Volunteer Training Modules

Director of Volunteers Gary Huff has unveiled the first set of online, interactive training modules for SigEp Alumni Volunteers. The first four modules are grouped as "Volunteer Certification". Other modules are available for "RLC" (under Member Development) and "Mentoring Recruitment" (under Recruitment). Gary says that more will be coming as they are developed.

All the training modules are in the "Volunteers" section of the HQ web site, cleverly hidden under the heading "Training Resources."

It will be nice to be a "certified" volunteer for a change, as opposed to being a "certifiable" one.

Greek Anti-Hazing Hotline Available

COLLEGE HAZING HAS A NEW ENEMY

As part of the ongoing attempt to end hazing on college campuses and particularly within Greek organizations, 20 international fraternities and sororities have joined together to establish a Greek Anti-Hazing Hotline. The toll-free number is 1-888-NOT-HAZE (1-888-668-4293). The line is available to those who think they, or students they know, have been or may become victims of hazing. Callers may remain anonymous or they can provide personal information so that their concerns can be responded to directly.

The Hotline connects to a dedicated Voice Mailbox at the Cincinnati law firm of Manley Burke, the publisher of Fraternal Law. Manley Burke will monitor the Hotline daily basis and will forward all messages to the appropriate fraternal organization, along with the hazing laws from the relevant jurisdictions. In states in which the law requires notification of other authorities, this will be done. A hazing alert for an organization not a sponsor will be handled as though that organization were a sponsor. A voluntary invoice will be sent to cover costs.

“Fraternities and sororities take hazing very seriously and have worked hard to see that hazing is eliminated,” said Tim Burke, the President of Manley Burke. “They recognize that too many people have been hurt or died as a result of hazing incidents and that today more than 45 states make hazing a crime. Officers of Greek organizations are consistently teaching their members that hazing is antithetical to the high ideals of brotherhood and sisterhood embodied in the fraternity movement,” he continued.

Norval Stephens, Chairman of the Delta Tau Delta Educational Foundation and former International President of the fraternity, led efforts in establishing the Hotline. Stephens worked to grow the Hotline from the time it was first mentioned as an idea in January 2007, through recruitment of sponsors and participating organizations and finally to its implementation. Stephens explained the goal: “Our experience in the Greek world on hazing and alcohol abuse is that behavior is not changed by research. Only educational programming and action change behavior. Research illuminates the problem but does not solve it. We hope the Hotline helps to eliminate hazing.”

The Hotline is a crucial new tool for Greek organizations to use to fight hazing. The 20 founding sponsors, which represent in excess of 35% of all fraternity and sorority members, invite other fraternities and sororities to join as official sponsors of the Greek Anti-Hazing Hotline. For more information, please contact Dan McCarthy at Manley Burke at (513) 721-5525.

The sponsors are:

Fraternities
Alpha Sigma Phi
Delta Chi
Delta Sigma Phi
Delta Tau Delta
Delta Upsilon
Kappa Alpha Order
Lambda Chi Alpha
Phi Gamma Delta
Phi Kappa Psi
Sigma Pi

Sororities
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Phi
Alpha Sigma Tau
Chi Omega
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Zeta Tau Alpha

Rush like a Professional

Our frends at Fratastic have been running a series on rush techniques. We have collected the links for you to look at and maybe get a pointer or two:

Rush like a professional in just 5 days - Day 1
Tip 1: Stick to the plan
The plan is the most important part of recruitment. You should have a detailed plan worked out well before rush week starts with a schedule, type of recruits you’re looking for, where to look for members, etc.

Rush like a professional in just 5 days - Day 2 - Opposition Research
Tip 2: Research your opposition
Lets face it. Recruitment is a competition. Why not find out what other houses are doing for recruitment? We’re not encouraging any KGB tactics, or making disparaging comments about other houses. Rather find out what type of events other fraternites have planned and make sure that your rush activities stick out.

Rush like a professional day 3 - Define Your House
Tip 3: Define Your house
Yesterday we talked about doing research on other houses to make sure your rush activities stand out. Today we’ll discuss defining your house so that you can better sell it to recruits.

Rush like a professional day 4- Be real
Tip 4: Be Real
In our last rush tip, we discussed defining your chapter house so that you could better sell it to rushees. Today our focus is on being real with recruits.

Rush like a professional day 5- Only take the best
Tip 5: Only the Best
In the past four days, we’ve discussed everything from creating a successful rush plan to doing opposition research. Today’s tip is to only take the best of the best in new recruits.... If you’ve been doing your job correctly, you will bring in the right type of recruits to your chapter.

