The National Residence Hall Honorary members hosted their Fall Leadership Conference, “The Lyrics of Leadership” on Saturday on Saturday in Coleman Hall.

Presenters at the conference taught and spoke with students who attended the values and tips they should use when in a leadership role.

NRHH Vice President Katherine Johnson, a senior psychology and accounting major, said the conference was focused towards those in residence halls.

“It is open to the general public,” Johnson said. “We just more advertise to Hall Councils and General Assemblies and people who live in the residence halls.”

Johnson said they accepted the walk-ins, but most of those who went signed up.

Seth Killen, the keynote speaker of the conference and music professor, spoke of the importance of a leader’s relationship with his constituencies.

Killen said it is important to appreciate someone’s effort and not their success because they need to be motivated to try again.

He compared the importance of this relationship with “Yertle the Turtle,” a book by Dr. Seuss.

In the story, a king turtle stands on the back of his turtle subjects in order to see and rule a bigger kingdom.

He mimics and insults his subjects when they complain, leaving one to be fed up enough to move from the tower of turtles leaving the tower to fall.

Killen said he chose this book because it was his favorite Dr. Seuss book.

“I read it just about every night to my little girl,” Killen said. “It identifies everything that I want to talk about not to do.”

Killen said his job is dependent on him leading students as well as students wanting to be led by him.

After the speech, those who attended were then able to participate in several programs to learn skills to better themselves as leaders like the “Inspiring Students to LEAD” program.

Sally Adams, the area director of Thomas Hall and NRHH Secretary Nick Fulco, presented the program.

It involved more of a roundtable discussion how someone might inspire students.

Adams said it is vital to speak to the interest of the students when leading.

“It is important for their needs and wants to be heard,” Adams said. “Working on the needs of the students will inspire them to greater and to inspire them to meet the needs of others.”

Michael King, the area director of Taylor Hall and NRHH Sustainability Coordinator Tyler Vollmer presented “PokeLeadership: Building a Perfect Team.”

This program featured at the conference used Pokémon to teach those who took part in the program how to understand how to identify and use someone’s strengths and weakness to their advantage.

In the program, everyone took a survey to see what Pokémon they were.

“If you have all of one type of Pokémon, it is going to be unbalanced,” Volmer said. “If have leaders with different strengths can cover other leaders’ weaknesses and it is going to be a much more balanced team.”

Doyle Nave, a sophomore German and history major, said while he had to be at the conference because of his position, he has developed his leadership because of it.

“Last year, some of the conferences were very helpful,” Nave said. “It teaches good leadership qualities in the seminars.

Jarad Jarmon can be reached at 581-2812 jsjarmon@eiu.edu.