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Lorem Ipsum Dolor Spring 2012

The Delta Chi Fraternity

Important Dates

You cannot expect to remain the same and for your life to be different.

Thank you for the productive visit. My time in Radford, VA wasfilled with exciting conversations on the future of the chapter.Visiting a few short days before our philanthropy event Little MissRadford provided great insight into our internal operations.

We have a strong support group in Dr. Burke, Dr. Owen and Mr.Marias. It is crucial we begin utilizing their knowledge for oursuccess. We have realized the need to be better, and it starts withour written programming. Although difficult, establishing a writtenassociate member program is key to recruitment and chapteroperations. I am confident we have the motivation and membershipto change.

Thank you again for your time and commitment to a better DeltaChi at Radford University.

In the Bond,

Glen Buickerood, Appalachian State 11

Dear Brothers,

Representative: Glen Buickerood

Leadership Consultant319-541-0801, GlenB@deltachi.org

Dates of Visit: 10/21/12 -10/23/12

Radford Chapter Core Competency Report

Date of Report: 10/31/12

Important Dates

12/1 C: ABT List due

E: Winter/SpringQuarterlyCampus

Scene

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The Core Competencies Model

What does it take for a fraternity to be successful? What does it take for Delta Chi to be successfulon our campus?

In trying to answer these questions, we often find ourselves falling back on, Well, it depends.While we acknowledge the uniqueness of each campus culture, weve found that there are eightcore areas of fraternity operations that are essential to building a relevant, sustainableorganization.

These eight areas, or competencies, and the core competencies model will be our vehicle to opendiscussions regarding the interconnectedness of previous seemingly separate fraternity functions.For example, it only minimally impacts a chapter if they initiate 50% more men than in theprevious year only to see half of those men choose to be on inactive status within two years. Wehave to look at the overall impact of recruitment, new member retention, and the effect of inactivemembers on the groups strength. These are, in fact, the elements of theManpower competency.

The eight core competencies are:Advising & Governance InvolvementAlumni Relations ManpowerFinancial Management Membership Education

Housing Scholarship

You may find that your chapter is exceptional in several competencies, but could use some workin a few. Our staff is here to help with this! The Opportunities for Improvement sectionincluded in this report includes action items corresponding with specific core competencies.During a chapter visit, the Leadership Consultant learns from conversations with your membersabout the chapters current achievement in each of the eight core competencies. He then workswith you to develop action items, or opportunities for improvement, to assist the officers andchairmen in elevating their chapters achievements to the next level.

Youll also find that were promoting a consistent, clear message across our visitation program,

colony development and awards & recognition program. Now youll be able to speak on the samewavelength with other chapters and use the action items from these reports to provide content foryour awards packet.

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Opportunities For Improvement

Advising & Governance:Addresses opportunities for improvement regarding the Alumni Board of Trustees, BB Involvement, FacultyAdvisor, by-laws, judicial board, and business meetings.

Action Item: Re-Engage Dr. Burke and Dr. OwenResources Needed: Effort and communicationWho is Involved: Chapter, executive boardDeadline: ASAP

How: Dr. Burke has been the faculty advisor for the Radford Chapter for 18 years. He has witnessedthe highs and the lows. Using his experience with both the university and our organization is keytoward our future success. Dr. Owen has experience of his own with the chapter in a variety of rolesTheir leadership and understanding of our internal operations leads us to a zero excuse mentalityHowever, their involvement has taken in a limited role in the chapter. They still conduct a RobertsRules workshop with the associate members yet it is not implemented in chapter meetings. Dr.Burke and Dr. Owen are limited in time commitment but are more then willing to help in any waypossible. My conversation at the chapter meeting acknowledged (with membership agreement) thatwe have a problem. We not only admitted to the problem, we made a decision to change andimprove for the better. Utilize your faculty advisors for this change.

Action Item: Hold weekly chapter meetingsResources Needed: Room reservationWho is Involved: EveryoneDeadline:Every week, no excuses

How: Prior to my arrival, their had not been a chapter meeting held for the past two weeks. Meetinga chapter with that as the precursor is very troubling. Cancelling chapter meetings on short notice(or not having them at all) is a significant issue that is a major warning flag. Each committee has theexpectation to always be working on something. Valuable information is announced at each meetinthat is pertinent to upcoming happenings that affect the Chapter. If the general membership does noknow what is coming up, how can we expect their attendance at mandatory events? The two weeksapproaching our large philanthropy event (Little Miss Radford Pageant) are critical for planning a

successful event. Many of the conversations held at the chapter meeting I attended (two days beforethe philanthropy event) were issues that should have been discussed and resolved weeks prior to thevent.