There you are. It's a good place to start. For more detailed and SigEp specific suggestions contact HQ or ask your Regional Director. The bottom line is: You have to do the work to get the results. New members will not just fall into your lap.

Always willing to help a brother

It seems as though the much anticipated online volunteer training module has struck a snag. Bro. Huff has put out a cry for help.

Hello & Help Wanted

In working to develop online training modules I have quickly learned why there are experts who develop training materials.

Does anyone know of a good consultant/organization we can work with to aid in the development of our training materials? In addition to our online materials we need to develop materials for classroom training.

Please feel free to contact me at gary.huff@sigep.net As always, we are in a rush!

Thanks,

Gary Huff

Gary, the folks at S&P feel your pain. There is certainly nothing wrong with asking for help. We use help forums at work all the time.

We send this out in hopes that there may be a reader who can offer some assistance. What about it, folks? Any online training experts that can lend a brother a hand? Conclave is fast approaching and it does not look like we will have a "Ready for Prime Time" training experience to show off unless something incredible happens soon.

The product forum is here:
Hello & Help Wanted - Articulate Community Forums

Fraternity President as "Godfather"

(This interesting commentary was sent to us by our friend "Asclepius")

How to Be a Fraternity President: As Learned from Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather”

A year ago, before returning for my sophomore year of college, I bought a movie on the recommendation of a friend. The movie was “The Godfather”, winner of the 1972 Academy Award for Best Picture and, as I would find out later, a guide to life. I watched it the first time, awestruck for three hours as the highs and lows of the Corleone Family played out before my eyes. But, on the second, third, and fourth viewings, I kept picking up on the little things that make it such a great film. I began to view the movie, not only as a masterpiece of American cinema, but as a guide to running a fraternity. As I came back to school in the fall, I began to draw parallels between running the most powerful Sicilian crime family in New York and operating a successful college social fraternity. I began to model my own behaviors after Don Corleone; in a much more legal way, of course. What follows are some of the lessons I have learned from my favorite movie of all time.

“Never let anyone outside the family know what you are thinking.”
     -Don Corleone to his son Santino, after speaking up in a meeting with Sollozo

In the early part of the movie, the Corleones meet with Virgil Sollozo, an aggressive narcotics smuggler looking for political protection. Corleone objects to his proposal on ethical grounds despite its lucrative payoff. When Sollozo tries a last ditch effort to convince the Don, Santino speaks out of turn, seeming excited about the deal. Sollozo sees this as dissension within the ranks of the Corleone Family’s leaders, and attempts to assassinate the Don, hoping that Santino will make a deal once he assumes control of the family. Sollozo saw the weakness and attacked it, when he otherwise would have moved on or tried to find protection elsewhere.

In this case, the “family” is the executive board of the fraternity. Within the confines of an exec board meeting, debate and disagreement are valued. You need a variety of opinions and points of view in order to make an educated decision as president. Debate facilitates reason, and reason usually leads to better ideas, plans, and actions from the exec board. However, when you meet with the chapter as a whole, you must present a united front and support the decision the president has made. If the VP of Programming and Recruitment openly dispute a decision supported by the President, VP of Member Development, and the Chaplain, the brothers in the fraternity will detect this as weakness. Once this weakness is sensed, decisions about the direction of the chapter lose their legitimacy, validity, and acceptance by the chapter at large.

“Their aides sat behind them, the Consiglieres up close so that they could offer any advice when needed.”
     -The peace meeting of all the Dons in America, Chapter 20

Every man, no matter how wise, needs an advisor. It seems the more powerful a man becomes, the more important his advisors become. As president, you must have a strong consigliere, an advisor or counselor. To quote Socrates, “the wisest man is the man who knows how much he does not know”. This means Don Corleone knew his weaknesses and complimented them with an appropriate consigliere. A consigliere is often just as important as the man who pulls the strings. The don is the muscle end of the family; the decision maker that leads the way. A “yes man” of a consigliere is no help; one needs an advisor strong enough to oppose the don, providing a counterpoint, or even to play devil’s advocate from time to time, in order to make sure an informed decision is made every time.

