Have you been wondering what the national council has been working on since you elected them in Lexington? Below you will find a list of goals and updates relating to those goals.

Jack Lee, National President – lee.jack.d@gmail.com

• Have regional premieres (each district) of the commissioned piece “Of Blood and Stone”

  • Jack has been working with Steve Nelson and Doug Stotter to review the contact of the commissioned piece that was signed several years ago to ensure that we can get the regional premieres. He has also worked with Steve and Doug on seeking out some collegiate programs that will premiere the piece for us. So far there are several that are willing. The fraternity will promote these regional premieres through our own mediums as well as through publications such as “The Instrumentalist” and “Southwestern Musician” (Two prominent band publications)

• Create and publicize the Fraternity discipline process so that all chapters can see what process we use

  • He has been working with VPCM Evan Thompson and CCEC Yvonne Daye to ensure that we have a documented discipline process. Much of the operation of the Fraternity in past years has been dependent upon institutional knowledge with little written down and documented. They  are very near to finalizing this document, and he anticipate that this will be uploaded to the national website within the next two-three weeks.

• Identify and appoint governors for the Southeast and Northeast Districts

  • Following national convention the fraternity has two vacancies in our governor corps – one in the northeast and one in the southeast. Evan Thompson’s election to VPCM created the vacancy in the southeast district. I have appointed a replacement, and that replacement will begin duties immediately. Latrondrick Hunter will fill the SED governor position and there will be a formal fraternity-wide e-mail announcement this week. He is currently working with several individuals to fill the vacant NED governor position that was left empty with Casey Goodwin stepped down and her term ended at national convention.

• Schedule a meeting between the National Executive Director, the National President, and the Chair for the Board of Trustees

  • He has been communicating with Steve Nelson and Rod Chesnutt on scheduling a face-to-face meeting between the three of them. That meeting is scheduled for September 19th on the Florida Gulf Coast University campus in Fort Myers, FL. The meeting will be an opportunity for Steve, Rod, and Jack to update each of other on the work of the council, board, and HQ. It will also be used to begin planning some of the larger work of the biennium.

• Review the Fraternity’s presence at Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and State Music Educators Association Meetings

  • Steve, Kathryn, and Jack have been working to adjust our presence. They will have a booth at the Intercollegiate Marching Festival in Allentown, PA. There are many programs with chapters that march at this event. They will also be in attendance at Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic. and TMEA. They are currently discussing our purpose at these meetings and making adjustments as needed.

• Work with National Headquarters on the Fall Mail Out

  • The beginning of each school year, the fraternity mails (read: e-mails) out a formal document that helps recap national convention and the upcoming year.  It also includes important information for the active membership. That mail out should occur within the next several days.

• Review National Council Minutes for publication

  • Vice President Krcatovich has currently submitted the minutes to Past President Beason and Jack to review and submit any needed adjustments before publication. That document is currently being reviewed, and I anticipate that it will be sent along to Robert Bratcher for branding and publication extremely soon.

• Coordinate with VPCM Thompson, the CFRs, and HQ the CFR travel schedule

  • While VPCM Thompson completed the large majority of the work for this, Jack worked alongside him to ensure that we continued the necessary CFR focus that carries from one biennium to the next. The CFR schedules were completed, posted online, and the CFRs are already making visits.

Evan Thompson, National Vice President for Colonization and Membership – evan@kkpsi.org

• CFR program

  • Evan approved CFR travel schedules and continue to provide professional development and training throughout the semester.
  • Preparing for 2016 CFR Hiring Process. Developed criteria and worked with Robert to update the advertisement for the Podium.

• District Leadership Conference 2016

  • Planning for the 2016 District Leadership Conference this summer in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Will be providing leadership training for district presidents and quality professional development for Governors.

• Work through colony and discipline for this upcoming semester in an efficient and timely manner

  • Evan Finalized Discipline Letters with Yvonne Daye for Fall 2015 with hard deadlines set for September 15 or 30. Please follow up with those chapters. He also approved Membership Education Programs for Colonies and discipline chapters.

• Get chapter discipline protocol and flow charts finalized and approved for publication on the national website

  • Evan worked with Yvonne Daye to finalize discipline protocol and flow charts (will be available on National Website by September 30). The protocol and flow charts will allow the council to be more transparent in the discipline process

• Review, change, update, overhaul the colonization process (will be prepared for district convention season)

  • Evan is planning Pre-Installation Visits for New Mexico State and East Tennessee Colonies with 3rd Degree/Installation ideally happening in late September or Early October. He has also approve University of Illinois Chicago and UI-Urbana/Champaign for 1st and 2nd degrees.

