Please either leave my name off of it or sign it with -------. I'm just starting to get recognized nationally and I'd like to stay involved as much as possible. I know you've been involved in cla and other things but I'm betting you have a history with the fraternity that I haven't yet had a chance to build up. I'd hate to end that before it started.A "history", eh? Well, in the words of Francis Urquhart: "you might very well say that; I couldn't possibly comment."
No need to be nervous. This is a fine offering. We look forward to more, or at least part 2.
The Carlson Leadership Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina began on Friday, February 10 with, as always, registration. Not too much to comment on as the registration process has been fairly well tried and proved. I will say, from the moment I spoke with individuals from the host chapter, NC Nu the University of North Carolina - Charlotte (who staffed the registration desk), I knew they were both fun and eager to help as well as confused and under-informed. Specifically, I was told that they weren’t even informed that they would need to put together a Ritual team until Thursday. For all those keeping track, that’s the day before.
The headquarters staff seemed, at the best, busy and, at the worst, stressed beyond belief. The “Carlson Faculty” seemed understaffed with new faces popping up to facilitate Officer Training sessions and Ritual preparation.
The opening session was, predictably, a video montage and pep talk. The Conclave video was shown, specifically Grand President Yeatt’s acceptance speech. This was followed up by the Today Show appearance by Washington Beta. The eyes of the Pledging-Model Chapters in the audience noticeably glazed over immediately. These chapters did, however, manage to pick up on a particularly interesting part of the Today Show coverage. Their question brought up by them was, “if a chapter requires a 2/3 vote of its membership to convert to Balanced Man, then how was it possible for this chapter to rebuild from a core group of 5 men?” An interesting question but one that most alumni will be able to answer. Obviously, some rules get bent or even forgotten when it is convenient. This is probably a situation of a chapter about to be shut down and given an ultimatum: go Balanced Man or lose the charter. Alakazam, Presto Chango, now we have a success story and a press bonanza. Don’t get me wrong, I admire the good work the Beta Boys have done but there is some questionable origin to it all.
The evening continued with chapter evaluations – an old standard at CLA. A failed attempt to unveil the new chapter plan website meant an early evening for all. By early evening I mean, of course, an earlier outing to the city night life and not an early night’s sleep.
The next morning came with a sparsely populated breakfast. The food wasn’t all that remarkable. A video was shown about the Executive Recruitment Retreat that occurred in Florida. It wasn’t entirely clear who went to that retreat. It seemed like a “only the chosen” sort of crowd. My major question when I see these videos is “where are all of the non-cookie cutter SigEps?” I know we have a sound body initiative but not every brother looks like the headquarters image of a SigEp. I’d be happy if we started showing some brothers who are actively attempting to achieve that sound body but who have not yet accomplished that goal. After all, not all of us came in looking like an Abercrombie model like these videos would have us believe. Apparently, recruitment strategies were taught and fun was had by all. It would be nice if some further news came out about that so that we could all send some undergraduates in the future.