My consigliere (yes, I call him that to his face) happens to be my VP of Finance and my best friend. We get along and are best friends, but we truly compliment each other. I like to be the visible leader and a decision maker. I speak well and often, and I like my presence to be felt when I am in a leadership role. My consigliere is more reserved. He does not like the spotlight or the burden of decisions; he has assured me he prefers the position of right-hand-man rather than leader. But I can always go to him for advice and receive an honest opinion. He will call me out when I am out of line, when no one else will; he will prick my conscience from time to time, pointing out mistakes that others ignore. I value that boldness in people, because true friends can tell you when you are wrong. He is the constant voice of reason that prevents me from crossing the thin line from strong leader to tyrant. When faced with a tough situation, my consigliere’s advice is always sought before I take action. My AVC president is also a close consigliere, providing an experienced, alumni viewpoint.

“Allow a man to “make his bones” before trusting him with the family business.”

In the hierarchy of the Corleone family, there is the Don and consigliere, followed by his caporegimes, under which are many “button men”, who in turn are in charge of many young hoodlums who have only loose affiliations with the family. In order to move up the hierarchy and earn oneself more responsibility, one first had to “make his bones”, or prove himself through a job. This job often consisted of “knocking someone off” or another important action in the family’s interest. This was meant to test a man’s loyalty to the family, his competence in working the family business, and his willingness to do what is necessary for the family. Once a man “made his bones”, he received more important responsibilities and higher pay from a part of the family’s earnings. Also, it was understood if something happened to him, his family would be taken care of in his absence.

In SigEp, identify young talent and potential for leadership in your new members and call on them to perform a small job, like a chair position or organizing a small event for the fraternity. If he “makes his bones”, you can trust him with more important tasks, moving up him up the ranks to exec board or even groom him as your successor as president. Considering Sigma Phi Epsilon’s badge and it symbolic skull and crossbones, one can interpret “make his bones” as waiting for a brother to go through the Epsilon Rite of Passage/Rite of Initiation. Once a brother earns his badge over his heart, only then has he “made his bones” and with it, the trust to perform important duties to the chapter.

“A man who doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”
     -Don Vito Corleone to his godson, Johnny Fontane

Despite his ruthlessness as a business man, the Don is very traditional in his views of the family and personal life. In fact, the reason these seemingly ordinary men get into their business is to protect their families, make a better life for their children, and a refusal to go through life with someone else “pulling the strings”, or living by another’s rules. As a brother in Sigma Phi Epsilon, we usually take on the mentor role of “big brother” to a younger brother in the chapter. Do not take this responsibility lightly, for you can never underestimate the role that a good mentor can play in a young man’s life. Young men are full of energy and drive. However, it usually takes the mentorship of a “big brother” to provide focus and guidance in these challenging college years.

This particular quote is my favorite from the Godfather. It constantly reminds me of my responsibility to those having prior claim upon my substance. I’d like to think that SigEp and the Balanced Man Program have made me the man I am today. However, before my college years in the Balanced Man Program, I was part of mom and dad’s own version of the BMP for the better part of 19 years. They made me the man I am today and, I thank them every day for raising me to be a good person. The Balanced Man Program just put on the finishing touches, smoothing out all the rough edges. Make sure you spend quality time with your family, because they do not need an oath of obligation to remind themselves how much they love you.

I will never be part of the Corleone crime family, but following these guidelines, I have been a more effective leader for my “family”, Ohio Iota.

CLA Bloomington, Indiana: Welcome to IU

The Bloomington CLA was hosted at the Indiana Memorial Union, Hotel & Conference Center on the campus of Indiana University. Other than a bit of confusion realizing that our hotel was right on campus, this CLA proved to be a nice change of pace. There was more than one comment on the activity in the union and the beautiful architecture. Due to a recent snowfall, earlier that week, of nearly 8” of snow throughout the Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan region, turnout on Friday night was extremely low, at nearly 70 people present for the CLA kickoff. The looming weather and a healthy underestimate of travel time to IU played a distinguishing role. Attendance numbers slowly increased throughout the night and capped off around 200 to 210 attendees. You could audibly hear a collective sigh of relief from the tense faculty as the crowd filled in. Tired and hungry brothers proved tough to motivate on Friday night, and morale was low, but many brothers pushed on through the Chapter Plan / Buchanan cup exercise to close out the sessions on Friday night.