Action Item: Invite Robert Marias (Greek Advisor) to a chapter meetingResources Needed: Chapter meeting location and time

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Who is Involved: Chapter and Robert MariasDeadline: Before Dec. 1

How: Robert Marias (greek advisor) is eager to help every greek organization on Radfords campusAn easy way to involve him is invite him to a chapter meeting. He will be given a change to meet thChapter, and the Chapter will be able to meet him. Many campuses struggle with the definition ofthe fraternity/sorority life office. Unfortunately, this lack of information leads chapters to think theoffice is out to get them. This is far from the truth. Robert can provide excellent feedback on manytopics to help make us the best chapter we can be. His attendance also opens a forum for questionson the greek community and the direction he wants us to move. You will be surprised to find he hathe same vision that we have. If he cannot get a pulse on our strengths and weaknesses, how is hesupposed to help? The chapter leadership (A or B) needs to reach out to him at least two weeksbefore the meeting to ensure he can come. Luckily, we meet once a week every week so there aremany opportunities to invite him for that experience.

Is the Chapter A the delegate to the Interfraternity Council? Yes

Manpower:Addresses opportunities for improvement regarding recruitment practices, goal-setting, new and active memberretention, and inactive members.

Action Item: Plan a committee chair transition that distributes work effectivelyResources Needed: Meeting room, goals for each committee, Committee SystemBRIEFWho is Involved: All current committee chairs and any brothers/associate members interested intaking on a committee chair next semesterDeadline:Before Dec. 7, 2012

How: It is clear many that the expectation is the executive board does 95% of the Chapters work.This mentality leads to a burned out executive board and a lazy (yet vocal) general membership. Myconversation at the chapter meeting focused on the need for the rest of the Chapter membership tobecome more involved. We cannot sustain this idea that those who are at the top do all of the work.We each joined this chapter with the intention to make it better than when we joined. Taking on acommittee chair that interests you will help in this distribution of work. A committee transitionmeeting that allows for brothers and associate members to take on chair positions will help delegate

power that would normally overwhelm an executive board.The meeting can potentially be run during a regular chapter meeting. List each committee theChapter has and ask brothers and associate members who are interested in running them to raisetheir hands. Once we have a list of prospective chairs, open up conversation on each committee.

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What do we want them to achieve next semester? How can we make this goal a reality? Build thesegoals around the four acid test:

1. Time Oriented2. Measurable3. Worthwhile4. Realistic

If you write a goal that answers each of those questions, then it is a goal that has the ability to bemeasured and achieved. Each committee should have at least one goal that passes this test. After thgoals have been established for each committee, the B should notify those who are interested intaking on a committee chair to meet with him the following week to discuss the goals and interest.The B has the ability to appoint all committees minus those that are explicitly defined in thebylaws as being elected positions. Appoint those who understand the goal and have the time andability to complete them. The Committee SystemBRIEF will help the B build a group of committeethat are effective and productive.

Member Education:Addresses opportunities for improvement regarding educational aspects of the Associate Member program,GreekLifeEDU, risk management education, and on-going education (RLCs, Convention, As Academy, UIFI, etc)

Action Item: FIPG educationResources Needed:FIPG policyWho is Involved: FDeadline:Every Chapter Meeting

How:At every Chapter meeting have the "F" read over one point from the FIPG Policy and answerany questions. Over time, this will allow for the Chapter to have a better understanding of the Policand how it can impact them on an individual level.

Action Item: Establish a written Associate Member ProgramResources Needed: New Member EducationBRIEF, Big Brother BRIEF, Scholarship BRIEF, ScholarshiProgram TemplateWho is Involved: AMC, Dr. Burke, Chapter, Greek Advisor (Robert Marias)Deadline: Have written program completed before winter break

How: This visit has shown we clearly need to rebuild a foundation for success. The biggest hurdle tjump for this to become a reality is written programming. Every year we reinvent the wheel on mandifferent fronts (A.M. Program, officer transitions, alumni relations, etc.). This constant rebuildingnever allows for growth. In order to grow, we need to have certain standards set. An AssociateMember Program we are proud of and follow is critical to our future success. The recommended

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length from Delta Chi is eight weeks. There is an example program located in the New MemberEducationBRIEF. The current AMC and executive board should read this BRIEF and plan a day tomeet and develop an A.M. Program we will use for the following semester (and into the future). Pla

this meeting well in advance to give Dr. Burke and Dr. Owen plenty of time to adjust their scheduleso they can attend if possible. Using the eight-week program we provide as a template, build aprogram that covers the four basic aspects every strong associate member program stresses:

1. Brotherhood: Find many different ways to assimilate the associates with the brothers.Community service, philanthropy, brotherhood events are all great places to start. Developing aBig Brother program in conjunction with the Associate Member program is a necessity to thebrotherhood aspect. Consult the Big Brother BRIEF for an example of how this should be set up.

