Accreditation: The Next Generation

Next Wednesday is officially the big day! I hesitate to say that it's the day that the new Accreditation application opens because it's SO MUCH MORE than that! The Accreditation application is a small part of a bigger and better application called Achieve. Achieve is essentially a membership, event, activity database, accreditation, communication tool and more. Okay, so it won't be all of that on Wednesday but it will be sometime in the future. We just got back from a meeting and review of the application and we are quite pleased with where we are at. This will be a big change and a big step forward for our organization and its members. Be sure that you check out the Temple magazine article on the new application. For our blog readers, you get VIP insight into the program right now!

For now, the Achieve Application's functions are limited but will continue to expand as the year goes on. On Wednesday each member will be sent instructions to login to the system. Each member will be able to add and edit information into their personal profile. Right now all that is visible is achievements, events, and organizations. We ask that each member begins to enter all of the non Phi Kappa Theta related events he has attended, achievements awarded, and organizations that the member is involved in so far this year. Officers have special permissions that allow them to add and edit chapter specific activities and events. Once the chapter event is held the officer can select the names of chapter members who have attended the event. This event information will then show up on the chapter profile as well as the profile of all members who attended. Be sure to login often and keep your profiles updated. Why is this so important? Well, your individual and chapter profiles talk to your chapter's Accreditation program. They don't literally talk, but the program was created to take your events and activities and automatically populate certain fields of your chapter's Accreditation application. For example, one of the requirements is that 80% of the chapter must attend at least one professional development program this year. Imagine that your chapter asks somebody from the campus Career Development Center to do a presentation on interview skills for the chapter. The secretary logs in to the Achieve Application, adds a new event, enters the requested information, and selects all of the chapter members who were in attendance from the pre-populated list. It is important to remember to attach documentation of this presentation (such as a signed letter from the presenter) when you add or edit the event entry. This data would automatically calculate if the 80% minimum has been reached and will show the documentation on your Accreditation application.

Make your own life easier by entering as much information as you can on Wednesday and adding information as it happens instead of rushing at the end of the year. We hope you find the application and process easier and as we move forward you will see all of new and exciting benefits that Achieve has to offer. If you have any questions during the year, let me know! Get excited.

Facebook Manners

Thought this was a fun way to end a Friday and also a reminder that manners apply to social networking as well!

Aha! Moments and Practicing What We Preach (Recruitment Edition)

First I have to start off this blog post by admitting that I love those Aha! moments. It is one of my favorite things about working with students is teaching them something and seeing the light bulb come on. I also love that for some reason the Aha! moments come at the most random times!

Mine came last night as I was driving across town to meet friends for dinner. I have a tendency to think and drive, especially on my drive into and out of work. I swear that's when things come together for me! As I was driving I was reflecting on some conversations regarding expansion that I've had in the past few weeks. I've talked to a handful of people who have given me some great insight into how to improve the way we do expansion. I've listened, I've taken notes, but for some reason something still wasn't clicking. Then as I'm jamming to the radio last night I realize Aha! Expansion is simply recruitment! In my years working with Greeks I've taught recruitment principles countless times, as have others in the office, but for some reason we weren't practicing what we preached! I'm excited to start making that move.

We have been treating expansion as rush, not recruitment. The reason that the term changed, is because rush doesn't work. Sitting in my office waiting for people to contact me isn't successful. Sure I get e-mails about starting chapters, but we've been expecting them to come to us and be interested in us and it rarely turns into anything because we don't take the time to sell to them. Recruitment is about actively pursuing the opportunities and selling what you are instead of playing the waiting game. We teach collegians to know what kind of men they are looking for and to make that list of values, criteria, or expectations. Our list however isn't specific, I don't know that we really know what type of institutions we are looking for. We teach collegians to build relationships all year round, to become friends and to increase the potential pool! Yet for expansion, if a campus says they aren't open at this time we give up and move on instead of building and maintaining a relationship for when there is a chance of success. I can come up with a lot more examples, but I think you all get the idea!