There were a number of notable volunteers present for the weekend. National Board of Directors member, and chair of the National Committee on Volunteers, Phil Cox, was proud to host CLA at his home chapter at IU (Indiana SEC / IN Beta). National Leadership Committee members, Tom Barton and Ron Binder, as well as National Committee on Volunteers member Steve Taylor were in attendance. Other faculty in attendance included Kathy Johnston (Director of Risk Management), Craig Templeton (Executive Director), District Governors Marcus Robinson (Ohio) and Sam Moschelli (Michigan), Dr. Rick St. John (OGH), Dave Bertorello (Past Staff), Shawn Dalgleish, John Milliken, Jason Cherish (HQ Staff), Steven Kolanowski, and rounding it out were the two region’s Regional Directors and a number of soon to be RD’s. Cameos were made by Director of Operations, Chris Minnis, and Director of Volunteers, Gary Huff, as he continued his whirlwind tour of every CLA across the country.

Gary held court Friday night in the Distinguished Alumni Room of the union where he met with about 25 of the volunteers that were present. Phil Cox explained the progress of the National Committee on Volunteers, and Gary spelled out the next steps. Gary showed everyone an example of one on-line training module that highlighted the high points of forming a corporation followed by a tour of www.sigepfoundation.org. (Sign up now for membership if you haven’t already). Gary then explained that there will be 100 trainers across the country that will be making the rounds to every AVC, every other year, to train and update on the local level. One of the next steps is implementing the training programs in a number of varying test markets to gauge its success, and work out the kinks. You can bet that everyone wanted to be in the test market. Gary finished things off with an excited discussion of issues that volunteers brought forth at the conclusion of the meeting, while NCV member Steve Taylor sat inconspicuously in the back taking notes on what the customer had to say. Volunteers ended the discussion leaving with one of their own personal volunteer goals clearly stated as well as gaining another volunteer from a different chapter as a follow-up mentor. As stated in some of our previous CLA reports, the volunteer track was vague. District Governors took some of this time and time during the chapter planning session to meet with their district’s volunteers and help to map out the best path for them at CLA.

The staff did its best to turn the weekend around from a dismal Friday night to an exciting Saturday. It was overheard that there was a combined 300 CLA’s between all the faculty members in attendance. This proved beneficial to a successful Saturday set of sessions. As the day moved forward our brothers proved inquisitive, engaged, and excited. Decorum was business casual until ritual, but many wore suits all day. I guess you can expect that type of thing at a CLA where you have at least 14 Buchanan Cup chapters. Shawn Dalgleish’s Presidents session had great interaction as they produced three full flip chart pages of ideas to leave with. After in-depth conversations about Standards Board and conduct, the Chaplain’s session with Dr. St. John took an innovative approach and combined the afternoon session with the Ritual Team’s practice session, which proved beneficial to all. Chaplain’s also gained some tips and tricks from the unofficial Balanced Man Program Chaplain’s Guide, an adaptation of the 1970’s & 80’s version of the Chaplain’s Guide, that has been circling around some CLA’s. It’s is filled full of underutilized ceremonies, standards board nuances, and ritual insights that can be incorporated with the different phases. A high energy Member Development session led by John Milliken merged with a productive Programming session let by Steve Taylor. The big take away was to kill two birds with one stone and tie your membership development events into your programming and not have separate calendars. A poll was taken of various event ideas each chapter uses, and classified under a number of different categories. Ideas were shared from around the room, with an interesting outcome. Here’s a tally of the ideas in each category:

Civic & Servic (6)
Social (4)
Leadership/professional development (2)
Health & Wellness (2)
Cultural (2)
Academic (1)
Ritual/values (0)

I think this tally in itself speaks volumes about what chapters are taking away as the focus of the fraternity. Is it really becoming SigEp Inc? Have we lost sight of two of the most fundamental components of a fraternity? The fact that this cross section of our chapters tallied a total of ZERO events for Ritual/values utilized above and beyond our typical ritual requirements is eye opening. Even the goal of that which we seek, the graduation diploma, Academics, only had one event worth mentioning. We’re in this together, why does academic success need to be solely on the individual when, as a chapter, we have the means as a group to pull together and take it to a whole new level? It is arguable that if there is a focus on the last two items above, then the other 5 will take care of themselves. I have a great appreciation for all of the above listed areas of focus, and am grateful for the things I’ve learned throughout the Leadership Continuum track. SigEp is leading the charge in the rebirth and validity of Greek life back onto our campuses and it is doing so by becoming a “partner in higher education”. We’re also leading the way in the nationwide fraternity g.p.a., and the Balanced Man Scholarship is our key. We’re finding smarter, and more motivated, active men. Let’s not let the BMS be our only academic event. Utilize the Residential Learning Community program, and if you can’t become one, dissect it and incorporate as many pieces as you can. The other take away from all of this is that the last two items, Ritual and Academics, are just so embedded into a typical chapter’s life, and programmed by HQ and volunteers, that the things they do for those are just ingrained in the chapter psyche and that they just don’t realize they’re doing some cutting edge things. I hope this is the take away, but I fear it is somewhere in between.

