An email sent out by Grand Consul Wayne Tucker. To view this message you can also click here.
In the next few days, we will have the opportunity to exercise good citizenship by casting our votes for many local, state and national elected positions. Many of those seeking political office are members of Greek–letter organizations. If elected, they could be of significant support for our Fraternity in the coming year as we face issues that greatly impact Sigma Chi. That is why I am writing you today. I urge you to support our Greek brothers and sisters in their election bid; not only by voting on Nov. 2nd, but by supporting the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee (FSPAC), which also assists Greeks in their bid for office. Ultimately, a vote for a Greek-letter legislator means a vote for Sigma Chi, as Greeks in office support key issues that affect the Fraternity.
We are proud that Sigma Chi has more brothers in the U.S. Congress than any other Fraternity. There are 140 Greeks in Congress; Sigma Chi has five senators and six congressmen. Eight Sigs are running for election this year. Among those up for election are Significant Sigs Ike Skelton, MISSOURI-COLUMBIA 1953, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Steny Hoyer, MARYLAND 1963, House Majority Leader. For a list of candidates and office holders, click here.
Our brothers are leaders on Capitol Hill — they have impressive track records. They have passed key legislation for the good of their constituents, and they have joined other Greek legislators to support initiatives that would directly impact us. Among the initiatives is the Collegiate Housing and Infrastructure Act (CHIA), which would allow tax-deductible contributions to be made to a foundation for the construction, renovation, maintenance and operation of a chapter house. The bill, when passed, would help our undergraduates in their ability to maintain existing and obtain new safe and adequate housing.
Our brothers and other Greek legislators can make a great impact our lives — but only if we see that they are elected or reelected to office. Please join me in supporting the FSPAC through a donation, which can be made at fspac.org. In the past six years, Sigma Chis have donated some $42,425 to the FSPAC, and of the more than 100 bipartisan members that the FSPAC has supported, 88 percent have been elected to office. Let’s do our part to see that the support continues.
About a week ago I was in Atlanta and decided to stop by and see the Constantine Memorial. This wasn’t my first time there, which made it a lot easier to find. It got me thinking that I should probably write a blog post that gives some good detailed information on how to get to the Constantine Memorial.
33.4549420, -84.3277560
Those are the exact GPS coordinates for the Constantine Memorial. Its about 25 miles south of Atlanta, GA right off of US-19/US-41. Google has the address listed as 10945-10973 Tara Blvd, Hampton, GA 30228.
If you’re interested in hockey and want to join a fantasy hockey league for Sigs only, then you’re in luck. All Sigs are welcome so feel free to share the league info with others. I would suggest signing up as soon as you can because these leagues seems to fill up pretty quick. Good luck and In Hoc to everyone in the league.
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.
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.
This past weekend I attended a Sigma Chi event and wrote a blog post about it. I felt it was necessary to repost it, since it was all about Sigma Chi and discusses some of the reasons why I’m proud to be a Sigma Chi. The original post can be found here: http://blog.jacobadamcook.com/2010/08/30/Fratastic-Weekend.aspx
This past weekend my fraternity had an alumnus event (Scott Hale Memorial) to raise money for a scholarship we give out. It is a weekend long event consisting of hanging out at the fraternity house, golf tournament, banquet and a silent auction. A lot of people come from out of town to attend the event and for some it is the only time of the year I might get to see em. Jennifer and I both look forward to the event and getting to see everyone.
What year is it, 2002?
Friday night there was a party at the fraternity house that anyone could attend. This allowed all of us to hang out, chit chat and figure out what everyone had been up to the last few months. Its always a little strange going to the fraternity house late at night when you haven’t been in school in 5 years. It was like old times sitting on the deck, remembering old stories and basically making fun of each other for 5 hours. During those 5 hours there were two events that made me realize it wasn’t 2002. The reason we sat outside was because we felt like the music being played sucked and was to loud. You had to sit outside just to hear the person next to you talk (crazy young college kids with their loud music). Another event that gave it away came later in the night when a group of 10-15 of us were sitting on the deck chatting it up. A group of probably 5-10 sorority girls came walking out of the fraternity house and onto the deck as if they were coming to talk and hang out with us. Our wives were sitting on the opposite side of the deck chatting and watching the whole time. The group of sorority girls walked to the deck and got about half way across when they realized that we were 28-32 years old and not 18-21. They stopped huddled up and quickly turned around and went back inside the fraternity house. Needless to say our wives got a good laugh out of it.
Golf/Banquet
Saturday I played in the golf tournament and had a blast. My partner and I (Todd Thompson) played really well and came in 8th place. Our group had 6 people and it was really nice hanging out with those guys, playing 18 holes of golf for 6 hours. That night they had the banquet and silent auction. The banquet went well and we just continued hanging out like we used to. Its only the 2nd time Jennifer and I have stayed out past midnight since we found out Jennifer was pregnant about a year ago (Inception was a really long movie).
Just A Great Weekend
The entire weekend was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for next year. You would think that it might be a little weird seeing people you haven’t seen in a year, but it wasn’t at all. There is something about my fraternity brothers that just seems natural. Even if it has been a year or more since I’ve seen em, it never seems that way. As soon as we get together its like old times and feels like we haven’t missed a thing. In Hoc brothers and I’ll see ya next year.
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 