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.

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

Convention, Accreditation, and Life

I have several things to write on three different subjects so I'll will try to compartmentalize this.

50th Convention:
Keith and I love making videos. Since I started staff a year ago we have made several of them, with each getting better and better. My favorite was the last promo video for Convention with the exploding crests. The last 1/2 just blows my mind it's so cool. If you haven't seen it - you should.

So we just created a NEW one. It's the final promo for Convention and it might be my new favorite. Check it out and get excited for Convention!




Accreditation:
The results are in and out of our 44 active chapters (clearly this does not count colonies) we have 35 groups that submitted their Accreditation Packets. We had very few issues and we have already learned alot about the process and small things we can do for next year to make it even better. It's amazing that one year ago I was sitting here reading stacks of notebooks for awards and thought "Wow, we must make this easier and electronic" and now, it has happened. I can't wait to start reading everything. Thank you so much to all the people who assisted with the creation of the program and to all of our chapters for their patience and open communication. This is going to be great!

Music:
A new first for the blog - music. I love music. You might be surprised to learn that my current obsession is 311. A group I've never liked before but the new album "Uplifter" is great. I have one song on repeat that I listen to all day long. Catch these lyrics:

"...Chipping away, day by day, until we see it break apart - hear me talk about
Let it be known it can be done. Bit by bit and one by one.
If the both of us try from both of two sides, until we see the sun..."

If you take this out of context of the song (which I will now do) it makes me think of Greek Life and stereotypes. Just before this part of the chorus it references a heart surrounded by stone. If the heart is really all the people who hate Greek Life, and the stone wall around it are all the stereotypes, we need to chip away. All of us from every side should chip away. It's not easy and maybe one person can't realistically make a HUGE impact, but we can chip. If we all chip - all Phi Kaps, all fraternities and sororities, Greek Advisors, alumni, friends of Greeks; we can make a difference. Sometimes it takes work. Last night I was with friends and I was telling them about an upcoming Mario Kart competition that I must win. I've been practicing every night. My friend Jeremy asked me if I was having fun playing all these hours by myself just to win. I said, "It's not always about having fun, it's about being the best!" It's not easy, but often the rewards of our hard work make it worth everything. Sometimes the fun happens after the hard work. I'll have fun when I win this weekend. There's a time for both hard work and fun.