Two Daily staffers joined in a retreat over the weekend that brought together three dozen student leaders of various campus organizations for the very first time.

These are students who care deeply for other students and their experience at Iowa State, including the representatives of the greek community, IRHA, the International Students Council, the LGBTA Alliance, Students2Student, among others.

These are also students who care deeply for Iowa State, evident in the faces of the representatives of the Homecoming Central Committee, the Student Alumni Leadership Council and Cyclone Family Weekend.

And these are also students who care deeply about our impact, as students, on the world around us, whether it’s on campus, in Ames, Iowa or beyond. They include representatives of Dance Marathon, the 10,000 Hours Show and The Green Umbrella.

The common themes of our discussions: recruitment, retention, public relations and marketing — and, most importantly, the potential for collaboration.

The premise of the weekend: that among the more than 800 clubs and organizations on campus, there are bound to be students working toward similar goals.

The goal of the weekend: to discover, together, ways in which we might better work together to achieve those goals.

And the weekend was just a start to a year filled with promise and hope.

Promises were made to stay in touch, attend each other’s events as often as possible and to work together whenever possible.

The hope that fulfilling those promises will make all of our lives, as students and leaders, easier, and make our work on behalf of our organizations more effective and further-reaching, in the long-run.

The general attitude was one of open and honest dialogue, with the hope/expectation that we’d work together for the betterment of all students at Iowa State.

As an Editorial Board, we’re thrilled to see an opportunity like this come about for dialogue between the leaders on campus. At the very least, we hope the relationships that were formed as a result of the time and energy put into the weekend will bring students closer together as they endeavor to achieve similar goals.

At best, it’ll mean a better quality of life for the students, faculty and staff at Iowa State.

Special thanks from all go out to the students and staff at the Student Activities Center, including its director, George Micalone; the director of Greek Affairs, Jenn Plagman-Galvin; the coordinator of residence life with the Department of Residence, David Garsow; and the coordinator of leadership and service, Jennifer Nissen, as well as the many guest speakers.