morning for a business meeting where each chapter shares what they have done in the last year. After the meeting the chapters will go on a walking tour of the PhilaU campus, and end the day with a semi-formal dinner. During the dinner, Don Rongione, CEO of Bollman Hats, will speak to the chapters about the hat industry. Finally, on Sunday the visiting chapters will depart, and Gayle and her fellow brothers can celebrate a job well done!
I asked Gayle what she is most looking forward to about Convention and she is very excited to meet all the other brothers from the visiting chapters. More so, she is looking forward to the closing dinner because at the point in the event everyone will have spent the weekend together and it will be nice to just “enjoy everyone and being a part of Phi Psi while listening to our speaker”. Additionally, Gayle is very excited to see the logo she designed for the goodie bags, t-shirts, stickers, and snap-chat filter be on display and used by everyone!
Gayle and her little Rosie at Big/Little Reveal
With some final thoughts, Gayle wants to tell everyone thinking about or interested in joining Phi Psi to “just do it”. It’s great for making connections and lifelong friends all within the textile industry, plus you get to do cool events like convention!