The New Journal is Here

The Latest issue of the SigEp Journal is here.

This issue is dedicated to all the SigEps who have served in the Armed Forces over the years since the fraternity was founded. (I am proud to be in that number.)

There is also a nice two page spread on the LinkedIn SigEp group and how it is helping brothers to network and find professional opportunities.

On technical item. This issue online has active links in the articles so you can jump to the referenced web page or article directly from the reader.

Open publication - Free publishing

The New Sigma Phi Epsilon HQ site is up and open!

After several months of challenging redesign work the new SigEp HQ site design was unveiled today.
You will immediately notice the site has a much 'cleaner' look and feel with good use of white space to focus attention. The navigation has been updated in a way that should make it much easier to find the particular section or information you are seeking.

For those of the geek persuasion the new site uses a database driven CMS (content management system) which will make keeping the site up to date much simpler and easier. The site also integrates with the master registration database so changes to personal data made here will flow through and update across the system.

Check it out, and tell the folks at HQ where you heard about it first.

Sigma Phi Epsilon Homepage:

'via Blog this'

One last thing. Not to toot our own horn here, but if you go to the "Social Media Hub"you will see that our little effort has received some recognition at last:

Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity - Web Site Changes

If you went to the HQ Web site this morning you saw this displayed. Do not adjust your set, there is a major new look coming very soon.

Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity - REDESIGN LAUNCH BLOCK: "

The Sigma Phi Epsilon website is undergoing some exciting renovations.

Please return tomorrow to visit the site. Thank you for stopping by.

© Copyright SigEp 2012 . All rights reserved. SigEp Fraternity | 310 S.Boulevard | Richmond, VA 23220
"

'via Blog this'

New Page - Rush Videos

We have seen so many good videos in the last few weeks we have had trouble keeping up and publishing them all.

So we decided to set up a special page just for SigEp videos. The good ones, with a theme and some decent production values. And especially the ones that get the excitement going.

Go on over to our "Rush Videos - 2012" page And check out what other chapters are doing. Don't forget to give the videos your comments and ratings, too. Think You can do better? Go ahead! Send us the link and we'll work on showcasing as many as we can.

Fine print. You will have a better chance of getting published here if you follow the 'guidelines':

• Try to keep the video under about 5 minutes
• Don't use "inappropriate" content - for instance:
• NSFW pictures or lyrics
• Beer and booze containers with the labels showing
• Use the video to answer 3 questions, either directly or implied
• Why SigEp?
• Why SigEp at this chapter?
• Why is SigEp for me, the guy looking at the video?

Balanced Man Scholarship | USF SigEp

The BMS page on the Florida Iota website is particularly well done. Clean layout, straightforward explanation of the concept, and no "SigEp-ese" phrases that could confuse a non-member or parent. In fact, most of their pages are laid out in a similarly accessible manner.

Balanced Man Scholarship | USF SigEp:

"The Balanced Man Scholarship
To support our mission of Building Balanced Men, Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity (SigEp) proudly brings the Balanced Man Scholarship to the University of South Florida. During the 2012-2013 school year, SigEp chapters will award over $225,000 at 160 campuses across the country through the Balanced Man Scholarship program. We believe that recognizing students who exhibit balance and all-around excellence is a way to promote this important ideal.We are offering one-time scholarships up to the amount of $2,000 at the University of South Florida. Our goal is to reward men who exemplify the qualities of a Sound Mind and a Sound Body, as we believe they are essential to leading a balanced life."

'via Blog this'

SigEp Makes a Profound Impact - UNC

The SigEp UNC website has an interesting feature - a Q&A with an alumnus about his time in the chapter. Are other chapter websites doing something like this? Tell us about it in the comments.

SigEp Makes a Profound Impact

Thank you to John DeSalva ’87 for participating in this Q&a

Why did you join Sig Ep as an undergraduate?
I originally rushed Sig Ep as an undergraduate because of a friend of mine.  I was a freshman.  He was a junior transfer from Radford in Virginia.  He had pledged Sig Ep in Radford, and when he came to UNC, he went straight to the Sig Ep house.  He was the one who made the recommendation to me that I should check out Sig Ep, and I am glad that I did.

