Sigma Chi podcast by ShareSigmaChi.com – Discussing Horizons with Ryan Wakefield after his facilitator training.
In this episode we discuss Horizons from a facilitator’s perspective. Ryan just finished his facilitator training and will be attending Horizons as a facilitator two times in the next five years. We discuss how you can become a facilitator and what Ryan gained from his experience
Host: Jacob Cook
Guest: Ryan Wakefield
Running Time: 10:29
Its easy to stay up to date with the podcast and many ways to subscribe.
Sigma Chi podcast by ShareSigmaChi.com – Discussing Horizons with Ryan Wakefield
[update 6.3.2010] Ryan is currently a “facilitator in training”. He leaves tomorrow for his first Horizons experience as a facilitator.
In this episode we discuss Horizons from a facilitator’s perspective. Ryan will be facilitating Horizons for the first time at Session I this summer. We discuss how you can become a facilitator and what Ryan is expecting from this experience.
Host: Jacob Cook
Guest: Ryan Wakefield
Running Time: 13:43
I uploaded the first part of our discussion to YouTube.
Its easy to stay up to date with the podcast and many ways to subscribe.
Sigma Chi podcast by ShareSigmaChi.com – Discussing Cornerstone with Wayne Tucker
In this episode we discuss Sigma Chi Cornerstone with Grand Consul Wayne Tucker. He encourages alum to participate and discusses why Cornerstone is important. We also discussed the “video contest” that Cornerstone is having this summer. The winning chapter will have their video played at BLTW as well as have the International Sweetheart visit their chapter for a weekend.
Episode 18
Host: Jacob Cook
Running Time: 18:16
Its easy to stay up to date with the podcast and many ways to subscribe.
In this episode Noah and I discuss two leadership programs that are available to Greek and potential Greek members. They offer various activities for pledges, members, men & women. They are as UIFI (Undergraduate Interfraternity Institute) & Futures Quest.
In June of 2009 I was lucky enough to record a Horizons podcast with former Grand Consul Keith Krach. There were two other Sigs who have been to Horizons that participate and gave their thoughts about the experience. I was listening to the podcast and realized there were some really good quotes by all three of em. So I decided to strip out the quotes and put some music to them. Feel free to use this and share with your chapter with this short link: http://bit.ly/brOT6O
Keith Krach, Cory Williamson, Martin Erbele
Running Time: 1:34
In this episode we will be discussing some of new Sigma Chi’s newest endeavors into social media. We will discuss what we like about their social media strategies and how we think Sigma Chi can improve. We are both really impressed with the fraternity’s recent push into social media and excited to see what they do in the future.
IHSV
Here is a short url so you can easily share this post with others: http://bit.ly/5cufnz
There is less than 2months left in 2009 and I’ve got a few things that I want to do before 2010 gets here. A few ideas that have been in works for some time now and I’m pretty confident that you’ll see them real soon. You can plan on seeing at least 1 more podcast by the end of this month and possibly another podcast in December. You will definitely have a chance to win some free Sigma Chi gear and as soon as we work out the details we’ll let you know how. The last and probably biggest idea is that I’ll be launching a new Sigma Chi website.
Upcoming Podcast
Back in September we recorded a podcast with Brad Wellman discussing Sigma Chi and Social Media. The majority of the podcast we said that Sigma Chi wasn’t utilizing social media like they should (it’s one of the reasons why I started ShareSigmaChi over 2 years ago). We both agreed that the fraternity should be using these social media outlets to communicate, share, help and connect Sigs. I guess HQ was listening because within the last month they started to become more active on Facebook and a Twitter account. Brad and I will discuss this sudden increase in social media activities, what we like/dislike about these activities and how we think they could improve. I am excited to see the fraternity taking a step forward and anxious to see how they leverage social media to help Sigs.
Upcoming Giveaway
If you follow ShareSigmaChi on Twitter then you were one of the first to see the hats that we will be giving away. The hats came from Bamm Promo which is a “promotional products” company run by a Sigma Chi. If you get a chance check them out or send Ben an email. I haven’t worked out the details of the giveaway just yet, but we will definitely let you know as soon as we get it ironed out. The one thing I can you is that the giveaway will be a part of the new Sigma Chi website that we are also launching.
Launching SigmaChiPledgeTest.com
Sigma Chi Pledge Test will be a new learning tool for Sigs and we plan on launching the BETA by the end of the year. I know what you’re thinking “Share Sigma Chi already has pledge tests“. I decided that since this new site will be so much different and offer more functionality that it would be best to host it on it’s own site. The old pledge tests will stay in tact and can be accessed by anybody with a ShareSigmaChi account.