2. History: A solid understanding of Delta Chi/Greek/Radford history will help build the mindsethat we are a part of something bigger. Please remember that this education is not critical to oursuccess as a chapter. Do you need to know the founding fathers by memorization in order to runthe fraternity as A? No, but it is always important to know where we came from.

3. Organization: This is the most critical component to the program that many AMCs overlook. Ware educating the Associate Members in preparation to take on leadership roles in the chapter. Akeen understanding of how we operate (Chapter meetings, committees, socials, etc) is a MUST.Chances are the program prior has not touched on this education at all. Begin changing thatculture now in the associate member program so the future classes know how to run the Chaptefrom the as soon as they are initiated.

4. Scholarship: The scholarship chair and AMC have an obligation to prepare the associatemembers for success in the classroom. Study hours are passive and ultimately ineffective.Consult the Scholarship Program Template at deltachi.org (Resources -> Officer and AdvisorNotebooks -> Scholarship Chair-> Scholarship Program Template) and set a standard for howmany points the associate members will need to complete in order to be in good standing.

The program will turn into the ultimate recruitment tool. Passing out the program duringrecruitment will show legitimacy and the reality that we take our new member education seriously.It answers a plethora of questions any quality potential or parent would ask.

Scholarship:Addresses opportunities for improvement regarding scholarship programming, by-laws enforcement, and academicperformance.

Action Item: Develop an extensive scholarship program that addresses associate member grades an

struggling chapter membersResources Needed:Scholarship BRIEF, Scholarship Program TemplateWho is Involved: Scholarship chair, Chapter, AMCDeadline: Develop the program for the spring semester, implement as much as possible now

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How: The associate members grades from last semester are troubling. Their semester GPA was a2.43, seventh lowest of eleven chapters. Starting this spring, that GPA would not meet Delta Chistandards for initiation.

A few basic things to keep in mind when developing a scholarship program for associate membersare:1. Associate members are in an academically vulnerable position. Their excitement for fraternity

and Delta Chi specifically can override academic obligations if the mentality toward academics inot properly stressed in the Associate Member Program. The idea of study hours is only oneaspect to an effective scholarship program that will change chapter culture and grades.

a. Consider Einsteins definition of insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again andexpecting different results. Changing the mentality of the scholarship program towardsomething significant will cause the wanted change.

2. The ultimate expectation of the program is simple. Hold weekly meetings with those onacademic probation (those under the minimum semester chapter GPA to be in good standing)and associate members. The weekly meeting can address many things, but its ultimate focusshould be on the individual success. Open up conversation on classes, note taking, test taking,attendance etc.

3. Utilize the on campus resources that are available to every student at Radford. Invite people fromthe Student Success Center to give presentations on topics such as Time Management, NoteTaking, Study Skills and Organization. Many times high school students do not have the properskills to adjust from the scholastic requirements at the high school level to a university setting.

4. Ultimately, this is your program. It is time to take our academics to the next level. Please notebelow the GPA changes made at convention in Pittsburgh this past August.

a. As of January 1st, 2013: each Associate Member must have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 orbetter (on a 4.0 scale), or if he has completed no college work, a cumulative high school

GPA of 2.75 or better.b. As of July 1st, 2013: each Chapter shall have a minimum cumulative Chapter GPA at orabove the all-mens or all-fraternity GPA of the host institution, whichever is higher.

c. As of July 1st, 2013: All elected officers must have a 2.65 cumulative GPA prior to beinginducted into his position and must maintain that GPA throughout his term as an officer.

The Delta Chi BRIEF System

Please take note that all BRIEFs are located on Delta Chis website. Here is where to find them:1. Go to www.deltachi.org2. Look at the left bar of links, and click on RESOURCES3. Click on Delta Chi BRIEFs. It will be the first link in the right column4. Every Delta Chi BRIEF will appear with hot links that will open the BRIEF. The only BRIEF notfound on the website is the Pre-Initiation BRIEF. Please email me at GlenB@Deltachi.org if youwould like a digital copy.

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Final Thoughts

I am excited to see the continued growth of the Chapter. It is apparent the reputation andorganization of the group has made significant strides, but do not settle for mediocrity. It is nowimportant to develop necessary programming to take the Chapter to the next level. Set goals forthese action items to make their addition to the Chapter a reality. Keep up the good work. If you dont know where you want to go, you will travel anywhere whenever.

In The Bond,

Glen BuickeroodAppalachian State 11Leadership ConsultantCell: 319-541-0801Email: GlenB@deltachi.org

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