What is the funniest memory from your Sig Ep days?
That’s a tough question to answer.  There were a lot of them.  The ones that most immediately come to mind are some of the trips I went on, in particular my pledge-class trip to Washington DC, a Chapter Leadership regional meeting I went to in Knoxville and bringing some of my brothers home to New York with me over breaks.

How do you stay connected with your brothers as an alumnus?
I have stayed connected with my brothers mainly through Facebook, e-mail and Christmas cards.  After graduation, I moved to the NYC metro area, and have been here ever since.  I now live in Connecticut with my wife (also a Carolina grad), and our kids.  I don't get back to North Carolina often.  One of the last times I did, I got to visit with Tony Baker ‘88, whom I had not seen in probably 20 years or more.  That was really nice.

After 9/11, I received a phone call from Jeff Kennedy ‘87, who had been flying for the Air Force, and actually had flown patrols over NYC in the days after the attack.  I hadn't talked to Jeff in years, but he found me.  Jeff had come to NYC with me once during a break, and we reminisced some as we caught up a little bit.  National tragedy brought that bond back and a few days later, Jeff sent me a copy of the photo of us Sig Eps taken during a visit to the observation deck of the World Trade Center.  It sits on my desk at home to this day.

Twitter (@sigepblog) makeover too

Seems like once I got started tweaking I had to keep going. Here is a look at the @SigEpBlog Twitter page...

New look for our Twitter page

Giving up the worst kept secret...

If you are reading this as a blog post you have already noticed things are changing. We're not done yet, so keep checking back to see what else happens. In the spirit of change it is now time for me to take a moment and make an announcement about how I will be blogging from now on...

When this blog was created (2004), the whole concept of social media was in it's infancy. Those of us who were in at the beginning knew we had something to say. We knew it was not the same thing we heard coming from Richmond, and we expected to ruffle some feathers. Several of us, and I as a ringleader of sorts, took on pseudonyms to remain anonymous.

At first there was indeed some official consternation, and we were glad to not be officially connected to the blog but to do the work in secret. However within a relatively short time at least a few of our names got known, and surprisingly there were no late night knocks on the door. Not only that, but eventually we would occasionally get calls letting us know about stories. One Sunday afternoon the then Grand President called to ask - not that I sit on a story - but just to please be gentle and try to tell both sides. That was when I knew we were being taken seriously.

Of course social media has exploded since 2004. Facebook, Twitter, Smart Phones, and so much more has come about since then. At Conclave this past summer there a screen near the main meeting rooms that was displaying a continuous stream of Tweets, all with the #SigEpConclave hash tag. When Mohammed Ali showed up at one gathering I had my iPhone out to do the obligatory "OMG" tweet and watched as a couple hundred of my brothers had the same idea. Everyone has access to information, and everyone can publish.

With that in mind, it is time to retire "Wordjunky" as a pseudonym officially. I'll still use the term because I like it and it fits me. But I am done with even a semblance of hiding behind it. Besides, its a pain to switch back and forth between accounts every time I was to make a blog post. From now on I'll be posting under my own name.

The other contributors to the blog can make their own choices, its not for me to say what they will or should do. Either way, I respect and support the choices.

Fraternally submitted,

Bryce Giesler (aka "Wordjunky")

Caution - Changes coming to S&P

When we started this blog in 2004 the world of blogging was much more basic than it is now. The design of our site was adequate for the time but there are more capabilities and more tools to make sites work faster, stronger, better.  So, after 7 years it is past time to shake things up, repaint the walls, and rearrange the funiture. 

Blogger has added a boatload of features in that time. I had gone to outside resources to set up some of those services (like the "peekaboo" posting feature). Now that I can do them in Blogger I won't have to worry so much about "future-proofing". 

I am also planning to incorporate some more pages - for instance an "About" page, and maybe a "Helpful Links" page, and so on. Extra pages are another recently added feature I have not used yet. They will allow for a cleaner and more focused main posting area.

