This past weekend, we had a significant number of our undergraduate men and recent alumni show up for our second Pyramid Leadership Institute. As a student affairs educator and advisor, I have planned, presented or facilitated sessions at my fair share of leadership experiences and I can say, hands down, that this was one of the best programs I have been part of. Here are five reasons why we should all be proud of our work together this past weekend:
1. We doubled our attendance. A year and a half ago, at the inaugural Pyramid Leadership Institute, we had a number of men show up from our colonies but not nearly as many from any one group as we did this past year. I know that making events 'mandatory' isn't the best way to motivate men to attend - and it almost makes it seem that leadership development is a punishment for 'having to' go to an event. This year, however, we had 80 men participate with entire neophyte classes and more than the required leadership asked to attend. Hopefully we have begun to create a culture of new fraternity men that value leadership as part of their fraternal experience. Or more simply - it's not so bad going to this kind of event and you're going to bring more brothers next time!
2. We shared our challenges. All chapters and colonies have issues making things work the way they are supposed to. But sometimes we have to let go of our ego and admit to our brothers near AND far that we need help. From the conversations I overheard and the comments shared in the tracks I was in, some brothers shared challenges include motivating brothers to do, well, anything, better ways to collect dues and fund-raise money, and how to create new tradition programs and the use of our values to recruit. These are not unique issues by any means, and some chapters deal with them better than others. But brainstorming with a group of men sharing the same issue can sometimes lead to solutions no one could imagine. Which is a good lead-in to the next point of pride....
3. We shared our successes. It was great talking to our leaders about how they deal with the challenges of running their chapters and colonies and who were so gracious to share what is working well. Taking pride in what your chapter and colony is doing and wanting it to be just yours is a natural reaction - but we had a moment where our men were willing to share what they do best...and then invite others to do the same thing on their campuses. When we share in our successes, we are all going to succeed. Plus the benefit of having our current number of chapters and colonies is that our leaders can share their successes in person more often. Don't stop sharing and don't wait for the next Institute!
4. Our guest speaker added prestige. Greg Hauser from Delta Chi Fraternity, past national president of his fraternity and the NIC, spoke about the history of Greek Life and its future on our college campuses. His impression of the men who attended was very complimentary and most assuredly his positive perception of our fraternity and its development will be shared among our national colleagues. Setting the tone as he did has helped elevate our Institute from simply a chance for brothers to network and talk to a true student leadership and educational experience that compares nationally with our fraternity peers. This really is a recruitment tool, even if you didn't know it.
5. We met your (and our) needs. I have talked to many of our attendees about their reactions to the program and nearly all of their reactions were positive. We were able to have men leave NJIT knowing what could work better within their chapters, reinforcing for some of our chapters that their work is aligned with the Fraternity goals, encouraging our new and old members to learn from each other as well as our older alumni. We know that some needs still need to be met (such as helping undergrads gain more professional skills, learning to network with alumni, etc) but the more critical needs were met and set us up to meet more needs with other successful programs in the future. We should have more conversations about our Obligations and starting with having tracks for each Obligation was a good start.
Again, this was one of the best leadership programs I have been privileged to be part of and while we can improve aspects of the program to better meet your needs, I am confident that this program could stand next to any other fraternity or student development program as a point of pride. If you attended the program, talk it up with potential members and those brothers who couldn't or wouldn't attend. Only by creating the expectation that TauDelt men attend leadership programming as part of the fraternity experience will we be be able to increase attendance at all of our programs - and this helps all of us.
We should all be proud of our work this past weekend and begin to brainstorm how to make it better next year! It's great to be a TauDelt!
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