When I look back over the last 5 years since graduating college I’ve seen my alumni chapter go through some ups and downs. We’ve held successful charity and brotherhood events. Raised thousands of dollars for scholarships and helped put a new roof on the fraternity house.
Even with all the good we have done there has been times where nothing gets done. Months will pass between meetings and when we did meet nothing was accomplished. There was a time I think we went nearly a whole year without doing anything. When it came time to pay our dues to nationals the president would basically fork over his own money because we hadn’t collected dues all year.
Let me be clear that this post isn’t meant to be a bash session about anyone or any alumni chapter. My hope is that somebody will read it and learn from our mistakes.
Maybe the biggest issue my alumni chapter faced was a lack of consistency. Things would be great as long as we were meeting on a regular basis. Everyone knew that once a month we would meet and we all looked forward to it. If we ever skipped a month or two it would start going downhill. People would forget about our meetings and it became to easy not to go. People would use the excuse “I didn’t know if we were having a meeting or not.” and you couldn’t really argue because our meetings weren’t consistent.
If you’re running an alumni chapter I can’t stress enough the importance of consistency. Even if you know only 2 brothers are coming to a meeting. It doesn’t matter, you still need to have the meeting and carry on like it’s business as usual. That way your group has a reputation for always being at a specific place at a specific time. Brothers will know and remember when & where the meetings are and you’ll notice a larger attendance.
I think its time I start taking my own advice and make sure my alumni chapter is on track.
The following is a guest post written by Sigma Chi Sweetheart Summer Beasley. Summer is currently the Sweetheart for the Iota Alpha chapter. You can contact her on Twitter at @SummerBeasley
When I was given my own copy of the Norman Shield I was so excited to read the history of Sigma Chi for myself. I’ve heard many stories about the founders and was told about the standards and values of Sigma Chi just from hearing the guys tell stories. The reason I care enough to read the Norman Shield is because I see how much passion and commitment the Gentlemen of Sigma Chi put into their fraternity. I remember one day, sitting around with some of the brothers and hearing them tell specific stories about their founders and how they wanted to see their fraternity excel. I asked one of them how he knew so much detail and he replied, “Just from loving my fraternity.” I saw something from these gentlemen that stood out from all the rest. The young men don’t only tell people about what they stand for, but rather they push themselves and push each other to try to live up to their ideals. Every fraternity talks about brotherhood, but Sigma Chi lives it. I’ve noticed the Norman Shield is not something memorized to pass a pledge test, but instead it’s something learned at one point and remains in the heart of a Sigma Chi. If you just sit in a room with them you see a group of gentlemen coming together for a common goal, embracing each other for who they are, and pushing each other to live up to their individual potential. Being a friend to these young men, I see it all of the time by witnessing them always having brotherhoods and supporting each other or planting trees and painting over graffiti in our community. It makes me wonder what it is about Sigma Chi that compels them and motivates them.
Receiving the honor of becoming Sweetheart of Sigma Chi, which I still can’t say without a huge smile coming to my face, gave me the desired to learn more about the fraternity. I wanted to know about the founders, the Purpose, the Creed, the Jordan Standard, etc. I’m not really sure how this information will help me as sweetheart, but I know that my love for Sigma Chi grows the more I read and this chapter is constantly making me proud. I hope my knowledge will help show rush guests, new brothers, or anyone I come across my respect and adoration for Sigma Chi and I can represent the Sigma Chi letters honorably. It’s important that now that I am Sigma Chi Sweetheart I should be able to speak about the knowledge I have about the fraternity to others, rather than a superficial understanding. Understanding the root of the Sigma Chi fraternity will help me express my love, appreciation, and high respect for what this organization and this chapter have accomplished for these young men and for our community.
I received the following email today from the Sigma Chi Foundation and I thought it needed to be shared.
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE ORDER OF CONSTANTINE
Brothers:
Sigma Chi Foundation is putting the final touches on the next ad for the “Leaders” campaign for the back cover of The Magazine. This campaign features groups of Sigs from whom we have 100% support in giving to the Foundation Annual Fund in a given fiscal year. (Refer to the current Magazine to get a sense of what it will look like.) The Order of Constantine is the next group to be featured. Needless to say, having the endorsement of all Order of Constantine members would carry enormous weight in encouraging others to support the Annual Fund.
I know that some of you have given to the Foundation in large and meaningful ways in the last year, not only through your devoted time and service, but also through significant gifts to specific programs, chapter-specific assistance, etc. In order to honestly portray our members support for the Annual Fund, we ask that you consider making an unrestricted contribution at this time. Our undergraduate brothers will benefit from your gift. Thank you for your generosity.
No gift is too small!!!
IN HOC,
Michael A. Ursillo
President, Order of Constantine
P.S. Please reply by September 23 and provide a picture if you are willing to have it published in the ad.
Exciting news just keeps coming. Last week I mentionedthat during our Sigma Chi Pledge Test giveaway that you could win some free Sigma Chi stuff. Such as hats, koozies & license plates. Out of the blue I got an email from a company called “Coveroo”. They specialize in making covers for items such as phones, computers and even Kindles. It turns out they want to give away some free Sigma Chi stuff to you guys so their throwing in some free items to the giveaway.