You will see the changes happen starting very soon. Don't be alarmed if you see a different layout every few days for a while. This is going to be a work in progress but the progress will be toward a sit that better meets the needs of today's SigEp.

 

Anyway, I am open to suggestions for layout, design, colors, pictures, background, fonts, or anything else so if you have an idea let me hear about it. Don't be shy. if you know of a really neat feature some other site is using we are happy to shamelessly copy if it works here. Leave a comment, send an email, tweet (@sigepblog) post on Facebook, send smoke signals, whatever. 

Coming to Conclave? Don't Miss the Bloggers Breakfast #SigEpConclave

The S&P blog team will have yet another "Blogger's Breakfast" at the Phoenix Conclave.

Blue Sage Restaurant; 8:00 - 9:00 am, Thursday, Aug 11 

Since 2005, S&P has brought SigEps excited about social media together at Conclave to get their "Greek Geek" on. Join fellow brothers to have breakfast and tallk about using all the latest webby and cloudy tools to improve our chapters, our Fraternity, and our lives.

BTW - you may order whatever you want for breakfast, since you will be buying your own!

Opportunity at SigEpBlog - want to talk about it?

One of the most trite and self-serving of blog posts is the "I-have-not-posted-enough-lately-and-I-plan-to-do-better" post. Ok, so I am trite and self serving. Sue me.

A main objective of writing a blog is to convey opinions and elicit comments. That, along with an attempt at broadening the communication channel between chapters was the reason this blog was started in the first place. We have, I think, done a pretty fair job of gathering SigEp news from across the country and presenting it here. And we are always on the lookout for new ways to inform. The recent addition of Ed Jones' excellent entries with information about SigEps who have served in the armed forces is an example.

However, the posts lately have not been the type that get people fired up to contribute to the discussion. That is not the fault of the people who are posting, they do an oustanding job of scouring the web for SigEp related news. Rather it is the type of posts. The posts that inspire discussion are almost always the ones with a point of view and a strong opinion. Not surprisingly those are also the posts that increase readership. So lets see if we can do something about that...

Do you have an opinion? Want to challenge views of the what/why/how of a Greek system in the 21st century and in turn be challenged? Have a different viewpoint on the direction of the Fraternity? Think we are doing great and shold keep a steady course? Would you be willing to commit to posting your ideas on a regular basis (a bit tougher than it sounds, trust me)? I'd like to find one or two (or three) more people who will be willing to share their outlook on the achievements and challenges of SigEp today and tomorrow.

Let me be clear - gray hair is NOT required, fancy titles are NOT required, 'litmus test' opinions are NOT required. What is needed is an informed viewpoint on fraternities and sororities in general and SigEp in particular. We want to get people talking about how to improve, not shouting about who is right or wrong. Oh, and did I mention that this is a volunteer (read: unpaid) gig?

If you would like to be considered, send an email to wordjunky@gmail.com. Let me know who you are, where and when you are from (i.e. chapter and year), and include a short sample of the kind of writing you want to post. You should be willing to post on the order of once a week to once a month. I will select from the applications and show them to the rest of the blog team for input and then let you know what happens next. I look forward to hearing from you all.

...and yes, comments are encouraged on this post too.

New HQ site!

Our HQ site has undergone a major makeover. I haven't gone over it in depth yet, but the "look and feel" is definitely more dynamic and inviting.

So what do you think? To borrow from a post from a few days ago, does it enhance our brand?
Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity - Building Balanced Leaders for the World's Communities

OMG! Did I text that?

What did you text from that party on Saturday? This site can help you find out, but you may not want to know.

"MyDrunkTxt.com" reads a little like an alcoholic "Post Secret", with plenty of uncomfortable, embarrassing, or sometimes tragic text messages the contributors have received (or sent). There is a bright spot - with a 140 char limit there is only so much you can say to damage your rep.

Examples:

• "hahahaaaa.. seriously! My breathe alone could get an infant hammered."
• "I just broke my thumb...while peeing in a ditch!"
• "just woke up in the room of the guy i drunkedly hooked up with last night. He has a nickelback poster on his wall. i feel ashamed."
• "Saw a Delta Zeta recruitment poster 2day. On it, some1 added, "All you need is your daddy's credit card and a lack of self-respect."