I think most of you will be really happy with the new Sigma Chi Pledge Test site. The parts of the site that I am most excited about is that all of the authentication will use Facebook Connect so you won’t have to create a new account and not only can you take pledge tests, but you will be able to create your own pledge tests and share them with other Sigs. It will be really easy for magisters to create a test and share it with all of their pledges so they can prepare for their weekly test.
The BETA will be launching soon and I will need your help to make sure everything goes smoothly. This is also where the hats we’re giving away will come in. Most likely the hats will be randomly given out to Sigs who sign up and participate in the BETA. It’s basically a way for me to say “thank you” to all you Sigs who “Share Sigma Chi”. So be on the look out and feel free to use this short url to share this post with other Sigs http://bit.ly/4cc6KX
It seems that SigmaChi.com has created a Facebook Application that allows you to update your SigmaChi.com profile information from Facebook. There was a hint of this when we did our podcast with Jim D’Amico (former Project Manager of SigmaChi.com) discussing the just launched SigmaChi.com and I am very glad to see the fraternity reaching out into social media.
The best part about this idea is that it makes it so easy to update your SigmaChi.com profile.
Install the app and sign in using your SigmaChi.com login information.
After that all you have to do is click on “update your members profile info”.
Then update your info and it will save it to your SigmaChi.com profile.
Anytime you want to update your SigmaChi.com information, you can just go to the Facebook App and do it from there. I went ahead and did some testing and it works just fine. Here is a short video showing you how to install the app.
I am just guessing here, but I would think that probably 80% of all Sigs are on Facebook and this means that the fraternity just made it that much easier for 80% of the fraternity to update their information (which is always a good thing). Plus Sigma Chi controls this data that is getting updated, not Facebook. This is important for the fraternity, because this helps them stay up to date with us.
If you are reading this and haven’t downloaded the new SigmaChi.com Facebook Application, then go do it right now. I hope HQ continues down this road and starts branching out into other forms of social media. *cough* Twitter *cough*
You can hear more about what Sigma Chi could do when it comes to social media by checking a podcast we recorded with Brad Wellman discussing Sigma Chi & Social Media.
Feel free to share this post with others by using this short url: http://bit.ly/1C8LsZ
There are a number of “projects” that I feel could be very beneficial and interesting for Sigma Chi. One of those is what I refer to as the “Maps Project“. The Maps Project was something I originally created because I wanted to get some experience with the Google Maps API as well as create something that could be useful for Sigs. Lots of undergrads enjoy taking road trips to other Sigma Chi chapters, conferences, events or as a chapter activity. After doing a lot of research around the internet I couldn’t find a site that could map out numerous important/historic Sigma Chi locations, so I decided to try and build one.
Nov 2007 I uploaded a very simple webpage that could map out a handful of locations. Here is the blog post I wrote once the “Maps Project” was uploaded. The plan was to hurry and get a working prototype out and then add features later on. It wasn’t long until I had moved on to other features and quit building onto the Maps Project.
Sometime around 6 months to a year later I stumbled upon this Google Maps collaboration that Eric Jon Bolt (former Online Specialist at HQ) had created in May 2008. I was really impressed by the sure volume of information this map contains. [update 11.08.2009] After contacting Eric he has been gracious enough to pass along his data. Hopefully we’ll be able to create something even more useful. Thanks Eric.
Then around June of this year a Sigma Chi who was initiated at the same school as me (Adrian Burks) created a site with similar functionality (http://findsigmachi.com/beta_map.php). I don’t think he has done much work since he originally created it, but I think the idea is great.
I really think it would be nice to have a website solely dedicated to mapping out Sigma Chi (chapters, monuments, grave sites, etc…). It would give options and allow a lot of customization. Taking the data from the Google Maps mash up and move it to findsigmachi.com would allow us to get creative with it could be extremely beneficial for all Sigs.
– You want to be able to map out alumni based on their zip code? –
Alright, then lets build it into the website. We wouldn’t be limited to what Google allows us to do and having the url “FindSigmaChi.com” would make it easier to find and remember.
I’ve been in contact with a few people to see if we can get this done and I’ve gotten some really good responses. If you’re interested in helping out with the “Maps Project” or if you have some ideas that you think would be helpful, then please feel free to leave a comment on this post or use the contact info below.
Feel free to use this short url & share this blog post with others: http://bit.ly/3L39up
Posted by Jacob 
ShareSigmaChi.com Blog 