They are giving the winners a code that can be redeemed on the website for any of their products. They have cases for Iphones, Ipods, Ipads, Blackberry devices, Kindles and more. The best part about the case is that you can customize them with different logos (even send them your own logo). The item to the left is one that I picked out on their website for my Iphone 3GS. This isn’t their only Sigma Chi option either. Personally I am very excited about Coveroo’s addition to the contest and can’t wait to get mine in the mail. I’ll definitely post an update with pictures and video once it comes in.
The contest will last as long as we have stuff to give away. You have plenty of time to enter so go ahead and visit SigmaChiPledgeTest.com and get started. Look for us to start announcing some winners in a week or so.
If you have questions just let me know in the comments.
You may have noticed that http://www.SigmaChiPledgeTest.com has officially launched. I also have been hinting at giving away some free Sigma Chi stuff to go along with the launching of the site. Well I’ve finally got some details for you.
The Prizes
The prizes will consist of Sigma Chi hats (as shown to the left). I’m also gonna throw in some random stuff for a few lucky people. I’ve got some old koozies and licence plates that I’ve had sitting around and thought maybe some people would enjoy em. I’ll post pictures of the other stuff here soon.
The contest will last about a month so we can make sure that the majority of schools have finished with recruitment and inducted their new pledge class. Once there are enough valid entries I’ll review them and pick some winners. Winners will mostly be picked randomly, but I want to make sure the winners are creating and taking “valuable” tests*.
If you have any questions please let me know in the comments below.
*Make sure you are creating and taking a “valuable” test. We will review the tests and pick winners based on how “valuable” their tests are. (ex: don’t create a 1 question test that says “what is 1 + 1”). **You must use the “Share On Facebook” button on the Sigma Chi Pledge Test website. that way we know that you actually shared your test and/or score. See video above.
I just launched www.SigmaChiPledgeTest.com and I wanted to show everyone how to use the site. One of the biggest parts of the website is taking a Sigma Chi Pledge Test. The following video shows you just how to do that. It also shows how you can post your score to Facebook for your friends to see. Its important that you know how to take tests on the website, create tests for others and also be able to share your scores on Facebook. The reason you’ll want to know how to do all this stuff is because we’ll be giving away some Sigma Chi stuff for those who participate on the site. We’ll have more details in the near future.
In the past year I started with an idea of allowing Sigs to create and share their own pledge tests online. This could give magisters a chance to create tests for their pledges and allow them to take them anytime they wanted. When I was pledging the only way to study for a pledge test was to read the Norman Shield or ask questions to a member. Both of these are great ways to study, but they required you to have your Norman Shield or a member around.
Since then I created www.SigmaChiPledgeTest.com for anyone to create and share Sigma Chi pledge tests. My plan was to launch the website months ago, but life has been a little hectic (broke my leg and had our first child, a baby girl). Now that things have settled down a bit I found some time to get things ready and make it available.
The site is available for anyone. Magisters can create pledge test for their pledges. Even pledges can create tests to use as studying material. Maybe even a few members will want to see how much they remember. The only requirement is that you have a Facebook account. Since the website uses Facebook Connect we give you the opportunity to share pledge tests or your test scores with your friends. There are a handful of tests already created so you can go ahead and get started.
Also upcoming you can expect a small giveaway for users of SigmaChiPledgeTest.com, but more on that next week.
Posted by Jacob 
When I was given my own copy of the Norman Shield I was so excited to read the history of Sigma Chi for myself. I’ve heard many stories about the founders and was told about the standards and values of Sigma Chi just from hearing the guys tell stories. The reason I care enough to read the Norman Shield is because I see how much passion and commitment the Gentlemen of Sigma Chi put into their fraternity. I remember one day, sitting around with some of the brothers and hearing them tell specific stories about their founders and how they wanted to see their fraternity excel. I asked one of them how he knew so much detail and he replied, “Just from loving my fraternity.” I saw something from these gentlemen that stood out from all the rest. The young men don’t only tell people about what they stand for, but rather they push themselves and push each other to try to live up to their ideals. Every fraternity talks about brotherhood, but Sigma Chi lives it. I’ve noticed the Norman Shield is not something memorized to pass a pledge test, but instead it’s something learned at one point and remains in the heart of a Sigma Chi. If you just sit in a room with them you see a group of gentlemen coming together for a common goal, embracing each other for who they are, and pushing each other to live up to their individual potential. Being a friend to these young men, I see it all of the time by witnessing them always having brotherhoods and supporting each other or planting trees and painting over graffiti in our community. It makes me wonder what it is about Sigma Chi that compels them and motivates them.
They are giving the winners a code that can be redeemed on the website for any of their products. They have cases for Iphones, Ipods, Ipads, Blackberry devices, Kindles and more. The best part about the case is that you can customize them with different logos (even send them your own logo). The item to the left is one that I picked out on their website for my Iphone 3GS. This isn’t their only Sigma Chi option either. Personally I am very excited about Coveroo’s addition to the contest and can’t wait to get mine in the mail. I’ll definitely post an update with pictures and video once it comes in.
ShareSigmaChi.com Blog 