When chapters transitioned to virtual operations in late March the Fraternity determined that accommodations should be made for all chapters in the annual Pursuit of Excellence Program submission, review, and ratings process. That included the following measures:

• Outreach to each chapter to review updated guidance on conducting their annual self-assessment process
• Guidance on addressing any chapter activities that were canceled, postponed, or modified in response to the pandemic – including the ability to substitute the results of comparable activities from the prior year (e.g. LEAD sessions, recruitment activities, service events, philanthropic fundraising) and to explain how any modified events were impacted by not being held in-person
• Offering the option of chapter-specific submission deadline extensions
• Amending the evaluation guidelines in the review process for all chapters to account for criteria where chapter operations were expected to be limited due to the move to virtual operations for the end of the academic term.

The below details the changes to the submission and review process to account for the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic process for 2019-2020 Pursuit of Excellence Self-Assessment Booklet submissions:

• Chapters encouraged to describe any impact to operations as a result of the pandemic – including scheduled/planned events that have been postponed or canceled due to in-person gathering limitations, stay-at-home orders, or the shift to virtual operations. Impacts could be in areas like service/philanthropy events, candidate education, initiations, LEAD, alumni events, brotherhood activities, and more.
• Chapters received credit for meeting criteria if they did any of the following:
  • Explained what was already scheduled/planned but had to be canceled or postponed
  • Showed evidence from the prior spring of similar annual activities. In this case, reviewers considered those numbers as a stand-in for this spring (e.g. chapter typically conducts 1 service event where all members participate as part of the Founders’ Month of Service)
  • Explained what was converted to a virtual format and still conducted (e.g. LEAD sessions, candidate education activities)
• Delayed submissions had no impact on a chapter’s ratings.

Further, the following evaluation guidelines were updated to provide accommodations to be applied globally (to all chapters) due to the pandemic:

• Service & Philanthropy
  • If the chapter completed 4 or more activities with participation from most members, may rate up to Excellence
    • Meeting the Good criterion was satisfactory for a rating up to Excellence – as the number of available months to conduct activities was limited.
  • If members collectively averaged at least 5 hours (in activities pre-pandemic), may rate up to Excellence
    • Meeting the Very Good criterion was satisfactory for a rating up to Excellence
• Values Congruent Environments
  • If fall candidates completed Phase I Risk Reduction session, may rate up to Very Good. If spring candidates’ session was scheduled but postponed, may rate up to Excellence
  • If chapter sponsored Risk Reduction or Personal Development All Chapter LEAD sessions in Fall, but was not completed or scheduled/postponed for Spring, may rate up to Very Good
• Candidate Development
  • If chapter completed LEAD Phase I (10 or more sessions) with fall candidates and had a schedule/plan to do so with spring, may rate up to Excellence
  • Retention to initiation was based only on classes that made it to initiation (i.e. fall, prior spring, winter if initiated before move to virtual classes). Reviewers removed from the retention calculation any candidate de-pledged during spring 2020 term related to disruption in operations or for disciplinary reasons (not finances/GPA. Disciplinary = actual conduct or violations)
  • If fall candidates have done community service event but not spring candidates, may rate up to Excellence
    • Meeting the Acceptable criterion with fall and/or spring candidates was satisfactory for a rating up to Excellence
• Brother Development
  • Counted use of LEAD and guest facilitators in both fall and spring. For spring, counted any scheduled sessions or record of sessions typically completed in spring (e.g. copy of prior spring calendar/plan). Use of a phase was defined as multiple sessions (ideally half or more from Phase I-IV and 3+ in All Chapter)
  • Counted attendance at campus or interfraternal leadership programs if chapter had registered/planned to attend a spring program that was canceled/postponed due to the pandemic
  • Did not use Institute attendance as a ratings determinant
  • For chapters with spring elections, considered virtual transition meetings or evidence of a prior year retreat/session for most officers when considering whether chapter “sponsors an officer transition session…”
  • If a chapter retreat was scheduled for spring but postponed due to the pandemic, may rate up to Excellence
• Alumni Development
  • May rate two or more alumni newsletters as Excellence
    • Reduced from original Excellence criteria of three newsletters; meeting the Very Good criterion was satisfactory for a rating up to Excellence
  • If chapter did not use alumni as LEAD guest facilitators in fall but scheduled to occur in spring and postponed due to the pandemic, may rate up to Very Good (if did in fall or spring, could earn an Excellence rating)
• Recruitment and Manpower
  • Growth was not required but chapters should meet campus average for a rating up to Excellence. If below IFC average but showed growth may rate up to Acceptable. If manpower is already among highest on campus, may rate up to Excellence even if no growth was shown on the year.
• Chapter Operations
  • Criteria on chapter balances with HQ amended from Poor to Acceptable. Effectively moving Fair (30 days) up to Acceptable and so on down to Poor (now 120 days – past due balance dates back to fall term, rather than 90 days)
    • Chapter balances were checked on May 1, May 8, June 12, and July 1st to give chapters opportunity to address past due principal balances. Status as of July 1 was used for final ratings.
  • Criteria on internal accounts receivable amended for Acceptable and Good. Acceptable was amended to accounts receivable of 25% and Good of 10%. If the chapter developed and described accommodations for the pandemic, the reviewer applied those (e.g. chapter decided not to enforce 30/60/90 for March forward – eligible for up to Excellence)
  • Two signature checks – if chapter indicated alternate method for spring disbursements due to remote nature of officers, may rate up to Excellence
  • If chapter regularly used Ritual for in-person meetings may rate up to Excellence. No expectation for Ritual use during virtual meetings
  • If committees met regularly up to February and evidence of some virtual meetings, may rate up to Excellence
  • Did not discount a chapter for not contributing to or having to withdraw from savings due to the pandemic (March-May)
• Governance & Accountability
  • If the chapter did not conduct a specified All Chapter LEAD session in the fall term but had plans to do so in Spring that were postponed due to Coronavirus, may rate up to Very Good.

Questions about the rationale or application of the above accommodations should be directed to Scott Smith, Director of Leadership Development, at scott.smith@sigmanu.org.