Member Spotlight: Russel Fisher; Pennsylvania Tau Colony Vice President

Some staff members here at the Executive Office utilize google alerts. These alerts tell us when our name is used online in news articles or press releases. Today I was sent the best google alert I've seen in a while and it compelled me to start something new on the blog - a Member Spotlight. Our members are often doing amazing things and being recognized in their community or across the country for their extraordinary efforts. Today, our first member spotlight is on Russel Fisher, a colony member of Pennsylvania Tau, St. Francis University. For those of you who read the blog often, you know that we work very closely with the colony and I have been there twice in the last year. Russel is the Vice President and is one of the most outstanding young men I have had the pleasure of working with. Here is a link to an article about Russel and his recent nomination to the 2009 Allstate/AFCA Good Works Team. Congratulations Russel!

http://www.tribune-democrat.com/sports/local_story_208234213.html

Mideast Regional Conference

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

The Mideast Regional Leadership Conference will be held in Pittsburgh, September 18-20, 2009 and will be hosted by the Pennsylvania Alpha Xi chapter at Duquesne University. The President at Duquesne, alumnus Lenny Chan, and I have been working hard to secure room blocks, finalize the training schedule, select facilitators, and organize a very fun brotherhood outing for all attendees. The training will provide two separate training tracks on Friday night and Saturday; one will be the (iServe) Institute and the other will be for collegiate members. The two groups will converge on Sunday morning for training that was requested by both alumni and collegians. It's going to be a great Regional Conference that is being planned based on the needs and requests of members in the Mideast Region who responded to the survey which was sent in August. Tell your advisors, alumni, mentors, brothers, anybody who works with your collegiate chapter to mark their calendars for this weekend. More information, including cost and an agenda will be made public as soon as it's completed. Post a comment if you have questions about the event - we love to hear your thoughts!

My First Few Weeks on Staff

Alright, my first post as a Phi Kap staff member! I thought I would just briefly talk about my first few weeks on staff and my impressions so far as someone who is new to the organization. For those who I haven't met yet, my name is Gretchen and I'm the new Assistant Director of Member Development.

I've been officially in the office for three weeks now and have spent a big chunk of that time really learning about the fraternity. I've met with all the staff members, a board member, vendors, and spent hours reading every policy, document, Temple, and every nook and cranny of the website. I'd like to pretend I have it all figured out, but I'm learning more every day.

Everyone I've met has been extremely welcoming and also a lot of fun, but one of the things I've been most impressed with since I've been here is the strategic plan and vision for the organization.It is exciting and motivating as a staff member to help the fraternity move forward and to grow and it was one of the biggest reasons I was interested in this position. What I've learned even more since being on staff is that it isn't change simply for the sake of change, everyone has spent a lot of time reflecting on how to make Phi Kappa Theta and its membership the best that it can be. I find a lot of organizations have a vision and plan that are just for show, and that is definitely not the case here. Plus in my opinion, some really cool things will be in the works.

We are gearing up for convention here in the office currently and I'm excited to meet everyone who will be attending.I truly believe your stories and experiences will teach me much more about Phi Kappa Theta.My challenge for you all is,If you had to teach someone about Phi Kappa Theta what would you tell them? What are you proud of? I'd love to hear your answers!

Mission Accomplished

I could not be happier to announce that the Accreditation Application grading process is over. We spent all day, every day, for the last month reading these things and let me tell you it was quite an experience. I laughed, I cried, I smiled, I sighed and once or twice I even rolled my eyes. Overall, our chapters are doing some really good things which is always great to read about. I am so excited for the awards banquet at Convention to recognize these chapters and their hard work. We also have a lot of work to do before next year's Accreditation Application is released. We are putting this project through some changes and we start working on it in t-minus 11 days. Less writing, more clicking. The format will be even more user friendly and straight forward. I could not be more excited for Accreditation version 2.0.

In other exciting news, Gretchen Stahl, the new Assistant Director of Member Development, started this week. She keeps coming back so I guess it's safe to assume she likes it here so far. It's great to have her here and she really fits in with the rest of staff so well. Once Convention is over we'll have the time to start moving forward with some very exciting things we're working on for our membership. Fresh ideas, new and updated resources, and a Mideast Regional Conference this fall that everybody will want to attend.

Now for some business. Get excited for Convention because we are! We are doing some cool new things at Convention this year to celebrate 50 years of brotherhood. I am hoping we have record breaking attendance, but we have some chapters that have yet to register! Who are they, you ask? See below. Let's utilize mass accountability here to get them registered!

Belmont Abbey
Carnegie Mellon
Cincinnati
Detroit-Mercy
Georgia
Louisiana at Lafayette
Michigan Tech
Nebraska-Lincoln
New Orleans
Nicholls
Ohio University
Pittsburgh
South Dakota
St. Francis
St. Louis
Texas-Austin
Truman State
Washington State