• Hold mid-semester conference call with Governors and would like to do the same with District Presidents

  • Continue work on the Chapter Vice President’s Teaching Guide (will be prepared for district convention season)

Marco Krcatovich, National Vice President for Programs – mkrcatovich@gmail.com

• “Close the books” on the 2013-2015 National Convention: Minutes, Scholarship Notifications, etc. Update the National Constitution.  Publish the National Budget.

  • Marco closed the 2013-15 business and is working with Robert to post updated versions of the National Constitution and National Convention minutes along with the National Budget.  Updates to the Guide to Membership will be complete by mid-October.

• Create a new webpage for each award and build a new, uniform award application for each.  Aiming for a soft launch by January in advance of District Convention season.

  • Marco began work with Robert Bracher on the new Press Release template, new award and grant templates, and will be starting our work on new websites in September.

• Create a fundraising plan for the Trust Fund Scholarships account so that the fraternity can raise as much money as we give out each biennium and work towards a long-term fraternity goal of endowing our scholarships and leadership programs as we also endow the NIB and other projects.

  • Marco developed the fundraising plan to raise roughly $25,000 this biennium and will present it to the Development Team, Board of Trustees, and National Council at the end of September along with working on better outreach about programs like the National Headquarters Bricks to help in the kickoff for the upcoming capital campaign.

• Review the National Website and update all pages that are now inconsistent with the decisions at National Convention or are out of date.  

  • Marco began identifying updates for the National Website and identified some ways to get the active membership involved in reviewing and improving our national website.

• Create a regular schedule for promoting, notifying, and celebrating our national programs and awards to begin automating many of these annual processes so there is more focus on new projects and not rebuilding the current structure each biennium.

  • Marco created new internal deadlines for reports and Council documents and began work on a better template for National Convention reports and pre-convention communication to make the fraternity’s operations more transparent and accessible.

• Month of Musicianship!!

  • Marco crafted the Month of Musicianship plan and I will be reaching out to the District officers who deal with “programs” (VPP, MAL, etc.) to collaborate and cross-promote.

• Create sample applications for each award to document best practices and help chapters improve the quality of the applications they submit.

  • Marco is developing resources to improve not only the number of applications we have for our awards and programs, but improve the quality of those applications as well.

• Craft a personal evaluation process for the office that will be completed by active members and designed to identify where outreach is working and where brothers are learning about our awards and programs and where the information is not reaching the membership.

  • Marco will be reaching out to actives across the brotherhood to make sure changes are being noticed and to review his own work every six months to regularly identify areas for improvement as a brother and a leader.

• Develop new chapter/national press releases and begin regularly promoting our awards and programs to the general public.

  • In an effort to increase the reach of our programs, Marco is sending press releases for new awardees and notifying university administration when our brothers are recognized for their great work.  To do this a new press release template for the National Leadership and for chapters is being developed and it will be introduced to chapters this fall.

Zac Humphrey, National Vice President for Student Affairs – zac@kkpsi.org

• Finalize student chat schedule of topics and format to present to the active brotherhood by mid September

  • Zac researched alternatives to google hangouts for VPSA student chats. He also drafted a plan for the coming year in terms of student chats in terms of content and format that was shared with the national council. He recently tested out the OmniJoin online meeting tool during a meeting with district officers. He presented his vision for the new Kappa Kappa Psi Presents sessions to the active brotherhoods and planned the first one focusing on the Online Membership Reporting System.

• Work to promote the Podium Online as a medium for continuing conversation between the active brothers and the national level

  • Zac discussed with Robert Bratcher at HQ ways to better utilize the Podium Online and make it into a resource that is more utilized throughout the year. He also submitted a piece for The Podium that challenges brothers to submit their experiences to The Podium and the Podium Online.

• Work with Robert on developing the chapter social media database

  • Zac shared links to the social media contact info form that Robert created and helped publicize this project. This will become a resource that our students can use to share and connect with others online.

• Get the conversation from the national level more constant and consistent

  • Zac worked with Robert to come up with ways to streamline communication from the national level and have presented ideas to council and HQ on ways to make our messaging more consistent across various media while taking advantage of the inherent strengths of each medium.
  • He has also been working with Marco and Robert to come up with a way to make sure that we are staying active in our online presence throughout the year and that reminders are consistent and constant.

• Create and maintain a district officer hangout that happens throughout the year

  • Zac hosted a meeting with district officers to provide an update on what the national council has been working on since national convention. This is set to be a regular meeting throughout the year to not only provide updates on national council work, but also an opportunity for the district officers to collaborate and work together.

• Meet with all VPSA candidates and write up an after action report on the conversations that were had to present to the council

  • Zac met with the 6 other VPSA candidates to debrief from national convention and also look for ways to keep active and engaged alumni involved as well as have conversations about what the office of VPSA could accomplish in the coming biennium.