...and then there are the NSFW ones - you can find them yourself.

They also are using Twitter (@mydrunktxt) and Facebook to spread the word. There is nowhere to hide.

Blogroll is back

The list of "Sig Ep Sites" in the sidebar has not been updated in several months. That is because the folks who own the listing application were rewriting it and had disabled any changes. They have finally completed their work and the Blogrolling.com site is operational again - and it looks like it will be much easier to use.

So here is a request - take a look at the list of sites. If your chapter or alumni website is not listed send us a link (and be sure to tell us the chapter and school). If your chapter is listed then check to make sure we have the most up-to-date URL for it and let us know if we need to get current.

Thanks!

A cool personal branding site for college students « Wally’s Follies

A number of years ago business guru Tom Peters wrote an article called "The Brand Called You" about personal branding importance and strategy. The article spawned lots of interest and the self-help guys made buckets of money showing people "how-to." The ideas even made it into SigEp CLA programs for a few years.

The idea of personal branding is, if anything, even more important today. The sooner you get started on the work of presenting yourself to the world honestly but with your best foot forward, so to speak, the better off you will be.

Most college kids today are already deeply into the Internet, but few have thought about how to use the Internet to help build a career. That’s what brand-yourself.com is all about. As students get closer to that dreaded day when they have to find a job, they’re going to find that MySpace profiles and silly stuff on Facebook just ain’t going to work.

Suffice to say a good personal brand is more than a snappy resumè and a Facebook page full of keg stand pictures.

A cool personal branding site for college students « Wally’s Follies

SigEpBlog on Twitter now shows comments

@SigEpBlog on Twitter. Now tweeting Posts and Comments.

If you are a "Twitterer" - follow us! If not - Why not?

Sigma Phi Epsilon on Facebook - Officially

SigEp HQ has built an "official" Facebook page. It looks pretty good for a new page, and even has a link to the "Conclave 2009" event.

SigEp has always had a number of Facebook pages set up by members who want to build communities, but this is the first that the page has been officially sponsored by the folks in Richmond.

I think this is a fantastic indication that HQ is finally recognizing the potential of social networks, virtual communities, web 2.0, or whatever the current buzzword is for using the interweb as a way to increase communication. Be sure to sign up as a "fan", then head to the Conclave page and let them know you will be there. Be sure to write on the 'wall' and let them know how you found them (hint- that would be here!).

SigEp Conclave 2009 - new website

The web wookies at HQ have set up a new site dedicated to the 2009 Conclave. It has pretty good graphics and design and is a pleasant change from the more "corporate" look of the main site.

All the information you need to register and find out about the program are there. So check it out and get ready to party in Orlando this summer.

(Now standing by for the audible gasps of "sticker shock" in the comments.)

SigEp Veterans - new website

Renato Villancourte showed me his new "SigEpVets" site yesterday. As we noted last year, they teamed up with the "Snowball Express" project to help out Brother Trane McCloud's family and the site design makes that a focus of their efforts.

Are you a SigEp Veteran? Contact Bro. Villacourte and get on the list!

Posting Comments - an upgrade

One of the best parts of editing the blog is seeing the comments that readers make on the posts. Some posts that we think will start a civil war get no comments at all, while others that would seem to be low impact become platforms for those with strongly held views to argue back and forth.

We have used a third party service to host comments because when we started the Blogger versions were not very flexible or user friendly. That third party - Haloscan - has been acquired by JS_Kit, and they are in the process of transitioning to an even better commenting experience.

We have just finished upgrading the S&P account so you will see a different look and feel for the comments. Starting today (now), any new comments will have additional features available: rich text, You-tube embedding, picture uploads, and lots more. We also will be able to turn on authentication and moderation, should the need arise.

Since the capabilities are new, you may see some tweaks and changes in the look and behavior of comments as we get used to the administration features. Overall I believe this will result in a better web site and more useful interaction for all our loyal readers.

Go ahead - try it out by leaving a comment now. (You know you want to!)