Delta Chi - Educational Foundation

Fall 2013 Newsletter

Delta Chi Educational Foundation

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The Knight Errant "A"s' Academy Provides Tools to Chapter Leaders that Make Immediate Impact T he "A"s' Academy provides once-in-a-lifetime leadership experience for undergraduate members. For Cameron Barnett, Duquesne '11, attending the academy provided tools for him to improve his leadership skills and his chapter. "The "A"s' Academy impacted the success of my chapter by allowing me to learn about my own personal leadership style and tendencies, as well as showing me how to evaluate my chapter and its operations." Being surrounded by other "A"s and advisors gives insight on best practices to bring back to their own chapters. "I learned how other chapter presidents handled issues that were similar to those in my chapter, what best practices would solve common issues, and how to be a more effective leader and role model to my brothers. It showed me that many of the problems we think are unique to our chapter really aren't." "The wealth of ideas and inspiration you get from the Academy makes you want to go back to your chapter and change everything overnight, which often ends in disappointment. The best way to achieve things is to build a coalition of like-minded brothers who have the same ideas as you and encourage them to get involved. Leadership isn't standing at the podium at the front of the chapter, or have the loudest voice, or knowing your bylaws verbatim. True leadership is the ability to inspire others to action." Page 2 Contacts from "A"s' Academy Prove to Be Invaluable O ne of the biggest impacts the "A"s' Academy can have on each of the participants is the connections "A"s make with Delta Chi leaders across the country. For John Rausch, Florida '13, having those contacts to call on during his term was a great asset and helped improve his chapter. "The Academy equipped me with a number of skills I used in running my chapter over the course of my term. It also helped me connect with a number of "A"s from other chapters, who were great resources. I made friends from other chapters that I still speak with regularly and have visited several times since the Academy." As an incoming "A," there are a lot of challenges to overcome. A big concern for John was how to handle the financial management of the chapter, specifically collecting dues. "The Academy gave me a number of suggestions that significantly improved our chapter's collection rate and allowed our chapter to significantly reduce our accounts receivable over the course of my term. It was a good feeling knowing that other chapters had some of the same struggles that our chapter has encountered. It was important to understand that any difficulties we had could be resolved. " After leaving the "A"s' Academy, John sent personal thank-you notes to donors whose contributions provided for the "A"s' Academy. "Alumni do not have an obligation to donate money to enhance my fraternity experience, and even my future, and yet they have and will continue to do so. Students are not simply entitled to alumni money, so giving thanks was the least I could do." John has served his chapter as the service chairman, "E," and "A," while pursuing bachelor degrees in industrial and systems engineering and statistics. He will graduate from the University of Florida in December 2013. Cameron left the Academy with a plan to streamline his chapter's executive meetings and expand the social chairman's role. "As an executive committee, we decided that when we gave our reports we would stick to the agenda, say our piece, and then move to the next officer. Any debate or discussion was saved for later. This effectively reduced 90 minute meetings to 30 minutes. Rethinking the social chairman's role had a big impact. We made a concerted effort for that chairman to be more dynamic. Instead of just texting a sorority social chairwoman, he'd call and meet with her. We paid attention to founding dates and special anniversaries and sent brothers to present the particular group with their sorority flowers. Most importantly, we focused on doing dry social events with the sororities—the best example is a laser tag mixer that all of us still talk about to this day. The result of this was a dramatic increase in reputation and interest among the sororities, more consistent social activities, and better friendships overall." he "A"s' Academy is designed to create successful leaders, but success means something different for each attendee. "John Wooden's concept that success is self-defined had a great impact on me," said Rick James, Fullerton '13. "The Academy helped me to put it in my own terms and internalize the definition of success for myself and my chapter." After graduating with his bachelor's degree in English and Spanish, Cameron worked for Delta Chi as a Leadership Consultant for a year. He continues to work closely with his chapter, serving as secretary on their ABT and giving talks to incoming associate member classes on leadership and values. He is pursuing a master of fine arts in creative writing at the University of Pittsburgh with a goal of teaching at the college level. "Many of the things I learned in Delta Chi and at the "A"s' Academy will help me achieve this, specifically how to inspire people and motivate them to achieve their goals." Unity in the chapter is imperative. It stems from the example set by the chapter's executive leadership. "Creating a strong brotherhood within the executive board creates a unified leadership front that is important throughout the term. If there are internal issues within the executive board, leadership will stumble in the eyes of its members." Academy Inspires Leaders to Define Their Meaning of Success T Rick was able to take ideas from his time at the Academy and immediately start achieving new goals for his chapter. "The single most important thing for fraternities to be successful is preparation at the beginning of the semester. I learned how to run effective executive and chapter retreats where the entire group can suggest and agree on the program develops unity, which then breeds success." www.dcef.com

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