Who else is gearing up for district convention? I know the Northeast District had an amazing convention a few weeks back, the Southeast District is gearing up for a great weekend to come, and the rest of the districts are following on soon after. Convention is a great experience because it is a jam-packed weekend filled with music, fellowship, and membership development. And make sure to make a new friend or twenty. Those personal interactions are one of the best things about being a brother of Kappa Kappa Psi and we always look forward to it. The National Council wants to wish everyone safe journeys as they make their way to convention in the coming days and weeks.
AEA,
Jack Lee, National President
Evan Thompson, National Vice President for Colonization and Membership
Marco Krcatovich, National Vice President for Programs
Zac Humphrey, National Vice President for Student Affairs
Doug Stotter, National Vice President for Professional Relations
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SPRING 2016 PODIUM
Our Publications Manager, Robert Bratcher, has shared with us a link to the Spring 2016 edition of The Podium and now we are sharing it with you! Be sure to check it out!
COUNCIL MEETINGS
Since our last in-person meeting, the national council has gotten together via the fraternity’s OmniJoin online meeting room. During our meetings, we have shared updates on the work being done on an individual basis. These have been a great way to touch base and get caught up on all of our individual projects. It also helped get us focused ahead of district conventions. We are also in regular communication via text and phone working through the day to day, month to month business of the fraternity.
COLONIZATION AND MEMBERSHIP
Evan kept busy over the past few months coordinating installations as well as debuting the new colonization process at the University of New Haven. In the middle of March, Marco installed the Nu Xi Chapter (#326) at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This is the third installation of the biennium. In addition, Evan has been working with many chapters and their advisors on addressing membership education related concerns. He has also been working closely with the Curriculum Development Committee in preparing their presentation on the work they have been doing for the upcoming district conventions.
Jack and Evan, along with members of the National Headquarters staff have been reviewing Chapter Field Representative applications to narrow down a list of finalists who will be brought to National Headquarters in Stillwater, Oklahoma for in-person interviews as part of the process to select the next brothers who will serve in this role. Thank you to all brothers who submitted applications for this position – your dedication and passion for the fraternity are greatly appreciated. Best of luck to all who applied!
PROGRAMS AND AWARDS
Marco has been continuing his work on updating the awards process for Kappa Kappa Psi. As part of this work, he is working on having sample applications for each award so that chapters can have better guidance on what they should be preparing for submission. He is also looking at ways to update the Guide to Membership, since a lot of the awards section of the guide will now be online. He also has been working with the Data Team to develop the convention feedback surveys that convention attendees will fill out (or have filled out in the case of the NED) following their district’s convention. These surveys are essential because they help the National Leadership Team as well as your district councils learn and grow from year to year and help provide better programming for next year’s conventions.
STUDENT AFFAIRS
Zac has been working diligently on laying the foundation for the Kappa Kappa Psi Presents podcast. He has been working with members of the National Leadership Team to get episodes recorded and ready for release and distribution. This has been a big undertaking and learning experience, but it has been a lot of fun as well. The aim is to debut this school year with a handful of episodes and then get on a regular schedule as we move into a new school year this fall. More concrete information on the launch day will be forthcoming.
Zac has also begun planning out events for the incoming district officers. This year has been filled with lots of great conversations between Zac and your district leadership and he wants to capitalize on what he’s learned and expand that collaboration going into next year by hitting the ground running.
And this next announcement comes from our Executive Director, Steve Nelson. As Kappa Kappa Psi is a 501c3 non-profit organization, he wanted us to remind our membership and alumni that that designation means that we in no way can participate in election activities. What does this mean? Part of being a brother is being passionate in defense of our ideals, even with political campaigns and candidates. You can support a candidate or cause on your own, but chapters CANNOT participate in any partisan activity, this includes volunteering time or donating money in the name of the chapter or offering your chapter’s support in some capacity. This also includes wearing our letters to rallies or other volunteer related activities. Doing any of these activities could cause Kappa Kappa Psi to lose its non-profit status, be fined, or worse. Be passionate, make sure you vote, but always follow the law.
TRAVEL, DISTRICT CONVENTION, AND NATIONAL TOWN HALL
As we mentioned up top, we are in the midst of district convention season. The National Council is looking forward to getting face time with the active membership over the next couple of weeks. Please don’t be shy and be sure to say hi!
With the NED kicking off the district convention season, Zac and Marco for the national council, Adam Cantley, Danny George, and Eric Morson for the board of trustees, Mike Napolitano, Ali Beidler, and Daniel Miller for the Alumni Association Board of Directors, as well as the CFRs attended representing the National Leadership Team. They introduced the new format for the Kappa Kappa Psi Town hall session, which allows students to submit questions to the national leadership team via Twitter and Google forms. While many topics were discussed, many more were not due to time constraints. The national leadership team is looking at ways to tackle the unanswered questions and work to get that information to the brotherhood.
This has already been publicized, but posting it again will not hurt anything. The National Town Hall has been a staple of district conventions for the past handful of years and this year we were looking for ways to make it easier for brothers to participate and ask questions, as there has been some issues in the past with incorporating questions into the overall event. To that end, we have created individual online question submission forms for each district convention. Please feel free to leave the Kappa Kappa Psi National Leadership Team a question, comment, or concern by following the link for your respective convention. We will try to address as many as possible during the Town Hall segment of convention. Your name, email, and chapter are optional, but feel free to leave it for follow-up purposes. In addition to the district-centric Google form, we are also promoting a hashtag for each district convention so that questions can be submitted via Twitter as well. Either of these options can be done now, in the lead up to convention, or while you are at convention.
DISTRICT-CENTRIC TOWN HALL GOOGLE FORMS AND HASHTAGS
MWD: MWD Town Hall Google Form and #MWDTownHall
NCD: NCD Town Hall Google Form and #NCDTownHall
NED: NED Town Hall Google Form and #NEDTownHall (NED already happened and it was awesome)
SED: SED Town Hall Google Form and #SEDTownHall
SWD: SWD Town Hall Google Form and #SWDTownHall
WD: WD Town Hall Google Form and #WDTownHall