The Bloomington CLA finished out on a high note. There was little to no attrition in the final Hot Topic sessions. In fact, they were packed to the gills. The Ritual team from Valparaiso conducted an excellent Epsilon Rite of Passage as they initiated Michael Chown from the Indiana SEC chapter at Indiana University. The Ritual Discussion led by Sam Moschelli turned into an exciting and thought provoking session as our younger members gave their interpretation of the symbolism and meaning found in the keynote of our fraternity located on our chapter charters and membership certificates. Ron Binder and Phil Cox closed out the evening with equally entertaining speeches at dinner. Ron’s “mom” called while he was up at the podium and we all got to listen in on the weekend recap to his mother. “Mom…don’t call it a Frat.” It was entertaining to say the least. Phil left us all with a bit of history about Indiana Memorial Union. It turns out that this location was the first to host a Regional Leadership Academy for SigEp 40 years ago, outside of the ones held in Richmond. Late into the evening, undergraduates were still asking advice and questions to faculty and volunteers, email addresses were traded, and thank you hand shakes were abundant.

My final thoughts on this year’s sessions of CLA, was that the volunteer track was in an off year. With the National Leadership Committee and National Committee on Volunteers still figuring out the track for volunteer training, this year was left in transition, to the displeasure of many. Well trained and cohesive faculty can make or break the experience, and in Bloomington’s case, I think it worked. I suspect that next year there will be a new look to what volunteers will be doing at CLA. Hopefully, this year did not discourage too many alumni.

And that’s your news from the underground. I am the Superintendent.

Guest Post: CLA Lexington - Was it worth the trip?

Here's the word from our Lexington Kentucky operative.

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I returned Sunday from the Kentucky CLA. All things considered it was OK. Of the four CLA's I have attended since 1995, I would have to say the Kentucky CLA was the worst one I have had to experience.

I was disappointed with the alumni track. It really felt like it was an after thought and thrown together. Last year at the Philadelphia CLA, the alumni track was outstanding. In my opinion this CLA was far from the caliber of past CLA's I have attended. I will have to give some credit to the staff for dealing with a CLA that was spread out over three levels of the hotel. Registration, memorabilia, and some of the meeting space was on the main lobby level. Other meeting space was on the second floor. While the bulk of the meeting space was in the basement. To access the basement meeting space you had to go out into a shopping mall area, and down two escalators and make your way to the main meeting / conference area. This mall area was attached to the U of K basketball arena, and oh ya, there was this little event going on, the Kentucky vs. Florida basketball game. As the day wore on this area became increasingly filled with fans.

The facilitator of the Saturday morning alumni session did a good job (Adam Seiber I think was his name). The alumni committee director from HQ (Gary Huff) did a good job of talking about the alumni training, and showed off the soon to be rolled out alumni volunteer online materials. Ritual was also executed very well, and as always, makes me glad to be a SigEp. The remainder of the time I just kind of felt like I was there, not really sure where various rooms were located or what undergraduate session would be most beneficial to attend, or if there was an alumni session I should be in. I made the most of it by speaking with other chapter counselors, AVC members, or students regarding the undergraduate sessions. Several of the guys from the chapter commented that many of the sessions were the same as last year, or were not relevant (we don't have a house, but the finance discussion kept coming back to a housed chapter). The guys who went to the VP of development sessions felt that the facilitator kept presenting the same material just in different ways. After lunch Saturday I sat in on the presidents presentation, and the facilitator was suppose to be talking about action plans. The group chose academics, and then a very much longer than necessary discussion was allowed about having a chapter GPA requirement, and not enforcing it. I am pretty sure the facilitator realized the group was off topic, and tried to get back on topic by splitting the group up. This did not happen because a well meaning undergraduate did not want to split up because he was afraid he would miss part of the discussion one of the other groups had.

There were positives that came out of this weekend, I did meet other AVC and Chapter Councilor's, and was able to meet / speak with the RD. But most importantly the brothers from our chapter were able to bond, plan, and have some fun. I was happy that I was able to meet with several of the chapter officers one on one, and the entire chapter delegation was able to meet for two-three hours on Saturday night. We discussed what each officer is taking back, and what they are going to incorporate into their job when they return. One good concept sunk into my gray matter, that behind every one of our quality high performing chapters is an equally good alumni board.