I'm confident that the recruitment tactics I've been teaching will serve expansion well. I am excited to practice what I preach and show all you recruitment naysayers why recruiting works and rush doesn't, even outside of collegiate fraternity recruitment. (I'm also confident I can prove it works without a lot of money either!)

And feel free to share your Aha! moments now that I've told you how much I love them :) I can't be the only one who thinks and drives right?

Positive Change to a Negative Enviroment

Things at the office have been less than wonderful this month and we all find ourselves dealing with unhappy people and a-lot of negativity. Sound familiar? Well let's alter our environments and bring in some positivity! How? Well I would like to follow the lead of these people.....




What do YOU think?

Phi Kappa Theta supports Movember

Earlier this summer we were contacted by a representative from Movember asking us if we were interested in supporting their organization. As you can imagine, we are solicited by dozens of companies and organizations every year so at the time I didn't think much about the email.

Several days later, I decided to check out their website to learn a little more about the organization. My initial reaction was of concern, the images of men sporting ridiculous mustaches dressed up in 70's style clothing wasn't an image that Phi Kappa Theta is looking to portray. As a social fraternity, we are constantly fighting the negative stereotypes; Movember's events seemed to only feed into those stereotypes.

What did catch my eye on the home page was Movember's Tagline; "Changing the Face of Men's Health." After speaking further with Movember's, Katie Theile I learned that the purpose of growing a mustache for an entire month was so that it could serve as the ice breaker for conversations about men's health issues to happen. Admittedly we as men, we barely ever talk about issues related to our health. Movember provides the opportunity for men to become engaged early and raise the awareness of men's health issues.

As members of Phi Kappa Theta, we are committed to serving society. Throughout the months of October and (Mo)vember, we will be writing blogs about men's health issues and will be encouraging our memebers to participate in Movember's efforts. In addition, member of our professional staff will also be growing mustaches for the month of (Mo)vember to raise awareness.

We hope that you will join us and our Movember team as we work to Change the Face of Men's Health.

President's Academy 2010

Information for the 2010 President's Academy went out last week. We are very excited to announce the new structure of this year's conference. There will be three training tracks available; one for incoming President's, one for (iServe) members, and one for any other collegiate member who would like to attend. There has been some discussion about the October 19th registration deadline for the President's so we're taking to the staff blog to explain why this decision was made.

For the first time there is now a full time staff member dedicated to educational programming and conferences. This means that the Fraternity will become significantly more organized and conferences will be planned at least one to two years ahead of time. This means there will be more opportunities to increase attendance because of advanced planning and more time to market each conference. We will begin this new trend with President’s Academy. In addition, President’s attend this event because of a grant from the Foundation. It is our hope to provide the opportunity for the President from each of our colonies and chapters to attend at no cost to the local chapter. By booking flights well in advance of the holiday, we keep transportation costs down which allows us the chance to invite more Presidents’s to attend at no cost. In addition, those flights are all booked by the staff which takes weeks of comparing costs, booking, and communicating those flights to the attending member.

The Holidays are a very difficult time for us to reach chapter members, as they are preparing for and taking exams in addition to traveling home for winter break. Many of our members leave campus before Thanksgiving and do not return until after the New Year. Keeping a registration deadline before November allows us to recruit members to attend, have ample time to book transportation, and the opportunity to send all major information about the conference to attendees before they leave campus for the Holiday. This helps us ensure that all communications are received before members become more difficult to reach over the winter break.

We would like all of our chapters and colonies to begin electing their President earlier in the fall term which allows for a more successful transition. The President of the United States is elected in November and takes office in February. The time after his election is spent preparing for his term in office by shadowing the current President to create a smoother transition. This is what we would like to see from our own chapters. The President should be elected in October, spend time transitioning and shadowing the outgoing officer, and then beginning his term in January when members return to school.

I hope this helps you understand why the deadline is earlier this year and will continue to be in October in the coming years. If you have any additional questions about President’s Academy Registration, please let me know at anita@phikaps.org.
To learn more about President's Academy, visit the event page.